Lobsterman Relay, McTriple domination.

Saturday marked the end of Triathlon season in my neck of the woods, as it is fall and the lakes are about to freeze up solid.
The theme of the year certainly has been Tri-Relays- I have had SUCH a fun time participating in several and this was no exception.
The destination on this particular day was Lobsterman, an Olympic distance race in Freeport. I haven't done a 10K in a "real" racing way this year and with my schedule being heavily into marathon training I wasn't positive of the outcome. I predicted a 45-47 minute finish if the course was relatively flat (it was not. more on that later.)



Looking athletic per the norm!

The team today was my sister's friend Taylor. My sister Kate and ME! After much deliberation Kate had come up with the genius team name of "McTriple" paying homage to our favorite pre race snack (brought to us by Rev3 and Reggie!)
 An important side note is that from what I understand after spending the day with her, Taylor REALLY, REALLY hates swimming. With unbridled passion. Poor kid, a mile swim is a significant undertaking if you hate swimming in the face.
She was in the last wave which seemed promising as she wouldn't have fast, collegiate men swimming over her (scary.) We knew she was going to finish but we also knew that she was absolutely hating her life (and us) while attempting to swim thru the seaweed and murk of the ocean.

There she goes!!

The thing about the Olympic distance vs the Half is that everything flies by much more quickly. Except the stupid swim. Basically, the way I see it is that an Olympic swim is the same damn thing as a half. UGH!!! (and word on the street is that the swim actually measured long, as in 1.2 miles. whoops. and apparently the currents were fierce and the sharks were everywhere!!)

Taylor made it out alive, which was a great relief and Kate took off on the bike.
She was relatively coherent and only said "NEVER again" once or twice.

During this time I also saw Eric speed off on the bike (he then had multiple bike mechanical issues. blah!)

Zoom.

I had just enough time to pick out who I needed to chase down in the run portion of the event. Standing around in transition for a while gave me quite the opportunity to scope out the competition (and there were an ass ton of teams. more than we have seen all year.) I am a jerk (as we know) and certainly won't be beaten my someone wearing today's race shirt, or other things that have already been discussed. Anyway, I knew who I would be chasing!

Kate was quick on the bike coming in at 1:28 after chasing down several Relay bikers on the hilly course. Not wasting any time I ripped off her timing chip, she smacked me on the butt and yelled "go get it" and I scampered off.

Hello mud run!
See, my bogs were totally justified!

And then....
I scampered straight up a fucking mountain. What the hell? I was not at all shocked to see that my first mile was done in an abysmal 7:50 due to the fact that the course was legit retardo mountainside stupidity. Things only were slightly better during the first half coming in at 7:33 and 7:40 as I struggled and wheezed my way laboriously past a couple of Relay-ers.

At mile 3 I told myself to man up already and run, that it was only a 10K and that I could stand to kick it up a notch and quit whining. So I did. The final 3 were in 7:17, 7:15, 7:04 which is much more reasonable given the distance at hand! My watch read 46:14 but my official time was 46:46. This has be baffled as I started and stopped my watch exactly (and I mean, EXACLTY) over the timing mats. While it certainly did not impact my results I'm a person who always defers to the official time and I'm sad that I added mysterious seconds. Either way, I was done, I was happy, and in the end I passed a few people which brought our final placing up another couple notches to 48th out of 62. Hey, we'll take it!
Oh, and for those keeping track. I did a damn good job predicting my finishing time today! Boom!

McTriple for the win! Or... For 48th but who is counting?

Then we had beers.
The end!

In which I am a Pirate Tri cheereader. ARGGGGH!

I believe "AAARRRGHHH!" Is the only correct thing to say if you have been spectating the Pirate Tri. Seriously dudes, it's all about the Pirates. There were a bunch of 'em. And some wenches. AND damn ship and a cannon. IT WAS LEGIT.

And we all know I love pirates. I named a cat Pirate Ship one time for heavens sake...

I was excited to be a superstar cheerleader for a change because I have been slacking on the Sherpa duties lately. This was also a killer race to spectate because a TON of my friends were there, basically ALL of the TSA Triathletes, My own BADASS coach (who won her age group. yeah, those are the fun facts that she "forgets" to mention on her FB page. If I finish a race I brag. The woman WINS shit and nary a mention. GAH!)

And Eric, obviously was there to PR or ER.

 

 

I can never find specific people when they are all dressed like neoprene penguins.
(I can find Eric. Sometimes.)
Until wetsuits are more flattering I refuse to learn to swim.
Yes, that is my excuse of the day.

It was a perfect day for a race, with temps in the 60's, beautiful sunshine and a light breeze.

After the treacherous conditions at Quassy you had better believe I was envious...

 

By the way, nothing about the swim here encouraged me to get on that shit and learn how to do it. When the women in my age group took off it was total chaos- a teeming, surging, flailing (and kicking) mess of bodies, chaos and blood (well, there probably wasn't blood. but in my imagination there was.) Evidently it did not subside and word on the street was that it was a challenge. Since I am challenged to swim in a kiddie pool, solo, with a noodle I still maintain that I am going to pass on any swimming events.

 

Eric had a good swim, and came in right in the time he had hoped for- give or take a couple of seconds. It was impossible for me to find any more of my friends as there is no differentiation between wetsuited bodies.

Eric sped off on the bike, wheeeeee!!!!

The bike at a sprint tri hardly takes any time but I still had a little time to watch a bunch of my peeps head out on their bikes. I also saw a few unfortunate and bloody tumbles onto the pavement. This time I am not lying about the blood. It was there!

I found friends. Exchanged the usual training war stories.

After almost exactly 45 minutes Eric zipped by on the bike, FLEW thru transition and was OFF! 

There he goes after a 37 second transition! Hold crap!

I watched a few of my friends, Kelsey, Eric's coach Denise and about a bazillion TSA people head out on the run and then I decided to try to find the finish before Eric got there. It was a good thing I moseyed on off when I did, because it was a bit farther away than I had anticipated.

He finished the run in 22:45. FAST
Total time was 1:19:36 for 11th in his AG. SO CLOSE to top 10!
But a NINE minute PR, Hello!!!

Obviously we had to take an annoyingly cute selfie..

We watched ALL our friends finish (and finish strong!) We took selfies (obvs), ate some snacks, high fived the TSA peeps on some legit top placing's, then headed to Katherine's camp mansion for waffles and beer.

Well. I had to run 8 miles THEN I had my damn beer and waffle brunch.

 

So do I have Triathlon race envy? Absolutely. UNTIL I look at the "short, tiny, easy" swim and realize it is about 99% farther than anything I'm comfortable with. So for the time being, landsports it is...