A trophy for my non-existent trophy shelf
The Appalachain Power Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon on Saturday was such a well run, well organized event! Thanks to Setup Events for the great sprint distance race. Let’s start with the good stuff – I got second place in my age group! I was hoping for a Top Ten overall finish, and wouldn’t you know I was only 24 seconds off from that. But, as I said on Friday, I have not been specifically training for this race, nor had I tapered, or swam in a wetsuit since July, or practiced transition, or done any bricks…
Saturday morning started at 6:00 a.m. after going to see the Walkmen play on Friday night. I woke up, took the dogs out, had a cup of coffee and rechecked that all my gear was in my transition bag. I loaded the bike up on the car, put my race wheels in the back, and put some Nutrigrain Waffles in the toaster. I woke up Aaron (he grumbled the whole way there about how bike races always begin at reasonable hours… wtf is wrong with triathletes?), put some yogurt, maple syrup, a spoonful of peanut butter and two waffles in a bowl, and we headed down to the lake. Unfortuantely, we left 15 minutes late. The drive was going to take us an hour, and packet pickup closed at 8:15. As we got closer to the state park, my stomach started to turn. We arrived right at 8:15, and Aaron dropped me off at transition to get my packet and my chip while he switched out my wheels.
There was plenty of room on my rack still, with only 5 bikes allotted per rack. I believe there were 450 people total who were registered, so it was a great size race. I was in the second wave, and there was a mandatory 8:45 pre-race meeting on the beach. I got set up, had time to change and use the bathroom, and made it down to the beach with my wetsuit half on by 8:45. I didn’t get to warm up, but the sun was out and it was humid as hell, and I was already sweating in my wetsuit. I tested out the water just to make sure it wasn’t a total surprise.
There was a really moving motivational speech by Dick Kelly, a triathlete in Roanoke who was diagnosed with AlS in January. For everyone out there who’s complaining about not meeting their goals in their first races of the season… 5 months after being diagnosed Dick is now wheelchair bound. He was hoping to be able to complete at least 50 yards of each leg of the triathlon, but was unable to do so come race day. He instead sat on the beach, in his wheelchair, reading off his notes that his wife and grand children helped him to hold. Last year in this race he was third in his age group.
After Dick’s speech the men 35 and under were the first wave to go. There were three minutes between the waves, and I quickly found myself in the water in a horizontal position. I tried to hit the start button on my HRM, but accidentally hit the totals button instead. Oh well, so much for timing myself. My swim started off horribly. I don’t think I had my wetsuit on correctly because for the first 2 or three minutes I felt like I couldn’t breathe. The water was cold, but it was certainly warmer than the ocean a couple weeks ago. I spent the first half of the swim trying not to hyperventaliate. I sputtered, lifted my head a few times, and finally got into some open water that I could start to calm down in. My heartrate was skyrocketing through the entire swim, and I exited the water in 12:41. It was such a relief to get that damn wetsuit off.
I jumped on my bike and started off through the rolling hills. I slowly started passing people, and my legs felt pretty good. There was a tailwind on the way out, so that helped to calm my heartrate, and I tried to force myself to drink some water. We opted to leave the QR set up as a road bike instead of a TT for this event. I knew that the bike course was going to be hilly, and it just didn’t seem worth it to put aerobars on for a measly 12+ miles. Of course, there were plenty of dudes out there in full aero helmet/bars/disc wheel setups, but I was totally comfortable with just my carbon race wheels. I purposely tried to save a little for the run this time, and I made sure my heartrate was low as I came into transition. I came in first in my age group in the bike, and going into transition I was 6th overall.
Into T2
Aaron found me in transition 3 and was yelling supportive things. I think I looked back over my shoulder and said something grumpy about the run ruining it all as I started off on the 5k course. It was supposed to be “flat to rolling”, but it was mostly rolling, up hill on the way out and down hill on the way back. I started off slow, but maintained my pace through the hills. I took water at the two stops, mostly dumping it down my back instead of drinking it. I didn’t take a Gu or any nutrition with me on this race since I expected it to be over in under an hour and a half. Mile one went by fast, and I got passed by two or three women by the time I reached mile 2. I had one girl I had passed on the bike that I was specifically trying to hold off, but right past mile two she flew by me, and I couldn’t keep up. Mile 3 wasn’t marked, so I probably only sprinted the last 200 yards, instead of the last 2/10ths of a mile. But I came into the chute in 1:20.56.
In the Danskin Women’s Triathlon I ran a time of 1:19:08. That’s almost 2 mintues faster, BUT… Danskin was the end of July, it was a flat course, and I averaged 8:30 on the run then (and 8:56 on the run now).
So the first trophy on my shelf is for a 1:20.56, good enough for 2nd place in my age group. Not a bad way to start the season!
Finish
NOW
As promised, the 1/2 IM training begins…
Schedule for the week:
Mon: Strenth, 1:00 & Run, 0:30.00
Tues: Swim, 1:00
Wed: Bike, 1:30
Thurs: Strength, 1:00 & Run, 0:35.00
Fri: Swim, 1:00
Sat: Bike 2:00
Sun: Run, 1:15
