Rocketman Olympic 2013 by Kasandra Garner

The day began, as most race days do, much too early.  I was coming off of an incredibly lazy week (some people call it a taper) after the epic 5 mile swim last Saturday.  I hadn’t raced in over a month (since Wet Dog) so I should have been rarin’ to go.  Mmmm.  Not so much.  I had spent the day before lounging at a friend’s pool with the children, and had not made sure I had something healthy to eat in the morning.  I started pawing through the pantry, and discovered that we had three open boxes of pop tarts all of which were out of date.  Pop tarts can go out of date?  Who knew?  Luckily I found some peanut butter crackers, so I ate those with a cup of coffee and started getting my gear together.  I applied my tri-tats, double checked my gear bag, and was on the road by 5:20 am which I figured was plenty of time to make it from Scottsboro to the arsenal, get transition set up and do a little warm up.  Well, I figured wrong.  Between a back-up at the gate, and the back-up at parking, I was lucky to get my stuff to transition by race time.  Luckily, Rocketman took pity on us and delayed the start.  Sorry to everyone I didn’t speak to while I was rushing around trying to get all my pre-race stuff together.  It didn’t help that I forgot my sunglasses and had to hike the mile back to my car to get them.  I just counted that as my warm-up.  It was the only one I got. (I did try to pedal a bit on my bike while travelling from the car to transition, but my gear bag swung off my shoulder and crashed into my front wheel nearly causing me to wreck so I gave up on that.  If there were an award for the most uncoordinated triathlete, I would be the grand champion).

Hanging out at the swim start I finally relaxed and started chatting with all the awesome people that do triathlons, and that improved my mood greatly.  The weather was perfect, which also helped.  I had seen a red fox run across the road on my way to the race, which I always consider a good omen, so I finally started feeling pretty good about the race.  Not “I’m going to rock this race” good, but “I love this stuff and can’t wait to get started” good.  I was 161 going into the water, which turned out to be a good position for me.  I passed a lot of people on the swim, but there was always plenty of room and I enjoyed just being out there stroking through the water.  I came out around 31 minutes and felt calm and energized.  Because I hadn’t ridden much recently, it took me about 5 miles to really get into a groove on the bike.  But after that it was pretty enjoyable, and because I hadn’t been near the front of the swim I didn’t get passed by as many hammers as I usually do.  There were some windy parts that slowed me down, but I wasn’t obsessing about my pace, I was just trying to keep my effort steady.  Bike leg 1:12:42.

Coming off the bike I felt shaky on the start of the run.  My legs just weren’t as peppy as I told them they should be.  But I love that first part of the run that goes through the woods, so I just plugged along and waited for things to feel better.  Sure enough, by the time I hit the gravel road, things were starting to come together a bit.  The hill reminded my hamstrings they were needed, and to get on board.  After that the run was good.  I wasn’t burning up the course or anything, but I was keeping steady and felt happy to be out in the sun having a decent race.  It never felt as hot as I had been dreading.  The little bags of water tasted weird, but they were easy to use and I could keep running while drinking from them without splashing it all over my front like I do with the cups.  It was also easy to squirt just a little on the back on my neck without soaking my shoes which is what happens when I dump cups of water on my head.  So except for the chemical taste, the water bags were a plus in my opinion.

Timothy Pitt blew by me near the turnaround, being all cheerful and encouraging and stuff, which was actually an awesome boost to my morale.  We really have great team members.  I finished the run in 53:21.  Total time 2:39:45, good enough to win my age group (since wicked fast Lesley Brainard won masters).  That’s it for my tri season 2013, it’s been a fun one and pretty successful for a hack like me.  I will see all you tripeeps at the Frantic Frog where I will be volunteering.  I will have my first aid kit handy but hopefully will not have to sew up any toes this year, right Rick Greif? 

 P.S.  The wedding of Rocketman and Rocketbride was absolutely charming and an awesome way to wrap up a great day.  May their life together be as exhilarating as a race plan coming to fruition!