Race Report-- PolarBear Sprint 2012

Polar Bear sprint Tri... our  Maine season opener!!! 

First... I must explain the first shot here! That's Mark. My husband. His picture was chosen to adorn the new Trailer for the timing company, All Sports Events!!! So cool! And it's a great shot of him running to boot. I think he looks good in the picture at least. :) The other side of the trailer is a photo of Beth Anderson!!! She's one of our awesome TriMoxie Athletes!!! More to come on that.

Race recap --

I was up bright and early and out of my house by 5:15 a.m. for a quiet solo drive to the race.  My family followed along later on.  Local races work out nicely that way!  I scrambled around for a few hours before the start..setting up Transition, a  quick easy jog, a quick bike ride that really only functioned as a way to get my perfectly shiny new bike covered with mud. Grrr...

Here she is ... ready to go faaaaaaaaaaaaaast!!!!!  ( at least that was my plan!!) 


Finally... time to swim.  We start in waves of 32 ( 16 lanes) . I was in wave 3 with many familar faces.  I have to say, I was definately flustered for a few minutes before it was time to get in the water. I've done this race for years and typically, we all walk over to grab a lane after the heat in front of us starts.  This year, some racers went over early and "called" the lanes.  I have always swum in the lanes in the deep end near my brother and a few others that I am trying to race with.  So..... I had to crawl my way down to the far end of the pool... further away from the door.  But.. I got down there, finally found an open lane and was able to swim next to my friends Anne and Kelsey and with my friend Brett. It was just fine. I wasnt' as lonely or far away as I thought I would feel. 

Alright... let's get down to business. We were in the water, holding the wall ( I miss the starting blocks!) and ready.... An old college friend blew the whistle. ( small world... )

I took off SO hard! I wanted to get right out there. It's only 525 after all!!!! There is NOT a lot of time in a sprint. If you want any sort of advantage over your competitors, you can not wait. It's 110% from start to finish. 

My son Cameron, was so cool and got my splits for me!!!! And one of my other boys, Tommy, video taped my whole swim!!!! Thanks guys!!!! 
I felt strong and fast on my swim and one advantage of being at the end was I could see the clock perfectly as I made my turns.  So here are my splits at each 100--  1:04, 2:15, 3:31, 4:48, 6:02--- or at least close to that... not sure where Cam hit the watch.  Then it was one more 25, out of the pool, a run out the door and to T1. I nearly crashed into Catherine ( super speedy nobody can even come close to touching her Catherine... whom is also super nice btw!!! ) as she pulled out her bike and I ran in. I was just happy to almost share T1 with her!

And off I ran...

I hopped on and off I went. 

I worked so so hard on the bike.. and yet I don't think I felt realllllllly good until about mile 8. It just takes me a bit to get my legs turning over the way they should. But I focused on tighter corners, pedalling hard as I made the turn instead of being afraid of falling over ( bike handling skills can Always be improved upon!) and staying low and never ever ever letting up. That was my mantra... don't let up dont' let up don't let up NOT for a second!!!!! 

Towards the end of the race, my friend Steve passed by.  We acknowledged each other. Off he rode. A bit later, I passed him back.  This happened several times.  Well... somewhere during the last few passes we made, we messed up.  I can't be sure but here's my guess.  I believe that on one of my passes, it took me more than 15 seconds.  The two of us were clearly riding at about the same pace because we just got Stuck together.  Back and forth. On one pass... as I said... I was WORKING to get by him.. He even let out a "Ahhhhhhh" and so I did I.  It was funny. Neither of us were out to cheat or get an advantage off one another. And his guess is that after that pass, he may not have dropped back far enough.  Within a moment, the motorcycle crept up and lurked with us for that uncomfortable "oh oh" amount of time. Damndoubledamn!!!!!!  Not intentional and quite frustrating because you know what? Steve and I are clean honest riders.  We just raced on.... 

This is my brother.....he rode into T2 just behind me after I had passed him on mile 1 of the ride.  Go Jeff!!!! But.. look at me! Right over there bent down at my spot. My T2 was HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!   :47 seconds... too long for a sprint! I was sort of laughing too because While I was over there doing my nails apparently (ok.. KIDDING! you'd know that if you saw  my nails) the announcer was talking to the spectators, "watch these guys transition.. .they're so fast. "  and so on... I have new fast race shoes and they were TOUGH to get on!!! Oh my gosh... I was swearing for sure. Now go back Up one picture.... I was off.. finally.. and in hot pursuit of my little bro.  :)

The guys... Nick, Tommy being Tommy, and big brother Cameron.

This is me and my friend Steve that I was talking about.  This is at the end of the run. So, I'll back up... I took off on the run and my legs were fine. However.. I Sounded like Darth Vader. Seriously. My breathing was out of control!!!! So loud and annoying. Within a short time, I was side by side with Steve.  We were matched well this day!! He and I truly ran shoulder to shoulder...... Steve, I am sorry I sounded like that! It must have been a bit annoying!!  Kurt, my coach, ran by after about a mile.  "Come on! Ange! Come on!"  I was tryyyyyying!!!!!!  He was flying and I just couldn't go that fast! But I did Feel fast!!!! Steve and I pushed and pushed each other. He kept me honest and helped me continue on with my mantra of the day, " do not let up!"  It was really cool running with him!!! Steve ran Boston just a few weeks ago and the whole race I kept thinking about how strong he is right now. It was fun to watch!!!!  So... we pushed and pushed and ran in and out of the woods, across the soccer field on the grass, around here and there.... and at the end... Steve Surged and pushed ahead. I just ran my heart out. My boys were lined up every 20 yards or so at the end. One of them had the camera again. I gave my high fives and waves to them then, in the finisher's chute,  since during the race I was serious focused ignore the world around me Mama...

Brother Jeff--- the final push

The last stretch to the finish. Nice accessory in this shot. ahh.. oh well. ...

I finished the race in 58:46. A PR!!! I was 59:11 last year. So hey! A year older and a bit faster in a crazy frantic sprint race, I'll take it!!!!!  2nd woman... I was happy with this!

But then... the final results came out a few hrs later.  Slapped with a 2:00 penalty. Bummer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That knocked me down to 4th place with a 100:46 official time. Hey.. that's life.  My racing was a bit better so I feel good inside. Frustrated that I messed up a pass. My intentions weren't to draft or get an unfair advantage in any way shape or form.  My intentions were just to go as fast as I could and as I was in the middle of my pass, I realized it was harder to complete it than I thought it would be. Steve was movin!!!!! 

However! I am happy with what I did as a whole! Can't ever be unhappy with a PR!

And I was there for two other Great TriMoxie performances as well!!! So great to see my athletes succeed! Beth and Tammy were 1-2 in the 35-39 y.o. age group!!!!  (shots below of them getting their awards.) 

Beth and I in front of 'the trailer.'  We were twins. 

Beth Anderson- 1st age group!!

High fives for teammate Tammy Webber taking 2nd.