We headed to Charleston on Thursday looking forward to a fun filled weekend of camping and racing. There were a lot of HUB teammates racing so I knew I would have tons of support and it was going to be so much fun! Trey sat this one out since it was going to be my first open water swim, in fact, he was going to try to jump in and just swim it right beside me. There were only around 70 people signed up for the sprint so I was hoping we would all start together.
On Friday morning...Jen, Dave & I went for a short run & ride.
This race is a point-to-point which I have never done before and not sure I am a huge fan to it. Setting up one transition area can get a little confusing to me, much less two. We went to packet pickup and found out that the sprint does in fact go off in waves and I was in the last wave...well Trey is not a girl so the plan of him swimming was not going to happen. BUT Jorgia, who was doing the swim leg on the HUB Super Sherpas relay team, said that she would swim right beside me. She is a much better swimmer than me...they were the only relay team signed up so we knew she was going to be a winner and if she comforted me and got me out of that water I knew I would be a "winner" as well. Looking back she took on a huge responsibility..ha!ha! Trey set up his bike shop at the camper and worked on everyone's bikes making sure they were race ready. We had to turn our bikes in that afternoon. I was getting a bit nervous about this swim and kept walking to the lake to see if the buoys were out yet so I could visualize exactly how far I had to swim out. It was probably a blessing they didn't put them out that night - I probably would have lost sleep over it!
Race morning alarm was early - 4:00a.m. I woke up before the alarm around 3:50 so went ahead and got up. Had to get to both transition areas, one being across the highway outside the park, body marked and pick up timing chip...whew - I'm already tired! Once everything was set up I went back to the camper to eat breakfast & relax a bit before the race started. The international distance started at 7:00 and the sprint started at 7:30, my wave went off at 7:40. We made our way down to the start line and the race director announced that we could get in the water for a warm up practice swim. I knew I HAD to do this. I looked out to the first buoy and convinced myself that it wasn't far. With Jorgia by my side we got in the lake for a practice swim...I just kept waiting for a panic attack and oh my goodness I was as calm as I could be! YAY - I knew I was going to be okay. At 7:40 the horn for our start finally blew and we waited in the back for about 15 seconds before starting the swim. I breathe to the right, Jorgia to the left (or actually both sides) - with every breath I could see her white goggles - what a comfort, I glanced back a few times just to see and YAY - we were not last!! I had thought about stopping at the first buoy but I felt good so I just kept going. It seemed to me like it took forever to get back to land once we made it around the second buoy and headed in.
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| ALL SMILES:) |
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| Practice swim and trying to take it all in! |
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| See those yellow buoys WAY OUT THERE! |
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| I'm almost to land! |
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| When my feet hit that land - I knew I was a WINNER for the day, and I was still in one piece - NO gator bites! |
There were no wetsuit strippers at the race so getting the wetsuit off was most entertaining and tiring. Poor Trey wanted to jump over the transition net and do it for me. I told him I was going to take my time - I'm alive...LOL!
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| 2:38 minutes later and I'm out of the wetsuit and heading out on the bike. |
I felt great on the bike...my goal was to go all out or close to it - I tend to always hold back a little because I always have the run on my mind. The bike was 13 miles, totally flat and pretty much and out and back - and the turnaround was literally a U-turn in the middle of the road. I got some more practice riding aero and was able to average 20 mph - that is my fastest bike and I am more than happy with it.
Finishing up the bike to the second transition area and I had to think and try to remember where my rack was...that was 5:30 this morning when I set it up!
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| Found it! |
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| 3.1 miles to go!! |
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| Blurry pic but it shows how happy I am that I DID it:) |
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| 1st place Age Group - you race who is there;) |
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| Coach Rose Wilson - the coach that constantly tells me she believes in me - I finally listened:) |
Race/camping is awesome. We ended the afternoon/night with chilling, grilling, and toasting all the HUB racers...It was the PERFECT ending to my day!
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| Thank you Jorgia Parker!!!! |
Swim - 18:08 (which included the short run to transition)
T1 - 2:38
Bike - 39:12 (20.2 mph)
T2 - 1:10
Run - 24:58 (8:05/mi)
Finished overall 5th/23 women
Next up: White Lake Olympic (basically just do this race twice)
As always - thanks so much for your cheers!!
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