Notes
When the alarm went off at 4:30am, I was already awake. I'm not typically a "morning person" but the nervous energy I have pre-race generally propels me out of bed feeling wide-awake even if I've only slept a few hours. After dressing quickly, I went over the list of the things I needed to be sure left the hotel rm with me (timing chip, InfiniT, transition bags, boyfriend - check!).
I grabbed a cinnamon raisin bagel with a little peanut butter for brkfast, my water bottle and a choc power bar for later and we head to the race site.
As I'm setting up T1, I panic a little when I realize I don't have my sunglasses. Fortunately, Rich comes to the rescue offering his up. With this minor crisis averted I head out of the transition area. The 90 minutes I have to kill before my wave hits the water goes by fast as I spend most of it in line for porta potties (yes, that should be plural... normally I have trouble "going" race morning but for some reason this morning I go 4x - yikes!).
THE SWIM...(Goal Time: 40:00; Actual Time: 41:03 AG Rank 51/110)
Last year, the course was short, this year - no such luck! I'm a middle-of-the-pack swimmer so my game-plan is simple - stay on-course and maintain a steady effort w/o using up too much energy. My perceived effort was about 80%. I felt pretty good in the water and aside from having to manuever around 3-4 people doing the backstroke and me choking on a mouthful of lake water. It was pretty uneventful.
T1...(Goal Time: 3:30; Actual Time: 3:26) Since I struggled at Toyota to get my wetsuit over my Garmin, I borrowed a tip from "Tall & Strong" and put the Garmin on the strap of my tri-top. It helped time-wise and allowed me to collect HR data w/o the temptation of checking my splits during the race.
THE BIKE...(Goal Time: 2:50; Actual Time: 2:49 AG Rank 14/110)
Being a mediocre-swimmer, I typically use the bike to make up for some lost time. Mile one is uneventful, I weave around folks that are still trying to get their feet in their bike shoes, unwrap Powerbars or take a drink. I also see a few people already side-lined fixing flat tires. Around mile 2-3 as I'm starting to settle in to a rhythym, I hear a banging/knocking sound that seems to be coming from my disc wheel. I look back and don't notice anything unusual so decide to keep pedaling. The sound persists and I began to wonder if I'm getting a flat. I've never had one with my race wheels so I don't know what the signs are but I do know that if I've got one, I'm screwed because I'm not prepared to fix it. Fortunately, the cycling gods seem to have my back because I continue on and the noise magically disappears (PHEW!). The course is hilly and there are a few stretches into the wind. I pay attention to my cadence and if it seems like it drops too low, I shift to the LCR. I'm feeling pretty good, perceived effort is 88-90%. I'm passing more people than are passing me and I only recall being passed by 1 woman in my age group. I take in 2 bottles of InfiniT. The bike goes by pretty quickly but I'm thankful when it's over because I have a saddle sore that's killing me!