S - 1000m | B - 30k | R - 7k 2:17:52
#1/5 (55-59) | #14/67 F overall | #53/153 overall
Whew! That was a very hard "sprint" race.. but I'm glad that I didn't sign up for the 1/2 Iron. I did that once, several years ago... it is a very tough race at any distance. So.. the Comfort Inn in Auburn was great, there were other racers staying there, it was clean, comfortable, had a fridge and coffee maker and was fine for a late check out.
The Auburn Race has two transitions, one from swim to bike near Rattlesnake Bar and bike to run and finish about six miles away.. up the hill. So.. what I have done for the four times that I've done this race is to park at the finish, drop off my run gear at the T2 in the morning, then coast down the hill to the swim start, T1 in the morning. That way, my car is there at the end, there's plenty of parking, and my run shoes haven't been subjected to dew or rain or whatever might come through the transition over night.
I left the hotel at about 5:20 am, parked, dropped off T2 stuff and got on my bike to ride to Rattlesnake by 5:45 or so. I was all set up at T1 by about 6:30 or so. The race started a little late, the 1/2 iron folks started first, then the duathlon, then the Sprint, then the Mini. The sprint actually started by about 7:15 am or so. It was a water start with a mandatory warm up before the race.. the water wasn't too cold, in fact it felt great. It was measured at about 62 degrees on Saturday afternoon. I wore my long sleeve Xterra wetsuit and wore just one regular swim cap.. it was perfect.
The swim did feel long, it was a one loop, we had to navigate through the 1/2 swimmers - they did two loops of the course. After passing the last buoy, it was a direct shot across the lake to the finish. I took off my wetsuit just past the timing mat and made my way down to my bike.
The bike course starts with a long climb, so even though the air was cool, I was quite comfortable with just my wet clothes. I drank Heed and had a few slugs of Hammer Gel and ate a little bit of a Cliff Bar at the beginning of the very hilly ride. It took me over an hour to go the 30k.
I was glad to come back to T2 - to start the run.. well... the run.... I did manage to run most of it, but ending up walking enough to make my average 9:14 minute miles.. not so fast! But I was fast enough to win my age group by over 50 minutes!
During the race, a 54 year old woman passed me on the bike and a few 45 year olds passed me at the end of the run. But I did will enough to be the first woman over 50 to finish!
I used my usual pre race and during race food and vitamins and supplements:
Coffee, Oatmeal w/ banana and apple-cinnamon hammer gel, protein powder w/milk.
Premium Insurance Caps
Race caps supreme
Endurolytes
Tissue Rejuvenator
Super Anti-oxidant
Mito Caps
Xobyline
Cal/Mag
Vit C
Chromium
Heed and Hammer Gel
Black Cohosh
EFA cap
