Living The Tri Life!: Traditions Triathlon

The Traditions Triathlon in Gulfport, MS was last Saturday. This second year race did a pretty good job. A bunch of us from Hattiesburg made the early morning trip to the coast for the race which benefited the Favre4Hope Foundation.

Bill had to work last Saturday so I drove rode down with some friends to the race site. Lesley and Judy were racing, Deanna is sidelined for a little while longer. Four weeks ago she had a collision with a dog while on a training ride with Lesley and broke her left clavicle and right wrist.

The transition area was tight. The bike racks were way too close together, when you pulled your bike off the rack it almost hit the bikes in the next rack over. There were a few other things that I think could be done better for the race next year, this being one of them and also not allowing any cars to be parked on the road.

The first 175 people in the transition area (actually the first 175 to pick up their timing chips) received a free pair of Acics socks! When I went to get my chip I saw 2 pair of socks sitting by the woman giving out chips. There was a man in front of me and she told him that all they had left were women's sizes - so I got a pair!! And they're small and they fit! My friend Lesley was walking over to get her chip and got the last pair which just so happened to be medium - her size! Bonus!! Swag is Good!

Me, Judy and Lesley!

The swim was a time trial start as most of the races in Mississippi seem to be. I really dislike this start format (I think I've mentioned that about a hundred times before - haha!) I was number 44, we were lined up in the order that we registered for the race. My friend and super swimmer Judy was number 53 and Lesley was 55. Wetsuit swim (also not my favorite) - the water felt really nice during my warm up. Judy opted to not wear her new wetsuit. We'd done a practice swim earlier in the week and she HATED it. I felt good during the swim, no freak out episodes. When I was running up the ramp (use this lightly - it was a dirt and sand slope, kind of gross) I saw Judy right there in front of me. She started 55 seconds back and beat me out of the water - that girl is a fish for sure!!!

So we're on the COAST of Mississippi and you would think that the bike course would be flat??? Nope. Hilly little challenging course. Even had to drop down to my small front chainring once. I was racing for the first time on the 155 cranks that John Cobb recommended that I put on my bike and was anxious to see if I saw any difference in speed or pace on the run off the bike. Well.. not today. Bike speed was my pretty typical 20.6 mph. Hmmmm......

Lesley was racing on her brand new Cervelo P3 and I was looking forward to seeing what she could do on a time trial bike. Up until then she'd been on her Trek Madone road bike with some aerobar extensions. She screamed through the course at 21.2 mph on her new bike!! Judy threw her chain twice on the bike and had to get off the bike to put it back on - cost her a few seconds!

And now for the truly disappointing part of my race.... the run. I just didn't have it today. I felt like I was running hard - nope. 7:58.9 pace. Ugh... I'm going to chalk it up to the antibiotics that I've been on for a week. Gotta keep up the optimism right?? I'm going to give the short cranks another chance at Crawfishman and see if I notice an improvement. (Lesley and I did have a good training ride with the short cranks the week before - we rode 40 with the last 10 at 22.0 average mph and got off the bike and was able to run a 7:32 and a 7:18 mile - so maybe it just wasn't my day). I ended up 6th Overall Female and won my age group though! :) I guess I can't complain too loudly!

48 / 6 / 1 44 SPANSEL, Ginger HATTIESBURG MS F 50-54 8:09.969 1:23.6 1:00.725 49:23.373 20.6 0:48.290 24:49.403 7:58.9 1:24:11.7
Heart Rate Bike: 161 Avg / 172 Max Heart Rate Run: 172 Avg / 182 Max

The most exciting part of Saturday was the race finish of my friends Lesley and Judy. I mentioned before that Judy was number 53 and Lesley 55 - so they started 10 seconds apart. Judy massacred the swim and Lesley tore up the bike. Judy caught Lesley on the run but Lesley managed to hang on and stay close. The fun finish came up a slight rise and then turned right to head toward the banner. Here are the pictures of the girls sprint to the finish! Deanna, Phillip (Lesley's husband) and I were screaming at them to GO!!!