5:58:06
Swim 30:32
Bike 3:13:23
Run 2:06:52
5/19 18-24F
My finisher's shirt and medal!
Pre-race routine:
Got up at 315 and ate a bagel and half of a banana. Took GU brew on the shuttle with me to drink.
Event warmup:
Some stretching and about 5min swim warmup
Swim
Swim went better than I thought it did. I made sure I was at the front of the pack of women...I have learned my lesson from the past few OWS tris this season and no longer am going to feel cocky for placing myself at the front of the pack at the start. :) My right shoulder was a bit crampy for the first part of the swim and I had some minor spotting problems nearing the end of the swim.
The pro men were coming in at the same time as the female age group wave started and we were told to stay left to avoid any collisions with the men. One women joked how bad would it be if someone ran into a male pro...so we had a good laugh about a minute before the race started. Hahahahaha...yes, it was really funny while sitting in 17.5C water (which isn't actually that cold).
T1
Wet suit strippers were awesome. First race having them--they are the best! Was quite a long transition zone though--meaning we picked up our T1 bags and got dressed and put our shoes on (age groupers were not allowed to leave shoes on bike--wouldn't have wanted to anyways because the transition was set up on gravel). Then we had to run a good ways to pick up our bike and run more to get to the mount line. I was a bit slow getting shoes and my long sleeve on. It was chilly and I made the executive decision to wear my long sleeve (more about this on the bike section). Problem with my long sleeve was when I put it in my T1 bag I had left the sleeves inside out...so I had to get them right side out...a process which probably took 45s to do while wet.
Bike
A few friends were on the course and I saw them and waved at them as I past going up the big hill exiting Cochrane. Haha. One sent me a message saying that by the time they figured out it was me I had already powered away---TURBO POWER!! My climbing was really solid today. Looks like 3 months of training on Vancouver Island and all the hills has proven effective.
Overall, the first 20km were a bit rough for me. It was really cold and my thighs were numb and I couldn't get into a rhythm. It started to rain at one point and there was some wind--YAY for long cycling shirt decision! The road was a bit rough for this first part as well. The road smoothed out after about 30km and I warmed up a bit and aside from the few false flats I think my ride went really well from there.
T2
Had some trouble getting socks on for the run. My feet were pretty numb from the bike because of the rain and cold. Otherwise, I think it was a good transition.
Lots of volunteers to direct people to the spot to rack their bike. Our T2 bags were already placed at our bike rack spot as well which was awesome.
Run
I think the run was pretty solid. My glut injury wasn't really bothering me at all, which was good. I've rested it since my last long training run and that seems to have done the trick. Ran the entire thing except for about 3 steps where I decided that if I stopped running that I wasn't going to finish.
Nutrition on the run was NOT stellar. Those last 2-3km were brutal and I'm sure they would have been better had I taken 1-2 more gels (I counted after and only had 3 in 18km...ya...probably not the best decision. I downed one at about 18km...but I was already in a bit of trouble at that point so it was a bit too late. Legs extemely heavy and cramping. Obviously not enough fluids/glucose/electrolytes on the run. I am happy with the run though--my stand alone best half marathon is 1:59:31 from the Vancouver Half in May.
Post race
Warm down:
Well I finished the race and the volunteers made me sit down and called medical over because I was shaking pretty badly I gather. I think I was having a crying/laughing/"ow this hurts"/hyperventilation moment. Anyways, I was relatively fine and not in any serious hypovolemia/hyponatremia/hypoglycemia/etc/etc.
After they let me go, I got my finisher's medal and food and wandered around looking for my friend. I'm sure it would have been funny to watch me as I was pretty zoned out and clutching my food like it was my last meal or something. Stretched a bit.
Event comments:
I know there is quite a bit of criticsm about what you get for what you pay for this race. However, I don't really care to get a bunch of stuff with my race fee. I'm pretty happy with the cheap gatorade bottle I picked up at one of the bike aide stations. I would rather the race director put more money into police and other traffic control (they had alberta motor association drivers). There were major intersections involved in this race and I didn't experience any problems with vehicles on the course or have any doubts about my safety because their were traffic monitors everywhere.
I really enjoyed the point to point race. I have never done one before and I felt that Calgary 70.3 did a really amazing job making sure that everything was on time and organized. There were tons and tons of volunteers to make it easy on me while racing: from wet suit strippers to volunteers to help put gear back into transition bag. Awesome, awesome volunteers.
The only major criticism I have is the finishing stretch leading up to the dismount line. It was in pretty poor condition from the winter with lots of wide cracks in the road.
Overall, I felt this was a really well run race. Went to the awards ceremony because my friend told me to go just in case because I came 5th and it might roll down. My age group didn't, but there were a few age groups in both the men's and women's which rolled down to the 20th and beyond spot. Also, some age groups did not fill and those spots were reallocated.
Drove home on Monday after the race. I was definately wearing my finisher's tshirt and my spiffy compression tights. Proof:
Ya...My vanity would not let me take a picture containing any more of me.
Edited original version because I was feeling less lazy today.
No comments:
Post a Comment