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The West Kennebunk FireMan Triathlon swim was touted as a 1/3 mile swim, but I’m going to go ahead and claim it was longer.
Closer to 1/2 mile.
Otherwise I’d have to say I suck at swimming because I got a 13:33 split on the swim. Oh yeah, the swim: 13 1/2 minutes of “where the fuck am I? Is that the buoy, or is it some other swimmer?”, followed closely by “Shore? Which shore? Why are there rocks there?” and “Ok, I thought that swimming back to shore was going to be easier because the waves were going to help me.”
Mmm, ocean swimming. Tasty.
After the little swim fiasco, things started to look up. I started in the 3rd wave, so I had a bunch of targets I could pick off on the ride - I managed to get the 34th fastest bike split, so I was constantly calling out “On your left!” as I rode my victims down.
And then there was the run. Somebody should tell triathlon race directors that they could apply for the position of Chief Assistant to Satan. The run course started out uphill. For the first mile. Oh, and they marked the first mile point at about 1.2 miles just so they could fuck with you and make you think you were running slower than you were. As it turns out I managed a 7:15 - 7:20 pace, so I was fairly pleased with the run.
And that culminated in a 53rd place finish out of about 370 competitors in a time of 1:23:53, 65th ranked swim, 34th ranked bike and 88th rank on the run. Kerry, of course, beat me. Again. For the 6th time in 8 triathlons this year.
Which brings me to my apparent loss of sanity.
I’ve just signed up for Lobsterman. It’s an Olympic distance tri. With an ocean swim.
I’m going to die.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
AHEM…
I had the 26th fastest bike split.
- I did not race the Lowell triathlon in July. Had I raced there, I clearly would have beaten you.
I ran 6:28 pace for the run.
I was only about 1:30 behind you on the swim.
You have been beaten by me 6 out of 7 times (not 6 out of
And let us not forget the only reason you beat me in the first race was because you sabotaged my bike.
I love you, honey! <3
Oops, sorry. I’ve raced 8 times this year. That’s what I meant.
And, of course, remember that you have Zipp 404’s, an aero fork, an aero helmet and about 10 years of bike racing over me. You should be beating me by more than 47 seconds on the bike.
Next year you’re going down.
From what I’ve read so far about your tri experiences, it seems like you’re not really enjoying yourself. Or, perhaps you’re just a sicko who likes to suffer, write about how bad it was afterwards, then sign on for more suffering. Seems like vicious circle to me.
And, by the way, Kerry should definitely be destroying you on the bike. I think all this running/swimming has wrecked her biking mojo.
I’m definitely of the sicko bent. Just went out and ran 11 miles with Kerry. Of course I didn’t hydrate properly, so let’s just say that it was a less-than-pleasant 2nd half of the run: the first half felt good, and then in the 2nd half someone dropped a fridge on my back and dipped my shoes in molasses.
I figured as much …
4 questions:
1. Was today’s 11 miler your longest single run so far? If so, that might explain the 2nd half collapse.
2. What pace did you start out at? Was is nice and easy or Kerry’s usual break neck 7:00 min/mile training pace?
3. What are you paying Kerry to coach you? Whatever it is, it’s too much. She should be making sure you’re properly hydrated before starting out. Unless she’s purposely trying to break you - which is entirely possible.
4. Why are you still running with her? Oh, wait a second, I forgot about the sicko part.
Yup, it was my longest run thus far. Previously I’d managed a 9 1/2 mile run (it was supposed to be a 10 mile run but I took a wrong turn).
We started out at about a 7:30 pace and maintained that for the first half of the run and then I essentially blew up. As much as I’d love to blame someone else for my lack of hydration, it was really all my own fault. I goofed off the previous two days and didn’t bother to drink enough water and didn’t take any with me on the run (I’d managed without any water until then, so naively I just didn’t think about it - I’m still struggling with trying to make nutrition a prominent part of my whole regimen).
As to why I’m still running with her? Well, there’s the part where I’m too scared to NOT run with her. Then there’s the whole sicko part. And, of course, there’s the minor detail of her living with me. Oh, and then there’s the part whereby I can’t stand just sitting around and seeing someone else go out and run …
AHEM.
It has been a long standing tradition that I always do something long/epic on my birthday in regards to training.
Last year I ran 13miles to work at 5 in the morning. The year before I think I just bike commuted each way on my fixed gear. Some years I get roped into racing my bike in a stage race that day.
So I had decided that today was an appropriate day for my longest run of 2008. (still coming back slow from injury, still pain free).
Nobody forced you to go with me. That was entirely your own doing. And I was the one that declined the second glass of wine last night. You, on the other hand…
I, on the other hand, tried to decline the remnants of your glass of wine, but I was forced into it by yours truly telling me that I had to drink it. Of course, since it was soon to be your birthday, I thought that discretion was the better part of valor (actually, I think that pretty much every day) and elected to finish your wine for you just so that you’d have a great run on your birthday, today.
In other words, I committed an heroic act of self-sacrifice so that you’d be well-prepared for your epic-ish run and that I’d be sufficiently trashed in order to make you feel even more superior than you already are.
I’m also planning on letting myself get trashed in tomorrow’s 3-stage 112+ mile bike-run-bike love fest, just so that I can feel completely inadequate and make you look even better.
Yay me.
I’m turning 40 this year. Care to join me for 1/2 of my 40 miles on that day (Nov. 17th)? 20 in the am and then 20 more in the pm. Epic.
Sure. Why not. I just rode 114 miles yesterday and swam 1 mile today. What’s a short little 20 miler …