Double 3rd

I believe it was 2007 when I heard about the Picnic Island Adventure Races in Tampa. I wanted badly to go then but I guess something else came up. I think I heard about the race every year but time after time I found more reasons to not go then to go.

2010 is a new year and I finally got my butt in the car and drove to Tampa last Friday to do the race. I did great and had a lot of fun. Can’t recall now why I haven’t done this race before.

The race on Friday was the third one of the year. I figured 100 people would show up and I would maybe be top 5 if I had a good day. When I go there they said that 800+ had showed for race number two and they were expecting 900 for this one. Holy cow! Really? I started thinking top 10 at best.

I was so excited I left at 10am for the 6:45pm race. I figured I could do some geocaching and get there a little early. I got there before 4pm. Oh good. I have a chance to melt before the race starts.

Did a little swim. Talked to the DJ. Snapped some photos. Walked and jogged a little bit of the course. Walked around and basically did nothing for a couple of hours.
Finally. Race time.

Sure enough there were TONS of people. We crammed onto the start area on the beach and we were off.

During the time that I was waiting I had lots of opportunities to observe the people showing up to race. Maybe it was just my anxiety but there seemed to be an awful lot of fast looking dudes running around. I had this vision pop in my head of me finished 14th (???). I don’t race well in the heat. Uh oh.

Lucky for me a breeze blew in from the ocean and a small cloud covered up the sun. Awesome.

So the first half mile was down the beach. I was determined not to fry our in the first part of the race. I settled into about 15th.

Yeah, I have no patience. As soon as we got off the beach I started passing people. Some grass with lots of turns and little hills and in no time I was 9th then 6th then 4th then I moved into 2nd before the barrier.

Diving under a cargo net? For real? Nice.

Jumping through tires then a barrier then it was onto the tidal flats for a little mud run. Nice.

I was in second though the mud section and gaining fast on the leader. On the short beach run he missed the turn and I didn’t thus landing myself in first place. Fabulous. I hammered down a couple of skinny, muddy trails and completely fried myself. Coming into the final mile I was leading but suffering.

Of course I had done exactly what I said I wouldn’t do. I was gassed and the humidity was causing rigor to set in.

I told myself that if I went slowly for a while the guy behind would catch me and I’d have more gas to stay with him. Doesn’t work that way. Slow begets slow. I slowed down and he caught me. Through the twisty turny last mile be caught me, we ran together then he slowly pulled away. It was like Chariots of Fire. It was happening in sure slow motion I couldn’t even believe it. Then some other dude ran by me full of piss and vinegar. That wasn’t slow motion.

With 100 yards to go I was still in spittin’ distance of the top two. Then we had to run out into the sea. That’s right. 50 yards out in the bay and around a buoy. The water was halfway up my thigh. Man was that hard when you were suffering like a pig to begin with.

I finished and it was over. I was very please to finish in 3rd place. I honestly think that in 2 weeks I would have had the strength to win the race. Today I’ll settle for 3rd. Plus I had a lot of fun!

I drove the 2 hours home and got there late. I went to bed and slept for 7 hours. At 7am I was up and off to Tavares to run a 5k. I actually ran faster than I did the last time! Still 19 minutes is a little pathetic for me.

OK, yes I made the same mistake again less than 14 hours after I did it the first time. I tried to run with these two elite triathletes that showed up from Clermont. Home town race and I really couldn’t let a woman pull away in the first mile! In the end there was nothing I could do about it. Some fast dude ran 17:30 and the lady ran an astounding 17:45 to whoop up on my pretty good.

I don’t feel bad at all about getting beaten by a girl. At least I didn’t let the one behind me catch me. ;)

So there you have it. Two races and two 3rd places. All started and finished in 15 hours. Good training for the Ironman I guess. After the run on Saturday I went for a 90 minute bike ride to loosen up. All felt good.

The Lake Loiusa sprint triathlon is Thursday. I may just do that. Sounds like fun. Next Xterra race in 13 days!!