John Tanner Sprint Race Report

32 year old me kicked the 30 year old booty of...myself.

Yes, my main goal (of beating my time from this same race in 2007) was accomplished! Barely. By 41 seconds.
So, maybe not quite an a$$ whooping, but good enough for me.

Race morning, I woke up excited and ready to race....which is SO rare for me, especially at 4:30 am. I usually dread it, wish I was sleeping in, wonder why I signed up, etc. Not today! Fed Alice. Fed myself. Drove the hour and a half to Carrollton, GA enjoying the fact that I can blast the music since there are no little ears in the car this morning (Girls stayed home with Dad. Foo Fighters came with Mom). Get there. Get transition set up. Pump (not my tires.) Working on deflating with this pump. And try something new for me before a race.

Something called a "Warm up"? ;)

Per, Jen's suggestion, I ran for about 20 minutes before the start. It definitely seemed to help on the swim, I had no "OMG, I am breathing like I am in labor" moments out there. Swim was crowded. The whole way. (I think this race is great and really like all the tri the parks races, but WHY is there only one women's wave??? 100+ women in a sprint was crowded, aggressive and annoying. Why can't we get age group waves?? Okay. I am done with getting all "Title IX on you" as Mike calls it.:) Anyway, I would stroke, stroke, stroke...bang into feet or get hit, swim around, then repeat. I have been working hard on my swim and felt like I didn't get to use any of my swim fitness since it was so stop and go. Out of the water at 11:00 and then had a long run up to the timing mat. (Swim Time: 11:50 /600 yards)

Hauled through transition. (I picked up a TON of time from my 30 year old slack self here.)

Onto the bike -- bike was pretty uneventful. My plan for the entire race was to get up to the "red line" (the point at which I feel like I am going to hurl) then back off a bit, then revisit there, then back off....nice, plan, huh? :) I definitely lost some time on descents and cornering. Meow. Scardey cat here. Something to work on, however, I don't think that is changing anytime soon. Hop off the bike and onto the run. (Bike 33:16/11.2 miles)

Run was painful. Should be though, right? Kept my mind occupied by counting the girls ahead of me (9), watching how fast the leaders were, how hard they were working, telling myself to work that hard, too, wishing I was up with them (they were almost done), checking my watch, and looking for the mile markers. (Run 21:07/3.1 miles)

See the finish. Up that little (steep) hill. Cross. Find a bush. Puke. The "red line" somewhere behind me at this point, apparently.

Yes, I was the weirdo pumping before the race, then puking after.

1st in my age group...yahoo! (First time ever for me in a tri.) Which means I qualified to race in the USAT National Championship in Tuscaloosa in August. Double yahoo. Those were two of my goals for this season. So happy with that.

Ready for the next one in two weeks. Another Tri the Parks race. The all female event at Indian Springs.

My good luck note from the girls. Those are the girls, I think...if the girls looked like witches.


Post race at home. I didn't get any race shots. I like this one though. Alice looks like she's yelling at E. Which she probably is.