I haven't logged on to see the posts for a while and I hadn't realized I was the recipient of so much good will. Thanks all.
To that end, a short race report. Most of us remember that Saturday dawned cold with a bit of a wind out of the West. At the transition area, the air temp was in the mid 50's and the water temp in the river was a brisk 65ish. I made a literal last minute change to my goggles (I used clear in stead of my typical mirrored) and man I'm glad I did. Sighting on the turn buoys was very difficult in the overcast conditions, made all that more challenging by the wind whipping up the water surface. There wern't quite white caps, but it was not far off. I consider this the most challenging swim I have ever done. After the first turn we were swimming parelle to the shore, against the current AND the wind. It felt like every third breath I took I got a mouth full of water as the waves broke against me. Fortunately, I think the course was short so the swim was over in 32 min for me. I made a good decision not to where a tri top, so when I stripped my wetsuit I donned a thermal cycling vest and pulled on some are warmers. I was glad I didn't have the wet top against my skin. Unfortunatly, I didn't take the time to put on tights, and my legs were quite cold. Despite putting on two pair of socks, I never once felt my toes during the ride. With the wind picking up, I went out with a tail wind. At about mile 15, my legs started to ache and they would be uncomfortable nearly the entire ride. At first, I thought it was due to me not riding my bike for the prior 2 weeks (I had been on travel with only access to spin bikes at the local Y), but after more consideration, I believe it was from the cold. I don't know that it really slowed me down much, it just made the ride not very fun. At mile 21, we turned and the tail wind turned into a cross wind. At about mile 30, we turned again and the cross became a full up, in your face, driving you back head wind. It would be my only companion the remaining 26 miles. At the 30 mile mark (before headwind), my average was 22.2 mph. At the end of the bike, it was down to 20.2. There were times I was down in the 16's the wind was cranking so much (I think it was a steady 12 - 15 by this time of the day), and with my legs not feeling good, it was not a fun ride. It was a very small race (less than 100 people I think) so I started the run in 8th place overall. I had been working a lot on my running and I was interested to see how I held up. The first two miles were a blazing pace (for me) and I felt great (although it took to mile 2 for me to feel my toes again). At the turn around point of 6.5 miles I was still feeling pretty good. A few feet past the turn around, I started to hurt and the pain stayed with me to the end. Although I am very pleased that I was able to run a few seconds over a 2 hour half marathon, I had nothing left by the end and was just hanging on to finish. As soon as I crossed the finish line and they took off the timing chip, I nearly fell over from the pain in my legs. I was trying to walk back to transition and couldn't believe that 60 seconds earlier I had been running with how bad it hurt. It goes to show you how powerful the mind can be when it is focused on a goal. Overall, I am very happy with the 5hr 22min result. It wasn't my best bike performance, but considering the conditions it was ok. The FS series guys told me that next year, they will have this race in July with the other distances (Sprint and Olyimpic) so the cold won't be a factor. I would recommend this course to anyone interested in doing a Tri. The bike and run courses are flat and fast, and the swim is in the river which is shallow. These add up to a course that is very accessible for every level. It is also close enough to drive to the morning of the race saving on lodging expenses. Check out FSseries.com for more info. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en.
