Danskin race report: Beyond joy

Do you know what exists beyond joy?

I do: Pain.

Not really a bad pain, though. As Danielle said yesterday: "Jessica, if you want to meet your goals, you're going to have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable."

For a little more context, let me just say that riding my bike and snowboarding are things of joy for me. If I have free time, those two things are what I'd prefer to do over anything else. And on the Lake Stevens 70.3, nearly my entire bike ride was full of joy for me. But then, I had 56 miles to go and I was keeping it comfortable and easy so that I'd have something left for the run. I believed then and now that it was the right strategy: it was my first half-Ironman and I wanted to finish it happy. And I did.

But for Danskin, I had time goals, as articulated in a previous post. And as I said then, everything would have to go perfectly for me to meet those goals. And I was going to have to hurt to get there.

So I won't make you wait any longer: here are the goals and the actuals:

Swim (.75K)
Goal: 15 minutes
Actual: 15:06

Bike (20K)
Goal: 35 minutes, 21 mph
Actual: 34:53, 21.3 mph

Run (5K)
Goal: 26 minutes
Actual: 26:37, pace 8:35

So...with transitions, this becomes 1:21:39.

Given that I was only 43 seconds over my goals during my race portions, why was I 1:39 over my overall goal? Ugh. T1. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go piece by piece.

Swim
On Danielle's advice, I seeded myself RIGHT UP FRONT. Yeah, I remembered my Issaquah experience where I seeded myself towards the front and totally choked, but I thought that I'd improved and I might have a better experience this time.

I was so right to do that! When it was time to swim, I started immediately. A few people from my wave passed me (noone swam over me), but not many. I swam HARD and didn't care about the fact that I wasn't breathing as comfortably as I would have liked until I passed the first buoy. The distance from the first to the second is longest; here I got into a slightly slower rhythm than what I started out at, and I started passing pink and green caps from the two previous waves. (My cap was yellow.) There was serious crowding at the second buoy and I had to apologize to a woman I totally bumped who was swimming with a swim angel, but they were taking up so much room! On the leg back to shore, I felt some drafting benefit - the water definitely seemed to help push me along in a way it hadn't before - and I passed some purple caps from three waves ahead, too. I couldn't see a single yellow cap anywhere! I knew I wasn't first from my wave, but still - it felt good to know I was near the front at least. When I stood up, not a single person of the dozen or so standing near me had yellow caps. I didn't look back, but I did check my watch and I knew I'd done something around 15 minutes. Yay! My stomach hurt from the hard effort and my heart rate was up to 179 as I ran to my transition station, but the swim was over. Whew. Couldn't wait to get on my bike!

T1
Unfortunately, my area was really far from the swim finish - almost as far as possible. I was not psyched about this on Saturday, but had no choice anyway, so just dealt with it. Well, my T1 time shows how far away I was - it was 3:41. A little bit of that was me being an idiot about getting my socks on - it took far too long and I pretty much had to stop, take a deep breath, and relax so I could get the darn things on - but most of it was the distance I had to run barefoot. All the lubricant I had put on my legs helped get the wetsuit off quickly, though - and I was the first bike off the rack.

Bike
I hammered the bike. I noticed immediately that my computer wasn't working - I had cadence, but no distance or speed, thanks to some mating that my bike did with Danielle's while on her rack on Saturday. Oh well. I watched cadence and kept it above 90 at all times - sometimes over 100 (when I started to feel anything in my quads). I left my bike in the small ring for the first couple of miles to warm up to riding. Just before mile 2 you have to go up this short, steep, technical hill - and some girls were stopping MID-PATH (it's narrow) to walk their bikes. Well, I squeezed by them on the left and then turned onto I-90 and hammered again. It was annoying, but oh well - the Danskin has a reputation for that sucky hill, and my two previous Danskins were easy there so I was due for some annoyance.

On I-90, I put it in my hardest gear, kicked up the cadence, and flew - up and down the little rollers across the bridge and into the tunnel. I did not get passed even one time. Not once. But I had to pass probably hundreds of women - often women who were two and three across and I had to yell "on your left" a lot. I felt kind of bad for being in full-on race mode, but hey - it's a race!

It's an out-and-back course, and on the way back that little steep hill (now downhill) was no better - some girl on a mountain bike was going probably 4 mph right in the middle of the lane, so I couldn't pass. I was furious. There was another woman ahead of me trying to pass her, and she apologized - but I told her she couldn't do anything either, so no problem.

(Some of the women I passed had tri bikes - nice ones. I rode one yesterday at the Expo. I loved the geometry, hated the aluminum. I can't go back from a full carbon bike to aluminum now - no way!)

So I just kept in the aero bars and pounded. It hurt. My heart rate was in the high 170s - I have never sustained it so high on the bike for so long, and without any real hills! So that's when I realized I was way beyond the joy of riding - it hurt, and I wasn't going to let up.

T2
T2 was uneventful and fast. I already had my race belt on with a GU tucked in it, so I just changed shoes, replaced helmet with hat, and grabbed a little GU flask filled with water with Nuun. I knew I wanted my GU right away, and I didn't know where the first water station would be so I figured I'd need something to wash the GU down with and I didn't want to carry a large bottle. As it turns out, the GU flask top was broken, so while it held my liquid for when I needed it, I didn't feel bad about throwing it away when I reached the second water station so I could run without carrying anything.

Run
I started out running and immediately two women passed me. I thought about trying to keep up, but then I thought maybe I should setting in to running and then speed up. Here's where lazy thinking begins!

I felt good. My heart rate was in the 160s. I knew I could run harder. But I couldn't make myself. I saw a woman I know - Heather - up ahead. I sprinted to catch up to her, and stayed with her for a few minutes while she told me about her mother, who just was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then she told me I needed to leave her because she was going to slow me down. I sort of wanted to stay with her and run comfortably, but she was right: I had a goal, I was close, so I needed to press on. At this point, I pretty much knew I wasn't going to do 1:20, but I also knew I'd do better than 1:24.

I saw a whole bunch of girls I know on the run - that was cool - including Jessi, who kicked some serious butt!!! Oh, and I had seen Aleks on the bike. It charged me up to see these gals and know they were supporting me and to feel so excited for them, too.

There's a hill at the end of the run. I didn't even feel it. I powered up and sustained an increase in speed all the way through to the finish line. I'm sure the 37 seconds I was over my goal time was worth it to have chatted with Heather anyway.

I was so happy when I finished. I knew I didn't do 1:20, but I felt great anyway. And now that I see my exact splits, I feel awesome. So much of T1 was out of my control. And my race statistics (that I obsessively calculated) really say it all.

Swim rank: 208/3965 - that's top 5%
Bike rank: 32/3965 - that's top 1%
Run rank: 360/3965 - that's top 9%
Age group rank: 13/468 - that's top 2%
Overall rank: 82/3965 - that's top 2% too

Definitely a performance to be proud of. And even more importantly, I had an incredible time with my friends. I know this race report is all about me, but I couldn't have done it without them - and I love them all for it!

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Addendum: just wanted to put in this cute picture! This is of me and Danielle prior to the race. Yes, we really are dressed alike.