Brrrr! Darn Cold "C" Race!

Today was the Buffalo Olympic tri that Cindy and I were going to do - to prep for our Half Ironman next weekend. Got to the race site bright and early (as usual) and got a great spot in transition. It was a chilly 48 degrees out with a nice and heafty wind a 'blowin....not to mention a bit of a drizzle. Lovely weather, huh?

So, the calf and hip were feeling pretty good this morning (no limping, at least) - so was crossing my fingers that I'd hold together. Made the decision that my bike gear was going to entail my jacket and gloves after my warm-up bike ride. Jen M. kindly even borrowed me a long sleeve tech shirt to add to the mix. Ironman Jim contributed bootie warmers for my bike shoes so my toes didn't freeze up. (What a great pit crew!)

Well, the race started and the water temp was great - much, much warmer than the air (74 degrees)! I took 'er out easy on the swim (.9 mi) and think I maybe went a little wide on my first leg of the triangle. Swim felt so-so, think I was singing some Lady Gaga songs to myself in my head for most of the swim. My third leg of the swim got a bit choppy in the water on the way back to the beach - which was fun (inhaled a bit of water there). Got out of the water and headed to transition. Had the best cheerleaders at the race too - Mom, Dad, Angie & Aurelia, Andrea, Heidi and Mags - in addition to the TCMC peeps that I workout with! What a crew! (Thanks for coming guys!!!)

Well, transition wasn't the snappiest, since I had to put on all that gear to battle the cold wind coming up, but got outta there and onto the road. I was a bit paranoid riding my Zipp 808 race wheels in this level of wind (so what else is new?). I didn't want to get whipped around. Thankfully, I kept them pretty under control and am glad I got that under my belt for a bit of confidence for upcoming races.

The only darn incident on the bike entailed a U-turn at the end of a dog-leg on the course where the girl in front of me was going in tight (so I went out wide) and she zigged out in front of me because she was going too tight, I guess. I couldn't clip out of my pedal fast enough and ended up tipping over...getting a nice little scrape on my knee. Luckily, I was basically standing still when I tipped and there was no damage. Just annoyance with the girl and my obviously lack of pedal un-clipping abilities for the day. Grrr....

The rest of the ride was just wet and cold...bike split was a tad slower than last year - but the conditions were much, worse too. I got into transition and was hoping my legs were gonna hold me through the 6.2 mile run. Crazily, they felt pretty good! I took it out pretty easy, just trying to hold a good and comfortable pace. I had 2 hills that started to aggravate my back (I thought that guy was GONE!), so ended taking a small walk break through those, but then got back at it. My run split ended up pretty good, averaging 9:15/mile. Happy with that! Finally, a better split than last year!!! 1 out of 3 isn't bad...right?

I finished up in 2:51:30, about 2.5 minutes slower than last year's race (9th place in my division of 24). Was a bit disappointing not to PR, but looking at results, it seems that that the weather affected a lot of people this year (again...the analyst in me). So, was happy to finish comparably and without too many problems. Got a great medal and gear from the race (T-shirt, visor and stainless steel water bottle). Now, I think I'm due for a recovery massage this week and then it's the Liberty Half IM next Saturday - boy is that sneaking up!