The Mighty Mujar Super Sprint
Being fully vaxxed, I am finally feeling safe enough to get back to racing. While I continued to exercise during Covid 2020/2021, unrelated stressors and a lack of motivation kept me from “training”. In fact, before this June 13, 2021 race, the last time I swam was on Christmas Day 2020 and I have never been a good swimmer, but I’m not going to let something like possible drowning stop me from racing.
I decided to ride my bike out to Lakeway from Round Rock on Saturday to pick up my race packet (bib number, bike sticker, t-shirt etc), since Google maps indicated it was only 18 miles away. Inexplicably Google maps was off by 8 miles, so I ended up with a nice 52 mile hilly warm-up ride in a humid 91 degrees the day before the race. Yeah, I won’t feel that in the morning.
When I got home, I loaded the bike into the truck then over-packed everything I could possibly need for this short 500m swim/10 mile bike/2.5 mile run race. Wetsuit, extra swim cap, clear and tinted goggles, 2 pair socks, extra water bottle. The race website indicated that if you wanted to park near the race site you had to arrive before 6:00am for the 7:00am race start. Otherwise you would have to walk/ride 2 miles to the race site with all your over-packed and extra gear. I set my alarm for 4:20 to give me time to get a poo out of the dog, feed the dog and cats, feed the Red and drive out to Lakeway in time to get good parking.
4:20 came early after a night of not sleeping very well since I was dehydrated from my warm-up ride.
I arrived at the good parking area at 5:45am (score!) and walked my bike down the long hill to the transition area (where you keep the equipment you are not using while you are racing each different sport). Since the water is generally the lowest point on the course (because I don’t really know how it could work otherwise), and transition was near the water this meant a long climb once we got on our bikes.
I found an open rack position and set up my gear. Since there are multiple racks, I marked my rack with my extra bright-pink swim cap so I could easily find it as I ran into transition delirious from my first swim in 6 months. I also put my bike into a “good” climbing gear since I knew I would have to climb that hill right out of transition. I walked over the the emcee/DJ/announcer (which happened to be Erin Truslow) and was going to tell her to remind folks to put their bikes in a good starting gear, when a first time triathlete was asking her if anyone had extra goggles since she had forgotten hers. So Erin looked and me and asked, “Do you have extra goggles.” Ever the girl scout, of course I did. I lent the gal my goggles figuring if she didn’t see me after the race she would give them to Erin (and yes, I did get them back).
A few minutes later it was announced that the water was 74 degrees and therefore wetsuit legal. YAY! A wetsuit makes it much easier to swim and much more difficult to drown, and since this was a Colin’s Hope event I would be really embarrassed if I’d drown. Apparently not many folks thought to bring a wetsuit for a Texas June swim, but I have no shame.
I put my wetsuit, which I have not worn in two years, halfway on and headed down to the water. Putting on a wet is like the reverse of taking off a damp sports bra. There is a lot of stuffing and pulling and the end result is the appearance not unlike a lumpy black Picasso sausage. Think you’re thin? A wetsuit will take that 4% of body fat and push it into the most unattractive places. Hey, should I be able to see my own buttcheeks when I am facing forward? Protip: Nobody looks like a Marvel Superhero in all that neoprene.
After one last potty stop, I started to head down to the water, when a gal ran up to CC Rowe (who was a transition volunteer) and asked if she had an extra swim cap. She had ripped hers putting it on. CC looked at me with a “You?” I said, “There is a bright pink swim cap marking my rack that she can use.” CC ran into transition and got her the swim cap. The gal was very thankful and promised to get it back to me, but I have about 40 swim caps so I told her that really, she could keep it (and yes, she did give it back).
At five minutes until race time, I was properly packed in and sweating profusely. I couldn’t wait to get into that 74 degree water to cool off a bit.
The race start was a time trial, so every two seconds an athlete would enter the water. We were self-seeded (lined up) by speed, but it seemed like a lot of the folks were not anxious to be in the front part of the line except of course all of the collegiate swimmers. The collegiate swimmers were intimidating the hell out of me -all young, with sculpted shoulders. I was never a great swimmer and I hadn’t swam in so long, I had no idea what kind of numbers I would pull. I got in place at the insistence of a gal who thought she was slower than me and soon enough it was my turn to get in the water.
What the hell! I expected a shockingly refreshing 74 degrees, but it was more like bath water. Way too warm for my wetsuit, but at this point I was committed. The way one is supposed to do a triathlon swim is to periodically look up and sight on the buoys (big bright inflatable balls or triangles, or in this case an inflatable Swan) to make sure you stay on course. However, I was too hot and my wetsuit felt too tight, I was so out of swim shape and the water was clear enough that I could see the feet of the gal in front of me, so I just followed her hoping she was swimming straight. This worked out for me, but I must state that this is NOT RECOMMENDED and I have heard (and been in) way too many stories where a person gets pulled way off course by a swimmer who has not idea where they are going.
The swim took me 11:59, so a 2:23 min/100meters, which is terrible (on the other hand, my Garmin showed that I swam 600m, and not 500 so maybe I should have looked for the buoys) Meh, I’ll make it up on the bike.
I got out of the water and jogged into transition where I wrestled myself out of my wetsuit, donned my bike gear, grabbed my bike and headed out to the bike course. You cannot get on your bike until you cross the “mount line”. My T1 time (between the swim and bike) was 2:50 which is also not great, but it does include me getting out of my wetsuit, and the wetsuit definitely saved me that much time in the swim, so I’ll take it.
The mount line is usually pretty close to the exit of transition, but in this case, the run course crosses the bike course, so the mount line was 1/4 way up the hill. Getting started on your bike on a hill sucks in general. Having to run up that hill with your bike in hard plastic shoes before I have to get on my bike sucks specifically.
Remember how I said I put my bike in a good climbing gear? Yeah, about that… apparently not. So starting on a hill in the wrong gear really, really sucks. After scootering about 50 feet, I was finally able to get enough momentum to clip into my pedals to get started on the bike.
The bike is the best part of every triathlon and this was a 5 mile course X 2 through a neighborhood. The course was rolling, but it wasn’t crazy hot and it wasn’t windy. You did have to keep an eye out for the kamikaze deer and there was one U-turn so you had to keep an eye on the other competitors while navigating that turn. Another thing about a U-turn is that it gives you an idea of how many folks are in front of you- whether that is good or not is up to you. It does tend to motivate me to pick up the pace. I was not really far back on the swim so I wasn’t too far back from the leader.
The course was pretty and fun and after the first loop you knew what coming and what corners you could fly through and which ones you might want to hit the brakes a bit. Coming around the U-turn on my second loop, a gal in front of me took the turn too fast and ended up skidding off the road into a bush. Luckily there were a lot of volunteers at the turn who ran over to see if she was ok, but this is what you gotta love about athletes – the gal who crashed was (a) apologizing to the volunteers, as (b) she got back on her bike and took off again. ❤
I zipped through the 10 mile bike course in 30:32 or 19.36mph, so not too bad (#humblebrag). I got back to transition, racked my bike, put on my running shoes, race bib, grabbed my water bottle and visor and headed out onto the run course. Since the race started at 7:00 it is still not quite 8:00am, so to someone hanging out in the shade drinking an ice coffee, it would not feel very hot, but it was actually 79 degrees and sunny.
I ran out onto the run course. Two and a half miles isn’t that long. I’ll just start of easy… I was sweating and panting and I could not get my heart rate under control, I guess I just needed some time. Quick footsteps, shoulders back, 2 1/2 mile isn’t that long. Since the run course was two loops I really only had to do two short 1.25 mile loops. Pffft, that’s nothing. I ran on.
OK, at some point I should be starting the second loop, but I was still running away from the transition area. I will not look at my GPS watch, I mean, I gotta be close, right? 🥵 FINALLY, I was running back towards the transition area! As I approached transition I asked a bystander, “Do I turn here?” gasping. No, just keep running. Oh, ok, the turn must be up ahead.
Yeah, no. Apparently a good part of the first loop was on the other side of transition. I still had about a third of the loop to go before I finished even one loop. This is the longest 1.25 miles ever! Just as I run passed the finish line area for the first time I hear Erin announcing the winner. Nope, nothing discouraging about that…
Now I see what my problem was:
I finally finish the first loop, and my phone still trying to auto-dial EMS because my heart rate is so high. OK, at least now I know what I have to run to finish this thing. I tried to keep an even pace because I sure as hell couldn’t run any faster without Alexa defibrillating me, but I also didn’t want to blow up before the end. I ended up finishing the run in 20:52, so about an 8:30 minute mile (I think the course was a bit short, so I will round up).
So overall a decent race considering that I have been exercising but I have not been training. I really need to get back to training and with Covid restrictions being pulled back with folks getting vaccinated I can start working out with people again (I got myself a Covid dog as a running buddy, but he refuses to run… yes, even when it was cooler, but that is a whole nother story).
jredtripp 