Splash'n'Dash July 2012 race report.
Unseasonably cool! You wouldn't figure it could happen every single S&D for 2012, but it might be that it's going to happen! Of course, I think it was still probably the hottest S&D so far this year, but maybe low-mid 90s, instead of over 100! We'll take what we can get.
I lined up in the second row, per usual, even though I'm not second-row fast. Just that nobody else wants to tread water for 3 minutes, and I don't mind, so why not. Fish, Kristi, Jen.. all those people I come in many minutes after and could never, ever draft off of are right in front of me. Kinda silly. And Laurie right behind me, to draft off me.
They said go, we went, and I was wide of the buoys, trying to avoid people, which always spells doom for drafting. Just did my own thing and felt slow because my arms were still sore from Couples. Racing twice in rapid succession isn't the secret to success in the second race, for sure.
I noticed as I neared the second buoy that there was a girl near me with a familiar bathing suit. I'd seen her before in past S&Ds, around me during the swim. Evidently we swim around the same speed. I considered trying to get on her feet, but I was pulling ever so slowly ahead of her, and so just decided to continue doing my own thing. Eventually around the far buoy I lost sight of her. Right around that time, someone started touching my feet. I didn't at all make the connection, but evidently, I found out after, this was Marla, of whom I'd heard but never met, and she was drafting off me, evidently again, since she said she'd ended up drafting off the same TxFe person again.
So I led her the rest of the way through the swim and through the obstacle course of back of the pack men. Then she went on to run sub-7s for the run, so .. yeah. At least we swim around the same pace!
Out of the water and into my shoes and sunglasses. Catherine cheered for me as a spectator, and I told her I needed her out there to be my rabbit and reverse rabbit. Then out onto the run.
The name of the game was staying upright with untwisted ankles. The recent heavy rains had torn up the trail a bit, so you had to do some mountain goating in spots to get through.
First time I ran by the water stop, it was too crowded to make my way to the inside to get water. Then the next two times, I was too busy staying upright and concentrating to remember to get water. I was pretty parched by the end. Not my best decision.
But the run was okay. Michelle told me to slap Betsy on the ass, so I did, and Betsy said she'd just slapped Laura on the ass (yay, sister out at S&D!). Then later I slapped David on the ass, too, just to get the whole family. Lots of folks I knew were out there, so I got a lot of out-of-breath cheering in, including singing Happy Birthday to Sandra about 80 times that night.
And then around the corner on the last loop, I came up on Pam, and used her as my rabbit and slingshot to get my ass over the finish line.
Not my fastest S&D, for sure, and not sub-30.
Results:
30:05 total
14:05 swim+T1 (13:12 standalone swim by my watch)
15:58 run
(5:25 (8:05/M), 5:19 (7:56/M), 5:14 (7:49/M))
13th woman (of 79).
I was kinda hoping August was the last S&D, and we'll be in Mont-Tremblant, but alas there's a September, too. We'll see if they seem more appealing when I'm not in the middle of Ironman training. Or maybe I'll just go cheer with the dogs.
I lined up in the second row, per usual, even though I'm not second-row fast. Just that nobody else wants to tread water for 3 minutes, and I don't mind, so why not. Fish, Kristi, Jen.. all those people I come in many minutes after and could never, ever draft off of are right in front of me. Kinda silly. And Laurie right behind me, to draft off me.
They said go, we went, and I was wide of the buoys, trying to avoid people, which always spells doom for drafting. Just did my own thing and felt slow because my arms were still sore from Couples. Racing twice in rapid succession isn't the secret to success in the second race, for sure.
I noticed as I neared the second buoy that there was a girl near me with a familiar bathing suit. I'd seen her before in past S&Ds, around me during the swim. Evidently we swim around the same speed. I considered trying to get on her feet, but I was pulling ever so slowly ahead of her, and so just decided to continue doing my own thing. Eventually around the far buoy I lost sight of her. Right around that time, someone started touching my feet. I didn't at all make the connection, but evidently, I found out after, this was Marla, of whom I'd heard but never met, and she was drafting off me, evidently again, since she said she'd ended up drafting off the same TxFe person again.
So I led her the rest of the way through the swim and through the obstacle course of back of the pack men. Then she went on to run sub-7s for the run, so .. yeah. At least we swim around the same pace!
Out of the water and into my shoes and sunglasses. Catherine cheered for me as a spectator, and I told her I needed her out there to be my rabbit and reverse rabbit. Then out onto the run.
The name of the game was staying upright with untwisted ankles. The recent heavy rains had torn up the trail a bit, so you had to do some mountain goating in spots to get through.
First time I ran by the water stop, it was too crowded to make my way to the inside to get water. Then the next two times, I was too busy staying upright and concentrating to remember to get water. I was pretty parched by the end. Not my best decision.
But the run was okay. Michelle told me to slap Betsy on the ass, so I did, and Betsy said she'd just slapped Laura on the ass (yay, sister out at S&D!). Then later I slapped David on the ass, too, just to get the whole family. Lots of folks I knew were out there, so I got a lot of out-of-breath cheering in, including singing Happy Birthday to Sandra about 80 times that night.
And then around the corner on the last loop, I came up on Pam, and used her as my rabbit and slingshot to get my ass over the finish line.
Not my fastest S&D, for sure, and not sub-30.
Results:
30:05 total
14:05 swim+T1 (13:12 standalone swim by my watch)
15:58 run
(5:25 (8:05/M), 5:19 (7:56/M), 5:14 (7:49/M))
13th woman (of 79).
I was kinda hoping August was the last S&D, and we'll be in Mont-Tremblant, but alas there's a September, too. We'll see if they seem more appealing when I'm not in the middle of Ironman training. Or maybe I'll just go cheer with the dogs.