So on to race day. The race started at 9am so I woke up at 5:50 for my standard pre-race breakfast of 2 maple and brown sugar oatmeals. My stomach actually felt quite good that morning so I loaded up my bags and at 6:40 we headed off to the race site which was a 25 min drive away. Once there, I set up my bike in transition, then went to get my race kit, chip and get body marked. Got number 1, as I was racing as a man and knew it was time to represent. Once this was set I began my warmup. This is a 20 min ride with 4 by 30s pickups, a 10km run with drills and strides and a 10 min swim with a few starts. However, I had 2 issues. First, my HED 90mm wheel flexes too much with my Scott bike and was rubbing the frame. Therefore I had to switch on my draft legal front wheel. This was an easy fix but then after my run warmup it took me 10 minutes to access the port potty which forced me to remove my pre-race drills and strides. Although this was not a huge deal it may have been the cause of my week run. Anyway the swim warmup felt great so I was ready to race.

SWIM: 15 minutes prior I had a POWERBAR gel and a drink of HEED. My coach, Buddy Green, told me to take out the swim hard. Thus for the first 50m I went all out and was actually almost leading the field, which was definitely a revelation for me. Unfortunately, I was not able to hold that pace and soon faded. I makes me feel good though that if I held that pace for 2450m, I could have won the swim. Throughout the first lap of the swim I simply focused on finding some fast feet following them and then trying to blow by them. Then on the second lap, we began to catch the earlier waves and the focus became more on simply dodging yellow caps the drafting. The swim however went incredibly smoothly and coming out of the water I felt very pleased with my time. Funny thing though, when I took my first step out of the water I slipped and almost face planted. Exiting the water I heard my mom yelling 24 and I was like “YES!!!”, Goal 1 is checked off.

Swim Time: 24:07

TRANSITION 1: Running into transition I strip my wetsuit off of my shoulders run to where my bike is but it is not there. It turns out I was at the wrong rack. What a rookie mistake. I found my bike, threw my wetsuit on the groud, but my helmet on with my moms glasses and was out on course.

T1 Time: 1 min

BIKE: The bike was the second part of the race that I was concerned of as we had not done a 40km TT effort all year. So, with that in mind I jumped on the bike, put my head down and went for it. Watching my time, I hit the 20km mark in under 30min, which is a massive best time on the bike for me. However from 20-30km I died. I lost focus, my cadence went down and I lost my relaxation.  It was at 30km where I decided to have a gel and a sip of water in hopes of preparing for the run. Unfortunately as you will see this did not help

Bike Time: 1:03:41

T2: Solid here although I had a bit of trouble getting one of my shoes on

T2 Time: 34 seconds.

Run: So I could not run. Ill keep this short but I just had no knee drive and was unable to generate any speed. This will come but I just need time to reflect on this painful run before I talk of it anymore.

Run Time: 40:04

Overall: Im happy with this race as I was able to put together a great swim bike, I know I can run so now its time to get training and put it all together for next year

It was perfect weather, not too cold or not too warm. I do not know how to run a 5k period. I want to get it under 25 minutes, but I didn't even know what pace needed to be run in order to achieve that goal, failed.

My husband and I at start line, we are such cute couple.

I didnt want to be near my husband or my nieces friend because I hate having someone I know running next to me, peer pressure. So soon after the gun start, I took off like a jack rabbit, but having to dodge the gazillion people running 13 min mile pace staring in the 8 min mile coral,I was pretty annoyed.

Mile 1: 8:06- shit, will this be good enough? Should I run faster? Where the hell is the turn around point??

Mile 2: 7:38 – people say that mile 2 is the hardest, why am I not hurting yet, wow, I must be a super star… Ummm no. I just die later. I saw this yellow tank girl that is running slightly faster than me, but I wanted to hang on to her, at this point, I can still see her, but she is moving faster and faster..lost her eventually

Mile 3: 7:46- clearly I started to die here. Not dead, but dying. But granted its only one more mile, in my head, I stay, 10 more min, just like a tempo run, push it through. I did.

Of course I fail at running tangent even for a 5k race, total miles ran, 3.16, not too bad. Last 0.16 miles ran at 7:06. Not too shabby for a slow person!!

Official Time: 24:07

6/250 in my age group

Very happy with the result!!! Hopefully I can get it sub23 next year!!

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Driving to Vegas with the cowboy hat.

I stayed in Vegas with Angi and JR. We were the three best friends that anyone could have.  Angi was kind enough to be our sherpa for the weekend.  She provided massages, ice baths, food, gangster rap, and Asian jokes.

And we’re the three best friends that anyone could have…

I left Friday morning and got to Henderson around 1 p.m. for athlete check-in.  It was 100 degrees.  My shirt was soon soaking with sweat. I walked around the expo. I ran into Linsey and she gave me a hug. Victory.

Dan got me VIP tickets to the athlete dinner at Lake Las Vegas.  We got front row seats!

Athlete dinner

Saturday morning, JR and I went for a ride and run.

Going out for a ride

Ready for take off

Then, we had to check in our bikes and gear bags.  The logistics of the race were a little crazy.  First we checked in our run bags at T2, the Henderson Pavilion.  Lake Las Vegas was 20 minutes away, where we checked in our bikes and bike gear bags.  The rest of the day, we spent laying on the couch, relaxing, taking an ice baths. and rapping.

Sleeping

JR and I at the Henderson Pavilion

Prepping the bikes for battle

Bike drop off

Race day.

Unlike the mass swim starts at Ironman, the 70.3 races have wave starts.  Pros began at 6:30 am.  Waves began every five minutes. I was the last wave to go with an 8 a.m. start.  With a day time high of 105, this was a definitely a big concern for me.  I likely wouldn’t be getting to the run course till around 11 a.m.  and it would be HOT.

Wave starts

Transition closed at 6 a.m. I got there at 5:40 am.  I quickly set up my transition area, check my tires, tape my nutrition to my bike.  Then, I laid down in the sun for two hours to get my race day tan.

There was around 2,100 athletes racing, with just over 1,000 of them being international.  I thought this was pretty cool.  There’s actually other Asian triathletes besides me!!!

Lining up to start, I couldn’t believe all the incredibly fit people around me… and the 18-29 women wave… wow. This is where all the good looking triathlete women show up.

7:45 a.m. – I ran into Josh Terwoord and we chatted for bit.  It was already starting to get pretty hot.  I took one last swig of my Gatorade and I walked towards the swim start.  I thoroughly enjoyed the swim venue: the crowds, the atmosphere, the scenery.  It was a great place to get the big show started.

7:50 a.m. – Into the water. It wasn’t nearly as hot as Lake Pleasant the other day, but still pretty warm… around 82 degrees.

Pre-race swim with Dan at Lake Pleasant

7:55 a.m. – The thought crossed my mind- I am racing in the World Championships. To be honest, I wasn’t very nervous for this race… until I got in the water.  I still had five minutes before I started, so I floated on my back, closed my eyes, recollected my thoughts, and went over my race strategy.  Then, I swam to the start line and the countdown began. There was about 150 people in the M18-29 wave.  The swim was a rectangle course.  One of the only benefits of starting late was that the sun wasn’t in my eyes. I lined up right at the buoy line, in the front.  The first sight buoy was a couple hundred meters away so my plan was to ease my way into this swim until I reached the first buoy.

Swim course

Swim.

8 a.m. – I was off.  I followed my plan. I swam relatively easy until the first sighting buoy.  Unlike all the other races I’ve done, I noticed that most everyone in my wave were decent swimmers.  I swam with a fairly large pack of swimmers, all in my wave, for the majority of the swim.  It seemed like the bulk of people in my wave came out in the 30-35 minute range.  The three turns on the swim course were congested.   I got cracked in the head a few times, kicked in the face, and got shoved down into the water. I didn’t let it rattle me though and swam strong.

Swim start line

I got out of the water in 31:26… a great swim for me.  I’ve worked hard in the pool this year and it’s nice to see my swim times improving at every race. I’ve PR’ed my swim times the last three half Ironmans- 32:27 in Florida (non-wetsuit); 32:06 in Boise (wetsuit); 31:26 in Vegas (non-wetsuit).  It was a great start to the day.

Swim time: 31:26 (1:37 /100m) , 54/115 AG, 400/2,159 OA

My Garmin read exactly 1.2 miles.

Outta the water!

T1: 3:25 – a long run around the lake and into T1.  I quickly put on my helmet, shoes, and had another long run to the mount line.  Transition times were a significant improvement compare to my prior half distance races.  I minimized the clutter in transition area and it significantly reduced my transition times. Thanks for the tips Klas!

T1

T1 map; 0.41 miles long!

Bike:

The bike course immediately starts out with 1.5 mile climb out of Lake Las Vegas.  I’ve rode this course two times in training and I  was prepared for the hills ahead.  My plan was to ride at 205-215 watts, a power range I practiced in training.  This range was slightly out of my comfort zone but wasn’t overdoing it.  I believe it was a range that would give me enough energy off the bike to put in a quality run.

Bike course

With my heart rate still jacked up from the swim and transition, I sat in the saddle and spun up the hill out to Lake Mead Parkway.  I maintained 210 watts with my heart rate slowly coming down.  The course contained many rolling hills.  There aren’t many flat sections, and I knew it would be very easy to completely blow up on the bike if I didn’t ride smart.

Darth Vader

I never got out of the saddle on the climbs.  As Phil Liggett puts it: “I climbed like an angel.” I conserved my energy on the uphills and maintained my power on the descents.  I saw many people hammer the uphills, and coast the downhills.  I let my ego completely go.  I didn’t ride with anyone. I let people pass me at will.  I raced my own race.  I knew I was riding to the best of my abilities, and I was riding right at the top of my power range.  Looking at my power graph, I believe I executed my plan well.

Power/elevation chart:

Average watts: 210

Normalized power: 220

Average heart rate: 155 bpm

3,458 feet climbing

94 degrees avg temperature

—

I carried two bottles of water on me at all times with PowerBar gels taped to my frame.  I drank often and never felt thirsty throughout the bike.  I took in a gel every 30 minutes.  It’s a nutrition plan I’ve followed in the past and it has worked well.

I caught Dan Cadriel around mile six.  He was looking strong.We took turns passing each other a few times.  The father/son battle was on!

Father vs. Son Flyer

At the turnaround on North Shore road, about 23 miles into the ride, I started to get really hot.  I sprayed myself down with water at every aid station.  There is a little hole in my Louis Garneau Vorttice helmet, that allowed me to spray water in and cool down my head and face.  I pulled up my jersey to my chest and this made things a little cooler as well.

Josh Terwoord, a fast AZ’er in my age group (also doing Kona this year) who biked a 4:50 in Arizona last year, didn’t pass me until mile 47.  Carlos Mendoza (another local Kona guy, who was one wave behind me in the 45-49 age group) caught me around the same time.   I knew my race was going well.  I felt comfortable on the bike.  I never felt like I was expending too much energy and my power was consistent throughout most of the ride.

I talked to my buddy, Stephen, who raced Vegas last year and he reminded me that there’s still 12 miles to go once I pass Lake Las Vegas heading into Henderson.  These miles were tough, as the course ended on a slight uphill.  More so, the scenery wasn’t so great.  The last part of the course consists of riding through an industrial area throughout Henderson, with several turns.  I sprayed myself down one last time at the final aid station and felt decent riding into T2.  It was95 degrees.

Bike time: 2:37:53 (21.3 mph); 45/215 AG, 305/2,159 OA

T2: 1:56 – a volunteer grabbed my bike, I ran to get my run bag, headed straight through the change tent (which was extremely crowded) and I put on my shoes and socks outside.

Run:

3 loops , 965 feet climbing.

Run course

I felt uncomfortable the first mile, but it was nothing I haven’t experienced before.  Usually it takes me a mile or two to get my run legs under me.  This time, the pistons weren’t firing.  The engine room had no steam.  I was never able to pick up my pace.   I started to panic.  It was time to dig deeply into the suitcase of courage.  I closed my eyes, and tried to push it.  I tried to shut my brain off and ignore the pain.  I knew I could run sub 90 minutes, as I proved it at Florida and Boise earlier in the year. I kept yelling at myself.  This is the World Championships, let’s go!

Faking a smile

It got worse.  Everything hurt. I was cramping, my stomach was in knots, my entire nutrition plan was out the window.  I kept on throwing up whatever I drank and ate.  It hurt to walk.  The run quickly turned into a death march.  I tried drinking coke.  I couldn’t eat anything. I was very dehydrated as I chugged water at every aid station… then threw it up shortly after.  I was a mess. The elastic had snapped. It’s the first time I legitimately thought about quitting.

The meltdown

I saw Nick and Angi along the course and they motivated to keep going.  I walked with Nick for a while with my arm on his shoulder. I felt absolutely horrible. I crouched over to puke. It was the lowest point I’ve ever reached in triathlon.  I got to Angi, put my head on her shoulder… humiliated and in pain.  She told me to keep going, to dig deep.  Then, I realized- I’ve trained too hard, I’ve invested way too much time to just give up.  Sure, I was embarrassed about this  run split, but I would have gotten a lot more shit if I called it quits.

I saw J.R. at the top of Green Valley Parkway on my second loop.  He was crouched over, throwing up as well.  I give him a lot of respect for getting to the finish line as he was in bad shape. He walked the last couple miles.  As he put it, after spending a couple hours in medical after the race: “We ain’t no quitters.” He’s damn right.

Fake smiling

I “Ironman shuffled” to a 1:54 half marathon… probably the most uncomfortable 1 hour and 54 minutes of my life. I ran past a group of people playing music.  They were playing that LMFAO “every day I’m shuffling” song.  It suited my run perfectly. I was complete course clutter.

I learned a lot about myself on this day.  When I started throwing up, it terrified me.  I’ve never experienced this in training or racing.  I had no energy, and I honestly didn’t know I was going to get through another mile.  I felt incredibly weak.  I was embarrassed.  I was on the side of the road, with spectators all around me, puking my guts out. Every incline on the road seemed like a mountain. My quads cramped on the inclines, and my hamstrings tightened up on the descents.  It was a pain I’ve never experienced before.  I will keep this feeling of agony from this race in my memory bank, and know that I can get through pretty much anything.

I crossed the line and immediately fell into two volunteers arms.  I was seeing stars, completely out of it.  I chugged three bottles of water, threw it up, then went on to chug some chocolate milk.

I couldn’t keep anything down, but I was incredibly thirsty.  I knew I needed medical, but by this time, the med tent was jammed pack with reports of 500 people needing medical attention throughout the race. I was still conscious so I figured I’d just wait it out. I sat in the air-conditioned athlete food tent with my head down.  It took about an hour for me to recollect myself.  On this day, I pushed my body to its absolute limits.  Everything in my body was giving me the signs to stop.  I probably lost 10 years out of my life doing this race.

… but it was totally worth it.

Although my time doesn’t show it, this was my proudest athletic accomplishment to date.  This was the World Championships and I left it all out there.  I rolled the dice and went all in.  I swam and biked for show, and, unfortunately, ran like shit. With the hills and heat, this had to be one of the most challenging race I’ve ever done.  I congratulate everyone who battled the elements and finished. Being on the run course this late in the day was complete carnage.

Run stats: 154 average heart rate, 965 elevation gain; this was an incredibly high heart rate for me at such a slow speed.

Run time: 1:54 (8:42 min/mile), 41/115 AG, 404/2,159 OA

Despite my miserable run, I gained four spots in my age group.  It just shows how tough the conditions were on this day.

Final result: 5:08:40

So, what went wrong? I stayed up all night thinking about this race. I know I am capable of a sub 90 minute run.  Doing so would have put me close to the top 10 in my age group.

It’s the day after the race and I’ve come up with an extensive list.

1. Going too hard on the bike.   I averaged 210 watts on the bike.  It’s a power average which I’ve done in training.  One factor I didn’t take into account was the heat and how it affects heart rate.  Yes, I live in Phoenix and it’s been well into the 100s, but all my long rides started at 5-5:30am when it’s in the 80s.  My heart rate average was 155 bpm, which is a bit high compared to my half-iron paced training rides.  If I rode at 207 watts in the 80s, my heart rate would have been a few beats lower.  I made the mistake of only looking at power, and ignored how hard my heart was working.

2. I wore a black triathlon kit and a black helmet.  Although I looked like Darth Vader, my hero, it was freakin’ hot. I sprayed myself down with water at every water aid station.

3. My nutrition on the bike- I had a PowerBar gel every 30 minutes (five gels), water (drank 6 bottles), and half a banana.  It’s the same nutrition plan I followed for Florida and it worked fine.  With the increased heat, should I have ate and drank more?

4. Being exposed to the sun more than two hours before my race even began.

5. Because of my late start time, I had two breakfasts:  one at 4:15 a.m. (oatmeal, granola, strawberries, and blueberries) and another one at 6:15 a.m.  (orange and an almond butter and honey sandwich). I went through one bottle of water and three quarters of a Gatorade.

6. The 100 degree heat on the run course, with limited shade. I tried spongeboob iceballs, a strategy that worked for me in the past.  Unfortunately, the sun melted the ice balls and dried the spongeboobs very quickly.

–

Final thoughts:

Triathlon is all about finding the fine line of conserving enough energy on the swim and bike to run well.  I read Macca’s “I’m Here to Win” book before the race, and he reminded me that there always will be a point in the race where you’ll feel awful.  As I raced, I remembered this insight.  I tried battling through it on the run, but the “awful” feeling never went away.  This race deeply humbled me. I can’t even tell the the last time I ran this slow in a training run.  Going into the race, I knew that pacing was key.  Though, I may have crossed that very fine line of going too hard on the bike, which resulted in a complete meltdown on the run.

We live and learn.  This is what I find so intriguing about triathlon.  It’s great to have days like Florida 70.3, but I learned far more about myself at this race. I’ve realized that every race can’t be a success.  Though, I will do everything in my power (in my training and race execution strategy) to figure this out and become a stronger, faster, better triathlete.  I’ll be back.  At our next showdown, Vegas will be MY bitch.

Special thanks to Angi for all the pictures and being our sherpa for the weekend.  It made racing a lot less stressful!

It was a gorgeous September morning here in Southern California. It was warm but not hot. The water temperature was about 68 to 70° and low humidity. They could not have planned for a more perfect day.

My experience with triathlons is limited, this being my 3rd race, but I am steep on the learning curve. In my first triathlon I choked the swim and got all panicky and short of breath from taking off too fast. I have adapted to open water swim’s a bit since then by looking at it as just a warm-up for the rest of the event. I am trying to avoid that jackrabbit start when the gun goes off with your heart beating out of your chest with excitement.

PREPARATION:
The preparation for this event had really suffered over the last several weeks. I diligently log my exercise using SportsTracker on the iPhone. Due to many different circumstances with relationship, professional, and financial challenges and obligations, my exercise and training dropped precipitously over what was hopefully going to be a peak throughout the summer. As many of you know, life often gets in the way of the multisport lifestyle. but since I am not a professional athlete and my livelihood does not depend on my performance, I had to let much of it go and do the best I could under the circumstances. Most notably, my workout time on the bike had dropped to nearly 1/2 or one third of what I was doing in the winter months. Instead, I have been working more on the running with both endurance as well as tempo and speed work so I have seen some improvements there.
I also did something really stupid four days prior to the event. I went on a long run. Actually my longest, ever. This run consisted of 16 miles at a 7:42/mile pace. This was not a long and slow run, this was my potential race pace. It was my longest run ever, and I could barely walk the next day. Fortunately, by race day I felt reasonably recovered with some spring back in my step.

PRE-RACE NOTES:
As I have never done this race before, I really did not know what to expect as far as the times for the particular distances involved. I figured the race would be somewhere between one hour and 15 min. to one hour and 20 min. or so. There really is no need to carbo-load for a race of that short duration. In fact in some ways, it is probably best to eat less rather than more the evening before. I had a healthy dinner the night before and then minimized the fiber in my diet until after the race. I have been helping my wife with a e-commerce website the night before and found myself up past midnight prior to the race. I also had to get up and quiet the dogs because they were barking at 3:30 the morning! So while I was up, I drank and Ensure drink and settle back to bed for another hour and a half. I had prepacked everything the night before and the race is only about 15 min. away by car. I had heard that parking was going to be limited to carpools, and so I parked about 3 miles away, donned the backpack and cycled in the dark to the race location. It worked out quite nice and I got a nice warm up for my legs.
I found a great spot for my bike in the transition zone quite near the bike exit and entry point. for this race I pre-mounted my bike shoes on the petals and use just one band of blue paper painters tape binding the right crank to the right rear chain stay. I had not really tested this out but it seemed to work well in my head. It should hold the cranks in place and horizontal fashion and stably enough until you step into the first shoe where it should just tear away. Mostly I just did not want my expensive bike shoes to be catching on the concrete and getting scuffed and scratched up in the process. The tape works pretty well going out, and of course had no effect running the bike in after the ride with the shoes catching on the ground here and there.

THE SWIM: SWIM RESULTS: 10:09. 2nd in my age group. 3rd overall.
the swim was a 1/2 mile destination swim in the ocean that started about a half-mile down the beach. I was in the fifth wave of 45 to 55-year-old males. It was a group of about 75 to 80 men. Because of my past experience and a recent open water race sanctioned by the United States Masters Swim Association, my inclination was to hang back a bit so as not to feel the pressure to race too fast at the beginning of the swim. Well I chucked that idea to the wind and stepped up to the front middle of the pack. When the gun went off I just worked my way out and tried to find a good comfortable pace as a “warm up”. I got on the feet of the leading swimmer and we both rounded the first duly in first and second place. Unfortunately, I continued to follow him him going in towards the shore instead of out towards the second, smaller less noticeable buoy. When I finally looked up and around I saw the lifeguards on their paddle boards yelling and waving at us to go left. Once we redirected our course we got into a good groove and I lost track of him at some point. I passed many of the younger males in the previous wave that had gone off about 4 min. before us. Of interest, there where some large and dense pacific kelp beds you had to swim through. There was no avoiding them. I hoped it freaked others out and slowed them down. I figured “what the hell”, its just a plant and “climbed over them”!  As I rounded the last buoy and made my way in I had absolutely no idea where I was in relationship to the other people in my wave, although I did not see any other white swim caps in my immediate area. After running up the sand, there was a very steep ramp leading up to the top of the Bluffs. These ramps going up can not be comfortably run and so a brisk walk is in better order to keep the heart rate in a reasonable area. As I trotted back to the transition area I saw only one swimmer ahead of me and he was sitting down and putting on his shoes. I ran past him to where my bike was and wasted no time putting on my helmet and number belt and off I went.

TRANSITION T1: Time 3:04 (7th in age group)
7th isn’t too bad, but the 1st place winner was still a full minute faster. He must have run up that steep ramp from the beach to the transition area. I was the first out of T-1 for my wave.

BIKE: 36:25 minutes. Average speed:19.8 mph. 9th/50 in age group. 70th overall
The bike course was two laps back and forth along the Pacific Coast Highway. After coming out transition you would head south towards the Laguna Beach City limits, make a U-turn and ride north towards the Corona Del Mar city limits, and U-turn back south towards the race location and then repeat that a second time. There were some gentle rollers up and down. There were a couple of opportunities to get out of the seat for a little extra power but my speed rarely dropped below about 15 miles an hour with the peak of around 35 miles an hour on the downhill. I passed many, many of the younger participants from earlier waves. I have to say that I do like seeing the contestant’s age written on their left calf. There is a sense of satisfaction in passing some of these guys in their 20s and 30s on my bike. Unfortunately, it works both ways. I was passed by several men in their 40s and 50s that just smoked me. I have to say, they were pretty awesome. I do sometimes suffer from male calf envy, and fully appreciate the strength that these guys can generate on the bike. My skinny chicken legs hold up pretty well, though, and I know what I will be working on this winter- leg strength. This is my second race on my Blue Competition triathlon bike that have been custom fitted. I drank very little – just not thirsty. Tried to down a gel, but only got down about half. I really didn’t need it and I don’t like taking the time to swallow when I could be breathing instead. I had a pretty nice ride, overall.

Transition T2. 0:37 seconds. Third fastest in age group.
What is there to say. No frills. Rack the bike, slip on the shoes and go. One phrase here: “elastic speed laces”.

THE RUN: TIME 20:09. Ave. 6:43 min/mile. Ranked 4th in aged group & 24th overall.
Most of my interest and emphasis on improvement over the last couple of months has been with the running. I knew this was an area that needed improvement the most but also had the most room for improvement. The first and second place finishers in my age group finished a full 3 min. and 1 min.ahead of me for this run. The first-place finisher is really in a whole another category of experience, I’m sure.
Overall I felt really comfortable all throughout. My heart rate was hovering between 160 and 163 which is right at my lactic acid threshold point, I have estimated. It did peak at around 170. The run included running north along PCH along the bike path and then heading down with an approximate three-quarter mile run along the hardpacked wet sand. the toughest part of the run was climbing up a very steep concrete path leading up to top the Bluffs, again. There was no way to run this path without burning all your matches and going into severe lactic acid debt. I did a fast walk bent over and using the palms of my hand on my knees to help push them and assist them up this ramp. It may have looked really odd, but I swear it worked. When I got to the top I was quickly back up to my normal running pace. Speaking of pace, I used a small Electronic metronome clipped on to my triathlon tank top.

To those of you that I was running past, I apologize for the annoying “chip-chirp-chip-chirp” sound. I had it pre-set for a 178 step per minute cadence and I stayed with that the entire run. It is probably the most effective training and racing aid that can be bought for five dollars. Now if I could find one in carbon fiber, I could shave about 1-2 grams off the weight!

RESULTS: 3RD IN MY AGE GROUP. 24TH OVERALL.
I could not stick around for the post race presentations and didn’t even know my official time for the race. I was so surprised the following day to see the results posted. I missed my one opportunity for an awards podium picture! I’ll see if I can at least get my awards plaque. Pretty happy with the result considering I just started running 8 months ago. I really look forward to another race here next year. I’ll be competing in the older age group next year. Maybe next year I will have another opportunity for a podium finish if all goes well.
Cheers, J

During registration on Saturday Vic & I huddled in tents and under the burger van canopy as the sky was as black as coal and thunder & lightening crashed and rumbled around us as the rain hammered down. The run course was like join- the-dots of puddles, the lake water rising all the time and submerging the lakeshore trees.

Then just as quick as the down pour came the skies cleared back to blue and we went to pitch the tent just 5 minutes walk from race transition. Off to the pub for northern lasses carbon-loading – fish & chips with mushy peas, half a pint of lager but no crisps as the Fleece in Cirencester was too posh for crisps ! There was a distinct split in customers that night, those wearing running shoes or Crocs and Garmin watches and those all dressed up for a night on the town.

Alarms set for 4am – yes on a Sunday !! Gave us 6.5 hours sleep, luxury compared to RUN24.
Now I didn’t know but 4am is very dark, head torches required for coffee, porridge and bananas. Short walk to transition with our kit following a trail of bobbing lights and clicking of chain rings.

5am and still very dark, the lake calm and glassy, the air still and all very quiet. All triathletes assembled by the lake for the briefing and daylight suddenly arrived. I had taken my clear goggles which half way round I wished I had tinted as the rising sun was blinding.

The 6:10am swim start was the usual scrum, tugging, pulling, punching, ducking and a dislocated shoulder. I was swimming alongside Billy the Fish for 3 turns until I got boxed in & ducked again. The low sun made sighting difficult but I swam with the pack and happy with my sighting. Had a quick chat to Chris on the pontoon ! Pulled myself along the bottom as I got too close to the island. Then the sun was blinding, thanks to the loud mouthed shouting marshal flapping his fluorescent jacket and screaming at us to go to him – otherwise no chance of seeing the swim exit with starburst in our eyes from the sun.

36 minutes swim – Not my best, sorry girls, wrist ached. Quick run along the grass and handed the chip baton over to Karen who blitzed the bike on 3 hours with no dramas. Claire & I waiting in transition and she was back 30 mins quicker than she expected. Clare was off and flying, the run was best described as a trail run, muddy & potholes ankle deep filled with water. But a half marathon PB for Clare 1:39. As a team relay we came in at 5:18 which were placed 4th.

The marshals & fellow competitors were fantastic, such a great atmosphere. Vic also had a brilliant race coming in ten minutes under 6 hours. The TriZoo suits attracted a lot of attention and spurred us all on.

It was a great 24 hours in the Cotswold Water Park, camping racing, eating, socialising and above all fun Thanks a lot to Vic, Karen & Clare.

Now on to the race report.

My parents treated Mackenzie and I to a trip to Bend for the weekend. I was going to run the full marathon and Dad was in the half, but then I got hamstring tendonitis and dropped to the half. For a while I didn’t even know if I should do the half, but I really wanted to and my PT said it would be okay as long as I didn’t try to race it. So I lined up with Dad, which is always fun. I know a lot of people would love to run with their Dad, so I don’t take these opportunities for granted.

I had my half fanatic singlet and marathon maniac visor (since it’s the only visor I have) on and almost immediately met two other lovely fanatic/maniac ladies. It was my first race in the singlet and it was a lot of fun to talk to other fanatics/maniacs at the start. Just like everyone said. The Half Fanatics and Marathon Maniacs are fun clubs to belong to. The woman in the middle of the below photo had finished up the Cascade Lakes Relay the day before and then woke up early the next morning to run Haulin’ Aspen.

Dad and I kind of hung towards the rear of the start line up. In retrospect we should have moved up a little bit because we passed people the whole way. But, we were fine.

You can see in the photos that it is sunny and everyone is dressed for warm weather. It was destined to be a hot day, with highs in the 90s. I was comfortable at the start line in my singlet and shorts, so I knew it was going to be a warm run. By now, I am used to my races being on the warm/hot side, so this seemed normal to me.

The start of the race was crowded and really dusty. Dad had a bandana and I should have brought my bandana. I ate so much dust during the first few miles.

But, eventually the crowds thinned and I could breathe easier. Dad and I set a comfortable pace. I figured we’d run until the big hill started and then we could walk some. We passed one other father/daughter pair in the first half of the race. A lot of people liked seeing the father/daughter racers and always cheered for the dads. What about us daughters?! lol.

Here’s dad after one of the aid stations:

A little while after this aid station, we came to the big climb. We started walking. By this point it was really warm and we were in full sun. Here are some photos of the hot hill of death, as I called it:

The last photo is of this random couch on the side of the road. Another racer suggested I take a photo of Dad sitting on the couch, but I told the other racer that we didn’t want to touch that couch! ha ha.

There were aid stations every few miles, which was nice as we were able to drink. I usually just filled up my water bottle. This is the first race I’ve carried my own water with me and it was nice to sip water when I needed to. The Nathan hand held I have also has a pouch for my phone and some other items. I’ve never taken photos while in a race before either, but it was fun to be able to this time.

The race course started down hill again around mile 7, and we ran a little while then. Then we walked some after a while. Just taking it easy and motoring along. We passed another father/daughter pair in the second half of the race.

There was a crazy, fun technical downhill section in the second half. We had been warned about it at the start and told this was an area where a lot of people fell. So of course Dad and I bombed down this section. It was fun. I don’t know why, but I love just going fast on the downhills.

Then the course flattened out and ran through the shade. It felt good not to be out in the sun for a while. The rest of the race was rather uneventful, just nice central Oregon trail running, except we had to do a mile long out and back before we got to the finish. Part of the out and back included running through a covered bridge:

Dad was tired and hot at this point. I was hot, but not too tired. It was close to 90 at the end of the race. We walked a lot of the out and back. And ran in to the finish. It was so much fun to run through the finish line with my Dad. Our official time was 2:39:52, about what we planned for. Actually, a little under our planned finish time.

Mackenzie and my Mom were at the finish line waiting for us. They actually saw us at the start of the out and back, since that part ran right by the finish line. Dad and I enjoyed our beans and rice and other finish line food, then we headed in to Sisters to walk around.

I bought us all root beers in Sisters. Mackenzie loves root beer. We all love root beer.

I was so dusty and hot from the race. I was coughing a lot the rest of the afternoon. Mackenzie and I both napped a lot of the way home. But, my hamstring tendons felt okay. They didn’t bother me anymore after the half marathon than they did before. So that was good news. And now they are still okay. They still bother me a little, but not as bad as before. The PT, reduced mileage, and strengthening really seem to be helping. Of course time helps heal the body too.

Right after we finished, and were standing around eating in the finish area, Dad and I both said we would run the Haulin’ Aspen Trail Half Marathon again. It was fun. The trails were actually really good for running. So next year, if we are all still here, we plan on heading down to Bend to run again.

This is the first race I’ve done that has split transition areas. T1, or the swim to bike transition for the uninitiated, was 10 minutes (by car) from T2, bike to run. Since this was the first time I had to deal with this set up I was a little nervous. Those nerves resulted in me showing up almost 3 hours before the 9:30 race start! Showing up that early lets you set up transitions with no pressure. It also gives you HOURS to think, worry & generally freak yourself out.

I showed up, picked up my packet and got body marked. Nothing too exciting with that, other then the volunteers harassing the body marker asking how she got the honor. She (the body marker) insisted it was because she was single.

I drove down to the swim start/T1 and pumped my bike tires, dropped my bike off & headed back up to the T2 area to set up my run transition, drop my car off & wait around.

The waiting had to be the worst part. With hours to kill I sat in the back of my car just waiting. I started to second guess my choice to not wear my wet suit. I caught up on some emails and twitter postings, and generally kept myself occupied till the shuttles started running from T2 to T1.

So I’ve mentioned that I was early to the race? Since I had all this free time I got into the water to warm up (after taking the bus from T2 to T1). The water was warmer then the pool! I’d guess that it was mid to upper 70′s easily. Looking around at the guys wearing wet suits I thought “the only reason to be in one is for speed” and I was right… but i’ll get to that later. I warmed up by swimming out to the first turn buoy and back. It was probably 200 yards or so, and I felt GOOD. I know I’m not fast but I was feeling comfortable in the water, and in good spirits. At this point I should have gotten out of the water and sat on the beach relaxing… instead I stayed in the water and swam around a bit more. I swam over to the finish and out a couple hundred yards to see what I’d be sighting on the way back in. I then swam back over to the swim start area. I probably swam half to three quarters of the course while waiting around.

The bell went off to begin the swim and I still felt good. I got knocked around a bit, but kept my composure, I settled into a rhythm and was at the first turn buoy. I made it another 150 yards and then started getting tired. I managed to lose my breathing rhythm a couple of times and was all out of whack by the second turn buoy. On my way in I noticed that a woman was a ahead of me. The women left 3 minutes behind the men! I wasn’t that surprised, just annoyed. As I got out of the water I swear I saw the clock say 15 minutes, but the official time has me at 14:26. I was in 43^rd place.

This is a horrendous swim, and the last time I’ll not wear a wetsuit. I make up more time swimming with it then it takes me to strip out of it.

I got on the bike and was PISSED at myself for swimming so slow. The course starts down hill, so I started to hammer. The course is mainly rollers so the trick is to attack at the crest of the hills to keep momentum up and get over the next bump.

Right off the bat I got down to business reeling in all the fish people who got out of the water before me. I wasn’t even counting the number of people I was passing, I had my head down in aero and just kept moving. At one point about 12-13 miles into the ride I spotted 2 riders about 400 yards ahead of me that I wanted. I set my sights on them and started to push. I easily reeled them in and my Garmin was pushing 27 on the uphill. The great thing is that I didn’t feel like I was going to be burnt on the run. As I neared the final turn into the parking lot I had one rider off my shoulder that was close. I didn’t get both feet out of my shoes before the dismount line, so I snapped out of the pedal with my left foot and ended up carrying one shoe to transition and one was still attached to the bike. I finished the bike in 10^th place. I’d moved up 33 spots from the swim to the bike.

As I made it into transition I noticed that there weren’t a lot of bikes on racks. I started counting them…1, 2, 3, 4, 5… wait a second if there’s few enough bikes to count I need to ignore them and have a fast transition. I stopped counting and made it to my rack to ditch the bike and switch over to my Newtons. The guy who was behind me was now at his rack as well, so I made the game time decision to NOT WEAR SOCKS. I usually run in socks but since it was only a 5k i figured i’d be okay. I pulled on my newtons, moved my Garmin from the bike to my wrist, dumped a cup of water on my head as I left transition and started to run. I wasn’t pushing hard, or so I thought, and started noticing a couple of people ahead of me. The distance started closing and before I knew it i’d passed 3 people! On the final hill I looked down at my watch and was running a 9 minute mile, the hill was tough. As I came into the finishers chute I was a good 15 to 20 seconds ahead of the next person so there was no need to sprint it out to the end. I ended up having the 7^th fastest run time of the day.

Closing thoughts:

I ended up 8th overall for the race, and 2nd in my age group! I’m happy with the results given the course and the mistakes I’d made leading up to the start. The other mishap I had was that I failed at bringing any type of nutrition with me. I usually keep a couple extra Gu’s tucked in my transition bag, but didn’t have any! I’m not sure that I’ll do the race again, if I know people doing it I might go out and race the course again. It’s a decent course and very well supported and marked. If I do it again I’m wearing my wet suit!

PreRace

This is where the bad mojo started out. I had picked up my race packet the night before, so I set up my transition and wondered over to get body marked. I got my number, 90, and age written on me and was wondering around trying to warm up. Then I heard “it” over the loud speaker “Number 90 please return to the transition area… you seem to have a flat tire”. Okay… no big deal, at least I find out now and not during transition. I walk over to the rack, pull my tire off and bring it over to the mechanic to steal a tube and use of his pump. Quick change, walked back to transition, was mounting the tire and all of a sudden “HISSSSSSS” the tire lets go. Turns out that I had a sizable gash in my sidewall from a flat earlier in the week. Luckily the mechanic from Goodales had a spare tire that I could throw on for the race, swapped the tire (again) and was good to go (again). 2 tires blown before the race… Whew, If that’s all that goes wrong I’ll be happy… I wasn’t going to be happy.

There wasn’t anything wrong with the swim. I was smooth, relaxed and swam exactly like I planned. 10 minutes is my average time for a sprint swim, and I was relaxed the entire time. I got out of the water and made my way up to transition to get on the bike and start picking off the faster swimmers. If I could knock a minute or two from my time i’d be ecstatic, it’s a good goal for next year.

The bike course is a two loop lollipop course, I ended up doing three. I rode it last year so I knew where to attack and where to go easy. I was kicking it pretty hard on the ride and was in one of the early waves so by the time I got to the second loop I don’t think the volunteers were expecting to direct riders to the finish. I got to the “final” loop and the volunteer at the top was saying “first loop to the right, straight to the finish” I was in the zone not thinking so I took the right. I got to the bottom of the hill and asked a volunteer “where’s the finish” she said you had to go around again… then “it” hit me. I’d made the rookie mistake of not knowing the course. It this point I had 2 options:

1. turn around and find the transition area
2. Ride another loop

I chose to ride another loop, and hammered it out. I knew hoped I wouldn’t be DFL for my age group. I finished out the bike angry at myself for not paying attention to the course. I’m doing my best to chalk it up to experience. As I pulled in Katie gave me the “what took you so long?” look and I yelled back at her that I’d done 3 loops.

I got out on the run sort of discouraged, I knew I’d blown my chance of having a good showing in the race, I was just in it to finish. I didn’t push too hard on the run. It was a little odd to be passing so many folks. As I came out of the chute I passed a woman who was wearing Newton’s and she asked me why her shoes didn’t make her as fast as me. The run went by real quick as most 5k’s do. As I as coming in I spotted Aaron and his girls coming to the finish line, I smiled, waved and continued on to the finish.

Closing Thoughts

 This is the first race I’ve done with Tasha! I’m glad that I finally got to race with T (she’s the one who got me started doing tri’s). Even with the extra milage in the bike, the race was a good time. Next year I hope I’ll finally have the course/race figured out!

We didn’t sleep too well Saturday night, as we were in a lean-to at Little River State Park and neglected to drag our foam mattress out of the car, so we were essentially sleeping on a hard board. We were planning to leave the campground at about 6:45, so that we could stop at a bagel/coffee shop in Waterbury for breakfast, but we were both awake and ready to go by 5:30 (long before the bagel shop would open), so we got breakfast in a gas station, instead.

I was happy to find some instant oatmeal with freeze-dried fruit and no added sugar. I paired it with a gigantic butter-and-sugar-laden locally made granola bar and a cup of Green Mountain Coffee (which is roasted less than 1/2 a mile from the gas station where I purchased it).

I was not feeling at all energetic as we stood around waiting for the race to start. It was a late (8:30) start, and I could already feel the heat from the sun. Things did not improve once I started running. The first couple of miles weren’t completely miserable. My legs felt heavy, but my foot and knee felt fine and I thought I might start feeling better once I was warmed up.

I never did. After mile three, we started climbing and I just started feeling worse and worse. After the turn around at about mile 7.5, it was down hill for a little while. Mentally, I was having a hard time. I was hot, exhausted and frustrated. I considered stopping several times. I couldn’t imagine running any slower and my pride was keeping me from slowing down. Eventually, exhaustion overtook pride and I slowed down. After slowing down, I had bouts of not feeling like death. Around mile 11, there was a long, shaded down hill stretch. I actually passed somebody. That didn’t come close to making up for the dozens of people who had been passing me for the last 6 miles, but hey, it was something.

I could see one person in front of me. For the last three miles, I was trying not to let him get further ahead of me. I was just willing myself to keep moving, and not slow down too much. As I turned from the road back into the high school parking lot, I thought I was almost there. I looked at my Garmin and realized that I still had almost a half mile to go. I also realized that it was very unlikely that I would break two hours. The race finished with a lap around the track. It was miserable. I did not feel at all proud of my performance, and I didn’t like everybody seeing me struggle. Blechhh!

I was really frustrated and disappointed. My only goal for the race was to break two hours, but I never really imagined that I wouldn’t be able to do it. It just seems like if my problem is that I got out of shape, I should be seeing some improvement now that I am running consistently again, but I just seem to be doing worse.

Time: 2:01:04

Rob, me and Scott at the finish line

I ran this first half with my friend Scott who had also done a 50 miler two weeks before. We were both ok at the start although we perhaps went off a little fast. We had about 5 minutes of heavy rain which was actually pretty refreshing but the heat soon kicked in. At about half way through I could feel myself flagging so Scott headed off in front. I put my music on and pushed on through the bad patch. There are several other race distances including a 42k, 30k and 10k as well as walking races so there were always quite a few people around. I passed several people I have met at other races including Pete who I often see at the Coastal Series Events, and Russell who I had run part of the Pony Express with. Everyone I spoke to seemed to find the race pretty tough – I think its easy to under estimate the hills because whilst they are very gradual, you are almost always running up or down one!

In the end I came in at 4.58.44, 4th women, which I was pretty pleased with considering how I felt whilst running it. Scott came in at 4.48. Another friend Rob Tanner (who is running 12 marathons in 12 months for the Make a Wish Foundation) finished the marathon in 4.20 as well as Jacqui, a fellow Westbourne Runner. Excitingly, I’ve now broken the 300 mile mark and am 311 miles into my 600 mile charity challenge. I’ll be tapering a fair bit now before my biggest race yet – the 200 mile Transalpine Race starting on the 1st September, eeeeek!

This is a race report for my second triathlon event, a sprint distance. It consisted of a 500m open water swim, a 30km ride, and a 5km run. It takes place entirely within the US Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. It is located just North of San Diego – a known hotbed of age group triathlon activity.

I am a 49 year old new to triathlons. I was a competitive swimmer 30 years ago, I’ve cycled on and off for about 5 years, and I am new-ish to running. This is the first sprint distance triathlon for me. I have been training for triathlons for about 8 months now. I felt pretty good going into this one. Since my last humbling experience at my first triathlon race, I have focused on open water/wetsuit swimming and especially speed and endurance with running. I’ve actually come to enjoy running in the process.

Camp Pendleton is a Marine Corp Base that hosts a number of events open to both the general public as well as encouraging the military members to participate. It was a very well organized event (based on my vast experience) with plenty of assigned, uniformed “volunteers” throughout the course.

PREPARATION: As mentioned, my emphasis has been on getting accustomed to swimming in the open water with a wetsuit. There is a local beach 3-4 miles form my house, and so there really was no excuse not to get in occasionally and swim. There always seemed to be others out there with the same idea. The water in Southern California is typically about 66-67 degrees in the summer. A good temperature for a wetsuit. Still a bit brisk on entry, but feels good as you warm up. You never feel overheated though.

I’ve done more running, and smarter running, I think. I have balanced longer runs of 11-13 miles, with tempo runs around the neighborhood. One lap around the block is almost exactly 3 miles, with no stop light or need to stop. I’d usually do 6-7 miles at a faster face with the goal of negative splitting those two laps. My focus on both types of runs has been form (cat-like, non-traumatic, mid-foot landing running) and higher cadence. I typically train with headphones listening to “Podrunner”, a free podcast that sets a specific cadence rate. I don’t run with any cadence slower than 176 now. That music forces you to keep going, when it might be tempting to slow down otherwise. Regular music, regardless of the genre, changes bpm all over the place and is inconsistent for this training purpose.Also new and different, I have done a bit of plyometrics and core strengthening such as with planks and some dynamic warm-up and stretching. I have not done weights or specific strengthening exercises sorry to say.

Overall, my training during the month of July is way down compared to months previous. I have had important family and business obligations that have taken priority. It has been frustrating, but that how it goes. This sprint event was not a huge priority and so my only “taper” was staying away from the longer distance running for several days prior.

OBJECTIVE: My first goal was to redeem myself from the awful, panicky, anxious-ridden swim I had at my first triathlon. My overall goal was to place in my age group. (Ha!. Little did I know how competitive my age group would be).

The Transition area is a good distance from the water. This view shows about 1/3 of the transition area.

THE SWIM (500 m): Success. A swim redemption. Of the 72 men in my age group in my swim start wave, I came out the water first!. Overall, by split times 18th/934. I am very pleased with that. I started off reminding myself that it was just going to be a warmup for the rest of the race. I had done a bit of a warmup in the water beforehand, got a feel for the side current, and simply found a comfortable pace during the swim. Everything about it was just right – no racing heart rate, no constriction around the chest like last time. I wish it were a longer swim, I could have used a better time advantage for the rest of the race.

First of my wave out of the water.

T1 TRANSITION (T1 time: 2:00 – a little sluggish): TT1 and T2 transition were located in the Amphibious Assault Craft Landing Zone service area. There was a long run up the beach to the this area. T1 was pretty unremarkable. I drape a towel over my handlebars to help me find my bike. I quickly use it to dry my face a hair. Glasses, helmet, Talcum powder, then Shoes, and then a run up to the mounting area. I did not use arm warmer sleeves this time – really didn’t need them. I did place my gloved over the padded forearm rests on my aerobars. I could take off riding and then slip them on later. Maybe in retrospect, I didn’t need the quick pour of talc, but I do want to smell fresh when I compete!

T1 transition. Went pretty smooth for me, unlike one of the younger competitors here.

THE BIKE (30km => 22.2mph ave. Time: 51:59): This was not a particularly challenging bike course. I was in the seventh wave behind younger competitors, and so there were plenty out there ahead of me. The ride was an open course, but there were very few cars out on the Marine Base this early on a Saturday. Overall there was a gradual climb going out to about 260 ft elevation and a nice overall decline coming back. There were a fill mild hills interspersed and just a few opportunities to get out of the saddle. There were some really fast riders that passed me like I couldn’t believe. These were probably the “mid-life guys” in my age group. They smoked me. Overall, it was my fastest ride. Prior to this, I could never really break the 20mph barrier. On this ride (no drafting, of course) I averaged 22.2 mph. I am really happy with that. I was watching my heart rate and although I was faster in the second half (downhill, mind you), my heart rate gradually declined as well, and I felt comfortable. I tried to save a little something for the run. Overall, I drank 12 oz. of Cytomax. I did not take any gel or other supplement.

The bike leg. Out and back. A fast, non-technical course.

T2 TRANSITION (1:10): This could have been a little faster had I not started running in the wrong direction out of T2. Nothing to see here otherwise. Elastic speed laces on the shoes – a nice touch. I forgot to take off my bike gloves. Oops. I run with an 8 oz. hand-held runners water bottle. Clipped onto that is my Polar HR monitor. I also clipped on a small electronic metronome to the back of my hat. It was preset to 178 beats/minute in a high-low tone double beat (“CHIP-CHIRP-CHIP-CHIRP…)

THE RUN (5km => 6:49 ave. mile pace (via GPS). Time: 20:31): With the metronome chirping, I am sure I was the most annoying runner out there. Too bad. I kept a robotic178 steps per minute without any faltering or change. This obsession with cadence has been a huge factor, I believe, in the improvement in my running. Although it is not a direct comparison, the average pace for my Olympic triathlon 10km was 8:06/mile ( It was a hilly course and a longer distance ) but this time my splits were 7:13, 6:50, and 6:16. I am really pleased with the improvement in the run. All self-coached. I was not passed on the run except by maybe one or two others. I drank maybe 2 oz. of fluids. No gels or supplements.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT/RESULTS (68TH PLACE OUT OF 934 COMPETITORS): I would not change a thing. I improved where I focused my training. I felt good throughout the race. The swim was a real confidence booster. The sprint distance is suited to my presumed fast-twitch psychological makeup. I was a sprinter swimmer long ago. There’s lot’s of room for improvement, but overall a success. I did not place in my age group. In fact I finished 11th in my wave/group. If I had competed in the 35-39 yr. age group, I would have place first! There were simply some really fast cyclists and runners with more endurance, strength and speed. I’m still waiting for the individual splits to be posted. That will be interesting. I did a little lurking about and looked up the first place finisher in my group, a one Rusty Robertson. He has done about 60 races over the years! And fast, too. I can’t quite expect to compete with that king of experience and training. Not yet. I’ve got to earn it.

I took in only about 14 oz of fluid (Cytomax) during the event. I really didn’t feel thirsty or bonk-y throughout. I think that when my heart rate is sustained that high, food or calories will not sit well or be digested well in the stomach. The reality is that for a sprint event, there should be enough available glycogen that extra calories are not necessary. The weather was overcast and cool (about 69 degrees F) – same a water temperature. There was little visible sweating noticeable so fluid loss in this instance was not significant.

THE VENUE: As mentioned, it took place within Camp Pendleton. T1 and T2 took place at a “landing pad” for the hovercraft assault craft. These are massive pieces of machinery, and it is pretty cool to be able to walk up on them and see them up close. Coming out of the transitions there is a climb up this long concrete ramp and it really gets the heart rate up at the beginning of the bike and the run. I found it took me a while to get my HR back to desired rates on the bike after the long run off the beach and this climb up the ramp. I look forward to competing again next year.

That’s me on the right.

Amphibious Assault Craft. One of many scattered all about the grounds.

I wish to thank the Marines who “volunteered” their Saturday morning to marshal the course and offer drinks along the ride and run. Hoo-Rah!

Right after the finish. Did I really run with that guy on my shoulder the entire time?

Thanks guys.

I began aspiring to upgrade to the Expert ability category in mountain bike racing after my first Sport Race in 1999. Yes, that’s correct; I have been trapped here in Sport for 13 years in a kind of fat-tire purgatory beset upon me as punishment for not training during the winter, and not finding time in the summer to race frequently.  I came in to 2012 season with zero points, having had an unmotivated training and racing year in 2011.  I was starting from scratch.  Now maybe you are thinking that someone with 13 years of racing experience should have learned enough tricks and techniques to give him a racing advantage. Well, sure, I have learned a few things…..for instance I have become more aware that bones break, and more and more I concern myself with the fact that men in their 40s have heart attacks; I have learned that when part of a race course is technical enough that the organizer provides a go-around option, I should probably take the go-around; and I have learned that heavy bikes don’t break as frequently as light bikes, and cost less to repair. Believe me; this knowledge has not made me faster—at least not relative to the youthful daredevil competition riding five thousand dollar bikes.  Whatever I have learned that might be a racing advantage is certainly cancelled out by my relative age. Even 13 years ago, I was older than most of the young cyclists I line up with now in the Sport category.  Many are recent upgrades from Novice.  Twenty-somethings that attack the downhills as if, in fact, bones don’t break, and bikes don’t crash. And they attack right off starting line, as if taking their heart rate from 60 to 215 beats per minute (bpm) in less than 60 seconds poses no risk or discomfort what so ever.

I am pretty sure that if my heart rate has ever gone to 215 bpm, that it was only once, and it was during a foot race against my best friend and rival, Richie Fairholm, in grade 2.  The girls in our grade had just voted Richie both the cutest boy in our grade, and also the fastest.  I was quick to protest the validity of this declaration, and since I couldn’t think of a more objective way to measure cuteness than to put it to a vote, I focused my arguments on speed, and quickly organized a foot race between Richie Fairholm and myself to objectively measure who was the fastest. I ran like I had never run before. I trounced him irrefutably with the whole class assembled to witness it.  “Fine” said the girls of grade two, “but Richie is still the cutest”. That was ok with me, and I went home that afternoon proud of my accomplishment, and quite satisfied that some small wrong had been corrected.  The next day, the girls of grade two voted Richie Fairholm to be the fastest boy in our grade, again. I was a big fan of The Peanuts cartoon specials in those days, and it struck me then how much the life of Charlie Brown and my own life had in common.  “GOOD GRIEF!” I thought to myself, helplessly.  Ever since then, being fast has been important to me, while my faith in democracy and my tolerance of 8-year-old school girls, has remained somewhat strained.

And, so, to the point of this report, I did it.  After thirteen years in Sport, I have upgraded to Expert. No, the ABA did not assemble a bunch of 8-year-old girls to put it to a vote; I earned my final 10 points in Sport this weekend, to total 40.  It was at the Perogy  XC mountain bike race put on by Pedalhead Bicycleworks in Edmonton, and to get my 10 points I had to finish no worst than 4^th place against some of the fastest mediocre mountain bikers in Alberta.  Those of you who follow my blogs (Mom) may remember that I had a particularly rough day at this race last year.  It was hot, and I suffered and came close to quitting.  So when the long-range forecast predicted plus 30 °C temperatures for race-day this year, I started drinking (water this time, not beer).  I got some advice from Coach Stefan (from Next Stop Kona) who encouraged me to include complex carbohydrates in my waterbottles during the race; and to be double-sure, I also included some orange juice, a spoon full of sugar, and a quarter teaspoon of salt.  I coaxed Shari to work for me in the feed zone where she managed two coolers; one full of ice and bottles of my elixir concoction, and the other full of ice and bottles of pure refreshing water for dumping on my head and down my back to keep me cool. I was ready for the heat.

I had a great start, and was the third rider into the single track off the start.  I was quickly passed in the feed zone and relegated to fourth.  I attacked on the series of three big climbs and regained third, only to be passed at the bottom of the decent by a slew of riders, and relegated down to 8^th by about half way through the first lap.  There was still some climbing left in the lap though, and by the time I was back through start finish to begin my second lap, I had moved back up to 7^th.  My first feed came early in the second lap where Shari was vigilant in the feed zone, holding up a choice of my miracle elixir or water.  I had not had much time to drink, so my bottle of elixir was still full, I called for the water, but with only one bottle cage, what to do? The feed zone ended with a steep drop where I needed both hands, so I quickly tucked the bottle down the front of my jersey like a busty waitress might do with a 5-dollar tip.  Sexy, I know! Then, when I could manage some one-handed cycling, I dumped the sweet cool essence of life over my head, and felt immediately refreshed.  Again I attacked on the series of three big climbs, and worked my way into 5^th; with 4th (Jason Redfern, Pedalhead) in sight, and 6^th place (Brendan Romano, Mud Sweat and Gears) gaining on me.

Back through start/finish and the feed zone for the last time with 6^th place about 5 bike-lengths back, Shari was ready with two more bottles but I could see right away that they were both my elixir.  I have a water bottle system, mixed liquids in clear bottles, and water in opaque (problem is I never told Shari about the system). As I called for water, she dropped one of the elixir bottles, and picked up a bottle of water—perfect. When I reached her, I dropped the spent bottle from by bottle cage at her feet and in one smooth and practiced motion grabbed the bottle of water from her hand and placed it securely in the cage. Now this is where things became less smooth, and less practiced; as I raised my head to look her in the eyes and smile gratefully, she took the remaining bottle of elixir she was holding, which she thought was water, and sprayed me right in the face.  Still pedaling forward, I was momentarily blinded (although gratefully refreshed), I reached up to grab the elixir bottle from her.  Intent on her plan to spray me, she was reluctant to let go, and the ensuing brief wrestling match caused me to nearly take out most of the feed zone.  By the time I had relived Shari of the bottle and stuffed it down my low-cut cycling blouse to get two hands back on my handlebar, 6^th was a half wheel behind me. “Good Grief!”  Luckily, the elixir in the face worked to refresh me, and I rode the tight singletrack that came after the feed zone with some enthusiasm, and managed to put a nice 50-meter gap into 6^th before the trail widened again.  This was to no avail however, because I took the widening trail as an opportunity to dump my bottle of water over my head, discard the empty bottle, and fish out the bottle of elixir that was working its way down out the bottom of my jersey; and though I negotiated this task to completion without loosing any speed, just before my right hand returned to its prudent position on my handlebar, the end of my handlebar caught a small shrub and turned my front wheel sharply 90 degrees to my direction of travel.  The laws of physics (objects in motion and that sort of thing) took control immediately and I launched headlong over the handlebars. I managed to get to my feet in time to pull my bike off the trail and let 6^th place go by, now 5^th.  “Good Grief!” This was not going to get me the points I needed to upgrade! Nothing short of a 4^th place finish would suffice.

After a quick check to make sure there was no damage to the bike (borrowed from Shari), I jumped back on and got to work. I descended to the foot of the first big climb of the lap taking a few more risks than the previous lap, hoping to catch site of the racer in front of me.  At the foot of the climb I could see he was close, and that he was passing the 4^th place rider.  Again I attacked on the climbs, and emerged at the top in 4^th place.  The final climbs to finish the last lap were hard, but I knew they would be hard for the racers behind me as well.  As the course opened up and flattened out near the start finish, I hammered hard for the line, glancing back over my shoulder to ensure that glory could not be snatched from me.  As I crossed the line, I was not raised aloft on the wings of glory or swept away in a wave of pride at my achievement.  Instead, I felt the heaviness of well-earned fatigue, and heard a quiet, apathetic voice in my head speak clearly, providing perspective; “Today you set out to reach for the height of your cycling achievement and you did it, you actually did it Charlie Brown…….. you finished fourth.

So what was the big difference between this year and last year? Well, I trained pretty hard last winter, so I might be in better shape, though mostly I have not trained since early May, so maybe not.  The big difference was probably having Shari in the feed zone, encouraging me, letting me know where I was at in the race, and hosing me down with a solution of salty fruit juice and complex carbohydrates. I highly recommend it.  Full results can be inspected here.

The Photos from Stars and Stripes Marathon (Or in my case, Ultra!!!) are taken by Leyla Duechle of Leyla Duechle Photography. Thanks for coming out to take our pictures and cheering for us while you did.

The Photo from the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon is taken by Steve Walters…while he was running a marathon in 3:46! Now that’s talent.

Stars and Stripes Marathon

On Sunday, July 1, I woke up early to drive down to Beaverton so I could register to run a marathon. I went back and forth about whether I should run the full or half, but eventually decided to run the full (as if there was really a decision to make). I want to run double marathons next year and thought running 2 in 4 days would be a good test for how that might feel. Steve Walters hosts the Stars and Stripes Marathon and Half (he also hosts the Cook Park Marathon and Half the day before) and he always puts on a great, small race that attracts a low-key, fun crowd, so I knew this would be a good time.

Here’s some of the new crew I am hanging with (can you find me? I’m not the only tall woman here):

^I’m one of them now. Some days I wonder how I got to this point in my life. But, as they say, life is a journey. After much floundering around, I have assurance in God’s love for me, a family of my own, a good job, and a crazy fun running hobby. I’m happy with where I am right now.

The race started with some directions I could (this was a lap course) and couldn’t hear (this would come back to haunt me) in a nice mist of rain. Aaah! It felt so good. After Boston and Vancouver this year, it was nice to not run in the hot sun. I was chatting with my friend Howard who was running his second marathon in two days to join the Maniacs. And then we were off!

I had my ipod with me for this race. It was the first race I have ever run with an ipod. I enjoyed running to some nice music. It was just a relaxing Sunday morning run. And maybe I was too relaxed because I got really confused about which arrow to follow on the course and ended up getting all turned around. Eventually I realized (after I ended up back at the road crossing before the turn around) I had gone the wrong way. I panicked a little bit, but found some nice walkers who let me walk with them back to the start. Here I am with 50 stater, Maniac Frank, who has done every marathon in the US at least once (or it seemed that way to me):

Thanks for walking with me and telling me about your crazy adventures that made me not feel so bad about getting turned around on the course.

I checked in at the aid station and asked how long the loops were. They were four miles. I had gone six. I felt discouraged. How had I let myself get so turned around I ran 2 extra miles?! Oh well. There was no use crying or getting upset about it because it was already done. I just needed to keep going. After taking a quick snack, water, and porta potty break, I knew I had time to make up from walking and doing those extra miles, so I took off.

I spent the next 5 laps making up time. I actually felt pretty good. Towards the end, my legs and hips hurt, but that’s pretty normal for a marathon.

As I came in from the 6th lap, I was so ready to be done. I had already gone 26 miles. But, if I wanted to finish the course fair and square, I had to go back out for a final 2.2 mile out and back. That short 7th lap did me in. My right knee was hurting. I was tired. I took a short walk break. And then I ran in to the finish. 2nd woman. 4:17 finish time. Personal Worst for the marathon or Personal Best for 28.2 miles. It’s all how you look at it. I got my medal and poured Gatorade and water down my throat before hobbling to my car to text my husband and my mom that I had survived.

I wish I could have stayed longer at the end of the race and hung out and met people, but I actually felt pretty bad and needed to get moving so I could exchange the defective Garmin for a new one at REI and pick up my race packet for the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon. I was able to cheer a couple of the runners in to the finish and watch Howard head out for another lap. He was hurting bad, but still going. He finished later and became a Maniac with 4 stars. Very inspirational.

Foot Traffic Flat Marathon

My right knee hurt a little more than usual after a marathon. It’s normal for my legs to hurt for a day or two after a marathon. I’m pretty sure everyone hurts. I briefly considered not running on Wednesday and my mom kept reminding me that I have the Haulin’ Aspen Marathon in August so I needed to be careful and drop if I needed to, but by Tuesday I was feeling a little better and my knee didn’t hurt so much, so I got all my stuff ready and woke up at 4 AM Wednesday morning to get ready for the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon.

I had my pink, white, and blue outfit on and was out the door by 4:45. I was on the island by 5:30, which was perfect because after that, people had to wait a long time to get to a parking spot. I would have taken one of the shuttles this year, but they were full by the time I signed up. I think there has to be a way to improve traffic flow on to Sauvie Island for this race because we started half an hour late and there was still a huge line up of cars waiting to get to a parking spot after we started. I’m not sure how to improve it though. More shuttles? Open up both lanes for incoming traffic?

We started half an hour late, which gave me time to stand around shivering and talking to other runners. And time to have to go to the bathroom again. I don’t like starting races with a full bladder. I found a porta potty at mile 2 and picked up the pace. I was cruising along for the first 10 miles, hitting splits mostly under or around 8 minute miles. I planned on running a 3:40 marathon, but briefly wondered if I could do better. During the beginning, I was on pace to do better. Except my knee hurt. Bah! I decided to not force anything and just run by feel.

And I felt okay. Around mile 13, I took a quick quarter mile walk break before and through an aid station, but then I kept going. The transition from walk to run is so weird. It felt better to run than walk, so I mostly ran the rest of the course. Except I literally stopped at the mile 16 aid station and drank a bunch of nuun (I loved that they had nuun as the course beverage) and choked down a really weird energy gel that tasted pretty gross and looked like thick fruit jam. I stood behind the aid station table just drinking. The weather was in the 50s, but the sun was out and I was thirsty for some reason. I’m a huge believer in drinking more if I am thirsty. Thirst is a great indicator you should drink!

I took a walk break up the one little hill on the course. The hill was a new addition to the flat course. I liked it.

Here I am running back down the hill:

^I started in gloves and arm warmers. I stashed my arm warmers through the back of my skirt, but kept my gloves in my sports bra. That was a bad idea. They caused some chafing.

I think this hill is around mile 17. I’m not sure. I can never remember these details. I ran the rest of the way in the vicinity of a nice woman. She would always get ahead of me at the aid stations when I stopped to drink and eat, but I would catch up to her. I found out she was running a marathon in Vermont on Sunday. She hadn’t done marathons so close together either. I told her how I felt and wished her luck.

I was also looking for my co-worker friend who was walking the half marathon. I was passing all these walkers, but I never saw her. For a while I thought something had come up and she wasn’t able to get there, but I eventually saw her booking it in the last mile of the race.

I slowed considerably during miles 23 and 24, but was still running a high 8 or low 9 minute mile. My knee and hips were hurting pretty bad by this time. But the rest of me felt good still. During mile 25 some guys from Nuun were out yelling and growling at the runners. I growled back and said I was finding my inner honey badger. Ha!

I picked up the pace after the Red Lizard aid station in mile 25 as I got closer and closer to the finish. People were out cheering and this guy was ahead of me, picking up the pace too. I actually sprinted past him to the finishing chute. I’m not sure what possessed me to do that, but I did. The crowd loved it when they saw us coming. He gave me a high five and was cool about it. Finish time: 3:40:50.

I got a huge strawberry medal and drank a bunch of water, chatted with some maniacs, and cheered for my co-worker friend as she crossed the finish. I have to say that although I haven’t had Matt around for my races this summer, I haven’t felt that lonely. The maniacs are really friendly and my co-worker was at this race. One of my other co-worker friends and her husband came down to the finish of the Vancouver Marathon. So I’ve been driving myself to races, but it’s been okay. I don’t actually mind being alone either, although I will be happy when Matt is home to hold my jacket and kiss me at the finish line though.

I ate my strawberry shortcake, chatted and hung out a bit before buying myself a root beer and bag of salt and vinegar chips from the store at the finish line. mmmmmm. Then I went home to eat some more and nap. We went to a picnic at some of our church friends house and then came home to watch some fireworks.

Here I am with my two race medals:

I look tired because I am. Next 4th of July Holiday, I hope to be sporting multiple marathon medals again.

The Aftermath

I have now run 4 marathons and 1 ultra since April 16. I ran 2 marathons in 4 days. I was due for an overuse injury. And I got one. My right knee hurt in such a not normal after a race way that I went to see a sports medicine specialist on Friday. I called up on Friday morning and they had me in on Friday afternoon with a very nice PA. First I got X-rays and then I saw the PA. He diagnosed me right away: my hamstrings and hamstring tendons are irritated. They are not sprained or anything, but I need to RICE and am going to get an appointment with a PT next week so I can get a detailed plan for returning to running and strengthening and prevention.

I guess I finally got what was coming. Deep down I knew I probably wasn’t going to get away with all these marathons in a row for too much longer. I was relieved to find out my knee is fine and it is my hamstrings having the problem. And that it’s not a problem that is likely to keep me out long! Good news! Also, my knees look great. Which is great because it would have been embarrassing and incredibly ironic in a bad way to tell people I hurt my knee running marathons.

I am dropping down to the Haulin’ Aspen Half Marathon in August and will stay with my dad for the race. Which will be fun. We will keep a slow, steady pace and enjoy the trails.

Thanks for letting me share my experiences with you. I’m not writing this to get accolades. I’m writing this to let you know that if I can do these things, so can you! And if running isn’t your thing, then something else (as long as it’s legal and not hurting anyone). Go for it!

I enjoy reading about so many of your running and race experiences. It’s great to read about my fellow runners experiences. I have been encouraged or inspired to try so many things from reading blogs. I started out with one little 10K and ended up doing this. I know so many of you have had similar journeys and I love reading about them.

Keep running! Keep doing what you love!

Angie

After a taste of road racing during the Spring Series, I was keen to try out the real deal, and on Sunday June 24th I rode in my first ABA sanctioned road race. Actually, it felt like less of a race and more of a nice hard ride on a beautiful morning with some kindred-spirited cyclists, but that’s okay.  There were 7 women on the cat 3-4-5 start list when I signed up, but when I arrived at the line, there were only 5, including myself.  Within minutes of our very casual roll out, we were down to 4.  We had a nice 2-by-2 ride with some introductions and friendly chit- chat.  Around the 15k mark, my bladder was ready to burst (bad timing with the pre-race coffee) and I proposed a pee break.  Although I’d *heard* this wasn’t uncommon in large pelotons during lengthy races, no one else had ever heard of such a thing and some where a bit skeptical…”is this a trick?” Trina asked.  Finally, everyone was on board and we waved the commissaires past.  So much better!  And what a civilized way to ride a “race”!

Once we started up again, we continued on our fairly leisurely pace – to be fair, I sat in second wheel the whole time and it was fairly windy so perhaps it was not so leisurely for the girls at the front!  Once we turned onto Hwy 770 things picked up a little and the group reorganized (not that there are many ways to organize a group of 4, but whatever…).  We got to the hill and all stayed together on the down hill.  Trina led the uphill and I just tried to keep pace; when I looked back, I realized we’d gapped the other two.  Hooray!  I was glad it happened without really having to launch any kind of attack because it felt like too friendly a group for that!  Once we realized we had a good lead, Trina and I decided to work together to try and double the gap on the second uphill after the turn around.  It worked.  Again, she set the pace on the uphill and I followed suit.  This time it was considerably harder and if I’d been in the lead, I’d definitely have let up a bit, but I wasn’t going to let her gap me too!

At the top of the hill we started alternately pulling and taking turns breaking the pretty serious wind we were riding into.  The effort was considerably harder on the way home, but we were going much more slowly!  We kept checking to see if the other girls were on our heals, but all we could see was the commissaires car.  We hated to have them catch us after the big gap we’d made so we decided to ride a little harder.  When I thought we had about 8km left, I started to hammer it a little knowing I’d have a better chance at a long hard finish than at a short super-hard finish.  Then I had second thoughts and backed off….  Lame, I know, but after her performance on the hill, I was pretty sure she was quite a bit stronger than me.  Plus, we were just having a nice Sunday ride, right?  Just after that, we saw the “1000m” sign, but weren’t sure we’d read it right.  “Was that 10000m or 1000m?”  Neither of us knew!  I think she spotted the finish tent first and she started to turn things on.  I responded but couldn’t go as hard.  She flew over the finish line a few seconds before and we made a 1-2 finish.  Fun, but hardly as exciting as a cyclocross race.  Hopefully there will be more ladies and more action in the next race!

Lesley takes second in her debut road race. Next time, with a little killer instinct, we’ll see her on the top step!

It was another hot, humid morning in Charlottesville. The race started at 7:30, which felt late to me, as I’ve been waking up around 5  most mornings lately.

As we were walking from our car to pick up our numbers, there were several hot air balloons floating overhead.

Registration/packet pick-up was quick and easy.

Kurt and I went for a short jog down to the lake while we were waiting for the start. Not even a mile warm-up and I was already quite sweaty standing at the starting line. I could tell from our warm-up that it wasn’t going to be a good run for me. My legs were heavy and I was feeling pretty exhausted.

My legs were heavy, but I still felt OK (not great, but not horrible either) when I hit the first mile in 7:49. For a hot, muggy day, that’s pretty much what I figured my first mile split would be, then I figured I would pick up the pace to about 7:30 for the last two miles.

That, however, is not what happened. There was a short out-and-back with water at the turnaround at about the halfway point. Going down the hill to the turnaround, I started to get a side stitch. Then, after pouring a (warm!?) cup of water on my face, I started running back up the hill. Slowly my side-stitch got better, but I started feeling more and more fatigued.

As I passed the second mile mark, the volunteer called out 16 something. I didn’t hear my exact time, but this is the point where I slowed down considerably. There was a short hill and I stopped halfway and walked to the top. More than a dozen people passed me.

I started jogging again. It felt like I was slogging through quicksand. More and more people passed me. When I could finally see the finish line, I tried to pick up the pace, but each time I did, I felt like I was going to vomit.

I crossed the finish line and was concentrating on trying not to puke, so I did not tear the number off of my bib. This seemed to annoy Mark Lorenzoni. After a volunteer had to tear my number off for me, he called out “Tear off your numbers!”.

After the race, there was plenty of ice-cold water, Propel, fresh fruit and bagels.

Several young ladies (I didn’t hear who they were) sang the National Anthem and a few other patriotic songs.

The race host was giving out door prizes. Just as I was taking this picture, he called my number.

I won a $25 dollar gift card to Belk. I told my husband it was my consolation prize for running such a horrible race. He didn’t seem to find that amusing, but winning the prize did make me feel a little better, so it worked just fine as a consolation prize.

I’m not sure why I’m running so slowly lately. It doesn’t make sense to me that I’m running 5ks slower than I’m used to running half marathons. I’ve been wondering if maybe my iron is low. Whatever it is, it’s frustrating.

My own disappointing performance aside, this was a very cool 4th of July event. There were many families running, and lots of patriotic attire.

Time: 26:24 (That is an 8:31 pace, which is 30 seconds slower than my fastest half marathon pace. I really shouldn’t be running 5ks slower than half marathon pace, even on a hot day.)

Splits: 7:49, 8:15, 9:23 (I would say that I did a bad job pacing myself, but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t have been able to keep up at least a 7:49 pace. I didn’t go out too fast.)

Placement:
96th out of 246 finishers
30th out of 119 women
6th out of 20 in my age group

Course: B
The course follows the roads and trails in the Forest Lakes subdivision. I used to live there, so I enjoyed running in my old neighborhood.

Organization: B
It wasn’t very clear where we were supposed to park, and we ended up parking behind the shopping center. It wasn’t a big deal. I was happy that there were port-a-johns.

T-Shirt: D
Ugly and cotton, but I’m giving it a slightly higher grade than the T-shirt at the Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon, because it’s at least comfortable, so I can wear it to sleep in.

Finishers Medal/Schwag/Prizes: B
No finishers medal for 5ks. Each participant got a coupon for 20% off shoes and 15% off clothing at Ragged Mountain Running Shop. They gave out door prizes, which I thought was very cool. My grade for this category is not entirely fair, as I did not stay for the awards ceremony and don’t actually know what the prizes were.

Food: B
Oranges, bananas, watermelon and bagels. I’m pretty sure the Bagels were yesterday’s Bodos bagels, which are still much better than today’s grocery store bagels. The watermelon was sliced and packed in a cooler full of ice. It was absolutely the most perfect food for a hot 4th of July race.

Lenka signed me up for a sprint triathlon race and left Canada. It seems that she finally got the idea how an ideal family weekend looks like. For me it was a perfect opportunity to dust off my wetsuit and other triathlon gear for the Great White North and to try transitions for real. I was also testing my new waterproof Garmin 310XT so I got for the first time data from my swimming.

How the author carb-loads while his wife is away.

It was one of the most relaxed race days I’ve ever experienced as the race took place close to my place, there were no big line-ups for signing up and the transition zone was open all the time. As a result, there was a lot of time to get ready not to mention that it was a short race. Also thanks to Anthony who keep me a company the whole day. The weather wasn’t bad (it stopped raining 2 hours before the race and started again 1 hour after the race), but there was a strong wind that made the biking and also the running more challenging than I expected. Especially for the bike I was looking forward to the flattest time-trial ever but the wind changed it into something like a mountain bike effort. Also they had to change the route due to construction so the longest straight part was about 300 meters and the rest was a criterium-like cornering.

I was happy about my swim time under 12 minutes on a reasonable effort. As I said the bike was not so pleasant for me. On a positive note, it kept me from going crazy as usual and as a result I had a nice run afterwards. In the run I missed my goal pace 4min/km just by a couple seconds. Oh well, I will get it in the Great White North J I just have to keep my heart rate on that average 205bpm for a little longer (that what my Garmin showed me but I think my monitor slipped from my chest and took some beats from my stomach too. Or I should go easy on coffee…)

Anyway, the race reminded me how much fun triathlon is and I am looking forward to the next weekend.

Results here:

Keegan Machine Brooks

Podium, Oh Yeah!

Bronze Cupcake!

I on the other hand did not have such an impressive day. After the first lap with the pace car, I felt like I was in great position in the pack, fairly near the front. Kept with it for about 3/4 of the next lap and some guys made a move just before the last corner. I stood up on the cranks to go and felt my right pedal collapse under me. I slowed up immediately and figuratively limped into the start area. From the looks of it, my pedal had somehow loosened itself to the point where only half of the threads were still in the cranks, and when I put significant pressure on it, the threads sheared. I couldn’t even loosen it with my hand so I knew I was out. Really bummed out about it, especially so early in the race. I was itching to still be involved.

Jan says the fact that Keegan finished a race without a mechanical means that he has transferred his bad luck. Unfortunately, my bike was close to his for a good portion of the day and Jan thinks my bike now has Keegan’s bad luck. Great.

So off I went home to see if I could fix the bike for the road race on Sunday. On hindsight I should have stopped to watch the bike biathlon. It sounds like Lesley is a sharpshooter!

I used some WD40 to and a wrench to loosen the pedal, but the threads were shot. I couldn’t get the pedal threads started at all. I ended up taking an old pedal and removing the axle. I ground off the part that you would normally tighten against the crank so that it was narrower than the threads. Then I was able to insert it from the back of the crank and tighten it right through the wrecked threads from the other side. Luckily it worked, it seemed to clean out the wonky threads and I was able to insert the pedal back in. I used a bit of plumbing tape this time to make sure it wouldn’t come loose again.

I was really hoping for better things in the road race on Sunday. Again, bad day for me, but a good day for the team! Lesley pulled out a second place in the woman’s category. (see pic).  I didn’t see much of Stefan, the only time I saw him, he was leading the charge in the cat 1/2 group when I was on my way back.

I really don’t know what happened in the road race, but the end result was me getting dropped very early and (not) enjoying and very lengthy, lonely ride complete with headwind. I got dropped so early that I was out of the race before I had even gone to bed the night before.

Ah, It all happened so fast…. I was mid pack for the first couple of km, then the group hit the first corner and everybody took off. I pulled back to the peloton and was probably one of the last 4 or 5 riders. We hit another corner and again, everybody took off. I think I hesitated a bit, and before I knew it, I found myself back from the group. I knew if I fell off, I would never get back on again so I pushed as hard as I could and it seemed like I was 10 feet behind the last wheel forever. I wasn’t getting any further away, but I wasn’t getting any closer either. All the while I knew I couldn’t sustain the pace I was at and I just blew up. Looking back at my stats, I actually hit 197 on the HRM, so at least I can tell myself I tried, I just didn’t have it that day. I was very frustrated and disappointed. We weren’t even 10 km into the race and I was already done. Especially after my early exit from the race the day before. I thought about just heading back actually. But it was a nice day for a ride so off I went on my own, sadly watching the peloton get further and further away. It was pretty uneventful for the rest of the way. I really didn’t see anyone until close to the turnaround when I saw the guys heading back. Keegan was awesome enough to shout some encouragement. It looked like the main group blew up pretty good on the big hill just before the turnaround.

Coming back, I came across another Cat 5 rider, about 25 km from the finish. As I approached him I had visions of me trying to pass him and him latching on to my wheel resulting in a cat and mouse game of chase all the way to the finish line where we would have a sprint for last place glory in front of hundreds of cheering fans. But as I went by, I could tell he was as po’d about being at the back more than I was and he was in no mood for fun and games. So off I went by myself into the loneliness and crossed the finish line by myself and there were no fans, cheering, booing or otherwise. In fact, I think the finish line monitors had gone for coffee. I stopped to wave at the camera and held up my race number and UCI licence just to make sure they saw that I finished and so they wouldn’t have to send a search party out looking for me.

I keep replaying the day and wondering what I could have done differently. One, um, train harder this winter? Two, from a strategy perspective, probably a good lesson to try and keep in the middle or front of the pack to provide some buffer. After the first corner I worked really hard to get back on the next wheel and pulled a bunch of people along with me. If I had let up a bit and let a couple go by, I might have had a bit of break to recover. But as it stood, by the time I had to chase after the second corner I was already in need of some recovery and couldn’t sustain it.

Was very disappointed with road race as well, and the weekend in general. Those are the breaks I guess! Learn and move on. Still nice to be on a bike in the sun with some good people. All in fun.

The winner of the race Dan Wood (ERTC), actually crashed and had some intense road rash on his right thigh and shoulder. After he crashed (~6 laps to go), he managed to get back and win the race! This was pretty impressive!

The next morning at 9 am we started for our 127 km ride and the weather was quite windy but beautiful. At about 10 km into the race there was an attack, initiated by Josh I believe, and a few other riders and me followed. This was when I felt that my legs were still torched up from the crit the night before. We eventually got caught and I was afraid I won’t play a big role today since my legs felt pretty empty. After about 10 more kilometres, Josh launched another attack while we were having cross-winds. The attack was perfectly set and again, a few other riders and me were back in the break. We really were working very hard together for the first kilometres and then managed to find a rhythm that worked for everyone in the break. It was great riding with these guys and we were increasing our lead. At some point we also collected a Velocity guy, who took off sometime after our first attack and stayed away till then. He managed to hang on when we were passing him and also started working with us. At the turnaround we could see our gap and it was quite impressive! Our group got motivated right away and sped up again. With about 30 km to go, quite a few hard attacks were launched just for 100 metres or so to shake off people. And guess what, Dan Wood, the guy who left quite some skin on Athabasca Ave in Devon was attacking and eventually made it first into the finish! What a performance! When he was off the front, more short attacks were launched and we kept on losing people until it was only Josh, me and Brian from Velocity. At that point my tank was pretty empty and I switched into damage control mode. During the last 2 km we were going quite slow since no one wanted to start sprinting too early. I took a look behind me and could see the pack was getting closer. This time though, they wouldn’t get us. In the end Brian had the best legs of the three of us, and Josh and I tied for 3rd place (on the results), although he actually won (see picture below).

In case you are interested here is another picture below of how different a criterium looks like when compared to a road race:

 In conclusion an amazing weekend of road racing!!

Cheers,

Stefan

P.S. Thanks to Sanja for feeding me, and to Corey from ERTC for giving Sanja a ride to the feed zones and back since the feed zone were 35 km away from the start!

Going in to half marathon #4, lots of things were stacked against me feeling pumped up about the race:

• My last half was an awesome experience. Seriously, I am still smiling about it. How can you beat a beautiful course and running with your best friend? You just can’t. There will be other great races, but that one will be hard to oust from the top spot.
• The course was very hilly. Super hilly. Normally, I try to get in some long runs on a moderately hilly park path, but in the interest of kicking my tendinitis out the door I ran less miles in the weeks since my last half at the end of May and they were all on pancake flat terrain. It helped my ankle heal, but didn’t do my atrophied “hill prowess” any favors.
• A June 17th race date meant higher temps than I had ever raced in before. It actually turned out to not be in the 90s as predicted, but the high 70s with over 65% humidity felt a little harder to tackle in terms of maintaining any kind of speed.
• Let’s just mention that humidity again. Yes, I was super grateful the weather was mostly overcast but the few sprinkles we got just added to the soupy air quality. Blech.
• Anemia. This was the surprise guest to the party. I had a random physical for purposes of health insurance rates. While all the rest of my numbers were stellar, all of my iron/red blood cell counts were tanked. I am glad to know that, in my doctors words, I shouldn’t even have been able to run my last race with these numbers let alone this second half marathon a few weeks later. Everything has felt “hard” for me the last year or so, but I kept convincing myself I just needed to train harder for it to feel easier. It’s good to know that is not the case. Not being able to get properly oxygenated has affected my performance and it wasn’t just a case of needing to HTFU (<–Harden The Eff Up, love that mantra my best friend shared with me). Hopefully when I get my iron back up to the proper levels I will see improvement that reflects my training efforts. But on Sunday? Not being able to breath with those killer hills and the crazy humidity was hard. Really hard. 

“My mama always said life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

And

“Shit happens.”

Let’s start with last week. I didn’t get much sleep. I was alone with just the little dogs. And they took turns being difficult. Going into a marathon sleep deprived isn’t ideal, but I knew I could make it work. By the time Friday rolled around I had my marathon packet and I was excited and ready to run.

I rested on Saturday and went to bed early, but some people down the street were having a party and cars kept coming and going. So much for that. I got at least 6 hours. I can survive on that.

I woke up early Sunday morning, ate my granola, and took the dogs out. Then I drove myself to the race and got a good parking spot. So good that later they blocked off the street and I wasn’t allowed to leave until after 2 PM. Ooops! My mom came to pick me up.

It was a warm, muggy morning. I was comfortable standing outside in my singlet and shorts. That should have clued me in to how this race was going to go, but I was optimistic. Even with the surprise bathroom visit before the start. I thought it was just nerves.

I started out right on target and ran 7:40 minute miles for the first five miles. Although it didn’t feel so easy. I’ve done this before. Last year I ran 7:40 minute miles all the way to mile 20.5, when I got stopped by a train for two minutes. It felt pretty easy then. It didn’t feel easy at all yesterday.

I grabbed some water and took a gel around mile 5, thinking it would make me feel better. It didn’t. I felt worse. Nauseous and gross. Yuck! I kept going, thinking I would run it off. I didn’t. I realized I might need to find a bathroom. I came to a real bathroom with running water and soap around mile 7.5. I was surprised to have diarrhea. You have got to be kidding me, I thought. Great. Well, once business was taken care of, I drank some gatorade and took another gel before setting off on my way.

I picked back up to goal pace, then stomach cramping and nausea hit me. I took some time to walk and think about how I felt. I could run back to town and call it a day or I could see how I felt. I definitely needed to get back to town though somehow. There wasn’t any medical support (except bicyclists with radios) out on the course. People would ask how I felt whenever I took walk breaks. “I’ll be okay,” was always my reply.

By the time I was back in town (around mile 14 or so), I felt a little better. I didn’t feel so nauseous anymore and was able to trot along and walk if I had to. I really wanted this finish because it would qualify me for the Marathon Maniacs.

It was hot and lonely where I was running. I saw a woman runner on the side of the road under a tree, walking. I asked if she was okay. She said she was, but was going to drop. After ascertaining whether she was sick or injured (no to both) I convinced her to keep running with me. J, as I will call her, agreed to come along and finish. She was way off her goal, but I assured her that I was way off my goal by now too and that others would be as well. It was too warm and humid for us. We just aren’t used to this weather.

J and I kept running and walking through the aid stations. She had a big smile on her face despite the fact that this was a rough run for her. We both agreed that it was hot and we were tired and thirsty and this was no way to feel when you still have a long ways left to go.

There is a big hill that starts in mile 19 and ends in mile 20. After we crossed the mile 20 sign and knew the rest of the course was only 10K, we both knew we had done it. We just had to make our way along the Columbia River and back into town. At the bottom of the hill, you cross some train tracks. Last year I got held up there for 2 minutes. This year I made it across, although I heard the train coming once we were on the other side. Missed it!

It was really warm and my mouth was perpetually dry. I was drinking two dixie cups of liquid at each aid station. At one aid station I drank three. My stomach was grumbling a little, but I didn’t have to make any stops. Whew!

At about mile 24, a wonderful man had turned on a hose and was sitting on his deck with his family, spraying water on the participants. It was wonderful and took me back to Boston, when many kind citizens made makeshift cooling stations for the participants. I would have liked to stand under the water for a while, but had to keep moving and share with the other runners.

J and I saw a dog splashing in the Columbia and thought that sounded like a wonderful idea. We discussed how great an ice cold beverage would be right now. We knew there were Jamba Juices waiting for us at the finish.

The last few miles hurt. I could tell a lot of people were hurting from the heat and humidity. We came on two women that had started around me. They were taking a walk break. We stopped and walked with them a ways, then kept running.

I looked at my watch and realized that if we kept it up, we would get a sub-4 finish.

We ran by a man and woman. This woman was apparently trying to qualify for Boston because her husband (or whoever he was) was running with her, yelling “motivating” things to her. I wanted to tell him to shut up. My husband would have been pushed over if he kept doing that to me in the last miles of a race, BQ or not. Just saying. We ran away from them.

Mile 26 includes a hill. I knew it was going to be there this year. Last year it surprised me. We took a walk break and then kept running. Like a horse that smells the barn, I picked it up and headed home. J was right behind me.

I crossed the finish line in 3:54 with an arm pump and a smile. Bart Yasso announced me! And then he announced J. She did it! We were both really happy and J was actually crying a little. I was really glad she decided to come with me and finish the race. It made me happy to see her smile with her finisher’s medal and say that her family was there, waiting for her.

I was happy to be done running! And be able to join the Maniacs! I drank a coconut water, two little Jamba Juices, and a gatorade. I didn’t have to pee until I got home, and when I did, it was orangey. I was so dehydrated. The finish area of this race is really nice. It’s in a shaded downtown park and it’s nice to sit and relax. I forced myself to choke down a slice of bread with peanut butter, then I went to call my mom. My parents were vacationing in Colorado with my daughter this past week and just got back that morning while I was running. I knew they were wondering how I did. And I needed a ride home since I was blocked in.

Lessons learned again:

1. You can train for a marathon, but you can’t choose what weather you will get on race day.

2. You don’t know what your body is going to do on race day either.

3. You can choose your attitude.

I didn’t have any idea what happened to me yesterday. I just fell apart. This morning I figured it out when I almost threw up in a meeting. I came home and have been laying around, feeling nauseous. No, there is not a bun in the oven. I think I have a stomach bug or yesterday did me in.

Good news from the race: I finished with a smile and I am now a Marathon Maniac!

This is two warm marathons in a row for me. I’m not racing a marathon until November. In Seattle. No way it will be warm there then. Until that time, I’m going to keep trotting along. In fact, in an attempt to raise my star level to silver, I’ll be trotting 26.2 miles (or almost 26.2 miles – I still think that course is short) around Sauvie Island on July 4!

I flew into Boise Thursday evening. I ran into Klas, Alex, and, and Karl on the plane. Good times!

The AZ boys are in town!

So, there were two main reasons I was looking forward to Boise:

The “Father vs. Son” show down, Part III–

Father was victorious at our first duel, Marquee 70.3 in 2011:

FYI: Dan isn’t really my dad, but he’s definitely old enough to be!

Round 1

Son was victorious at Ironman Coeur d’Alene:

Round 2

The #1 reason I wanted to visit Boise: Linsey.

As soon as I flew into Boise, I went to Shu’s Idaho Running Company to attend the Linsey’s Meet and Creep BBQ.

The Linsey Meet and Grill

We were ecstatic to see each other.

BFFs

Friday:  Kevin and I drove the bike course, checked in, and went for a quick ride and run. The weather was beautiful Friday –temperatures in the 70s and mostly clear skies. On race day, winds were expected to be 15-20 mph with a 60 percent chance of rain.  I endured some pretty bad hail, rain, and winds at Ironman Arizona 2010. I thought I was prepared for any kind of weather condition.

Course recon with Mirg

Race day: Ironman Boise is unique with its late race start. I woke up around 5:30am race morning, ate, went back to sleep, and then took my time getting ready. I left my hotel at 9:30 a.m. and arrived at Lucky Peak State Park around 10:15 a.m. By this time it was drizzling. Growing up in Seattle, I thought I was used to these conditions. I wore my Durapulse jacket over a hoodie, gloves, compression running tights, and a blanket to keep warm.

Lucky Peak on Friday – Blue skies!

Kevin’s wife dropped us off and we made a half mile trek uphill on a dirt path carrying our bikes to the transition area. Then, the conditions got increasingly worse.  The wind picked up, temperatures were in the low 40s, and the rain increased. After getting body marked and my bike set up, I still had close to 2.5 hours before my wave went off!  I didn’t start until 1 p.m!

Now, I’m the type of person who will train through just about anything.   I rarely make excuses and I consider myself a pretty tough guy.  I’m accustomed to training in 100+ degree temperatures (I actually like it) and I’ve also been in  some cold conditions. I thought I could handle anything.  Looking back, it’s this LONG wait before the race start that really took a lot out of me.

There were very few sheltered areas to keep dry. I hid underneath a tiny tree. My clothes started to get soaked. I could feel my body going numb… first my hands, then my toes and feet… then my legs. I got real cranky. I curled up in a ball and stared at the ground for an hour. They had “Wahhhmbulances” (shuttle buses) taking athletes back to the downtown area for those who decided to not compete.  I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of it if I bailed.  It was time to HTFU.  Everyone was dealing with the same weather conditions, so this was no time for excuses.

About an hour from race start, it was announced that the bike would be cut short to approximately 15 miles due to freezing rain, wind, and reports of snow on the bike course. I could hear all the disgruntled athletes around me.

Transition closed at 11:45 a.m. so I slowly made my way up to the lake. I tried giving myself many pep talks to “man up” and “stop being such a baby.”  I tried jogging, jumping up and down, yelling at myself to get pumped up, and doing pushups to get warm. Nothing worked. I was so miserable.  I ran into my friend Dusty. He was standing in the rain puddles because he thought the puddles were warmer than the concrete!

Then, I made one of the smartest moves of my triathlon career. I snuggled in a Porta John for 45 minutes for my wave to start. It allowed me recollect my thoughts, go over my race plan, eat my bagel, lube myself up with Vaseline, and warm up. Frankly, I’d sit in a warm, crap-smelling hut over being stuck in the freezing cold any day. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I think Boise 2012 will always be remembered for athletes riding in their wetsuits.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw pros riding off in their wetsuits.  Hilarious (and smart).

12:45 p.m. my wave was called.  I was so happy to finally start.  I stepped in the 55 degree water and it was like a hot tub. So refreshing!  The swim was a deep water start.  I spent a couple minutes floating on my back before the start, trying to get my body accustomed to the water temperature.  Soon, I was off!

The swim was a straightforward, triangle-shaped swim.  Being the last wave, I had to deal with some major course congestion throughout the entire race.  By the time I hit the first turn, I started bumping into many of the swimmers in earlier waves.  It was the same thing I experienced in Florida- lots of contact and weaving.

I swam hard trying to keep warm.  This was PR swim for me!

Swim: 32:06, 13^th AG, 119 OA

T1 (4:00): Ran up the boat launch, got stripped, then jogged to my bike.  I was shivering and could barely think straight.  I spent way too much time in transition.  First, fumbling around trying to get my damn shoes on, then being unable to get my helmet strap on, then trying get arm warmers on… all in all it was a disaster.  When it comes to weather, I need to better prepare myself for any kind of condition.  The coldness completely wiped out my mental toughness early on in the race.

The modified bike course—basically a straight shot into downtown.  It was approximately 14 miles and mostly downhill.

The first part of the course had the steepest descent.  Holy iceballs. I was so cold.  I was clenching my teeth so hard my jaw hurt the next morning! I took the bike pretty conservative because there were quite few athletes on the course and weaving in and out of them in these conditions wasn’t worth the risk.  My good buddy, Klas, took a bad spill at the start of the bike, largely in part to the wet road conditions.

I tried giving a good effort on the bike, but I was more in survival mode at this point.  I was just too cold to focus.  I had a very difficult time concentrating.  I just wanted to get to the run.

Bike time: 37:23, 16^th AG, 115 OA

T2 (3:03): Put on socks, put on my shoes, grabbed my sunglasses and headband, and I was off.

Run:

Two loops on the Boise River Greenbelt:

The run was the highlight of my day.  This was probably my favorite triathlon run course to-date.  The course was incredibly scenic and the crowd support was awesome.  It took about five miles for me to feel my feet, but I was running at decent pace (6:39 min/miles).  About a mile into the run, I see Linsey about 100 yards ahead (on her final loop).  I kept her in sight for most of the first loop.  She said hi to me at the turnaround section!!! She loves me!!!

I even-paced the rest of the run.  As soon as I warmed up I got my pep back.  I was in good spirits again. My focus came back. I made several passes, but I knew my swim, transition, and bike deficits left me in too big of a hole.  I ran into Klas on the last couple miles of the course.  I give him huge props for finishing the race despite taking a bad spill early on the bike.  BAMF!

I finished strong with the cowboy hat.  Thanks Mindi for making a smooth cowboy hat pass off. I volunteer you to be my “Chloe” for my next triathlon races.

Run time: 1:28:10, 11^th AG, 98 OA

Huge congrats to Dan the Man for qualifying for 70.3 Worlds!  He’s an age grouper legend in Arizona.  He’s been in this sport probably longer than I’ve been alive.  He’s one of the “good guys’ in triathlon who knows everyone in our community.  We partied hard that night to celebrate.

Dan is the man!

The rest of the night consisted of lots of beer.

AZ gang in Boise!

At the end of the night, we ran into Titan of American Gladiator… and of course Dan had to have an ab showdown! Classic. Sorry, no pics.

It was a fun trip!

Next up: some hardcore summer training in Arizona to get myself ready for Vegas 70.3 Worlds.

Course: A-

Race report:
The morning temperature was in the high 50′s, which made for a chilly start. The water was actually warmer than the air, but it was still hard to get in. I was in the fourth wave, (yellow swim caps) which was all women. We had to tread water for about 4 minutes, while we waited for the start. I got kicked several times, and accidentally kicked somebody once. Everybody was very polite about the kicking, which was pretty funny.

The swim was fairly congested until about the second buoy. I got stuck behind people a few times, and it was hard to get around. It eventually opened up, though, and I was able to sort-of settle into a pace. There were a LOT of yellow caps ahead of me. Even so, I was at the shore before I realized it, and everybody was out of breath and walking. Maybe I should have swum faster, because I felt fine. It took me a second to realize that just because everybody was walking didn’t mean I had to, so I jogged up the hill to transition.

T1 was pretty painless. I put on shoes and socks, tank top, sunglasses and helmet, un-racked my bike and was on my way. The climb out of the park was long and steep. I passed several people who seemed to be having trouble with the hill. The bike went by really fast. There were a lot of rolling hills, but overall it was a very manageable course. I felt like I passed more than I got passed.  Although, right before I turned back into the park, two ladies in their fifties (gotta love the ages branded on the back of our legs!), went flying past me. Way to go Ladies!

I went to the wrong rack in T2, and had to backtrack to find the right one. I’m pretty sure I heard some people laughing at me. Guess it probably was pretty funny! Afterwards, I realized that there weren’t assigned racks and nobody would have known the difference if I’d left my bike on the wrong rack. Oh well.

My legs were definitely heavy at the beginning of the run, but I still felt like I had pretty good energy. One 27-year-old girl went flying by me , but other than that, I did all the passing on the run. I felt like I was keeping a pretty good pace until mile 2, where I had to walk a few steps on one of the steepest hills and my stomach started feeling a little queasy. After a short downhill, I regained some energy and felt like I was able to pick up the pace to the finish.

Overall, I was happy with my effort and happy with the race. I think because there were a lot of newbie triathletes, this race had a much friendlier, down-to-earth feel to it than most of the triathlons I’ve done. I met some nice people, and even laughed a few times, which is not something that happens too often at a triathlon (triathletes seem to be fairly serious folk).

I won first in my age-group. I loved that they had a little olympic-type podium set up and took pictures of all of the top 3 finishers in each age group standing on the podium. I was the only one of the top 3 in my age group who stayed for the awards, though, and I felt too silly to stand on the podium by myself. Too bad, because I really thought it was cool.

I won a bottle of Merlot and a tech t-shirt from Ragged Mountain Running Shop. Wish I’d put my hat on for the picture!

Final Stats:
14th (out of 60 women)
1st in my age group (out of only 4!)

Out of 60 women, I finished:
21st in the swim
12th in T1 (transition from swim to bike)
18th in the bike
11th in T2 (transition from bike to run)
9th in the run

It breaks down pretty much the way I’d expect it to, except I feel like I’ve been doing a lot more biking, and therefore should be improving (which I’m not). Maybe I really do need to get the fancy shoes and pedals and an actual road bike.