A year later…Triangle Triathlon 2010
Thursday, July 15th, 2010It’s funny how things can change in a year. With a full year of training and triathlons under my belt I was excited to see what I could do this year at the Triangle Triathlon. A year of training, a year of confidence building, better gear and a better mindset. I went into this race not scared of the swim, I knew I could do it. The hills on the bike course are like second nature to me. And on the run, I knew to expect the dead legs and the heat. I told myself to put it all out there and see what I could do. Though I may not have collapsed at the finish line I certainly feel like I made some major strides.
The day started with a 4:30am wake up call, breakfast of the usual bagel and iced coffee, Scottie packed the car…you know the usual routine. This race is notorious for terrible parking so we wanted to get there early to park inside the park. We also picked up Scottie’s Mom who drove in from Sanford and parked in satellite parking…she was a trooper and our #1 cheerleader!
We parked, took the “shuttle” to the race site and set up. I felt like transition set up was too easy. White Lake required a crap load of extra stuff and this was super simplified. I kept walking over to make sure I had everything, I need to just keep a list in my bag so as to not second guess myself.
Once we set up and got marked up, we walked to the swim start before most of the other competitors did and got in a good warm up swim. I WAS going to have a good swim so I knew I needed to warm up. The water was like 90 degrees no lie! But super calm so I had no complaints. Got in a short swim then hit the porta potty for the last time before the waiting game began. Luckily I raced age group this year as opposed to novice so I was in wave 7 as opposed to 12 so the wait wasn’t as bad.
For the swim start I stayed near the back of my wave to kinda ease my way into the swim. I am still trying to determine the source of my past panic attacks so I wanted to get myself settled in before I really got going. Seemed to work. I started breathing on the right side then quickly switched to bilateral breathing when I started getting a weird pain in my chest, I think from taking really big breaths, changing the breathing really helped. This swim was over before I knew it and when I saw my estimated time I was super excited. I took like 7 minutes off my time from last year lol!
The run from the water to transition is seriously the longest run ever!!! I wish I would have timed that run. Got to the bike, rinsed the feet since they were covered in grass, threw on the socks and shoes and was off.
Once out of the park I immediately went into aero, the new saddle was awesome! I actually stayed aero as much as possible because sitting back on the Adamo is a bit rough on the butt bone but I think I need to just get used to it, nothing compared to the other pain I was having.
Last year since I was the last swim wave and with my slow ass swim I biked most of the race alone so it was pretty fun to ride with people. Even if it meant dealing with the old guys that were jackasses as usual. Hate that! The 50+ men always start just after my age group so I always get passed by them, which is fine but they tend to be kinda rude about it. I also got passed by a pack of 60 year old men climbing up a huge hill with an immediate turn at the top, that made things interesting.
The problem with this short distance is that I could never find a good spot to get water, I didn’t bring the aero bottle which I immediately regretted. I felt like I was in constant race mode and couldn’t fiddle with the bottles. I did get some gel in me with about 5 miles left which helped.
Overall I felt really great on the bike, there is always room for improvement but I am really happy with my progress.
I will mention they changed the course a bit, to keep up from riding on 55 too long they added one turn on a pretty desolate road, I didn’t mind this but I knew some people weren’t happy. Oh and I also almost got hit by a dump truck on Avent Ferry. There was zero police patrol on this one section and tons of traffic, I was trying to pass someone and this dump truck slams on his brakes, that would have hurt.
I was sorta discombobulated in T2 and took off a sock and didn’t mean to so had to put a wet sock back on, otherwise smooth sailing in the transition area.
The run was actually not as slow as I felt 
I took a big gulp of electrolytes at T2 to get some liquid in me, started running and immediately had a cramp in my side. Boo! Legs felt super heavy but I just trotted along to loosen up. Legs started feeling much better about .5 mile in but still had cramps. Took water at each station to help, I have found this annoying side stitch seems to be related to lack of hydration for me, so at least I know how to remedy it. At this point the clouds started to part and the sun was blazing. This run has very little shade for the most part so I was baking, luckily it is a short run! This is also a really gravely run course which means you really have to concentrate on your footing or you can easily twist an ankle.
Before I knew it someone said we were at mile 3 and almost done! I am so not used to running short distances, but I guess that’s a good thing mentally! I passed a girl in my age group but she passed me back with just a few yards left boo. I didn’t make a difference as I ended up 13 out of 29, still in the top half!
I saw Scottie and his Mom at the finish but I needed water and sugar asap. Grabbed hose water (bleck) and some pink lemonade. The lemonade was so good I downed another cup. I needed the sugar big time. I did find it weird that they didn’t have HEED or Gatorade at the finish or on the run. I found Scottie, his Mom and some friends then walked to get a fig newton and a peach, they had pizza this year but I wasn’t ready for that as well as some pork, I guess a new sponsor?
BTW- someone from the local paper was taking pictures and I snuck into one of the shots.
Overall I felt really good after this race. Last year I felt like I was going to pass out, this year I felt a bit woozy but the sugar helped instantly. I cut 20 minutes off my time from last year and I would have to chop another 20 off to even get close to a podium spot in my age group. Though after this race I may take a break from Setup events, I think they are getting lazy and starting to cut corners so I think next year I will focus on FS Series races or some races outside of the area. We shall see!
Group shot post race!
