Outback Big Lick Triathlon (Collegiate Midatlantic Regional Championships) ~ September 24, 2005 ~ Smith Mountain Lake , Virginia
For the Virginia Tech Triathlon Club, this is the race we use to recruit and get as many new people hooked as possible. We had about 25 people racing, maybe half of them were first-timers. It was AWESOME to get such a turnout! So I made it my duty to help people get ready to race and spent the week before the race NOT training, but having swim practices where everyone learned to sight and draft, and swim in huge groups (say 15 people in 1 lane going off at the same time). And we had transition practice where they learned how to do flying mounts and dismounts and the most efficient way to transition. All that squeezed between my 4 exams.
So we drove up to the race, got our packets, I walked some of them through the transition area and then after making sure everyone had their ducks in a row, I went to spend the evening with my parents and grandparents. I met them in the morning at the race site ( TWO HOURS before the race started! EEK!)
I had a crappy spot on the rack, but nothing about my race was bothering me. I was concerned about making sure everyone else knew what they were doing. I was like so completely relaxed (first time this year!) about this race and it felt good.
So it was a beach start and the collegiate women go off 3 min behind the collegiate men. The swim course was a rectangle with right turns and I was way on the inside for the start (right side of the bunch). I was concerned that my bottoms of my suit would come off when I dove in because I was wearing my track&field bloomers to match my VT jersey. They both were not good choices for non-wetsuit swims. But they didn't come off and I went out hard as usual and saw a couple girls in the middle who were breaking away. I swam over to the front girls' feet and stayed there. We caught some of the guys before the first buoy!! We broke away from the group and after we had made the first turn it got really choppy. I hit the girls' feet a couple of times and she like stopped and turned around and looked at me! hahah so I went up beside her and swam, but after the 2nd turn I got back on her feet and did it again (oops) and she stopped again! Ridiculous. So I went way off in open water by myself to finish. It was so funny cuz a lot of the guys I passed were on my team or guys that I knew. That's what's fun about nonwetsuit swims. I exited the water like 5 or 7 seconds behind that one girl and ran up transition right by her. In TA I said to her "good swim!" heh. I was having such a good time with this race.
So there's a huge hill right after exiting transition, so I just ran up the hill before I tried getting on my bike. Then I was off, all the crowd cheered loud cuz I was the first girl and it was really fun, and I smiled HUGE for the photo guy and then I started going pretty hard just to imitate how I usually do races draft-legal. I didn't feel very aero in my aerobars. I was sorta mad at first that I didn't spend time adjusting the position but then I didn't care. I passed a few guys (including one of the VT Alumni guys who, at every other race we've done, has beaten me by less than a minute, always. He has a real job now, I guess that's what happens...
So the rest of the bike was actually pretty boring. It's pretty and all out there but since i haven't time-trialed since April, it was really hard to focus. I got passed by several guys and I talked to almost every one of them. "Good job!" heh. At the waterbottle hand off, they were holding the bottles by the bottle, not the nozzle so I told them to hold it by the nozzle cuz its easier to grab. I looked back and they had all switched their hands.
I kept waiting for some girls to come, I would look back and be SURE that it was Justine but then no. So I said, yeah it'd be cool to finish teh bike and still be in the lead. Cuz I knew I would get passed on the run anyway. So I kept up the pace but wasn't trying to kill myself. I came back into the park, shook my fist when I got some "Go Virginia Tech" cheers and then had a smooth dismount down the steep hill. I think I scared the volunteers. I had a tough time as usual getting my shoes on and left transition going out with awesome form, looking strong and smiling for the photos again (see below hehe ). I asked my parents how much of a lead I had, and my dad said 2 minutes. Woah. I did some quick calculations - I'd probably run a 42 or 43 but Justine was definitely capable of under 40. Oh well, I'd savor the lead while I had it cuz its fun to be winning a race. The volunteers at the aid stations are awesome at this race. They love the collegiate competition. This one lady sprayed me with a hose (dang that was COLD! I said) and she was like oh SORRY! haha it was a cooler and overcast day so I wasn't needing a bath..
I passed a few guys on the first half of the run, trying to encourage them along the way. I was like sooo talkative during this race! I was slapping hands with my teammates and telling Army to beat Navy. My dad was coming to give me how much time I had on her but each time was about 20 seconds less. I was still holding an awesome pace for how good I was feeling - I mean faster than last year or the year before when I won it. So I was waiting for when the 2 weeks of no training would finally hit me. I managed to keep an even pace for the first half, then the big hills started to come and after that section, Justine passed me. She was hauling!! Dang. So mile 5 I had a 7:18 which was nearly a minute slower than my 3rd mile. oops! But at this point, I knew the next girl was waaay back so I had nothing to worry about. I smiled as the crowd cheered and I came through the finish. I went immediately to Justine and congratulated her then I went and found some friends. It was a fun race.
So my splits weren't too shabby for 2 weeks of no training. I PRed on that course, even with a choppy swim and a windy bike course.
(22:10 0:41 1:09.04 0:39 41:46 2:14.19)
