TTT - Race Two

Morning came early Saturday as the 5:30 alarms started going off.  I dragged my weary butt up and sort of limped around on my bee stung foot.  Thank goodness I run on my toes I thought!

I got ready, had some french press coffee (mmmm), a bagel with PBJ and 2 egg whites as I sipped on my First Endurance EFS mixed with some FE pre-race.  On the subject of nutrition, everything worked out very well for me with my nutrition all weekend.  For both olys, I had half a flask of liquid shot on the bike and drank water from my aerobottle.  I also had one bottle of EFS fruit punch sports drink mixed with PreRace in my cage which I drank from each race. For Sunday's half, I consumed just under 2 bottles of EFS with pre-race and an entire Berry FE Liquid Shot along with a fair amount of water.  I also had some coke on the course.  Energy levels and stomach were solid the entire weekend of all races.  No cramps, no issues whatsoever!  I am so thankful that I have discovered the First Endurance products and always use my own fuel now which I have found works for me.  I think this was lacking for many participants and when it was as hot as it was, this can make a HUGE difference.

So back to the morning.  I quickly setup my transition again and pulled on my damp wetsuit and hopped back down to the beach to take a quick dip. The air temp was much cooler and the water felt cold!  I was actually feeling very relaxed after getting my feet wet last night.  Yet the difference between a 250 m swim and a 1500 meter swim seemed so far!  I thought I might freeze to death.  We got lined up and soon I hit the water with one plan.  STAY RELAXED!  As I started swimming I was surprisingly comfortable.  Friday night I felt like my sighting was poor and I was all over the place but things seemed to click on Saturday.  I was clearly not setting any speed records but I hit the mat in 26 something and felt pleased with that.  Post race I noted CK gained 9 minutes on me in the swim alone.  DANG!

Yet, no asthma issues and now it was on to the FUN part!  We headed out for a 25 mile loop bike course.  We were warned to bring our climbing gears and to take caution on the descents.  The first mile or two I spent trying to get my heart rate down and several people caught me.  Once I settled in I passed most of them back and in many cases we played a lot of cat and mouse out on the course which became a joke between white sleeves and I.  I truly was enjoying the bike tremendously.  At mile ~18ish an ambulance passed us right when an oncoming car was coming.  It this led to a hard break by the female ahead of me, who apologized quickly which led to us starting to chit chat for a lil bit.  Although I was enjoying the conversation, soon I realized that I was supposed to be racing so I went on to try to change my position.

AM OLY BIKE ELEVATION PROFILE

Truly this race offers some of the most gorgeous roads and some good climbs.  I felt great the entire way.  I would say I pushed a conservatively solid effort on the bike and rolled in ready to run!  With my shoes lubed up with TriSlide, I slid them on sans socks and was off to run!

The run started and ended like Fridays race, but after the first half mile the terrain was a double track fire road which was packed dirt, rocky, and rutted.  Yet this girl likes soft surfaces so I was just making my way on the run picking off people in my lightweight regular shoes while many opted for trail shoes.  Thankfully it was a dry weekend so I think conditions were pretty ideal!

Run course, out and then turn around to do backwards for 6.55 Miles

The second half was faster than the first half and as I counted females, I was right around top 10 (but again hard to tell with TT start) so I was pleased with that.  I am not sure what my run split was.  I got done, got my chip off, grabbed a drink and walked over to the water when I realized my garmin was still going.   I give that Race 1 & 2 about a 'B' effort.  Solid but saving myself for what was still ahead and feeling pretty good!

Race Results for AM Oly:


Swim:  25:35  Rank 230
T1:  1:04
Bike:  1:21:28 Rank 140
T2:   :42
Run:  50:39  Rank 124
Total Time:  2:39:54  Rank 140


Again I headed down to the water to soak my legs in the freezing cold water before grabbing a plate of food to refuel.  I felt this horrible pain on the inside of my right foot extending up my leg and I started wondering what I had done as I limped around the finish area.  I was considerably worried wondering what I had done  until I realized I had forgotten about stupid bee sting.  On top of that, I was FREEZING from the water so when I got back to camp I changed into my bikini to lay out on my giant beach towel in the beautiful warm sunshine!  Happy me!  I was feeling great after two races!  Once I warmed up I sat in the shade with my legs up in my recovery pants as I rocked out to some tunes.  We had several good laughs around camp that afternoon like CK stating, "What is it about Journey that makes me sing like a 13 yr old girl at a slumber party?" and many other memorable laughs!

My husband spent a good portion of Saturday riding his motorcycle around the scenic Shawnee State forest roads.  He was also a bit bored and picked up my Born to Run book that I had brought for a friend to read.  He sat next to us reading and turns to us to remark "I'm reading this running book to remind me that running is stupid."  Ha....whatever!  He read the entire book during the course of the weekend and even as a nonrunner he actually enjoyed the book, albeit he said he could have done without the barefoot running tangent that he skimmed through! Anyways we were enjoying the time and before I knew it, I was getting ready for RACE 3!