Belated Race Report – Morrison’s Cove Community Triathlon
I think, quite possibly, I did the teeniest triathlon going this season last Saturday. The Garver YMCA & Morrison’s Cove Memorial Park in beautiful Central PA put on this event. Since it wasn’t too far out of the way on our trek to Pittsburgh for the holiday weekend, I decided to make a go of it. I mean what’s more fun than waking your 3 kids up at 5am, putting them in the car for 2hours, and making them have fun at a triathlon just so mommy can race? Did I mention that it was only $20?
The format was 200m/9mile/5K. Even though it was a mini-sprint, it was definitely a better workout than I would’ve done at home.
The swim was set up in heats, which I liked so much better than the serpentine style. The pool was outdoors and they said it was heated, but I dunno. It felt awfully chilly. There were no warm-ups which is just a killer for me. I need a good 500m to feel ready to go. It was only 4 laps so you muster through.
The bike was a good rolling course. My legs didn’t feel as great as I would have liked. I didn’t cut back my training plan when I penciled this in my calendar. Maybe I should have and my legs would have been fresher. The 9 miles ended soon enough.
The run was also rolling and proved to be pretty taxing for me. I just kept telling myself that this is all I have to do today. Before you knew it, it was all over. That’s why I love sprint distance tri’s.
I did manage to win the women’s race. You can look at the results here.
A few observations:
1) There was a pretty nasty crash (not nearly as bad as this one) in the transition area that sent one to the hospital. They were using the same entrance for leaving and returning on the bike and run. While not uncommon, there where no chicanes or anything to separate them. Also, they didn’t have all the intersections marshaled. When you do these smaller events you really need to keep you head on for safety and not race blindly.
2) Transition Etiquette – As I waited for my swim heat, I watched some people in transition, and always looking to see what people do/don’t do. I watched one guy come in and rack his bike, but knocking over the next guy’s set up. After his own bike was racked, he went over and tried to collect, as best he could, the other guy’s stuff and re-rack. A few moments later, another guy came in, dragging his bike to trans (that just kills me), tossed it on the rack by one brake lever, and knocking over another guy’s stuff. Not a care in the world, he just left. I really felt compelled to yell out to him for being such a creep, but I didn’t know what the protocol is here. I ended up finding out whose stuff got knocked off and he had time to set up, again. I guess my complaint is that, this is a small time community race. I’m all for wanting to PR, but there is no prize money in this. If I knocked over someone’s stuff, I’m gonna pick it up. But should you shout out to your fellow competitors or officials if someone wrecks another’s trans area?
On Memorial Day, I raced a 10K a stone’s throw from my father-in-law’s house. I’ve done the 5K here the last few years. It’s really a pleasant race – festive mood, great crowd, tons of raffles, and Giant Eagle donates lots of goodies. This was my 2nd 10K, prepping for my 1st Olympic Dist in Pittsburgh this July. The course is in burbs with these short but sickly steep hills. At one point in the race I ran behind a woman wearing those Newton shoes and promptly harassed her post race. I won my age group, but I also did come in 3rd woman overall. I finished 30 seconds behind the first two young ladies who just had way more kick than me. I won’t tell you how many cupcakes I had…
So, I hope you all are enjoying your season so far. Next on the calendar for me is the Jackie Kallal Sprint in Indiana, PA. This one will be hard for me – it’s swim and run heavy. Who knows of a tri that is 500m/35mile/2.5mile – that would be perfect.
Any good war stories out there from last week’s race at Cascade Lake? I heard from one that it was really well organized, but the promoters couldn’t do anything about the dead stanky fish smellin’ water. Best wishes to those doing Eagle(wo)man. It’s this coming weekend, right?
Don’t forget – Go Pens!!!