The Musselman Half Triathlon took place in Geneva, New York on the weekend of July 15th. The event also offered the mini-mussel (the sprint distance the day before), Mussel Kids and the Double Mussel (the sprint and half). It was a beautiful area up in the Finger Lakes, surrounded by several wineries, which provided the background to both the bike and run course.
The weather forecast on race day called for a hot and sunny day. To prepare of the heat I took 3 Hammer Endurolytes (salt tablets) before the swim and made sure I had several packed in the fuel box on my bike. For nutrition on the bike, I also had Hammer’s Heed and Perpetuem, Honey Stinger chews and peanut butter fill pretzels (my new favorite riding snack).
My swim wave started at 7:25, the 6th out of 7 waves. My friends started 5 minutes before me in wave 5. As I was waiting, I was watching how the athletes were tackling the shallow water at the start: some dolphin diving; some swimming; and others walking. From my observation, walking seemed to be the slowest strategy. The course was out about 200 yards: left turn following the shore line and into a canal. At the start I made sure I was in the front of the pack of approx. 150 swimmers. The horn went off and I just started swimming with 1 or 2 dolphin dives. At about 100 yards I started feeling the waves in Lake Seneca and stopped to try and see the next buoy. The swells were so big that I panicked while doing breast stroke and a little back stroke just to catch my breath and calm down. I thought for a moment that there was no way I could swim a mile in these conditions and looked to the rescue kayak. As I looked around I saw the others in my heat just swimming along. I just kept thinking if they could do it, so could I. I got back with the pack and just made sure that I have people near me since I was having a hard time seeing the buoys with the sun glare and waves. I got off course several times and had to pull seaweed off of me. My time on the swim was 35 minutes, 5 minutes off of my best which was 30:30.
On to the bike, all I kept thinking was I had to make up for the 5 minutes lost on the swim doing backstroke and wrestling with seaweed. I got out on the course and I felt ready to kick it up. The sun was getting strong and I started feeling the heat at about mile 5 but stayed hydrated. The course was great, wide shoulders and very little traffic. There was definitely the smell of farm lands, something I’m not use to while riding in Westchester. Supposedly there were also a couple penitentiaries but I somehow missed them. Every half hour I would take another Endurolyte, sip on my beverages, and eat some snacks. I passed a couple of women in my age group so I felt like I was making up for the time lost on the swim. The course was relatively flat with a couple hills. I finished the bike in 1:48 with an average of 20 mph. I was psyched.
Now, it was time for the last and toughest leg in the heat, the run. In transition I took my tri top off, which is one advantage of the full zip down tri top. I didn’t care that I would be just running in my sports bra, I needed the coolest attire. The first 3 miles were flat. My legs felt great, thanks to the tri bike, and I kept my pace steady in anticipation of the hills and heat to come. Jen Kelly, my friend/Bikeway teammate, and I drove most of the run course the day before so we knew what to expect…well most of it. The only part we didn’t see was at mile 3, a hill where people said, “You can take the stairs or run the hill.” You know if there are stairs as an option, it’s a really steep hill! I decided to walk up this hill which everyone else seemed to be doing as well. There was definitely lots of aid on the course with ice, Gatorade, water, soda, Endurolytes and hoses for a spray down were available. The rest of the run was through neighborhoods, where people had their hoses out to cool the runners off. I stopped at every aid station and hose for a front to back cool down. The last big hill was at mile 6.5 which was a gravel/rock boulder road with an apple orchard on one side and winery on the other. We drove on this road the day before so I knew after this it was all downhill. I continued to feel pretty good on the run, passing another woman in my age group at mile 10. Once I hit the flats on the way to the finish the heat was getting the best of me. I was passed at mile 12 by a woman who finished 2nd in my age group at awards. I kept looking at my watch and knew I had this race, it was going to be a PR for me (my last half time was 5:33) and I just needed to finish strong. I came in at 5:16 and I was psyched!!!! Right at the finish they had ice baths so I sat in one for a good 15 minutes, with a smile on my face.
The results were posted and I finished 3rd in my age group out of 60, 11th female out of 325 and 67th out of 808. As my award, I received a lovely bottle of white wine from one of the local wineries. I have gotten many nice plaques, medals, gift cards, even pumpkin pie, for placing but a bottle of wine probably the best yet.
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