Buzzards Bay Race Report

I did it!  I made my goal!  It wasn't pretty, but I did it.
 

The Swim:

There is just nothing like the feeling of looking out at those buoys and knowing that you have to swim that entire distance.  Man, it looks far.  And there was a serious headwind.  There was no surf to speak of, but there was a lot of chop. All I could think was that if you had to stop for any reason, you were just going to get blown back to the start line.  They told us the water temperature was 67 degrees.  I was very happy to have a full body wetsuit!

So this was an in-water start.  Because of the sandbars, you had to wade all the way out in waist deep water and wait for the start signal.  On your mark, get set, go. There were probably 100-125 people in my wave.  We all start swimming and inevitably, you get kicked and elbowed and you do your own share of kicking and elbowing just to get yourself some room to swim.  It wasn't bad.  But every time I came up for a breath, I'd get a mouthful of salt water.  And I was quickly realizing that despite swimming hard, I was making very little progress.  That damn wind.  So I dove down and swam underwater as far as I could.  I realized that this tactic was very hard in a full wetsuit, but very fruitful.  I easily passed a bunch of people doing the freestyle.  So I did it again.  Passed more people.  I did a combination of swimming underwater and the freestyle all the way to the next buoy.  And then I realized I could stand up because of another sandbar.  So then I abandoned the underwater swimming and starting mixing in some water running with freestyle swimming.  Made it to the next buoy.  And then I swam as hard as I could (freestyle) to the last buoy.  At that point, I stood up in knee deep water and ran all the way to shore.


Swim goal:  13 minutes
Actual swim time:  13:59

If you look closely, you can see 2 (out of 4) orange buoys that we had to swim along before heading in to shore.

T1:
For those who don't follow triathlons, you may be surprised to know that they time your transition from one event to the next.  It counts towards your final time.  People practice them like they are their own events.  Some people are superfast.  Not me.  I'm dizzy from the swim.  I need to get all my stuff together to start bike riding.  Grabbed a bite of a Luna bar, put on my socks, bike shoes, gloves, helmet and bike.

T1 time:  3:47

The Bike:
I've said it before and I'll say it again:  this was a beautiful bike course.  We were told at the race meeting that Triathlon Magazine named this course one of the most scenic courses.  I saw my parents, Rob and Harry as I left the transition area.  It was the boost I needed to get going.  I went up the hill and out of the park.  Once out, I drank some Gatorade to try and get some calories and shake off the dizziness from the swim.  Nobody wants to ride a bike while dizzy.  About a mile in, I started to feel good and went to switch into my big ring to start hammering out this course and discovered I was already in the big ring.  I had no bike computer and had no idea how fast or how far I was but sooner than I thought, I passed the 5 mile mark and saw that I was at 18 minutes.  I was right on track to beat my 1 hour goal.  I passed by Cummings Lane, which was where I spent most of my childhood, and was pleasantly surprised to see some of my neighbors out there to cheer on me and my sister.  They even executed the wave in a show of support.  It was super sweet!

Bike Goal:  1 Hour
Actual bike time:  57:01 for an average 15.47 MPH

Biking with a smile!

T2:
This transition is a little easier.  Take off the helmet, gloves and bike shoes.  Slide on the sneakers.  Go.

T2 time:  2:43

The Run:
As I was starting to run out, I saw my sister running towards the finish line.  That was awesome.  I ran as much of the hill out as I could, but I admit that I had to walk some of it.  There were these awesome cheerleaders at the top of the hill who made you feel like you could do anything.  I ran so that they would cheer for me too. I found a group of people who had a pace that I could keep with for the first mile.  I walked through the water station while hydrating.  I ran to the two mile mark and then walked while I got out some gum.  And then I started to fall apart.  My timing chip was starting to rub against my ankle and I could tell that it was bleeding.  I contemplated loosening it but didn't really want to mess with it for fear of losing my times.  And then my right hip started to ache.  I was starting to do the old "run to the next telephone pole" trick when I saw those awesome cheerleaders again.  They started screaming for me and I started running for them.  And then took the turn into the park.  Almost there!  Rob was on the sidelines taking pictures.  Harry and my sister started running me towards the finish chute.  My parents were at the finish.  I picked it up and finished with whatever I had left.

Goal time:  34 minutes
Actual run time:  33:02 for a 10:39 pace

Both my feet are off the ground!  I must be running fast!!

Overall goal:  1:55
Official finish time: 1:50.29

So that's it, my one and only race of the season (thanks to Hurricane Irene).  Sorry about the lack of pictures.  Our camera died the day before the race and we only had cell phones to document my race!  These were taken on my parents iPhones, but soon enough, I'll figure out how to post the pictures Rob took on his phone.  But for now, we are back to bike riding!

Pedal, pedal, pedal!
~Cori