Hagerstown Sprint Triathlon Race Recap

So much about this race was just so un-racelike. I’m not sure what it was, but I just wasn’t in the adrenaline pumping GOGOGO state of mind that I’d thought I’d be in.  I didn’t set any pre-race goals. I didn’t really have any jitters. It was all a very “been there, done that” kind of feeling. My main goal was to beat last years time, and I could tell from my training times that it was well within my reach.

After getting there so early for last year’s race, I decided to sleep in a little bit this year and go to the race a little later. I knew the first person was going in the water around 6:30am, and I knew that I was about the 150th person back (based on bib number), and I knew that they were going to close transition at 7:30am, so I aimed to be there at 7am.

Which of course was thrown off because I needed to get gas in the car. Just like last year. Will I ever learn? At least I remembered my breakfast this year and didn’t have to buy something from the gas station.

Anyhoo, I got to the race about 7:10am, racked my bike and set up transition, walked up to the pool deck, and they called my bib number group. I couldn’t have timed it better. I got my body marked, grabbed my timing chip, went to the bathroom and got in line.

I was much, much more relaxed this year. I was able to pull off the swim in almost no stops. I did stop a couple of times when I got kicked in the hand by my lane mate, but just because it threw me off a second. I got right back to it when I realized what happened. I felt really good when I finished and I walked to transition.

That’s right. I walked. I didn’t run, which is something I was very conscious of. I’m not sure why I wasn’t “racing”, but that’s just what happened. I was very, very relaxed. I finished the swim in 9:05, which was 39 seconds than last year. First goal, achieved.

I headed into transition and took off my cap and goggles and put on my socks and bike shoes. I took a swig of water, ate half of a cereal bar, and put on my helmet, glasses, GPS and race number. T1 time was 3:33, an improvement of 38 seconds over last year. That was just icing because I didn’t care much about transition times.

As I headed out on the bike, the nerves started to set in a little bit. I hadn’t slept all that well the night before because I kept having nightmares that I would fall into traffic while my bike was still attached to me.

That would’ve been bad.

As it turns out, the bike was pretty uneventful. I was trucking right along without any problems. I was sipping my water every mile and a half and I took some my Sports Beans about 37 minutes in.

Then came the hills. I loathe hills. Hills own me. There was a succession of short, steep hills around mile 9. At one point I looked down and I was going 4.5 mph.

I swear I think I saw a butterfly pass me.

But I kept on trucking. I really need to work on hills. Like…a lot. But you know what? I still beat last year’s bike time 4:07. This years time was 53:38. WOOT! Second goal achieved.

I walked through transition and got ready to head out for the run. I walked through (again), racked my bike, and took off my bike shoes and helmet. I put on my running shoes, my iPod and brought my bib number around to the front. T2 time was actually slower than last year, but that honestly doesn’t surprise me. Last year I didn’t have any shoes to change since I used my running shoes as my bike shoes. No biggie, though. T2 time was 2:57.

I felt good going into the run. My legs were tired, but the temperature was nice and it wasn’t horribly humid…those were both huge factors last year. I set out to run a 1/2 mile than walk for a minute. That went pretty well in the middle of the run, but I had a hard time getting into the rythym, and I was tired at the end. I ended up doing the run in 38:21 which was a 6:37 improvement over last year. Third goal achieved!!

So, for those of you who didn’t read this post with a calculator in hand, my total time was 1:47:34. I improved nearly 12 minutes from last year’s time! WOOHOO!!

And now, July’s race is in the bag. 7 races down, 5 to go.