August 18, 2007
.25 mile swim, 13.8 mile Bike, 4.3 mile run
Goals:
To have an excellent race and do better than I did last year.
Pre-race:
The last day I really worked out was Monday. I’ve had really bad shin splints and been pretty tired. I skipped out on many workouts and on Friday I made a conscious decision to skip out on my open water swim. I am pretty hard on myself and so going out the day before a race would have been nerve racking. I packed everything the night before and woke up at 5:30 am. I ate toast with PB and drank about 10 oz water and than helped pack the car with all the gear. I fed the girls and helped get them ready for our Saturday outing. I had two pop-tarts and coffee and off to Beaver Lake. My stomach feels a little woozy but trying to not focus on it.
Swim:
I stayed to the left and let others go in front of me. I am a nervous swimmer so I started to do the breast-stroke right before the first buoy. I switched between the breast-stroke and the free-style for the entire swim but kept myself calm. I choose to not look at my heart rate or look at my watch to see how fast or slow I was going. I focused on just getting to shore. I stayed calm on the free-style and stayed between my two strokes. I looked at my watch on my way out and saw a low 11 minute number and thought that was cool.
<11:05>
T1:
I came into T1 with a pretty steady run. My goal was to have fast transitions and so I placed my goggles on my head when I came out of the water. I than took my watch off and started to proceed with the peeling of the suit. I reached my gear and bike and realized that I hadn’t even taken off my hat, goggles or ear plugs. I carefully put all 3 items in my bag as I am pretty attached to my ear plugs and didn’t want to lose anything. I placed my watch on my bike and away I went running bare-footed. I successfully mounted my bike with my shoes attached into the bike.
<2:06>
Bike:
I was settling into my bike and as I took a sip from my lemon-lime Gatorade I realized that my stomach was really queasy. I didn’t feel so hot so I kept telling myself that I was fine and that I had no choice but to drink my juice and just take it easy. My coach told me to stay calm and save some energy for the run. I kept a great pace and remained calm even though my hr wouldn’t drop. Something about races and my hr, and the HR always wins with being high. I thought about taking a GU prior to climbing the hills at mile 7 but realized that my stomach could not take it and I should definitely not attempt this. My chain felt odd at times thru the ride but nothing that really alarmed me. I was starting to climb the hills and so I settled into my little ring and started to get into my lowest gear. My gears made a terrible sound and before I knew it I had lost my chain. I jumped off my bike fixed it and than off I went. I took about 2 minutes, oh well not bad. I put my gear in the lowest gear and bam off went my chain again. Same routine and back on my bike. I realized at this point that my gears were acting up and so I needed to take it easy on my gears. I had a ways to climb and so I attempted my lowest gear again and bam…lost chain. I fixed this again and thought the third time is a charm and my goal was to get back to park. Back on my bike again and I need to climb the hills so I need to be on the lowest gear …again moved into the lowest gear and lost chain. I think I cussed pretty loudly this time and actually thought about a DNF for this race. I was mad and my bike wouldn’t do what I needed to. I did this route 3 times and had great times and here I was not able to get in my lowest gear and climb the hill. I calmed down, fixed my chain, mounted my bike and than proceeded up the hill. I crossed my fingers and slowly went to the second lowest gear and stayed there for a few minutes and than attempted the lowest gear. I was safe. 7 minutes total in dealing with the chain…oh well. I gained speed going down the hill and than decided for the last hill that I would not go into my lowest gear since my bike could not handle it. I reached the top of the hills and was doing great and realized I would be over my time only by a few minutes. I took GU, finished my juice while still on my bike and than off to the dismount area where I jumped off my bike…shoes still on bike. I head to transition.
<51:54>
T2:
Successful dismount and off to get my running gear. I was so jumpy and so I had to tell myself to stay calm. I put my socks, shoes on, grabbed race belt and hat and off I headed out of transition. I forgot my watch so back I went to grab it and get on the run course. In grabbing my watch I messed something up so not sure where I am at this point.
<1:45>
Run:
I hate the first 5 minutes of any run after a bike as my legs always feel like Jello and I find my self singing the J-e-l-l-o song. I start to feel that the GU is not settling and I feel gut rot coming on. I am thinking too that this tri is only a fraction of the IronMan distance and that maybe I was too hasty in signing up for IM CDA as I am already tired.
I don’t feel too hot. I step on a small rock on the outside of my right shoe and Oh crap down I come. I felt like a ninja and somehow managed to do a roll of some type. I am not hurt and a few folks ask me if I am ok. Pride is hurt but nothing else seems to be out of whack. I have too much adrenalin flowing thru me so even if I was hurt I wouldn’t have noticed. I tell myself that if I want to do well I need to be in the here and now and focus on the race. I remind myself that I love to run, that this is my favorite part and what a great runner I am. I settle in around mile one and tell myself to have fun for the rest of the run. I see my co-worker Brad and he looks great. I decide to use him as a pacer and that last about 10 seconds as he is pretty quick and almost out of site around the bends in the road. Who am I kidding???? Brad is an alpha in the boot camp class he is in…I am a Bravo. I start to sing a sing which is a mix of the “DO RE ME FA SO LA TI DO” song and the “train that can”, but substitute the words so it goes like this “I can do this….I can do this….Yes I can yes I can..I can do this…I can do this.” This goes on for over 2 miles. The last mile I start to run a little quicker and tell myself that I can do anything for 10 minutes. I gain speed the last few minutes and I beat two dudes coming in to the finish line.
<39:31>
Post-Race:
After the race I am disappointed that I didn’t make my overall goal of 1:40-1:43. Not too excited about the bike ride or my graceful fall either so a little disappointed overall. Later in the day after naps I start to look at my accomplishments and that I did have a great race, because along the many different events I could have quit. All in all I am super excited about my results and look forward to next year.
Results:
2006 - Place 480/491 finishers 2:11:57 swim -0:12:55 T1- 3:56 Bike - 1:06:21 T2 - 4:38 Run - 0:44:07
2007 – Place 306/457 finishers 1:46:21 swim -0:11:05 T1 - 2:06 Bike - 0:51:54 T2 - 1:45 Run - 0:39:31
