Hey everyone,
Melanie and Bill did the Mooseman 1/2 Ironman in Vermont on the weekend… sounds like a great race (except for the rain!)… also sounds like Bill’s LOST swimming has really helped! (he was, shall we say, on the weaker side, even a year ago!). Congrats Mel and Bill!
Cheers,
Rob
Here’s a little summary of the Mooseman 70.3 (1/2 ironman) race in New Hampshire, that Bill and I did on the weekend…
We arrived at the park Saturday afternoon, had a fantastic little swim in the lake, temp was perfect without a wetsuit, so I was hoping to go “naked” in the race… but at the race meeting they said they were expecting rain and for the air temp to drop below the water temp,,,which it did! It was raining & chilly before the race started, so I wore the wetsuit. I was in the very last wave, not the greatest, but oh well. Swim wasn’t as enjoyable as day before, but it was okay,,,9th in age group,,, Bill’s swim time was just over a minute behind my time, which is great for him and his swim result was his best of the 3 disciplines too! I have to watch my back apparently! He is definitely converted to a triathlete now!! Oh yeah, it was my 1st experience at the strippers too (haha – getting someone to help strip the wetsuit off) The rest of the race was extremely challenging,,,the bike had wicked long climbs (some steep parts too) and winding scary descents. With the pouring rain all day, I was beyond my comfort level on the descents, they were twisty, they were dangerous, they put a speed limit on some of them (radar), and with my lack of bike handling this year (1st time my tri-bike has seen the road this season),,,so needless to say I went slowly and cautiously,,,which was okay, saved the legs abit probably,,,the rain continued for the hilly run, but I felt okay, and managed to keep the legs moving in my soggy shoes…the volunteers and spectators were awesome, very energetic, especially considering the weather they were enduring… The finish was great, the announcer told people to put their hands together for Melanie Price of Hamilton Ontario, and it got quite loud…(oddly enough I don’t remember any noise at end of ironman, so I really soaked (play on words there) the finish in here!)
The next challenge was the walk with all the soaking wet gear back to the car!!!
Oh yeah, one other odd thing happened to me during the race, I got a red card for drafting…opps…I can’t believe it! I guess I was, but I really wasn’t consciously doing it. I had my head sort of down for one of the hills and had caught up to this guy, the ground had flattened out, but I hadn’t made my move to pass or settled back in time… So I sat 4 minutes in the penalty box,,,with some very nice New Hampshire folk, and we talked about Tom’s Wedgie and other things, so I guess it wasn’t that bad…
Results aren’t quite where we want to be,,,but it was an early season race after a hard winter (physically and mentally) for us, so we’ll call it a good hard training day and more experience and fun J …All in all it was a very nice location, a very challenging race, and a very nice time away for Bill and I!!!
Melanie Price (& William Johnson)