Rumpus in Bumpass Race Report

Last weekend kicked off Tri season and I had a blast at Rumpus in Bumpass, ok well I mostly had a blast...

 

Bumpass, VA is about 90 miles from DC, but the race had a late start time of 10am. This was a really treat! With the later start time it meant we didn't have to get up super super early for once. However, I guess it was still early for a Saturday morning and we were out the door by about 6:45am. The drive down was pretty uneventful and by the time we got to Fredericksburg there was lots of cars with road and tri bikes so we just followed them.

 

We made it to the race site around 8:30ish which gave me plenty of time to get all my stuff ready before transition closed at 9:45.

I was actually a big scatter brain during transition because I kept forgetting stuff and had to go back in not once, but three times! First time I forgot the car keys in my bag for Jason, second time I forgot my swim cap, third time I forgot my timing chip. Yes, my timing chip! I actually would have forgotten this all together if I didn't see Rachel putting hers on. I have no idea what I was thinking, but thank you Rachel!!! 

The swim start was down a small gravel road that was .5 miles long that we would later have to run on. Luckily Jason was there for me so I wore my flip flops down, but a lot of people had to walk barefoot. I don't think I would have been too happy about this.

Once at the swim start, I started to put on my wetsuit. I made sure I used slide glide on my neck, wrist, and ankles. But the sucker was still hard to get on! But once on, I was ready to race :)

 

Swim: 29:18

I was in the third wave and we all made out way into the water. The water was a little chilly at 65, but it really didn't feel too bad with my full sleeve wetsuit on. We did a mass start, where we had to tread water for a couple of minutes as a group before the gun went off. I put myself basically in the back on the outside. This was a bad choice. Once the gun went off, I had to fight my way through people and couldn't find any open water. 

My breathing was all over the place and I panicked. I kept telling myself to relax and would stop to breast stroke for a second or so to see where I was at. It wasn't until the turn around point that I actually calmed down and got into the flow of things. At this point, I felt good and was mad at myself for wasting time for the first 600 meters or so. I also started thinking about a silly movie I watched last week called the Reef. These people's boat sank and the closest island was 10 miles away. I was thinking, oh good god 10 miles would take me so long to swim, no wonder everyone in the movie got eaten by sharks. ha.

 

Anyhow, I was excited to make the finial turn to the swim finish. There was about 4 wooden steps out of the water which I basically just walked up so I wouldn't slip. I felt a little out of it and hungry as I made my way to T1.

 

T1: 3:03

I got the top part of my wetsuit off as I ran into T1, but man oh man I struggled with it once I got to my rack. I tried pulled it off, but it was stuck on my left ankle with the timing chip. I ended up having to sit down and yank the thing off. I also felt disorientated and thought the dial on my bike shoes were broke, but here I was just turning it the wrong way. Ugh. I started up my garmin and ate a handful of stinger chews and off I ran.

 

Bike: 1:11:43

The bike was a two loop 23 miles course that went by fast! My heart rate was still pretty high when I jumped on my bike and I told myself to just pedal easy for a little bit which seemed to work. The entire time I played yo yo with about two other girls. We would say hi as we kept passing each other. I saw a guy go down about 10 bike lengths in front of me and luckily no one else crashed into him. I'm not sure what had happened, but it was at a windy section over a bridge. There was a lot of people with zip and disc wheels as well. I could hear the swosh sound as they zoomed passed me. I didn't let getting passed bother me because well mostly I was getting passed by guys and only a few girls passed me. My legs felt good and it was such a fun course. I drank my entire aero bottle that was filled with lemon lime Gu Brew and ate a honey stinger waffle after the first loop.

T2: 1:32

Ok, this transition went much better. I re-racked my bike without a problem, started up my 405 and put my running shoes on, and ate another handful of stinger chews.

 

Run: 54:38

As a ran out of T2 I was struggling to put on my garmin watch on and my sparkle head band. I saw Jason though for the first time since T1 and I was happy! 

I somehow missed him while on the bike even though he was there. Anyhow, ugh, the run course sucked! We ran down the same gravel road to the swim start area and back up to the grassy area. Running on the grass felt like heaven next to the gravel. We then ran past the finish line to another gravel road. And I don't know if I want to even call it a gravel road... they were more like moon rocks or boulders! I had lost my contact in my left eye somehow and my vision was really blurred!!! I was getting a headache and dizzy because of this and was really scared I was going to break my ankle on the big rocks since I couldn't see all the great. I know these are all excuses to why my run time sucked...I guess it just sucked because I didn't have any more in me.  I took water at basically every aid station as it was hot out! I think it got up to 80 something, I'm not sure. My splits for the first 3 miles were: 8:18, 8:25, and 8:58. Then it was all down hill from there. I didn't want to take the bracelet, I wanted to run to the finish line. But as I grabbed it, I thought oh great I have to run this same stupid loop again! I also thought Louisville is going to be so much fun in the heat :) I saw a bunch of friends on the out and backs and would try to work up some energy to cheer from them. In the last half of mile this girl in a blue zoot top passed me. She had be a good 4 minutes behind me the entire run. Then another girl passed me. I got pretty pissed and tried to run faster once I got back out onto the grass. I passed the one girl but let the zoot girl cross the finish line a couple seconds in front of me. 

Ugh. My stomach felt fine on this run and I didn't think my legs felt that bad either. I'm pretty disappointed here and thought I would finish around 50 minutes. I guess better luck next time.

 

Overall: 2:40:12 and dead tired

Thoughts

This is the first time I have raced this distance.  Last year all my oly distance races either got the swim canceled or the courses shortened because of weather. My secret goal was to finish in under 3 hours and I had plenty of minutes to spare so I'm excited!!! I know I need to continue to work on my swim and hopefully can learn to relax more in open water.  I am also disappointed with my run leg, but the rest of the race I loved. I guess overall, I just had a lot of fun out there and am pretty happy with myself :) Plus well I have the best support team ever. Thank you Jason for standing out in the heat all day to see me for a split second a couple of times throughout the race.