This is exciting—I finally get to write about a triathlon
again! :D Somehow, little running races just aren’t the
same ;)
On Friday, we headed to Spokane (well, Cheney…) for the
Troika triathlon. I was doing the Long
Distance course (70.3), Allen was doing the Olympic, and my mom was doing the
Sprint! It was the first triathlon for
both my mom and Allen, so that made it extra fun and special! And I was looking forward to doing another
half, kind of see where I was, and remember how to do a triathlon. It’s always a little nerve-wracking, like wait,
do I know what to do? Do I even like
it? Why am I doing this?
Let’s back up a second: the only other 70.3 I’ve done was
Cabo, last October. It was a good
race. I won my age group, and got the WC
slot. I had a good bike, considering the
course profile, and I’m proud of a lot of what I did in the race. But, I’m a slow swimmer, and I totally fell
apart on the run. My time was “slow”
(5:37 is nothing to sneeze at, I know, but it also isn’t what you would
generally considering “winning” time, either).
Yeah, yeah, I know you’re supposed to “pick your races” and all that,
but I definitely felt like I had a little more to prove—if nothing else, to
myself! I knew I was capable of being
faster, at least I certainly hoped so (specifically the run), but Troika was my
first chance to really find out.
I had a great offseason, and a great 4.5+ months of building
back up. I’ve gotten strong on the bike
again, and I’ve seen some huge improvements with running in general. I knew I was a faster runner (in theory) now,
but still, you never know until you actually race (plus, we all know running
off the bike is a little different than going for a record on the track).
That being said, Troika was definitely a race, but still
more “training;” we’re doing CDA 70.3 next month, which is the big(ger) race,
prior to Australia in September which is the real Big Race of the year. It helped that it was a small, local race, so
slightly less intimidating than an Ironman-branded event, but of course I was
still feeling some pressure.
ANYWAY! After a huge
week (relatively) two weeks prior, the week before the race was..less, but I never really felt
rested. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t
a little nervous about that. I had a
hard run on Wednesday, which I didn’t quite complete to the letter (supposed to
be 40:00 @ 7:00/mile, 1.5%, but instead had to keep the belt flat). I skipped my bike that day. I spent all Thursday with super sore/tired
legs. I was feeling better by Friday, as
we drove across the state, but I wasn’t exactly feeing super refreshed and
raring to go, either.
Nevertheless, we got our packets, checked out the park where
the race was located, and drove the bike course. I’m glad we did that—it was a nice course,
nothing ever flat but no real “climbs” either.
It was nice to know what the different sections of the course looked
like, so that on race day it didn’t just feel like we were out in the middle of
nowhere forever. I left thinking it would
be a fast course.
Dinner, gear prep, and time to sleep!
My race started first, at 8am, which is pretty “late” for a triathlon,
but was nice because we only had to get up at 5am—a pretty standard wake-up
time for me. After forcing down some
coffee, we loaded everything into the truck (latest check-out we could get was
2pm, and with a late race start, it was going to be basically impossible to get
back to the hotel, showered, and out before 2pm), and headed to the park.
Allen and I racked next to each other, which was pretty
cool! I got a spot on the end, and he
was next to me. I didn’t get why he
wanted to be next to me at first, but then he pointed out that with our two
races, it basically meant that there would be lots of space for him, since I would
be on the bike already by the time he got to T1, and still on the bike when he
got back for T2. It was kind of nice
too, because when I got back to T2 and saw his stuff, I knew he had at least
gotten that far! ;)
Anyway, back to the morning.
After setting up, checking on my mom, getting some photos, and twenty
thousand bathroom stops (of course), time really started to speed up. Suddenly, it was 7:30am and I knew it was
time to start getting serious. There was
this race that was about to start, and I needed to focus! Mac was up (in Hawaii) and texting me, which
did help me calm down a bit :) I managed to get my wetsuit on with little
incident, although the sun was starting to come out, and I freaked out knowing I
had my pink lenses in my sunglasses, and what if it’s sunny, then I want the dark
lenses! I made Allen go back into
transition to change my lenses, and he made it back just a few minutes before I
got in the water.
Ok, so I wasn’t chill at
all. Up until this point, I was
relatively calm; nervous, but not really thinking about it. By the time I got my wetsuit on, it hit me
what I was doing and that initial fear of “wait I haven’t done this in a while, am I ready to do this, what am I doing,
ahhhhh!” hit and it was apparently so obvious that a nice volunteer lady saw me
and smiled and very sweetly told me “you know what, I just know you’re going to
have a great day, you can do it!” Yes, I
appreciated it and it helped, but it just shows how profoundly NOT relaxed I was.
The men were off at exactly 8:00am, and we had 5 minutes
before the female start. I waded in to
feel the water, dunked my head, and then situated myself middle-ish and
side-ish of the pack. Garmin is
ready. Get it together, Rosanne, you’ll be fine once you start. And we were off!
Swim – 32:35 (15/55
female)
After a few running strides, I dove in, and tried to
remember how to swim. I’m so glad we did
a couple open water swims, and I just reminded myself to elongate my stroke the
ENTIRE time. I literally imagined Kyle
on the paddleboard next to me saying, “pause more, you need to let yourself glide
more and flail less” to which I would reply in my head “I know, that’s what I’m
doing!!” and then again, in my head, he would reply “no, you aren’t, you can do
better.” So I just kept trying to do better.
Nevertheless, I was NOT calm in the water. The first few minutes felt like an eternity,
and I was teetering on the edge of a full-out freak-out. I probably spent as much energy trying to
keep my brain under control as I did swimming.
I veered to the outside a bit more than intended, I kinda hit some
people a few times, once I was totally boxed in and I had a very quick
heart-to-heart with myself where I had to tell myself VERY sternly NOT TO FREAK
OUT. By the time we hit the Olympic
distance buoy, things had settled out a bit more, and I was happy to realize
that I had also settled out—my swimming was pretty consistent even while trying
to freak out, so I was really happy that I was able to just kinda keep swimming
on autopilot, while my brain was busy messing with me.
Ok, see, if I were Allen,
I would get to turn now! That really
didn’t feel very far, actually. And our
next buoy must be coming up soon! Of
course, our buoy was actually out a ways more, but it was really nice to break
up the swim like that. I finally got to
the first turn buoy and rounded it nicely.
And, hey, is that a white cap? Am
I PASSING GUYS?! These guys had a 5
minute head start! Who am I?! I then promptely swam a bit off course out to
the middle of the lake, but caught myself pretty quick. We were now crossing to the other side of the
lake and couldn’t see much (for the first part, we were parallel to the shore
and pretty close, so could almost always see “something” down below). I started thinking about the bike a little,
now that I was halfway.
It was cold.
It was a bit cold when we started, but I figured I would warm
up once I started moving. Well, here I
was, halfway through, and I really hadn’t warmed up…at all. I was still unsure what I would wear on the bike
(jacket? Vest? Just my tri top? Is it
going to get sunny? Is it going to
rain? What am I going to do?!), so I spent
the rest of the swim kind of debating it in the back of my head. Overall, I just felt COLD and had pretty much
decided I was going to put my jacket on—after all, if was already cold coming
out of the swim, then I’d probably just get colder, right?!
Swim, swim, swim. We
rounded the next buoy, and it was a long push back to shore. I passed more guys. This is so weird!! Not that they were going super slow, and not that
I was going super-fast, but it still amazed me.
I am NOT usually one to EVER pass people swimming. Much less people that had a head start! My leg got caught on a buoy line once, and
that kind of freaked me out, and I wondered how accurate the course was (data
shows is was pretty short, so maybe if all the buoys were pushed inside, everyone
kinda of went short. Oh well.)
Other than that, I just focused on getting back to shore. I could tell I was getting a bit tired,
because my strokes were getting shorter, so I tried really hard to go back to
the long, relaxed swim I was doing at the beginning. It helped, but you can still see from my data
that I was definitely taking more strokes by the end… oh well.
There was actually one little turn back to the swim exit,
but I knew it wasn’t far, and by now I could hear the crowd and the
announcer. That’s always exciting! It was neat that the Olympic and Sprint were
starting right after us because everyone was out there watching.
Finally, I saw the bottom; finally, I saw the ground was
close enough I could touch it. I jumped up,
and jogged out of the water. WHEW what
time is it?! I was a little out of it;
not quite dizzy, but not totally stable.
I usually hustle a tad more out of the water, but I had to settle for a
few long slow steps, and then remembered I should start figuring out getting my
wetsuit off. Some guy with his daughter
were by the exit, and he was clapping and saying “well done, ladies!” which I distinctly
remember, and I started wondering if that meant we were fast, or slow. As I carefully got the sleeve off my right
arm and over my garmin, I finally glanced down and saw the time—32 minutes?!?!?! My goal was 40 minutes, and even that seemed
like a stretch. I knew that it was
likely the course was a bit short, but I was still shocked and thrilled. (Consequent data shows my garmin only
measured 1867 yards but even so, that puts me at a 1:44/100 yard moving average
which is still a huuuuuge improvement for me, and faster than I could have
possibly hoped for! So, happy either way.)
T1 – 1:30 (10/55
female)
I still felt out of it, but now I knew it was because I swam
well. Even if the course was short, I knew
it was a really good swim time (for me).
I made a conscious decision to let myself take a few extra seconds in T1
to really sort myself out, and not worry about being fast. I felt like I was taking FOREVER, but I guess
Kyle is right, and “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” I didn’t feel very smooth at all, but I had the
fastest T1 time so WOOHOO, I made up 5 spots in T1 alone! ;)
And now that I was out of the water, I felt…ok. It wasn’t warm, but I wasn’t cold. I glanced around at the other people in
transition. A couple were pulling on
jackets or sleeves, but most were just sticking with their tri top. There were clouds, but there were signs of sunshine,
too. So for all my mid-swim debate, I decided
to not put on the jacket and just go.
Still, I was fumbling around. I
moved my jacket, didn't want it to be in Allen’s way. Then didn’t want it to get too dirty. Moved it again. Suddenly I realized what was happening. What are
you doing Rosanne, why are you carefully rearranging your stuff, just get out
of here! Move!”
Running towards the mount line, I fumbled with one of my
fruit sticks (which is always my “treat”) and it fell out of my pocket. The other must have fallen out somewhere
else. The guy running with his bike
behind me called out to me, grabbed it, and ran it up to me—so nice! So that was pretty cool. :)
Overall, really funny that I distinctly remember feeling
like I was taking my time, and still came out with the fastest T1 time.
Bike – 2:44:57
(5/55 female)
I got moving, and realized I was still a little out of it
from the swim. Man, I swam harder than i thought!
I tried to settle down. I was
breathing hard, and could feel the adrenaline.
Chill out Rosanne. You’ve got a long bike ride to do. Relaaaax.
I started passing some guys right away, which was kind of nice. Not too hard, not too easy, just steady and
RIDE.
My legs were cold. I
briefly wondered if I should have put on the jacket, but I don’t think it would
have helped—it was just my muscles in my legs were cold, from the cold
water. It really took about an hour
before they really felt like they warmed up.
So, that was kind of a bummer (but let’s be honest, that’ll probably
happen in Coeur d’Alene, so suck it up, Rosanne!).
It was definitely a lot different than Cabo, that’s for
sure. And in so many ways!
First, it was loud.
Seriously, that’s what I was thinking of for most of the bike. It was just a noisy ride. Mostly, it was so WINDY! Luckily, it wasn’t
gusty wind which I had worried about, and I never felt unsteady or like the
wind was moving me—but it was just kind of constant annoyance. And it was loud. The entire time, wind rushing over my helmet
and over my ears. I couldn’t hear a
thing, other than the wind! I didn’t
even really tell people when I was passing (sorry) because I could barely hear
MYSELF over the wind, and I’m sure they couldn’t hear me either. I could hear a faint noise from my bike –
maybe – but couldn’t really hear so I
eventually gave up and figured if there was something wrong, I’d figure it out
eventually.
It was also loud because the roads were rough, which made my
wheels loud, which of course echoed and reverberated on my already-noisy carbon
wheels. Aside from the sound, though,
the road surface was just a pain!
It really made you feel like you
were going a lot slower—I kept wondering why I was going so slow, sure I was
going 16mph, only to look down and see I was holding it steady at 20+mph. I mean, at least I was actually moving faster than I thought, but it really
is draining to feel like you’re hardly moving.
My back and neck hurt SO bad by the end, and while that’s pretty normal
for me, I think it was even more so because I was so tense and rigid holding on
over the rough surface. (Funnily enough,
the road itself was fine—no potholes, nothing torn up or bad.. it was just a rough surface)
Finally, I was alone.
In Cabo, I had Kyle around, and that helped so much! I knew that I wouldn’t have that again, and
was prepared, but it was still a noticeable difference.
Anyway, a few miles in, once I had passed the first few
groups and things seemed to kind of string out a bit, I got passed by a couple
girls. First of all, I hate being passed
by girls :P But even worse, this chick cut RIGHT in front of me as soon as she
got past me. We’re talking inches from
my wheel. Um, excuse me?? I saw her do it to a few guys later, as
well. Even worse, there was another girl
right behind her. I figured she was
passing both of us, but nope—as soon as they passed, she just stayed
there. Right on the other girls
wheel. If that’s not MAJOR drafting, I don’t
know what is!
Those things annoy me in general, but for some reason it
just made me SOOOO MAD at the time!!
Partially because she was wearing a team kit, and I KNOW that she knew
better. I spent half the ride thinking
about how the brand would never want to be associated with such blatant
cheating. Seriously, I was worked up
like crazy. I tried to just let it go,
but it bothered me to no end!
Eventually, she did pass the girl, but she definitely got a good portion
of the ride done with that shelter from the wind :P
Other than that, things were mostly uneventful. As the halfway grew nearer, I started getting
restless. I started realizing I was
tired. This was a problem. By the turnaround, I counted maybe 5 or 6
girls ahead of me, although it was hard to tell.
The way back got harder.
I caught myself slacking off, I just didn’t really want to go any harder
and I was losing my pep. I was
maintaining about the same speed, but it DEFINITELY felt harder and I still felt
like I was going 2 miles per hour.
One bit of excitement came around mile 30ish. We were out between fields, and suddenly I saw
a gigantic deer (buck) heading straight towards the road, from the left. Luckily, I was going uphill so not super
fast, but I knew he was running and would be crossing right as I was. I started yelling and waving as another guy
came down the hill the opposite direction, to make sure he saw him, and the
deer burst into the road RIGHT in front of him.
I eased up, not sure what exactly this enormous animal was going to do,
and just hoped he would keep running straight across the road (although he was
kind of kicking). He ran in front of me
just a few feet ahead of me, before tearing into the other field. THAT was kind of crazy!
Otherwise, the way back got harder. Same old, same old. I was tired, my neck HURT, my quad was hurting which is something I’ve
noticed now more than once, when I’m doing something hard, and I’m starting to
wonder if it’s actually something being sore/imbalanced/pulled, not just a sore
muscle. I was being pretty good about
having my EFS, and finished my bottle of Skratch, but my stomach wasn’t 100%
happy. Finally, FINALLY we met back up
with the Sprint course, so there were suddenly more people on the road which
was kind of nice, because it got really, really lonely, but at the same time, I
wasn’t feeling great I didn’t really want to be around anyone!
Oh well, got it done, garmin said 0.7 miles extra but hey,
if that made up for the swim, I’m fine with it ;) Rolled into transition and very happily (and
somewhat shakily) got off my bike.
T2 – 1:30 (5/55
female)
Coming into transition again was like a breath of life! I was OFF the bike, and now it was time to be
a runner! Plus, the other two races were
in full swing, so there were tons of people running, and people everywhere, and
the finish line was right there…it was great!
I racked my bike, saw Allen’s bike was there, and was happy
knowing he was out there running! (now
if only I could catch him..haha) I
fumbled around, sitting down and putting on socks, etc. I lost a sock momentarily, and almost panicked,
before finding it again. Nice,
Rosanne. Again, I felt SO SO slow, but I
still had one of the fastest times.
BUT: I didn’t have the xtenex laces on my shoes, and it
DEFINITELY showed. It drove me
absolutely NUTS, sitting there TYING MY SHOES.
It seriously felt like the longest few seconds, EVER (plus then I was
worried if I tied them right). Before CDA,
I definitely need to find some longer xtenex that will work with the Clayton’s. In the long run, it didn’t really affect any
results, but it seriously drove me crazy in transition!
I saw the drafting girl, plus another girl (the first girl
she had been drafting off of), running out of transition while I was tying my
shoes. I knew that meant that they were
at least within reach, depending on how well they could run.
Run – 1:47:38
(4/55 female)
Starting the run, I felt pretty good, and right off the bat
I saw my dad there, taking photos and cheering!! That made me smile. I wanted to move fast, but I didn’t want to
burn out too quick. Honestly, the
biggest worry about this entire race was how I would run off the bike. After blowing up pretty epically in Cabo, I really
wanted to have a better run off the bike.
I’m not convinced that going too hard off the bat in Cabo is what did me
in, but I’m sure it didn’t help..and I just wanted to stay steady. I found myself settling into about 7:20 which
felt about perfect—I wasn’t working too hard, but it was still moving. Now, to see how long I could hold it….
I passed a bunch of people pretty quickly. Of course, at this point you couldn’t tell
who was doing which race (or what loop they were on), but it really did help to
have so many people around! It just gave
me something else to think about. I would
pick people off, and sure enough, my first mile was in the 7:20s. The course was
three loops around the lake (with each loop including an extra little
out-and-back at the northern end of the lake, which only the long course people
did), and I tried to break it up accordingly.
The first out and back, I started looking for girls. Finally, I saw the first girl. And a few more. Looked like I was in 4th or 5th? But I was closing in. I passed one girl pretty quickly (the girl
that cut in front of me on the bike, who was being drafted off of), but she was
so nice every time I saw her (smiling and saying “good job!” and I’d smile back
and say “thanks, you too!”) that she didn’t bother me much anymore and I forgave
her for her awful passing skills. I did
not, however, forgive the drafting girl, who was running surprisingly strong
and had already moved up a place or two.
She was glaring, and wouldn’t smile or look at or acknowledge anyone. I get that it’s a race, and I’m not super
outgoing when I’m racing either, but at least I’m not rude! Hmph.
Anyway, once we got back to the “main” area of the course
again, it was a quick cross over a little bridge and onto a little trail
wrapping around the other side of the lake.
Of course, this meant it was no longer flat—annoying! Nothing steep or too awful but ughhhh
seriously?! Luckily, this was also a
short little section, and I was happy that each section was short enough that
it was never awful, but long enough that you could get into it (vs Cabo, where
you were just changing directions every tenth of a mile). First little turn around the bottom of the
lake; straight flat run on the road; wiggly little out and back with only the
long course sufferers; nice easy downhill curve to the other side of the lake;
rolling trail to the end of the lap.
Starting the 2nd lap, I saw my parents and
Allen. I was SO EXCITED but they seemed
even more excited!! I was more excited
for Allen and my mom for finishing their races (I could see their medals, and
saw my mom had two, which meant she must have placed) and I tried to give Allen
a “good job, congrats!” high five but he ignored it, and kept clapping and
yelling at me to keep running. I was happy
knowing I would see them again once more and get a boost for the last lap.
Mentally, I told myself the 2nd lap would be the
hardest, knowing I still had one to go.
I also told myself I had to stay strong and could not start hitting
paces above 8:00/mi until the last lap. I
almost did it, but it was more like the last third of the second lap that my
times started slipping. I had maintained
steadily slower, but still decent paces of 7:20, 7:33, 7:43, 7:48, 7:49, 7:51,
7:53…then 8:26.
It was also halfway through the second lap that my stomach
started to hurt. A lot. I wanted to use the bathroom, but there wasn’t
any super handy, and at the out-and-back turnaround I was startled to see one
girl right on my tail. I knew that if I stopped,
she would pass me. So now the question
was: how important is it I stop? Am I just
uncomfortable, or do I really need to stop?
I passed one porta-potty on the rolling trail back to the end of the 2nd
lap, thinking I would be ok and would rather try to hold her off vs lose a
spot, but I knew it was getting worse.
Not only that, but my running just was starting to suck. My stomach was cramping, which made me tense
up and I couldn’t get a good stride.
There were bathrooms right by transition, so right at the end of the
second lap, I ducked into the restroom.
As I came out and started the last lap, I knew I felt better
(could at least run a bit better), and once again saw everyone yelling and
cheering. Time to get this thing done! Shortly thereafter, I saw my mile split was
9:21 (including the bathroom stop).
Ouch, but that means I lost less than 2 minutes (probably more like 1
minute) which wasn’t too bad… but I knew if I was less that that much time
behind the girl that passed me, I’d be bummed.
Mile 10 was better, back to 8:10. Only a 5k to go! I was pumped.
Anyone can do a 5k! Just keep it up!
Famous last words. I
started to struggle. The out and back
was tough. I was smiling less at
people. I actually talked to myself out
loud a few times, coming back towards the lake.
“Ok…come ON!!” I think I was mostly trying to tell the course to hurry
up and be done, but maybe I was telling myself to hurry up, too ;)
Miles 11, 12 and 13 were a struggle. 8:24, 8:34: 8:40. Really, the only thing I kept focusing on was
that at least my falling apart was less of a disaster than in Cabo! And it waited until the very end. I switched my watch to just show total time
for the last mile-ish, rather than pace, which was both good and bad. Didn’t have to see how slow was, but I kept seeing the time get
bigger! After the first run lap, I figured
if I could maintain, I’d hit ~5:05. I
only increased it by a couple minutes, but still! Knowing I would have been done if I had stuck
to the pace was kind of sad.
Fiiiiiinally I saw transition. Finally ran up the little hill. FINALLY got to turn and run into the short
little finish chute! Allen was at one
end, my dad was at th other, and my mom was on the other side of the finish
line.
Total – 5:08:12
(4/55 female)
It was reallllly hard to breathe once I stopped. I laid down.
I sat down. I walked. Everything was just so hard. I had NO energy. Allen put the tailgate down so I could sit,
and I couldn’t get myself up at ALL. But, hey, I guess that means I raced.
Overall, I’m really pleased with this race! I did fall apart in the last 5k, but it was
overall much better executed. Some
things to work on are definitely staying with it mentally on the bike, and
pushing through and just not getting tired :P and still working on running off the
bike. The one girl went on to win it,
with a crazy fast run. I need to get
better. I always need to work on
swimming—SUPER happy with my swim, but always lots of room for improvement :) And, again, the xtenex! (and maybe remembering Imodium before the race,
which I totally forgot about. Yeah,
triathlon is super pretty :P)
We’ll see how CDA goes in a month. I know the swim will be..different. And probably closer to the right
distance. But I’ve also done the swim
before. We’ll see how cold the lake
is. The bike course is harder, for sure,
with like 1000ft more of climbing…but it’s also MUCH smoother roads, and it’s a
sold-out race so I won’t be nearly as lonely.
There will be people to chase. I’m
hoping I can still ride it strong. Maybe
not quite as fast, but it really should
be close. The run..well, the run is
probably pretty equivalent. Little
sections, no big hills or anything, so it’ll really be a matter of having a
good run off the bike. Hopefully I can
do even better.
So, that’s that! We’ll
be spectating at Victoria in 3 weeks (yay!) then racing in CDA two weeks after
that! The race season is in full swing,
and I am SO EXCITED!
