A PR (Tiny) in a Hurricane (Almost) - or the Powersprint Race Report

Saturday afternoon, I packed my bag for a hot and humid Powersprint Triathlon. I was starting to chill out for the evening when my husband announced the weather conditions for Sunday - rain all day, heavy at times in the afternoon. Hurricane Barry was acomin' and about to leave us some miserable tropical depression weather as a gift.

No! That is not what I was expecting! I even packed electrolytes, a visor and sunglasses!

I went to bed a little after 9:00 pm Saturday evening and slept fairly well until the alarm went off at 5:10 am. I took the Butt and Fezzy for their morning out - humid and warmer than I anticipated, but not bad. I threw my light windbreaker into my race bag and drove the five miles to the Powersprint.

I arrived a few minutes earlier than past years' races - to a very empty parking lot - wondering if the weather scared off a few participants. Since no numbers were on the bike racks, several early TRIgirl racers marked TRIgirl "alley" with a duck helium balloon.

Seeing TRIgirl volunteers was encouraging. TRIgirl JH welcomed me to the race and TRIgirl CH magic markered the numbers on my limbs - and even added a "Go TRIgirls!" inspirational message to my left calf (and TRIgirl Fave's, too!).

At this point, the rain was alternating between a drizzle and downpour. I noticed that most racers had not set up their transition area. So, basically, I just tried to organize my gear bag with what I would need for the bike on top and for the run below. Then zipped it up the best I could to keep things dry.

The temperature seemed to be dropping steadily as I waited with many TRIgirls and Powersprint racers for the swim to begin. My predicted start time put me just after the top third of the swimmers and I was never so happy to step into the steam room like pool conditions. I had a decent swim - took over 30 seconds off last year's race time for the 300 meters, though I was secretly hoping for another 10 seconds more. Still, I ended up finishing in the top 25% for my age group and gender with the swim.

Supposedly, my lackadaisical transition, including finding my pink flip-flops before running across the muddy terrain to get my bike, amused the TRIgirls and Coach B - who I later found out jokingly commented to a few TRIgirls - "What is she doing?" - and "She will not be doing that next week." My T1 was slower than last year - but at least I had the excuse of not having anything laid out!

With the wet weather, I resigned myself to a slower than originally hoped bike. I was not going to risk skidding out and hurting myself one week before Eagleman. Hearing TRIgirl CD remind me that this was not my "A" race and to be safe as I started out of T1 made me feel better about the decision.

The first two-thirds of the bike were wet, but not miserable, as there were occasional breaks in the rain. I even was able to push it at a decent pace on a few flat straights. I was very cautious, slowing down at anything resembling a hill or turn. The last third, though, was smack into some serious headwind. Worse than my blustery day experience, as sheets of rain were also pouring down. TRIgirl Patty whizzed by me like a demon at one point about halfway through, but other than that, I think I was holding my own on the bike, passing as many riders as those who passed me. Overall, I shaved off about two minutes on the bike - which I won't sneeze at given the conditions.

I was so relieved to dismount at T2, with a Guppy volunteer cheering me in. I rummaged around in my very wet bag to find my running gear and headed out onto my least favorite and weakest part of the triathlon.

The rain just continued to get heavier and heavier. Though I have to say, when it comes to running, I'll still take a tropical depression over 90 degree temperatures and high humidity. I took off about a minute and a half on the run, ending up with a 5K race PR - and not just triathlon 5Ks. Ironically, my run pace was a 9:39 - 1 second faster than my training tempo pace.

I ended up having an overall race PR by about 3 minutes - and as we all joked - in a "hurricane!" I would have ideally liked another two minutes off - but I'll take what I can get. I finished exactly at the 50% percentile for all women. While several new TRIgirls did better (sometimes way better!) than me (after two years of training) - I remembered where I started - and was truly happy for all (including myself) who competed the day Hurricane Barry rocked Richmond.

Because my estimated swim time was on the shorter side and it was a pool swim, I was able to catch quite a bit of the remaining race. Thank goodness TRIgirl MM and her boyfriend shared warm wool blankets with the cheering squad - including TRIgirl TB and Coach B's cute niece (we did a great impersonation of an Emperor Penguin with our littlest fan). It was so much fun to watch the TRIgirl racers and several coworkers - almost all turning out for the race (including many newbies) - cross that finish line, tears, smiles, exhaustion and all!