Spirit of Racine Aquabike

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Spirit of Racine Aquabike - Aquabike

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Racine, Wisconsin
United States
Victory Man Racing
75F / 24C
Overcast

Total Time = 3h 17m 52s
Overall Rank = 13/28
Age Group = Females
Age Group Rank = 6/16

Pre-race routine:

Laura (StartingToTri) is a much more diligent triathlete than I am, and she wanted to get a jump on transition and arrive early, around 5 AM. I agreed to go with her, along with Jessica and Ellen... If we were operating on LST (Laura Standard Time) I probably wouldn't have even gotten out of bed til 6. (!!!) It's good for me to put other people in charge of getting places on time.

We ate some bagels with peanut butter and hung out for 3 full hours while we waited for the fog to clear. The fog never really cleeared. The race went off anyway.... after an hour delay.

Event warmup:

Walking about a mile down the beach to the swim start!

Swim

32m 23s
2112 yards
01m 32s / 100 yards

Comments:

I had the third fastest swim of all the Aquabikers. Or at least all of the Aquabikers that were posted.

I was swimming along... doing swimmingly... got myself a fast pair of feet and drafted for a fair amount of the swim. We broke thru the 2 waves ahead of us... It was very hard to sight. The announcer had said..."Go to the yellow buoy and turn right..." So a big pack of us navigated in the fog toward a yellow buoy... When the lot of us arrived, we were informed we were at the WRONG BUOY and we had to turn around, swim to the correct buoy, round it, and come back in order to finish properly.

I turned around. Many others didn't. The water was cold and I think most people just wanted to get the heck out of it. I wouldn't have been able to live with the guilt of not swimming the correct course.

Had a head on collision with another person who turned around to hit the buoy. That was startling.

This water was cold. Like Coeur d'Alene cold.

What would you do differently?:

Not sure. Obviously sight better, don't follow an errant group...

Transition 1

03m 9s

Comments:

I got my wetsuit stuck on my heels and calves... I fought with it for several minutes, ultimately stepping on it and ripping my left leg out of it, and then my right. After I got out of my wetsuit, I mistakenly put my flip flops on instead of my bike shoes. I stood there for a moment, and was like... "This isn't right!" and quickly put my bike shoes on.

I lack focus in transition. Especially in a large transition area... it's easy for me to get distracted. "Oh, look! Shiny!"

What would you do differently?:

Pay attention. Focus. Concentrate.

Bike

2h 42m 20s
56 miles
20.70 mile/hr

Comments:

Hammered. Wanted to go hard, and test out my nutrition plan for Steelhead. I think I will need a bit more as far as calories go, in order to run 13 miles afterwards.

What would you do differently?:

Not much. I love the Aquabike... swim. bike. DONE! None of that misery with the running afterwards. I was in a much better mood after finishing this race than I usually am. I'm usually sort of disgruntled at the finish line. When I finished this race I was downright euphoric!

Post race

Warm down:

Gathered myself in transition, chatted briefly with Maggyruth.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Nothing, really, except my 10 mile run the previous day. My legs were tired when I got started. My sleep was sporadic as well...so, actually, I'm pretty happy with how this panned out, except for the transition time.

Event comments:

I think HFP must have sold this race or started a partnership with another race organizer, as everything was just a little "different" this year. A little less organized.

The Aquabike is an awesome concept and I love it. However, they need to learn how to "handle" it better. After we got swallowed up into T2, we had to figure out how to give our chips back, and track down our own medals. We get no finish line photo, no announcement, and absolutely no fanfare at all. Aquabike is definitely an afterthought. :(

Last updated: 2008-07-16 12:00 AM

Swimming
00:32:23 \| 2112 yards \| 01m 32s / 100yards
Age Group:	3/16
Overall:	0/28
Performance:	Average
I think this swim was a wee bit short.
Suit:	QR long john
Course:	70 M out, turn right, and swim... and swim...in the shallow water, then turn around a yellow buoy and swim back in. Water was so shallow you could have walked the swim, and some people did!
Start type:	Run	Plus:	Waves
Water temp:	54F / 12C	Current:
200M Perf.	Good	Remainder:	Good
Breathing:	Good	Drafting:	Good
Waves:		Navigation:	Below average
Rounding:	Good

T1
Time:	03:09
Performance:	Below average
Cap removal:	Bad	Helmet on/ Suit off:	Yes
Wetsuit stuck?	Yes	Run with bike:	Yes
Jump on bike:	No
Getting up to speed:	Good

Biking
02:42:20 \| 56 miles \| 20.70 mile/hr
Age Group:	0/16
Overall:	0/28
Performance:	Good
None. Rode entirely by "feel". When my quads started to feel like they were exploding, I let off a bit.
Wind:	Little
Course:	A wee bit different than last year, except I can't tell you exactly how.
Road:	Smooth Dry	Cadence:
Turns:	Good	Cornering:	Good
Gear changes:	Good	Hills:
Race pace:	Too hard	Drinks:	Just right

Post race
Weight change:	%
Overall:	Good
Mental exertion [1-5]	4
Physical exertion [1-5]	5
Good race?	Yes

Evaluation
Course challenge	Just right
Organized?	Yes
Events on-time?	No
Lots of volunteers?	Yes
Plenty of drinks?	Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]	4