Assateague Assaults...Me

The first triathlon of the season is in the books -- the Assateague Assault Sprint Triathlon! It was not pretty, but it was definitely a good fitness test in advance of my fall races.

I haven't swam much in the last two months and my running continues to be a work in serious progress.  The good news is that I have been biking a bunch.  Always have to look for the silver lining.

On Father's Day I head over to Assateague Island for their third annual sprint triathlon.  The race was a very manageable 500-650 person race...and I am convinced that there were more dudes there vs. chicks.

I racked my bike in the first row next to the swim out and bike out chutes...which was nice.  Bonus that Mr. Friendly from Philly was racked next to me and entertained me for a good part of the morning.

After I had everything set up I walked over the dune to check out the surf and to check the water temp.  It looked manageable, though with the prior storms you always wonder what to expect when you hit the surf.

I was glad to find some of the HipAHA chicks before the swim.

[Rubbersuits and swim caps are so very sexy]

THE SWIM (.5 mile)

[I love this moment when you are attacking the surf]

I had a really shitty swim leg.  I could really feel the effect of not spending time at the pool.  My arms felt heavy and my stroke felt lazy.  It didn't help that the buoys were drifting and I felt that I was zig-zagging to keep the buoys in line.  This also resulted in getting in the way of a few sets of rogue waves that seemed to beat me down as I swam up and over them as they assaulted me on my journey.  That really sucked.  I was able to catch a good number of guys from the wave in front of me, but there were a couple turbo guys from the wave behind me who passed me too.

As I turned toward shore I could not catch a wave into shore.  Talk about nothing going my way.  The Husband told me I was getting beat around pretty bad coming in...and he was right.  When I finally made it to shore the last thing I wanted to do was run up and over the dune.  Legs...felt...like...lead.  My T1 time must have been atrocious b/c it seemed to take forever to get my wetsuit off and my biking shoes on.

THE BIKE (13.1 miles)

[I'm guessing this was mile 10...there was a pack of dudes in the distance trying to run me down...Come and get me boys]

 YAY...the BIKE.  I had hoped to have a very fast bike split.  It took me a few miles to get my blood pumping to my legs and get into a groove.  I think there also was a bit of a headwind going out.  Early on I passed a handful of folks.  As we neared the turnaround I was really pumping and I felt that my return split was much stronger.  Looking at The Husband's pictures from the race I could see that there was a group of guys behind me trying to race me down.

THE RUN (3.3 miles)

It's funny that this was a run because as I predicted I was prancing around just trying to keep moving.  I made a deal with myself that it didn't matter what my time was --- the goal was to just keep running and finish.  Mission accomplished.

No surprise that I felt sluggish and I gingerly slugged along.  Though my left calf continues to be tight and bothersome on the run I wonder if my challenge has more to do with a healthy fear of re-injuring myself vs. anything else.

The good news is that there was a lot of crowd support since the run was along the National Seashore Park and through the campground.  As runners navigated the course, campers were waking up, making coffee, breakfast and cheering on their temporary visitors.  Bonus that the wild horses were also grazing along the road so we had quite a few spectators.