Over the winter, a few friends suggested I sign up for the Boiling Springs Sprint Tri. It was a race I have viewed photos of, online, in the past, and seemed like a race that would be fun. It was later in the season when I decided to sign up. I completely forgot the race was on a Saturday, as most races are on Sundays. So when I scheduled my shifts for work, I inadvertently scheduled myself to work Friday, the night before.
I've been in tough situations before, but this was crazier than most.
My husband and I drove right after my shift to his parents house, spent the night in a very warm house with no air conditioning, and woke up the next day for the triathlon. I don't think I slept longer than 4 hours and although the race was in close proximity to where we were staying, I developed race anxiety the night before. I have always been in the mindset of: early to bed, wake up at a specific time, deal with long lines. Not only was I far from correct in my thoughts, I had a very long amount of time to check in, set up my equipment and warm up.
Registration was very quick and the lines were very small. Registration only took five minutes to complete, including body marking! See below:
Once registration was completed, I was able to walk all of my gear to transition and set everything up. Because this race has a small size, it was open choice for transition spot. I chose a spot close to the end of the rack as it usually has more space to keep your bag and also gives you more of a buffer from the person next to you.
Bike all racked and ready. Bottle's on the bike always stocked with Xrcel. My favorite carbohydrate drink that not only makes you feel hydrated, but also helps release carbohydrates strategically throughout your body.
This was my first triathlon where I was participating in all three distances since beginning my new training program through Pkrs.ai. I was anticipating this race as not knowing how I was going to do, but excited to start.
The Boiling Springs Sprint Tri is a pool swim, completed at the Boiling Springs Pool and swimming is done via up and back fashion in the same lane. This meant that with the ten lanes set up, ten people entered the water and completed their twelve lengths. After one person completes their lengths, then the next person may enter the water. I have done triathlon's in the past, with the swim portion being done in the pool, yet with a serpentine style swim. This means that people enter the pool two at a time and swim lengths of the pool, crossing over the lanes and swimming a new length. This is probably the best way to complete a pool swim and may have been a much better choice. The swim took over 2 hours for all participants to complete and I didn't start my swim until 9am. As you could imagine, there was a lot of waiting around.
The bike course was three loops of a 5 mile stretch of road with significant hills including three trips up Bucher Hill Road. I listened to a woman before the race saying to not go 100% up the hill for the first time as it is sneaky and the third trip will catch up to you.
I kept my pace and rhythm comfortable up the hills and solid on the flats. I reached a new top speed of 27 mph! I felt very strong on the bike and completed this in 59:52, meeting my goal time of less than 1 hour.
Finally, the run was a 5k. I didn't have a goal time to complete, just a heart rate zone to stick to. The run was wonderful and included part of it on a trail. I surprised myself with a time of 35:37.
It's amazing what you can do on 4 hours of sleep, some adrenaline and the community of triathlon. After the race, we explored the area and had some fantastic ice cream first from Leo's and then from Massey's. If you are ever in the Carlisle, PA area go and check them out. A fierce nap and some recovery time, I was on to the next!
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