Degray Lake Sprint

Jeremy and I split up the Tri Arkansas challenge races. He took the Olympic distance that took place on hot humid Saturday morning, and I got the cooler, shorter sprint on Sunday. Sucka! :) But he's doing a half next month, so he needs the longer racing. We stayed half an hour away from Degray Lake, in Hot Springs, for the weekend. Right on Lake Hamilton was our condo, but we managed to stay out of the algae filled, but otherwise clear water, despite Hunter's attempts to run right off the end of the dock. To his credit, that algae was thick enough it looked like you could walk on it.

If Jeremy actually wrote anymore I'd let him cover his race, but since he doesn't, I'll sum it up with this: he was 8th overall, 1st in his age group. The swim was long, and he rides much faster than I do now. My race started at 8, which gave me plenty of time to get over there, set up transition, change the sex on my registration from male to female, and get my spot stolen while I was out riding a warmup. What part of a giant pink transition bag under a speed suit hanging on the rack screams "put your stuff here!"?

Does anybody even wear a speed suit anymore? Well I do. And I love the thing. And yes it probably takes me as long to get it off as it saves me in my swim split, but I'm going to keep wearing it when it's legal. It's like rubber confidence. I actually got on a girl's feet and drafted the last half of the swim! I think the last time I did so well drafting was in this same lake about 6 years ago. I haven't raced there since 2008, and I've only done the half Ironman, which ceased to exist a couple years ago, much to my dismay (yes even after the little hyponatremia incident I will miss it). It was nice to know how much less distance I would have to race this time. It went by rather quickly. 

My swim draftee came out of the water right ahead of me, then ran quite fast to T1. I had the 7th fastest swim, and I was only a few seconds behind 5th and 6th! She got out on the bike just ahead of me and I could see her working rather hard up the first little hills. But just like everyone else, she descended faster and I found any distance I'd gained on her was lost on the downhills. After the turnaround, which my computer had clocked as almost a mile too long, I slowly brought her back to me. I realized late in the bike that as much as I told myself that THIS IS A RACE, I couldn't make myself work very hard. I just hung around with her in sight until the final downhill. Shortly before dismounting, while checking my time, it dawned on me that after changing my computer battery we didn't reset it to 650cc wheels. So I was actually riding much slower than I'd thought. And the course turned out to be only 0.4mi long. Shoot! I knew the speed felt a little easy! But I did have the fastest bike split by a few seconds over the girl I was following.

How's my compact descending position? Not so good? 

I flew into T2 and put on my racing flats, and the left insole bunched uncomfortably under my foot. So I took it off and tried again. And again. And about 8 times before I got it smooth. I would not be winning transition splits this day. 

The run went uphill in the direction that the old half IM course went, which was my favorite direction. I started slowly but made sure the girl in front of me wasn't going faster. I was so concerned with her run speed, which I assumed to be fast given that T1 run, that I really didn't give much consideration to the girl ahead of us both. When I caught the girl at around 2/3 mi, she gave me a great encouragement to catch first place.

So I set my sights ahead...on the men I could see. I didn't get a glimpse of the 1st place girl until the turnaround, where she was about a minute ahead. The way back was mostly downhill, and is it stupid to say that I like downhills? Does everybody? Aren't there some people out there who gain time on big monster hills in scalding, oppressive heat? Anyway, I realized just after the turnaround that there was a girl about a minute behind me who looked really strong. I should've been more concerned about her catching me than getting to first place, but either way, we all held our positions and I finished 2nd. I was about 1:20 behind first, who ran a little faster than I did, and only :20 ahead of 3rd who ran almost 3 minutes faster than I did for a (definitely short) 3.4 miles; I had the 3rd fastest run. She outran all of the men as well.

Both girls around me were in their early twenties, and I also noticed that their hair looked perfect at the finish line. Actually, every girl's hair did. Am I the only one that gets dreadlocks, even if I've tried to secure every strand in a braid? Those days that I just wear a ponytail I spend 20 minutes brushing out my tangles afterward. I remember a spectator telling me at the end of Ironman one year to take off my hat for my finish picture. Um, I'd been wearing a head covering for many many hours and there's no way I want a record of that rat's nest. No thank you. So what's the secret? Straight hair?

I'm obviously so fast that the photographer couldn't get a clear picture of me from the front. But at least you can see the dreads forming. 

Overall, I think I didn't work hard enough. It's almost as if I don't really remember how to hurt or go fast anymore. I feel like I should've been able to win the race if I'd had a little umph. I think practice could help. Maybe a 5k?