Category Archives: Race report

"Race Report": Ironman Lake Placid

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Welcome to IMLP!

I didn’t actually race Lake Placid this year. I volunteered, spectated, and cheered all my tri camp friends on so I could sign up for 2013! This was my first time going to an Ironman and let me tell you, it was a very overwhelming and inspiring weekend! I just love the culture of Ironman! Lake Placid truly transforms and embraces the Ironman during race weekend. Very cool!

I arrived early Saturday afternoon and immediately met up with Linda for a swim in Mirror Lake. I was surprised how many athletes racing the next day were swimming! It was around 3pm at this point and those people really should have been resting! The buoys were out so we swam the 1.2 mile loop sans wetsuit since the water was so nice. The race was actually wetsuit legal this year, which was a good thing for the athletes.

Mirror Lake

After the swim I went to Starbucks with Linda to meet up with her coach, Carrie. Carrie told me about the masters swim group that does open water swims Saturday mornings at Kettle Cove. I’m going to start trying to go to some of the swims because I need to start swimming with faster people if I ever want to get faster. The town was quite busy and shining with excitement. I walked around for a bit before heading to my dorm room at the local community college where I was staying the weekend. It was cheap and only required a 3 night minimum. It was a dorm room, nothing special. I definitely do not plan on staying there next year that’s for sure!

Sunday morning was an early morning. It was race morning! We drove into town and parked in the volunteer lot by the horse show grounds, near where our aid station was located. It was a 2 mile walk into town. We headed into town, got a quick breakfast, and located some people to watch the swim start. The swim start is crazy! Mirror Lake is a tiny lake and with about 3000 athletes things are crazy! The gun went off and the athletes began their days. We watched the swim for awhile then we each headed off to do our respective run workouts. I was lucky that I only had an easy 30 minutes run. Linda had a 2 hour long run! I thought I was being brilliant by running around the lake. It was a good 2.5 mile loop. I got to the other side and realized I was stuck! All the age group athletes were funneling from the lake down to the oval to T1 and then heading out on the bike course! I couldn’t get back to the other side to meet up with the ladies to get ready to head to our aid station to volunteer! I started to panic and then took off to run back around the lake! I didn’t have my Garmin on for the second loop back around the lake, but I was definitely booking it back around at my 5k pace!

Athletes getting ready for the swim

Finally we all met up, grabbed food, and began our 2 mile walk to run aid station #2 for our 5 hour shift. It was actually the perfect job. We were there from 10:30-3:30. For the first couple of hours we got things set up and then watched all the athletes pass us on their bikes for a second loop. Andy Potts was killing. His first bike loop was 2:01! That’s just insane because the LP bike course is one of the hardest and slowest courses on the Ironman circuit. At least in the US. There was another long break from the cyclists and then the Pro’s began trickling in on the run. Potts was leading by a a good 10 minutes or so at this point and then the others began coming. I got to hand Potts a cup of ice on his second loop of the run course! 🙂 So cool! The women pro’s began coming in about a good 30-40 minutes after the first pro men. Slowly the age groups were beginning to show up in masses and it was go time. I handed out ice cups, which were very popular since it was quite hot when the sun was out! Our aid station was at mile 2 of the run so at this point in the day many athletes were still relatively fresh. Towards the end of our shift we began seeing some athletes begin their second loop and not looking so happy or good. I got to see a ton of TriMoxie and PBM athletes! We were actually volunteering with a couple of TriMoxie athlete’s children, which was pretty cool. I asked them at one point who they thought would finish first. Both thought Dad would.

Waiting and watching the cyclists start their second loop

After our shift ended we headed back into town to get more food, find a bathroom, and then locate our friends who set up camp to cheer people on! They were all located by Lisa G’s, which is at the bottom of the big climb back into town. The run course is a tough course with several out and backs with a couple good climbs that you do twice.

I was impressed with all the TriMoxie and PBM athletes. Everyone finished extremely strong and for the most part, in good health and spirits. It goes to show you that having a good coach will get you across that finish line! 🙂

Marc in the white tri suit killing his marathon run

Marc finished his first Ironman in 10:37 and 94th overall! He didn’t quite get the Kona spot he wanted but the 40s are a pretty cut throat age group to be in. But to finish in the top 3% is pretty damn awesome if you ask me!

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG and earned a much earned podium spot!

Mel C kicking the marathon’s butt

Mel C finished her first Ironman in 12:29! She ran her way up to 14th in her AG. And I must say, she runs so effortlessly. I always look like I’m in severe pain no matter how slow I’m running!

Mel B starting her second loop of the run

I was most impressed with Mel B. She rocked at camp so I assumed that she was a seasoned triathlete, but I found out this past weekend that she signed up for IMLP last year having never done a triathlon before! She also works 60 hours a week! Her first triathlon was Mooseman 70.3 and if you know that race, it’s one hell of a hard race to pick as your triathlon. She totally rocked IMLP! Hats off to you!

My awesome coach, Mary

My coach, Mary, didn’t quite have the race she wanted but still finished in a super fast time! As she went by our aid station I kept telling people that she’s my coach! Not only is she a great athlete, but a great coach!

I apologize to those I didn’t get a picture of, but you all rocked and inspired me to sign up for 2013! By the way, I’m so glad none of you puked in front of me because I might have changed my mind 🙂 A huge congrats to Marisa, Mike, Tammy, Kelly, Pam, Patti, and Angela. You all looked super strong out there!

We didn’t stay till midnight to watch the last athletes cross the finish line to become Ironman. We were all exhausted and wanted sleep. I had to get up early to get in line to register for 2013. Volunteers get to register first, followed by general public, and then finally what ever spots are left go on sale online. I was in line at 6:30am and it was already quite long. I guess some people actually slept there the night before! Registration wasn’t suppose to open till 9am, but they opened early at 7:30. Thank God! I still waited over 2.5 hours till I got to pay my $687.50 for 2013! But I’m in! I’m going to be an Ironman in 364 days! Holy cow, it’s getting real!

However, I guess one of the more interesting stories that has popped up about this year’s race was some 53 year old man from CT who tried to cheat! We only swam one lap in 38 minutes and claimed that he really swam both laps. Hey, buddy, if you really did swim 2.4 miles in 38 minutes then you really should be in London right now! It’s quite the interesting thread on slow twitch now. Why the heck would you try and cheat at an Ironman race. Seriously, do you really want a Kona spot that bad that you would cheat to make your self better?!

Congratulations to all of the new Ironmen!

~ Happy Training!

“Race Report”: Ironman Lake Placid

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Welcome to IMLP!

I didn’t actually race Lake Placid this year. I volunteered, spectated, and cheered all my tri camp friends on so I could sign up for 2013! This was my first time going to an Ironman and let me tell you, it was a very overwhelming and inspiring weekend! I just love the culture of Ironman! Lake Placid truly transforms and embraces the Ironman during race weekend. Very cool!

I arrived early Saturday afternoon and immediately met up with Linda for a swim in Mirror Lake. I was surprised how many athletes racing the next day were swimming! It was around 3pm at this point and those people really should have been resting! The buoys were out so we swam the 1.2 mile loop sans wetsuit since the water was so nice. The race was actually wetsuit legal this year, which was a good thing for the athletes.

Mirror Lake

After the swim I went to Starbucks with Linda to meet up with her coach, Carrie. Carrie told me about the masters swim group that does open water swims Saturday mornings at Kettle Cove. I’m going to start trying to go to some of the swims because I need to start swimming with faster people if I ever want to get faster. The town was quite busy and shining with excitement. I walked around for a bit before heading to my dorm room at the local community college where I was staying the weekend. It was cheap and only required a 3 night minimum. It was a dorm room, nothing special. I definitely do not plan on staying there next year that’s for sure!

Sunday morning was an early morning. It was race morning! We drove into town and parked in the volunteer lot by the horse show grounds, near where our aid station was located. It was a 2 mile walk into town. We headed into town, got a quick breakfast, and located some people to watch the swim start. The swim start is crazy! Mirror Lake is a tiny lake and with about 3000 athletes things are crazy! The gun went off and the athletes began their days. We watched the swim for awhile then we each headed off to do our respective run workouts. I was lucky that I only had an easy 30 minutes run. Linda had a 2 hour long run! I thought I was being brilliant by running around the lake. It was a good 2.5 mile loop. I got to the other side and realized I was stuck! All the age group athletes were funneling from the lake down to the oval to T1 and then heading out on the bike course! I couldn’t get back to the other side to meet up with the ladies to get ready to head to our aid station to volunteer! I started to panic and then took off to run back around the lake! I didn’t have my Garmin on for the second loop back around the lake, but I was definitely booking it back around at my 5k pace!

Athletes getting ready for the swim

Finally we all met up, grabbed food, and began our 2 mile walk to run aid station #2 for our 5 hour shift. It was actually the perfect job. We were there from 10:30-3:30. For the first couple of hours we got things set up and then watched all the athletes pass us on their bikes for a second loop. Andy Potts was killing. His first bike loop was 2:01! That’s just insane because the LP bike course is one of the hardest and slowest courses on the Ironman circuit. At least in the US. There was another long break from the cyclists and then the Pro’s began trickling in on the run. Potts was leading by a a good 10 minutes or so at this point and then the others began coming. I got to hand Potts a cup of ice on his second loop of the run course! 🙂 So cool! The women pro’s began coming in about a good 30-40 minutes after the first pro men. Slowly the age groups were beginning to show up in masses and it was go time. I handed out ice cups, which were very popular since it was quite hot when the sun was out! Our aid station was at mile 2 of the run so at this point in the day many athletes were still relatively fresh. Towards the end of our shift we began seeing some athletes begin their second loop and not looking so happy or good. I got to see a ton of TriMoxie and PBM athletes! We were actually volunteering with a couple of TriMoxie athlete’s children, which was pretty cool. I asked them at one point who they thought would finish first. Both thought Dad would.

Waiting and watching the cyclists start their second loop

After our shift ended we headed back into town to get more food, find a bathroom, and then locate our friends who set up camp to cheer people on! They were all located by Lisa G’s, which is at the bottom of the big climb back into town. The run course is a tough course with several out and backs with a couple good climbs that you do twice.

I was impressed with all the TriMoxie and PBM athletes. Everyone finished extremely strong and for the most part, in good health and spirits. It goes to show you that having a good coach will get you across that finish line! 🙂

Marc in the white tri suit killing his marathon run

Marc finished his first Ironman in 10:37 and 94th overall! He didn’t quite get the Kona spot he wanted but the 40s are a pretty cut throat age group to be in. But to finish in the top 3% is pretty damn awesome if you ask me!

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG

Amy, a PBM coach, finished 5th in her AG and earned a much earned podium spot!

Mel C kicking the marathon’s butt

Mel C finished her first Ironman in 12:29! She ran her way up to 14th in her AG. And I must say, she runs so effortlessly. I always look like I’m in severe pain no matter how slow I’m running!

Mel B starting her second loop of the run

I was most impressed with Mel B. She rocked at camp so I assumed that she was a seasoned triathlete, but I found out this past weekend that she signed up for IMLP last year having never done a triathlon before! She also works 60 hours a week! Her first triathlon was Mooseman 70.3 and if you know that race, it’s one hell of a hard race to pick as your triathlon. She totally rocked IMLP! Hats off to you!

My awesome coach, Mary

My coach, Mary, didn’t quite have the race she wanted but still finished in a super fast time! As she went by our aid station I kept telling people that she’s my coach! Not only is she a great athlete, but a great coach!

I apologize to those I didn’t get a picture of, but you all rocked and inspired me to sign up for 2013! By the way, I’m so glad none of you puked in front of me because I might have changed my mind 🙂 A huge congrats to Marisa, Mike, Tammy, Kelly, Pam, Patti, and Angela. You all looked super strong out there!

We didn’t stay till midnight to watch the last athletes cross the finish line to become Ironman. We were all exhausted and wanted sleep. I had to get up early to get in line to register for 2013. Volunteers get to register first, followed by general public, and then finally what ever spots are left go on sale online. I was in line at 6:30am and it was already quite long. I guess some people actually slept there the night before! Registration wasn’t suppose to open till 9am, but they opened early at 7:30. Thank God! I still waited over 2.5 hours till I got to pay my $687.50 for 2013! But I’m in! I’m going to be an Ironman in 364 days! Holy cow, it’s getting real!

However, I guess one of the more interesting stories that has popped up about this year’s race was some 53 year old man from CT who tried to cheat! We only swam one lap in 38 minutes and claimed that he really swam both laps. Hey, buddy, if you really did swim 2.4 miles in 38 minutes then you really should be in London right now! It’s quite the interesting thread on slow twitch now. Why the heck would you try and cheat at an Ironman race. Seriously, do you really want a Kona spot that bad that you would cheat to make your self better?!

Congratulations to all of the new Ironmen!

~ Happy Training!

Race Report: Norway Tri

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On July 14th I raced the Norway Tri sprint tri. It had a 0.62 mile lake swim, 11 mile bike, and a 3 mile trail run. If you recall, I had a really bad summer cold leading up to the race. I was feeling about 85% better so I decided to race (although I have a tendency to run races while sick. Really not a brilliant idea).

Race morning was uneventful. Woke up early, ate breakfast, and drove over an hour to get to Norway. The race is small. It’s capped at 150 individual athletes/teams because they can over fit 150 bikes in transition. I got at the race venue with plenty of time to pick up my race packet, met Angela (the other TriMoxie coach and rockstar triathlete!), and mingle around. I met up with Laura who was doing her first triathlon and a few other ladies. I only listened to about half of the pre-race meeting before hitting the bathroom and a quick warm-up swim before the start. The water was super warm and thus the race was deemed wetsuit illegal! I was super pumped about this because I was planning on not wearing my wetsuit even if the race was wetsuit legal (even though my coach told me to wear it because I’d be faster). Norway wasn’t originally on my race schedule, but I added it because I wanted to redeem myself from the Tri for the Y sprint in May where I missed the podium by about 30 seconds. I’m still mad at myself about that…

The Swim

Since it was a small race the swim waves were relatively small. I was in the second wave. The gun went off and so did Angela. I’m pretty sure I blinked and she was at the first buoy! I started in the front on the outside. This swim was a clockwise swim while just above every triathlon the swim is done counterclockwise. It was a little odd to be swimming in the opposite direction. I quickly swam to the front on everyone and had a ton of open water to myself. The first buoy seemed to be a long way away and honestly I wasn’t quite in the mindset to race. I kept having negative thoughts, which is never a good thing in a race. But, somehow I always tend to have them during the first part of every swim. I thought about just giving up, drowning, and being eaten by a giant turtle. Why? I have no clue! It’s just when I’m swimming those are my thoughts. I know people who are afraid of sharks, jellyfish, seaweed, etc. Nope, usually I think about dead bodies being tied to chains and cement mafia style. Again, no clue. Anyway, The first length of the swim was bad. I thought about quitting. I passed a few men who started in the first wave that started 3 minutes before us then hit the first buoy. There was one women who was in front of me. I drafted off of her for a few strokes or so. I finally found my groove and just swam. It was a long swim and it felt like forever. I was pretty much alone except for the woman in front of me. We rounded the last buoy and headed home. I swam until my hand hit the bottom of the lake and ran out of the water. The run from the beach to transition is quite long and is on a rocky/sand path. Most people brought shoes to put on. I ran bear foot. I actually didn’t run. It was more of a jog. I was feeling pretty nausea and yicky coming out of the water and again was thinking about quitting. I told myself that I would feel much better on the bike. The swim times included the long run to transition. I actually had a really great swim time despite feeling like crap the entire time.

Swim Time: 21:01          1/9 AG            4/70 Women            13/152 OA (w/relays)

The Bike

The bike course is alittle over 11 miles and an out and back loop. The first half is pretty much a small grade up then a hill at the end to the turn around cone and then back down to transition. As soon as I got on my bike, I knew that it wasn’t going to be a great ride. My legs felt like lead and just didn’t want to turn over. Also, my nose was starting to run again. I was passing a lot of men from the early wave and passed one woman who managed to get out of T1 before me. Throughout the entire ride I was only passed by one woman (Joanne Brown, another super fast TriMoxie athlete!)! Some men from the 3rd wave passed me once I turned around with their fancy race wheels. After the turn around you descend the hill so I got into areo and geared down to push my speed. I ended up gearing out (the down fall of having a compact crank) and just coasted down the hill. All the sudden I see something fly into my frame and clunk. My first thought was “oh shit!” I feathered the brakes slightly to make sure my bike wasn’t slowly disintegrating on me. Bike was fine so I got back into aero and went on my way. I looked down at my Garmin to check my speed and it read zero. ZERO! Yup, that little rock that I thought hit my frame was really my speed magnet flying off of my rear wheel. It took awhile for the satellite in my Garmin to read speed. I was definitely pissed that I lost my magnet, but in the whole realm of things, speed means nothing. It’s all about the watts, baby. At one point snot from my nose was rolling down my face (I know you totally wanted a mental picture of that…) so I got up out of aero to wipe my snot. Just as I was doing this I passed the course photographer! Sweet, that’s going to be a great picture. I quickly got back in aero and hoped they got one of me not wiping to huge booger from my face! I’ve been putting off writing this report until the race director posted pictures so I could include that hott picture of me! The ride finished uneventfully. I was not super happy with my bike time. It was slow. I am capable of being much faster. I just wasn’t with it on race day. Most likely a combination of the cold and mentally not in the zone.

Bike Time:  40:00 (17.4 mph)       1/9 AG         11/70 Women       57/152 OA (w/relays)

The Run

Oh, the run…. where to start on this! I was really excited about the run. Earlier in the week I had done a 2.5 mile transition run at an 8:00/mile pace, which is fast for me. However, the run course was not fast. The website said it would be a 3 mile trail run. It would also go around a field at one point. When they said trail run I was expecting gravel/dirt trails and running around a soccer field. I was very pleasantly surprised with what I found on the run course. The first half mile or so was on pavement, up a big stinking hill and then into the nature preserve and onto the trails. The trails were wide grassy trails that looked like a bushhog went through the woods to make. The grass was not nice soccer field grass, but wild hay-like grass. The footing was uneven with small ditches, holes, roots, etc. It was bad. I’m not a trail runner so it was bad. The worst part…. it went up. Like continuously up for a good two thirds of the run. I don’t pick my feet up high when I run. I have the marathon shuffle so I struggled on the run. There were many points that I was forced to walk because I was a) out of breathe (darn cold!) or b) tripping all over the place! Surprisingly I wasn’t passed by a ton of people. Those who did pass me were in relays. Darn them and their fresh legs! Finally I came out of the woods and run around the hay pasture field and out back onto the road. Down the big hill and back to the park. I looked down at my Garmin and it already hit 3.1 miles and I wasn’t even back yet! What the heck! They said only 3 miles! 0.4 miles later I was done! I was not happy with my time at all! I thought it was just me who had a really shitty run. I talked to Angela after the race and she said everyone was super slow! She later emailed me later to let me know that the race director google mapped the run at 3 miles, but later when he ran it, it was actually 3.4 miles. All the pace times on the official results are wrong. I really didn’t run a 11:30/mile. It was more like a 10:00/mile. Still super slow for me lately!

Run Time: 34:42       2/9 AG        27/70 Women            90/152 OA (w/relays)

Overall Time: 1:38:04    1/0 AG      12/70 Women         51/152 OA (w/relays)

First Place Cowbell

Overall, I had a good race, but not a great race. I won my age group and finished 12th female. I was really hoping to crack Top 10 women that day. I think if I didn’t have such a shitty run then I definitely could have. But such as life. Mentally I wasn’t all in the race either so I didn’t push myself as much as I should have during the run. I did enough to win my AG, but I should have pushed more.

It was a fun little race. I was surprised to see quite a few fast and strong triathletes there and also a ton of first timers. The race is well put on and the location is very family friendly. I just hope they change the run course though. It was not pleasant!

I’ll add pictures from the race when they are finally posted to the website.

~ Happy Training!

Tri for the Y Race Report

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As previously mentioned, I decided to forgo my graduation ceremony this past Saturday in order to race the 2nd annual Tri for the Y in Freeport. It’s a small race and apparently smaller than the previous year. The race is a 325 yard pool swim, 13 mile bike, and a 5k run. Much of the bike course follows the Lobsterman bike course except you veer left up Pleasant hill instead of veering right onto Flying Point Rd. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and low 70s! The race started at 9am, but my swim wave didn’t start till 10am.

Normally I would have gotten my race packet the night before, but Friday was a bit hectic and I was driving all over the place so I decided to get it race morning. I’ve always been a bit of a nervous nellie race mornings. My worst fear is being late for a race! However, I wasn’t really nervous about the race as I was just anxious to get it over with. I chose to do this race as my season oper just as a run through for Mooseman and I’m glad I did. I definitely had some cobwebs to get rid of, especially involving my transitions, which were quite pitiful.

I went into the race with very high expectations for myself. I wanted to win my age group and place top 10 women overall. Was it out of the realm of possibility? No, I don’t think so. Was it a bit of a stretch? Yes. I severely underestimated the number of fast women runners, since that’s where I lost yet again! Race morning was different then all my other races previously because a) I picked up my race packet the day of the race, b) didn’t have a wetsuit with me so I kept thinking I was missing important items, and c) had a late start. My coach had me do a quick 10 minute warm-up on the bike, followed by another quick jog, and a few laps in the pool. My warm up was complete by 8:30am. I’m glad I took Azul for a quick ride because my front derailleur was acting up and having a hard time shifting from my small ring to the big one. I played around with it for a bit and got it working, but she was still making a few funny noises and start to make me nervous. There was bike support pre-race, but I’m not a fan of their shop and I only let a few select, trusted people touch my bike. I would have used them if I felt that something was really wrong with my bike though.

Since this race was a pool swim only 12 people could swim at a time. People were put into waves based on their projected time for completing a a 325 yard swim. I gave the time of 6 minutes knowing that I should in reality finish much closer to 5 minutes. When submitting our times we were informed that if we swam over our projected times then we were in danger of being pulled from the pool and thus I decided I’d rather be safe than sorry. The first wave started at 9am. My wave started at 10am.

The Swim

The first wave of swimmers were people who predicted to take 15 minutes to finish. I ended up watching most of the first wave because it was rather inspiring. A majority of the swimmers were either obese and/or over the age of 65. The best part was watching all their faces as they finished their swims. It was a huge accomplishment for many of them. Personally, for me finishing a 325 yd swim is not even a warm up. Last night I swam a tough 3200 yd swim and still could have handled more. It reminded me that sometimes not everyone’s goal is to win. Sometimes just finishing it enough!

In a nut shell, I had a horrible swim. I’m the type of swimmer that takes a while to warm up. I usually don’t feel good in a swim till after the 1000 yard mark. I’ve discovered that I am either a sprinter (and can sprint up to 150 yards good) or swim distance (0.5 to 1.2 mile) strong. I did a 200 yard warm up around 8:15 and then either sat around or walked around aimlessly till my 10am start (or in the bathroom with some gastro issues, urgh!). By this time I was cooled down. I shared a lane with a tall, first-time triathlete. He asked me before we started what time I aiming for. I told him around 5:15ish. Soon it was time to start. I took off and instantly knew this was going to be a bad swim. I couldn’t find my groove quickly. The guy kept crossing the black line and swimming into me. It was annoying, but I can deal with it since this is what happens in OWS. Just as soon as it was started, it was over. 325 yards goes quickly when you normally swim anywhere between 2500-3200 yards at a time during training. My average pace was 1:45 yd/min, which is absolutely horrible for me. I know a lot of women I have swam with would kill for that average, but I should have been more like a 1:25-1:30 yd/min. I’m still upset with myself about my swim performance. Grr..

Swim time: 5:40          Pace: 1:45 yd/min        Swim Overall Place: 26/123

The Bike

The bike course follows most of the beginning parts of the Lobsterman course. It’s a rolling hill course with a lovely climb up Pleasant Hill, around a neighborhood and back down and head back towards the Y. My coach told me to hammer it. My legs felt pretty good coming out of the swim. My transition time wasn’t bad. I didn’t have to worry about a wetsuit. However, my bike got stuck on one of the old-school road bikes in my rack so I had to untangle her to get her out. Once out of transition I put Azul in her big ring and went for it. I’ve been working on my cadence so I concentrated on spinning my legs compared to mashing the pedals. I passed one women who was doing exactly that and burning herself out. I yelled at her to just spin her legs, but I have no clue if she even heard me or just said “screw you lady” under her breathe. She never passed me. I was only passed by a couple of people on the course. I passed a few of course too. The course was pretty empty due to the small size of the race. I averaged 18.3mph on the bike. I was really hoping to be closer to 19.5mph, which indicated to me that I’m not exactly where I want and feel I should be bike fitness wise. However, I did have a few good things occur during my ride: a) I pushed it on the downhill parts and stayed in aero position without wanting to cry or piss myself, and b) I cornered in aero position on several occasions again without wanting to cry or piss myself. Azul kept making a weird “rubbing” noise during my ride so I was slightly worried that sometime might happen, but I was pretty confident that she would be fine. At one point a boat with boat trailer pulled out as I was descending a hill near the boat yard and made me a bit nervous due to the fact he was hugging the white line, but I survived!

Bike Time: 42:42       Pace: 18.3 mph         Bike Overall Place: 30/123

The Run

My transition from bike to run was dreadfully horrible and this is clearly where I lost third place. Bike went into the rack no problem. Bike shoes off and running shoes on, no problem. Garmin watch on, big problem. I was stupid and couldn’t get my watch on and stood there for about a good 45 seconds trying to latch my watch on my wrist. STUPID MISTAKE! Should have grabbed the watch and run. The only watch that matters is the official time clock! Grr… legs felt great coming out of T2! I quickly was able to find my pace. My garmin was telling me I was running about my 5k pace, but I felt like I was running sooo slow. I saw bike shop boy out on the course and he yelled at me to run faster. Typical. I just kept moving forward. The first aid station came after mile 1. I grabbed some water and ran through the station. I was able to throw a few drops down my throat, half of it up my nose, and then the rest over my head. It was starting to get a bit hot on the course. Then came the hill. It was a gradual incline for about 0.25 mile, turn around, and then back down. I passed a few people on the hill and was passed by a couple fast running men. I passed at least one girl in my age group! I was starting to slow at this point due to the climb, but I made sure to push it on the downhill to make up some time. Then it was a right hand turn down a small incline to the turn around and then up a slight incline and about a mile to go to the finish. I passed a few people here, but I was starting to slow a bit, but still sub-9:00/mile according to the Garmin. Once I could see the finish I picked up my speed to finish strong. I had a very good run, but I do believe that I could (and should have) pushed it more. And, the awesome announcer guy called me Catherine. Sorry buddy, not quite!

Run Time: 27:24       Pace: 9:08/mile         Run Overall Place: 46/123

Total Time: 1:19:43    Overall Place: 35/123   Women Place: 16/80   AG (W20-29): 4/12

Was it a bad race? No. But I’m still disappointed. I realized several things from the race though:

  • Pool races are really not great for me due to the fact I need more time to warm up for swimming. Will I do another? Most likely. It was fun.
  • Don’t dick around in transition! Grab the watch and run!
  • I don’t like not knowing who was in my age group. In most triathlons you start your swim wave in your age group. In a pool swim you usually don’t due to the swim times. I had no clue who was in my age group really even though we all had our ages on our legs. I’m very competitive so I need a target to really bring out my inner speed demon!
  • My run has become much stronger and hiring a coach was the best decision I have made in regards to all my training.
  • I’m still not happy with my bike fitness at the moment but I know it will come and I will be a much stronger and more efficient rider. Two good things about my bike leg occured: I pushed it hard on the downhills and also cornered in aero position!

Mooseman is in 10 days. I got my race plan from my coach earlier this week and got strangely excited about it. Race season has officially begun!

Happy Training!