We got to Smallwood State Park around 6:15am. Quick stop at the port-a-potties and then I got in the line for packet pick-up and Jon went to the Team Z tent. I really wish they had marked that the relay check in was in the M-Z line. I got in the A-L line and waiting for about 20 min there. Annoying. Ah well. After I got my swim cap and shirt, I went and got body marked, and then picked up our timing chip. I headed back to the Team Z tent and emailed my relay team mates to let them know I had the chip and where to pick up their parts of the packet.
My runner got there first, and it was good to meet her. Our biker was running a bit later than I personally would ever run, but that's just me. She was a bit more concerned about getting a picture of the 3 of us with her bike than setting up her transition area... 10 minutes before transition closed. That stressed me out a bit.
After our biker finally set up her transition area, we headed down to the water for the national anthem, last minute race instructions, a pep talk from the race director, and the swim! I was in wave 7 of 7. The swim was supposed to be a 1500m swim in the river, but I'm going with "it was long". I originally estimated 32 - 35 minutes for the swim, based on the fact that my last timed mile was 32 minutes in the pool. I know I slow down a little bit in the open water, so I figured 32-35 minutes was a safe estimation (and given that my last 1500m open water swim time was about 32 minutes). Anyhow, I finished in just over 41 minutes. I was really annoyed by that. That said... I passed a lot of people from the previous two waves, so I knew I was swimming pretty well.
I got out of the water and ran to my biker, gave her the chip, and chatted with my runner for a few minutes.
After my biker finally got back in and my runner went out, I chatted with her a bit. And here's where I just want to rant for a few minutes. She basically said to me that she didn't believe my estimate when I sent it and she wasn't surprised I was 10 minutes slower than I said I was going to be. I was very good about holding my composure, but wanted to tear her a new one. Given that she told us she'd be anywhere between 13mph - 18mph on the bike ride, I was mad. I am VERY good about knowing my times. Jon has asked me at the beginning of every race "what do you think your times will be?" and I can lock them in +/- 2 minutes. He knows he's got a 10 minute window to watch for me - and it's 5 min before and after whatever I tell him. He's also told me that it's so reliable it's ridiculous. So... I was really annoyed that someone who's never met me and never swam with me had the audacity to tell me she didn't think I could do that swim in 32 minutes.
Here's the kicker. After people started to finish, they all started to talk about how the swim was off. EVERYONE was at least 10 minutes slower than they thought! Several people have the new Garmin 910 and said that it mapped that swim at 1.1 miles, or more. One guy measured it out at 1.99 miles, but he said he thinks he zig zagged a lot. After the biker heard this, she came over and was like "I hope you didn't take offense, I just meant that it was a lot faster than I was expecting. I can't do that swim in under 50 minutes." She was STILL putting her foot in her mouth! I pretty much told her it was "cool" and since I know the course was long, I'm now more confident that I can do my ocean 1.2 mile swim in Maine in less than the cut-off and in about 45 minutes. That pretty much shut her up - given that it'd take her 50 minutes to do a 1500m swim. I mean, I didn't judge her ubber slow bike time, don't judge my swim time.
That being said, I had an AWESOME swim. I came out of the water 3rd for the relays. THIRD. That justified everything it needed to about this race to me... and I'm hoping my biker sees it and eats her words. Yes, it was 90 degrees in the water and it felt like it. Yes, people were getting pulled out around me. But, I felt GOOD. I felt like I could've swam longer. I felt CONFIDENT. It's better than I've ever really felt about a swim and I'm not letting anyone take that from me.
Here are the results from the race. I've emailed the race director about teams #2 and 3 and their run times. A 22 and 33 minute 10k (6.2 miles) seems a bit too fast to me. Even the pros don't run it in 22 minutes. Apparently there was a place a few people made a wrong turn - we had one teammate who had to DQ herself because of it when she got to the finish. So sad for her, but it was the right thing to do.
An update here: They've since released the "full" results (apparently the others weren't) and I was eighth out of the water. That's ok though, there were still 9 teams behind me :) After my email to the race directors, the two teams with the crazy fast 10k times were DQ'd. They probably also took a wrong turn somewhere, but yea... it's not right.
Here's the updated results:
13 is our overall placing
583 was our race number
8 - placing after swim
41:23 - swim time
13 - placing in transition 1
2:18 - transition 1 time
16 - placing in bike
1:37:19 - bike time
13 - placing in transition 2
1:03 - transition 2 time
8 - placing in run
1:08:20 - run time
3:30:22 - total time
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