Sherando Lake Triathlon 2005

I signed up only three days before this race. The race web site said that the course was relatively flat, which I had a hard time believing since Waynesboro, VA to me means Skyline Drive. I drove down to the race early Saturday morning. It was dark when I arrived to the park so I didn't get to see the 1+ mile climb into the park, in fact, I didn't even notice it. I did notice the short downhill that u-turned right into the transition area so made a note to leave my bike in it's easiest gear as we would start off climbing right up it.

I arrived early so had plenty of time to scope out the transition area, swim course, and get all of my things in order. A little before the pre-race meeting, I got my wetsuit on and eased my way into the water. In the pre-race information posted just a few days before the race, the water temperature was posted at 70 degrees. I knew that my sleeveless wetsuit would be fine for me in 70 degrees so I didn't even bother to bring my full sleeve suit. I stuck my foot in the water and second guessed that decision. It took me a few minutes to convince myself that I should go all the way under. The sun was out, so I'd warm up, right? I put my face in and started to take a few warm upstrokes and before getting my one arm all the way around, stood up. I couldn't breathe. Ok Jules, no one else is bailing on this swim, so you're not going to either. I finally convinced myself to take a few more strokes and then got out to line up with my wave of pink caps.

As we were standing on the beach waiting for the wave in front of us to clear out, the race official said that the water temp was 62, but she believed that it had been measured at 58. I kept telling myself that it wouldn't feel so bad once the race started. It was a beach
start, which I was actually happy about considering that I had already wasted enough energy shivering and didn't have to get back in a tread water.

The gun went off and the hot pink caps (women under 35) ran into the water. I figured that with all of the college teams at the race that I would have some competition on the swim. Immediately I saw a pink cap take off in front of me. I hadn't quite gotten into a good smooth rhythm so decided not to chase her. Another pink cap was beside me,and stayed there for most of the swim. We swam around an island in the middle of the lake and back to shore. As we exited the swim, I remembered that the timing mat was all the way down the path at the entrance to transition so I ran the whole way so that no one would pass me. I had the second fastest swim in my wave, third overall (men and women) and the volunteer at the transition area told me "she's right in front of you!"

Swim- 12:36, 2nd woman, 3rd overall

I was a little cold entering transition, but knew we had a climb right at the beginning of the ride so I decided not to put on arm warmers.The sun was out and I felt ok. I wish that I had put on socks, my feet were freezing for most of the ride.

T1- 1:14, fastest for the women :)

The climb up wasn't so bad, they had the race photographer at the very top, can't wait to see how that picture looks! There was a 1-2 mile descent to the exit of the park, which was a lot of fun! We exited the park and had a tail wind for the next 9 miles. There were a few little hills, but nothing too challenging. At the 9 mile mark we turned into the neighborhood for a loop and into a head wind that would last for the next 10 (err 12) miles. There was a section about100 yards long with gravel in the road. They had warned us about this
in the pre-race meeting so I was expecting it. Then back to the main road and into more wind. We passed the mile 15 marker and I was excited to only have 4 miles to go. These 4 miles seemed to last forever and I defiantly felt like I had gone farther than 4 when we turned back into the park for the last 2 miles of mostly uphill. As I rode into the park, I started to see runners running up the hill(mountain). I hadn't taken that close a look at the course map (note to self- look at course map) and had no idea that this hill was part of the run. Good thing i saw the men running up it and that I had some time to prepare myself. I didn't have a computer on my bike but most people I spoke to said that the bike course was likely close to21 miles.

Bike- 1:11:58, 26th for the women, 157th overall

I was surprised at how good my legs felt as soon as I got off my bike! I quickly got on my socks and running shoes, grabbed my race belt and was off.

T2- 1:10

I felt great immediately! I tried to hold back a little, and not let myself run too fast. I know it's only 3.1 miles, but I didn't want to use all my energy at the beginning, especially with that hill at the end. We ran around the beach part of the lake, up a few stairs, and onto the off-road section. It was difficult to pass people here so I just made myself focus on running as fast as I could while paying attention to all of the roots and rocks in the trial. This section lasted about .75 mile and then we were back on the roads. It was flat for the next mile and then we turned left to run down to the turnaround at about mile 1.8. I still felt great! I turned around to run up the mile long hill and ran until almost the top where it got pretty steep and I figured that I could walk faster than I could run. I got to the top, and probably the best part of the race. You're standing at the top of this hill, you see the descent in the road in front of you, it U-turns and basically the finish line is right below you,about 100 or so yards down the cliff. I started running as fast as I could, got around the U-turn and took one look back to make sure that no one was going to catch me. There was a girl, looked about my age running strong. The road flattened out and the course continued through a dirt/grass trail. I picked up my pace and ran as fast as I could, not looking back. I could hear her gaining on me and I just sprinted. We both crossed the finish line, within seconds of each other. Once over the line, she veered right, I went left. For probably the first time in my life, I had that "used up everything"feeling in my legs. I bent over, grabbed onto the fence to not let myself fall over, looked to my left, and she was doing the same thing. It was nice to have that competition at the end. The final results had her 3 seconds behind me.

Run- 28:59, 49th woman, 211th overall

Total: 1:55:56, 15th out of 121 women, 4th in AG, 114 out of 336 overall