So, I was home in Texas for all of five days & managed to sneak a day-long trip to Corpus in there. And while in Corpus, I did a sprint triathlon. This plan originated as a challenge between me & my brother
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weedweasel. But
weedweasel got too busy with work this winter, & he decided to withdraw. I mocked him for this decision, then decided to go ahead & do the triathlon myself anyway.
I nearly didn't do this race in three different ways. First of all, at some point on Friday afternoon I misplaced my driver's license. I wasn't sure I would be able to pick up my race packet without it, but they took my FEMA ID without any trouble. One bullet dodged. We heard
Dave Scott speak at the pre-race briefing - he was the guest of honor & sort of the Grand Marshal for the whole event. He is basically the uncrowned King of Triathlon & a bit of a personal hero, so that was pretty awesome.
Of course, after months & months of unrelenting drought, Friday night in Corpus featured a TORRENTIAL downpour, complete with intermittent thunder & lightning. While the increase in rain was definitely a good thing, I wasn't sure the race was even going to happen in the morning. Then, on Friday evening after we got to the hotel in CC, I dropped one of my contact lenses directly down the drain of the hotel sink. Happily, I was able to dismantle the U-bend underneath the sink & recover my lens. (I am sure this earned me the undying wrath of the hotel maintenance crew.) With some serious cleaning, it was fine.
When I got to the race on Saturday morning (at 6 AM), it wasn't actually raining. But it was overcast, so when the swim started just after 7 AM, it was DARK. Dark enough that spotting the buoys that marked the race course was rather difficult! But I managed to stay on course & I finished the swim very strong - actually, I was the fourth woman overall out of the water. I heard Dave Scott announcing my name ("Now exiting the water we have... Angela Ledgerwood!") & that was AWESOME. But during the bike portion of the race, it started to pour & visibility got pretty bad. At one point, a biker in front of me dropped her water bottle & I hit it, almost crashing (at 15 mph, that would have been painful to say the least). I am ashamed to say that the adrenaline shock of the near-crash actually did make me cry just a little bit - but it was raining so hard that no-one could tell, so that was all right. When I got off the bike & changed into my running shoes, I discovered that they were soaked & it felt like they each weighed ten pounds. The run was pretty much a disaster - I had been so nervous about crashing on the bike that I didn't drink enough electrolytes, so my legs cramped up something awful during the run. Despite that, I finished the run, with
hotpantsgalore running with me for the last 500 yards or so. My final time was 1:50.51. About a month ago,
I predicted a time of 1:52 - so hooray! I beat my prediction by one whole minute!
Overall, the experience was very good. I didn't really learn anything that I didn't already know - I am a better swimmer than most triathletes, & a terrible runner. Hydration is very important. My endurance needs some work. But I also got a race under my belt for the first time in a very long time. I had pretty awful Race Day conditions, & I still finished almost right on my prediction. I was able to train, even while working 60 hours a week & living in a hotel. So quite a few of my excuses (out of race practice, no time, traveling too much) for NOT doing this before have been blown up.
Here are my splits:
750-meter swim 0:14:44.680
T1 0:03:25.443
12.4-mile bike 0:50:47.850
T2 0:03:12.062
3.11-mile run 0:38:41.690
TOTAL 1:50:51.725
I think I need to pick my next race soon, before I get lazy again!
