Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Off to the Races!

The 2011 triathlon season has officially begun for me, and I'm off to a good start with two races under my belt.  The excitement of taking 1st place in my age group (and 7th female overall) for the first race of the season was quickly replaced by taking 3rd overall female in the next race exactly one week later.  My forte is competing in the sprint distances - usually a 1/4 to 1/2 mile swim, a 10 to 20 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run.   This year though, in August, I will take on an Olympic distance - a 1 mile swim, 24.9 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run.  People ask me all the time about doing an Ironman; it's just not something I see in my future, but you never say never, right?  An Ironman is the ultimate endurance challenge - a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike, then a 26.2 mile run.  As crazy as that sounds, what's most daunting to me about the Ironman is running a marathon after doing the other two disciplines.  The women's world record time for an Ironman was set in 2009 by Chrissie Wellington, with a time of 8:54:02.  The cut off time for the event is 17 hours.  That's a pretty long time to be swimming, biking, and running, no?

The butterflies are always bustling in my stomach while I'm standing on waters edge waiting for the horn to go off.   Most races start at 8...I'm usually up at 5 - water, a little coffee, some breakfast, and about 37 trips to the bathroom.  The swim is my weakest, and it's really because I just don't get in the water enough.  It's much easier to hope on the bike and go for a ride, and even easier to strap on a pair of sneakers and go for a run than it is to get into a pool, or preferably a lake.  And a lot of times when I finish a race,  my mind wanders to the bike, and I think about how I could have pushed myself even more than I did.  Then I look at my transition times and wonder what the heck I'm doing that takes me so long to get out of there.   Always something to work at, I suppose.

Here's a breakdown of my races, thus far:

Saturday, June 4th, Pawling Sprint Triathlon  (1st in AG, 7th overall)

Swim:  1/3 mile.  Time:  11:54
Transition 1:  1:37
Bike:  11.5 miles.  Time:  35:17
Transition 2:  1:31
Run:  3.1.  Time:  23:22
Total time:  1:13:41


Saturday, June 11th, SBR Series Sprint Triathlon  (3rd overall)

Swim:  1/2 mile.  Time:  15:25
T1:  2:31
Bike:  15 miles.  Time:  56:45
T2:  1:13
Run:  3.1 miles.  Time:  23:19
Total time:  1:39:11

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