RR: Publix Family Fitness Tri (take 2)

Warning: this is long and self serving. Way too long for a sprint triathlon. It's written more as a training record than entertainment. You already know the basics (1:23, 3rd placed Athena) so you continue on at your own risk.

The time has come to stop sulking. The Publix Family Fun Triathlon did not turn out the way I planned. Given that this race is put on by the largest grocery store chain in the state and this is the third year for this event, there were way way too many "oops". Maybe if I had gone overboard to make sure I had planned for every little possibility my race would have ended 4 minutes faster but I didn't want to appear paranoid. I paid for my vanity.

The biggest change for this race was my pre-race nutrition. We all know GI distress haunts me. I decided to eat very few starches in the 2 days before the race and stick to my normal menu of lean protein, veggies, and beans (mostly chickpeas or black beans) for food. This part worked well. I did not have to stand in line for the porto potties at all.

The bike rack almost fell when I added my bike. I grabbed the top bar just in time. Another athlete grabbed the fallen end piece. Somehow we saved the rack from total collapse. Should have guessed that this could be a problem later but it was SUPER dark. At this point I realize there is only one running shoe in my make-shift transition bag. This led to a half panicked walk back to the car. Woohoo! A matching running shoe! Back in transition, my goggle strap fell off. Normally no big deal but since it was pitch dark unless you were 50ft from the lone set of lights, it took a while to fix. My planned pre-race Hammergel tasted really old, almost grainy. Ew! Threw that out. But I did remember to take some Lava Salts.

Fortunately, my warm up went very well. The water temp was perfect. The waves were negligible. Almost no current whether you swam north or south along the shore. The course was as long as you could fit on that stretch of beach so there was every reason to believe it was the full 600yds. Without any of "my athletes" in the race, I was able to spend my time getting ready mentally. I don't think about anything too deep but rather allowed my mind to drift over happy visions of the course with several breaks to make new friends in the swim corral.

The race started very abruptly. A bad PA system meant the crowd had to shout down to the athletes when the wave started. My advice? Invest in a cheap air horn. Seems to work at all the other races.

The Swim:

Much to my dismay, the Athena wave was lumped in with all the first timers. There were lots of them. Men and women. So when the swim started, sure enough, a huge line of 6ft guys waded into the water up to their necks making it impossible to get by. One day I'll believe that I'm a faster swimmer and get in front of these guys but not just yet. The swim was amazing. I felt very strong. My arms never tired. My stroke never floundered, and with the crowd, heart rate never became an issue. Usually my HR freaks out and I look more like a duck taking a bath than a swimmer. Not so today. If I could have found clear water, I would have plowed through like a real swimmer. This was probably my best swim to date. I even used all my open water entry/exit skills. Out of the water in 10:47-ish. Only there were no timing mats closeby. This company decided to put the mat all the way up the beach, over the boardwalk, directly next to the transition. Whatever. The official time is closer to 11:57.

T1:
Debi and I had discussed rearranging my transition a little and I was completely excited how quickly T1 passed. Even taking a moment to watch one of the racks completely collapse, I was ready to run to the bike start in less than 1 minute. But wait, if you were racked on the right side of the transition, you had to run all the way back to the swim finish timing mat, then back to the bike start down the left side. It was not marked this way before the race, was not described in the non-existent race instructions, and doesn't appear to be a safety thing (none of the other tris set up this traffic pattern). When your bike is 50ft from the bike start, this is heart breaking. The only thing left to do was shout a very bad word brought to you by the letter F. 2:30ish instead of 1:20.

The bike:
Very crowded course. Lots of newbies to pass. At one point there were 3 of us trying to pass about 30 feet of new, unsure riders who weren't aware of the rules. The first guy says "on your left". No response. After 3 tries, I lost my temper and yelled "people on your LEFT ALREADY. MOVE OVER". The blocking issues continued until I had moved through most of my wave. The wind was pretty strong that day with only one short section of true tailwind. But I had taped my trusty Forerunner 305 to the handlebars so at least I could tell myself "you're not going fast enough". About 5 miles into the bike I realized there was no more water in the aerobottle. Almost crashed trying to shake it around to get more water. Crap. The bike is my best event. I'm not going to make up time on the run. I can't slow down. Played tag with a cute 33 year old guy as a way to pass the time. I'm always more motivated when I have a bunny to chase. In the end, I finished 30 seconds shy of 20mph but given the crowded conditions (and the guy who _attempted_ the flying dismount in front of me), I'll take it.

Ride time for 10.5 miles: 32 minutes. The official time combines T1 and T2 into the bike time.

T2:
Tough to get the bike on the rack with the aerobottle but even with the newly migrated sock addition, outta there in 1:30. Lost a little time looking for water coming out of transition. Not to beat a dead horse but the other summer tris out here have water as you start the run because it's so hot.

The Run:
And, as I have previously mentioned, there was no water until after mile 1. My HR was through the roof and I could not find a groove. I tried to say "just don't walk" but no matter how slow I ran, it wasn't slow enough. Ended up walking 30 seconds or so of each mile. Mile 1: Got passed by cute bike boy. He touch my shoulder and said "tag, you're it" for the last time. Bye-bye cute bike boy. I had nothing in the tank to push the pace. Near the end of mile one they awarded me one cup of water. Not even half full. Damn it. The runners on the way back were taking water from the only water station as well so they just did not have enough water for everyone. It's now been 30 minutes since my last sip of water on a hot, shadeless August day. At the turn around I realized it couldn't get much worse so I might as well try to take the Gu I forgot on the bike. It was kinda nasty but mentally comforting. Mile 2: I saw an old crappy water fountain off the course and ran over for a quick drink. Warm and metallic. Ew! Saw two friends who were doing their first tri. They were heading out on mile 1 so I did my best to look perky and encouraging even though my mental battleship was taking on water. So I looked around for a runner suffering like me and made conversation. It helped a lot, forcing me to focus on their race and not my headache. One was a marathoner who was in deep suffering so we joked about the weird aspects of triathlon. When I explained the "vanity sprint" at the finish line, he started to laugh. We jogged in together making the last 1.1 miles the fastest of the day.

The finish was rather uneventful. 1:23-ish on my watch. They finally gave me a whole bottle of water and I headed out to find a friend who was cheering near the final turn. My ears were pounding just talking to him so I escaped to one of the beach showers to cool off. After about 10 minutes in the shade (and a few more doses of the shower), I felt normal. I did not have an official finish time in the race results which required a trip to the timing company. Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. I had pulled off 3rd in the 39&under Athena group.

Then it was time to see my friends finish their first tri. Always so very awesome to see. She finished 15 minutes ahead of her husband. Way to go! Apparently my reputation proceeds me because the newly minted triathletes wanted to head back to car for a toast! When I race solo, I rarely bring champagne but my friend remembered so we kept the tradition alive! The new duo are hooked and we made plans to meet back at Ft De Soto in October for another tri produced by a better company.

With a little more work, this will be my last Athena race for a while. I wanted first but, oh well. If I had packed extra water for transition, brought a light to make sure no water had spilled out of my aerobotttle, if, if if....no time for ifs. If I'm meant to earn more hard ware it will come from the 35-39 age group. Still don't know how my bike became scratched but since I did not see my rack fall, I have no proof of anything. It's a good story, anyway.

Things I would change:
Maybe a small flashlight
Put a sports drink in my bike bottle
Bring extra water in bottles, at least one extra for the run
Bring extra gels in case one is bad
Buy a new transition bag (or find my original bag)

And now it's time to start the next phase of my life. Well, it's already underway. This week started my new job as science faculty at a small local college. It's just an adjunct position for now but with a little luck it could be more. My time is now taken up with teaching and Beach to Battleship training.