Living The Tri Life!: White Lake Triathlon Race Report

White Lake Sprint II Triathlon - 750 Meters / 14 Miles / 3 Miles

I raced my last race in North Carolina yesterday - The White Lake Sprint Triathlon in White Lake, NC. The morning started off a little iffy but fortunately turned into an awesome day. My husband Bill reported rain at 3:00 am - hmmmm.... I really don't want to race in the rain, maybe I should just stay in bed and sleep. No, get up and go, you know you'll be happy you did. Had my typical pre-race breakfast of oatmeal with banana, peanut butter and vanilla soy milk.

White Lake is about 90 minutes to the race site from our house so we left at 5:15 which would give me plenty of time to get my race packet, get set up and then warm up. We got about 20 miles from home when I realized that I didn't have my USAT card or Drivers Licence to get my packet! Arrrruuuggghhhhh.... We turned around and rushed back home. Made it with an hour to go before race start, whew! Didn't get in a run for a warm up but I think running back and forth to packet pick up helped a little.

White Lake is an absolutely beautiful venue for a triathlon, I'm going to miss racing here a lot. I've done a hand full of races at White Lake including one in the middle of a 100 mile bike ride with some friends when I lived in Fayetteville. The water is crystal clear with a sandy bottom. The water temperature according to race officials was just under 70 degrees at race start. I warmed up in my wetsuit and the temperature definitely felt warmer than 70. So I shucked the wetsuit for my speedsuit.

I had what felt like a good swim, ended up with the fastest swim in my age group and 5th fastest swim for the women in my swim wave (40+), 29th among all the girls that day. That's not bad considering I'm only swimming 1-2 times a week. Gotta get to the pool more! Average HR: 165 / Max HR: 170

It's a long transition run from the swim exit up the wooden ladders at the end of a pier to T1. I overheard someone say "She's really moving" as I ran across the grass to the transition area! 1:23 for T1. (looks like 1:13 was the fastest of the day).

My bike felt decent; good even! I rode the day before with the Ocean Isle Beach Cyclists since I only have a couple more times to ride with them before I move. I only rode 41 miles and tried not to get drawn into any of the faster sections. I was successful with that except towards the end where I just couldn't resist riding down the three that had gotten away. There was a slight tail wind on the first part of the 2 loop course. I saw 23mph some during that time! On the second lap the wind picked up a little and changed direction slightly but I was still hovering around the 21 mph pace.

Somewhere along the way, I can't remember if it was on the first or second loop I hit a bump and my Garmin on my wrist came apart at the pin! I'm glad it didn't happen during the swim. I grabbed it and stuck it in my back pocket. Of course thinking okay, now I'm going to have to pull it out to hit the lap button in T2. I passed a lot of girls with 40+ and 30+ on their calves but didn't see any 50+ women. There is a girl from Kure Beach in my age group, Karen Wilson, who is super fast and I was looking for her. 8th fastest bike split of the women! Average pace 21.1 mph. Average HR: 164 / Max HR: 172.

T2 was a mess! Since my swim wave was number 8 of 10 waves there were a lot of bikes already back on the rack. When I went to rack my bike I knocked over two bikes. $#!T So I re-racked both of them and they fell down again! A spectator standing by witnessing all of this said "Leave them, the bike is over", thus giving me unofficial permission to leave them where they lay. I feel terrible about this. But I honestly did try to get them re-racked. Thus my T2 took 1:15! Boo.... the best of the day :50. Rats. I did remember to get out my Garmin just before I exited onto the run and hit the lap button twice.

The weather hadn't warmed up too much for the run so it was nice and comfortable. I have to say I LOVE my new Brooks Launch running shoes! So comfortable, not a second thought about my feet. Couldn't see my watch since it was stuck in my pocket but I did feel it buzz for mile one. So it was just - "run as hard as you can". Got caught by two girls in their 40's and thougth I saw Karen on my way back but I don't really know her except that she is tall and blond so I wasn't sure. Turns out that she was registered but didn't race that day! Lucky for me!! Run time: 23:58 / 7:59 miles. I thought it was a 5K and was really psyched thinking I'd run 7:42 pace. Rats. Average HR: 173 / Max HR: 184. I guess I could have run a little harder, should have run a little harder.

Rebecca Moxey

At the finish line I found Bill then chatted with my friend Rebecca Moxey, got some water, went to the car to change and clean up. Back to transition now that it was open, got my bike and transition bag, back to car to dump off stuff. Back to race site for a hot dog and a soda, passed out about 40 samples of Aquaphor!! (Could have passed out 140!) Saw my friend Suzy Nisbet from the Raleigh area.

Suzy Nisbet

I met a fellow Aquaphor Teammate! He shouted go Team Aquaphor at me as I was setting up in the transition area and we did meet later at packet pick up, Jeff Plemmons from over by Charlotte, NC.

Placed 11th overall Female and won my Age Group by 4:25! It was sad saying goodbye to Rebecca and Suzy. I wish my friend Carol Scheible would have been here racing. I'm going to miss them. I'm going to miss this place. Good Bye North Carolina!