Wrightsville Beach Tri take 2

This past weekend, I completed my fourth and final triathlon of the year! Going into this year all I wanted to do was do more tri's so I could find out if I really liked them or not, so I think I can successfully check that goal off. My final one was the same that I did last year- the Wrightsville Beach Sprint Tri- and I improved in some areas and got way worse in some. Let's go over the race!

Swim

If you remember from last year, this was the one leg that I was really dreading. I was so nervous about it but I ended up doing way better than I expected. This year I went in with the goal of just going for it and pushing as much as possible because I worked really hard on swimming this year! As soon as we started, I just immediately kicked off and went for my freestyle. Just like last year, the salt water kept me afloat and made it really easy to keep going! 

I surprised myself by actually swimming the entire distance and not taking any breaks- I didn't really feel tired at all so I told myself to keep going! The only downside to this was that my sighting wasn't as good and I had to change course a couple of times. But- I made it out of the water and was so proud of myself for going the entire time. I ended up over two minutes faster than last year!

Swim time- 26:26

The transition from swim to bike felt a bit shorter this year- maybe because I was expecting it. I felt pretty tired at this point (mostly from all of the salt water I think) so I took a little longer than usual and got some water, took a gel, and changed into my shoes. 

T1 time- 4:35

Bike

When I started on the bike, I felt pretty awful! My stomach started to hurt a bit and my legs were sore, but after we made our way out of transition and into the first section of the bike I felt much better. The course is so flat, so I just tried to push in a high gear and was passing so many people!

When I started on the bike, I felt pretty awful! My stomach started to hurt a bit and my legs were sore, but after we made our way out of transition and into the first section of the bike I felt much better. The course is so flat, so I just tried to push in a high gear and was passing so many people!

After we made the final turn, I got hit with a TON of wind. It was blowing so hard that there were a few times that I felt like I was going to tip over! I lowered my gear a bit and just tried to grit through this section and not lose too much time. I kept passing people (including one woman who I kept passing and then getting passed by) so that was also a nice boost. I ended up with just about the same time as last year.

Bike time- 45:12

In the second transition I just grabbed my tri belt with my race number and a gel and got another drink of water. As soon as I ran out of transition my gel fell off my belt so I had to go back a bit to pick it up...great way to start the final leg!

T2 time- 1:22

Run

This is where it all went downhill. My stomach was still bothering me at this point but my legs felt relatively fresh, so I was hoping that after a bit I would feel better. We start the run by doing an out-and-back down a street, where I saw all of my friends doing the race and that helped to give me a boost of energy. 

I tried to get myself to keep running until I got to the water stop which was about a mile in, even though with each step my stomach was hurting more and more. I made it to the water stop and took a walk break to get some water and take my gel- hoping that would help! From here on, I walk/ran to the finish line, finally feeling better with about a half mile to go! I'm not sure if it was having an empty stomach and adding in salt water from the swim and a gel during the bike, but it was really painful and I'm disappointed it affected my run so much. I really wanted to beat my time from last year, but with such a bad run I ended up a little slower.

Run time- 31:58

Overall time- 1:48:33

Even though the race didn't go exactly how I wanted, I'm SO happy and proud of my swim! This is what I really worked on all year, so I'm happy that went well and I executed my training really well. My running has been awful all year, so my goal for the off-season is to get that back on track and build up some endurance, so that next year I can do much better in my races!