SavageMan Triathlon {recap}

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – SavageMan is my favorite (and hardest) triathlon of the season! I’m in my 4th year of racing (of the 5 years in existence) and it just keeps getting better. I love the course, the volunteers, the other racers, and the laid-back feel of the entire weekend.

Of the 4 years, this year was by far the coldest and most windy. The morning had a slight chill – but I was hoping the sun would come out and warm things up. Wishful thinking – the sun never came out and it was cold the entire race (about 45 degrees with a strong wind)

Pre-race: The race started at 9:30am (race directors take note – this is the *perfect* time for a race), with transition closing at 9:15am. I pushed it to the last minute because I did not want to take off my cozy, warm clothes. Little did I know that the swim would be the warmest part of the whole race!

Swim: I usually hate the swim, but I make an exception one time/year – for SavageMan. Deep Creek Lake is beautiful and I can see the bottom of the lake the entire swim. And since it’s a smaller race (but getting bigger), I don’t feel like I’ve just gotten into an all-out cat fight when I exit the water (not that I know what a cat-fight feels like).

I’m a slow(er) swimmer – I’m totally okay admitting that – but I’m excited to announce that I had my 1st sub-30 minute swim on Saturday!
Time: 29:55

T1: One of my slowest transitions in triathlon history. I did, however, attempt to dry myself off as much as possible and wiggle on some arm warmers before heading out on the bike. Time: 3:06

Bike: I’m not going to spend much time talking about the bike, because I don’t want to sound like a major complainer – but this ride was hard and challenging. It was cold, it was windy – and I was still very wet from the swim. If I wasn’t wearing arm-warmers I probably would have called it quits (BJ was certain that he would see me on the side of the road, waiting to be taken back to transition). I wanted to cry on every.single.downhill and could not feel my feet for 23 miles. At one point, I was {only} going 5mph up hill with a major head-wind. {day-dreaming about the run}
Time: 1:26:18

T2: I could barely tie my running shoes because my fingers were frozen.
Time: 2:41

Run: I spent 1 hour, 26 minutes and 18 seconds dreaming about the run. Even though it took 3 miles for my toes to finally thaw out, I felt really good on the run (especially since I have only done one brick workout all season, and it was at the Columbia Triathlon, ha). The run is one of my favorites – hilly and shaded but with plenty of flats to recover on. One bystander recognized my Brooks I.D. uniform and cheered for me throughout the run – it was great motivation and just what I needed for the last mile. I pushed hard for the last mile and finished in…
Time: 51:03 (8:13 pace)

Overall Time: 2:53:01 (2 minutes slower than last year, but I’ll take the weather and wind into consideration)

Recap: I placed 4th in my AG group for the 4th year in a row! I kind of feel like I should earn a medal or plaque for consistency. Each year I think “If I just train harder next year, I’ll get 3rd” – but the field keeps improving and I keep getting 4th. Now, it’s just funny!

Post-race = Freezing

Trying to stay warm, with BJ

I love this race, absolutely love it. After we raced on Saturday, I said to BJ: “We should start charging our friends a fee for introducing them to this race”. I was joking, of course, (kind of), but this year we had 5 friends join us for SavageMan weekend. We rented a huge house (log cabin-esque), and celebrated with lots of wine, hot tub excursions, and (real) fires – it was so much fun. I already can’t wait for 2012.

A HUGE thanks to race management, race officials and all of volunteer for making SavageMan an awesome triathlon experience!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Comments

  1. I love Deep Creek Lake!! I went to spectate a portion of the Savageman bike course the first year they had it. My parents and I (and my dog) stood on the steepest portion of the hill in Westernport (an optional section that is closed to traffic due to its steepness) to cheer people on and ring cowbells. So inspirational! That is a very difficult race for sure. Congrats on your awesome finish and for your 4th place AG finish!

  2. Congrats!! I've heard that's one of the toughest courses in the country!

  3. There's something to be said about consistency! LOL! Great job out there girl!

  4. Congrats on such a hard course!!! I was freezing just reading it!!!

  5. brrrrrrrrr! congrats on 4 4ths! 🙂

  6. It was a freezing day that day for Savageman, and that's speaking from here, not the 10 degrees cooler that is Deep Creek! Great job on handling the course so well. I know so many people who do that race and love it, in spite of the difficulty. You did great!

  7. sounds like an awesome time (sarcastic about the bike, serious about the finish 🙂 ). Way to push through not so ideal conditions, and congrats on the 4th – rock that!

  8. Oh gosh why is it that saturday of this weekend felt like november instead of october.?!? i am so impressed. i hate being cold, way to keep with it!

  9. Going under 30 minutes is a nice swim time! Great job. I've heard about the hills on the savageman bike course. I have certainly spent my fair share of time at/below 5 mph on the bike. but that sounds rough.

    Glad you had fun!

  10. Good job! This looks like a hard tri, plus the weather seemed like it sucked for you!

  11. Wow, that sounds like a tough race! You rocked it though!!

  12. I live in MD and have heard great things about this one! That bike course sounds rough, being cold must have been awful – was that why you wanted to cry on the downhills? Fourth place may not get a medal, but that is quite an accomplishment!

Leave a Reply to misszippy Cancel reply

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.