Rumpass in Bumpass - Race Report!

Rumpass in Bumpass – the name is great, the shirt is hilarious, the race was a lot of fun. And orange must be the new color for shirts (Kelly talked about her orange shirt, too). I think my son is going to snag it to wear for track practice though – at least once to get comments out of it. He did get comments from the Scope it Out “Catch the Polyp” shirt. :)

Yesterday was the Rumpass in Bumpass. The race had kind of a late start – 10AM! I left home around 6:20 and was pulling into the race site by 8:00. This included a rest stop along the way.

It was weird – never have I had so much time before a race started! I was pretty relaxed for a bit – then the pre-race nerves started. Finally it was time to get into the wetsuit. The new full suit goes on with almost no effort as compared to my sleeveless. I took a dip in the lake to check it out with a few others from Team Z – that helped get my mind off of things. The water felt great except for on my face – it was freezing there and in my ears. I had tested the water with two caps but opted for just the issued cap for the race.

The horn sounded and we were off! The swim felt great. The water felt fine on my fact, too, and did not bother my ears at all. I think I did a pretty good job of sighting, too. It was funny – there was one spot in the first section where the lake was really low. Really low. There were some swimmers standing and walking. Very weird. I was able to swim the whole thing. The only difficultly I had at all was on the last leg of the swim – I was sighting towards the wrong place and needed to make an adjustment near the finish. But all was good. I was quite happy with my swim and felt great coming out of the water. Time: 28:59

Transition – well, I always need to work on the swim to bike transition; throwing a wetsuit into the mix does not help, either. Time: 3:25

The bike was pretty good. I got annoyed at the wind and felt like some places were hard for me. My heart rate was up for a bit, during the first loop, so maybe that did not help. There were a few places on the course though where the road was super smooth and I felt like I was flying – that was great! I think I drank enough on the bike but who knows. I drank one bottle for almost an hour and a half – maybe I should have had more? I have no idea what my splits were on the bike course, which was two loops. Maybe I’ll remember that next time. Anyway, I wanted to push the bike but tried to not get to out of hand because of the upcoming run and the heat that I know was waiting. And it was. Time: 1:24:01

Transition from bike to run was a bit better but I was completely clueless – I ran out of transition the wrong way and they had to point me back in the other direction. Oh well, the announcer made a funny comment – I cannot remember what it was though. Time: 2:18

The really great thing about the run was that my legs actually felt pretty good getting started. That is usually not the case, so I was pretty happy about that. When the run first started there was this one stretch that was through a path in the woods that had roots and uneven ground all over. That kind of threw me for a loop – I am not too good on uneven ground these days. I was not looking forward to that part coming back in that way, either. Anyway, I pretty much ran the whole course, which was a two loop out and back, except for the water stops and the last little incline that was a bit before the last water stop. I felt like my pace was kind of even the whole time but I feel like I slowed a bit towards the end. Darned beautiful hot day! The best thing about the run was ALL of the Team Z green out on the course!! It was fantastic to see people coming and going and cheer each other on. The high 5’s were great, too. The Team Z support at the finish was great, also – and there was also Team Z support at the end of the bike loop, too. Time: 1:06:57

Finishing I felt great. I did not feel sore or sick so that is a plus. :) I was starving so thankfully the Team Z grill was already hard at work and I got my hot dog and a Diet Coke. The orange slices tasted delicious also. I had wanted to get back in the lake, but decided not to – I did not feel like getting wet again after all. I did stick my legs in after a while though. Unfortunately, I did not put any sun block on anywhere besides my face, so now I have a lovely triathlete’s tan. LOL It could be worse. All in all, it was a great day at the Rumpass in Bumpass. I would definitely do this race again! Total time: 3:05:38 and I was 6 out of 15 in my age group - that was kind of a surprise!