White Lake Sprint Race Report

We (being M and I) decided to make White Lake Sprint our first tri of the season. Sure it was a long drive, but I think it was worth it to make M feel more comfy in the water as this was his first open water swim race!

 

Anyhow, we drove down on Saturday after biking out to the BP and back (38 miles). We scrambled to get our stuff together and I think were out of the house by 11:30. The drive itself wasn't too bad and we made it down to White Lake, NC in no time. Packet Pick up started at 7pm so after eating at the mom and pops restaurant, Front Porch, we made our way over to the lake.

The lake itself was beautiful and I'm glad we had a chance to check it out before race day. I dipped my feet in and it felt cold because well it was cold. Some people were swimming in it. I had wished we would have known we could have done this, but we didn't have our stuff with us. Oh well.

 

Pre - Race

We got a good nights sleep or at least I did since I was not nervous. The race didn't start till 9am so we slept in till 6:30 and left the hotel at 7:30. We were only 8 minutes from the race site. I had two hard boiled eggs and a muffin at the hotel, then a banana at the race site. Seemed to be the prefect breakfast. Once there, I set up my transition area, put on my wetsuit and was ready to race and cross this finish line!

 

Swim - 750 meters - 13:58

M's wave was before mine and I watched him swim off until I couldn't tell who was who anymore. I was wave 6 and I will admit I was nervous for this swim, mainly due to the water temp. It ended up being 56 degrees which was warmer than the 52 degrees the 70.3 ers swam in the day before. I wore my full sleeved wetsuit and doubled capped my swim caps. I got in the water 5 minutes before my wave started and got used to the water before the horn went off. As soon as we started I was a mess out there. I couldn't control my breathing, I was panicking, I couldn't site, I was stopping and treading water here and there. It really didn't get better until maybe the turn around point were I learned to swim in open water again. So by the time I got in the grove it was time to get out of the water. 

 

T1 - 2:55

Meh, could barley get the top off my wet suit off while running. Once at my spot I struggled to get my wetsuit off my ankles. I looked at M's rack and his bike was gone. He survived the water, I could relax. But for whatever reason I decided to put on gloves because my hands felt cold. I struggled with putting my gloves on big time. So I didn't mess with arm warmers or anything else. I felt like I was in here forever! Then the bike out was narrow and I got stuck behind girls just maundering around and taking their time. I need to work on getting my T1 time down!

 

Bike - 14 miles - 41:16 (20.4 mph)

Clipping in always sucks for me, but then I was off. My goal was really just to pedal hard and not let any girls pass me since I had my race wheels on. I didn't want to look like that person who is riding slow with fancy wheels. There seemed to be a head wind no matter what direction we were riding and my legs were on fire. It felt like I was at Haines Point. I keep telling myself not the slow down that I already messed up the swim and I couldn't afford to ride slow or give up on the bike. The course was just two flat loops around the lake. I was going to eat some chews, but ended up just drinking most of my water in my aero bottle. I was getting worried because I saw no girls in my AG and I thought I must had been the last person out the water. Crap. Ride faster. Must catch girls in my AG. I finally caught two girls at mile 12. Those are the only two, but I did not let anyone pass me except for some guys. At the dismount line some girl in front of my wiped out bad tiring to take her feet out beforehand. Which almost made me fall as well. Then I was stuck behind her in the narrow path to the bike in. I felt bad for her, but she was in my way, so I was irritated.

 

T2: 1:18

M's bike was back on the rack. Good. Anyhow, this transition went a little better but I grabbed my garmin - why - I don't know. I could never get the stupid thing to work and was stuck running with it in my hand. I just restarted my timex watch instead since it had got kicked in the water and wasn't holding my total time anyhow.

 

Run - 5k - 21:40 (6:59 pace)

The run course was a simple out and back. Goal: pick off as many people as I could and see what place I finish in. I caught up to and passed two girls in my AG in the first half of mile. I really had no idea how fast I was running but I was breathing super hard and I think the other runners could hear me for sure behind them. I finally saw M for the first time all day at the one mile mark. Neither one of us said anything to each other and just high fived each other as he was running back in. I grabbed a cup of water and most of it just went down the front of me. The turn around point was a super tight turn and I think I just stopped to make the turn. I just kept telling myself not to slow down that's its only 3 miles. It is suppose to hurt. I was dying though. I passed no other people in my AG so I figured I had to be near the top or the bottom. It didn't matter. I gave it my all down the finish line shut.

 

Total time: 1:21:05 ~ which was good enough for 3rd in my AG and 14/108 women.

Thoughts: I thought my swim sucked big time and thought my time was like 18 minutes or something in the water. So I was surprised when I looked at the results and saw my time wasn't so bad and I was actually the 5th person out the water in my AG. This could explain why I really didn't pass too many people in my AG. I really thought I was dead last out of the water. It felt that bad. But overall the race went great. I am happy with my bike and run times. Actually I have no clue how in hells bells I ran that fast! This is the first time I have placed in a triathlon, so I was/am super excited! I am also super proud of M for finishing his first open water tri!!! He will tell you all about it in his own race report.

 

Happy Monday All :)