Race Recap: Wallis Sands Sprint Triathlon

Last Sunday I raced in the Wallis Sands Sprint Tri in Rye, NH. I finished 3rd in my age group, and it was my happiest race yet, so a great way to end the season! Here's the recap:

I always get nervous about races, usually the night before when I'm trying to sleep. Sometimes, it hits me in the morning when my alarm goes off and every single part of me except my heart tries to stay in bed. But I was more nervous about this race because of the ocean swim - I'm not a fan of salt water, so I've made a point of avoiding ocean swims. This was only my second since I started racing in 2012.

So, in an effort to distract myself from freaking out, I had a very busy Saturday. I went to a spin class at Flywheel - my first, and I meant to take it easy but... oops. I might have turned the resistance up at least one over everything the instructor said. I guess I'm a little competitive.
Then, my husband wanted to play a round of golf, so we played 9 holes at our local course. (Laugh if you want, but golf is as athletic as you make it). By the time I got home, I only had about an hour to pack up my stuff before heading to bed.

The most painful part of triathlons for me is waking up so early - and I try to remember that when my brain is flooded with pain-thoughts during the swim, bike, and run later. My alarm went off at 4:45, we got out the door by 5:30. (My husband is so supportive of my racing - he comes to every race and sometimes gets up earlier than me to ride his bike there! What a stud.) The forecast called for sunny, warm weather - perfect. Except as we got up to the NH border, it started pouring.

It's not a big deal to race in rain. It's cooler, which is nice for the run. I'm not a fan of a rainy bike leg, because I worry about handling on wet roads and being able to see potholes. And I'm not a huge fan that all my gear gets soaking wet in transition. But my real concern was that the ocean might be choppy. The race was delayed a few minutes to allow some of the worst weather to pass, and after that it was fortunately pretty calm. Cold. But calm.

The swim went really well - I actually enjoyed it, and I felt strong.
I had a pretty good transition, although I have to work on getting out of my wetsuit faster.

The bike leg was great - super flat, mostly perfect roads. I had a few moments that were like riding on the back of a unicorn, and a few that felt like the unicorns were trampling me on their way to the unicorn block party, but that's normal. The only issue I had on the bike was that there were so many people drafting! In the worst cases, people were riding two or three abreast.
There's breaking the rules, and then there's being a rude weirdo and blocking me from setting a PR. Don't be a rude weirdo. Also, follow the rules man. It's not that hard. Erg.

I pushed so hard on the bike that my second transition wasn't great - I should have done a flying dismount but I felt too tired, and then I was sort of confused after racking my bike and wasn't as clean as I could have been.

The run was fantastic. I felt so great the whole time, and I came really close to a PR. I'm not a fast runner and I have been fighting a hamstring injury for almost a year now, but I've been working hard to improve this season and it's nice to see that paying off. No photos of the run leg, because I look like a crazy person when I run. And I get to choose what photos show up here, so tough luck.

Final result, 3rd in my age group, 16th overall woman.

1/3 mile Swim pace 1:46/meter
T1: 1:45
14.5 mile Bike pace: 21:27/mile
T2: 1:13
3.2 mile Run pace: 7:52/mile

I don't worry about total time because I think my pace and how I feel during the race is more beneficial to tracking my improvement. For the most part, I felt super-happy during this race. Can't beat that result!

The race was really well run, and Vinyard Vines was one of the sponsors so the swim caps had wales on them. Super cute.

What can I say? Will race for swim caps with wales.