WikiWiki Man Triathlon Race Report

UGH! Yes, in capital letters too!

Raced at Lake Tawakoni yesterday at the WikiWiki Man Triathlon.  There was a Sprint distance race that was a SMW Regional Championship (more points for the participants) and an Olympic distance race.  I did the Olympic race. It fell about midway through the year before Worlds and we wanted to see where the holes were in my training.

I don't know if it is going to be a good assessment or not though. The weather forecast for Sunday didn't look good. As a matter of fact last night tornadoes ripped through the south injuring and killing people and caused extensive damage. We just had some strong winds 15-25 mph with gusts to 30 mph and a little rain during the run. I pretty much had a crappy race.

There were really good parts to the weekend though!! It was a fun girls weekend! I shared a room with Cheryl Webb from Shreveport - we ride together and it was nice to get to know her better. And Leigh Laney, a long time friend from Jackson, MS came over to race too. The two of them and Luann Ainsworth (a friend of Leigh's) all did the sprint race! Leigh got 2nd in her age group, and Cheryl placed 4th in her age group. We all went to dinner the night before and the only bad part was that we couldn't enjoy a margarita with our girl talk! I also got to see a bunch of my Team Cambridge triathletes and the manager Scott Eder whom I've know for I think a hundred years! Got to visit with people I knew when I raced in Texas - Sabra Hanson is on Team Cambridge too, she and I raced each other back in 1999! Sabra won her age group in the sprint race. And fellow COSST Coach, Rachel Olsen was there too, she is also on the Cobb Mobb team with me - Rachel won her age group and was 7th overall female in the sprint race. I hang around with some fast company!

The swim was brutal. Probably one of the worst that I've ever experienced. The only two that I can think of that were worse was one at a Crawfishman in south Louisiana in Lake Ponchatrain and another at the Gulf Coast Half in Florida. The water was extremely choppy making it really difficult to get into a swim groove, and the chop was coming from the south so I had to breath right into the oncoming waves. My neck is sore this morning because you had to really turn your neck as well as rotate to get your mouth into the air. Pathetically slow swim even with a wetsuit. I think two girls beat me out of the water. One was so far ahead that I never saw her until the run and the other I must have beat out of transition, or passed her right at the beginning of the bike not realizing she was in the Oly race.

The first 5 miles of the bike were into a really strong headwind, then a turn and we had a cross/tailwind for the next section to the turn around. I thought it was going to be a straight cross wind but with some of the speeds I saw on my computer I realized we had some help. I also realized that after the turn around we were going to battle the wind for the 8 or so miles until the next turn. Was really, really happy to make the right hand turn back towards transition - on that last 5 mile section I was rolling at 26-27 mph and hit 35 at one time. Shows that we had some major wind.

RESULTS LINK

Since the Sprint race started first I had no idea where I was as far as place with the other girls in my race. I was pretty sure there was one girl in front of me because I watched her cap in the distance during the swim. Our run was an out and back (with a little trail run at the beginning) then a U-Turn and out and back again skipping the initial trail section. It wasn't until I was headed back out on the second loop that I saw another girl who looked really strong coming back in and was pretty sure she was the leader. I'd also finally realized that we had black bib numbers and the Sprint racers were red.

No results sheets were posted like most races so we had to hang around listening for our names to see if we placed or how we did. (I'll get to that part later). I ended up 2nd Overall Female - the first place girl wasn't there to get her award so I didn't know if she was the same on that I thought I saw on the course.

Here is the cool t-shirt I didn't get :(

Would I go back there again? Probably not. The roads were typical Texas chip seal. I haven't had to race on that surface since I left in 2008 - and I don't miss it one bit. That combined with the wind made a pretty horrible ride. The awards took FOREVER! And no times were announced with the people so until this morning when results were FINALLY posted online I had no idea how I did. No results taped to the side of a building - I do know that people like to see how they did, if they didn't you wouldn't see hoards of us standing around the posted results at races. Barely little post race food - I didn't have anything by the time I finished, I think there were a few orange slices left by that time. And while I'm not a soda drinker, I like to have a little caffeine and sugar after a race - a coke would have been nice. There was water in the big orange gatorade coolers but no bottles (I think they are doing a green initiative - had I known this I would have brought my own). Oh but wait, it wouldn't have really helped because we had to park about 3/4 of a mile from the transition area - good thing I had my recovery drink in my transition bag. My friends, Leigh and Luann were so wiped out after the ace

And also the cool tech-t that I didn't get. 

And lastly, I registered early for this race and when I picked up my packet the day before there was only 1 of the two shirts promised in the bag and it was the wrong size..... I was told that they ran out and I could send an email to get my shirts. In the morning I asked if after the race I could possibly get my shirts from other packets that had not been picked up.... nope... they were going to be put away. I sent the email... hope I get my shirts, I really like them!!

Do I sound like I'm complaining a lot? I am.

Next up is Crawfishman this coming Sunday!!!  A race I absolutely love and KNOW won't disappoint!! Denise and Brinn will be there! I get to see my friends from Hattiesburg!! And Donna Ford is going for her first race of the season and first Crawfishman ever! Looking forward to next weekend!!