Julia Untapered

Among a plethora of fun activities from the weekend, I got to race my last multi-sport race of the season.  I should preface the race review with a summary of the weekend:

Friday: Triathlete Night Out!  Had a blast meeting new friends from the twitterverse!  The evening included appearances by: Jordan (@JordanRVance), Joe @joevukson @1BandID), Jamie (@jamesonbull)  (yeah J’s!) and Allyson (@swim_bike_run) (who is awesome, too, despite not having a J name .  We met at a great new place in Kendall Square: Firebrand Saints.  Granted, I say “new” though apparently some in our group had been there often enough to make recommendations on drink orders.

Saturday: Tried out an awesome new class sponsored by VMPS, a terrific triathlon center in Millbury, MA.  I did their Computraining class and loved it!  As I’ve stated here before- my cycling is by far my weak spot in my triathlon.  Certainly, I’ve got room to improve the run and swim too, but in comparison to those quickies whizzing past me on the bike race course, it makes it look like I’m riding a tricycle  :)  Therefore, I’m doing something about it!  I have Wheelworks  to thank for my awesome new bike!  It’s a beautiful LeMond Buenos Aires with newly fashioned pink Speedplays pedals.  It’s awesome.  They fit me for it in the shop last week and it feels like a glove.  It’s really nice to clip in again.  You can see my Thank you post to Wheelworks here!  Saturday evening might have included an amazing show in Harvard Square.  Said show might have included a lot of dancing, 70s attire, sequins, roller skates and a pretty amazing time all in all.  I highly recommend it  “The Donkey Show” (better than it sounds, I promise!)  Happens every Saturday and it’s just $25 or $15 for students!

Sunday, RACE day!  The Wrentham Halloween Duathlon had been postponed a week because of our freak snow storm last week.  I woke up really early on the day everyone else got an extra hour of sleep!  That is mostly because, due to being pretty sick, I wasn’t sure I could muster the energy to race.  But I woke up and thought, ”Hey, it’s my last chance to race this season; why not?”  Not the most aggressive, competitive mental state really, but enough to get me on the road.  When I arrived in Wrentham, a solid 2 hours early for the race, there was still FROST on the ground.  Now, I love challenging conditions in general, and in fact, I like colder weather racing.  However, I am a wuss when it comes to winter RIDING!  Just isn’t my strong suit.  Nonetheless, I signed up (yep, hadn’t registered yet), went back to my car to get my stuff for transition and realized…. I had…2 pairs of bike shoes and…. no running shoes.  WHAT?!  Did I really do that?!  Did I really show up to a race without running shoes?  Oh boy.  I quickly swallowed my pride and found Wendy, one of the head Race Directors for FIRM racing.  She is awesome (and is donating a FREE race entry to my Fundraiser!) and asked if she happened to have any extra racers around.  She didn’t; but her daughter did.  Thank you a million times, guys!  I ended up trading shoes around a few times and when Jean-Louis and Julia (so many J’s in my life, I love it!), Juls realized her shoes would be a little more suitable for racing… luckily she was just there as a spectator to cheer on Jean-Louis and her dad (which was awesome of her– big racing happy family).  So, there I was… all requisite shoes in hand, and setting up my transition.  Shoes were about 1/2 size too big but let’s be honest- beggard (or people about to race) can’t be choosers when you have basically NO alternative, I was just happy to have shoes!  I played a few tunes, danced instead of standing still, then ran about 1-2 miles to warm up… as the frost was slowly disappearing from the ground.  I felt great by the start of the race- stuffy and with a chest cold still- but warmer and muscle-ready.

Run 1: 3 miles– started the race toward the front of the pack.  I knew I was running a little too quickly with being sick and all, but I was feeling good, relaxed shoulders and I knew it was a short one so why not?  I got out in front, watched Jean-Louis take OFF in front of me and spent the rest of the run making sure there weren’t any women in front of me  Finished in about 20 minutes.  From there I cam into transition… eeeek.

T1: Hilarious.  Being cold, not wearing one’s own shoes, and a new bike make for a terrible transition… that is all.

Bike, 11miles: Hillllllls, it’s what’s for breakfast.  Holy cow. I think partly due to being sick and partly due to a new bike- this course was pretty challenging for being so short.  It was just a rolling course with one really gigantic hill around mile 7.  I actually managed to slip OUT of my pedal when switching gears on the hill!  Careful peeps- that’s how you lose your chain- I just lucked out I was able to get my foot back in pretty quickly.  Finished in 35 minutes- at about an 18.5 mph pace. Not bad for the course and conditions, but could really use some work!  A woman BLEW by me at about mile 6 and made it look like I was a rec rider.  She had such a smooth cadence and so much quicker than my own I knew I wouldn’t pass her back.  Shucks!

T2: Also hilarious, see above.

Run 2, 2 miles: Just went for it. I figured- there’s no reason not to just get after it and see what happens.  I quickly saw the hilariously clad Ginerbread man ahead of me– it’s a giant suit and I couldn’t believe he was wearing it… and beating me.  So, naturally, I decided that wouldn’t do.  I needed to beat Mr. Ginergerbread Man.  That’s basically how I got through the final run; I inched up on him slowly, passed him at the mile mark and made sure I had the speed to stay ahead.  Just as I made the last turn I heard, “And the first woman finisher is… Christine…”  not me, obviously.  It was no surprise but also nice to know I was less than a minute behind her. Finished in 13:20.

1:11 overall, 2nd Woman, 1st Age Group.  

Great race by FIRM racing, as usual.  Great prizes, beautiful bouquet of flowers (still in my kitchen!) and a nice gift certificate to Tri-Sports online!

All in all a great end to the season!

Question for the masses: how do you like to end your season? Do you pick a big final race? or a fun one?  What makes a race really fun to you– amenities? Prizes? Food?