Black Diamond Half-Iron Race Report

Yay! What a great way to finish my triathlon season!

No, I didn't win - they finished the awards ceremony before I even finished my run. :-) But that wasn't the point of participating in today's race - instead it was about solid execution, start to finish, and I can say for sure that except for a couple little glitches, I met the goal.

Danielle picked me up at 6 a.m. for the 9 a.m. start. The race is about 40 minutes away from home - so obviously we got there with a ton of time to spare. But it was good - our bikes were already there from last night's drop-off, and we set up our transition areas while we debated what we were going to wear on the bike. I'm not sure how cold out it was, but we could see our breath - and my toes were numb inside warm socks and my running shoes. We walked the 1.4 mile trail that the run finishes on (though we walked it finish to start so we could figure out exactly where to get our sprints on).

The sun came out and was shining on the water by the time we started. The event was pretty small - maybe 200 triathletes, and another 100 duathletes who had a time-trial start after the first triathletes came out of the water. So we started in two waves: men and women. I was really nervous because it's a double-loop swim that I'd get caught up in a mess of fast male swimmers doing their second loop while I was still on my first.

Well, had I actually done any math, I would have seen that was pretty much impossible. They only started five minutes before the women; I barely caught the slow male swimmers. And strangely enough (but this turned out to be a theme for the day), I was alone most of the time after the first turn. It felt just like swimming at Idylwood - slightly colder, but tolerable.

Oh, I have to put a shout-out about Sammamish Valley Cycle and Cindy who works there. They were a sponsor of the event today, and I was debating buying a pair of neoprene swim socks because my feet were so cold. Cindy takes a pair off the rack (they had a booth and were selling stuff), hands them to me, and says, "After you warm up, if you don't want them, just throw them to me on shore. And if you do, you can pay for them later."

Wow! What trust! Of course I am going to go pay for them, and they totally worked. My toes were warm, and the socks were actually quite comfortable to swim in.

I exited the water in 43 minutes - exactly what I expected. Since I had no draft for the majority of the swim, I'm thinking I probably swam just like I did at Lake Stevens (40.5 minutes), but I had a draft then. Either way, I was happy. (Update: exact time, 43:02)

T1 was not perfect. I didn't drop anything, but getting the wetsuit and socks off was more of a challenge than I anticipated. I ended up dropping to the ground and pulling them off while sitting. It worked, but it was slow. I also decided not to wear my bike jersey - as soon as I got the wetsuit off, I could just tell it had warmed up enough that I wasn't going to need anything more than my tri suit. I did pull on my lightest full-finger gloves, though - an interesting thing to do with wet hands! (Update: exact time, 3:45)

So then I'm out on the bike course. My heart rate was really high and I was breathing heavily - annoying! So I dialed it back, spun in an easy gear, and waited until I calmed down. In the meantime, I passed a whole bunch of girls and a few guys. I had no idea how fast I was going, but I was very aware of the drafting rule and knew I couldn't stay behind.

I ended up passing a former co-worker, Matt, and then he passed me back. For the first 30 miles, we pretty much leap-frogged each other every 4-5 miles or so. That definitely made things more fun for me. There were a couple other women who leap-frogged with me, too.

I started eating 15 minutes into the ride, and the idea was every half hour, eat half a PowerBar. It mostly worked - sometimes if the half-hour came on a descent, I waited until I was going uphill or flat - but I ended up eating three whole PowerBars. I tried something new: I cut them all in half with scissors, then opened each half-package, then stuck the wrapper back onto the PowerBar, and dumped all six pieces into my Bento Box. It was a perfect strategy. All the wrappers went in my tri suit pocket and I actually ate what I planned to eat. However, I have to say this: I HATE POWERBARS. I get the right fuel from them, my stomach tolerates them, and they're not so awful that I refuse to eat. But yuck. Yuck yuck yuck.

So at mile 28 comes THE HILL - and it's a big one. I let everyone pass me who wanted to and I did not chase them down. In retrospect, maybe I should have - I didn't catch them on the huge downhill, and I ended up alone for way too much of the race - but my goal was to keep things comfortable, and I definitely did that. And in doing so, the hill (all 2.1 miles of it) actually seemed smaller than it did when Danielle and I rode the course a week ago. It was over before I got sick of climbing!

The descent rocked - it's so fast and mostly smooth - except for these two women who caught me at the top of the hill and were totally drafting off each other were riding too close to my pace - so they passed me, I passed them, and it was not good because it's such a steep downhill on a busy highway. Eventually on a flat, while I was eating, they passed me and I never saw them again.

So began my 20 or so miles of solitude, during which I slowed down dramatically (I think - I felt slow) and got really, really bored. And I started having pain in my neck and lower back. I'm sure if there were others around me I wouldn't have gotten so unhappy about being on the bike. I started to fantasize about how great the run would be!

I did see some riders - but they were finishing the third loop and on the other side of the street. I felt like they were looking at me with pity. They probably were. I also felt like I was the last cyclist, but I absolutely knew I wasn't...it's just the games your head plays when you're alone for too long.

I did see some cyclists the last 5 miles or so. None of them looked really happy. But as I approached the park, my speed and mood picked up. I really was looking forward to the run!

Just as I came into T2, John, Gabriel and Camille were right there to yell to me and take pictures. It was awesome to see them, although I immediately felt bad that best-case scenario, they had just over 2 hours to wait for me to finish.

One last thing about the bike: kudos to the race organizer and volunteers on the bike course. They knew how to do a water bottle handoff and gave us the right kind of bottles, with the plastic top already taken off (so it just has the valve top). One of my friends had advised me to only do official Ironman 70.3 races; however, in my opinion, this race was better organized than Lake Stevens was!

Wait, one other bike thing: this course was 62 miles (my odometer said 61.75 when I pulled into T2). So a normal half-iron is 56 miles. I checked my computer at 56 miles and I had been going for 3:16. Yay!

My bike computer says 3:36 total riding time. I didn't get off my bike once - no chain dropping, no flat tires, no potty stops. I'm sure that was the longest time ever in the saddle for me. And no, my tri suit padding isn't good enough for that length of time. :-) (Update: mybike computer doesn't match what the race organizers say. They say 3:34:46, which I think is an average of 17.3 mph. Yay.)

So, T2. On with the running shoes, fuel belt, race belt, and hat. Off with the helmet and bike shoes. I planned to go to the Porta-Potty on my way out, and I did. I didn't have an urgent need to go, but I thought it would be better if I could. Plus, I got to see the kids and John as I left T2 and as I came out of the potty. (T2 time: 2:08; potty time included in the run: approx 3 minutes)

When I started running, I felt GREAT. Seriously. I felt fresh and happy and just perfect. Fairly quickly I noticed my feet felt a little weird - kind of sleepy, I guess - but that went away after about two miles or so. I didn't time my miles until about mile 2 - I was doing a 9:45. I ended up slowing towards the end and doing I think more like a 10:30 - some of those miles included some significant hill, and after the biggest hill I just slowed down. I'm not sure why - I actually felt like I was running fast most of the time - but when I checked my time from mile post to mile post, it was not quite 10 minutes for the miles from 8 to the end.

But I was happy - the goal was to run the whole thing, and I did. There were only a few people walking, unlike at Lake Stevens. The weather was great. I'm sure it was 70 degrees or so, so I was warm, but I wasn't hot and didn't need to pour water over my head or anything. I ate a packet of Jelly Bellys at miles 2, 8, and half a packet at 11, and a GU at mile 5. Anything but PowerBars, seriously. I felt strong. I never felt like I needed to eat, which I think is good - and towards the end, I felt a tiny bit of sloshing in my tummy, which I also think is good. Gordo said we need to learn to run with a full tummy, so I practiced today.

I got a cramp between miles 7 and 8, but I took deep belly breaths and blew it away. I could literally feel it disappear - just as a wind caught me and cooled me off some. Perfect.

I saw Danielle a few times - the course has three out-and-back sections, and she was about a mile behind me or so. As always, she looked happy and beautiful. She ran in a pink skirt, so I was a little jealous. :-)

I was so excited to hit the last turnaround (close to mile 10) then to re-enter the park (mile 11.5 or so), and to hit the trail (mile 11.7). At each of these points, I'm sure I sped up, though I stopped tracking my splits by then. I definitely ran the trail hard, passing one women but getting passed by another, who was just slightly too fast for me that even when I started my sprint at the end, before she started hers, I couldn't quite catch up. (Run time: 2:13:45)

I finished in 6:37:27. I had hoped that my way-better-than-Lake-Stevens run would let me finish in under 6:30 despite the extra six miles of bike, but not quite. However, I finished strong and felt good - definitely not quite as shell-shocked as I was when I finished Lake Stevens and they handed me Gatorade and water in two bottles and I couldn't figure out what to do with the choice. John and the kids were right there with hugs and kisses, and less than 10 minutes later, Danielle arrived!

Now I'm tired and sore, but happy. It was a solid race for me and the right end for this season. Just two marathons this Fall until I hibernate for the winter! (As if!)