Sunday, June 08, 2008

Mach Tenn Triathlon 2008

The Mach Tenn Tri was my very first date with triathlon, back in 2005. It's a .6 mile open water swim/16 mile bike/4 mile run. The first year I just wanted to finish, and I did, but it was questionable until I got out of the water. In '06 I was going for a top 3 AG and didn't get it, but I improved my time considerably. '07 - still no top 3 AG, but still an improvement. What is it they say...???..."If at first you don't succeed, try and try again???" I hereby declare 2008 my year! The year of Sheera!! 2nd place AG at Mach Tenn!! The Flash sent me the breakdown via email and here it is:

mach 10 time age group overall
2005 1:57:06 5 227
2006 1:44:30 5 144
2007 1:42:49 4 119
2008 1:38:46 2 76

So, I am definitely happy with the improvement. However, you know how I feel about 2nd place. There's still work to be done.

Here's how it went...

I got there plenty early and picked out a pretty good transition spot. I found all my friends, including Justin C., who was doing this race for the first time, and Tim G. - my super-fast marathon running friend who pushes me to run faster. This would be Tim's first triathlon ever. So after getting set up, body marked, and finding out that wetsuits would not be legal (first time in many, many years for this race), we headed down to the beach area and got ready to go.

There was definitely no need for a wetsuit in this race. The water was very comfortable and would have been too hot with one on. I took off when it came my turn and felt pretty good. I concentrated on long, smooth strokes, and I probably sighted better in this race than I ever had. I was right on top of each buoy, and I was outta the water in 17:49. Yeah baby! That's over two minutes faster than last year.

I ran outta T-1 and up the hill talking to The Flash. I told him it was my best swim ever there, and I was so excited I completely ran by my bike and had to turn around and go back. T-1 Time:1:33. Still not too bad.

I hopped on the bike and took off. One of these days I am going to tell you how much I love my new bike, and I am going to name it, but not just yet. Everything was going great until about 4 miles into the bike. I was really grinding it out, so much so that I tucked my head in and decided to glance down at my feet as they were spinning. Problem was - there was something in the way. My boob was hanging halfway out of my sports bra!!!! Not all the way, now...not even enough that would be considered obscene if you know what I mean...but it was definitely protruding out in a way that I would normally not allow. So after a quick gasp I tucked it back in and went back to attacking my opposition. (Upon review of the Flash's photos, this damage was done in the water, and I trotted all the way through T-1 without a clue. Nice.) Mr. Lightspeed Guy and I battled each other the entire 16 miles. This was good for my bike time, and I told him so after about the 3rd time I passed him. We had some fun with it, and I know he must have thought I was crazy because the last time he passed me I was literally gasping for air. I love this sport. Bike Time:45:49. Almost 3 minutes faster than last year.

T-2 was quick as I again pulled my feet out of my shoes just before I got there. That is definitely the way to go. I am convinced it saves at least 8 seconds. T-2 Time: 00:45.

This is where things go awry. I considered grabbing a gel as I was slipping my running shoes on, but I decided against it in an effort to save unnecessary calories. Lesson learned - when it's 90 degrees and 80% humidity, don't try to save calories. I knew this, but I have to go back and relearn things sometimes. Needless to say, my legs were dead from hammering the bike and the water on the run course just wasn't enough to revive them. I ran the whole thing feeling dead and knowing that I was probably losing the ground I might have gained on the bike, but I just couldn't do anything about it. Run Time:32:52. Over 2 minutes slower than last year. That's not going to cut it.
Total Time:1:38:46

Enough about me. This race was worth doing just to see all my tri-friends! Congrats to all my friends...
Tim G. - first ever triathlon and nailed it!
Justin C. - first time at Mach Tenn and did great!
Mike N. - PR'd the course
Chris C. - beat me. Dangit. My streak is over. Really though, Chris had a GREAT race, and after a bad experience at GCT, I am ecstatic to see him pull together an awesome race!
Charles P. - 1st Place AG
Chris P. - 3rd Place AG
Bob Alt - 1st Place AG (70-74) - he's a legend.
David S. - 1st triathlon and did awesome!
Patrick - he beat me too, dangit! Great job Patrick!
Becca V. - 1st overall female. HUGE congrats! She was smokin' out there!
Lynn M. - 3rd overall female. She is having an awesome year and kicking my butt!
Jere P. - 7th place AG!
Missy - 5th place AG and had an awesome swim time!
Dee - 10th place AG and 1st place party girl - had FREE BEER AT FINISH written on her calf - gotta love it!
Larkin and Katherine both placed in 1st in their age groups...but they almost always do! Congrats!
Tammy R. - 2nd place AG. I just met Tammy at the race - she is an awesome triathlete!
Kevin S. and his relay team - 1st place out of all relay teams!
Ryan S. and his relay team - 2nd place out of all relay teams!

Missing:
Tom, of course. He couldn't compete, but he and Connie were there supporting every one and helping out.
Joe - Joe has been working out in California, but came back was there cheering us on!!
Michele - Out of town for a friend's birthday. Don't worry, though, she'll be back!
Leslie - Leslie is almost 6 months prego now and you'd barely know it. But as you would suspect, she was out there volunteering.
Stephanie - wearing a boot and can't run. Get well, Steph!
Ashley - Volunteering her time at a youth tri. Can't knock her for that!
Holly, Amy, Don, Eric, Kevin, Heather, and Lee - you guys better be doing this one next year!

New Peeps:
So I'm standing around afterwards and I hear "Hey Blondie, do you write a blog?" And I'm like, "Yes, have you seen it?" And I proceed to carry on a conversation with this guy named Chris Pastina and his friend Bill who has done IMFL before. Way cool!

Later, at the food tent, another guy comes up and recognizes me from my blog. How cool is that?

This is a really great race. Big thanks to the Mach Tenn Running Club, and especially Melissa, Al, Denny and Joanne, who all work their @sses off to make the best triathlon in Middle Tennessee.

Now, more pictures for your enjoyment:

Glad to be done!

Mike on the run

Justin running to the finish

Me and Holly

Me and Charles

Collecting the hardware!

Justin, Holly, me

Momma

Daddy - The Flash

Tim, Robin, and the girls

17 comments:

Jill Ann said...

What a great race!! Congrats on 2nd place!! And the party tent...man...how did I miss that. I am SO not trained for being Cheerpa at IM FL. I better get with it. Glad to see Dee is holding tradition though.

You did AWESOME!!

Anonymous said...

Awesome job Lana!! Congratulations on placing, you are having such a great year.

I love how your family is always at races supporting you. I think it makes such a difference having them around.

I have been thinking about dabbling in tri's once I finish the marathon in October and after reading your posts about them and your experience I am getting more excited about giving it a shot.

Holly Jane said...

You did so good Saturday! I was so proud! Maybe one day I'll be out there with ya!!! Love ya!

Lisa said...

Great Job!

kmholt7 said...

Congratulations Lana! Tell The Flash how much we always appreciate the pictures.

Missy said...

Congrats gurl. By the end of that day, I could hardly speak. Big Magnus is a lady lover and is willing to share his big, juicy kisses - ha! I did NOT break my cooter bone and a bathing suit was perfectly fine. Hey, your boob out, my ass was hanging out, I'm sure. It's all good, give them something to talk about. I'm not doing the Harpeth ride this year.
Way to smoke em on Saturday, it was all I could do to get my legs to even turn over. I too passed up gel in transition..don't want to lose time. Funny....

Rae said...

Woo hoo!! Way to go!!! Next year - 2nd female!!

Angela's Kitchen said...

Congratulations to all the racers listed and how nice of you, Lana, to acknowledge them.

2nd place AG, sweet!

Regarding the wardrobe malfunction, when I lived in the South, they called that a "free get out of jail pass"! It never worked for me though! ;-)

Jumper 2.0 said...

Hey,

Darn it angela! That last comment was suppose to be from me, not my wife! Which really made to joke at the end NOT work!

Michele said...

Awesome job girl!!!! 2008 is YOUR year!
Great report and as usual Flash did a great job with the pics.
I hate I missed the race this year but you are right I will be back next year.
Enjoy the rest of this week, training starts Sunday!!!!

Steve Stenzel said...

Way to go!! Great year-by-year improvements! And killer times!!! NICE JOB!!!

triguyjt said...

wow.. wow...
18 minute improvement...holy triathlon!!!!

congrats....

give "The Flash" an extra hug for all the pics of his little girl and all her triathlon peeps

IronTriTim said...

Great job Lana, AG podium, one day maybe for me. Surprised no post from Bigun, but guess he's not got past reading about your incident on the bike :-)

jahowie said...

You did great!! Congrats!!

greyhound said...

I guess that makes you a podium chick. But you shouldn't have put the boobage in your race report. Bigun's going to be demanding more changes to the header again.

Triteacher said...

Nicely done! I had to laugh at your decision to "save the calories" with the energy gel. Been there, done that, bonked!

Triathlon Wetsuit said...

Nice photo collection that look like live.