Callaway Gardens Triathlon!

Yesterday was my Callaway Gardens Triathlon! I said in my last report that this is a special race to me because I did this race in 2006 as my very first triathlon! And I was really excited to go back and do it a second time after training for the past almost 2 years since then to see the difference!

It's been a really great weekend overall. We went Saturday to my sister's house in Franklin, GA (about 45 min from Callaway Gardens) to spend the night. I dropped Adam and the kids off and headed over to the Gardens to register and get my pre-race brick in. Callaway is a really beautiful place, and they do special events for the Labor Day Weekend! They have a man-made beach, a little train that goes around the lake, putt-putt, Florida State University puts on a circus during the summer months that is really neat. This weekend they were doing a Hot Air Balloon special and had all sorts of neat activities going on. It is also like a Botanical Gardens place as well, with camping and golf and cottages and such. Just a neat place overall!

So everything went fine on Saturday. Got all my little pre-race workouts in. Funny story... got to thinking I might try the whole have shoes clipped in on the bike for the start of the race thing this time. I've practiced it, but never really felt completely comfortable with it. I'm fine with leaving my shoes on my bike to move into T2, but feel like I need to really nail the shoes in bike for T1 before trying it in the race. The transition area for this race is funky and can be long, and since I REALLY need to clean my pedals and have a super hard time getting clipped in on my left shoe, I thought I'd practice it and see if I could do it. Well.... didn't go so well! :) My shoes kept flopping and getting stuck so it'd stop the bike! I almost fell twice and ended up somehow putting this big gash in my right foot! It started bleeding like crazy! :) So I figured, I'd just suck it up and run with my bike shoes on for at least this race!

But the one thing I did notice there on Saturday was that 90% of the fun involved water. Not a good environment for a 4 year old with a full-length arm non-waterproof cast! So though we wanted to take the kids to the race on Sunday, we decided against it. I think that giant waterslide would have been too heartbreaking for her!

So didn't sleep well on Saturday night of course because I never do. But that was ok. Was having some stomach issues before the race as well, but was feeling positive, so was ready to go!

This race is kind of strange, first of all, it is the Oldest triathlon other than the Hawaii Ironman in the United States. So that's kind of cool. But it's REALLY laid-back. That can be good in some aspects, and not so good in others. For example, transition area... First come, First serve. No bike in/bike out, run out signs, so even though I got there in time to kind of get my pick of transition, didn't really know where to set up! So set up close to what we thought would be bike out to keep from having to run too far in my bike shoes. Because I knew where you came in from the swim and it's a LONG way from the opposite end of transition! Oh, and no race instructions in packet or anything, so it's not like I didn't look! :)

So all set for the race with my race plan in mind, I head down to the start. Went off in Wave 4/5, which was all women! :) The only girls that went beforehand were those representing collegiate teams. All collegiates went in wave 1 and there were a ton of schools represented! I thought that was so cool! I couldn't help but think how cool it would have been to be apart of something like that when I was in college! The swim was supposed to be a 1k, but it never really is I guess. I think it's actually between 850-900 meters, which is always good for me!

I line up at the front, the gun goes off and I immediately see 7-8 girls start to pull away. I wanted to latch on to the back of the pack and try to stay with them so I decided I was going to WORK to catch up to them, but as soon as I started to get close, we made a sharp left turn and entered into a sea of orange caps! All the 40+ guys that had headed out before us that were struggling/taking it easy. I've had issues before in navigating through these people, but I tried not to let them slow me down and kept pushing. Never saw the other pink caps again, but stuck with my race plan that I was not doing 1 race today, but 3. Race the swim, Race the Bike, Race the run as if they were individual races! So I didn't let myself slack off on the swim and kept pushing it the best I could.

*That looks SCREAMS determination! HA HA! :)

Finished in 14:13 this year as compared to my 17:58 from last time! That was good! Actually came out of the water in 13:50, so I felt pretty good about that, but I knew I had that lead pack ahead of me and I was determined to catch them on the bike! I haven't been the speediest in transitions in the past either, so I've been working on those. T1 this year was 1:22 and it was 2:09 last time. So that was great for me! Took me a second to get that darn left foot into my clip, but once I did, I was off!

The bike course isn't hard, but technical. A lot of sharp turns, so you have to be kind of careful, and remember last time I crashed on this bike course, so it was within my race plan NOT to do that this time! :) 2 loops, went well! Caught 4 of the girls ahead of me so was feeling good. One thing I kept doing for fun...I kept passing these speed limit signs for 20mph. Everytime I'd pass one, I'd look at my speed and say to myself, "I don't think so!" I thought that was funny. At least it kept me entertained! :)Bike time this year was 53:02 for 19 miles as compared to 1:00:09 last time.

*My LARGE rear headed up the hill!

T2 was a little tricky. They had the bike in/bike out situation all screwed up. Transition was basically divided into 2 sections. I was in section 1 and the bike in was in front of section 2. Well it caught me off guard, and I didn't want to run ALL the way around to the other side. People were going every which of way, so I just reacted and ended up crawling myself and my bike under empty bike racks! :) Still managed to get out of there in 1:20, which was faster than 2006's 1:51!

Ok... hard part, try not to fall apart on the run! Try to hold pace no matter what. This year, I've managed a 7:50 pace no matter what race, no matter what distance. In 2006, I ran this 5 mile run in 38:25, which is a 7:41 pace. So I KNEW I could do at least that this year. So no backing off! I think part of it is I think too much and let that little voice in my head take over and get me to back off. So I decided to go out Fast and build to Hard! It was a 3 mile out and back and then a 2 mile run around the lake. It wasn't hilly, but wasn't flat either. Long, false climbs mostly. It was good with the out and back because I could kind of tell who was in front of me. I was trying to not get passed and just run to people. Everytime I'd want to back off, I'd catch myself and try to push harder. There was a couple of times I literally thought to myself that if I could just walk through an aid station or walk up one of those hills, I could gain some energy and do better. But that part in me that knew better FINALLY took over and said NO! The real part of me knew if I started walking through the aid stations, I'd never get back in it. That I'd just slow from there, so I resisted YEAH!! Ended up not being super speedy, but did beat my 2006 time of 38:25 by 1 WHOLE second! I hit a 38:24 for the same 7:41 pace, but at least it beats my times from this year!

All in all, I won my 30-34 age group and came in 6th overall. I finished in 1:48:20 compared to 2:00:30 from 2006. So a little more than 12 min taken off of a less than Olympic Distance Race isn't so bad! I guess you could say I've made some improvements in the past 2 years! The key is that I stuck at it, and that was my success!

*Me with my plaque! ONE place away from the cool overall awards! :)

I have decided that part of my issue is that when I did this race 2 years ago and I was pretty much just a runner, I was about 7-8lbs lighter than I am now. I know some of it is the muscle I've gained from picking up the swim and bike, but it isn't ALL of it! I need to lose about 5lbs, and I think I could do that to improve my overall run and fitness without really losing anything on the bike, so now that's my new mission! *Refer to picture of me running out of the water! That would be JUNK in the TRUNK! :)

Wish me luck, I have a sweet tooth that is VERY fierce, and so if I come across as a complete and total *ITCH, I'm sorry!! I'll be in some detox! And I think Rachel Ross is doing this as well, so maybe her and I can call each other for some B* sessions! :)

Great Job to all of you guys out there in Louisville yesterday. I know that must have been so tough! But each and everyone of you did what you could do and that's what matters, so congratulations to you all!

Now off to eat something made from home that isn't processed... hmmmm??? :)

K