Washington Sprint Triathlon

The Washington sprint triathlon would be my 4^th race in the Triangle Orthopedic Triathlon Series put on by FS Series. You have to do 5 races to receive some schwag at their end of the year party, so that has been my unofficial goal once I realized it would be possible schedule-wise.  This race is not as local with it being 2hrs away but I convinced my friend Heather to do it so we booked a hotel room and got down there on Friday evening.  Marty stayed back with Logan and they went to the Wake County Speedway on Friday night which is Logan’s version of heaven on earth.

He wanted a whale-shark face painting

Meeting one of the kid drivers

I’ve had nightmares about this race from last year’s version which was so, so, so hot and humid.  The run was a complete meltdown slog-fest that was not fun at all. Luckily for us this year, it was not going to be nearly as bad. Just normal summer hot. No issues race morning, just some miscommunication about the actual sprint race start which led to me getting absolutely zero warmup for the swim.  And then I was a Manny/Doug sandwich for the first 75 yards before I stopped and decided to lose time but go wide and be able to swim more comfortably. I didn’t feel good until the last 100 yards. Then I got into transition and managed to get my swim skin stuck on my chip. This was my first time wearing it in a race and am pretty sure any time I gained wearing it was lost dilly-dallying with it stuck around my ankle.  The bike was meh. At least I went faster than last year. Also had a car pull out right in front of me towards the end but I saw the little old lady from afar and was prepared for my escape route. I was in the lead coming off the bike and was not feeling all that great so was hoping to just cruise the run so it didn’t hurt too bad.

The run is an out and back, basically flat course.  I trudged to the turnaround not feeling it and then saw Liz coming the other way all spunky and bouncy and thought “Noooooo, now I’m going to have to pick it up.” Actually, I really thought she was going to pass me quick, but she didn’t and when I hit the 2 mile mark I realized I didn’t feel that terrible anymore so decided to press the gas a bit.  I was able to hold her off for the win.

 

I tried several times to put in a podium picture of the top 3 but the photo wanted to be upside down no matter how many times I rotated and saved it. So just pretend that it's here.

 

I’m going to try and be a little more serious and consistent with my training over the next 4 weeks and feel better at The Battle at Buckhorn (race #5 for the series for me).  I’d like to actually feel like I’m racing and be able to dig instead of just going through the motions out there.  Me being serious will mean hitting up a few group rides, possibly making it to Master’s and doing some track workouts. Hopefully this crash course will do the trick.  Now, our travel schedule over the next few weekends is going to be the hardest thing to get around, but hopefully my supportive husband will help me get what I need in.

Just another day in the life with Logan