Memphis in May Triathlon Report

Pre Race:

This race was at a new venue this year. Tunica, MS, the Vegas of the Mississippi River! The venue was great overall and I am glad we made the decision to come in the night before and stay at the hotel. The kids loved staying in a hotel and I loved rolling out of bed and being at the swim site. Since I was able to rack my bike the night before the race, the morning went smooth.

I woke up around 5 AM and got ready. I drank some Gatorade, but didn't really eat anything. I felt pretty good overall that morning and was not that nervous. I was able to take my bag to the transition area and get everything set up. I got my body marking the night before, so setup did not take me long. I went back to the room to use the restroom and grab my wetsuit.

Before the race, I was able to get in the water and swim around. The water was almost warm enough to go without a wetsuit, but the added speed I have with the wetsuit made it a no brainer. This swim was in a man made lake which was no deeper than 4-6ft the entire way!

The swim went great for me. I got into a "zone" after about the first 500 yards and I felt comfortable the rest of the way. After the third buoy, we got to swim through a channel, you could see people standing on the bank cheering us on. I almost lost my sighting and swam into the wall, but was able to correct. The only other thing that happened in the swim was that some guy whacked me in the head pretty hard! Thankfully, I have a hard head and was able to swim on.

I ran up the ramp to T1 and I had a long run to my spot since I was such a low number (#155), which was OK, because it meant I did not have to run with my bike on this transition, It was starting to rain once I was at my spot, but I had no idea about the rains that were coming. My wetsuit got stuck on one of my ankles, but a quick jerk got it off and I was on my way.


It immediately started to rain as I got on my bike, which remained steady until it was a full out thunderstorm. We had a headwind for the first 12-14 miles. I am not a huge fan of riding in the rain, but I was thankful to be out riding. As you know if you read this blog, my bike was stolen on the Tuesday before this race and I was lucky enough to have a friend offer to let me use their bike. So even though there was a lot of rain, thunder and lightning, I was glad to be out there. We finally got a tailwind with the last 12 miles or so. Overall I had a pretty good bike for only riding it for two days and not having a bike computer.

Coming in to T2, I wasn't able to get my right shoe off before the dismount line, so I ran with one shoe clipped to the pedal and the other on my foot to my rack. Some a-hole had racked his bike in my spot which threw everyone off.


So here was my decision to make. My shoes and socks I had placed out were soaking wet, so I decided to go without socks. I took off running and stopped about a half mile in to adjust my laces. At about Mile 2, I could already feel the blisters rubbing, and it got worse as the run went on. I was 1:50 into the race when I started the run, so I knew I was on track to meet my goal time, but the run got me. It seems to be my weak area again. The run turned out to be 1/2 mile longer than it should, but I was doing so much run/walk that it did not matter. My feet were bloody from the blisters all over my feet that I was so glad to see the finish line.

I finished the race in 3:00:37. I was hoping for 2:45-2:50. I am OK with that overall time due to the weather and using a new bike, but I am disappointed in my run, it is something I will really have to work on going forward!