Musselman - the aftermath

Afterwards, Suzy, Guin and I regroup and I track down my son. He's racing at 2:30 so I need to know where to find him when the time comes. He's been hanging with Mia's son and husband for the morning.

We mill around and end up at the chiro tent...so, figure, what the heck. let's get readjusted. Oh, but that felt good!

I gather up my kids - Rachel did wonderful at the water stop and earned her own t-shirt - to get Wyatt read for his race, but that's another story.

I have to say that I was (and still am) disappointed with my race. My run performance was not my best and for me, that makes or breaks my race. Something I have to work on I guess.

All in all - it is a great venue and a well run race. I would do it again. Wyatt liked his race so much that he is doing another in August in NH. Uh, oh, what have I created?!?!

Thanks for reading!

Musselman - The Race

July 16, 2006

Got up early, got ready, got the kids ready and met Suzy, Guin and ER to head down to the race site. We racked our bikes the night before, so I only had to worry about Wyatt's bike. We got down there around 6:30 and set up our transition areas, got body marked and made our way over to the swim start to watch the 1/2 IMers go out. Rachel stuck with ER as she was going to help out at the 1st water stop on the run.

We met up with Tink and had a few photo ops waiting for our wave to be called. We were all in the 3rd wave. While we were waiting the 1st 1/2 IMer came out of the water in like 30 min flat! holy smokes! Finally our wave was called and we had to climb down a newly constructed set of stairs to get into the lake.

We had a in water start, ~100 yds out, but it was still only up to our waists at that point! Our course was in the shape of an inverted V, so only one buoy to contend with. We wished each other good luck and got ready to go. I got sandwiched a bit at the start, but otherwise was ok. HOWEVER, I was not anticipating swimming into CHOP! Apparently the wind had picked up since the beginning of the race and it was like swimming in a washing machine all the way out to the buoy. It was tough and there were more than a few people who called for help. It was really unnerving and I had to really get up and out of the water to get a good breath. So much for relaxing and rolling! I did get swum over, right next to the buoy, but fortunately I didn't get the air knocked out of me. The way back in was fun as the waves carried you - almost felt like body surfing a bit. The water got really shallow pretty far from shore, so I had to stand a lot sooner than I would have liked. But hey, everyone else had to too. Oh yeah, didn't encounter any dead fish! One goal down. For some reason, the timing mat was way up near the transition area, so all that time is included in the swim time. Swim: 10:30

I was racked close to the bike exit, so that was good. Decided to go w/o socks for the bike and quickly got my stuff on. Borrowed a race belt from TN (thanks!) as I realized the night before that I had left mine at home. Ran out got on the bike and started moving. That's when I noticed it had gotten hot! Uh, oh. Time to start hydrating. The bike course was one big 15 mile loop. It was beautiful! As I started out on the 1st leg, I was watching my speed drop. We had driven the course the day before, and while it appeared flat in the car, it was actually up a slight incline the whole way out. AND we had a head wind to boot...grumble grumble...why didn't I get those aerobars put on yet?!?! Anyway, get to the cross road and now the wind is to the side and I'm going downhill a bit. YES! now to make up some time. I played tag with 2 other women in my age group and finally was able to drop them. At this point I'm riding right along the lake with the wind at my back doing 20+ and thinking this is great! It was a bit awkward getting back into transition as we had to ride over grass, but manage that, and look at my time...50:00. Ok, another goal down, 2 to go.

T2 was uneventful. Racked my bike, changed my shoes and off I went.

Ah the run...my nemesis. Ever since my hamstring injury over 3 years ago, I have not been happy with my run performance and today was no exceptino. Did I mention it was HOT!??? The run was and out and back course thru the park. It looped just after the 1st water stop. I tried to get into a good rythm and get my kick up while keeping my hands relaxed, but my breathing was all messed up. I think I took my inhaler too soon before the race, cuz it almost felt like I hadn't used it at all. Sheesh. I tried not to let it bother me when I saw someone in my age group pass me, but it did just the same. After what felt like forever, I saw the water stop and my daughter came running up to me and gave me a high five...that was great! Grabbed some water from ER to pour over my head, but missed and got it down part of my back and into my left shoe! Great now, not only can I not breath well, I have a soggy shoe. ick.

Hit the turn around shortly after that and then back thru the water stop. This time Rachel gave me a glass which I succeeded in pouring over my head correctly! Now the mind games began as I really wanted it to be over, but I knew I had ~1 mile left to go. Plus, the smell coming off the lake was disgusting, making it hard to breath right. Thankfully, we did have a breeze and some shady spots which helped. I played tag with another woman who would run like a bat out of hell, only to stop and walk - that's when I would pass her. we did this for most of the run. She did finish a bit in front of me, but I didn't care as she wasn't in my age group. I see Suzy coming at me. She's looking good! I had been keeping my eye out for Tink and Guin too, but haven't seen them yet. FINALLY! I see the finisher's chute and pick it up (or so I thought) to finish strong. Click my watch, look at the time board and am disappointed to see that I missed my #1 goal by 2 minutes...overall time: 1:32:19

I grab some water and walk around to cool down. I take a look at my run time and nearly get sick. It has to be the slowest race time I've ever had for the run. I figure (desperately hope) that the course was long. I talk with a few other people and they agree, their times are off too. Makes me feel somewhat better, but still not happy about it.

I park myself right near the finishers chute and high five Tink as she comes in. Right around that time, I hear the announcer say that the 1st 1/2 IMer is coming in off the bike. Ok, so 3 out of 4 goals isn't bad...I see Guin on her way out but I miss Suzy coming in. I do get to high five Guin on her way in and cheer her on.

Musselman - 17 July 06 - pre race...

Well, finally, here it is...sorry it took so long!

I had a few goals going into this race:
(1) Finish in under 1:30
(2) Finish before the 1st 1/2 IM person came in off the bike
(3) Finish the bike in 50 minutes or faster...

We traveled to Geneva, NY Friday afternoon...by we, I mean myself and my two kids, Wyatt and Rachel. DH couldn't make it due to having PRK done the Tuesday before, and while the doc said he could go, he wouldn't have been able to stay out in the sun all day and he would have been miserable. So, he stayed home and recouped.

We go to the college around 7-ish, checked into the Athlete's village and then headed over to the Crow's Nest for dinner with the rest of the WWFCers. It was fun to meet everyone and get reacquainted with those I had already met. Wyatt hit it off with Mia's son, Matt and they spent a good amount of time together the rest of the weekend.

Saturday, we work up and it was raining! What the?!?! Didn't see that in the forecast, but rest assured it cleared out around noon time and it was HHH!! For breakfast we headed over to the pancake breakfast with Suzy, Bob, (her husband) and Guin, and met up with ER. Good pancakes! Both my kids had seconds, so they must have been good! ;)

After that we picked up our packets, checked out the expo and headed over to Wegman's. Wegman's is like the premiere grocery store in the area - wow wow wow! Great stuff! We grabbed some stuff for breakfast the next day then headed to Friendly's for lunch. We decided to head down to Seneca State Park where the race was being held to get a swim in and check out the run portion of the race as well as the transition area. We parked at the Ramada and walked in so we didn't have to pay the gate fee. In hindsight, we should have paid the $7, because it was looooonnnnngggg walk and it was sunny and hot!! We're talking mid-90s here. The kids were troopers and didn't complain too much, although Rachel and I developed blisters from our flipflops, so off they came. When we finally made it to the public beach area, we were disappointed to see that the swim area was really shallow and that there was no way we were going to be able to get a decent swim in. But the kids went in and had a blast, so we followed suit and at least we were able to cool off.

We were at the outer most edge of the swim area talking to one of the life guards when I noticed a dead fish floating thru the swim area. Now, it wasn't just some little fish, it was a huge carp! The thing had to be almost 2 feet long and probably weighed a good 8-10 lbs. Jeez louise! Ok, so now I have another goal - (4) don't swim into any dead fish!! ICK! The lifeguard explained that since the park is at the north end of the lake, all the dead fish, weeds, etc. are pushed in that direction by the wind and the waves...ewww...I am liking this swim less and less.

We met up with Mia and her family after our swim and she gave us a ride ~1/2 back to our care. Phew! wasn't looking forward to walking all the way back in the heat. We all went back to the Athlete's village and relaxed for a bit before heading to the pasta dinner to meet up with the rest of the WWFC crew.

During the pasta dinner, the RD Jeff Henderson, announced that there were 5 chairs with Geneva Bicycle stickers underneath and that if you found one, you'd be eligible for a prize. Would you believe? Rachel's chair had one of the stickers! So up we go to the front of the room. Jeff then says that we are the finalists for a wetsuit courtesy of Blue Seventy! All we had to do was tell everyone why we thought we deserved it the most and based on the amount of applause the response generated would determine the winner. Well, he has Rachel go first and she says "I'm going to give it to my mom." (YES! right answer) to which Jeff says, "well, anything after that is going to sound terribly selfish..." Everyone else gives their reason, and based on the applause...yep, you guessed it, Rachel won her mom a wetsuit! WOOHOO!!! (I have since contacted Blue Seventy and it is on it's way!)

We finished up and headed back to get ready. Wyatt was also doing the kids race, so he needed sleep just as much as I did...

Just startin' out

OK, just created this here blog, so needed to fill it in a bit. I promise, next entry will be my Musselman Race Report...

;)