I’ve never posted a race report on here before, but I figure what the hell. There weren’t a lot of females at this race so I figure I’ll give that perspective (not that it’s really that different from the male perspective I’d guess).
I went to the ST dinner the night before at Chip’s house. It was great to put names to faces and learn I actually knew some of the faces but didn’t previously know the name. I also brought Brian along who was a lurker before but is now posting under the name Macedawg so please be nice in responding to any of his future posts. Everyone was incredibly nice and it was a relaxed atmosphere although Chip couldn’t have been too relaxed with all of the craziness of race planning. He did debute his clown outfit and we all thought he’d get way too hot but sure enough the next morning he showed up at the swim start with it on.
Getting out to the race the next morning was uneventful. Got a trip into the port-a-pottie there with no problems and headed down to the swim start. That’s when things were a little confusing. There was an announcement made about the shape of the swim course and I paid attention but figured I’d have plenty of feet to follow so no big deal. Did a warm up swim and came back and was wondering where I needed to go for the start when an announcement was made that we were starting in 15 seconds. All of us kind of looked around like “well, I guess I’ll start here.” I got the crap beat of me until the first turn around the trampoline, which I had a really hard time getting around as I was somehow pushed too far to the left. Heading back from the big turn was all in weeds. I was pretty sure I was going to get tied down by them and get stuck swimming in place. The second loop was much less crowded and pretty uneventful. Getting back to land I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to go around a buoy or swim at an angle back to shore but I didn’t see a buoy and everyone in front of me was swimming at an angle so I thought “when in rome.”
As I got out of the water I heard Chip announcing that it was around the 30 minute mark, if that was true, that was unbelievably fast for me (with transition my swim was a little over 33 but still really fast for me). It was a slow transition for me, couldn’t get me stupid wetsuit over my feet but soon enough I was on my way. Having a faster swim, here’s what I learned – a lot more really poor swimmers bike really fast than really fast swimmers bike really slow. Men were flying by me. I caught four women and was enjoying the ride. Rolling hills but nothing that required me to get out of my big chain ring. I had no idea where I stood in relation to the other women. A little over what I think was half-way Cdanrun’s girlfriend passed me. I knew she was a good runner so I decided to keep her in my sights if it wouldn’t cause me to blow up. For some reason I was incredibly snotty on this bike ride and was blowing not rockets the entire ride (classy, I know). I have no problem doing this with my right nostril but I’m not so skilled with my left. I decided the left side had to be cleared and next thing I knew I had snot all over my arm. Wasted some of my precious water rinsing myself off but I was so simultaneously amused and disgusted by myself that the next five miles went by unnoticed. It was a pretty empty course so I was never worried about drafting but here’s a phenomenon I’ve noticed about passing some men. You pass them, they turn and look and say, “oh shit, I’m being passed by a chick.” They suddenly hall ass to get past you and then pull right in front of you and then you have to slow way down to avoid appearing to draft of them. It sucks and it’s annoying. Most men this happens at least twice before they decide they can’t stay with you. So at some point there is an out and back and the lead guys are flying by. There is one woman ahead and cdanrun’s girlfriend behind her. Holy crap, I’m in the top three. I am really trying not to get excited and blow up, but it’s hard to do. I’m feeling pretty good throughout the ride. It felt like it was windy out there but I can never tell if it’s the wind or me just sucking. With about 10 miles left I decide I should try and pass cdanrun’s girlfriend because I know she can run and if I want a top 3 finish I should try and get a head of her now because I know she’s fast and who knows what the women behind us will do. So as you as finish the bike there’s a pretty good downhill that seemed like it would be fun to fly down in my aerobars. I was oblivious that it was also the same route the run was on and took it a little wide and almost took out one of the men starting his run. Sorry about that.
So I got off the bike and was feeling pretty good. I caught a couple of the men ahead of me and my running legs came to me pretty quickly. I got to the first aid station and they told me the lead woman was about 1:45 ahead of me. I decided just to keep my pace because it was too early to track anyone down. At about 3-4 miles I saw a woman ahead of me and thought “oh my gosh, I might catch her.” Sure enough I caught her and we exchanged “good jobs” and I was the leader. It was crazy; I’ve never lead a race before. At that point bottomfeeder rode by me on his bike and I said “Are you from slowtwitch?” and he said he was and I introduced myself as almost drowning. He said, “No way, I thought you were a dude.” He kept me company for a little while which was nice since there weren’t a lot of people to interact with out there. I felt really good until about mile 8 and was holding my pace okay. I live in Chicago which is pancake flat so the hills were a bit of a challenge to me and my quads were really not enjoying it. The greatest thing I learned at the aid stations is that I can do hammergels. Gu’s make me gag and instantly cause that vomiting reflex. Not so with the hammergels. And it may have been in my head but I instantly felt better after each one. Towards the end I was trying to occupy myself by telling each person I saw “good job” or “keep it up”. I was in such a rhythm that I saw a guy taking his trash out from his campsite and without thinking said “good job.” At around mile 11 I saw the women behind me at a turn around and knew I had put enough distance between them that unless I passed out I was going to win (later found out cdanrun’s girlfriend got sick so that’s why she wasn’t chasing me down). That was a good feeling but also made me want to stop and shake my quad’s out because I had the cushion. But then I thought to myself, the first place woman can’t stop. However, on one hill my left quad said you will stretch, so I walked a few steps and let my leg work out its issues. Then I as I was about to run up what felt like a very steep hill at the end but probably wasn’t I saw bottomfeeder again taking pictures and thought “crap, I can’t walk now” and suffered my way up the hill. At the finish everyone was cheering and I knew I needed to sprint it in gracefully but I just couldn’t do it. I was hurting and I looked like crap. What a relief to finish. I grabbed a banana and some of the fantastic giant sub that was there and next thing I know I was being interviewed for the local tv station. That was pretty cool. No idea what I said but I’ve never had that happen after a race before.
All in all, it was a great day. My goal had been to go under 5 hours but I hadn’t counted on the run being so hilly. Hopefully I will hit my goal time in Muncie.
I really enjoyed the race and it was incredibly convenient from Chicago. Chip did a great job. It was nice to meet a lot of the ST’ers and after the race Blake came over and congratulated me which I thought was really nice of him. This race should be even bigger and better next year. The venue is great and the hiccups that occurred were all part of the learning curve.
Nice report - I’m sure you’ll do great at Muncie too!