Parris Island Sprint Tri

Wow, how funny that two weeks after a winter wonderland blog I am talking about a triathlon. Gotta love SC weather! 
 
The Parris Island Race is a sprint that takes place on a marine base in Beaufort, and the scenery is beautiful! I hate pool swims, but they are well worth when you get to see how fast (or slow for me) you can go on the flat course. Jeff, Ashley, Sarah and I left Friday afternoon excited to be going on a trip but apprehensive to be doing a triathlon. I don’t think any of us were what we would called prepared for the race, but who cares! It’s about having fun . . . right? Atleast that’s what I say up until the point the race starts and I feel pain. The new mantra, it’s supposed to hurt it’s a race, it’s supposed to hurt it’s a race. Thanks Ashley, much better than the Pink song Jeff kept making us sing. The trip down was fun, we passed a trailer truck with only a toy bulldozer strapped to the back and Ashley and I managed to do our own karaoke version of Gangsta’s Paradise. Yes, we know all the words. Your jealous, aren’t you .. . 
 
Fast forward to race day. I didn’t sleep at all the night before, the wonderful stomach didn’t agree with much of anything from Friday. I even managed to sneak Jeff’s big doolie and dash over to the nearest Walgreens for help in the middle of the night. He didn’t have a clue, hehehehe. Anyway, it was freezing. No rain, but freezing. I kept trying to remember what I was supposed to do in transition, and figure out what to wear once I came out of the pool. I was told I would never live it down if I put on a wind jacket for warmth in a sprint, so I opted for just the sleeveless tri outfit. I then learned that the bike course was no longer 13 miles, it was 10.8 and decide cold was ok for that distance. I was beginning to get a little nervous since the amount of speedwork I have done is zilch. My training was not for much of anything, and especially not a sprint. I figured I would just give it my all and hope for the best. 
 
I was just going to take the swim strong but not too hard, for the life of me I couldn’t remember what I had even put down for my 100 time. I know when I keyed it I told myself to check with Keogh, but somehow forgot. I was just hoping to not hold people up. Yeah, that wasn’t exactly the case at all. The person in front of me didn’t show up for the race so I had 15 seconds of free and clear water in front of me. I was happy with that, I like to swim by myself and not worry about drafting and what not. The unfortunate part was it didn’t last but for 3 laps. I managed to pass 3 or 4 people, and am a little embarassed about how I clawed over them. I just didn’t think anyone was going to let me go, so I made my own hole. Oh well, that’s what happens in the pool. I came out of the pool at 8:54, which put me a few secs better then last year. 
 
I make it through transition, and out to start the new bike course. I passed a few people but my legs just weren’t pushing the gears I thought they should or going the speed that I would normally go. I refused to look at the speed after the first few minutes, just telling myself to go on effort and feel. I would look at cadence randomly but knew the power wasn’t there. All I could hope for was that I could pull out a decent run.
 
I start the run feeling great, like I normally do, and realize the stupid garmin has frozen again. So I am SOL as far as knowing my pace. WOOHOO! Not. Ok, here we go, back to running on feel. I just wanted to give it my all and leave it on that run course. All the pain from the last year, all the daily irritants, and everything else that isn’t positive. No mile markers anywhere. By half way through the run I don’t know if I can keep the pace. I make these little goals like right around the corner, or start the mantra again. Remind myself I can do anything for 22 minutes. The run course was changed as well, so I didn’t exactly know at what point I was where. By the time I am at the turnaround I know I just have to make it back to the finish. I finished in a time of 1:05:45 knowing the run was under 22 minutes. It didn’t feel like an under 22 mins. 5k. I had no oomph for the speed. Shortly after I am told the run was 2.9 miles by someone with a garmin. Oh well, I had fun! I really did. My bike avg. was 18.5 mph which is pretty slow for me, my swim was a little better than last year, and I am not even taking the time to figure out what my run would have been. 
 
The best part of the entire day was the awards ceremony. Yes, I placed 1st but that’s not it . . . Jeff got pooed on by a bird! How funny is that! I mean, how fitting, the awards for overall finishers had eagles on them and I think that eagle meant to get even with being put on that trophy. Sorry Jeff, but it was hysterical! 
 
Congrats to all who placed, I think half of gvegas did. Thanks to everyone who cheered for me, it helped and always does! Oh, and I proved you don’t need a tailbone to do a triathlon!
 

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