Friday, September 19, 2014

Black Diamond Olympic-Distance Triathlon 2014


I have been so worn down lately!  I guess a half marathon one weekend and an Olympic tri the next weekend does that to me.  Funny, because I didn’t feel particularly extra-tired after either of those (in fact I thought I could have gone faster in the triathlon) but here I am..totally uninspired and tired this week.

In any case, it’s as good a time as any to go over the Black Diamond Olympic.  In short: soooo much fun!

I’ll be honest.  I was pretty nervous going into it.  This was my chance to re-do an Olympic distance, and prove a lot to myself after Milwaukee.  On the one hand, I was basically guaranteed to do better unless something catastrophic happned (if nothing else, I sure as heck would have my flat kit with me so even if I got a flat, it would be better).  But who knows?!  Rationally, I knew things would be fine, but I was still really nervous; yes I had done it before, but I essentially had big long 36 minute break in the middle of it, so what would it really be like to not stop?!

Anyway, we got there bright and early.  And when I say “bright and early,” I mean it was really early and really, REALLY freezing cold.  After quickly grabbing my packet and setting up, we went back to the truck and tried to warm up a little.  It was cold.  Transition closed at 8:40, there was a meeting supposed to be taking place at 8:45, and my wave started at 9:20.  So, at around 8:25, I headed back to double-check (triple- and quadruple-check) my gear and grab my wetsuit.  Thankfully, the sun was coming up over the treeline by then, and while the shade was still very cold, the sunlight was actually warm!  I sat on the grass and listened to the guy talking (and zoned out, and kept realize I should really be paying attention because he’s talking about important information about a weird spot on the bike course that people get confused about but oh wait, what?  That’s right.  Pay attention), and tried to relax.

At 9am, the first wave went off!  It was kind of neat that they had so many events going on—a sprint tri (individuals and relays), the Olympic (also individuals and relays) as well as a half-marathon!  Of course this also made things a little hectic, and prevented Allen from seeing me in certain spots because different courses crossed each other…but still, led to a pretty festive atmosphere and a crowd.  I think the first wave was the sprint men, and I decided it was time to accept the inevitable and wriggle into my wetsuit.

One mistake in Milwaukee was getting too panicked before the swim, partially due to putting off getting on the wetsuit for too long.  So I was (relatively) happy just to have it on and have enough time to stand around and be bored and wish I weren’t wearing it! :)  We watched the fast men doing the sprint finish, watched a few more waves going off…finally it was time to head to the water.  Mistake #2 avoided, get to the water with plenty of time and don’t be confused!

We all lined up, waist-deep in the water, in one giant line spreading out across the water’s edge.  I think I was one of the few people who actually was behind someone, but I didn’t want to feel like I was right up in the front, and also tried to move to the left half (counter-clockwise swim, so this would give me a wide angle and hopefully avoid the number of people coming into me).  I don’t really know what goes through my head as I wait to start the swim..mostly I think I try not to think about anything at all, and just focus on being as relaxed as possible.

And we were off!  Deep Lake (yes, I know) really is a gorgeous lake, and the morning sun made it even prettier.  It was a lot more calming than any other open water swim I’ve done, I think the size of the lake and the way the course was laid out… you were never very far from the shore, but not too close to feel claustrophobic.  Anyway, I quickly noticed that I was swimming..and still swimming..and there were still people around me!  As we neared the first buoy, I was still in pretty big group, which means I was still getting kicked and grabbed and rammed into a lot.  But I wasn’t falling behind quite as quickly!  That’s when I realized—in Milwaukee, it was faster people.  I make up time on the bike and run and suffer on the swim, but everyone in Milwaukee was also fast swimmers so I was dropped almost immediately.  This was a much more normal group of people like me, and while they were certainly pulling ahead, I was also ahead of a handful of people as well.  I did notice myself getting short of breath and taking too many breaths, so I had to focus on calming down and regulating my breaths and strokes..but after that, I settled into a good rhythm.  I’m so glad that I can breathe equally-comfortably on either side, because I did end up changing which side I was breathing on a lot (switching every other stroke, only to one side, etc), but that was no problem.  As I neared the third buoy (two circles around 4 buoys total), I noticed there were a couple of red caps I was catching up to and passing!  These were the guys that started 5 minutes before me.  Who knows what happened or why they were behind, but it was so weird!

The rest of the swim was fairly uneventful.  It got kinda boring.  I think about the strangest things while swimming.  Not really about anything in particular, just random thoughts.  Then I started thinking about the how random all my thoughts were, but I couldn’t concentrate on that either.  And then, finally, there was the swim exit!  I went as far as I could until I saw the bottom, got up and ran the heck out of that water!  I looked down at my watch as I was running to transition and saw it just tick 34 minutes.  Woohoo, that means the swim was 33-something which is about the same as Milwaukee (except this was WAYYYY less stressful and terrifying), and is pretty darn amazing for me.  I also felt my heart rate skyrocket (out of the water, go go go go go!) and had to remind myself to calm down.  Again.

Stripped off the wetsuit, threw on my shoes/glasses/helmet/garmin, grabbed a shot block and then one more for good measure, and I was out of there.  Good riddance, lake!  Time to see how the bike felt.

I was nervous.  My bike hasn’t been quite right ever since crashing—either having actual mechanical problems, or just not feeling like it was performing quite right.  The day before the race, I had to go get the front wheel re-trued.  AGAIN.  Because two rides after the last time it was trued, it was already wobbling like crazy.  Not exactly the most confidence-inspiring thing ever.

I can sum up the entire bike like this: awesome.  I loved the course, no real hills just some rolling terrain.  I still passed plenty of people going uphill, and even some people going down.  Passing people with disk wheels and aero helmets is the best :)  I even passed a lot of guys, which was extra satisfying—starting ahead of me, and undoubtedly a lot faster swimmers.  Best of all, my bike felt great!  There were some weird shifting things going on but nothing too troublesome. I felt confident on the bike and the angles of the downhill was just right—I’m still really scared to go down hills at certain gradients, but I never felt scared on the course.  I kept thinking to myself how good it felt, and how happy I was, and how much fu I was having!  Because that’s what it was—FUN.

As it turns out, I was in 116th place after the swim.  Out of ~150 people.  After the bike, I had moved up to 47th.  Not too shabby.  Time to run.

I got off the bike, swapped to my running shoes, grabbed a gu and headed out.  Allen met me on the run out, and yelled something about “see you in 30 minutes!”  I laughed.  I think everyone else who was running out at the same time thought I was crazy, too.  Sorry buddy, but a 30 minute 10k isn’t going to happen.

Anyway, I felt good.  I always run too fast off the bike, but at least I know it and figured I may as well do what I could as long as I didn’t wear myself out.  The run course was also pretty cool, parts were weird on a big road, but then a long out and back on a semi-private road was nice because it was just runners and you could see people.  I counted about 4 or 5 girls ahead of me, so I knew roughly where I was (knowing there were likely a few more I didn’t see right then).  I still managed to pass a bunch of people, which was kind of cool.  My legs felt good, and I was keeping a 7:45 pace fairly easily, and pushed it when I could down hills, etc.  I still kept a close watch on how I actually felt,  because I didn’t want to tire out and slow down at the end, but there were no signs of over-exertion so I kept at it.  Yes I was pushing it, but there was still some left in the tank.

The last mile-ish is a loop around the lake.  I loved that!  Such a fun change, and more varied terrain.  This meant there were a couple steep little hills, and also way less people (at least, you couldn’t see them in front of you), but I had my eyes one girl off in the distance.  I realized I was slowly, slowly gaining on her, and kept at it with about half a mile to go.  I got past her, and kept sprinting.  I noticed I was looking at my garmin a lot, to see how much further until the end; I wasn’t really slowing down toooo much yet, but I was definitely ready to get to the finish line!  With maybe a quarter mile to go, and there was another girl!  She was definitely tiring out, but I had all sorts of energy (of the “just get to the end so you can stop” variety) so I ran as hard as I could to pass her and then keep my speed up (it’s my biggest fear to pass someone and then have them pass me again haha).  At this point I just wanted to pass people in order to incentivize me to keep running hard and finish as fast as I could, and it worked.

The finish line totally sneaks up on you, and suddenly I was off the trail and the finish line was right there!  I was actually really surprised, and saw the clock was at 2:56-ish…considering my wave started 20 minutes after the official start, that put me around 2:36 which was basically exactly what I was shooting for!  (2:40 was my goal I would be happy with, and 2:30 was my go-as-hard-as-you-can-and-maybe-you-might-live goal)  Awesome :)

Post-race food was awesome—strawberry shortcake!  Always delicious, but it was extra-amazingly-delicious after racing.  Also ended up finishing first in my age group and 8th female overall, so that was super cool!  So happy I was able to go hard and finish strong.  It really was a fun day, I couldn’t get over the fact that I was just enjoying myself and having so much fun.  Can’t wait for the next one!

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