Mighty Mermaids - 2011 Race Report

The last of this year's Triathlons is over and done with, but it was fun. The Mighty Mermaids Triathlon is held in Capitola. I was really nervous about this race because it would be the longest of my ocean swims. This is the one that I've been working towards since June.

Grumpy and I drove the bike course yesterday since mapmyride was showing me a really scary course. I mean don't those look like ski slopes?

Any way, between Grumpy's driving and me trying to read the map, I got a major case of car sickness. At this point, everything DID look like a ski slope - ride and run!

I really didn't know how to plan for this race. Go all out on the bike and hold on for the run? Go easy on the bike and save it all for the run? Not that I know how to do that, but I'd try.

I was worried about getting parking, so I had us there before 6am. It was nice to have plenty of time to set up transition, get body marked, find the ride in/out and run out. We then went down to the beach to check out how things were set-up. 

I got in for my warm up around 7:15am. I was surprised at how warm the water was. I mean, it was still cold, but I was able to get my face in the water on the second try. Pacific Grove holds the record for cold this year.

I'd been watching the waves carefully so when something that looked like a wave came towards me, I dove. Ok, so may be a little early, but I wasn't going backward today!

Sighting was tough since often the swells blocked my view. I just kept my eye out for the largest group of women. I was able to find fast feet several times on the way out. On the way in, it hit - my nemesis V-E-R-T-I-G-O. I'm not sure if it is my breathing or the cold water freezing my brain. The cure is a few minutes of swimming doggy style. I got out of the water a little too soon and a very wobbly.

Swim:  34:30   PR! (SV Tri 38:31)

Off to transition. Where is transition you ask? .25 mile up that hill.

 

T1:  9:40 (includes the run up to transition and the run around transition to get to my spot)

Done fooling around in transition, and off on the bike. Hmm. What do you know? There's a hill followed by a hill.

The bike course was hilly, but nothing different that I've ridden all summer. The unfortunate part is that almost every good down hill had to be taken slowly for a variety of reasons: sharp turn at the bottom, speed bumps, giant pot holes. You name it and every time I tried to press for good down hill speed, I was foiled. There was also a MAJOR up hill that we didn't drive yesterday and I'm glad! No one stayed in the saddle for this one and some even walked their bikes up. This was equivalent to the first rise on Sierra Rd.
Bike: 1:45:30
T2: 2:10

The run was 2 loops of which the first loop you had to run almost into the finish shoot before veering off to go back up the hill and through transition. There were more hills in the run and I hate running in sand!

Run: 1:13 (SV Tri was 1:13:09)
Overall: 3:44:30  Total Ascent 1241ft   (SV Tri 725ft)

So, in comparing this Oly with the SV Tri and subtracting 5 minutes for that run from the ocean to transition, I was only 6 minutes over. Given the spotty training I've been doing over the last 6 weeks and the extra 500 ft in ascent, I'm REALLY happy with this race.

What I did right:

• Dove in to the wave at the start.
• Stayed on fast feet.
• Brought and used extra GU.
• Got there early so had a great transition spot.
• Drive the course before hand.

What I did wrong:

• Not doing any race specific training.
• Not doing enough off the bike at pace runs.