sandman 2004
This year's sandman race was much more satisfying for me than
last
year's, for a couple of reasons. First, preparation. I was playing
water polo 3
days a week
and running at least twice a week for two or three months before the
race, which was a stark contrast to last
year's where I spent a lot of time on the bike and almost no time on
anything else, and didn't start running until the month before the
race. My run was much stronger this year, and I dropped a
couple of minutes off of last year's time even though this year's run
course
was about half a mile longer than last year's.
I managed to stay on my bike the whole time
this
year, which was a new experience for me, but not especially
remarkable except if you know that last year I fell off. I
dropped
about five minutes from last year's overall time, which was pretty
surprising
to me considering the extended run.
It was also surprising that I dropped time because it was so foggy
on the swim leg that when we were supposed to turn back towards shore,
you couldn't see the beach. It was very disorienting, water and
grey haze as far as your eyes could see. My fellow swimmers and I
actually poked our heads up and
talked about the poor visibility during the race... a
conversation along the lines of
me: "do you see the shore...?"
guy 1: "no..."
guy 2
[points left]: "I think
it's
this way...?"
guy 1 [points 120 degrees from guy 2]: "well, we
came from over
there, so..."
me [points in between guys 1 and 2]: "is that a shark?"
pretty
comical all around. After the race, someone told me that the race
organizers realized that swimmers couldn't see the shore about half
way through
my wave and parked a car on the beach with its lights
on, pointed out towards the turn marker so that swimmers would know
which way to go.
Peggy had a very satisfying race as well, and was able to
stay on her bike, and held off a challenger at the very end of the
run, which allowed her to claim the trophy for
first place in her age group!
created with
igal
