Beach 2 Battleship Half: Race Report

What a day. Since they put the full and the half on at the same time, at the same venue, half participants are treated like full participants; in that we have to be there at 5 or 5:30 even though we don't get to start our race till 8:30 or later. So that part sucked. The only complaint other than that was that it was a logistical nightmare by any one's standards. There were two separate transition areas about 8-10 miles apart...I'll let you think about that. But I loved the feel of this race. The volunteers, staff, participants, spectators, just great. Fantastic.

So my swim start was 8:45. I have to say that I don't like salt water, never have and after this, never will. Other than the current (so strong) and the buoyancy, I swallowed so much of it and that combined with the chop made me nauseous the entire swim. But the cool thing was my swim time and the swimsuit strippers. Ha, never had that before, seen it, but never had it. They are GOOD.

T1 was about a 1/4 mile from where we exit the water, running over asphalt and before we left we had to put all our swim stuff into a bag for race staff to pick up later and transport to the finish line. Note, we had a "pre-race swim bag" that had whatever we took to the swim start (not by T1, about a 3 minute trolley ride down the sound) which also had to be taken to the finish. Anyhow. Bike was good. I had to wear soccer socks and arm warmers and my toes were numb upon getting off the bike in T2 but it was a good effort for me. I found myself passing more people than normal and only getting passed by a few. I felt strong in the legs the entire ride and aside from my neck being stiff and a little saddle sore.

Tangent: to all you bike snotrockett blowers out there...before you blow your next snotrockett make sure you have not just passed someone. Um twice on this ride, I got snot in my face. Yuk!

T2 found me handing my bike off to someone to rack...again a first for me and I liked it! Much faster than T1 but I forgot the sunscreen, a big Uh Oh...meaning number 11 I suppose. I felt good starting the run, more so than normal. I had my bike adjusted a short time back and it seems to have paid off. No walking on this run, not this time. My goal time was 5:30 and I knew that I couldn't walk if I wanted to meet that time, especially since my bike was slightly slower than I had wanted. I made it through 7 miles feeling well and then I started slowing down with every step. Finally as I cross the line. I didn't look at the time because I was scared. I was doubled over and some volunteer kept asking me if I was ok or needed medical attention. Uh, no...I just can't walk at the moment. When Tim got to the finish, he told me I was right at 5:45. Missed the goal but improved by about 33 minutes from the half I did in May. So I'm happy. 5:30 or under will come soon.