Race Report-Peachtree City Sprint

 

  After the disappointment at the Muncie 70.3 I wanted to add an extra race to August after the Acworth Women's Sprint Triathlon. I wanted to do a big race with a lot of people since I want to see how I stack up against a large field with fast people. My buddy Bill told me about the Peachtree City Sprint Tri and I was sold. They get about 1100 people, and a lot of fasties come out to give it a go, so this race was a perfect fit. Bill was already signed up, and after I signed up our friends Paul and Jay signed up as well. They all live in the Atlanta area and I am all by myself in the south of the state, but racing with my buddies I knew the 4 and a half hour drive would be well worth it.

It was a Saturday race, so we had to leave Friday night. Friday morning Joel came home from work around 9:30 in the morning, which was unusual for him. He then gave me the news that he was deploying to Afghanistan in less than 45 days. I was upset of course, this isn't our first deployment, it will be our 4th together, but this is the first time he has been told on such short notice. Also to add salt to the wound, he will be deploying the same week as the Augusta 70.3, so now my "A" race is up in the air. Now I am going into this race with all this on my mind.We arrived in Peachtree City Friday night and because of the long drive had to go strait to bed for our 3:30 wake-up. Joel was doing sherpa duty for this race.

Arrived early to the race site since we knew parking would be an issue. Got a great parking spot, picked up my packet, and got all the numbers in their proper places. Ran into Jay in the parking lot and chatted with him for a minute. Got to transition and WOW, it was huge for a sprint! It resembled the transition area of an ironman event


Ran into Bill in transition, chatted for a bit and checked out his new bike, it looked fast. After leaving transition we ran into Paul and his family. We all pretty much chatted until it was time for the race to start, always a great thing to do to calm the nerves

Left to right: Paul, Jay, Anthony(Paul's son), Joel, me

Swim:Because of the number of competitors and a short swim (.3 mile) the swim was a time trial start. With this many people this really was the best way to do it. 2 people would go off every few second, not exactly sure how many seconds. I was in the front of the middle of the line. I finally got into the water and it was great not having to fight with people for space in the water. It was a good open water swim for me, it felt strong, I was pushing it, and my sighting was decent for once. Swim time was 11:22

TI: Helmet and cycling shoes, grab bike, go! Time was 1:17

Bike: 14 miles.I knew there were going to be some rollers on the bike course. Although I don't have any hills to train on at home, I have been putting in a lot of work on the bike trainer. Tough, menacing sessions that make me want to cry. This was a sprint, so in my typical fashion in a sprint tri I hammered the entire course, standing up hammering going up the hills. I am getting more comfortable going down hills as well, so I was able to get a nice tuck in the aerobars and fly down the hills as well. This was a fun, fast bike course. Bike time was 38:02 (22 mph average)

T2: I knew I had a good bike split so I was anxious to get out on the run. Then I had a panic moment, I WAS LOST IN TRANSITION. I could not find my spot, I must have spent about 20-30 seconds looking for my spot. I finally found it and was panicking about how long I was taking. Racked bike, tossed helmet off, running hat on, cycling shoes off, running shoes on, grabbed race belt, go! I sprinted to the run start. Time was 1:22

Run: (3.1 miles)Run was through a paved trailed in the woods so you could really feel the humidity. I felt good and was at my 5k pace, was thanking all the volunteers. At mile 2 I was relieved the run was almost over, and then there was a series of steep little hills. Got through them, my run time was slower than I was hoping for, but I'll take it. Run time was 24:28

Total race time was 1:16:29

Since this was the 10th year of the Peachtree City Triathlon they were handing out sweet looking finisher's medals at the finish line that commemorated the 10th year. Hung out with Joel and Bill and waited for Paul to come across the finish line. The preliminary results had me as first in my age group (which shocked me in such a huge race) but with the time trial start you don't really know how you placed until everyone finishes. Paul entered the finish line chute and we cheered him into the finish. We found out later Jay had issues in the swim and was unable to finish. He is strong will so I know he will bounce back from this experience.

Left to right: Me, Joel, Paul, Bill

Because of the preliminary results we decided to stick around for the awards ceremony after gathering my stuff from transition. Hung out with everyone and talked bike, life, and the upcoming deployment. It is awesome to know I have such great friends to lean on for support in the coming months. Finally they posted the results, I had won my age group, and Bill had won Master Clydesdale.



At the awards ceremony we got our moment

We had to check out of the hotel and get on the road back home, so we had to say a quick goodbye to our friends. It hit me on the drive home that this was the last race of the year where Joel would be there (in person) for me. I don't know what the next few months have in store for us, but no matter what we will make it through.

Jillian rocked it again!  you beat my run split by almost a minute, i told you you would handle me on the run at peachtree!  great to race with you guys again.  can't wait until the next one.

 Beat ny run by 10 minutes lol! 

But hey one of us has to be the slow one!

dude, you're not slow.  she's fast.  just sayin.

 Great race! I'm definitely jealous that you guys get to race together!  Congrats to all of you.

You guys are all rockstars! Inspiring for sure!

WOw.... Awesome!
I have my first Sprint in about 3wks. 300yd swim, 10mile bike, 2 mile run. Then about 3 weeks after that is my "goal" sprint Tri - 600yd swim, 18mile bike, 5k run. I hope I can finish the same day lol

 That's a fantastic result Jillian.  I'm sorry about the deployment.  They really do suck.  I hope your girls are taking it ok.  45 days is not a lot of warning.