Posted by I owe you a race report. Even though it’s been over a month, I wanted to make sure to write a report, not because of my stellar performance, but because it was a great race and one that you must put on your race calendar for next year!
I have raced in this venue twice before, so when registration opened up, I was very excited. I knew I would be well trained at that point in the season with it being about a month after Gulf Coast. But more than that, I knew it would be fun because there were many others from our local triathlon community going up to do the race. Enter reality, I spent one of those weeks between Gulf Coast and Indian Creek in Italy and it was a very busy time at work so training and nutrition kinda went out the window!
Usually when I race, I wear my Garmin 310XT the entire time. I have it set with an alert that goes off every 10 minutes which gives me some perspective of time in the swim and also helps to remind me to take in nutrition on the bike and also sets an interval for me if I need it on the run. Well, I forgot to bring my Garmin to this race so after talking to my coach we decided that it was all about feel today!
The swim was in Indian Creek one of the cleanest bodies of water in Louisiana–you can actually see to about your hand! All ladies were in the last wave and there were quite a few of us. It was a nice swim. Lots of buoys to sight off of and good water support. The run up to the transition area from the beach is really the only draw back because it’s through a wooded area. Most of it is carpeted, but you do have to be careful of roots and twigs.
The transition area was very compact and easy to navigate.
Important to make sure you are in an easy gear on the bike because it’s an uphill climb out of transition, but luckily not for long. The bike course is another perk of this race–it’s very pretty. Much of it wanders around Indian Creek up and down some hills and through a residential neighborhood. It’s an out and back bike course which is quite fun when you are racing with friends. Felt like I was saying hi to folks all the time. 🙂 I had no idea how I was doing on the bike course seeing as how I was sans Garmin, but was happily surprised to see that I kept a pretty good pace for my and the Roubaix in the hills–we are not fond of climbing although we sure take advantage of those downhills!
The first two miles of the run felt pretty good. Of course I have no idea what my pace was, but I was enjoying it. I must have been going a little too fast because the third took forever. Stopped to walk a bit a few times and just lost all steam. Luckily, it was only one painful mile and the finish line arrived before I knew it. And waiting at the finish line were my friends, coach and teammates!
So what did I learn, 1) that I can race without technology and still have a good race; 2) that general fitness can take you farther than you think; 3) that I need to hold back at the beginning of the run even when, actually especially when I am feeling good.
call me koko 