General Smallwood Race Report

In case you missed it this weekend it was 105 degrees out on Saturday. And a bunch of us in the DC Tri Club battled the heat to win the Mid-Atlantic Club Championships at General Smallwood!

But let me back up a little and tell you how my race went.

We got to the race site in Indian Head Maryland with plenty of time to spare. SetUp Events had everything well organized and I had my transition area set up in now time. Before I knew it we were all walking down to the water to get ready for the swim. 

I was feeling pretty good and was excited to get into the water. Although I was not sure how 88 degree water would feel? My first guess was warm! As my age group walked out on the pier, we chit-chatted and wished each other good luck.

The Swim - 38 slow minutes

My Plan was not to panic at the start of the swim, but that didn't happen. Legs, arms, water all of the place and my heart rate was through the roof. I tried to relax but I kept on getting kicked. I couldn't seem to find any open water at all. 

At the first yellow turn point I actually got dunked as someone swam over top of me. Fun. Finally at the turn around point I started to feel ok, but I felt that I had been swimming forever. I thought 1500 meters should feel easier than this especially since I have to swim so much farther in 7 weeks. Although someone said it was closer to 1900 meters. As we approached the shore seaweed started getting tangled around my arms and neck. It was so nasty and I really just wanted to get out of the water. When I finally made it to the boat ramp, I looked like the Swamp Thing with seaweed still dangling off of me! Plus oh yeah I tripped over a mat they had on the ground.

T1

My rack was the second closest to run in. I put my socks and shoes on, fired up my garmin edge and was running out with my Boomer. I basically had the whole length of transition to run with boomer which sucked.

The Bike - 25 miles - 1:20 - 18.7mph

Umm, nothing to special here besides my legs felt like death the entire ride. I rode slower for the first 5 miles trying to get my heart rate down. Holli passed my within the first couple of miles and we wished each other good luck on the rest of the race. After that I didn't see a whole lot of other females out there. I figured I must have had the slowest swim ever! As I continued to ride my right hip flexor was killing me with every pedal stroke. I wanted nothing more in the world than to get off Boomer. Although this was the best leg of my race. I did ok with dealing with the heat here and drank my entire aero bottle filled with Gu Brew, along with half of the bottle on my cage. I also took in two salt tablets and ate a pack of honey sticker chews. As I rolled back into the park and passed the run course, I saw everyone running/shuffling and was scared!

T2

Once again a long run back to my rack. But really nothing to exciting here besides that I forgot to put on more chapstick

The Run - 6.2 miles - 1:08

Here is were I threw in the towel mentally. I was actually feeling ok for the first half of mile. I saw Cat around here and gave her a smile.From here, you run up a big hill then do an out and back on the side of the road with no shade and more hills. I actually ran the first mile then after that I started walking, A LOT. I no longer cared what my time was and just wanted to survive the run and not end up in the ambulance from over heating. The sad thing is my legs felt fine, I could have ran, but I choose to walk a ton instead. I would run then walk, with my walk breaks being longer than my run. At the aid stations I drank a water and poured a water over my head. When we finally turned off the main road around mile 5 the course got better. We ran through a nice shaded camp ground with no hills. I decided to suck it up and actually run the last mile. I was doing around a 9:20 pace which felt like I was sprinting, ha. I was happy to come across the covered bridge and find my teammates cheering as I approached the finish line. Thank goodness I survived and didn't die in the heat!

Total Time: Blah I'm even going to write it down because it sucks, but hey on the bright side I finished.

Afterwards:

Rachel and Jason were at the finish line waiting for me and Rachel handed my a nice cold towel. I sat in the chairs near the finish line for awhile before moving over the ice bath and misting tent area.

OMG, this felt so good and I continued to wet my towel and put it on my head to cool off. After awhile we headed over to the DC Tri tent to hang out with our other teammates and talk about how we survived General Smallwood.

For those who were out in the extreme heat this weekend I hope you were safe and great job to everyone who raced this weekend. 


Happy Monday All :)