I forgot to put up pictures from Red Bank the other day so this is a little over a week old. We had a great weekend and Red Bank was the perfect race to complete my first long distance triathlon. There were about 300 people total and everyone was super friendly. I am now hooked on the Olympic distance and have already looked for a few others to do this summer. Somehow, through work this week, I was able to get into the NYC Tri in August and we found one in Freeport, ME (LL Bean shopping!) in September.
https://picasaweb.google.com/Booper12/RedBankTriathlon?authkey=Gv1sRgCPLD_9m897DkFQ&feat=directlink
The race itself was so much fun. I was up at 4:30 to have some coffee and my oatmeal and we were out the door at 6:15am. Transition was open at 6:30, so I got to set my stuff up, check out what others were doing and have time to relax a little. The weather was a little nasty but thankfully the rain held off until after the race.
So, 8:03 the swim began and oh boy! This was the most interesting part of the race. If you have never swam with a bunch of other people in the open water, it is almost a no holds bar event. You are kicked, pulled under and yelled at. The whole time, you have to just keep swimming. I decided to try to avoid as many people as possible, I swam on the outside. The only issue with this was that I constantly off course and had to circle back. After about 15 minutes, I got some space and was able to enjoy the swim. For the first 15 I was thinking, why am I doing this?
The transition did not turn out to be that bad. I took my time, sat down, put my socks on and got ready for the bike. I was a little disoriented gettting out of the water so taking it slow was good. Then the bike - this was the part of the race that I have to say I disliked the most. It is mostly because I suck at the bike and because it seemed like it took forever. The only highlight from the bike was that about mile 5, I had the realization that I was actually doing the Tri and I got a super proud feeling come across me. I went through how much has changed in my life and how only in October last year I could run about 2.5 miles at a 10:00 pace and look what I was doing now. Funny because now the Olympic seems like an easy distance but back then, if you asked me if I would do it, I would say that you were crazy.
Then my favorite part of the day - the run. This was the portion I was the most worried about. I heard about the pain you would get after transitioning from the bike. I knew I was an ok runner but it was not until this race that I realized that I was a fairly strong runner. The first 2 miles were ok, I just did not feel my feet. I used my arms to push me through. Then mile 3, I warmed up, picked up my speed and took off. It was great passing people and with each person I got more and more confidence. I was hoping to average at least 9:00/miles when I started. There were no mile markers so I did not know how fast I was going. When I got to the half way point, it was only 24:30 on my watch which I was average about 8:10/miles. I was excited and could not believe I was running that fast. On the way back I decided to play a game and pick a person that I would pass. This made me run a little faster and kept me going. I think I passed about 15 people on the way back. When I got to the end, it was 50:07 and I freaking ran my faster 10K - 8:03/mile. And this was still being partially injured. Overall, I completed the whole race in under 3 hours...yippee!
So with the Half Marathon and Olympic Tri done, next on the docket is the goal of all goals: Half Ironman. Not sure that I want to even think about this right now or panic will set in!
And if anyone is wondering, yes, I am biking today! Actually going to try a brick if I can. Leg is great and I am a little crazy :-) Plus not working out for 3 days is making me bounce off the walls.
No comments:
Post a Comment