Race Weekend #1 - Rumpass in Bumpass

The Rumpass in Bumpass!

Gotta admit - that's a cool name for a race. It reminded me of my youth, watching wrestling on TV from the Greenville Memorial Auditorium every Saturday morning. Anything with a name like that was worth participating in.

So, my first (and possibly only) Olympic distance race of the year - and my first race as a Team Z member. I wasn't feeling confident going into it. After some bi-coastal travel for work, I had been down with a flu/respiratory infection type thing that waited for allergy season to stop -I felt like I was sick almost 5 straight weeks. No fun, training was pitiful when it happened.

So, my friend - referred to here as "Brooks" hits me up to commit to the Bumpass Int'l race. I had been thinking of doing just the Sprint - due to that lack of confidence - but decided to hold true to my promise and signed up for the longer race.

In short, I took almost 10 min off my personal best from Philly. Most of that was made on the swim whereI finished in 33 min. Despite my getting lost on the course several times, it's the fastest I've ever done that split. I did come out of the water a little dizzy - and the swim itself was as hard as it always is for me. But...I never went on my back to get my breath. I'm quite happy of that. Maybe one day I'll learn to swim in a straight line.

T1 was smooth, bike felt weak to me. Alex (behind me in the pic) and I leapfrogged each other several times before she dropped me. Not sure what's going on with my riding. I generally think I'm strong on the bike but race day showed no improvements from past seasons. Time was around 1:20-ish.

T2 was fast. 9th in my age group. Even then, I thought I was a little disorganized and can get faster also.

The run went fine also. 10k in 55 which is a normal speed for me. Two laps - where I did a negative split. Saw lots of other folks really suffering due to heat and/or exertion on the run. generally, I felt like my run got easier the longer I was out there. No major problems. Due to the tight hamstring, I took it a little slow and was glad I did.

At the end, I take almost 10 min off my personal best in a race I almost didn't do because I didn't feel confident. How strange. I came off it feeling a little strange because I set my personal record but still made ons of mistake. For me, that means I need to get my head in the game a bit more and pay attention to the sysling and running more - two areas I've taken for granted a bit.

Finally, let me say that having the Team Z set up at the course for after the race rocked. Many of us when back into the water to ice bath our legs and cool down - and Coach Ed had a great setup of drinks, grilled food, and chairs to hang out in. A really, really great day.