This is number two of my championship races that are back to back. I competed in the Elite Age group wave in the Championship 5150 race. I'm excited to get another opportunity to race some of the same girls from the National Championships. Oh yeah, there's also a huge prize purse for amateurs, one of the largest ever of its kind!
First place gets a Mini Cooper plus $5000 and prizes go 5 deep.
Second place- $4000 in prizes
Third place- $3000 in prizes
Fourth place- $2000 in prizes
Fifth place- $1000 in prizes
So, there is a lot on the line and people are extra anxious and stressed. Coming into the race all the pre-race briefings kept stating this would NOT be a wetsuit legal swim. The water was above 83 degrees, but what do ya know, it ended up coming down to a legal temperature of 78. There was definitely a lot of chaos in transition and I have to say a lot of upset Male Elite age group athletes. Apparently most of the females had prepared for the unexpected and brought the wetsuit with them anyway, mine just required a trip back to the vehicle; Thanks Mom!
The swim had six turns on the course, and I was a bit concerned, especially after what happened at Nationals. So I made sure to get a good look at the buoys and angles and all that before the start. The swim went well and its always nice to not have to swim through bodies of past waves. I started working together with another swimmer half way through the swim and she helped keep me on track once we hit the section heading into the sun.
Heading out on the bike I tried to settle into a pace, but it was a hard thing to do with more than 25 corners on the course. We were also constantly being watched by officials on motorcycles and at one point I was almost certain I had received a penalty for blocking. I was riding in the same lane as the girl in front of me but it was a bit left of the gutter. I didn't have the greatest day on the bike, and on the last corner into the park I came in a bit hot and crashed. HARD. My disc caught some wind and started fish tailing and swung completely around. I ended up facing the other direction and in bike traffic leaving the park. I knew for a fact that I had bounced my head off the pavement and my hip was pretty injured at the moment. After sitting there for what I think was a few moments I saw a chic come around the corner and that's what got me up and back on the bike.
I started the run with a bleeding shoulder, torn shorts, and a huge contusion on my butt/hip. I was in 7th place. NOT GOOD. I started out running as hard as I could but it took over three miles to get within site of the females in front of me, but I got there. I started passing girls with less than 2 miles to go in the race and passed my last girl on the hill right in front of the finish line to take 4th place overall and a personal record on the run of 39:07. Sadly I was only five seconds behind 3rd and barely missed the podium. But I did get a pair of Zipp 404's as my prize!!
Overall Place: 4th, 2:14:27
Hy-Vee Swag Bag
