Hopkinton Season Opener Sprint

I'll skip all the boring details of my ride there and how, logistically, I could have done without the mile walk to and from the race with my bike and bag.

Before the race I met up with some friends to chit chat and catch up. Here we are, Maureen, Rose, Linda,  and I.

Twas early for  for an open water swim right?  We ladies in the pink caps, heading out dead last, were fretting about the water temperature. We decided to wade in the water a lot since we had to wait anyways. We might as well get used to the water.  It really wasn't too bad after you became numb. Just kidding. It really wasn't that bad.

I decided I would see what I could do in this rather small race and so I started in the front row of the swim. I probably have no business being there but I have improved my swim and the only way find out how much I have improved is to test.  I went out hard and fast but it was hard to swim. I was thrashing and getting thrashed. Finally about half way through I could finally swim. One two three breath, One two three breath..

I am not so sure this was a good test because my swim was much slower that what I had expected. I am not sure if the course was long or if it was the temps. I think the swim time includes the jaunt from the beach to T1.   I do know that it normally takes me about 7 minutes to swim 8 laps.  This swim was about 8 laps and it took 9 minutes!  Ick!  At least I can say that when I looked back to see how many pink caps were still in the water I had seen several. Like at least 50.  Or maybe I am hoping I saw 50.

T1 was OK. My new Zoot wetsuit slips on and off pretty easily.  I did have to put on socks though.  I am not built up to the no-socks yet.

The bike was steady and pretty uneventful. I found a hard pace that I felt I could hold for 10 miles and stayed there. I don't remember to much about the ride accept for a few hills and tight turns. I also passed a lot of people. That was fun!

T2 - in and out in 47 seconds. Not to bad.

The run was great. The course started on an uphill but then gave us a nice downhill. I almost missed the turnaround because I was confused when I saw other runners up ahead of the turnaround. I thought I needed to go where they were but in fact they were on a different part of the course. I almost got a penalty at that point when I asked the volunteer "are you fucking serious?"  I did not believe he was telling me the right way to go and I questioned him. He was right.

And the results are in:
New England Season Opener - Hopkinton
800 Yard swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run

OA      Time      AG          Rank   Swim    T1   Rank  Bike     T2    Rank  Run

84/433  1:04:51   1/12  F4549 153    9:56    1:46 87    30:57    0:47  76   21:27       

That's all!