We were at the paper Discovery Center in plenty of time. I think we were there 3 minutes and ran face to face with Bill Gilmore from Janesville - that guy is at EVERY race we go to! We picked up our timing chips. For this race we also were required to get body painted, which essentially meant that a lady took a big Sharpie marker and wrote our race numbers down the sides of our legs and down our arms. Interesting, I've never had that be part of the program. In case you are wondering, it still has not washed off after 3 showers. Nice.
We arrived at the transition area and set up our spots. Mike and I were set to take of in the second wave so we set up in that area. It was super windy, so we made sure
to loop our helmets etc firmly so they
didn't blow into the Fox River next to our bikes. Once we were set, we watched the transition for the kids
duathlon for a few minutes (man
someof those kids were SMALL!! - like 5 or 6!) which was cute. Before long we were off and
running. I did my first 5K in 33:25.7 . It was interesting - the course wound through the Lawrence University campus, along a dirt path in places and up a couple of big hills.
The
transition went pretty smoothly and I was off on my bike. I took off my sweatshirt and changed my shoes. It was pretty much an out and back course. It was a nice flt course with the biggest hill of the whole thing right out of the start gate. The wind was really strong, mostly a cross wind on the way out and back, except for the turnaround loop where we turned into a
hellacious headwind. There was one bike wreck along the
way that was under control when I rode by. The bike was cool for me. I was able to pass TONS of people and found several that I could use to play cat and mouse to pump up my pace. There were
a lot of hardcore
tri guys here too and they flew right by me. Most were encouraging, one guy gave me some shifting advice on the way past me and other slowed down long enough to say "Hey
Janesville!"as he flew by. My bike time for 22 miles was 1:21:55.9 .
Then it was back to running. It was not too bad to get off the bike before the transition and run into the corral in my road shoes and get changed for the final 5K.
Transition took longer than I think it should have been and felt kind of
putzy.
I took off running again finally and waved to
the boys n my way out of the transition gate.
The
last 5K was a
struggle to get started with and trying to loosen up my calves enough to open up the stride. Along the way, I took off the gloves and arm warmers and stuffed them
into my jersey pockets. The second run was definitely
tougher but I just kept telling myself that I only had a little more to go as i passed the mile markers. I
ended up with a time for the second run of 35:37.
Mike and the
boys were at the finish
waiting for me,
which was cool. I am so proud of
Mike for doing so well. He always picks apart his performance, but i thought he did great.
I ended up 7/14 in my division (Athena) overall and I was second place on the bike, a mere 12 seconds from first place. That was cool. I was 405/497 with an official time of
2:25:28.5. I am feeling pretty good about this. First I finished without walking, flatting out, or dropping out. Second, I kicked ass on my bike in my division. I actually had a woman stop me in line to get my split receipt to tell me she kept
trying to catch up to me on the bike but she just couldn't. I was her GOAL pace- How cool is that for a back of the packer?!?! Third, there was a ton of elite athletes at this event and I got to see and learn a lot from watching their
techniques and equipment.
Here's a couple pictures post-race. The first is Mike and I as the unofficial Michael's Cycles
Duathlon Team (
LOL - notice how thrilled the g
irl in back of us is to be a part
ofthe picture.) and the other is of the photojournalist team.
Hollister belongs to me. They did a great job. We got some good action shots of us, which was the point. We also got lots of shots of random hot chicks, girls butts, and some other random stuff including a picture of
Lucas's snot rocket (gross).
We were up at 6 on Sunday so we could get ready and packed out of the hotel in time for the start of the race. As expected, we needed a crowbar to blast the boys out of bed and into the shower they had deemed immensely important the evening before. The marquis on the Mall said it was a balmy 44 degrees when I looked out our window. Little problem - I had brought tri shorts and a sleeveless bike jersey to wear. at the last minute I had also packed a pair of trek arm warmers and a sweatshirt so those went on too. It was flipping freezing and windy as hell out - great.