Vermilion OLY tri race report

Last Sunday I did my last tri of the season.  After having flatted at Steelhead, I signed up for this race wanting to get in a 'clean' race for the season.  My son, Matt, also did the Olympic distance and my daughter, Lizzie, did the Sprint distance.

We spent all of FRI night into Saturday noon driving home from Maine--> 16 hours overnight.  And training was totally off as we spent the week hiking in Acadia and riding my hybrid around on the carriage trails.

The race didn't start until 8am, and we are about an hour away and so left at 5:30am, which is a VERY reasonable start for a triathlon race morning.  We had a big crowd of spectators, my husband and youngest daughter, my mom, my sister, and my brother and his wife and two kids.  It was GREAT to have all the support.

Everything went smoothly to start.  Lizzie was in the earliest wave, starting at 8:13.  Matt was to start at 8:25 and I was at 8:33.  So I got to see Lizzie start and get out of the water after her 750meter swim. 

Matt and I before the race

The Swim:
I felt very relaxed at the start.  I was in the wave of 40 and older women for the Oly, and it was only 15-20 women.  I started front and center as this was a local race and I felt like I could swim with anyone in my wave.  We ran a little ways on the beach, took a few dolphin dives and then started swimming.  We did two laps of the 750meters rectangle.  I didn't have too much trouble sighting and got into a pretty good rhythm quickly.  There was not much traffic and I was swimming right next to another girl for most of the first lap.  As I was finishing the first lap I felt this RUSH of guys swimming past me, and I realized that some of the guys in Matt's wave were finishing up their second lap and getting to their finish.
On the second lap, the only traffic I had were guys were doing breastroke/backstroke and other very slow swims. 

Time for the swim: 28:35 4th out of 7 in my Age group but only 20 seconds behind first in my AG


T1: time 1:55
We had a pretty long run up from the beach.  I had a little trouble getting one of my legs out of my wetsuit, then helmet, shoes, grabbed my bike and made a long run to where we could mount our bikes.

Bike:
Matt did this race last year and told me that it had some tough hills in it.  Short, but steep.  He was not lying.  I also felt like there was some wind, and slight incline on the way out.  I was having trouble staying close to 20 mph for the first half.  There were some climbs, and the downhills had some gravel and turns so you had to use the brakes.  One woman passed me on the bike, we went back and forth for a while and then I lost her.  I passed quite a few men and women.  On the second half of the bike I felt a lot stronger and felt the wind disappear and could keep my speed consistently above 20 mph.

After doing 56 miles at Steelhead, 25 miles felt like it was over very quickly.  I drank on bottle of Accelerade and tried to get a few shot bloks down.

Bike time:  25.6 miles 1:21.43 18.8mph average  3rd in my age group only 40 seconds behind first

very determined look coming off the bike :)

T2: 2:05

Had a little trouble putting my Garmin strap on the right way, other than that no problem.

Run:
I was really hoping to run sub-9min miles.  My running is my weakness and has not been great this summer.  I felt great right off the bike.  My first mile was an 8:23 and I felt like I wasn't pushing that hard.  And then the heat and humidity started closing in on me.  I drank at every water stop and poured cold water over me.  The rest of the miles were pretty consistent, but at about 9:30 pace.  There were a lot of people walking, and one guy with less than a half mile left was down and they called the squad.  But I gave it all I could, just not quite where I wanted to be.

Run time:  58:17  9:15 pace  5th in my age group and 12 minutes behind 1st place.  HERE is where I lost all the time on the winner of my AG.  aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!! I need to improve my RUNNING!!!

Overall:  2:52.37                3rd in my AG out of 7
11th female overall out of 33

So, overall a pretty mediocre race for me.  My goals were 26 minute swim, 20mph+ average on the bike and sub-9 minute pace on the run.  Hit NONE of these goals.


Lizzie came in 2nd in her AG and 8th female overall in the Sprint race


Matt came in 1st in his AG and 10th male overal in the Olympic race


Tomorrow I will give a post updating my first week on my 21 day cleanse and doing the crossfit endurance workouts...