Cascade's Edge Olympic Triathlon Race Report

Update: Race results are in. I was dead last for bike time. Wow. And the time wasted on the flat tire was 14:43. I can't help but do the math to see what would have been, and I know that's horrible negative thinking I need to eliminate. So I won't write it all down here, even though I did do the math and looked at where I would have placed. But no worries - I still wouldn't have come close to winning my age group or anything. :-)

Overall time
3:12:25
Div place
13/16
Swim time
0:30:58
Swim rank
105/162
T1 time
0:02:40
Bike time
1:38:17
Bike rank
162/162
T2 time
0:01:38
Run time
0:58:51
Run rank
129/162
Overall rank
146/162
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Okay, so maybe doing an Olympic triathlon - my first one ever - the day after a century wasn't the smartest idea. But it was the right thing to do for the following reasons:

1) It fit my no-travel rule (to minimize impact on the family)
2) It offered the right distance (Olympic) prior to my half-Ironman "A" race
3) It was scheduled for the right time prior to the "A" race (one month before)
4) It was an interesting test - can I ride 100 miles one day, and do a tri the next? The reason this test is relevant is that on July 14, I plan to ride 200 miles, and just eight days later, July 23, do the half-Ironman.

But it was the wrong thing to do because of these reasons:
1) It's Father's Day and I was gone all day yesterday at the Century.
2) My knees hurt from the century yesterday.
3) My bike is a little messed up - it's not shifting right.

So, I did it anyway. :-) I didn't pre-register, so Danielle and I got there at 7:15 (for a 9 a.m. start) to register and get comfortable. We saw a zillion people we knew, which was really nice, then headed down to the water for a swim prior to the pre-race briefing.

Oh my goodness! Deep Lake in Nolte State Park is MUCH colder than Lake Sammamish! I was definitely glad to get in the water early, but it was cold waiting around from 8:45 a.m. until 9:20, when my wave started. But by the time they let us in the water, I swam a quick little bit prior to the gun going off, then we started.

My swim strategy was to hang back and just do my thing, by myself. Fortunately, despite the fact that all the women doing the Olympic were starting at the same time, there just weren't that many people - maybe 150? I'll see when the results come out. So I did hang back, but it was also a calmer lake and people were spread out enough that I could actually really swim without getting kicked, swum over, or whatever. I started out counting my strokes: one, two, three, etc - when I got to 15, I figured I had developed a rhythm and stopped counting.

The course was two loops; at the beginning of my second, I swallowed water and started to panic a little. I realized when I do that, I start kicking frantically - so I first stopped kicking, picked my head up, coughed it out, then started counting strokes again until my rhythm came back.

I think I passed some swimmers, but I was probably still towards the back of the pack. I looked at my watch when I exited the water - something like 30 or 31 minutes. Not bad!!!

T1 was okay - it's a long run up from the water, and I was sort of bonking - I needed fuel. I didn't eat right this morning (a VitaTop and a cookie - I meant to eat more, but then I forgot). I dropped my pink swim cap and I wanted to keep it, so I went back for it. Then it was hard to get my socks on and I forgot my sunglasses (but deliberately didn't wear my arm warmers or gloves).

Biking was HARD. This is supposed to be my strong leg, and man, I was feeling the toll of the century ride. My knees hurt and every hill took more out of me than they should have - in fact, on another day I would have told you that the entire course was flat, but today it was hilly. Little rollers, I guess, but it was really hard to get the power to go up.

Then I passed a guy with a flat tire, and I said a quick prayer for him to have peace about his race and his messed up bike split. Not a minute later, I'm going downhill at 30 mph and something sounds awful from my back tire...and I have a flat, too. Oh no!

It took me a long time to get the tire loose enough to get the tube out, and I didn't check the tube to see what was wrong. I did check the inside and outside of the tire and didn't notice a problem. I got a new tube in and actually managed to get the tire back on fairly easily, but then I ran into a snag: no pump. I was carrying CO2, though, but since I've never used it before, I wasn't quite sure how to. Just then, Danielle came flying by, and she stopped, pumped up my tire while I picked up all my garbage, and helped me put it back on. We start riding together (sort of - she hung back so she wouldn't be drafting), and then my chain came off. She stopped AGAIN to help me, and this time somehow I managed to tip my whole bike over and dump out all the water in my aerobottle. I was about to scream when Danielle said she had a bottle of water with Gatorade in it, so she gave that to me and I poured it into the aerobottle. THANK GOODNESS FOR DANIELLE.

I might have quit if she didn't stop, and I'm terribly sorry that she lost 5 minutes off of her race. (I think I lost 15 or 20 - we'll see when the numbers are posted. My bike was in motion for 1 hour, 23 minutes, 34 seconds, according to my bike computer). So it was really a blessing to have her there with me.

We rode as together as you're allowed to in a triathlon for a while, then on an uphill she needed to pass me. I could see her for a bit, but then she was gone. Good for her - I didn't want to hold her back even more!

I think I had a good T2 - honestly, I don't really remember. I grabbed my spare water bottle to take with me on the run. It was good not to be drinking Gatorade.

Oh, nutrition: at mile 5 or so I started eating a PowerBar. I think I ate about 2/3 of it. I meant to eat it all, but the flat threw me all off and all I wanted to do after that was pick up speed.

Oh, and my bike average, according to my computer, was 18. Were it not for the flat, I'd have no complaints about the bike (I probably could have gone faster without the century the day before, but 18 is nothing to be ashamed of anyway.)

My run: I started out really slow, or at least feeling sluggish. I ate a GU right away even though I didn't want to, and it probably helped, because my mood improved after about 1.5 miles. I started passing other runners around mile 3 or so, and I think I was going about a 9 minute pace, although I didn't check. My heart rate was around 150 for the first four miles.

I picked it up at mile 4 to pass some runners, and again around 4.8 - the last 1.4 miles is a loop around the lake, on a trail, with a lot of little uphills. I passed a few runners on the trail and kept a stronger pace so they wouldn't try to pass me back. Oh, before you get to the trail you run by the transition area, so I threw my water bottle back at my bike station so that I could really bust it out in the end without carrying anything else. So I did: I really picked up huge speed at the end, sprint to the finish, and that actually felt good.

My watch said I'd been going for 3 hours, 12 minutes. Since my goal had been 3 hours even, I might have done even better than I hoped had I not had the flat.

So I've got to learn to put it together! My solid swim today plus my great bike at Issaquah plus...well, I haven't had a fabulous run yet, but I might sometime, would make a great triathlon. But that's exactly what makes triathlon so special: so many factors, so many things to deal with, and then you have to be a great athlete in three sports too! Hopefully I can put it together for my A race - Lake Stevens. I know now I need to bike a little less and focus more on my swimming and running - especially running. I need to make sure I'm doing more speed work and maybe less endurance work. It's not a marathon, after all!