Memphis in May Race Recap

Pics to come soon!

Swim-22:27-1:22 pace (per 100 yards) Last year-25:29 Time dropped=3:02

I was so happy with my swim! Major improvement from last year. I credit this to 1.)more consistent training, 2.)wetsuit, and 3.)staying as close to the turns as possible. Besides swimming over a guy (and accidently punching him in the process), the swim was pretty uneventful. It was very consistent. The only thing that went wrong was that after the last turn, when I was headed back to shore, I was trying to spot the huge, inflatable arch of the start/finish for the swim. Apparently (I found this out after the race), right after I went in for the swim, they lost all power at the start! This included the pump that was keeping the arch inflated! So it slowly sank down and volunteers had to stand and hold the arch up until they figured out the power issue. When I didn’t see the arch, I freaked out and thought I got turned around and was heading back out to swim it again! Quickly, I realized this didn’t happen, stopped and treaded water for about 5 seconds so that I could figure out where I was. Then, I laid the hammer down and swam as fast as I could to the finish.

T1-1:37 Last year-1:26 Time added=:11

Though I added a few seconds from last year, this wasn’t bad by any means. The added time was probably for the fact that I had to strip off a wetsuit this year. Maybe I should practice that?

Bike-1:18:21- 18.8mph pace Last year-1:19:21 Time dropped=1:00

This started off bad because coming out of transition is a small hill. I do quick transitions, with my shoes banded in place, so I jumped on my bike, and obviously any forward momentum I had was sucked up by this hill. I immediately fell over, but luckily I wasn’t in my shoes so I was able to catch myself. It took me 30 seconds just to get on my bike! So annoying… I thought I would have dropped more time from last year, but I suppose not. I was talking to Seth, and we decided that it is a little harder to drop time on a flat course…you can go fast with little training on a flat course! Which was me last year J I felt more consistent on the bike. I wasn’t fluctuating in my speed or cadence which was definitely good. However, about mile 10, my hamstrings started getting tight. I tried to stand and stretch whenever I could, but they just kept screaming. It didn’t hurt too badly, so I just ignored the pain and kept pressing on. Mile 16, I passed a turtle in the middle of the road: a little confidence booster…I’m faster on my bike than a turtle! YAY! Mile 18, a car backfired right behind me and I thought I was getting shot at….Hey…it is Memphis! Once I hit mile 20, I knew I was close so I just pedaled it hard to get back to transition.

T2-2:24 Last year-2:37 Time dropped=:13

This started off with me running into my corral, and some guy going out for the run running behind me with one of my bike shoes…apparently it had fallen off right when I got into transition. Thanks random guy! Since my hamstrings were on fire at this point, after I racked my bike and bent over to put my shoes on…my hamstrings completely seized up. I almost fell over. I got my shoes on, put my hat and number belt on, and hobbled out of transition. I tried to look strong when I exited transition because my parents were there taking pictures and cheering me on. I wanted to look like I wasn’t dying…though I think my hamstrings were dead at that point.

Run-1:06:43- 10:45 min/mile pace Last year-1:09:13 Time dropped=2:30

It took me the first half of the run to get my hamstrings to stretch out. When I was running, I had to be going about a 10 min/mi pace. I had to walk up 3 short, steep hills because the flexion in my foot caused my hamstrings to stretch and HURT. Once I got past the halfway point, I was able to run it home, though not completely pain free. I knew I only had 3 miles left, so I just pushed through it. My nutrition was completely off during the race (I was too focused on going fast), so by the last 2 miles, I had no energy. I still beat last year’s time, however, with my training this year, I definitely expected to go faster. Oh well, this year I’m kind of training for distance and not so much speed. It’ll get there!

Overall time: 2:51:30 Last year: 2:58:05 Time drop=6:35

I’ll just go ahead and round that time drop up to 7 min J I wasn’t as happy with my race until I saw my splits. Basically my run is what killed me. I ended up 11/29 in my age group, though my swim rank was 7th, my bike rank was 10th, and my run rank? Freakin 20th!

To keep it optimistic, which I am an optimistic person, I found 3 things I was very happy with:
1.) Swim split. You cannot be upset with a 3 minute drop! Plus I felt good doing it!
2.) I much improve my age group finish from last year (14/26).
3.) Though I was hurting during the run, I was still determined to finish, and finish by leaving it all out on the course. I definitely could not have put forth much, if any, more effort. I completely exhausted myself by the finish.

Now for some improvements:
1.) Regular stretching! I think this is the reason why my hamstrings acted up. I have been fitted for the aero position on my bike, so that shouldn’t have been the reason. More stretching is in my future.
2.) NUTRITION!! I tend to forget during a short race to stay on top of my nutrition. I’m too worried about racing. I feel like taking a gel slows me down so much, but in reality, it slows me down much more to not take a gel, and slow my pace down for quite a while.
3.) Longer speed workouts on the bike. I felt pretty consistent, but I feel like I can be consistent at a faster pace. We’ll see.

I’m happy my parents got to watch me race for the first time! It was definitely exciting to see them experience what I do now! Also, I FINALLY got to meet my coach, and a teammate! Leslie was there representing DFT/QA3 also! It was so nice to meet her and see her out on the course. Having a teammate there made it extra fun! Thanks to everyone who came out and cheered me on (including my roommate!). Next up…KANSAS 70.3!!!!