Stone Harbor Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Wave 4. Women 39 years of age and under. We walk down a loading dock and jump into the water. Immediately, I am shocked by how effing COLD it is. Like freezing. I'm so glad I have my wet suit on at this point. We wade in the water for 2 minutes, and I can feel the nerves kicking. I am towards the back of the pack of women. I would estimate 80-90 people in my wave. The gun fires, and off we go. I cannot even get a full stroke in for the first 45 seconds. There are just masses of arms and legs flailing everywhere. I keep my head out of the water, and look for the most open area, which was off to my left. I cruise over there and start hammering away. At first, I was being timid because I didn't want to hit anyone. Then, I thought to myself: This is a race. You don't train so hard to just let other people determine how you are going to compete. I took control of the situation and started to swim like I know I should. I hit a few people (none on purpose, but just because we were so cramped) but I just kept stroking on. I would say after about 1 minute of mass people, which was right around the first buoy, I broke away and had a much clearer space to swim. I was able to take the turn almost on top of the buoy, so I was happy with that. My sighting was on point.

I still saw a good amount of purple caps (my color) in front of me, so I knew I had some work to do. I felt pretty strong in the water and started to see more open swim space and less confusion ahead. Around minute 3, I had passed another mass of purple caps. Minute 5ish, started to see some men from the second and third waves. As I rounded the second-to-last buoy, I came into a group of men. At this point, I couldn't see any women around me, so I am figuring that I am middle of the pack with all of the great women swimmers are still ahead of me.

Rounding the last buoy, I am starting to panic a bit. I can't see which dock we are supposed to be swimming to. There are 3 docks side-by-side and there are ladders on all of them. About 4-5 larger guys are around me, doing everything they can to just make it to the dock. I motor around them and finally see one guy getting out by a ladder, so I hustle to it and pull myself up. The dock is slippery, but I immediately go for my cap and goggles and am unzipping my wet suit. I run by Jessica, who stopped at the end of the dock to take off her wet suit. She is struggling hella bad to take it off. Feel pretty good that she only beat me out of the water by 20-30 seconds.

I think I should have started closer up to the front of the pack. I am so worried about not being a strong swimmer, that I deliberately put myself near the back of the pack. But, that made so much more work for myself because I had to fight through that dense crowd before I could actually get my swim on.

I need work at this. After getting off of the dock, I immediately pull off my cap and goggles. I manage to unzip my wet suit and peel it off my upper body quickly. I am happy with this, and thinking that I may actually have a good transition. I start pulling it down over my butt when I can see my bike in sight, and once I get it down to my calves, I am in trouble. I am breathing heavy and can't seem to get the suit off fast enough. I'm struggling and watsted a lot of time. Luckily, I put 2 gus in my tri top before the swim, so I didn't have to worry about doing that on T1. That saved me some time.

I was able to quickly dry off my feet and get my socks and shoes on. Helmet wouldn't clip on, damn it. I wasted a good 5-10 seconds trying to get it clipped. Also had trouble getting my bike off of the rack. I think I was just so flustered at this point.

I've been talking with Dave about transitions lately. He highly suggests taking off your wet suit IMMEDIATELY after you get out of the water. He said that since there is still water inside the wet suit, it will glide off easier. Also, transitions are supposed to be "clutter free" so if you can get your wet suit off before you get into your area, you have one less thing to worry about and less clutter in your mind.

Next time, I'm going to try that.

The right side of the loop was great. There was a nice tail wind, and looking at my computer, I was able to keep it between 23.5-24 mph. It was nice to see that on the computer, boosted my confidence and made me think that medaling was really a possibility. About half way through my first loop, David came whizzing by me. He said "Looking good, girl" and I said "You too, Dave." And that was that. At this point, Jessica was ahead of me, but I could see her in my plain of vision and knew I would catch her soon. I knew Kristine and Gaynor were behind me. I passed Jess before getting to the first turn on the course.

On my first turn, I made a huge mistake. I took the corner, turning left, with my left foot extended instead of bent. My pedal mashed against the road, and I felt myself wobble. I thought I was going to crash on the bike. Luckily, I saved myself, switched gears, and got my speed back up. This is when I realized that the right side of the loop was going to suck. Strong headwind coming right at you. I looked down at my computer, and it dropped to around 19 mph. For the most part, I kept the pace between 19 and 19.5 on this side. Once in a while, I dropped in the 18s or was able to reach 20.

On my turn to the second loop, I made sure to keep my left leg bent. No problems this time. I reached for a gu and as I am taking it, I see Kristine pass me. We say good job, keep it up, to each other and I try to keep her in my sight. After I am done with the gu, I am hammering to try to catch up to Kristine. She's amazing on the bike. Although she is in my sight, I know I am not going to catch her. Laps two and three are pretty uneventful. I feel strong on the left side and not as strong on the right. I am still managing to pass people on the right, despite the strong wind. I heard one of the big name bikers talking to David after the race and he said that it was extremely windy. So, that made me feel better to know that everyone was having trouble in the wind (or at least acknowledged it).

Third loop, the wind picked up. The right side was getting hard. I was just praying for the bike to be over at this point. My legs were feeling the effects of hammering, and although I could have kept it up, I was mentally ready for the run and wanted to get it started. Took my second gu about 1/2 mile away from the turn to transition.

One thing I will have to say about this course and race is that it was very congested. The bike area, because it was 3 loops, contained all of the racers. You kept passing people nonstop. Also, you had a lot of recreational athletes in this tri, so there were people who didn't really know how to bike and didn't really care that there were other people around who wanted to pass them.



Do better on the turns.
Practice taking gu when I am really out of breath. I let Kristine pass me while taking Gu, and I realize that I slow down some when I am Gu-ing and/or drinking.

T2 was no better than T1. I got off the bike and found myself behind two slow poke guys. Raced around them and got to my area. Had trouble racking my bike and took too much time fiddling with it. Helmet and glasses off, set on aero bars. Cycling shoes off, sneaks on was easy. Race number on and hat on. Quick drink of water. Raced off. The black top was slippery because of the water/sand/soapy surface.

Spend less time racking bike.

Started out of the transition area and Jess was just coming in to transition. Could not see her but I heard her yell to me. I yelled back to her and took off. Like I said, the transition area was really wet and slippery, so I was just concentrating on not falling. As soon as I crossed the mat and heard my chip beep, I took off. Started off strong and felt great. No women were around me and I was running along side 3 men for a while. I picked up the pace and passed them. Saw another group of men and went off after them. After making the second right, I saw David approaching on his way back. Also, saw Tim for the first time. I know he was on the course the whole time, but I was so focused on killing the race that I didn't even see him on the bike loops at all. Tim took my picture, and I yelled to David that he was almost there and keep it up. He looked in bad shape. He didn't even yell back to me, so I know he was hurting.

In another quarter mile, I saw Kristine out ahead of me. There was too much distance in between us, and I knew it was nearly impossible to catch her. She looked like she was having a strong run. At the mile marker, I looked down at my watch: 7.47. Happy with that pace, I realized if I kept it up, I may have a really good run. At the aid station, I take a cup of water and pour it over my head. It's effing hot and sunny as ballz.

I see Krisine on her way back, we pass each other and yell words of encouragement. She looks really strong, and she picks up her pace as we pass each other. Honestly, I think if she stayed at her previous tempo, I would have had a shot at catching her. Anyway, I turn the point and am on my way back. About 1.6 miles left. I feel great. I keep running and am looking for Jessica on my left. She is really far back. I finally pass her and she looks like she is struggling. Again, we yell for each other and off I go. Mile 2 marker: 7.41. I can't believe my watch. I'm feeling good at this point. At the aid station I again take a cup of water and this time drink some. I am getting a little hot and dehydrated I suppose.

Turned left and knew I had about a 1/2 mile left. Spectators were standing outside with their hoses on, aimed at the runners. That was nice. Dipped in for a quick cool off, and saw Gaynor on the sideline. She DNFed because she got hit hard in the water. She ran with me for a solid 30-45 seconds, telling me to pick up the pace and ward off oncoming women. Mile marker 3: 7.54. A little disappointed with this mile. Made the final left and had about 500 yards to run. Saw Tim, he was telling me to pick up the pace. I waited another 10-15 seconds and then kicked it. Crossed right on the man's heels in front of me.

Try to keep up the pace for the last mile.

Breathing heavy, I walked to my transition station and Tim came up behind me and congratulated me on the race. After talking for a while and packing up my stuff, we saw Jess and Cullen (her boyfriend, who also competed). We walked over to get more water. On the way back, I was greeted by Kristine who is running around the corner. She screaming that I placed 1st in my age group.


Nothing.


Well, what can I say? Of course I am extremely happy that I won my age group. It feels really good. I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders coming into the race. From myself mostly, but other people had looked up last year's times and told me that I could easily be bringing home some hardware. Knowing that other people expected me to medal made me a bit nervous. But, coming home with a 1st place finish is awesome.

I was so happy that Tim was able to see me race and watch me medal. It was a great race and nice to have so many of my friends/coworkers competing with me. We all did so well!!!