My fella and I took the ferry from Kodiak on Wednesday night. It was blowing 50 mph and seas were at 20 feet. Not an ideal time to take the ferry, but what are you going to do. Thankfully, the ferry left at 10:30 pm so we were able to fall asleep before conditions got too horrific. We were 3 hours
late coming into Homer, though, so that was a good indication that things might have been a bit ugly coming across the Gulf.
Homer is a 4 or 5 hours south of Anchorage. We took our time and made a stop in Kenai along the way so Mark could play with a fellow metal shaper and I could get in a quick workout.
We spent Friday and Saturday farting around in the "big city." We spent way too much and ate way too much, but that's what happens in A-town.
Saturday night we met the other two women from Kodiak that were doing the GNT at Club Paris for dinner. Club Paris is Anchorage's premier steak restaurant. Yes, steak. Why this restaurant was chosen, I will never know. Needless to say, I chose one of the only non cow items on the menu for my pre-race meal. After dinner, we drove to the race site and I picked up my bib and racked my bike. Then it was back to my sister's house to pack my race day bag, take a bath and hit the sack.
Race day was a beauty. The sun was out and it was a balmy 50 degrees (still in Alaska here, people!). The race started at 9:00, but my heat wasn't scheduled until 10:30 or so. Still I had to be at the venue early enough to set up my transition. Is there anything worse than sitting around waiting for your heat? ARGH! It's painful.
Finally, my bib number was called to the pool dec
k. It's a 500 yard swim in a pool, so they are constantly moving swimmers in and out and you have to circle swim.
And so I started. I felt decent in the swim and thought I was making pretty good time. I was hoping to take 10 seconds or so off of last year's time. I'm not a strong swimmer, so any improvement leaves me with a smile on my face. After lap 10, I hopped out of the pool and looked at my watch. 9:41! WHAT! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn it. I was 9:25 last year. Oh well, can't get stuck on it now. I put on a long sleeve shirt, socks and my bike helmet and ran out of the pool, through the locker room and into T1. My T1 was 2:20. I hammered it on the bike. My legs were feeling it, but I had promised myself that I would go balls out on this race, so I kept at it. Again, I was disappointed with my split. Nearly identical time to last year. What is going on?? This is one of those races where T1 and T2 are in different locations, so I had to shout out my bib number to get my bag of shoes and visor. There are no mats at the end of T2, so you don't get an official split, but I had my watch so I was keeping track. I knew I would have to have an incredible run (for me) to improve on last year's
overall time. I felt sort o
f sluggish through the first half mile or so, but then felt surprisingly good the rest of the time. As I ticked off the miles, I knew I was within reach. I gave everything I had left in the last half mile and finished completely spent.
The numbers:
500 yard swim - 9:31
T1 - 2:20
10 mile bike - 35:44
T2 - 2:39
4.1 mile run - 34:19
Total - 1:23:43 (last year 1:24:34)
23/199 ag
e group; 183/1300 overall
I felt great about my run but was fe
eling pretty crap about my swim and bike. Unfortunately I have no excuse for my sorry ass swim, but I was pleased to learn that bike times were about a minute slower than last year because of a bit of a head wind.
I need to give serious kudos to my fellow Kodiak racers, who both absolutely rocked. One got 4th her in age group and the other 10th. I need to find some slower friends....
I don't have much in the way of pics. Mark was snapping some, but he said they did not come out well. No matter, I always look like I'm crapping my pants in race pictures anyway.
On a side note, our Governor, Sarah Palin, started the race and then hung out in T1 watching for a bit.
How many state governors would hang out with their new baby and no bodyguards?
She was very personable and quite easy to talk to. I don't always agree with her politics, but I cannot deny she has charism.
The new look of the blog is a work in progress, so hang in there.
Making it happen...
Bree (and my new BFF, Sarah)
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