Gator Bait Tri 2010 Race Report

Well, it's almost a month later and I haven't posted a race report for Gator Bait! It was a fantastic race - I placed first in my age group and overall had a fabulous, close-to-perfect race.

Stats:
500 meter swim: 9:26 (almost a minute of that was the run to the mat!)
T1: 1:13
13 mile bike: 45:57 (17.0 mph)
T2: 1:06
4 mile run: 39:24 (9:51 min/mile)
1/14 AG
87/222 Overall

I came into this race feeling nervous because of the sad, slow running I did at CapTex and Small Texan. Even though I'd had a couple of good brick workouts with strong, solid runs, I didn't know what would happen on race day.

The swim was great, no issues there. It was a time trial start. My actual swim time was 8:32 based on my watch, which I was very pleased with. I think the course may have been short, but I'm not going to argue about it.

In Transition 1, I tried to put my helmet on backwards, which freaked me out. Then my Garmin strap wouldn't fasten. I was frustrated and felt slow coming out of the transition area, but I settled into the bike ride and went for it. On the way out on this out-and-back course, I kept watching the people coming back. I was almost to Gator Bait hill (the turnaround point), and I still hadn't seen any women returning. I knew Shelly was up there somewhere, but I started to realize that I was at the front of the women's field. Finally, the women's leader passed and then a few more ladies, and then Shelly, and I was on my way up the hill.

It felt great to ride up this hill that I was afraid of last year and only attempted this year two weeks before the race. I passed people all the way up - people who were cycling slowly and people who were walking. Coming back to the lake was a blur. I felt so fast racing back downhill almost all the way back to the lake.

As I entered T2, I looked around and saw how few bikes were in the transition area. I thought, Oh my God, I'm at the front of this race. Well, I definitely wasn't going to slow down to put on socks. I threw my bike on the rack, pulled on my Zoots, and took off for the run.

The first half mile of the run was hard. I was battling mental demons that were telling me I was going to stink at the run and that I'd inevitably slow down. I ran out of the park and passed Robert and friends, who were cheering for me. I still didn't feel good.

About a mile and a half into the run, I caught up with Rosemarie, who was dressed in the new Trisition Area Alamo Tri Club kit like me. As I passed her, another Trisition runner came up beside me and said, "Hey, I want to run with these Trisition friends!" He and I took off together, and had a conversation all the way to the finish line. His name was John, and he told me several times that I was pacing him. I've never been in a situation where I'm the pacer in a race, and it felt great! I felt strong and light and fast. Shelly gave me a high five on the way back from the turnaround. I think she could tell how relieved I was to be feeling good on a run.

John and I ran in towards the finish line, and I let out a big cheer when we crossed. I was so proud of myself! I had the same finishing time as last year, but last year the bike was a mile shorter.

After the race, we were happy to stay around for the awards. Shelly got second in her age group, missing first by only 30ish seconds. We took a Trisiton Area Club photo, and that was the end of a great race morning!

Gator Bait Race Report

Felty* and me in the rain, approaching the finish line.

They don't cancel triathlons due to rain. It rained off and on the entire time yesterday at Gator Bait. All my stuff is still drying out right now.

The official results:
5th out of 22 in my age group
116th overall out of 240 finishers
600 m swim: 13:40 (3/22 in my age group!)
T1: 1:32 (11/22)
4 mile run: 38:36 (13/22; 9:39 min/mi)
T2: 1:19 (6/22)
12.2 mile bike: 43:43 (5/22; 16.7 mph)

I think Shelly and I both had great confidence going into this race because it was held in the same place that we practice every weekend. We swam from a different part of the lake than where we usually train because of the water levels; it was a triangle course around 2 buoys. There were 4 or 5 waves of swimmers and Shelly and I started dead last in our wave. But! We swam pretty much side-by-side the entire time and exited the water together, finishing the swim in the front of our wave. I can't believe I was 3rd place in my age group on the swim! Later, we found out that the swim course was long by 100 extra meters.

Because the swim was in a different section of the lake, we ran next. Shelly and I got to run together too. We pushed each other through a very quick (for us) 4 miles. It started raining on the bike segment. Thankfully, they shortened the course due to wet roads, so we didn't have to do the monster hill at the turnaround. On the way back, I battled it out with another girl in my age group (I knew she was in our group because she passed us on the run...grr). We passed each other a couple times but I picked it up on the way into the park and crossed the finish line first. She finished right behind me, and behind her were 2 other women in my age group. Hooray! It was really weird finishing the race on the bike. We had to dismount and walk across the finish line with our bikes.

We enjoyed post-race sausage wraps, Cheetos, and cookies. And then, to cap a fantastic morning, Shelly won the grand door prize! She got a free pair of Newton shoes from Tri-Sition Area. Even in the rain, it was a wonderful race day.

*Yes, I renamed my bike Felty. It just fit better than Eisenheim the Magnificent.