Rain and Racing!

• On: 04/27/2009 17:39:12

I KNOW....stop yourselves from being SO jealous.  Just relax.  Ok, dear friends...this is my life.  HA....you know how on Facebook (if you are not on FB, get your butts on there) I said I am SO ready to race Triathlons in 40s and rain?  Well....I got my wish!

On Sunday, I did a little Sprint Triathlon up in Wisconsin - what is colder than Illinois?  Wisconsin!  But, on Friday we had a fluke nearly 80F degree day here...but, we knew the Triathlon would not bring nice weather.  I had planned on doing this Sprint race once I decided to pass on St. Anthony's Tri this year to stay home and not travel so much after Oceanside this spring.  (And, after cancelling the swim at St. A's, I am so glad I did stay home! :)).

Anyway, a small group met at my house in the morning and caravaned up to the race.  It was only about 90 minutes away from us AND guess what?  We all started after 11.30am!  Since it was a pool swim - the water temps here are in the 40s still.  We got to sleep in and we left my house at 8am.  LOVELY!!!  Isn't that nice?

As we drove further north the temps continued to drop and the rain was in full force.  42F when we arrived at race site, but NO lightening, so off we went.   I warmed up on the run course and needed to check it out b/c I did this race a couple of years ago and it was dry...but this is all off-road....single track MUD and through football fields..and it poured basically for days up there, so when I was running, we were running in mud up to our calves!  Some even lost their shoes in the mud - and had to stop - retrack and pull their shoes out of the mud.  What a mess!  It was kinda comical....sliding all over the place - I fell on my butt and of course I was NOT in my trail shoes (duh!).

This race is seeded on your swim time for a 500y.  Bike was 14 miles and run was trail 5k.  So, Karen, Emily, Stacey and Frank (frank's first triathlon!) all racked our bikes and I explained the course to them and how the waves worked.  1st wave was the slowest, then 9th was the elite wave (which I was in) and then it went fastest to slowest from there - starting at 9.30am and lasting until 1.30pm !!!  Forever!

I had a lot of athletes at this race - I try to get some locals up there to shake the cobwebs out and get out of our winter doldrums...so in addition to Karen, Emily, Frank and Stacey, Jamie and her husband Andre were up there doing their first triathlon, Ron S, Glenn, Tracy L & Kim Hardy were up there too!  So, I was trying to chat with everyone and warm up with others - I almost forgot I had to race too!  Ha.  But, at a Sprint like this, that is fine.

I was excited to race - I had done the 1650y Swim at State and a 30k TT in the piss rain the weekend prior, but WHAT I really wanted to do was a triathlon!!!  hellooo.

And, after a LONG warm up of swim and run...I was ready to go.  I got in the pool and OFF I went....I can't believe I am doing a Triathlon in the swimming pool.  Oh lord.....oh well.....go hard - the wave I was in was co-ed and elite - so all swimmers who can swim sub 6 minutes for the 500y.  FAST swimmers!  I hadn't really looked at the start list for this race, but maybe I should have!  There were some fast girls there - what do you expect when we are all couped up all winter - some of the local fasties and local Pros showed up.  Heather (5th in her AG at Worlds Tri last year) and Lauren (Pro) were there....so, I knew this was going to be full throttle for me.  But, I was excited to go head to head with these girls.

I came out of the pool (ha, still chuckling) and ran into T1 with most of the other girls.  I mean, HOW much time can you put on someone in a 500y swim? Please.  And we took off....and I chased Lauren the entire time..kept about 10-15" between us (legal) and hammered my ass off for 14 miles...you know - throw up hard...it was SO windy out there - you know how the wind has been so nuts lately?  Yep.  I am so trained to ride in wet, windy and 40s!!!  And, I was ONLY in my TRI suit of course....I am a hotbox, so I was never cold.  I was even aggressive with my disc....it was not pouring at the time I was out there on my bike (thankfully).  Anyway, came into T2 ready to rock. Putting on wet shoes is TOUGH with out socks, but I managed. 

You know...do a race with a PRO short course athlete and YOU REALLY get a slap in the face of how bad your transitions are!  I thought I was fast, but NOOOO.  She put 15" on me just in T2!!!  DAMN.  Then, we were off.....up and down and over the river and thru the woods....seriously, a total slop fest...almost humorous!

But, I was out there on the single track, trying to pass people in the earlier waves - going as hard as I could in the slop fest and keeping my eye on the gal in front of me - and making sure no one is behind me.  PUSH PUSH PUSH......

And, I just had so much fun.  you know sometimes how you are out there and you think, "WHY am I doing this?"  Well, NOT me...I was like "I LOVE THIS!!!!  LOVE THIS!"  Rain, 40s and on the redline the entire time with mud up to my knees literally and squishing thru wet football fields and standing water and I thought, "THIS is awesome!"  Well, I never caught the PRO.  I finished less than 40" behind her, but it was a good fight.  It was close...and I tried hard, it was so good to have some fast girls there so I could really get into that hurt box!  Last time I did this race, there was not anyone to race with, so this was a welcomed treat!

After I finished the SKIES opened up!  It was a mess.  Lightening and full blown downpour.  I was freezing b/c there I was BRILLANTLY in just my little TRI suit and covered in mud - and running the course backwards (where I could) looking for all the rest of the racers....but the rain was so bad I couldn't see anything.  So, I went back into the college gym/pool and changed clothes and went back out for others.  We waited for everyone to come in and everyone had great races!!!  We had so much fun.

They even had a kid's triathlon after they waited for the weather to pass.  We finally left the race site at 2.30pm - didn't wait for awards...it was so late....when the race starts that late, it is weird how the day just disappears!

So, it was fun to get out - see some friends - get some good competition - get 1st Amateur/2nd OA female and see my friends and athletes finish.

I wish I had more pictures, but we were SO miserable cold.  It was rough I will not lie.  And, while I am so chipper about this race.  IT IS the 2nd race in 2 weeks where it was 40s and downpour piss rain. So, enough!  Next one I hope is sunny and 80F! :)

I got home and Jerome had ordered pizza for Pizza night with the kids and then I had M&Ms....you would have thought I did a 1/2 Ironman or something and not a SPRINT race that took me 1.08 to do!  HAHA :))  How funny!  Oh well, Miss Daisy earned it in that rain.  At least that is what I am telling myself.  Must feed the elderly and chocolate and pizza works very well - just in case you didn't know that.

OH, and Glenn, a local athlete here made a bet with me - he did this last time I raced against him at this race!  You would have thought he would have learned his lesson.  But, no!  Last time I gave him a 90" handicap...and beat him and he had to wear a cheerleader outfit and wig and fake boobs to our Triathlon club meeting.

Well....Glenn bet me AGAIN this year.  I love bets - especially against men..so, I took it and this year no handicap - and we couldn't race head to head since he is a slower swimmer than me and was seeded in another wave.  But, after the race we were looking for one another and well....I got him by 4+ minutes....and now he owes me bags of M&Ms - plain AND peanut.

Oh yeah baby!!!