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Race Result

Racer: Melanie Yaeger
Race: Reston Sprint Triathlon
Date: Sunday, June 1, 2008
Location: Reston, VA
Race Type: Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group: Female 35 - 39
Time: 1:23:22
Overall Place: 49 / 196
Age Group Place: 6 / 41
Comment: Beautiful race morning…great race…and to think I almost didn’t get to participate!



Race Report:



What a beautiful day for a race! If you put your mind to it, you really can accomplish anything.

Even though I have completed many races, I have never created an official race report. (Warning: This one is a little long) Reston Sprint was worthy of a report for several reasons. One, I decided that this year to document my races and learn more from each race. Two, A LOT had to happen to get me to the race!

I have been building up to race season all winter. I kicked it up a notch with my personal trainer along with my personal training time. Thanks to Matt’s push, I have been successful with building my core strength and flexibility. In addition, I made it a goal to drop some extra weight so I was excited to race again.

PRE-RACE: The pre-race week was a race in and of itself. I think this makes my race day, and finish, even more exciting. The week before the race it was me, my 8 month old niece, and 3 dogs. I “signed up” to take care of my niece so my sister/brother-in-law could take an anniversary trip. I forgot about Reston Sprint until after they booked the trip. Though, this would not be a problem since they come home the day before…or so we thought.

Their flight was delayed so they missed their connecting flight and were stuck in Miami for the night. 4 PM on Saturday after Kylie and I had gone to packet pickup, waited out the thunderstorm at the pool, and organized all of my race stuff, I got a call from my sister telling me they would not be home on time. First thought was that I would have to miss the race. My fabulous friends, Tina, John, and Mary Pat, would not let that happen. (John was also racing his first tri at Reston Sprint). We figured out a plan and I would still get to race. YEAH! Bedtime…

RACE MORNING: Little sleep, nerves and anxiety about how I would let out 3 dogs, move a sleeping baby and get myself ready for a race…Perfect execution! I was still in the parking lot by 6AM…I knew this was going to be a great race day.

Set up transition, ran into Jamie and shared my excitement (last she heard was that I would probably not be racing) grabbed chip, and got body marked. Got update that my niece was sleeping and doing fine with Tina so I felt more relaxed. I pulled on my wetsuit, did a quick 200 swim warm up. I was feeling GREAT!

SWIM: (7:18 = 18th female!) My strongest event. I have to admit that I have only been in the pool a handful of time since January so I suspected that my time might be a little slower. Actually, I felt that I had a great swim except that my goggles hit the first lane line as I tried to duck under and turn. The right side filled with water (I hate water in my goggles). I tried to fix it when I got to the other end of the pool, but was never successful. I figured I only had a couple minutes of blurriness to push through. Ultimately, I think it kept me from getting into my race pace as I felt slow. I managed to pass one person, which was tough given the crowded lane and an oncoming swimmer.

T1: (1:52) Ran to bike pulling wetsuit to waist. Wetsuit off, socks on (yup, I put socks on before I bike), shoes on, helmet on, grab bike, GO!

BIKE: (39:07) I had a great ride and was faster than last year! Winter training seems to be paying off. Glad to be a fast swimmer and start biking early the race because the course got crowded by lap 3. Passed a few and got passed by a few others. I got stuck behind a few bikers taking the turn onto Wiehle and Baron Cameron EXREMELY slow so that was frustrating, but other than that I loved the ride. While others coasted down the big hill I pedaled and clocked over 30MPH! YEAH! Now I just need to figure out how to get more power and faster on the uphills! I think it is time to add some Hunter Station hill repeats into the training plan!

T2: (1:49) Kind of a blur…racked bike, helmet off, shoes on, grabbed inhaler, visor, and race number and off.

RUN: (33:20) This is definitely my weakest event and where I lose a lot of overall placement. I am NOT a runner. It just hurts to run…knee, ankle, hip, toe, lungs…it all hurts. Humidity was manageable so I was feeling OK and ran the whole thing, no walking, though pushing up some of the hills felt like a walk. I managed to have a slightly faster run than last year, but still nothing to write home about. Lesson learned, I HAVE to add some run workouts to my training plan.

POST-RACE: “Claimed” my niece from my friends and cheered on the rest of my tri-friends finishing their race. A great day given the pre-race challenges! It was a great time! So glad I got to race.

I have a lot of mental toughness until it comes to running. It is really holding me back. I am really happy with where I am at with the swim and bike segments, but I have got to figure out how to enjoy running. If I do I will put myself at a whole new level in this sport.