I spent the weekend with our best friends (and Classmate) @LeadershipJoe & Terri up in the Fingerlakes area and well, ya know, while I was up here I scheduled myself for a Triathlon nearby at Seneca Lake National Park – The MusselMan.
I was all excited about it as I felt it was a chance to redeem myself (at least on the swim) after the swim fiasco during the Philly Tri, but when I went to pick up my race packet – even though the method of transportation I took was EXHILARATING – I had never felt more “alone” in my life. Standing in line with hundreds of people and I didn’t see another person of any color participating. Sigh. I know “we” do the threesome so…where were we. I was bummed. But I didn’t let it get me down for too long. I was representing…so there. And I had my mother, my girlfriend and Princess Cara coming to cheer me on and be my official paparazzi for the day.
…and let me tell you…the QueenMum is one hell of a paparazzi even with a peg leg.
So, Saturday morning I got up to participate in the mini-Mussel Sprint Triathlon
750 meter swim - 16.1 mile bike - 3.2 mile run
Here are my results:
| Swim (750m) | 00:23:48 |
Did I shatter any world records? NO. In fact, I was last in my age group for women. Demoralizing, but only after the fact when you start to analyze the “data”.
WHATEVER. I finished, under my own power and without the need of rescue craft or carts. What I DID do was achieve the goal of improving my swim time from the debacle last month and I did that with FLYING COLORS. Even if I added another 5 min (or even 10) to do another 100m – I beat my The Philly Embarrassment Experiment handsdown. GO ME!!!!
Philly Tri MusselMan Tri
| Swim (850m) | 00:37:30 | Swim (750m) | 00:23:48 |
The goal of finishing in 2 hours or less this season is looking reasonable. We will see. That’s ambitious, but if I shoot for the stars, I just might hit the moon! I only have one more sprint distance left so far so lets see what we can do at Iron Girl. If I can shave off another 5 on the swim, 10 on the bike & 5-10 on that damn run and 5 between the 2 transition times (yeah I diddy daddle in transition)…it is achievable. I CAN DO IT!
What you think?
SWIM: We got in the water and had to go about 25m to the bouy start line and WAIT till the horn sounded. HUMPH. I was NOT going to wear myself out treading water for 5 min. DA HELL. Remaining calm like COOL HAND LUKE was the name of the game so I got out there, flipped on my back and floated till they blew the horn. Then I counted to 5…one-one thousand; two-one thousand, three-one thousand, four-one thousand, FIVE and I started swimming. My race. My pace. By counting before I started, I let everyone go ahead and kick the hell out of each other…then I got started. I may have been last in my group to get out the water but I GOT OUT THE WATER – 15 MF’n minutes faster than less than 3 weeks before. YEAH BABY.
MY RACE. MY PACE.
BIKE: I am SO glad that I have been training on the hills mountains of the Columbia & Iron Girl Tri. JESUS be a gear shifter. The seemed to be just constant long & gradual uphills the whole 16 miles. Like SERIOUSLY. Just stop. There were points where I knew I wasn’t pushing as hard as I know I could…if I was just riding and didn’t have to also run when this ish was done…but run I had to do. Key learning…DO MORE BRICKS!
Oh, and I’m tired of saying this…some of ya’ll need to take a friggin valium before the race. STOP BEING AN ASS. All that yelling at other cyclists and ish as if you own the damn course is just RE-DAMN-DICULOUS. I was as far over to the MFn’ left as I could go without being in the cornfield. STOP YELLING & CURSING at people about how we need to “stay out of the way of faster people” etc. and perhaps your dumb ass won’t get DQ’d for unsportsman like conduct.
I’m just saying. *sticks tongue out* That’s what you get. I love the USAT officials.
RUN: DA HELL!! By time I got to the run part, it was hot as Hell. NO JOKE HOT. And to add damn insult to this final part, found out that there was only ONE water station and it was at the 1.5 mile mark. There was NO SHADE either. Can you say I felt like I was inside an OVEN. Thus, I was a little slower – not by much – than last time. I was never so glad to see the finish line in my life. MUST WORK ON BRICK workouts if I am EVER to get to a after bike pace of just above frozen molasses.
Looks like I’m BOOKIN’ IT doesn’t it. Not in the least.
DISAPPOINTMENT! There was NO BLING. I crossed the finish line looking for some volunteer to put my medal around my neck – NOTHIING! NADA! ZILCH. WTF!??? There was a nice lady that put a cold, wet towel around my neck and directed me to the sprinklers and inflatable pools (WHAT?!). While I appreciated the towel and those sprinklers were a God send (my shoes STILL aren’t dry), I WANTED SOME BLING and I gots nuttin!
BLOWN!
Oh well. Personal satisfaction will have to do on this one.
Still…I’m feeling some kinda way about not having any fugging bling. HUMPH!
N.E.WAY! I feel I had a good race. I lived to tell the tale and I have pictures and an improved race time to show for it.
I AM A TRIATHLETE!!!!!
