7/11/10

Old Colony YMCA Olympic Triathlon

After driving from Falmouth MA to Middleboro MA at 6:AM by myself I was psyched to meet up with friend Linda. After taking care of business we got in a 10 minute run.

At the start of the swim we parted ways. She to the right and I to the left. The swim went out about 10 yards then took a sharp right. Linda definitely positioned herself better than I. I was in the back of the swim pack because I didn't want to get in anyone's angry way. Still, it was a pretty rough start. All the relayers, aquabikes and ALL women started in this wave.

After getting into a groove I, for the first time ever, had the need to pass some swimmers. I found it difficult to pass people. It took a lot of strength for me to get going fast enough to actually pass. That was all fine and well except for the fact that they would inevitably pass me back or swim next to me. I felt crowded.

At one point t I felt as though I were glued to the hip of another female swimmer. We had the exact same stroke. I was squished into the buoys every time we took a turn. Eventually I had to fall back and go to the other side of her. That drove me a little nutso.

Despite these obstacles my swim time good! I clocked the double loop at 14 min./14 min. Of course the official results were 31.57. I think they combined our T1 time with the swim time. They must have because they don't list either of the T times in the results.

Bike - The course was a 4x6 mile loop and I desperately wanted to know my pace and distance on the bike. I wanted to see how hard I could push myself so I took the time to put my Garmin on while on the bike. I was able to know how I was doing on each of the 4 loops. I loved that. I hit the lap button each time I passed the entrance to the campgrounds. Here are my splits:

1st loop 19 minute (6.12) 19.3 mph
2nd loop 17 minutes (5.80) 20.3 mph
3rd loop 17 minutes (5.83) 20.4 mph
4th loop 17 minutes (5.84) 19.6 mph

I felt GREAT on the run. The only thing that I didn't like about this race was that for the entire run I had no idea where I was in terms of pace or distance. The Garmin decided not the cooperate after I left T2. Why Firm-Racing did not have one single mile marker on the run is beyond me. It was a fairly flat course with a couple of moderate hills.

1 Mile Swim, 24 Mile Bike, 6.2 Mile Run
Swim Category 7th - 168 OA Swim time 31:57
Bike Category 3rd - 89 OA BIKE TIME: 1:13:34
Run Category 1st - 36 OA Run Time 47:57
Place Category 4th (45-49) - OA 73 - Final Time: 2:33:29
(not sure where they included the .3 extra run and T times)

Despite a few flaws I highly recommend this race. Lots of refreshments and high energy after the race. Nice location and easy to get to!

6 comments:

Michelle said...

Great job Melissa!!!!! Awesome bike splits - you were cruising. And as usual, incredible, just incredible run. I will try to channel your run legs on Sunday at the MA State Oly!

Running and living said...

AWESOME JOB! So happy for you! Your bike split is smoking fast, and the run, well, you always run super fast! You are getting faster and faster! Congrats!

runningyankee said...

wow. great race!! your bike splits were fast!! and hearing you describe the swim makes me cringe. its my least fav part too because well it IS hard to get around all those bodies!!

Unknown said...

It looks like your training and racing is going well! Nice run
I just read your last post, I hope the sleep issues have improved, that is NO fun...

Unknown said...

You were cruising on the bike! Nice job, it looks like everything going really well for you.

Jennifer Harrison said...

YOU had a great race and those bike MPH are going up and up!!! AWESOME work Melissa! :)

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