Alum Creek Multisport Festival

Yesterday I did the longest triathlon I am going to do prior to Muncie. The race included a 1.5K swim, 62K bike, and 10K run. The swim was a two loop triangle that was awesome. I love to swim. After I rounded the first buoy I had a hard time seeing the second one and panicked a little. I treaded water and cleared my goggles and freaked out a little about how deep the water was. Then I did a little backstroking until I got my heart rate under control and started to front crawl again. I rounded the second buoy and found swimming into shore was pretty easy because of the current. My second loop was pretty easy and I found I was passing people and was generally just having fun. As I approached the last buoy I was a little disappointed that the swim was over and now it was on to the dreaded bike. The swim took me about 32 minutes.

The first transition was kinda funny. I was really dizzy from the swim and found myself walking sideways through the transition. Eventually I got everything straightened out and I was off on my bike.

Right out of the transition I saw two bikers run into each other and the a woman fell off her bike. I hope she was okay and her skin didn't turn into hamburger meat. She was only wearing a sports bra. The bike was a two loop course and I knew everybody was going to catch me. I took my time, drank when I needed it, and kept my heartrate down. The funniest thing I saw happened going down a hill. This guy flew pass me looping like the wicked witch of the west and he was pedaling like there was no tomorrow. Just as he passed me, his chain fell off and he had to stop to repair. Just made me laugh. Once the first loop was done, I was all alone. In fact, a volunteer told me I was the last person. Great! One of the first out of the water and one of the last ones off of the bike. I sang songs and tried to eat a powerbar (nearly impossible to do on the bike). I encouraged myself by talking to myself and I waved to the volunteers and thanked them. With only about 5 miles left on the bike I got passed by somebody which gave me encouragement that I might be able to catch someone on the run. As I came into the transition area I stood on my pedals and stretched my calves and hamstrings. My bike took about 2:19.

The run started off a little shaky. We ran right down by the beach which was slippery and then we ran on a grass trail which had horrible terrain. I walked this part mostly to take my bib off my shirt and attach it to my short. Then I took my shirt off and ran in my sports bra. It was pretty humid and the shirt was wet and weighing me down. As I got to the road I noticed that there were quite a few people on the run not that far in front of me. So I took little steps and just chopped away at them. By the end of the race I was averaging in the 8:00s and had passed probably 6 or 7 people. I finished in about 3:47.

I have no official time yet or placing, but I feel a lot more confident about doing Muncie.