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Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis - TriathlonOlympic


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Greenfield, Massachusetts
United States
Greenfield Recreation Department
80F / 27C
Sunny
Total Time = 3h 15m 25s
Overall Rank = 135/169
Age Group = 30-34 women
Age Group Rank = 15/17
Pre-race routine:

Drove to race site in 45 mins after a restful night in a local hotel.
Food: free hotel danish (~200 cals, all sugar and fat)
Drink: nothing but water, and even poured out 5oz. of OJ on the pavement when I realized "I don't want this acid in my tummy!"

Event warmup:

Arm circles and short 75 yd swim in the race site river to get wet and acclimated.
Swim
  • 22m 7s
  • 1109 yards
  • 01m 59s / 100 yards
Comments:

Shallow water made it less visually scary, but also intensified the current in places. My big complaint was that the waves were only 2 min apart, so I got swam over by others in the next 1-2 waves. Sucky, sucky, sucky. Still, my overall swim time and comfort was pretty good.
What would you do differently?:

Go faster! Seriously, I swim way too leisurely with a low HR. It's easy. I should make it harder and go faster.
Transition 1
  • 02m 7s
Comments:

No worries, mate. Easy cheezy.
What would you do differently?:

Try the shoe-in-pedal trick with rubberbands in practice, then race with it if it works.
Bike
  • 1h 45m 24s
  • 30.4 miles
  • 17.30 mile/hr
Comments:

I loved the pavement signs like "what would lance do?" and "believe!"-- the music before the covered bridge and the WWLD's was pretty awesome, too. I heard Will Smith's gettin' jiggy wit' it and Chaka Khan's feel for you remix on loops 2 and 4, respectively, of the bike. And by the time I ran through on loop 5 they were playing the pulp fiction soundtrack! Too fun.
What would you do differently?:

Pedal faster, go faster. I really felt like I had lead in my legs at times and wished that I'd given them a little more quick cadence work. It would've helped on the hills, no doubt. I just rode too conservatively, IMHO.
Transition 2
  • 01m 2s
Comments:

Easy and good T2.
What would you do differently?:

Try that one foot on, one leg over and off aproach in practice more and then maybe race with it, too.
Run
  • 1h 04m 51s
  • 7.2 miles
  • 09m 01s  min/mile
Comments:

Loved the volunteers every mile or so and the 6, count'em 6(!), water stops, which I was able to run through fairly easily. I did have a "rabbit" woman in fuschia and black in front of me, and I'd hoped to catch her. She teased and taunted me by walking through the water stops. But before I could get at her heels, she was off and running again, leading me forward. Also, a neat effect of my new sunglasses made the yellow lines appear to be reeling me in...no kidding, that effect pulled me towards a really strong finish. I really liked this run and felt great at the distance, which suprised me a little given my sparce run training.
What would you do differently?:

Try more cadence speed-ups and actually catch that "rabbit" next time!!

Post race
Warm down:

I walked to veggie smorgasboard in the post-race shade and waited for indiv/team awards. About 15 WWMS people were under our team tent, and it felt great to see all of them together, happy, and proud of themselves. We did really well, all finished strong, and took both 1st male and 1st female overall winner prizes! Maybe I'd have been 1st Athena, maybe not; we'll never know because they didn't award those prizes. That was disappointing to me personally, but no one else minded, so I let it go. As it was, here are my AG stats: 15/17 in F3034.
Among all 169 racers, I was
125 22:07 on swim
147 1:45:24 on bike
116 1:04:51 on run

Mediocre at best, so I should try harder/faster next year.


What limited your ability to perform faster:

Was I feeling conveservative for Timberman's 70.3 in just 2 weeks? I dunno. I think that's it. I just didn't go all out, but I did put in a good effort. And it's good that I'd thought that there would be Athena awards all along because that did motivate me to not get passed by some of the bigger women out there. As it is, I'm still proud of my performance today, but I'm sure that I could go faster on this course next year. Absolutely positive.

Event comments:

Lovely day, lovely race!
My flickr photos http://tinyurl.com/lo8jl




Last updated: 2006-08-06 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:22:07 | 1109 yards | 01m 59s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/17
Overall: 125/169
Performance: Average
Suit: Orca over Zoot suit
Course: Up and back, plus 1/2 loop along an odd up/downriver course. Milk jugs floated on yellow twine to mark the mid-river point, and we kept those on our right side.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 69F / 21C Current: Medium
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Average Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation:
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 02:07
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
01:45:24 | 30.4 miles | 17.30 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/17
Overall: 147/169
Performance: Average
Wind: None
Course: 4 loop with 2 hills on each -- one just after the T area, the other at mile 3.5 which includes a covered bridge. I just learned today that the second hill has a short 18% grade. No wonder it felt like a wall! But I did it...4 times on bike, and again 1 time on foot.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence: ?
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:02
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Bad
Jumping off bike Average
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
01:04:51 | 07.2 miles | 09m 01s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/17
Overall: 116/169
Performance: Average
None.
Course: Well, after 4 loops of nearly the same course on the bike, I was well aware of the 2 hills in store between miles 1-4 on the run. The jaunt off the bike course at mile 5 was a little confusing and I don't recall seeing the mile 5 marker on the pavement. That was a wee bit disturbing...
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %?
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2006-08-07 9:49 AM

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Master
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Cambridge, MA
Subject: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis


2006-08-07 10:02 AM
in reply to: #503981

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Expert
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Haddam, CT
Subject: RE: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis
Great job, Sunny!  Nice job on the run, especially.  And I love the flickr photos!  See you at Timberman!
2006-08-07 10:06 AM
in reply to: #503981

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Pro
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MA
Subject: RE: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis

Nice race, Sunny.  Love the Pulp Fiction music

Nice run speed after some fast biking 

2006-08-07 10:26 AM
in reply to: #503981

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Extreme Veteran
423
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Boston, MA
Subject: RE: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis
Great race! Sounds like you had a lot of fun out there and your splits were pretty good as well. The music on the bike course must have been awesome.

You're going to do great at Timberman!

2006-08-07 10:37 AM
in reply to: #503981

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Extreme Veteran
456
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Western Massachusetts
Subject: RE: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis

I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up at the race.  If I'd realized you were with WWMS I would have found you: your club had a noticeable presence at the race!

The lack of Athena/Clydesdale was partly inadvertant.  It wasn't on the PDF registration form and we couldn't remember if it was on the Active website (we didn't think it was) and we just didn't get results for it and couldn't remember if we were supposed to for the online registration people.  Did you register as an athena?  Since registration is closed on Active we can't go look.

I think it was okay, though, because this race has a strong ethic of "To Finish Is To Win" and every finisher gets a medal and the age group categories go up to the eighties.  That sort of handles the issue of inclusion.  Personally, as a woman who has gone from 244 to 164, I find the Athena category to be endlessly frustrating.  It always gets won by strapping college girls or very fit women (like you!) who can pull out 9 minute miles over a 7 mile run.  When "overweight" means "overfat" I think it helps people to be brave, but when "overweight" means "lots of LBM" I don't think it serves any purpose. 

I do think you've got a good point about the confusion on the run where you don't take the jog to the right.  By that time in the race you're suffering from oxygen-depletion-stupidity and we've got to make it REALLY CLEAR to people that they don't do the same thing they've just done four times.  The reason you don't turn is that it makes the run an extra half mile longer.  It's a long run at 7.1 miles as it is!

The other place I think we need to make it clearer is the turn just before the finish line.  I stood there yelling and waving ("turn right, straight to the clock, c'mon, finish strong, you can catch her!" and did that for about twenty minutes - until I was hoarse.  I think it's confusing to the runners to be coming down that hill towards the grandstand and not be able to spot the finish line. 

Anyway, good race!  I'm glad you liked the covered bridge music and the writing on the road, if not the 18% grade wall.  (Curious: did you read my race preview in the discussion thread associated with this race?  I tried to warn you!

2006-08-07 11:46 AM
in reply to: #503981

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Master
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Cambridge, MA
Subject: RE: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis

It's cool...I had fun, and wasn't counting on a division award anyway.  Your comments about the high LBM vs. high BMI are well-taken, and I agree completely.  It'd be nice to make some distinction that's not just based on the scale.  But in the end, I must remember that "to finish is to win".   Finishing a course that long and having missed the 5 mile marker on the run (so I was feeling quite confused about where I was on the course) always feels good!!  I'm just glad that I had the pre-race notes from Gwendal and the support of my team out there yesterday.  Everyone did so well!!

Thanks to all of you for the support and encouragement.  

I am happily nervous but excited for Timberman! 

See some of you there, others later on in the season, I hope, -Sunny



Edited by SunnyS 2006-08-07 11:48 AM


2006-08-07 12:31 PM
in reply to: #504194

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Elite
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New City, New York
Subject: RE: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis
luv the fun factor Sunny and a great run too! You'll do well at T-man - C U there!
2006-08-07 2:25 PM
in reply to: #503981

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Regular
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Vienna, VA
Subject: RE: Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis

Great job Sunny!  You did the right thing in taking it easy -- no sense in risking an injury with Timberman just around the corner.  You're going to ROCK!

 

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