Prairieman Half Iron Distance Relay Race Report

It has been a L-O-N-G time since I have written a race report!

It was a late night and an early morning.  Our air conditioner went out on Wednesday night and we sweated it out on Thursday and most of Friday.  It was finally fixed at about 11:30 pm on Friday night.  It was pretty bad timing considering it got up to about 107 degrees this week!  At least I got a few hours of decent sleep on Friday night before the alarm went off at 4:30 am.  Cliff and I headed out at about 5:00 am.  We didn't get home until 4:30 pm... so it was nearly a 12-hour day (Cliff earned some major husband points for that endeavor).  Cliff was advised by some of the other husband spectators that their secret is bringing (semi hidden) beer.  So I think Cliff will be a little better prepared at the next race!

I did the swim (2130 meters, which is about 200 meters over the 1.2-mile distance).  I need to throw the asterick on there since I was anticipating swimming about 27 minutes, but it ended up being 31:50.  The race course was a triangle, and it was mapped out to dodge the plant life that led to a triathlete drowning only a few weeks ago.  I had a hard time sighting the buoys and the water was really choppy from the wind.  Fortunately I found a guy about my speed who I was able to draft off on the way out and the way back and swim side-by-side on the straight away.  There was a guy in front of us who beat us, so I was third overall in the first wave (of two).  I ran into transition and passed the timing chip to Betsy, and she was off on the bike. 

Cliff and I had about 3 hours (well, 3:18 to be exact) to kill.  Fortunately I brought the puzzle books!  We took a few photos too:

Reppin' Team Chunky Girl

 

And reppin' Team Willingham

 

Once Betsy finished biking in the crazy wind, I was off on the run.  It was about 80 degrees by then (I shouldn't complain, because it was close to 100 degrees at that time of day leading up to the race).  I had a minor Garmin glitch (it turned off before I started running, so I didn't start it until about 20 seconds into the race).  I thought I was pretty controlled on my pace, but obviously not.  My Garmin mile splits: 8:48, 8:40, 9:02, 9:04, 9:22, 9:23, 9:44, 9:41, 9:44, 10:24, 10:11, 10:53, and 11:16.  My Garmin watch time was 2:09:07 (13.31 miles, 9:42/mile pace).  My official time was 2:09:31 (I told Cliff to expect me at the finish line in 2:10... I guessed that one almost spot on).  The conditions on the dam were pretty brutal with the wind, which was somehow never a tailwind on an out-and-back course.  I was hurting a lot, especially on the last four miles.  I tried to stay in good spirits (which was semi difficult with the piano on my back) since people were shouting at "The Chunky Girl."  At one point, I did tell someone that I wasn't "THE" Chunky Girl (I felt like I was stealing Betsy's identity), but the girl was still excited to cheer for me.  Another girl yelled at me that I'm not really chunky, so that was a nice moment during my death march over the last four miles. 

 

We were second overall in the women's relay (I won't mention that there were only two teams).  We finished in 6:01:35, and the team ahead of us went 5:58:06.  So it was a close call, and I got caught on the run by someone who was running a full minute per mile faster than me.  She was a very tiny, non-chunky girl.

 

Betsy and I with our award (now go check out Betsy's blog, because it's way better than mine)



 

When we got home, I had a Bloody Mary (to replenish my elecrolytes, obviously) full of pickled vegetables and we chilled (literally) in the pool for a bit before heading to Pulido's to fill our bellies with Mexican food.  I fell asleep on the couch before 9:00 and got nearly 12 hours of sleep last night.  I was wiped out. 

 



Failure to apply sunblock... and the resulting Bondi Band tan line