Colonial Beach International Triathlon – July 15, 2012
- Race Name: Colonial Beach International
Triathlon
- Race Date: July 15, 2012
- Race Location: Colonial Beach, VA
- Race Distance: International (1500m swim, 24 mi bike, 10k run)
- Division: Women 30-34
- Total Time: 3:16:57
- Time Breakdown: Swim – 42:42, T1 – 2:46,
Bike – 1:18:06, T2 – 2:34, Run – 1:10:50
- Age Group Placing: 10/12
- Overall Placing: 67/90 (women only)
Pre-race
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Dalghren, just over the
301 bridge and outside of the Navy base there. It was a perfect spot to stay
(and it meant that we got to visit with my brother and his family the day
before the race!), only about 15 minutes from the race start.
Race registration was online, per the norm. Setup Events was
running this one, so it was as well run as I expected; except one thing. When I
registered, I signed up for a women’s medium shirt. What I got was a unisex
medium. When I went back at the end of the race (when I noticed the shirt) to
see if I could exchange it, the volunteer said they had actually run out of
shirts so everyone just got whatever they had. I wish I had known that at
5:15am, because I would’ve asked if they had a small unisex. Not really sure
how you run out of shirts of specific sizes if people pick the type/size of
shirt they want when they register, but it’s not that big of a deal.
I picked up my race packet at 5:15 am, got body marked (and
questioned on my age, yay!), picked up my chip, and started setting up
transition.
It was a beautiful morning, small race, and good day to go!
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| Hi Jon! |
Swim
The river was beautifully calm and about 82 degrees. It was almost
eerily calm actually. I’m not sure that I’ve ever swum in water (outside of the
pool) that was as calm as it was. I should’ve NEVER taken off my goggles after
the practice swim. I had so many problems with them during the race. I must’ve
had to stop and tread water about 5 times (seriously) to fix them. This race,
despite the super calm water and smaller race field, was super hard to sight
the turn buoys. I’m not even 100% sure of why. My goggles might have had
something to do with that, who knows.
At the final turn buoy, I was in a group of people. I was trying
to get out of the way of this one woman, but she kept cutting me off. She ended
up swimming me into the buoy and when I did my right handed stroke and hit her
(letting her know she had pushed me into it) she literally used my chest as a
wall to kick off of. I immediately popped my head back up, caught my bearings,
and started swimming back to shore (where we were heading anyhow). As I exited
the water, I was relieved to have survived the swim, didn’t care that my time
was 42 minutes (I had my watch on), and just tried to catch my breath as I went
to T1.
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| I so wanted to cry, my chest hurt so bad |
Bike
After having read some race reports of this race, I was expecting
it to be much hillier than it actually was. Most of the “hills” were more of
false flats, which are almost worse in some ways. I was able to drink thanks to
the new Profile Design water bottle I put on my bike the week of the race.
However, eating/drinking non-water was still a challenge. I really need to work
on that. It affected my run pretty badly again.
I did this race with my tri bike. It finally made it’s race debut!
I had so much fun on this bike course. It took me a few miles to get my legs
fully under me and working the way I wanted them to, but that’s pretty much
every race. I felt it a bit more for this one though, so I’m not sure if that’s
just the bike or the course. Jon said
There was only one part of it that was a little tricky, downhill,
sharp left turn, but once you got through it, all was well. I love
out-and-backs because the field narrows out and they’re generally easier to
navigate. In general, I did exactly what I set out to do – a little over
1:15:xx and just enjoy it. Can’t really ask for anything more than that!
I headed into T2 feeling tired from the heat/humidity, but
energized from the great ride.
Run
Oh. My. Goodness. This. Sucked. I’ll throw it out there right away
that there were several things that contributed to this. I could fully blame it
on the heat/humidity, but I won’t. They were a factor, but a small one. I did a
4.5 hr workout 2 days before this race. I haven’t been keeping up with my
running the way I should (this WILL come back to bite me in August) be. I
didn’t eat enough after the swim and on the bike. These things are all on me.
So sure, it was hot and humid and I was sweating heavier and saltier than normal.
I saw my fellow Team Zers around mile 1 and we all followed each other for
about a mile (Jill, Jan, and myself in a line with no one between us… sea of
green!), which was cool.
Around mile 2.5, I was so cramped and felt like crap. It was at
that moment that I was happy that I thought to bring the salt stick with me. At
the mile 3 water stop, I took a salt pill. Within 5 minutes (if that) I felt
soooooo much better! It was amazing. I was dumping ice in my sports bra and
down my shirt to try to cool down a little (it was in the mid-90s at this
point) pretty much at every water stop after mile 3.
Around mile 5, there was a group of guys outside their beach house
encouraging us to keep going – they were awesome and just what I needed. The
last 1.5 miles were all out in the sun. I came in with a run time of 1:10:xx…
just as expected. I told Jon to expect me between 65 and 75 minutes after I
went out. I was so glad to be done.
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| Worst finishing photo so far |
Transitions
I got in early and got all set up. I was racked next to a fellow
team Zer, so that was cool. Our rack actually racked in numerical order, which
cracked me up. The guy who was #10 racked the wrong way, which sucked, but the
race official didn’t say anything about it (a bit annoying). My transitions
were actually pretty decent. In T1, I sat down for a minute to get my shoes on
just because I was still recovering from being kicked in the chest. T2 was
decent, other than forgetting to turn off my Garmin on my bike.
Post-Race
Post race food & drinks were good. I grabbed a cookie and ate
half of it before throwing it out. It’s funny how much you think you want
something to eat until you start to eat. We left just before awards because it
had just gotten to be too hot to hang out. Race results were posted that night.
Summary and Lessons Learned
This was a great ‘C’ race for me. I used it as training and just
went with the flow. No matter what happened, I was OK with it.
Lessons learned from this race: RUN MORE. Seriously, this will be
my lesson from this season. Also, I need to eat more consistently. *Note: since
the race, I looked into Infinit Nutrition for a drinkable, custom blend as a
way to get in my calories. It seems like this will be the way to go for me.
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| Funniest picture Jon took all day |
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