Lake Allatoona Sprint Tri
In 2015 the Lake Allatoona Sprint triathlon was my first Open Water Swim (OWS) tri. My friend Stacy signed up for it last minute and encouraged me to sign up as well. At the time it was the most challenging race I had tackled but I managed to complete it in 2:12:03.
I was excited to race it again in 2016 so I could compare times with 2015. My tri friend Stacy signed up again, as did another friend Anne – it would be her first ever triathlon!
Race day arrived and I had already planned to be up extra early so I could snag a parking spot down by the lake. The previous year I wasn’t aware of the limited parking and ended up leaving my car in a church parking lot 1 mile from transition.
I arrived in Acworth in plenty of time and was parked before the sun came up! I was at packet pick-up by 530am and also picked up my timing chip and got marked up.
I was able to take my time unloading the car and organizing everything before heading back to transition with my bike and backpack. The early bird snags the best spot on the bike rack! I laid out all of my transition items and began looking around for Stacy and Anne. I found Shawna first – she runs a group on Facebook called Ironwilled: Women Who Tri. Then my cell phone buzzed. It was Stacy telling me she had a flat tire on her van on I-285. Even after contacting roadside assistance, she never made it to the event. Anne found me a short time later and was definitely nervous. I stayed in transition for a while, had a pee break and then decided it was time to head over to the shoreline and have a warm-up swim.
The lake water was disgustingly warm – the announcers said it was a balmy 80 degrees – but I felt calm as I warmed up. Back on shore I waited for the first batch of swimmers to head off – the men’s groups went first of course. Mine was the second group of women – with the dayglo pink swim caps. Soon we were in the chute and ready to start. I kept a steady pace and was able to easily sight the buoys. The swim was advertised as 500m but it seemed longer than that to me. Finally I reached the shore and ran into transition, pulling my swim cap and googles off as I went.
I quickly got ready for the bike leg and took on some nutrition as well, then I was off. I knew the course from 2015, so I had a good idea of what to expect and where the killer hill was near the end. I got into a good rhythm early and knew I was setting a fast pace. I flew past some other cyclists (and also had some on tri bikes whizz past me). I got into a good gear and ground up the hill at mile 12/13 ( I remember struggling with this one last year) and then it was mostly rolling hills until transition. My legs still felt strong but I knew the run was hilly so I wasn’t sure what pace I could maintain.
I set off at a decent pace and pushed through each hill as best I could. I wasn’t paying attention to my watch at all. On the final turn (which was a hill into another lower grade hill) I dug in again and sprinted to the finish line. Amazingly I finished in 1:46:43, a whopping 25 minutes and 20 seconds faster than 2015!!
Swim Bike Run - Tri Mum 