Mini Musselman July 10, 2010
Official race start for the race was 9am, and transition opened at 7am. I had picked up my registration packet the day before so I planned on being at the park at 7:30am with my friend Jim to set up transition and get ready for the race. 5:45am my alarm went off and I shaved and showered and had a cliff bar at 6am, followed by 2 ensure drinks between 6 and 8am. I packed most of my transition stuff and a bag with back ups (goggles, shorts, jersey, shoes/laces etc) the night before, so it did not take long to put my bike, pump and bags into the truck and I headed to Jim’s house at 6:30am. I picked him up and we headed to Geneva at 7:10am, arriving at the State Park at 7:30 as planned. After arriving we got body marking and timing chips and set up our transitions. I ended up having to run back to my truck twice, first forgetting my helmet, then my swim cap. Every time I went to the truck to get more stuff I left more there (the shoes/shorts/shirt I was wearing pre-race). By the time transition was set up I had nothing but keys to leave with my stuff in transition and finished setting up just in time to meander over to the swim start for the pre-race meeting. The swim was 750 meters, from point A to point B. Up the canal, one left turn to the boat launch and exit at the boat launch. The bike was a 16.1 out-and-back bike loop, that went 2 miles up hill then some rolling hills for 12 miles, then 2 miles downhill back to the park. The run was a very flat 3.2 miles along Seneca Lake shore in the State Park. My age group started 2nd, in a floating/trading start in the mouth of the channel. There were 53 in my age group (male and female). They allowed 6 minutes between waves, and after the first wave took off, it took almost all that to get my wave into the water and out to the buoys to where we were starting. That was the only part of the race I thought was not well planned out.
SWIM
When I made it to the start line I heard “45 seconds to start” and found myself in the middle of the group, about 3 rows back from the front. I had originally planned on being on the far right of the start, preferably in the 1st row, as I was hoping for a relatively strong swim start. The horn sounded and I was immediately in traffic, stuck behind a large group of slow(er) swimmers. It took me roughly 150 to get through the initial thrashing of passing slower traffic, and wasted a lot of energy on my part. After that the swim went smoothly. In the last 100 yards I ran into heavy traffic from the wave before mine. At this time splits have not been posted so I will update this once they are.
T1
Came out of the water easily thanks to the lovely mats placed in the water on the boat launch (I watched a girl right in front of me stand up to early and comically slip over and over trying to get to the mats). The run to transition was stony but I passed several people hobbling along the path. No issues putting on socks and shoes. I did forget my sunglasses for the ride, but I did not notice that until about 6 miles in.
BIKE
Started the ride well, slowed a little in the middle and ended strong I thought/felt. The middle 4 miles I was getting passed a little too much and after a personal pep talk I took back some of the places I had lost. In the last 5 miles I started feeling some pain in my abdomen. I was not sure if it was from riding in a weird position or what, but it was not much of a concern. No splits posted yet, will update this once I get splits.
T2
Got off the bike and immediately felt crappy. Hard to breathe with a pretty intense pain in the area of my right kidney and the abdominal pain that started in the bike was still there too. I hobbled to transition and had some difficulties with my running shoes (just fumbling getting them on) because bending over was causing me more pain. Made sure to grab my sunglasses this time!
RUN
On the way out of T2 I passed my friend Jim who had started in the wave before me, so I was pretty happy about that (personal rivalry hehe). I started the run pretty strong even though the pain in my gut was still present. The kidney pain had gone away luckily. Mile 1 had no other issues. I found my stride and was having a fun run. Around mile 2 the pain in my abdomen was turning more crampy and I was having problems keeping my pace and I slowed way down and started to get passed by a lot of people. Around mile 2.5 I had to stop and spent about a minute doubled over/sitting on the side of the course with a very intense pain, and considered dropping out/walking back to the finish at this point. After waiting for a while I started back up and ran the rest of the way at a much slower pace, but finished the run running. Put some effort into the last 200 yards but did not have a spectacular finish. I would guess I lost 3 minutes on the run do to the abd cramp/pain.
FINISH/POST RACE NOTES
Spent a little time sitting after the race and the pain slowly went away with nothing but rest. Took a dip in the lake to get the sweat off and went to eat a bagel and drink some water. Felt fine about 20 minutes after the race. Finishing time was 1:36. I don’t have splits or age group info yet. I think I’ll be around the middle of my age group. I think if I had the choice of starting my swim where I wanted to and had a better run I would be a lot happier with the race, but all in all I had a lot of fun and that is what counts. I won’t really know how I did until results are posted and I will pass that information along when it becomes available.
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