Race report

This is just copied and pasted from the report I posted on my cycling board:

We had unexpected rain this morning, which threw a lot of us for a loop. The rain had been predicted for this afternoon, so people were changing the lenses on their glasses and trying to figure out how to keep stuff dry in transition. I figured I'd be so wet after the swim that it wasn't worth bothering over! And I actually like cycling in the rain, as long as it's not cold. Running in the rain makes me nervous--I'm far more likely to wipe out while running than while cycling.

The swim was o.k. I seeded myself in the middle of my wave since that's pretty much where I finished last year, but being in with the biggest scrum was irritating. I couldn't break away from them and swim more than a few strokes before running into someone. This went on the whole distance. Just before the first turn someone whacking into me caught my timing chip and pulled it most of the way off, so I had to hang onto it while swimming over to a kayak to hold on while I reattached it. I wished I had started off to the side like I did last year--much more clear swimming, even if you cover slightly more distance in the process.

TI went like clockwork. I don't yet have my times but it felt faster than last year.

The bike was just fun. I love this route. People complain about the hills, but this is my home territory and it just feels familiar to me. I held back on the downhills a bit since it was pretty slippery out, and I had ditched my glasses (not literally, although some people did--I saw at least four pairs on them on the road) so occasionally the rain blinded me a bit. But overall it was just fun and I wished it was longer.

T2 - uneventful. A bit slow taking off wet gloves and putting on wet socks and shoes, but overall fine.

And then the run. I started out feeling fine and after about 100 feet realized I just had no more energy. I couldn't pull from any reserves and couldn't muscle through it. It was awful. I'd try to run but never found a comfortable pace and ended up walking long portions of the run. I have no idea what went wrong, other than just not caring anymore and being tired to start. I had eaten well, and I've done the bike/run section of this race at least a dozen times and am usually fine on all but the top bits of the worst hills, but I didn't manage to run ANY of the hills today. I just wanted it to be over. I was so irritated by this--the run was the one thing I really trained for this year, and I've managed to cut my average pace by a full minute per mile (although after the bike it's more like just 30 seconds faster per mile). But I didn't have it in me today.

When I got to the finish Amy and Katie and Claire were there to welcome me, which was nice. But we took off quickly since the rain was starting up once again (it was starting and stopping all morning). I since heard that if I had stuck around I would have gotten one of the random prizes, but being home and showered and fed is better IMO! Unless it was a really cool prize. Don't know about that.

And that was it. No more triathlons for me. I'm going to focus my energies next year on doing a century ride instead. I'm burning my bathing suit and throwing out my goggles. If I never see another lap lane again it'll be too soon!

Unless, of course, someone wants to do the swim for me.

ETA results: I ended up about two minutes behind last year's time. My swim was (grrrr) about 15 seconds slower at 28:45, T1 only about 25 seconds faster, the bike was nearly exactly the same as last year (five seconds faster - 1:10:16), T2 about 30 seconds slower, and the run about a minute and a half slower (35:50 - I was expecting a greater discrepancy there). The funny thing is my placement--I finished 886 overall Out of 1780). I should have gone just slightly slower--my bib number was 887 and I like nice coincidences like that (last year my bib number was 998, so next time around I expect to be 776). Age group placement was 169 (out of 374 finishers; 6 places below last year).