Janice
Biederman and I made our way down to the
The
trip started off with a bang, with Janice discovering her credit card and
license missing from her wallet. With no picture ID, she used her
mid-west charm and flexed her Ironman muscles to get on the plane (and through
IM registration) without a picture ID. Well done Janice.
On
to the race. First, the venue was great. It was in a beautiful park
that had a lovely breeze all weekend. The hotels were all about 15
minutes away, so no walking to the start. But with the low hotel rate of
$60/night… I’ll take the 15 minute drive. Parking was a breeze.
Expo was one of the best tri expos I’ve been to. (The best race expo was
Healdsburg half-marathon, which served wine...)
The
Swim (Trish):
Swim
anxiety started early for me. Swimming is my weakest sport. Let me
count the ways:
·
Facing the reality that this was NOT a wetsuit
swim. 82 degrees. One degree shy of a complete wetsuit ban.
·
Gators… IronKids race was delayed so they could
capture the 2 alligators swimming in the lake. They found 1… and then let
200 small children in water. We believe all children were accounted for…
·
Race morning, my speed suit did NOT pass the
legal test. No worries. I have my credit card, I’ll just buy one
now. I think the game warden (chief referee) thought I was high- the IM
shop was not open at 5:30 AM.
·
Finally as I was walking to the beach, some tool
with a Boston
area uniform, warned me about the brain-eating amoeba that is present when the
water temperature gets too high. He said he considered backing out, as he
had heard about a kid who was waterskiing, took water in the nose, and was dead
within the week. Thanks a lot ***hole. At least I was no longer
concerned about the alligators.
The
actual swim was sort of nice. It was like bathwater – a balmy 82
degrees. I was in an early wave. Waves were still going out upon my
return, 57 minutes later… I am OK with my swim, considering no
wetsuits. NOTE: I thought of Joe/Crystal during the swim, as some
guy got a good hold of my back and almost dunked me. The swim
course was a crazy M-shape, which meant 4 turns. Turning at buoys is
always a cluster-f***. All in all, a decent swim. No alligator
attacks. Can someone check in with me in 7 days to make sure I haven’t
succumbed to an amoeba?
The
Swim (Janice):
What
Trish left out about the swim was the quality of the water. Because the
bottom of the lake was rather undulating at the beginning, we started about 20
yards from shore. This required us to stand in slimy muck waiting for the
gun to go off. Within 2 minutes in the muck, I had sunk to my knees.
Finding
a good draft was impossible, since you couldn’t see your own hands in the
water, let alone anyone else. The murky quality of the water also led to
a lot of collisions, since you couldn’t see when you were coming up on
someone. This also led to some, hopefully unintentional, groping. I
did, however, set a PR for the swim. Unfortunately it was a reverse PR…
slowest swim.
The
Bike (Trish):
As
a slow swimmer, I have added advantage of coming out of the water with mostly
men (from the later waves)… which means I am generally surrounded by faster
cyclists. I did take advantage of this. Unfortunately this did not
go unnoticed. Not quite sure if I got a drafting penalty, as he did NOT
say I had to stop at the penalty tent… just to drop back. To my defense,
I had just passed a line of 3 guys. I was trying to pass the lead guy,
but couldn’t… that is when I got caught. The problem was, I couldn’t drop
back, because there was another guy practically on the lead guy’s wheel.
Drafting
was an issue. Thoughts of Jorge every time I see a team of 2-3 cyclists
clearly working together. Unbelievable.
For
the record. The 2012 venue is NOT FLAT. No raging hills, but there
were some decent long and steady climbs.
I
felt pretty strong the whole bike, but almost lost it with a crazy neck
pain. I noticed it around mile 30, I was fairly uncomfortable around
40. By mile 48, I could barely turn my neck without shooting pain.
Very happy when I racked my bike.
The
Bike (Janice):
Having
done this race in its prior Disney location, this new bike course was quite a
shock. Where the old course was almost entirely FLAT, this course had
lots and lots of rolling hills, and LOTS OF TURNS!!! The turns in
particular, caused a lot of bunching up and inadvertent drafting. There
was, of course, some not-so-inadvertent drafting. As I was passed by
numerous pelotons. Like Trish, I was having a good ride up until about
mile 35. The low back pain set in with a vengeance. It was too
painful to stay in the aero bars. The bottle (and cage)-ejecting rough
road did not help the back situation at all. Like Trish, I too was happy
to get off the bike.
The
Run (Trish):
This
was a 3-loop course, which I like… I felt like I was on autopilot and could use
visualization for the 3rd loop. There were 2 sizable hills,
which we saw 3 times. My family drove up, and the 3-loop run made it nice
for spectators. I had a decent run for myself. Decent for me, means
that I’m not hating myself. I really felt that I maintained a controlled
pace/heart rate. I employed the Carolyn Soules – douse yourself with
water – method of temperature control, which was key to feeling decent. I
didn’t die the last 3 miles (like I did at New Orleans ). It was HOT, 90+ with full
sun. Fortunately, it was not humid and there was a nice breeze.
THANK
YOU to the lady with the hose. I fully drenched myself on each
loop.
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