Try Melon Tri - Race Recap

Ok.  Fine.  I'm here.  On ANOTHER snow day with school cancelled.  Ugggggh!  That's a whole other post, so I'll just stop there & do what I know you're all dying to hear about.  My race recap.

This year was the 20th annual Try Melon Tri.  An indoor triathlon that takes place in my hometown of Muscatine, IA.  As stated in my pre-race post this would be my 14th year competing in this race.

On a scale of 1 to 10 on how well I was trained for this race, I'd say I was at about a 7.  Maybe that's too generous.  So 6ish (?)  Yes, I put some training into it, but I can't say I took it that seriously.  It didn't help that the weeks leading up to the race were the same weeks that I had decided to take a huge step back from my running.  Which should have left plenty of room for biking, swimming, etc.  Unfortunately I tend to be an all or nothing person so since I was leaning toward a lot less it often left me struggling on the nothing end of things.  Of course, nothing doesn't seem to be possible for me.  That means it left me on the very little spectrum of things.  Not to mention that I don't necessarily look forward to or enjoy biking or swimming.  I tolerate it.  Use it when I need to.  But it's so boring and just not my thing.  I haven't found that key to making the magic happen with those 2 sports so it tends to lack in my training.

Swim, 1/2 mile, 18 laps/36 lengths in the pool

I have not enjoyed swimming at all lately.  In theory I do, but once I'm in the pool I quickly lose interest and am just not motivated to do much.  I really should try a waterproof player of some sort, maybe that'll help pass the time.  Overall my training has felt sluggish for a loooong time.  Then part way through my race I struggled with my breathing and flip turns.  Luckily for me (because I"m horrible at keeping track) they provide counters that show you what lap  number you are on.  I have no clue why but when the number started showing 11-13-15, etc.  I was getting all excited thinking that was my lap  number and I was thinking "wow, that went amazingly fast, I must be do much better than I realized."  But then I actually realized that was my length number & that I had to get to 36.  Duuuuuh, it's not like I've raced this over a dozen times before.  Swim time:  16:53  I've had better & I've had worse.  I've never swam less than 16 and I'd like to get below that.  However I've come a looooong way from when I first started swimming 17 years ago.

T1:  (for those not triathletes that's getting from pool to bike, it counts as part of your overall time).  I don't have any tri specific gear.  I'd like to, but it's so expensive and since I don't do more than a few tris a year I just haven't taken the time to invest in anything good.  Technically I only have to dry off and put shoes on.  For comfort and modesty reasons that's not an option for me.  I threw on my new Tough Chik singlet (which I LOVE) and a pair of shorts.  They are not my normal shorts that I wear, but I wore them because they are easier to get on and honestly because it matched my top better than my usual black ones.  YES, that matters to me!!  Prior to actual race day I did a few mock run thrus and I tried getting my skirt on that I wanted to wear (and that matched), but that was a royal pain in the rear!  So I did sacrifice some of my own pleasure & desires & went without a skirt (that very rarely happens!!!!)  Socks was another "issue"  You should all know by now that I'm huge on knee high extremely crazy socks.  It's a huge part of 6packmomma/SheRunsEverywhere & my own special individualism that I chose a long time ago.  With the exception of heat (I have a point where I can't stand to wear them) I have my socks on 99.9% of the time.  Yes, the low cut extremely boring white socks would have been much more efficient on time, but I decided to take the extra 10 (?)-20 (?) seconds it would take to get on my knee highs that looked pretty awesome with my outfit.  You may not think that is much time, but trust me seconds is all is takes to keep you from 1st place.  T1 time: 2:17

Bike:  7 miles on a spin bike set as level 10 resistance (no clue how high the resistance goes up to.  it gives some resistance, but not an extreme amount).

From the get go my biking was an issue.  At first I thought it was my seat adjustment.  When you approach the bike you are responsible for setting the seat & handle bar height to your specifications. I knew going in exactly what that setting would be.  It was recommended, though not forbidden, to not move the seat front or back.  It was in a neutral position and messing with it was at your own risk.  I know that I like my forward, but when I got on I resisted spending that time to change it, but once I got cycling & was having major struggles, my first thought was to adjust the seat.  After a few minutes I hopped off and moved the seat.  Getting back on made a huge difference.  Oh yeah, that felt much better.  Ok, so I'm still shaking off the swim & transition waiting for my legs to kick into gear and start flying.  Except it never happened.  My entire bike portion ended up being a huge struggle.  And I knew it.  Ugggh!  Bike time: 21:22  I've done much faster than that in previous years.  Like several minutes faster.

T2:  This is going from bike to run, which doesn't take long at all.  Getting off the bike, running across the gym & on to the track.  T2 time:  18 seconds

Run: 2 1/2 miles/ 40 laps

Of course, I say every tri that I do, they saved the best for last.  Yes, those initial first few minutes are a doozy on your legs that feel like jello, but once I get going mine flow like they do any normal day run.  I'm horrible at knowing my pace & I easily lose track of what lap I'm on (again, thank goodness for the counters they provide) so I just run fast.  Not all out, but a good fast pace.  I let nature take over & I just go!  At one point a good song came on my iPod and I began to fly!  Normally I try not to give into getting caught up with the music, but for as crappy as I had felt for the first part of the race, things were FINALLY clicking and I just went with it.  The kids even told me that "mom, you were running fast, but all of a sudden you was like "zooooom, zoooooom" & going crazy fast".  I pushed hard & felt good the entire time.  Run time:  17:05.  This shocked me, I'd have to look for sure, but I'm sure this was by far my fastest time running the run portion of this race.  And considering how poor the rest of the race went I'm very pleased with this particular part.

Overall time:  58:55

Before I saw my time sheet & knew my time I knew that I did not have a PR.  I was bummed about this.  I am super competitive (even if only with myself & my previous times) and I know things did not click to beat my previous PR.  I felt a teeny bit better that I didn't go past 1:00:00.  So I do try & find the positive.  After talking with a friend & analyzing things I realized how I wasn't 100% fully trained for my absolute best and also seeing how great of a run I had I walked away feel pretty good about the whole event.

I ended up placing 1st in my age group.  The overall winner was a good friend who completely left everyone in the dust!  She did awesome & I couldn't be happier for her!!  Best of all, I got to spend the day surrounded by a lot of my Muscatine Running Friends.   Later, I was able to watch my son race and he placed 3rd in his age group against some boys/men who were twice his age (his age group was 25 & below).  Considering my son has even way less training than I do and most importantly just didn't give up & wasn't afraid to take this race on made me so proud!  Overall my race day ended up not being about how fast I did/didn't finish, but being surrounded by those that I love, doing something that we all love!!