Elma Memorial Day Tri race report

How is training going? Pretty good.

 

Elma Memorial Day Tri race report:

Once again: DIVISION WINNER*

 

 

 

*That would be the 'Denise Brooks' Division. Everyone got either a trophy or medal that said division winner on it.

I had planned on getting there early but the course was so messed up, not the same place we've used before. Swim, run, then bike.

 

They had to shuttle us in the guys personal van and that was a joke. He made an illegal U turn, hit a curb, got yelled at (dumb shit) so he yelled (fuck off) back to the guy.

 

The lake was full of Lilly pads, water pretty scummy. It wasn't so cold, just nasty to know I was putting myself into it. I take a long time to get warmed up and we didn't have time since we got to the venue in plenty of time but waiting for the shuttle took over an hour, we had no idea where the lake was, so no warm up time.

 

Swim: Approx 250 meters, took about 7 minutes, beat 1 lady out of the water. As long as I was doing freestyle I was making good progress but it takes me so long to get warmed up that I was out of the water before that happened. My chest was very restricted in my new wetsuit.

 

Note to self: GET YOUR ASS INTO THE LAKE.

T1: Stripped off the wetsuit & put on my dry running clothes, approximately 4 minutes.

Left everything for Brayden to pick up. I seriously thought he'd put all my stuff into my backpack but instead he just threw my wetsuit, loose, into the back of the truck. Exactly what I didn't want, anyone could have stolen it when they were pawing through everything later. But he did pick it up and get it into the truck so there is that.

 

Run: (run start watch time: 9:28) 3.2 miles in about 35 minutes. Ankle felt fine the whole time. Beat 1 runner by about 30 seconds, which happened to be Linda.  It was a nice flat run course along a lake on a bike path. There were a couple STOP signs where roads crossed the path but no cars were coming so I was able to just go. Plenty of regular users and it was pleasant.

 

Bike, helmet, shoes & sunglasses. No gloves.
Helmet covers water to keep it cool, straw
holds helmet in place.

T2: Off with the running shoes, on with bike shoes, helmet & glasses, about 30 seconds. I was onto my bike and gone, didn't wait for Linda even though she had waited for me in T1. Gawd, don't wait for me at IM CDA.

Bike: (bike start watch time: 45:30) 13 miles in about 45 minutes. 3 other riders had flats, 2 of which DNF. Beat 2 bikers, which happened to be Linda and one other lady that Linda beat too. There were aid stations along the way mostly meant for the half & full marathon runners but I had no need to stop.

 

Rolling course on Yelm Highway, out & back 6.5 miles. They had chalk on the road marking miles so I knew exactly where I was at all times except at the beginning & end. First followed white arrows & ended up on the runners path, not the bike path attached to the road & at the end I didn't know if I was supposed to go around the round about or what so used sidewalk.

 

Linda finished a few minutes after me, I'd had time to get a few of my things from T2 & was headed back to our car to change when she came in. Lan said Steve came in only about 3 minutes before me on the bike.

 

Steve is a very fast runner, for whatever reason he started the run after everyone else but he blew past Linda and I a couple minutes into it. He got on his bike and had a pretty good head start.  When Lan saw him up ahead he made sure to BLAST past Steve. Lan was totally anaerobic at that time but it was worth it to make Steve think Lan was ALL THAT.

Overall time: 1:32:45

About 20 minutes faster than my previous time but this was a new course.

 

 

The previous course is being used by another group so IF we decide to do another early season race it would be with the other people. This had no timer, I didn't like the shuttle service, the race info online wasn't much help, our GPS worked fine but a lot of them didn't. There should have been people at important corners to guide runners & bikers.

They did have a pretty nice spread of food for afterward, sandwich makings, fresh grapes, strawberries, Gatorade & pops, lots of donuts and cream puff things. I had my first ever Zebra Roll, nothing special but is was white with stripes.

Now, this might or might not be interesting to you:



2010

<- This was me 2 years ago, notice the fat rolls on my belly.

 

2012


This is me today, fat rolls are gone. ->