Lake Sammamish Triathlon race report

Oh my goodness, I don't even know where to begin. I did not have the race I expected to have today. But before I explain why, let me just say this: SECOND PLACE IN MY AGE GROUP!!!

I almost didn't race - the idea of racing was making me feel irritable yesterday, and as I was pulling all my gear together, I just got more annoyed at myself for doing two races a week apart - what was I thinking? (Six days, really - Sunday to Saturday!) And I already wrote about how I didn't take it back a notch or two after Danskin, so I wasn't really feeling fabulous and ready to race. AND, since I did this same course in June (Issaquah triathlon), I had specific time goals to beat now, which I thought might be hard (at least the bike would be hard - I didn't have a great swim or run then, so I figured I'd probably be able to improve somewhat).

But surprisingly, I woke up fairly happy, so I headed out to the race. I ate a strawberry Pop-Tart and a banana before I left the house, and an Americano on the way, though I barely sipped it. That turned out to be a good thing, because there were nowhere near enough bathrooms/portapotties for the number of racers and family/friends! It was almost comical.

All the men started before all the women, except elites. The race was really poorly organized - it started probably 20 minutes late and just had a whole bunch of issues, but I'm not going to go there. This is about me!

So the one good thing was that the start waves were really small - so much so that I didn't feel like I needed to hang back in the water and wait for faster swimmers to go ahead of me. While of course we all need to converge around the buoys, I thought the start would be pretty spread out.

It sort of was, but somehow in the first few strokes a woman swam into and almost over me, and from then until the first buoy I lost my rhythm. Every time I put my face in the water, I breathed in through my nose. Not good. At one point early on, I looked back and saw Sarah. She looked up and asked me if I was okay. I said, "Sort of," and went back to what I was trying to do: swim! I sort of paddled with my head out of the water and did a little sidestroke until the first turn, then somehow pulled myself together and swam fast and straight the rest of the way. That freaked me out, though, and I started to think it wasn't going to be such a great race for me.

However, when I exited the water, my watch said it had been going for eight minutes. So I was happy with that for sure! The goal I'd written down for myself was 10 minutes for the swim (because a fairly long run to T1 is included in the swim time - the swim was 400m), and I obviously beat that.

T1 wasn't ideal either. I took a way long time getting my wetsuit off and I had a ton of dried grass and stuff stuck to my feet, which went right into my socks. My socks didn't go on all that smoothly and after I put my bike shoes on, I could feel the sock was bunched up under my right foot. Oh well, I figured I could fix it when I put my running shoes on. I grabbed my bike and I was out.

I noticed a huge difference immediately on the bike course: there weren't many cyclists all bunched up like there were in June. I'm sure this was due to the small waves, and I really appreciated it. I felt a lot safer in general. I left my bike in the small ring for the first mile or so to warm up, and kept my computer on cadence, not speed, the entire time. My cadence was consistently over 90 except a couple of times where I was going downhill so fast that I let it stay around 80 or 85, and I passed everyone I saw on the bike course. I think I was in the third wave of women to go out, and I was passing mostly men and I think younger women. The ride was fairly uneventful - I pushed hard, stayed in the aero bars most of the time, especially on the two longer downhill sections (none of it is steep) and had no trouble passing, even when it forced me out of the bike lane and into the traffic (there were few cars, fortunately). I saw Sarah as I was coming back from the turnaround. Just after that, I caught up to a guy who I'd been chasing for a while. I passed him, saying, "On your left...but I think you'll pass me back."

Well, that was about mile 8 or so, and he didn't pass me back until we were seriously just yards from T2. Oh well! It was pretty sweet feeling so fast and passing all the guys I saw, and to get passed by one guy six miles after I passed him...not bad. (Oh, and about that tri bike I've been shopping for? John told me that he saw a ton of people on nicer bikes than mine come in after me. It's not about the bike...so maybe I'll upgrade crankset, shifters, and wheels and keep my fabulous Specialized.)



Notice the hot pink bar tape. Oh yeah. I'm a force to be reckoned with.

T2 was very fast, but before I jumped off my bike, as I was unclipping, I got a horrible, painful cramp in my left calf. I almost screamed it hurt so much - and then just like that, as a woman yelled to me to go (in a supportive way), it disappeared. Thank goodness. Had it stayed, it would have crippled me. It was awful just for that one second.

The run was actually good. This was the part of the race that was my focus: I knew from previous races this year I could have a good swim and good bike, but I haven't been proud of any run I've done. So I wanted to keep my heart rate high knowing that my HR would be a good indicator of the effort I was outputting. On other triathlon runs this year, I really hadn't seen anything higher than the low 160s. Today, the goal was 170s. Make it hurt, but not to the point where I couldn't finish the run.



For once! A picture where I look like I'm running, not shuffling!

I carried a GU and a little flask with water with NUUN in it, and right outside T2 I dropped the water. I stopped, picked it back up, and for a moment worried that I'd made a bad choice to carry it. But I started running, and faster than my body wanted to. My heart rate was 172.



Here I am, thinking, take the darn picture so I can get this stupid smile off my face and breathe again!

I ate the GU, shoved the empty package in the big pocket in the back of my tri top, and downed about half the water with NUUN. I then stashed the water flask in my back pocket for later.

The run was over trail, grass, and only a little pavement. The trail was uneven and not easy to run on, but I did not let myself relax and coast like I did in June. I pushed. In the first half of the run, about four or five women passed me, and I let them go, knowing I was pushing at the right level. My heart rate hung out between 171 and 175 - exactly where I wanted it to be. Despite being a bumpy run, it's completely flat, so it was fairly easy to exert the same level of effort.

There was one water station halfway through; I was okay with my little flask. I drank sips from it a couple more times during the run and it was enough. I never felt like I was dying of thirst like I did in June. The one place June didn't help me with, though, was the end. The run course is so twisty-turny that I wasn't sure exactly where the finish line was, and I wasn't sure exactly what pace I was running so I couldn't go based on time. So unfortunately, I started my final sprint to the finish a little late - but it didn't matter in terms of place in age group or overall because no one passed me from the time I could have started to sprint and the time I actually finished.

My overall time was 1:21:07 - good enough for second place in my age group!!!

I'm not completely sure how it breaks down, but I think it's something like this:

Swim: 8 min (400 meters, plus the run to T1)
T1: 2 min
Bike: 45 min (14.5 miles; average 20 mph)
T1: 1 min
Run: 25 minutes (3.4 miles; this time seems too little, actually)

Then I got to see my little boy race. He's so awesome! He had a great time and told me he passed every kid he saw on his bike. :-) Unfortunately, he is a kid...for his celebration lunch, he insisted on McDonalds. YUCK!

Here are Gabriel's photos:


The coolest kid on the beach


Ow! But check out how serious he is about getting to T1.


So focused! This is where all the kids went wildly off course. It was a complete free-for-all, and Gabriel was going to be first!


The finish line. How unbelievably adorable!

So overall, this was a great race. It was the race I was destined to have - few problems (no race is ever going to be perfect, right) but results I can be extremely proud of with no caveats. Yay!

---
Okay, the numbers are in. This is a little bit funny.

Overall, I was 13th. I think 13 is my lucky number. I was 13th in my AG last week at Danskin, and I was 13th in my high school class. Yes. I'm claiming that number as mine.

I really was second in my AG, but I would have been fourth if they didn't remove the two elites from my group. That's okay - they both got awards, too.

There were 189 women total. So that means I don't get to race Danskin as an elite next year (you have to either place in the top 10 overall or the top 3 in your AG in a race of 300 or more females). But since I wasn't going to race Danskin next year anyway, that's cool - that gives me a target for the following year!

My bike split was the 6th fastest overall for the women. Four of the five elites beat me, plus one age grouper (not my group). So my split was the fastest for the women in my AG.

Oh, this is bizarre. I was 5th out of the water for my AG. Actually, fourth - the 1st place went to one of the elites.

My run time was 26:57 - this is 7.35 mph. I believe that's 8:07 per mile. Excellent. I had hoped to do 8 minute miles for the whole way; I'm extremely happy with 8:07 too.

T1 was slow, as I thought. It would have been a lot faster without the wetsuit! I need to get it shortened so it fits me and is easier to get off.

Man, it's hard to translate these stats because they're in PDF, not Excel or html. BLAH!

Okay, here are the full results:

Swim: 8:02.0 (rank: 5/31 - includes one elite)
T1: 1:46
Bike: 43:28.5 (rank: 2/31 - includes one elite)
T2: 0.52.2
Run: 26:57.9 (rank: 8/31 - includes one elite)
TOTAL: 1:21:07.4