My first tri of the season was last weekend, the Highlands Ranch Tune-Up.
It went pretty well! Overall, I'm happy with how I did, about 10 seconds faster than last year. My run was a bit slower, but my bike was a
bit faster to make up for it. We had absolutely perfect
weather. It was a bit cooler this year, but I also started about 45
minutes later, which meant that it was warm enough on the bike course
that my feet didn't go numb, but it still wasn't blazing hot on the run. A side note...I totalled my bike two weeks ago (stupidly drove it into the garage on top of the car), so my friend Sonja loaned me one of her bikes for the race. A very expensive carbon frame bike. Which was very exciting and terrifying at the same time! Thanks, Son, you're the best!
The swim was a big mess, unfortunately. Last year, it was very specific
about what lane you were assigned to and at what time. This year was
supposed to be the same, but when I got down to the pool, everyone was
just standing in a big line. At first they were saying that it was just
wait in the line and when you get to the front, you go. Then a few
minutes later they walked through and said no, wait...line up by bib
number. So we did, which put us approximately where we should have been for our
assigned waves, at least, but I didn't get started until 15 minutes
after my assigned time. Anyways...I got up there, got with three guys,
and we seeded ourselves according to how fast we thought we'd go. I was third out of the four. They started us off every 5 seconds. I got going, and was trying
hard not to go out too fast so that I didn't burn myself out. The guy behind me tapped me and passed
after about 4 or 5 lengths, which was fine. All three of the guys were
at least a half a length ahead of me at one point. Then all of a
sudden, I was caught up. And they were all right in a row, too. I
re-passed the guy who had passed me, and then spent three or four
lengths trying to pass the next guy. By this point, there were about 4
lengths left to go, and I couldn't get around the guy in the lead. I
tapped his foot *several* times, and even asked at the wall at least
three times to "pass, please" and he wasn't paying any attention. I was
irritated. It wasn't that it was slowing me down that annoyed me so
much (it probably amounted to maybe 30 seconds or so overall, big deal)
but it was that I wasn't able to swim a comfortable, correct stroke
since I kept running into the guy in front of me. I felt like I was
flailing around. We all ended up finishing at the same time and running up to transition
together, where I got a little snippy and the lead guy apologized and
played dumb. Whether he was dumb or not, I'm not sure. It may have been
his first tri, but regardless, it was in all the information that if
you get tapped on the foot, you're supposed to let the person pass you
at the turn. (For the record, I did apologize after the race for
getting snippy and explained that it wasn't the delay that made me mad,
it was the fact that I couldn't SWIM.)
Anyways...onto transition. We were all on the same rack, and seriously
crammed in, but I felt like I had a good transition. My feet were still
surprisingly wet considering the long run up to transition, and I don't
think I had enough baby powder in my socks, but other than that, it was
nice and smooth. I had trouble getting out of transition on the slight
hill since I hadn't checked my gearing and it was a bit too hard, but
immediately out of transition you go down a nice hill, and I was
flying! The bike course was tough, but fun. Most of the first mile is
downhill, then two and three are almost entirely uphill, then a few
more ups and downs until mile six (two loop course), which is a fun, fast
downhill with a really fun curve. I felt pretty good about my ride. I
didn't crash Sonja's bike!
My legs felt pretty tired, but I still think I put a good effort out. I
got passed a few times, but not by any girls (first time ever!) and no
guys on mountain bikes, either! My friend Amy was volunteering and she was
at the bike aid station. I was kinda annoyed because she completely missed
me the first time I went through even though I waved at her and yelled
her name. So on the second loop, I yelled LOUDLY "Dammit, McDowell,
cheer for me!" She did.
I had a pretty good T2, although not as good as T1. I got my shoes off
before the dismount line without slowing down or killing myself. And then out on the run. Which was really, really hard. My legs just
felt dead. And more so than the typical bike to run dead. Which is
weird, since I hadn't run since Wednesday's track workout, and I wouldn't hae thought they would still be that tired. The run course is tough. The first half mile is downhill, then it
flattens out and then there's a slow gradual uphill to the turnaround.
It really really sucks that the last half mile is uphill. I was kind of
hoping to be close to 9 minute pace for the run, but it just wasn't
happening. I revised that after the first mile to hoping for
9:30, but would have been happy to be under 10. I ended up with a 9:22 pace.
Not bad, but not great, considering that's the same pace I ran the
Bolder Boulder at, and that's double the distance.
So, it was a good race, although not fantastic. It was kind of weird, I
felt really alone for most of the race. There just wasn't as much
traffic out on the course as there was last year. Last year, I ran with
another girl for about 1/2 of the 5k, which was nice. Even though we
didn't really talk, it was good to have the silent company!
Official race results:
Overall place 182/383
Sex place 52/180
Div place 16/40
Swim 11:31 (includes the looong run up to transition)
T1 1:17
Bike 46:57
Bike mph 15.3 (not sure how this works out, my Garmin says 16.0 mph)
T2 1:01
Run 29:03
Run pace 9:22
Overall 1:29:46