sweetharriet
08-14-06, 11:49 AM
I did a triathlon last weekend.
Oh, wait, details? ok.
I was shanghai'd (incorrect, but I like the term) into doing this race by my club, because it's the regional club (sandwich) championship. Just for turning up in spandex, I could earn my team a whole HALF POINT. Clearly, I was there. FYI, The adventure thing is a simultaneous mini-sprint, only with kayak instead of swim.
Never been to Pittsburgh before. It's a neat city. Pretty easy to get around (with directions), scenic in a neat industrial/engineering way (plus the Warhol museum's there), and their baseball team arrrrrgh the Pirates. Neat-o. On to the race...
Medium-sized. Olympic Distance. Swim in the Allegheny (the cleaner of the three rivers?). First part is upstream, second 2/3s downstream. Ramp entry to a floating start, where you can begin to feel the current. Once you're swimming upstream right into the BLINDING sun, you feel it more. This is where I got pissed. The only buoy for the upstream leg is at the turn. Swimming into the BLINDING sun, even with tinted goggles, for 500, was purely redunculous. Then they started all us wimmens before the M30-34, so of course there was some swimming over, but they seemed as BLINDED as the rest of us. Then some girl stopped and apologized when I whacked her in the face. I wanted to point out that there was a current, and stopping the only violent fun I get in a race would set us back a few feet, but, like Nemo's dad, I just kept swimming.
The longshot is that I ended up swimming towards the second of two buoys: you swim upstream, then hang a right to swim across the current, then another right to surf on back home. I swam to the second, and once one of the many Pittsburghian (yes, I mentally planned this RR mid-stroke, to include that word) bridges blocked the blinding sun, noticed the mistake, was a good doobie, and swam back over, across the current, to the first, passed in on the left, continued on my way. After we were pointed downstream again, nary a buoy or kayak was to be seen. I should have drowned to spite them. I spotted the bridges, not without zigzag, paddled away, and finally arrived near the finish ramp, where four buoys were concentrated in a 100 meter area, a good 100 meters to my right. You get the idea.
Results aren't up but I think it was about 50 minutes (tbhbhhpft). T1 was uneventful, aside from the usual friends-snapping-pics-of-me-with-brown-water-goo-beard (hawt). The one other bike left on my rack fell off. I picked it up, but it wouldn't stay re-racked, so I propped it on something and hoped the good karma from not just leaving it there would stand me in good stead.
The bike is a double out-and-back loop in the HOV lane of 279. Just a mite less scenic than the bridge-dodging. The first six out are mostly uphill, and the six back are mostly zooming down. Around mile six of the uphill, if you look to your left, there's some hills and houses (and somebody passing me, as usual). Another feature was the intermittent crushed glass, and around mile five, the seam-filling operation that left 3-inch asphalt humps every ten feet. That was fun going down! I think I caught air. My bike was about an hour 40.
T2 had the fallen-bike-owner come in after me. We set off on our wobbly legs towards the bridges. Again. This time we went up over the Duquesne, looped down under on the opposite river bank, shuffled along to the 7th street bridge, and looped up and over and down. Then we ran for a looong time towards Washington Point on a gravel/crushed limestone path. There were no mile markers. The shared-use path did have some helpful recreational bikers, who cheerfully lied about the distance. Hey, onlookers! I don't believe you! I do not look good! It is not just around the corner, around the corner there's a freakin' hill, have you looked?! It is not 300 meters it's another mile!
Anyhoo. At this point I should elaborate on the club championship thing. I didn't train for this race. At all. This year, I've rejoiced in my post 1/2IM glory for months on end, pulling a Jan U., doing things most of you merely dream about: staying up late, eating Pringles, watching non-TdF TV. I gained a hefty 15 lbs, and am the heaviest I have ever been. I realized this race was a pipe dream months ago, and tried to transfer the number, because I'd only entered due to the championship, and maybe someone else in the club would've liked it. No transfers, and if I finished the race I'd get a half-point, as opposed to nothing if I didn't go and wasted the $80.
So there I was, pretending to run. It was pretty pathetic. I ask your forgiveness, and would like to point out the above (estimated) times for an Olympic-distance race on NO TRAINING. At all. OK, I trained lifting a beer glass. I made it up the hill to the third bridge, and to mile three, and I caved. I walked and ran for two miles. And the last mile I did all-out. In total, the run took me a dismal hour-and-a-half, but the walk on Washington point in the breezy shade was quite enjoyable. I think the run was well-planned, and scenic, and pretty flat except for the bridge crossings. Water and Gatorade were still in plenty supply for us slow folks.
Total time was approx. 3.55. Instead of a medal, you get a pint glass. Way to push my healthy lifestyle!
This is a neat race to do once. Hopefully they can tweak a few things without upping the cost.
Oh, wait, details? ok.
I was shanghai'd (incorrect, but I like the term) into doing this race by my club, because it's the regional club (sandwich) championship. Just for turning up in spandex, I could earn my team a whole HALF POINT. Clearly, I was there. FYI, The adventure thing is a simultaneous mini-sprint, only with kayak instead of swim.
Never been to Pittsburgh before. It's a neat city. Pretty easy to get around (with directions), scenic in a neat industrial/engineering way (plus the Warhol museum's there), and their baseball team arrrrrgh the Pirates. Neat-o. On to the race...
Medium-sized. Olympic Distance. Swim in the Allegheny (the cleaner of the three rivers?). First part is upstream, second 2/3s downstream. Ramp entry to a floating start, where you can begin to feel the current. Once you're swimming upstream right into the BLINDING sun, you feel it more. This is where I got pissed. The only buoy for the upstream leg is at the turn. Swimming into the BLINDING sun, even with tinted goggles, for 500, was purely redunculous. Then they started all us wimmens before the M30-34, so of course there was some swimming over, but they seemed as BLINDED as the rest of us. Then some girl stopped and apologized when I whacked her in the face. I wanted to point out that there was a current, and stopping the only violent fun I get in a race would set us back a few feet, but, like Nemo's dad, I just kept swimming.
The longshot is that I ended up swimming towards the second of two buoys: you swim upstream, then hang a right to swim across the current, then another right to surf on back home. I swam to the second, and once one of the many Pittsburghian (yes, I mentally planned this RR mid-stroke, to include that word) bridges blocked the blinding sun, noticed the mistake, was a good doobie, and swam back over, across the current, to the first, passed in on the left, continued on my way. After we were pointed downstream again, nary a buoy or kayak was to be seen. I should have drowned to spite them. I spotted the bridges, not without zigzag, paddled away, and finally arrived near the finish ramp, where four buoys were concentrated in a 100 meter area, a good 100 meters to my right. You get the idea.
Results aren't up but I think it was about 50 minutes (tbhbhhpft). T1 was uneventful, aside from the usual friends-snapping-pics-of-me-with-brown-water-goo-beard (hawt). The one other bike left on my rack fell off. I picked it up, but it wouldn't stay re-racked, so I propped it on something and hoped the good karma from not just leaving it there would stand me in good stead.
The bike is a double out-and-back loop in the HOV lane of 279. Just a mite less scenic than the bridge-dodging. The first six out are mostly uphill, and the six back are mostly zooming down. Around mile six of the uphill, if you look to your left, there's some hills and houses (and somebody passing me, as usual). Another feature was the intermittent crushed glass, and around mile five, the seam-filling operation that left 3-inch asphalt humps every ten feet. That was fun going down! I think I caught air. My bike was about an hour 40.
T2 had the fallen-bike-owner come in after me. We set off on our wobbly legs towards the bridges. Again. This time we went up over the Duquesne, looped down under on the opposite river bank, shuffled along to the 7th street bridge, and looped up and over and down. Then we ran for a looong time towards Washington Point on a gravel/crushed limestone path. There were no mile markers. The shared-use path did have some helpful recreational bikers, who cheerfully lied about the distance. Hey, onlookers! I don't believe you! I do not look good! It is not just around the corner, around the corner there's a freakin' hill, have you looked?! It is not 300 meters it's another mile!
Anyhoo. At this point I should elaborate on the club championship thing. I didn't train for this race. At all. This year, I've rejoiced in my post 1/2IM glory for months on end, pulling a Jan U., doing things most of you merely dream about: staying up late, eating Pringles, watching non-TdF TV. I gained a hefty 15 lbs, and am the heaviest I have ever been. I realized this race was a pipe dream months ago, and tried to transfer the number, because I'd only entered due to the championship, and maybe someone else in the club would've liked it. No transfers, and if I finished the race I'd get a half-point, as opposed to nothing if I didn't go and wasted the $80.
So there I was, pretending to run. It was pretty pathetic. I ask your forgiveness, and would like to point out the above (estimated) times for an Olympic-distance race on NO TRAINING. At all. OK, I trained lifting a beer glass. I made it up the hill to the third bridge, and to mile three, and I caved. I walked and ran for two miles. And the last mile I did all-out. In total, the run took me a dismal hour-and-a-half, but the walk on Washington point in the breezy shade was quite enjoyable. I think the run was well-planned, and scenic, and pretty flat except for the bridge crossings. Water and Gatorade were still in plenty supply for us slow folks.
Total time was approx. 3.55. Instead of a medal, you get a pint glass. Way to push my healthy lifestyle!
This is a neat race to do once. Hopefully they can tweak a few things without upping the cost.