Race Report - Bucker Mission Man

This past Saturday (gloriously overcast, thank goodness!), Sara and I stepped up our game and took on a full sprint (vs. super sprints).  This was my first ever open water swim tri, and Sara's second... although she mentioned minutes before we hopped in the water that her first OWS race was a shorty.  Technically, this was a first, then, for both of us!

I didn't even have the luxury of many OWS practices beforehand.  Thankfully, Sara and I popped out to Beaver Dam Lake the DAY BEFORE to log some quite OWS time!  I'm glad we did, it calmed my pre-race jitters considerably.  There were still many left!

So we got up at the ass crack of dawn (technically, before dawn even thought about getting up!) and drove to Burlington, NC.  We arrived bright and ugly, and made a beeline to the porta potties, where we had the first-time-ever priviledge of being the FIRST TO USE THEM!  We had to break the seals on the TP rolls!  We quickly christened them, and moved on to packet pickup.

The race itself was great!

• It was small - there were just around 300 finishers
• Well-managed with super nice volunteers (church folks, this race supports an annual mission trip, hence the name)
• It had great swag - nice technical tees, socks, a tower, and a water bottle
• Good post race food - lots of fruit and carbs served by the aforementioned super nice volunteers!
• ...and a BEAUTIFUL course!  The lake was.. ya know, a lake.  The bike course had maybe 3-4 turns, rolling straight roads, and the run was a trail run through the same park as the lake.  Hilly, but pretty.

(view of the lake, through the transition area)

I won't lie, the swim freaked me out a little.  I think I went out too fast (when Sara told me later that I was ahead of her, that confirmed it.  That should NOT have happened!).  I couldn't catch a good groove or control my breathing.  The first leg was a funky combo of breast and back stroke, followed by random crawl when I could manage to catch my breath.  I locked it down a little on the 2nd leg, breathing every other stroke, and then by the third leg I settled in.  I stuck to the other edges of the mass of swimmers, but in hindsight, had I gone right up the middle, I probably would have saved considerable time.  I also bumped into a few people (and shoved my hand into some poor guy's teeth at one point!).  When I did, I took a sec to reorient myself and then just kept going.  Overall, it was no where near as frightening as I thought it would be.  When I climbed out of the water, I felt pretty good!  Overall time was just over 18 minutes for 750 meters, and I think I could do much better with some control and better steering!

The bike course was nice, too.  I found myself trying to do math while pedaling furiously!  Was this a 12 mile ride or a 15 mile ride?  I passed way more people than passed me, although I did get passed by a clump of dudes right around mile 14.  I could've gone a smidge faster, but again, I was pretty ok with my time - 49 minutes for 15 miles.

The run... whew.  The run.  3.1 miles of hilly trail.  The good:  I took 2 short walk breaks to grab a drink, and other than that, kept going.. even right up those hills.   The first 1/4 mile or so was a total douche grade, but we noticed that when we arrived and were prepared (just enough uphill to make you feel like you're working way too hard for what LOOKs like flat).  Once you hit the trail, it was a gravelly little roller coaster!  It peeked out over the lake at several points, and was a really pretty run, just not an easy one.  Sadly, it also ended STRAIGHT UP A DOGGONE HILL.  Just under 32 minutes for the run.  Not my best, typically my tri runs avg less than 10 min / mile, but with the hills, I'll take it.  

We were so pumped up that we both took to the plunge and signed up for White Lake International Tri in 6 weeks!!!  (kidding, I nearly peed in my pants when I hit "register", but I did it anyway).  And that, as they say, is that!

A triathlete?

I did my first triathlon 2 years ago this spring.  It was the Ramblin' Rose, and it satisfied my goal of doing a tri before I turned 40 (of course, in triathlon, you actually "age up" to whatever age group you'll be that calendar year, so although I was still 39, I raced with a big fat "40" on the back of my calf!).  So my first mini-sprint was done, and I liked it!  But I didn't do any more that year.  I did sign up for it again the following year, and took on another super sprint at one of the local wellness centers.  I loved it, and found that I actually finished higher up in the bunch than I do in road races.

This year I finally got the swimming thing down.  That was always my biggest struggle, and the thing that actually kept me from doing one in the first place.  I figured it out, at long last, and did the Ramblin' Rose for my 3rd time this year, coming in 11th in my age group (out of more than 100 other women), and nailing a PR!  Feeling good, I signed up for my first open water sprint (and a legit sprint at that, not a super sprint!), which is in 2.5 weeks!  My stretch goal for this year is to do an International in September... which is right around the damned corner!

So what's funny is this - I've been running off and on for 20 years.  I consider myself a "runner".  In spite of the fact that I'm apparently better at triathlon than I am at running, I've been really reluctant to call myself a triathlete.  Maybe because "runner" sounds like something you do, you can do it for fun, for sport, be good or just ok, but you run, therefore you're a run-ner.  Triathlete has the word "athlete" in it, and it just feels a little cocky to refer to yourself as an athlete.  I'm fit, I compete (sorta), I do athletic things... but "athlete" sounds very ... not what I look like!

After this weekend, though... I feel ok saying it.  Instead of saying "I like to do triathlons" or "I run and I've done some triathlons", I feel ok saying "I'm a triathlete".  The Boy (who is also a triathlete, damnit!) and I did a 10 mile bike ride on Friday,  and then Mommy hit the pool for 1000 m while he played with a friend (there was supervision!).  Saturday was a nice, hilly 11 miler in Umstead that made up for the previous weekend's sorry performance.  Sunday was a 30 mile bike (you read that right!), followed by the rubberyleggiest 15 min run (brick my ass), followed by a mini tri with The Boy, followed by some additional pool laps.  40 miles of running, 12-13 miles running, at least a mile of swimming... I'm feeling pretty triathletey right now.

And today, because this triathlete has been neglecting her strength training (where the hell do I fit THAT in?), and her hips are popping out of joint (ew!), there will be kettlebells.  Happy whatever your sport is!