1:20:02 #1/3 (60-64)
The last triathlon of the 2014 season... yes, kind of late.. December 7th in Palm Springs.. I expected warm water and weather.... not so. The water was actually quite chilly. Not as cold as last year, I'm sure... but I chose to wear a sleeveless Xterra wetsuit and got cold by the end of the swim.
I went to the race venue on Dec 6th to check in and to check out the course. The water seemed warm enough, I went in with no wetsuit, but didn't stay long. But that was after trying out the bike course.. about 2 miles in, I heard the hissing of my back tire losing it's air..... uh..oh... my end of season tires couldn't stand up to the little dessert stickers.. I must have rolled through a patch of them.. both tires had stickers all over them.... oh well... I fixed the back flat and went back to the race venue to the Hypercat booth and bought a set of new tires.... glad they were there and glad the flat happened on Saturday, versus Race Day!
Pre-race was the usual drill, up at 4:30am, lemon water, coffee by 5:00am, oatmeal - banana - hammergel by 5:10am, vitamins with Hammer Whey protein by 5:20 and leave for the venue at 5:35am. It took less than 20 minutes to drive to Lake Cahuilla from the condo in La Quinta.
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| Women's Sprint Swim Start |
I love the HITS transition areas, each racer has a private bench with names attached.. a nice touch.
I took four Race Caps Supreme with four Endurolytes at 6:00am and sipped on about 12 ounces of Heed within the hour before Race Start. The transition area was cleared by 6:45am for the 7:00am start. The sun was just coming up so the first half of the swim was probably going to be a difficult sighting experience. I wore my clear goggles because they were newer than the dark ones.. I really should have bought new dark goggles. I didn't have my trusty TYR Race Tech Smoke.. I had another model, ill-fitting and inferior.
I started in the middle of the pack and was pushed around for the first minute or so of the swim.... I swallowed some water and then realized that I was in very shallow water.. so I stood up and ran. I could see, much better that way. I jumped back into swim just before the turn around buoy and booked it back to the finish line.. Sighting was still hard, I ran into some men from the wave that took off three minutes before us. I was very glad that I had put on two caps, water was cold and I probably should have worn the full Xterra vs the sleeveless....
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| T1 Hits Palm Springs |
After exiting the water and running up towards the transition area, I was pleasantly surprised to see that volunteers were there assisting everyone with getting their wetsuits off... sweet! I ran on towards my bike, sat down, put on my running shoes, helmet and sunglasses and headed out on the bike. Because the bike ride was basically flat, I chose to wear my toe clips and running shoes vs cycling shoes. I was glad I did because of the distance between the mount/dismount lines and my transition spot.
Bike ride was fine, no issues, just big packs of riders to negotiate and a slight wind.. thankfully, no stickers! I took a couple of sips from my Chocolate Hammer Gel mixed with water flask and a few sips of Heed during the ride.
The run seemed to go by quickly, I felt slow, but no one in my Age Group was near me, so I felt relaxed with my pace. I saw Karen Chequer-Pfeiffer barreling towards the finish line for her Second woman overall finish.. an awesome athlete also sponsored by Hammer Nutrition!
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| Last Race of the Season.. done! |
Thank you again to Hammer Nutrition for fueling me through yet another triathlon.. it was a great season! First place AG wins in all but one Triathlon in 2014! Yahoo!
