June 28, 2008
Bellingham, WA
http://www.trithecookie.com/
Race Report
After 4 months of training the week long taper leading up to the race really got to me! I got so anxious about my bike working, my jersey being too small, my shoelaces not being triathlon ready (they use lace-locks…it is very high tech and professional) and etc. Then I got to the pre-race pasta dinner. Here some of our honored teammates stood up and talked about their experiences with blood cancer and how hard those battles were. Each of the women who spoke was diagnosed in a different decade (1976, 1991, 2001) and the difference between their stories was astounding! From Sue (Dx `76) who had 5 subsequent secondary cancers to Jonelle (Dx`01) who was able to finish school while getting treatment, I finally saw the reality of what research can do. It directly shaped the cancer experience for these women and hopefully will continue to break cancer down into the category of understandable/treatable (and dare I say, curable) diseases. After the pasta dinner my pit crew (My mom and Emily) helped me lay out my clothes and made sure I sacked out early.
The race itself was great. It was an unfamiliar 80 degrees and sunny the morning of and we got started bright and early. The TEAM set up our transition areas nearby each other and chatted nervously until it was time to head to the swim.
I actually would have to say the swim was my most eventful leg. I started out in the front of my wave and close on the inside. I went out strong and actually wound up kicking and fighting my way through people a bit (Now I think it was just Steve, a TEAMmate and mentor who was bossy all season and probably deserved it!). After the buoy turn around I found myself headed back strong until I looked up to spot and saw that I was heading into traffic from the other direction (Steve then took the opportunity mid-swim to laugh at me which makes me wish I had been able to kick him harder). I finished the Swim and ran to the transition area. My one snag I need to work on happened here. I HAD to get out of my wetsuit so I stopped right inside the transition area and tried to step out of the wetsuit without getting in other people’s way.
My T1 was pretty quick and I had remembered to get into my smaller chain for the immediate hill. Got out on the bike course and felt pretty winded and disheveled but otherwise OK. Until my one bike snag, during the first mile I kept hearing a clicking noise coming from my front tire. I stopped and investigated but it was just the bike computer sensor was hitting my front tire. Fixed it pretty quick and was off again. The ride was great, I felt good and was surprised at some of the speeds I was able to maintain even on some hills. The big hill at the top was tough but I was glad when I reached it because it meant I was almost 2/3 done!
My T2 was super fast! Since I don’t have bike shoes I had no reason to lollygag so I headed off for the run. This is when I realized I had done a pretty poor job of hydrating and fueling on the bike. It was ~85 out and I probably should have taken that into consideration. The run was hard and I slogged through (which was disappointing). Oh, and my one shoelace came untied.
Crossing the finish line was nice but having my TEAMmates cheering me on and watching my TEAMmates cross the finish line was amazing!
It was a good race and, for the sake of this blog I am going to try to come up with top 3 take home lessons I learned from each race:
1. Don’t stray from your hydration/fueling plan
2. Stay out of people’s way when removing wetsuit, practice that maneuver a lot!
3. Figure out the shoelace issue
Swim 00:14:09.9 T1 00:01:31.6 Bike 01:18:19.0 T2 00:00:44.7 Run 01:00:41.9
Finish 02:35:27.1
No comments:
Post a Comment