Night Before
Headed to the pre-race meeting, where I was pleased to hear that due to cooler normal water temperatures for the time of year (61 degrees), the swim might be cut back 1-200 yards. SCORE! This gave me something hopeful for my night's sleep.
After the meeting, I headed to Bonefish Grill in Loveland with some of the team for some grub. They had the most amazing sounding specials, but too rich for the night before a race. Calamari, crab cakes, and fish tacos also tempted my palete. I opted for something more practical: grilled salmon with garlic mashed potatoes.
After dinner I headed to the hotel to re-inventory all my race supplies and laid out clothes, breakfast, etc. for the morning. I hadn't really been nervous about anything up until this point, but I suddenly felt I had a lot to remember. I ended up putting on my timing chip and sleeping with it on (goes around the ankle ona plastic band), I figured if everything else went wrong, at least I'd still have a race time.Lights out was at 10:00 PM. I think I woke up every hour, almost on the hour- and checked the time. I had the craziest dreams too- one was that my timing chip fell off overnight, and I left it in the hotel room sheets. Another was that I kept entering and leaving the transition areas the wrong way.
Race Morning4:00 am... was the time my alarm was scheduled to go of. I actually got up at 3:50 AM, because I was awake. I went through my instant oatmeal and water routine, skipped the banana- got dressed, and headed out the door.
5:00 am... arrived at transition, and assembled my bike. I had both wheels and the seat off so it would fit in my hatchback and not be visible in my car overnight. At this point, I realized assembling everything right before the race was a stupid idea- not much time to fix anything that went wrong. Fortunately, all went well- I affixed my race numbers to my helmet, bike, race jersey... and was off.
5:30 am... Transition area opened, and I picked out a sweet spot right by the bike starting line. A few of my TNT teammates managed to get a spot nearby, also.
6:10 am... got a warm-up jog and some stretching in, stuffed myself into my wet suit, and am down by the water doing a few warm-up laps. Water felt pretty good- not as cold as they said friday night, so unfortunately I was in for the full 1500m swim. :(Swim! (1500 m, or .9 miles)
6:35 am I was in the second wave swimming my little arms off (waves are predetermined groups for the starting line, usually a few different age groups matched up for equal-sized starts. They were a few minutes apart, and there were several waves behind me. Each wave is given a different color swim cap so you know approximately who you are racing against). Despite my apprehensions about the swim, it wasn't so bad! I wasn't swimming fast by any means, but when I'd turn my head to breathe I could see others around me with white swim caps- so I knew I wasn't the slowest! I did see swimmers from two different waves behind me pass me, and it was a bit of a rush when the wave behind would come flying past.
I SHOULD have looked closer at the course for the swim because I thought I had one more turn to go, when in fact I was almost to the finish line, and probably would have pushed a bit harder to the finish. Lesson learned!Transition 1: Swim to Bike
Coming out of the water I could see my cheerleading squad on shore (thanks, friends!!) which was a huge motivation. I took off running (we had a .25 mile jog back to transition) when the world started spinning, and I had to walk it. Unfortunately this little jog/walk adventure was tacked onto my swim time.
Transition went fairly smooth, I had no problem getting out of the wet suit- but I did have a problem getting my race singlet on. Based on the recommendation of other racers, I opted not to wear it in for the swim(they were supposedly not true race singlets and didn't dry very well)- Plus, I didn't have a race belt (to hold my race number for the run) so I tacked the number to my jersey, and was afraid it would tear if wet. I had a problem getting it on over my WET self. Another lesson learned!
Bike (30 mi)
This was the moment I'd been waiting for! I had ridden the race route the week before, and not only is it incredibly scenic, but just hilly enough to be FUN. I had already decided no matter ho choppy the water was, or how badly my swim went, I was so excited to get to the bike ride nothing would stop me.
About a mile in when I got my pace going, I slowed for half a powerbar. As I was gulping that down, one of the race photographers on the course snaped a shot. Crap!
Nothing too eventful to report from the bike ride. Some really impressive riders out there- and many people on Mountain Bikes probably doing their first triathlon. I did pass several riders in my age group, and got into a bit of a heat with a girl in my age group the last few miles. I tried not to get too competitive as I didn't want to burn my legs out for the run- but I did come in ahead of her :)
Transition 2: Bike to Run
This transition was easy... xcept for some reason it wasn't too fast. I think it took me longer to get my socks on than I anicipated, but I wasn't going to buy sockles shoes for my first race. Oh well.
Run - 10k (6.2 mi)As I started on the rn (.5 miles in?) there was a park restroom- and I elected to spend the 1 minute to run in and out than risk having to go on the race course. Plus, that minute wasn't going to cost me a win, anyway.
The run was an out and back , ut about a half mile longer on the "back" part. There were aidstations (water and gatorade) just about every mile. I skipped the first one, because I had a pretty good groove going. Tried to get a little water down at all of them. About a quarter-mile after the turn-around, I started having to take little powerwalk brakes, as my legs were starting to lock up. I started counting strides, and every 50 strides I'd walk 5. Mostly I was using this system to make myself keep running, but also get a bit of a break in. At what I thought was the second to last aid station, I decided to grab a gatorade intead of water - bad idea - - this was THE strongest gatorade I have tasted in my entire life. It must hve been 2x the recommended potency,and nearly made me gag. Too late, I'd already run past that station- and unfortunately it was the last (not second to last). I had to finish the race with that horrible flavor in my mouth. UGH!
Either way, I finished with a smile on my face, and feeling pretty good!
Reflection
Training for this event, I was looking forward to finishing the race, and fulfilling the promise I made to those who pledged support for me. There were a few moments during the race (especially the swim) where my motivation to push a little harder and go a little faster came from the patients themselves- people I don't even know. They go through so much pain and suffering- just to live, a few months of training and a few hours racing is absolutely nothing compared to that. I have made not only met a personal goal by becoming a triathlete this summer, but been a part of an important mission: to eradicate blood cancer. With your help, over $100,000.00 was raised just in the Rocky Mountain Chapter.
Results
Clock Time 03:21:47
Overall Place 453 / 623
Gender Place 146 / 259
Division Place 26 / 38
Swim 00:36:18
Trans1 00:02:37
Bike 01:41:16
Trans2 00:02:16
Run 00:59:19
Swmrnk 479
Bkrnk 427
Mph 17.7
Rnrnk 466
Pace 00:09:34
