Saltwater's good for you, right?
After yesterday's disastrous run, I'm very glad I had the validation of today's race.
The PT god gave me permission to run on Friday. I thought about going hiking instead, but when Russ, da Bunny, the icthyrabdic one, and Jay all agree on something, only a complete fool would do otherwise. Ok, what swayed me was getting to sleep in :) Anywho, I got to the run late in the afternoon, when it was 96 deg and dreadfully humid. I =hope= that's the reason my heart rate averaged 163 for a 36min, 3.43mi run :S
It didn't dawn on me until we were in line for the start that we'd be going in the water, where all stuff is, like those jellyfish floating along the sides. Eek. I'd forgotten how to put on a swim cap dry, but Evil English showed me. Had a funny exchange with my Green Angel:
Green Angel: So you're swimming this year, huh?
Me: yeah.
Green Angel: How long have you been training?
Me: about a month now.
Green Angel: Huh. What's your training regimen been?
Me: I try to make sure I get to the pool at least once a week.
Green Angel: Have you ever swum in open water before?
Me: Does scuba diving count?
Green Angel: ...
Evil English, incidentally, was our swimmer last year, but she somehow thought we weren't going to compete and found a different team, so I vaguely wanted to beat her in the swimming.
I started on the ledge. The gun went off, I hopped in the water - and bc I've been conditioned to think airgun + water = Go faster Kate!, I started sprinting down the river. Which brought me into the scrum I'd been trying to avoid by starting from the ledge *sighs*
I think I zigzagged a bit, bc of the current and the difficulty seeing. The water was way better than the pool at camp on Sat morning, which I still say tasted like santorum. Not being able to tell how far I'd gone was the toughest part, I think, esp. since the markers were in meters and I had to do the conversion in my head, although that was sort of good bc it gave my brain something to do while I slogged along. The sun came fully up as we swam, which was a delightful touch. Less delightful was the facefull of sting I got about two-thirds of the way down: I later found out others had also been stung by jellyfish. My face is still stingy, actually :( Also, how are jellyfish alive in the Hudson??
I did a proper finish a la Aspen and I like that they have people on hand to give you a hand out of the water. My Green Angel warned me about the run from swim exit to transition being long, but hi? runner? He gave me a "you go girl" as I ran past him at tempo pace.
Took me 21:55 to swim the 1.4K, which brought us in well ahead of Evil English's team. Our biker was relatively slow and returned a minute after Evil English's. Our ex-military, ex-marathoner pinch runner made it up though and we beat them by 6 minutes. Boo to the yah! Looking at everyone's times, it was clear that the heat affected everyone. Worse, word got out that the relays are easy picking and another team slid between us and a podium finish. Still, we beat the bad guys...
Edit: Forgot to mention... y'know how we were having problems with our team? Cogsworth's team from last year ditched him, both bc of his gender and bc he's laughably slow and even worse now that he's dating some tart *ahem*, but their replacement swimmer had a family event she wanted to go to, their biker has been "not quite right" since she got back from the Amazon, and their runner has been sidelined by an IT band injury as well. Ai. Yah.
In other news, I bought an iPod protector from H2O Audio at the race expo; while it was too late for this race, I may start swimming regularly, esp since I decided to quit running. 'course, no sooner had I decided to do that, but I chatted with the wife of a co worker, who (a) has done sprint triathlons without owning a bike, using the spin class + rental method I was considering and (b) is running the WDW marathon and wants everyone to join her. GAH!
The PT god gave me permission to run on Friday. I thought about going hiking instead, but when Russ, da Bunny, the icthyrabdic one, and Jay all agree on something, only a complete fool would do otherwise. Ok, what swayed me was getting to sleep in :) Anywho, I got to the run late in the afternoon, when it was 96 deg and dreadfully humid. I =hope= that's the reason my heart rate averaged 163 for a 36min, 3.43mi run :S
It didn't dawn on me until we were in line for the start that we'd be going in the water, where all stuff is, like those jellyfish floating along the sides. Eek. I'd forgotten how to put on a swim cap dry, but Evil English showed me. Had a funny exchange with my Green Angel:
Green Angel: So you're swimming this year, huh?
Me: yeah.
Green Angel: How long have you been training?
Me: about a month now.
Green Angel: Huh. What's your training regimen been?
Me: I try to make sure I get to the pool at least once a week.
Green Angel: Have you ever swum in open water before?
Me: Does scuba diving count?
Green Angel: ...
Evil English, incidentally, was our swimmer last year, but she somehow thought we weren't going to compete and found a different team, so I vaguely wanted to beat her in the swimming.
I started on the ledge. The gun went off, I hopped in the water - and bc I've been conditioned to think airgun + water = Go faster Kate!, I started sprinting down the river. Which brought me into the scrum I'd been trying to avoid by starting from the ledge *sighs*
I think I zigzagged a bit, bc of the current and the difficulty seeing. The water was way better than the pool at camp on Sat morning, which I still say tasted like santorum. Not being able to tell how far I'd gone was the toughest part, I think, esp. since the markers were in meters and I had to do the conversion in my head, although that was sort of good bc it gave my brain something to do while I slogged along. The sun came fully up as we swam, which was a delightful touch. Less delightful was the facefull of sting I got about two-thirds of the way down: I later found out others had also been stung by jellyfish. My face is still stingy, actually :( Also, how are jellyfish alive in the Hudson??
I did a proper finish a la Aspen and I like that they have people on hand to give you a hand out of the water. My Green Angel warned me about the run from swim exit to transition being long, but hi? runner? He gave me a "you go girl" as I ran past him at tempo pace.
Took me 21:55 to swim the 1.4K, which brought us in well ahead of Evil English's team. Our biker was relatively slow and returned a minute after Evil English's. Our ex-military, ex-marathoner pinch runner made it up though and we beat them by 6 minutes. Boo to the yah! Looking at everyone's times, it was clear that the heat affected everyone. Worse, word got out that the relays are easy picking and another team slid between us and a podium finish. Still, we beat the bad guys...
Edit: Forgot to mention... y'know how we were having problems with our team? Cogsworth's team from last year ditched him, both bc of his gender and bc he's laughably slow and even worse now that he's dating some tart *ahem*, but their replacement swimmer had a family event she wanted to go to, their biker has been "not quite right" since she got back from the Amazon, and their runner has been sidelined by an IT band injury as well. Ai. Yah.
In other news, I bought an iPod protector from H2O Audio at the race expo; while it was too late for this race, I may start swimming regularly, esp since I decided to quit running. 'course, no sooner had I decided to do that, but I chatted with the wife of a co worker, who (a) has done sprint triathlons without owning a bike, using the spin class + rental method I was considering and (b) is running the WDW marathon and wants everyone to join her. GAH!