I set a few goals going into this Triathlon season...
1) Win my age-group in a Sprint length race
2) Top 10 in my age-group in a Half-Iron length race
3) Somewhere around 12 hours at Ironman Wisconsin
While I didn't hit that first goal in the only Sprint race I've done this year (I got 5th in my age-group), I did have a PR (Personal Record) at that race.
The second goal was reached while I was on vacation last week.
On Sunday, July 17th I raced in the Door County Half-Iron distance race and placed 8th in my age-group. I'll recap the race over the next couple days, starting today with the swim.
We actually got to Door County on Friday night and met up with friends/training buddies early on Saturday morning to watch some of the Sprint length race and then head out on the lake to get a feel for what we would be in for on Sunday morning. We swam out to the first set of buoys and regrouped there to show those who had not done the race, where the race would go from there- the rest of the buoys weren't in the water yet- so they just had to imagine how the course was going to look on race-day. We swam for a while in the direction we would go on race-day and then turned and headed back towards the finish line. We could feel the current pushing us along as we swam out, so we figured it would be tough coming back.
And we were right.
Tough- but not nearly as tough as it was on Sunday. I was in wave 10, so I didn't start the race until sometime after 8:30am. The water was getting pretty choppy by that point. Just like the day before, the swim out to the first set of buoys went smoothly, and the first length with the current to our back wasn't bad either.
And then I made that turn and headed back into the current.
That SUCKED!
I could feel myself slow down considerably. I found it hard to get any sort of rhythm down- especially any rhythm with my breathing. When I finally made it to the last turn, I didn't turn sharp enough and when I started sighting, I didn't see the finish line, which completely confused me. I completely stopped swimming and looked around- only to realize that I was just headed slightly in the wrong direction. I also noticed a teammate who I know was in my wave breast-stroking his way to the finish line.
How slow am I if this guy is breast-stroking the course the same speed that I freestyle it? Turns out he did the same thing as me- misjudged the turn and was just getting himself back on course.
I finally did make it to the finish line, had my wetsuit stripped off and headed to the transition area. On my way to my bike Kristin passed me. Kristin started 3 waves behind me.
Wow- I'm a slow swimmer.
I looked at my watch to confirm how slow I was- it was now 9:22am. If my wave started at 8:30am- that was more than :50 minutes!!! I didn't find out until much later that my wave actually started late, so it wasn't a :50 minute swim, it was actually about :42 minutes. Still not a good swim, but not as bad as I thought. And to turn a negative into a positive- I took the anger from the swim onto the bike. I'll tell you why that was a good thing tomorrow.
[...] 1055 Triple M » Door County Half-Iron: part 1- Swim!Jul 25, 2011 … Door County Half-Iron: part 1- Swim! Posted in: Uncategorized. I set a few goals going into this Triathlon season… 1) Win my age-group in a … [...]
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