Not really in technicolor. But maybe, if I can pirate a couple of pics, some sort of color. But since I was alone I only took a couple of pics of the "lake" and of my transition area.
The race was in Honeyville and was well organized by the TriUtah folks. There are always a couple of things you'd like improved, but this is one race I'll do again. There is only a sprint distance option, which is fine with me, for now... (ominously typed.)
How'd I do? How'd I feel? I did sorta shitty. I felt almost as shitty doing it. But, I finished another swim. And, ANd, aNd! I cut somewhere between 4-5 minutes off my 750 meter swim time compared to last year at XTERRA. 4-5 effing minutes! I was 24th of 47 out of the water. This is huge for me. Because of that, I can handle how shitty I did overall, which was 7th of 11 in my age group and 21st of 45 overall.
I am pleased with my result. After all, it isn't like I'm doing brick workouts every morning. But without further waste of time. Here's a quick race report.
I arrived about an hour and a half before the start, got marked and had my transition set up with all sorts of time left. The transition was nice, on actual lawn grass! I chilled out in the shade and listened to my ipod. I thought about talking to people, but I'd rather keep my anxiety to myself. With about 15 minutes to start, I started the ordeal of putting on my wetsuit. I debated wearing it because it was a hot day and the water was pretty warm. But figured so many others were going to have the advantage that I should also. Getting into the water I had less than the usual amount of panic which could be attributed to a couple of factors: 1) Increased confidence. 2) Knowing I was in essentially a large swimming pool no deeper than 6 feet. 3) Xanax. Still, I panicked a bit when the water sucked my wetsuit around my chest, but after a minute the suit softened and the feeling drifted away. The water was a little murky, but similar to Pineview.
Like usual, I moved to the rear of the field to keep from having too many people swim over me. Blessedly, the race finally started and I went into sort of a happy place, autopilot mode. Within the first few meters I was smacking into people, but I couldn't see them because the shallow water and silty bottom meant that a lot of debris was being stirred up, making the water opaque and limiting visibility to about my elbow. There were no feet to be found because even though I was hitting them, I couldn't see them. After swimming here, other venues shouldn't be an issue. Unless it's cloudy. Then it would be no visibility in the dark and another story altogether.
At the turnaround I was still feeling good but my forearms were starting to get fatigued. I usually don't experience this, so I tried to relax my arms which helped. Ultimately, I think my wetsuit was pulled up a little far and cutting off circulation. I'll have to get into the water again to see.
I came out of the water, rolled into transition and noticed there were a bunch of bikes still there. A good sign. I dunno if there was any correlation, but I had a tough time getting the sleeves of my wetsuit off my forearms. Finally free, I spent a little too much time wiping my feet and putting on socks. Because I like wearing socks.
On the bike, I took a few minutes to come around and get some blood into my legs. Plus my stomach was feeling a little wonky so I didn't drink a ton. The bike course didn't really suit me either. The rolling terrain is better for powerful riders, which I am not. I don't think I lost much time over the 12 miles. I caught a few riders and didn't get passed. Good enough.
The run was three laps around the lake on hard-packed dirt. I wasn't wearing a timer, but I think my laps were prolly 8:30, 8:00, 7:30. I was feeling pretty good at the end. I guess I should add some random brick workouts into my sporadic, non-triathlon specific training plan.
And that was it. I had finally done a triathlon in 2009. XTERRA is closing in, but I think I'll head to Moab that weekend. I can have a great weekend riding and drinking beer for the price of the registration fee.
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