I got up Saturday morning at 5:45am and drove up to Lebanon. I was by myself since my husband was out of town, and that was a little intimidating. I knew I wanted to do the race, but part of the fun is sharing it with someone else. Besides, who was going to take pictures?
No one. I didn't even bring my camera to take pictures afterward or anything. I totally forgot it.
Swim: Slowest swimmers started first, and we were even numbered according to our 500 yard swim times (slowest was #1, etc). I was #15. There it was, marked on my leg for the world to see that I was the 15th slowest swimmer entered. Oh well. I had entered a time of 14 minutes for 500y, not knowing what my time really was. It was just a guess (which turned out to be fairly accurate at my first race), and now I was thinking my time was really more like 12:30 or so. Then I went into the pool area and looked at the pool it looked shorter than usual. I guess I swim in a 25 meter pool, because this pool was definately smaller.
Out of 4 ladies in my lane I was 3rd to start and after we started it was apparent that I was quite a bit faster than they were. Once I got them all passed things went very well and I ended up being the third person out of the pool out of 24 people in my heat. So out of all the people that suck at swimming, I didn't suck quite as bad as the rest. Heh.
Time: 11:20 (2:16/100 yards)
T1: I ran out of the pool, took off cap and goggles, dried off a bit, found my glasses, put on my socks and bike shoes and took off for the bike start line. Zoom!
Time: 1:38
Bike: Friday night I went out in my driveway and practiced putting one foot on the pedal and swinging my leg over the bike to mount. Definate wreck potential there. But I did it. I clipped in and took off. The course was a very fast and slightly hilly out and back. I passed one person and another went by me going the other direction before I turned around. I wanted to push hard, but not too hard so my legs would be able to run.
Time: 41:37 (18.02mph average)
T2: Hopped off the bike (remembered to unclip, which is always a plus) and trotted to put my bike away. Someone's transition setup had exploded into my area so I had a little trouble getting around it to put my bike away and get the rest of my things. The polite person in me wouldn't let me just step all over it and throw it out of my way. Changed shoes, put on race belt, grabbed hat, took a swig of gatorade, and took off.
Time: 1:48 (which actually surprises me, it didn't seem that long)
Run: This is the hard part. Legs feel like jelly, and they don't want to move. I had been practicing going from bike to run though, and I didn't feel too bad. The course was flat, but sort of confusing. It was kind of out and back with a double loop in the middle. I passed one lady that had beaten me out of transition (part of a relay so no changing to do) and one other lady who was on her first loop when I was on the second. It was getting hot but I kept on pushing. The whole run felt good--like I was doing was I could but I wasn't going to die. Maybe I need to push to the I'm going to die stage if I want to get better times.
Time: 27:04 (8:44/mile pace)
Total time: 1:23:27
Total time: 1:23:27
Here are the stats. Feel free to skip this part.
4th out of 5 in my age group. There was some tough competition in my age group. Given that, I am actually happy with 4th place. Really.
1st woman across the finish line (that's what the blue ribbon is for). So out of all the people that started in the first heat (24) I finished first. Yay! I have no idea why I got a ribbon for that, but oh well.
14th out of 39 women in the road bike division. Top 36%. (Compare this to Albany--29/42, 69%.) See why I don't feel bad about 4th in my AG?
51st out of 88 in the road bike division. This includes the men. Scums. They skew my results.
58th out of 103 total participants. Better than last time.
31st out of 45 total women swimming. Wow, 14 women slower than me this time instead of 8 (and some of those were men)! Moving up.
19th out of 45 total women biking.
13th out of 45 total women running.
My transition times seem slow to me so I need to work on that. It is hard to remember this is a RACE--not just the swim, bike, run part, but in between as well.
Next race: Siuslaw Sprint Triathlon, June 22,2008.
