Zuri Wilson Race Report
1st Overall, Female
This past Sunday was the first of two races at Lake Sebago, in Harriman State Park. I competed in the biathlon, and after being told the whole week prior at how rough this bike course was, I was kinda nervous. Luckily the Thursday before I got to ride the course! (Thank God!) So it was a very humid and cloudy race day, I had a solid past 2 weeks of training so I wasn't too stressed. The first run was a total of 3 miles (1.5 out, 1.5 back), I wanted to send it from the get go, but I remembered the bike loop, the hills, the pain, so I held back. Within the first 1/2 mile of the run I looked around for another female competitor... only guys. So I held my own and decided I'd just run with them. I was the 5th person into transition, stayed calm, and now it was time for the 16 mile bike. It started with a long gradual uphill, then more uphill, then finally HUGE down hill, 45 mph plus! Got aero (every second counts!), and this is where it definitely paid to pre-ride the course... At the bottom of the 2 mile downhill was a hair pin turn which shot you back up the hill. When I first rode this on Thursday, Shawn told me (at the beginning of the ride, way before we even get to this part) to get in a little gear so I could make the turn and easily pedal up the hill. I'm flying down the hill, not realizing I need to turn, I'm all the way up in my gears, make the turn (barely), and grinding gears (ughh!). So back to race day; flying down the hill, I get into the easy gears and I make the turn... tons of dudes fly past me because they miss it, and even more dudes are on both side of me grinding gears! Talk about a major esteem boost!
Tons of uphill and downhill later it was T2 time. I had practiced taking my shoes off while I was on my bike all week, so I decided that since going into transition was straight and slightly downhill, it was a straight shot. 22 seconds of transition later (getting shoes off while on the bike was a success) , it was time for the last run. Before I knew it the race was over (well 1:37:26 later), and I ended up winning!
The strawberry festival in Beacon was also the same day, so after an awesome race, I got to hang out by the Hudson. The second race of the tri/bi series is August 15. There is also a corn festival that day at the park in Beacon, so it could make another amazing race day.
No comments:
Post a Comment