Culpeper

This photo is from a June race, I haven't gotten it together to get the Culpeper pic's up. I know, I'm lame..

The Culpeper Sprint was great fun and is a must for next year. My friend Heather (the innocent victim I dragged along) and I drove the pleasantly short 2 hours southwest on Saturday (8/5). We picked up our packets and had a chill day visiting a vineyard for a wine tasting and camping in a sketchy, deep woods Virginia style RV park/tent site. We were up and on the road before the sun, but still it wasn't as early as most (HP01, you would have freaked). Luckily we weren't the only late ones and they ended up pushing the race back by 15 minutes.

Alas, despite the delay driven panic and some suspiciously ‘organic’ 88 degree water my swim felt pretty strong. As it turned out I am glad I had been training for distances twice as far because I was all over the place! I swear, every time I looked up I had to readjust my direction; I’m going to need to work on that. About halfway through, I got a solid kick in the chest by some yahoo doing the breast stroke (I free styled the whole way) that knocked the wind out of me, so I sputtered and choked for a while, and then got on with it.

The bike was very hilly; it was either up or down the WHOLE 18 miles. Fortunately it was also a beautiful day, with fantastic scenery, so the miles flew by. All in all it was a pretty painless ride. Then there was the run. In short, the run kicked my ass. It was 5 k of brutal jellowie legged, shin splinting hills. Man I hated that run! In the end I pulled it together and finished strong, I even had energy left over to sprint up the hill (yes an uphill finish-nice) to the finish line…and I didn’t throw up ;-) bonus!

I am pleased to report that I was not one bit sore, which may tell me that I didn't push myself hard enough, but then again maybe it was the back to back wine tasting? Or maybe it was because I took HP03’s advice to not train the 2 days before? Either way it was quite empowering to wake up on days 1+2 and feel so, well…not in pain I guess. I'm looking forward to the Iron Girl at the end of the month (8/27). I hope to improve the whole ‘swimming in a strait line thing’ and that damn run, blech! I am also looking for an event in September and October (and unfortunately watching The Ochos marathon doesn’t count). Let me know if the HP's have any plans/ideas.