Sodus Point 2011 Race Report

Happy Monday!!  It's time for another race report for your reading pleasure :-)  This would have gone up yesterday, but since I live in the boonies and with the crazy storm Saturday night, we were without cable and Internet for 75% of the weekend.  Boo.  Ok, enough of that.  Onto the race!

Weirdly enough, this RR starts with toenails.  Yep, you read that right.  See, I have a weird thing about painting my toes crazy colors before a race to make me laugh in T1 and T2.  Usually I go tri-colored (insert groan), sometimes I go fire engine red to get in the "go" mode.  So when I pulled out the red paint on Saturday night, my graphic design hubster decided he wanted to get creative.  I think he found himself a new job.  Too bad I only pay in hugs and kisses.  :-P

Ok, ok, onto the race.  The hubster and I hit the race site about 6:30 on Sunday morning.  We like to get there early and get a good spot in transition and take our time getting ready.  Well, we really did good this time.  Along with a random dude and Matthias (from Train This), we were the only ones there!  Sweet.  We joked around about the lack of people, and I got set to win overall female.  Sadly, 15 minutes later, everyone began to arrive. So I shelved that dream...for now.

The Swim

Aside from the sludge that collected for about 50 yards at the shore of the lake (free algae wrap, anyone?) The swim was pretty uneventful.  It seemed kinda long, but not too bad....then again it might be my terrible sighting skills that contributed to the long swim.  At least the dudes (that started 5 minutes after us)  didn't catch me until I was exiting, and only the first two guys.  Score.

Swim Time: 15:52 (including a decent sand run to T1).  Not my best ever, but since I know I swam off course, it is what it is.

The Bike

This was the roughest of the three disciplines, only because of Wednesday's debacle.  Along with my multi-color scraped knees, I screwed up my hands pretty good (I probably should have gotten stitches, oops :-P) which made grabbing the bike handles and riding the hills difficult.  On the flip side, at least it took my mind off my legs, right?  That's what I am going with.  Nothing too crazy to report on the bike...some decent headwinds on the way out, and after about 20 minutes my hands got used to the bike.  Unfortunately, in a sprint, that's halfway through the race.  Fail :-P  Miles 7-13 were pretty decent with flat and downhill sections, so I let er rip there.  Only got passed by one woman, and passed quite a few speedier swimmers.  I felt pretty good about my bike until I got off and saw my time....43:13.(13.1 miles).  Three minutes slower than my best on this course.  Damn.  Dear Ironman, I love you to death, but I look forward to reclaiming my speed when we are done with our little tryst.  Thank you very much, Rae.

The Run 

Again, not too much to report here.  I felt comfortable on the run.  Too comfortable (yes, this was my motto for the race).  I trucked along at a steady pace for the 5k (8:15ish)...I need to learn to push the speed way more on these races!!  Got passed by one woman, passed 4 in return.  On my second loop I turned right to get to the finish and the volunteer at the turn tried to get me to do another loop...lol.  I don't think she believed me when I told her I did two (didn't realize at the time that I was so close to the top of the women).  I ran the last piece of the 5k steady (ugh) until I got to the turn and some woman yelled out "GO CATCH THAT GUY CHICKIE!" Thank you!!  I turned on speed I forgot I had, surged ahead, caught the guy, passed him, and finished strong. Run Time:  25:34.

Total Time:  1:26

2nd place AG winners :-)

Post Race:  I placed second in my AG (out of 12) and came in toward the top of the women.  The hubster and I settled in for awards, and hung out with some of our local friends-collected my plaque, posed with Matthias, who also placed 2nd in his AG (yay!), grabbed some watermelon and fruit, and took off for home.

Thoughts:  Ok, I realize I have no reason to crab.  It was a solid effort, I placed well, and 3 years ago I would have killed for a time like this (realize that since I do only one sprint a year, 3 years ago is not a long time, lol).  However, I missed my PR by over 4 minutes and felt just fine after the race (yup, coulda run 12 miles, no problem), so I need to figure out what I am doing wrong here...sprints should HURT because you are going so fast.  I have one speed, and I can go at that speed for ever and ever (thus the appeal of Ironman!) but I am slow as heck for sprints and Olympics.  Guess I need to make a decision as to whether I want to train for speed or distance, huh? :-P  Next year I guess!!

All in all though, another successful day in Sodus.  I love this race!!  Now, onto the next challenge....this week is my last week of build for my ironman...then it's rest week, 2 weeks of steady state, and taper time.  Wow, the time has gone fast!!  Stay tuned for some doozy workouts this week and some interesting posts (interesting as in I got 5 hours of sleep and am forgetting my name type of posts....you know you're coming back for those.)