Monday, June 13, 2011

Weekend Recap

So I'm going to try to keep this recap short and sweat....


I woke up bright and early on Sat morning and for an open water swim clinic that was being held at Sandy Point. I gave a fellow DC Tri Club member, Kristine a ride down and it was great to talk about all things tri and make a new friend. Once we got there we broke up into 4 different groups. I choose to go into the group that was labeled: I'm scared to death of an open water swim! They had us swim about 100 meters with the shore line and it felt pretty good and I wasn't panicking about the other people around me. Actually the other people around me didn't bother me much at all, so that part was good, check. Now, when they had us swim out to buoy and do the full 800 meters that's when things went down hill. Fighting the waves and the current were HARD! I made it to the first buoy and basically thought I was going to die?! I did the front crawl for a little bit, then I had to flip over to my back. I basically thought I was going to drowned. I told myself to stay calm and tried the best I could to swim back to shore as the current was sucking me back towards to bridge. Ummm... obviously I didn't die .... but I'm so scared now for next weekend. I'm even now more scared and nervous than I was before. I thought this was suppose to help me?

Then when I was chit chatting with other triathletes someone came up to me and asked if my name was Sarah Karpinski. I said yes, why? Here it was the other Sarah Karpinski!!! There has been two of us racing the same races for years. We don't have a very common name so it's pretty weird. We both live in DC and both are the same age so it always makes finding your race results hard. Plus we usually finish with-in a minute or two of each other! I was so excited to finally meet her and hopefully make a new friend.

Sarah meets Sarah!
After we drove back to DC I was pretty tired and decided not to do my practice tri and took a nap instead. Then it was off the do lots of little things and people watching. Jason and I ended up riding all over the city and first on the list was to go grap my pack pick-up (for the splash n' dash) at luluemon in Georgtown. Once that was done we rode over to 13th and K NW to watch the Naked Bike Ride. We were there 10 minutes early and no naked people?!?! Where are they? Then we saw a couple people over by 12th and K. There was only a total of about 10-15 people doing the ride. It was interesting / disturbing at the same time. I will not post any pictures of this.

Naked People?
 After the ride we stopped at Cosi for some lunch. Yum, I love Cosi :)


Then it was off to the Bike Rack on Q to pick a spare tube and CO2 to replace the ones I used when I got my flat last week. After that we rode over to Pacers on P so I could buy a race belt.  $20 dollars is such a rip for this, but I bought it anyhow.

Then we basically parked ourselves on P street to watch the Capital Pride Parade. It was a good time with lots of music, floats, and friends.



Sunday, I met up with Victoria and Jessica for the Spash N' Dash (300 meter swim, 5k run). It was a really fun race minus all the hills on the 5k! And they weren't little hills, they were the sucky big ass ones! I will write up my offical race report tomorrow, but I finished in 2nd place! This never happens! Little races are the best :) It was just a fun race!

Waiting my turn for the swim

Almost done!


With my friends
Later in the day I set up my T1 and T2 in my back yard to practice. I got my feet wet and ran to my T1 area, got everything on, ran with my bike to my pretend exit area and jumped on my bike. I pretty much suck at getting on my bike and being able to clip in right away. If I have to take an extra few seconds to clip in correctly then so be it. I don't think it will be too big of a deal. Once on my bike I did an easy 20 miles and came back to transition area. The T2 seems like it will be easier except the whole running and jumping off your bike thing. I did a short brick of 2 miles and was done. The run actaully felt pretty good and I was running at about an 8:15 pace which is just below my goal pace.

Overall my weekend was great! How was yours ?

9 comments:

  1. The splash and dash was awesome. Also, did you spend any time this weekend not wearing workout clothes? Just wondering :).

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  2. sounds like youre ready to kick ass this weekend! Ill be there to cheer :)

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  3. Glad the Splash n Dash went well! Excited for this weekend- I'll keep an eye out for you!

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  4. ooh, what a fun tri weekend!

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  5. 2nd place - awesome! And I love that you practiced your transitions in your backyard. You're going to totally rock your tri this weekend!

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  6. awesome job on the splash n dash!

    glad you did the open water practice so you at least know what to expect. i think you'll surprise yourself -- plus the nasty potomac is basically still with no current or waves :)

    wish i had known you were at the pride parade! i live right there and totally would have come over to hang out.

    see you on sunday!!!

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  7. This sounds like a great weekend! I would imagine the Potomac is a bit calmer than the bay so hopefully your swim will go smoothly next weekend. At least you know what is coming!

    Congrats on getting 2nd place in the splash n' dash. That's impressive!

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  8. I was in the exact same boat as you last year. The current was wicked for the Sandy Point swim last year, and I had about 8 panic attacks before the race, but then I did it! And Emily is right, the Potomac has no waves whatsoever. It actually has a nice gentle current that is with you on the way back. I'll keep an eye out for you Sunday morning :)

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  9. Oh yeah, that is where I did my open water swim practice, too. It was horrible! The potomac is not like that at all. Don't worry!

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