2007 Lone Star Triathlon
I felt very good about my race this morning at the Lone Star Triathlon. The weather on Saturday was horrible and poured rain on the racers competing in the sprint distance triathlon. We handed out gatorade at the Texas Iron aid station (and cheered and rang our cow bells) on Saturday and it was truly miserable weather for a triathlon. We had some concerns about the weather today, but it turned out to be okay (except for some unbelievable wind which I'll get into more details about later).
I woke up around 6:30, ate a bit of breakfast I knew would sit well (banana bread, a few bites of apple and some pomegranate juice). I took a shower (pointless, I know since I was about to go get gross and sweaty, but it's more of a mental thing), got dressed and headed down to transition to set up my stuff. The bike racks were labeled by numbers, which was nice since that meant it wasn't a free-for-all in terms of where to rack your bike. I laid out my stuff and Jamie was wandering around transition. We talked for a moment and he provided more reassuring words and gave me a big hug. After that, I headed back up to our hotel room to relax for a bit before making my way back down to the swim start.
At the swim start, I meandered around a bit, then Roger came along with my aunt and uncle and we chatted for awhile. I listened to my iPod shuffle for a few minutes to try to get some desirable songs stuck in my head for the race. I put on my wetsuit and Roger zipped me up. We listened to some pre-race info then they began the quarter iron distance waves about 10 minutes late (around 8:40).
The gun went off and we started swimming. I lost Laurie pretty quickly because I was veering off to the right and I think I wanted to swim a little faster. I just tried to draft as much I could but it was hard and I really couldn't find anyone that was the same pace (or slightly faster). So I just kept swimming and was very happy that I was maintaining a good pace with the lead pack. Things were a bit choppy at points and I didn't like the taste of the saltwater in my mouth but all in all, the ocean wasn't too bad. It was in a protected cove so we didn't have much surf. Eventually, we came upon a group of guys from the wave before us, which was a little frustrating because as we navigated around some of them things got a little congested and we slowed.
I spent the rest of the swim navigating yellow caps (the wave before me) and eventually some blue caps (two waves before me). Suddenly I was at the end of the swim and was being pulled out of the water by some volunteers. I think that I saw Susan get out just ahead of me and that made me happy because when I looked down at my watch I saw 19 something and I had wanted to be a little faster than that. (Susan later said she thought the swim was slightly longer than .6 miles.) I saw Roger and my relatives cheering and ringing their cowbells wildly and smiled at them as I went by.
I had a great swim and posted the third highest time in my age group for the swim at 19:26 coming in only 30 seconds off the leader in my age group (out of 33 people with 5 DNFs).
Finally, after an hour, I reached the turnaround. There are really no words to express my relief at being at the turnaround. The wind is just so...demoralizing. It blows the life right out of you. I kept repeating a mantra, "strong and steady...strong and steady..." in my head.
Once I hit the turnaround, life was much easier. I shifted into my big chain ring and set about making up time. I kept my speed around 20 mph which didn't take much effort thanks to the excellent tailwind I had. A little after the turnaround, I realized I finished all my electrolite drink from my aero bottle and reached down for my other bottle (which contained Gatorate). I took a quick drink and tried to put it back in the bottle cage only to miss and have it fall to the ground. I managed to not run over it with my back wheel. I cursed at the loss of a nice insulated Polar bottle but kept going. Except I had a problem, I had no more hydration and that Gatorade factored into my calories I wanted in me for the run.
Luckily, there was an aid station ahead, I just didn't know how far. A few miles later I came across the aid station where they had bottle hand-ups. The guy handing up bottles was a pro. I held my hand out and slowed down a bit to signify that I wanted a hand-up. He hollered "Gatorade or water?" and I yelled back that I wanted gatorade. He ran along side me for a second and handed it over and I shouted "Thank you so much!" in as grateful a tone as I could muster. I opened the cap of the bottle and squeezed the contents into my aero drink container, tossed the bottle to the side of the road and sipped gratefully.
All the way back, even though I was making good time, my quads were complaining. They were sore and while I wouldn't say that they were cramping, they didn't feel right and everything below the waist in general felt like it was going to hell. I couldn't wait to be back and so I tried to distract myself by looking at the scenery. I enjoyed the sound of the ocean and the gulls and smelled the clean salty air.
The distraction worked and suddenly I was back to the turn off where Jack was directing traffic. I yelled out "Jack!!" and flashed him a huge grin which he returned (he's a man of few words and if he said anything I didn't hear it). I took it slow from there because there were a lot of turns and I kept thinking dismount was closer than it was. Finally I saw Jamie again and Roger was there taking pictures nearby shouting "Go Summer!"
I managed a time of 1:41:25 with a 16.6 mph average pace.
Suddenly I was at mile 1 and I looked down to see that I was still running between a nine to ten minute mile. Huh. I felt pretty good (good being a relative term here) so I kept going. I just tried to keep my cadence up and I didn't push too hard. I wasn't running easy like a long run but I wasn't pushing either like a tempo run. However, my GPS kept indicating that I was running at faster than my 10k pace which was alarming to me because clearly I couldn't keep this up much longer. I got to about mile 3 and I was hurting a little (no particular acute pain, just all over ouchiness) but it was a tolerable level and so I tried to keep my pace. I ran past Roger at the Texas Iron aid station (twice actually because of the out and back nature of the course) and they screamed and yelled and carried on and gave me a great boost of energy.
The run course was totally weird. It was almost like a bunch of mini out and back courses. We kept running out somewhere, then back, then we'd run around a bit and do another out and back. It was a strange course but it was mostly flat which was very welcome so I took advantage of it and suddenly I was making the final turn to the finishing chute. I didn't even know it was coming and so I didn't really have time for a finishing kick.
The finishing chute was insane. People were screaming and cheering and hollering and yelling and ringing their cowbells. It was a roar of noise I had never experienced at a finish line before. I felt exhilarated and emotional and then suddenly I was done. I finished my run in 1:02:48 at a surprising 9:40/mi pace blowing all my running goals completely away. Once again, I surprised myself with my running and I've realized that I've clearly made huge strides (no pun intended) as a runner.
Roger and I headed up to the hotel room where I took an ice bath, then hung out a bit before taking a real shower and getting cleaned up. We had to be checked out by 2 PM (we requested late check out). At 2 PM right on the dot I handed over my room keys and we drove the car over to transition to gather my belongings. Then we made our way to the Texas Iron aid station and handed out water, gatorade, cola, gu, pretzels, bananas, and whatnot to the athletes still on the course (mostly competing in the half iron distance). Finally, tired and a bit sunburned (the sun had come out after I finished - thankfully) we jumped in the car for the drive home.
Official times:
Swim .6 miles 2:01/M 19:26
T1 3:08
Bike 28 miles 16.6 mph 1:41:25
T2 2:04
Run 6.5 miles 9:40/mi 1:02:48
Total 3:08:53
I came in 13 out of 33 in my age group (women 30-34) and 81 out of 193 women. Overall I placed 275 out of 499 total participants. I'm so excited about my results and I was thrilled to be the third fastest swimmer in my age group only 30 seconds back from the leader out of the water.
Pre-Race
I was actually feeling pretty nervous yesterday about the race. I talked a bit to Jamie and Andrea late in the afternoon and they were both so reassuring I felt better after talking to them. By this morning my nervousness was gone for the most part and I felt ready to race.I woke up around 6:30, ate a bit of breakfast I knew would sit well (banana bread, a few bites of apple and some pomegranate juice). I took a shower (pointless, I know since I was about to go get gross and sweaty, but it's more of a mental thing), got dressed and headed down to transition to set up my stuff. The bike racks were labeled by numbers, which was nice since that meant it wasn't a free-for-all in terms of where to rack your bike. I laid out my stuff and Jamie was wandering around transition. We talked for a moment and he provided more reassuring words and gave me a big hug. After that, I headed back up to our hotel room to relax for a bit before making my way back down to the swim start.
At the swim start, I meandered around a bit, then Roger came along with my aunt and uncle and we chatted for awhile. I listened to my iPod shuffle for a few minutes to try to get some desirable songs stuck in my head for the race. I put on my wetsuit and Roger zipped me up. We listened to some pre-race info then they began the quarter iron distance waves about 10 minutes late (around 8:40).
Swim
The swim was a treading water start in deep water which I prefer because you get a little bit of a warm-up as you head out to the swim start. In my wetsuit I didn't really need to tread much water (in fact I could just sort of hang out and float). I positioned myself very close to the front with several other Texas Iron folks. It was much nicer being with people I knew waiting for the gun to go off (well, airhorn actually) than to be by myself. My plan was to draft off of Laurie on the swim who was going to draft off of Susan (one of the assistant coaches of Texas Iron).The gun went off and we started swimming. I lost Laurie pretty quickly because I was veering off to the right and I think I wanted to swim a little faster. I just tried to draft as much I could but it was hard and I really couldn't find anyone that was the same pace (or slightly faster). So I just kept swimming and was very happy that I was maintaining a good pace with the lead pack. Things were a bit choppy at points and I didn't like the taste of the saltwater in my mouth but all in all, the ocean wasn't too bad. It was in a protected cove so we didn't have much surf. Eventually, we came upon a group of guys from the wave before us, which was a little frustrating because as we navigated around some of them things got a little congested and we slowed.
I spent the rest of the swim navigating yellow caps (the wave before me) and eventually some blue caps (two waves before me). Suddenly I was at the end of the swim and was being pulled out of the water by some volunteers. I think that I saw Susan get out just ahead of me and that made me happy because when I looked down at my watch I saw 19 something and I had wanted to be a little faster than that. (Susan later said she thought the swim was slightly longer than .6 miles.) I saw Roger and my relatives cheering and ringing their cowbells wildly and smiled at them as I went by.
I had a great swim and posted the third highest time in my age group for the swim at 19:26 coming in only 30 seconds off the leader in my age group (out of 33 people with 5 DNFs).
T1
I stumbled into transition feeling surprisingly good and was happy that I didn't feel too dizzy or nauseated even with some choppy ocean. I yanked the zipper pull on my wetsuit up to separate it and peeled it down to my waist and removed my cap and goggles. I bypassed the wetsuit strippers because I didn't want to sit down and headed to my bike where I began peeling the rest of the way out of my wetsuit. I got my bike helmet, sunglasses and shoes on (I haven't quite mastered the shoes on the bike thing yet) and was relieved that I wasn't feeling lightheaded and ready to barf or faint (which is a common feeling in T1). Just as that thought crossed my mind and I was grabbing the seat of my bike off the rack I felt it. I reminded myself that it would pass if I just kept moving. I trotted out of transition and the moment passed. I mounted my bike and was off with a transition time of 3:08.Bike
We made several turns to get out to Seawall (Jamie was directing cyclists and he hollered a loud "Go Summer!" as I passed by). I made the turn onto Seawall and was hit by a blast of wind. That blast of wind was steady for the next grueling 14 miles. It was awful. I was working so much harder than I had wanted to on the bike. I just tried to keep up my cadence and stay as aerodynamic as possible. It was hard. My butt started to hurt and I started to get frustrated. I realized I was going to be on the bike longer than I anticipated and I started revamping my nutrition plan, which was actually a relief because I really didn't want to eat my Clif Shot Blocks at my scheduled intervals. The tummy really really didn't want anything, but I forced them down.Finally, after an hour, I reached the turnaround. There are really no words to express my relief at being at the turnaround. The wind is just so...demoralizing. It blows the life right out of you. I kept repeating a mantra, "strong and steady...strong and steady..." in my head.
Once I hit the turnaround, life was much easier. I shifted into my big chain ring and set about making up time. I kept my speed around 20 mph which didn't take much effort thanks to the excellent tailwind I had. A little after the turnaround, I realized I finished all my electrolite drink from my aero bottle and reached down for my other bottle (which contained Gatorate). I took a quick drink and tried to put it back in the bottle cage only to miss and have it fall to the ground. I managed to not run over it with my back wheel. I cursed at the loss of a nice insulated Polar bottle but kept going. Except I had a problem, I had no more hydration and that Gatorade factored into my calories I wanted in me for the run.
Luckily, there was an aid station ahead, I just didn't know how far. A few miles later I came across the aid station where they had bottle hand-ups. The guy handing up bottles was a pro. I held my hand out and slowed down a bit to signify that I wanted a hand-up. He hollered "Gatorade or water?" and I yelled back that I wanted gatorade. He ran along side me for a second and handed it over and I shouted "Thank you so much!" in as grateful a tone as I could muster. I opened the cap of the bottle and squeezed the contents into my aero drink container, tossed the bottle to the side of the road and sipped gratefully.
All the way back, even though I was making good time, my quads were complaining. They were sore and while I wouldn't say that they were cramping, they didn't feel right and everything below the waist in general felt like it was going to hell. I couldn't wait to be back and so I tried to distract myself by looking at the scenery. I enjoyed the sound of the ocean and the gulls and smelled the clean salty air.
The distraction worked and suddenly I was back to the turn off where Jack was directing traffic. I yelled out "Jack!!" and flashed him a huge grin which he returned (he's a man of few words and if he said anything I didn't hear it). I took it slow from there because there were a lot of turns and I kept thinking dismount was closer than it was. Finally I saw Jamie again and Roger was there taking pictures nearby shouting "Go Summer!"
I managed a time of 1:41:25 with a 16.6 mph average pace.
T2
I dismounted and felt like complete and total crap. I couldn't figure out how I was going to run 6.5 miles. My legs weren't functioning and I hobbled back to my rack. I changed my shoes and grabbed my race belt, visor, and GPS. I started walking out of transition (at a pretty leisurely pace) and wondered again how I was going to run. My legs felt completely trashed. The volunteers were yelling encouraging things at me and I realized as I crossed the timing mat that I should probably begin running, so I did. T2 time was 2:04 (amazingly because it felt like an eternity).Run
I've done a lot of brick workouts (bike + run) over the course of training for this race. One nearly ever weekend for the last three months, actually. But nothing prepared me for the feeling in my legs this morning as I ran. There's no way to describe it if you haven't experienced it. And if you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It was like a brick workout times ten. I looked down at my GPS expecting to see that I was doing a thirteen minute mile but it said something like nine and a half. Clearly the thing was defective so I continued on at a semi-comfortable steady pace.Suddenly I was at mile 1 and I looked down to see that I was still running between a nine to ten minute mile. Huh. I felt pretty good (good being a relative term here) so I kept going. I just tried to keep my cadence up and I didn't push too hard. I wasn't running easy like a long run but I wasn't pushing either like a tempo run. However, my GPS kept indicating that I was running at faster than my 10k pace which was alarming to me because clearly I couldn't keep this up much longer. I got to about mile 3 and I was hurting a little (no particular acute pain, just all over ouchiness) but it was a tolerable level and so I tried to keep my pace. I ran past Roger at the Texas Iron aid station (twice actually because of the out and back nature of the course) and they screamed and yelled and carried on and gave me a great boost of energy.
The run course was totally weird. It was almost like a bunch of mini out and back courses. We kept running out somewhere, then back, then we'd run around a bit and do another out and back. It was a strange course but it was mostly flat which was very welcome so I took advantage of it and suddenly I was making the final turn to the finishing chute. I didn't even know it was coming and so I didn't really have time for a finishing kick.
The finishing chute was insane. People were screaming and cheering and hollering and yelling and ringing their cowbells. It was a roar of noise I had never experienced at a finish line before. I felt exhilarated and emotional and then suddenly I was done. I finished my run in 1:02:48 at a surprising 9:40/mi pace blowing all my running goals completely away. Once again, I surprised myself with my running and I've realized that I've clearly made huge strides (no pun intended) as a runner.
Post-race
I saw Laurie (who I had passed on the bike and then she had passed me on the run) still in the finishers chute. I got my timing chip taken off and was handed a towel and a bottle of water (a fairly nice Lone Star Tri bike bottle full of nice cold water). I hobbled out of the finishing chute and found a gathering group of Texas Iron people. We swapped race stories and bitched about the wind on the bike course before I went into the food tent to grab some food which was generally unappealing to me, not because there was something wrong with the selection but because I was generally feeling not hungry (similar sensation as on the bike). I forced down a bit of food and drank quite a bit of water, then set off to find Roger at the Texas Iron aid station.Roger and I headed up to the hotel room where I took an ice bath, then hung out a bit before taking a real shower and getting cleaned up. We had to be checked out by 2 PM (we requested late check out). At 2 PM right on the dot I handed over my room keys and we drove the car over to transition to gather my belongings. Then we made our way to the Texas Iron aid station and handed out water, gatorade, cola, gu, pretzels, bananas, and whatnot to the athletes still on the course (mostly competing in the half iron distance). Finally, tired and a bit sunburned (the sun had come out after I finished - thankfully) we jumped in the car for the drive home.
Official times:
Swim .6 miles 2:01/M 19:26
T1 3:08
Bike 28 miles 16.6 mph 1:41:25
T2 2:04
Run 6.5 miles 9:40/mi 1:02:48
Total 3:08:53
I came in 13 out of 33 in my age group (women 30-34) and 81 out of 193 women. Overall I placed 275 out of 499 total participants. I'm so excited about my results and I was thrilled to be the third fastest swimmer in my age group only 30 seconds back from the leader out of the water.
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