What a whirlwind of a weekend! Wind, rain, cold, the PNW really showed off for this one! 3 weeks ago, a text group formed and within an hour, Splash, Flash, and Dash was created! We have all done countless 70.3s, Ironman’s, including Kona last year! But none of us had done a relay before! It was a great way to get some good training in, have some fun, and be a part of the triathlon experience!
Race morning started off with a 4am wake up call. We were at transition by 4:45am and did all the prep we needed to. It was certainly weird not having to set up my own transition area or get my bike ready to go. Just carbs and getting the wetsuit on!
I went into the warmup area to test out the water before the race started. It was really cold, 59 degrees. My face was in shock, and it made it hard to breathe. I blew out bubbles a couple of times and did my best to get acclimated.
I jumped into the swim corral and lined up with the 35–37-minute group. They were sending athletes off 2 at a time. Most races are 3-5 athletes at a time, so this took a very long time to get everyone in the water. I was relatively close to the swim start and it still took me 15 minutes to get all way to the start. The beep went off and I ran into the water! High knees, diving in, a couple of strokes, and dove in a couple more times to get some free speed.
The swim course was pretty straight forward straight down to a rectangle turn. I lost feeling of my face and hands pretty quickly and just focused on staying straight in line with the buoys. It was a pretty uneventful swim. I never got kicked or swam over. I think the 2 swimmers at a time really separated us all. I caught myself swimming inside the buoys a couple of times and then out towards the kayakers a couple of times.
My pace was very consistent, each 500 yards was the same exact time. The last 2 buoys approached, and I started to pick up the pace and kick a little bit harder. I grabbed 4 scoops of sand, stood up, and ran to the exit. Unlike everyone else, I did not unzip my wetsuit. Instead, I ran as fast as I could up the ramp and towards T1! Kalee grabbed my timing chip and was off for her leg of the race!
I got to see a couple of my athletes come in from the swim and take off on their bikes. Then Rosanne and I went to warm up in the car.
Soon it was Rosanne’s turn to race! Kalee came in off the bike and we traded off timing chips. We saw Allen come in soon after and cheered him on! It was a 2-loop run course, so we got to see Rosanne and Allen on their second loop.
We ended up finishing 6th/54 relay teams! And we were the first place all women’s team!
Comments