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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