Race Recap: Cedars Of Lebanon Triathlon 2013

I completed my second triathlon over the weekend, the Cedars of Lebanon Triathlon.  Like the first triathlon I did last August, this one was also put on by Team Magic.  I wasn't nearly as nervous this time. This time I felt prepared, I knew what to pack, how to set up my transition area & I was ready to get there & go!

Y'all know I never race alone.  In addition to Heidi & Alicia, who I did my first tri with, this time we were joined by fellow East Nasties, Lana & Sara, & then my friends, Mary Katherine, Marshall, Katie & Dawn.  We had a pretty large cheering squad, too:  Kristine, Andy, Neil, Andrew, John, my parents, my sister & my four nieces, plus Season, Jim & Mike, who were race volunteers.  It was awesome!

Here's a breakdown of how the race went.

200 yard swim:  6:45 (3:41 per 100/m pace)

I'm beating myself up a little bit over the swim.  I still don't know what happened, but when I started the swim & came up from pushing off, I forgot what to do.  It was bizarre.  Heidi was swimming directly in front of me, so I tried to mirror her, but I couldn't get it.  I decided to swim breaststroke to the wall & then switch to freestyle when I pushed off for the second time.  Long story short, it didn't work & I swam breaststroke for the entire swim.  Luckily, I still did it pretty fast, but I lost at least a minute.  I don't even care about my time.  I'm more frustrated & confused over what happened in general.  All I can figure out is that it was the shock of the cold water, but who knows.  Moving on.

T1:  3:32

Heidi was # 612 & I was # 613, so we were directly beside each other for the first part of the race.  We finished the swim together & ran to the first transition together.  Last year, all of my transitions were over 5 minutes, so I was determined to do them faster this time, & thanks to some great tips from Allison, I did!

10 mile bike ride:  40:39 (14.8 mph pace)

This was my first race on my new road bike.  I was nervous because I didn't know the course & it had been raining, so the roads were wet.  In all of my time trials, it took me around 55-60 minutes to ride 10 miles.  But I totally did this in 40.  The race course was flatter than I practiced, so that obviously explains some of the time difference, but I was shocked when I got my results & saw that I was 15 minutes faster than all of my practice rides.  Y'all, I went HAM on that bike.

T2:  1:06

Holy crap, 1:06!  Thanks, Allison!  This is a direct result of me connecting everything to my race belt & grabbing it / putting it on as I ran back out of transition.  Yeah!

2 mile run:  25:42 (12:30/mile pace)

I did okay on the run.  I only did two brick practices & neither of them were recent.  In hindsight, I probably should have practiced the transition from bike to run more.  I did what I could, but my legs were dead.  I ran a steady 12 minute mile pace.  I easily lost a minute stopping for water & course directions.  This is my one critique of Team Magic.  They have got to get better at directing runners on the course.  This has been a cluster in both of the Team Magic races I've done.

Here is the iPhone video my mom took of me crossing the finish line:



Total time:  1:17:42

I finished way faster than I thought I would.  I put myself at around 1:30, so I couldn't believe it when I saw that I finished in 1:17.  If I had swam at my actual speed, I would have finished at 1:15, which kind of blows my mind.  In my division, I placed 7 out of 13.  Of all the women, I placed 118 out of 158.

Lessons Learned:

I'm still not 100% sure what happened in the swim, but I attended a tri clinic at Fleet Feet last year & I remember them saying to always get in the pool prior to the race.  I did that in my first race, but I did not do that this time.  Maybe that's what went wrong?  Regardless, I'm getting in the pool next time.  My transitions are great; I've got that down.  I need more practice on my bike.  I could stand to get a little faster & I need a lot more hill practice.  I can run in my sleep, but I need to practice transitioning from bike to run more.

Looking Ahead:

I had a blast doing this race & kind of can't wait to do another one.  Something about this sport aligns with the way my brain works.  I love the organization & logistics of triathlons.  And I'm good at it!  God, I wish someone had told me years ago that I could apply my insane organizational skills to athletics.

That being said, I've decided to keep going with this.  The two races I've done have been Sprints.  I'm interested in kicking it up a notch & trying an Olympic distance tri.  There's one in August that I've got my eye on.  Lana suggested we try an open water Sprint first, so we're going to do the Team Magic Old Hickory Lake Triathlon on June 22nd.  I have no idea if I can swim in open water.  Guess I'll find out!  Depending on how that goes, I may or may not do the Olympic distance Tri Fall Creek Falls Triathlon in August.

Full photostream on Facebook and Flickr.