Race Report: The Bike

The Bike

My goal with bike was to maintain a steady cadence of over 80. I set my bike monitor to show that and steadfastly ignored the other data – time, speed, mileage, etc. I knew the course was comprised of a bunch of rolling hills and I just wanted to stay steady – spinning lightly up the hills, hammering the downs, and just riding smooth and steady. I was very successful in that. The ride is the loneliest longest part. The bikes were really spread out and there were long stretches where I was the only bicyclist I could see. Then I would come upon a spot and see oodles and wonder in amazement – where have they all been!? I passed a few, was passed. Nothing remarkable. I ate. I drank. It rained. It stopped.

There was one section that was an out and back with an uphill on the out. I was having a nice time just seeing other racers, spinning up the hill. Then I turned around and wheeeeeee!!!! I flew down that hill! I had the biggest ole grin on my face, just could not get enough of that speed. I think that fastest my odometer showed I went was about 32mph. My average speed turned out to be 16mph.

The longest and most grueling part of the bike was a portion that I mentally had erased. The course was a long road, with a loop at the end, and this out and back spur off the loop. Once I had come back from the out and back spur, I thought I would arrive back to the beginning of the loop in no time, which meant time for the last stretch home. But in fact the distance was a good quarter of the loop to get back to that home stretch. And that part was hard. I kept wondering, where is the road back, when will I get there? I’m tired. That girl just passed me. Another hill? My glutes hurt. Still? Still no home stretch? This is why they say the mental part is just as important as the physical training. Really, I kept pedaling no problem. Sure I was tired, but I was more tired further down the road and yet my pace and energy really picked up. But at that point in the ride my mind was too full of jibber-jabber and it actually slowed me down. Interesting.

Finally, the home stretch! As I passed the overflow lot I caught sight of my senior center van, and it gave me so much energy. I kept thinking of my crew waiting for me, watching all the athletes coming in, watching for me. ‘I’m coming!’ I was shouting in my head. Emotion kept rising in me, thinking of Pat, of Marge, of Fran and Beverly and John and Susan all driving such a long way to catch sight of me for a brief moment. It was so kind of them. I flew down the last portion and then it was time to slow down for the curves and wet leaves under wheel. I barely heard the person saying ‘dismount at the white line’ and am so thankful that volunteers repeat directions over and over in a clear voice, with hand gestures. You are just in such a fog and it’s amazing how hard it is for your brain to process, ‘Dismount at the white line’.

As I dismounted I caught sight of my crew and shouted some of their names. I was so so happy to see them!! My regret is that I didn’t slow down at all to say hi other than wave delightedly with a huge grin on my face. Although it is a pretty big grin.

Bike Time: 1:31 minutes

Transition Two: I racked that puppy, flung my running shoes on and was out of there! I moved fast enough that my folks didn’t get a chance to say hi at transition! I was sorry to take off without even a hello to them but couldn’t fathom not going as fast as I could. So I did.

Transition Two: 1:43

Race Report...The Swim

The Swim

Finally it was our turn! We waded into the water thigh deep. It wasn’t a treading water start after all - I was a wee bit disappointed.

I kept squeezing my goggles tighter and tighter and ducking under to check them. When they work they work great with no issue, but every once in a while they seem to leak and leak during a swim. I yanked them so tight I had soreness all around my eye sockets for the next two days. But guess what? No leakage.

10, 9, 8…the crowd counted. Finally the airhorn!

I tried to focus on moving veeerrry slowly at first, like a fellow triathlete had tipped me off to do. There was a lot of wave action at first from all the other swimmers. I just focused on swimming. Occasionally I would bump into someone or they me. In the past I would have popped up to apologize and broken my stroke to give them room. This time I just kept swimming. I am getting more used to it I guess.

I felt a little of the old panic come up when it got real choppy from the others swimmers and I caught some water breathing in from it. But, I just kept focused and kept my relaxed self-talk up, and soon it passed. Yeay! I didn’t need to break my stroke or switch to breaststroke to manage it.

Soon we were all bunched up at the first buoy to go ‘round it. After we rounded it I was successfully able to draft off another swimmer for a while, but she moved ahead. By the time we passed the 2^nd buoy we were pretty spread out and it was really just about the swimming. For some reason this third stretch, my swim lines were completely off. I kept veering to the left. I’d look up to sight the buoy, have to swim back, then look up again and – way off again! I finally started sighting every 3 stroke or so. I was very pleased with my sighting overall. I was able to peek ahead with just my eyes and not have to lift my whole head out to breathe at the same time.

The rest of the swim just trucked along. We had to do two loops and I expected to feel a mental pull toward shore as I rounded the buoy for my 2^nd lap but I felt totally fine – I was happy to keep swimming. I do remember noticing as I turned to breathe a patch of light anemic blue in the sky, and I cheered it as I swam, hoping for good weather for my spectators. And I remember wondering how many other swimmers were still in the water and wondering if I could look around to check without losing too much time. I decided not to. I remember my feet started getting a bit numb the 2^nd half . It was cold water – low 60s I think. Thanks for the wetsuit Aunt Chris!

Finally I was swimming toward the finish! I was so, so happy with my swim. I had just put my head down and…swam! My sighting was efficient, I had swum fairly straight excepting that one weird stretch, I hadn’t panicked, I hadn’t had to switch strokes! I felt brilliant coming out of the water as the photo shows.

Swim Time: 33minutes

Transition One

The transition was a loooong way from the swim exit. I shoulda timed it. Leif was cute, he jogged along with me for a stretch. Most of the bikes were gone by the time I got there, likely because all of the waves started first, but of course I didn’t think that. What I thought was, boy, even with my super-swim I’m still last out. Got my wetsuit off with a wee stuggle compounded by adrenaline and a touch of vertigo, got my helmet strapped on, and was outta there…after stuffing a mini-Snickers in my mouth.

T1: 3:33m

The Race Report...the preparation

Olympic Race Report

Preparation

I got up about 5 am, and packed up the car (in the pouring rain!). We loaded up the sleeping boy, picked up our babysitter – who was a trouper to be ready and game at 6am – and headed to Black Diamond, about an hour away. Of course as soon as we pulled away I panicked that I had forgotten something, wished I had checked once more that I had everything packed. Over and over, I asked Leif – you’re SURE you packed my helmet? You’re SURE you put my gear bag in? etc. He was very good humored about it and just answered me each time.

There's the magic bag of gear

Sipped coffee and ate pb&j sandwich for breakfast. I managed to eat most all of my breakfast before we started getting closer and suddenly my stomach completely shut down: nerves.

I was really proud of the sign I had made. It says,

1 tri-newbie + 2 sponsors (thank you Aunt Chris and Snoqualmie Valley Hospital!) + 93 donors = $5124 for rural seniors

We made it there in fine time and pulled into the race parking lot at about 7:20. Butterflies. I was amazed to see so many athletes there already, the parking lot looked to be completely full. Thankfully we slipped into a spot that others moved out of. I was glad because it was still POURING at that point and I wanted the security of a dry car for the kiddo and babysitter to hang out in.

I was really glad to be there at the exact time I had hoped to be there. I have done races where I got to the race site late and it just adds to the nerves in an unhelpful way. So, my anxiety went way down once we had arrived.

Got checked in no problem, and started setting up my area. I was so happy to be there and start this dang race already! Set up my area. For those non-familiar-with-triathlons, there’s an area in which you transition from one sport to another. All your gear that you need is in one spot, and triathletes can get very specific about exactly how it is laid out, because ideally you zip in and out of there as fast as you can. My assigned spot was just about the worst I could get, with a really long run out with bike in hand. That’s what I get for signing up early I guess! (my race number was 96).

Once I got my gear set up, then the crowds really arrived. I put my shoes on and had a nice 10 minute easy warm up run. Then it was time to get the wetsuit on and go listen to the race meeting. I managed to squeak in a wee swim also, getting the shoulders ready to roll.

hmmm, this woman looks a bit nervous...




Men's Sprint wave starting

It was a long time from getting my wetsuit on till the time I actually raced – about 40 minutes. Olympic women distance was the last to go. There were under 50 of us. It was fun to count down for all the other racing groups that left before us.

Hooray for my race cheering squad, standing there in the rain! I kept hoping it would lighten up for the seniors I knew were coming later.