Gloucester Fisherman's Triathlon

I think I qualify for The Black Fruit Fly Infested Fruit Bowl, Fuzzy Molded Cheddar Cheese, Curdled Coffee Creamer award for the BEST NON UPDATED, COBWEB FILLED BLOG FOR SUMMER 2011. Yay!


Thankyouverymuch.


No excuses here. Life is like one of those extinct merry-go-rounds you used to find in the playgrounds. You'd wind that thing up running like mad to keep up with it WITHOUT falling and sliding underneath. Remember those??? Ha!


That's my summer! Whirlwind. Tooo fast. Summer goes WAY too fast


So what have I been up to?
No racing since my last post (until yesterday, Sunday August 7th)
Yup, another Sprint in the books.  The Gloucester Fisherman's Triathlon to be exact.  A New England race through and through.  I love Gloucester. It's a quintessential New England  seaside town. Harbors, beaches, inlets. Lots of coastline including one thing I just LOVE: The sound of the foghorn you can hear in the harbor. It's almost soothing. There is nothing like the smell of salty ocean air combined with a foghorn.  Today especially as it was a windswept rainy day for racing.
The hardest part about racing in wet conditions isn't about racing in wet conditions. It's exiting your car with your nice clean dry gear and getting drenched before you are even in transition. It's trying to put on a wetsuit with wet skin,  and trying to stay warm before your wave ( mine being the LAST one) goes off.
Because of moderate to heavy chop, the swim was shortened. BFB (big fat bummer) It was over before I knew it and I managed to exit the water up front in my wave of all women 40 and over. I love swimming in salt water and I felt good. Smooth and strong.
On to the bike.
 I rode  somewhat conservatively in the rainy wet conditions.  The bike course was filled by the time I got out there and  all I could seem to focus on is the debacle of  my friend Dede and all that she is going through right now from falling  on the bike course on wet cobblestones at Ironman Germany 2 weeks ago. She is appropriately named, Humpty (her doing) and you can read here about her accident and how her 2011 season has come to a screeching halt. No worries though, Dede is already on the comeback trail and unbelievably resilient. Truly inspiring.


Anyway, I wove my way through the wet and rainy 2 loop 15 mile course riding as hard as I was willing and quite honestly able. By the second loop, my quads had that familiar burn so I knew I was working. I was passed by one woman in our "caboose" wave, Nancy A, who flew by me like I was standing still.


Always happy to rack the bike, off for the run I went.  It's the same scenario as I start out on the run course.  I get that dreaded feeling that soon I will be mowed down.  The run is NOT my strength at the moment and I feel like a green gill, one fin fish swimming sideways just waiting to become dinner on the higher food chain.  The new run course was hilly. Joy! Much more than the last race  I did  and the only thing that saved me from blowing up was the misty overcast skies. By mile 2, my face felt hot and I was uncoiling RAPIDLY. I gave it everything I had. So much that  I had NOTHING coming in view of that finish line.  NOT A THING. If 5 women were there to pass me, I wouldn't have cared at that point. I was COOKED.  At a SPRINT  for god's sake??? YES!!! Everyone has something left for that last 200 yards right?  Oh no, I did not and I was thrilled I made it through the 2 loop, 3.1 mile course with only one other woman catching me from my wave and she was not in my age group. (phew) I was SHOCKED.  I figured there would be at least one  uber runner in the food chain to nail me in my age group, but not yesterday Lucky me. :-)


I do realize luck doesn't get one very far and I have a plan this fall:. Work on my  shuffle (speed wise) that clearly  needs some sharping. I have not put the time in for fear of doing too much and getting injured again but as the summer progresses, and I slowly become stronger, I will hopefully progress. A girl can dream, right?
Big cheers to my most awesome Team Psycho teammates  who attended and raced picking up lots of hardware or  who came to set up 2 tents in the horrible weather supplying us with chilly cold Harpoon, and burgers and dogs post race. Rain or not it was EPIC!


Cheers!