Monday, August 13, 2007

Mountain Lakes Triathlon

Ok, so after running 12 miles on Friday morning, Michele and I met Amy and took off to Guntersville, AL, that evening. It took us a little less than 2 hours. We got our packet first, then got checked in to the hotel. We had dinner at Ci Ci's pizza, and then crashed at the hotel. My alarm on my phone went off at 5:20 the next morning. I hit snooze one time, then got up and showered. We got over to the race site around 6:30 and had plenty of time to get set up. The start was delayed for some reason, and as we were waiting around I heard someone yell my name. I knew right away who it was - my dad! He, and his friend Doug, had rode their motorcycles down to watch us!

My plan for this race was to give a good, solid effort, but not to kill myself. This was supposed to be a rest day on the Pfitz plan, so I didn't want to go blowing out my legs or anything. We had an 8 mile run scheduled for the very next day. We saw lots of our peeps before the race - Trisonq and his friend Sarah, Lynn, Tilghman, and their friend Amy, our swim coach, Ashley, an old friend of mine, Tonya, who grew up in Manchester but now lives in Franklin, and ofcourse Tom - one of the guys I train with at work. And K's friend, John, was lined up right behind me! I was 618 and he was 619. Very cool. It's always fun to chat with everyone before the race.

So we finally got up to the starting line, and took off. Within the first few strokes I could feel my mouth getting dry from the muddy water. This water was probably the worst I've ever experienced. You couldn't see anything with your goggles, and they had even to "mow" down a strip of the weeds for us to swim in. John passed me within the first 100 yards. I felt like I was having a good swim, though, for most of the way. It was 600 yards, and I would have liked to have been under 12:00, but as I got out I realized I didn't get it, and was a little ticked at myself. What is the deal? I do so much better in practice! I had a great swim at Memphis and have done terrible ever since. I guess that's probably a direct reflection of the time (or lack there of) I've spent in the pool since Memphis. Swim Time(600yds): 12:21

I ran up through transition and ran one rack too far. I realized that I had gone too far, and did the bear crawl under that rack to get back to the correct row. I was a little flustered and really didn't have good focus during this transition. T-1 Time: 2:25

I took off on my bike and heard my dad yelling for me and saw him on my left. I could tell that my legs were a little tired, but I felt pretty good. I pushed hard enough to get my heart rate up close to the threshold, but also kept my cadence manageable. I wanted to be able to run strong at the end, too. I felt a little sense of desperation since I had not had the swim that I wanted, so I put my head down and pushed pretty hard. I like looked up and realized I was about to run over a car! There was some room to the right of him, so I passed him and I think it might have scared him. I don't know why, but there seemed to be a lot of traffic during the first few miles. Then fairly close to the end, as I was approaching a turn, I got behind a big dump truck. This time there was no room to pass on the right, and he had his blinker on to turn left. So I had to just wait until he turned. I consider myself a nice and considerate cyclist, but I got a little upset with that dump truck!!! Bike Time(16 miles): 47:00

I finally made it back to transition and this one went smoother. T-2 Time: 1:03

I took off on the run and saw Lynn finishing up at about a half mile. She looked like she was having a great run. She yelled to us that "it was all flat". And she was right. And it was also in the shade. I got to mile 1 in a little over 8 minutes, and pretty much held it stead from there, even though I felt like I picked it up during the last mile. I felt strong and happy, and passed a few people as I approached the finish line. Run Time(3 miles): 24:01

I still would have liked to have had a better run time. I don't understand. My pace was like 7:50 at Mach Tenn, and that was a 4 mile run as opposed to a 3 mile run, and it was a much longer swim (and same bike distance)! It was actually good enough for 3rd place in the 30-34 AG, though, and I totally was not expecting that. But I will take it! Total Time: 1:26:52

Amy, Me, Michele

5 comments:

Tri-Dummy said...

Wow, LANA! You keep rackin' up those podium spots!

I have a buddy who is a Chiro in Guntersville. His name is Dr. Rodd Underkofler.

I cracked up when I saw you were there!

GREAT JOB!

Michele said...

Lana you did awesome! You looked so strong on the run. Thanks for giving me the push to get past the tired legs.
I am jealous you are getting the beach towel. I was only 9 spots away from one. Maybe next year.

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Congrats Lana, & to Amy & Michele

And Awesome on placing third in ur AG, way to go...

Steve Stenzel said...

Mowing down weeds in the water is NO FUN! But GREAT JOB!!!

Rae said...

Great job!! You are racking up the hardware this year!!