Bonney Lake is pretty small so our course was 2 750m laps. We swam straight into the rising sun for leg 1 (and leg 3) and the buoy was really hard to see. Luckily there were some very distinctive trees on the shore for sighting. Twice around and I felt good. The distance must have been a bit short, based on my time, but I'll take it!
We had quite a run from the water exit across the road and through the sprint race transition area to our area. Most of the bikes were still on my rack when I got there, always a good sign.
Out of T1 we had a short hill almost immediately. This turned out to be an apt description for the bike course: short hills, flat areas, easy downhills. The Oly bike course had a 2 loop section in the middle to give us more distance. At about mile 10 we continued on to go around once more while the sprint course athletes returned to transition. By the time I got to loop 2 there were a lot of sprint races on the course, making it a lot more interesting. Great views, bright sun, decent roads. All good stuff.
After the second mid-course lap I made the left turn to return to transition and the run. Some nice downhill and gentle spinning back to transition helped get my legs ready to run.
Once again we were routed through the sprint transition area. Lots of activity as all kinds of athletes were coming in and going out.
After a decent transition I headed out on the run which turned out to be pretty challenging. Darren had warned me that it was up hill from transition, but how could there be so much up hill when we never seemed to get very high above the lake? I guess it was the rolling terrain. Anyway, it was hard.
We ran along the lake shore then off into the neighborhoods past the 5K turnaround to our turnaround. It seemed that there was more downhill on the way back so I opened up my pace a bit and passed a few people (probably sprint racers). I felt good the last mile and ran in hard.
The numbers:
My goal finish time was 2:45 and I managed to break 2:30 (by more than 4 minutes!), so that was very good. Swim: goal 28 minutes, actual 24:28 (See why I think it was short.) Ride: goal 1:10, actual 1:03 (I rocked!). Run: goal 1 hour, actual 54:17 (sub 9 minutes/mile! Incredible for me). For more details, click here.
There was actually another competitor in my age group; we'll call him Mr. Montana. He's 71 and his shirtless torso was the color of a well-used saddle from many, many shirtless hours spent in the sun. And he looked young. On the podium he told me he missed a turn on the bike course and rode some extra distance. Lucky me! So, I wasn't the oldest person in the race today.
My body was my main competitor today. Last Wednesday I made the mistake of swimming in Lake Washington without my nose clips and I've had a raging sinus infection ever since. It's unbelievable how much mucous can come out of the human head. Just hope I didn't nail any of my fellow athletes when I emptied out on the race course. Of course, breathing was a bit of a challenge. Thank heavens we have a mouth in addition to 2 teeny little nostrils.
x
No comments:
Post a Comment