August 14, 2008

Satsop International Triathlon

1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, 10k run


Ok, so I need to work on relaxing my upper body when I run. Got it.

38 athletes lined up along the lake in Vance Creek County Park to do the Olympic distance race. It was a foggy morning, but the fog was lifting fast. Jet City Tri was out en force with seven members racing in the club Olympic distance championship race. The JCT support crew was there as well. The transition area was small, in fact, it was tiny. This could make for some fast transition times and it wasn’t very likely that you’d forget where your bike was.

Swim - 31:53
The water was plenty warm, but not too warm for a wet suit. During the swim warm-up, my goggles wouldn’t hold a seal, so I had David run and get my spares out of my transition bag. Thank goodness I had the spares and thank goodness I had my support! As the countdown began, the JCT-ers were calling out each others’ names in encouragement. Someone said, “Jeez, how many people do you know at this race?” Loved that!

It was an out-and-back course that we swam three times. We didn’t have to get all the way out of the water between laps, but we did have to wade or swim a few meters from shore between two cones. I tried picking up a draft a couple of times but I didn’t find anyone swimming close enough to my speed for a consistent period of time. It seemed like most of the swimmers went off a bit too hard and faded on the last lap. All but the leaders that is. I saw one swimmer that was waaaaay ahead of the rest of us.

T1 – 1:40
After seeing my slow times from last week, I was determined to improve my transition times in this race. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to actually practice this and learn some transition techniques because determination alone ain’t doin it. I was 1:48 in T1 at Federal Escape and 1:40 in T1 this race. Yes, I shaved off 8 secs here but my T2 time was actually slower in this race than it was the week before.

Bike – 1:12:30, 20.7 mph
The bike course was one loop that took us past the two defunct nuclear cooling towers. There was a ¾ mile hill with a 5% grade which I hadn’t planned on, followed by a couple miles of rollers. This part was all on chip seal road which isn’t the smoothest ride, but I’ve become quite used to it this past year. The last 15 miles of the bike was flat and fast. I only carried two water bottles this time which was plenty. I had two gels during the bike.

T2 – 1:13
Oh dear. Eight seconds slower than last week. I’m not sure what went wrong, but I do remember saying out loud that I was having difficulties here. Robin and Karen were both cheering me on, telling me I was doing great.

Run – 48:46
Starting out on the run, my legs felt like footless stubs. Not that they weren’t ready to run (thanks to my weekly brick in tri training class) but my feet were just plain numb. It feels weird but doesn’t seem to affect my running.

This was the best part of the race, and typically the run is the part I enjoy the least. This time, I had six other JCT mates giving me high fives all along the course. I also had awesome inspiration from Laura and Cathleen who knew I was working on upping my run intensity. They’re encouragement really helped me stay out of a comfortable jog and challenge myself to actually run. Laura blazed passed me with a mile left in the run. She would have passed me eight minutes earlier if she hadn’t been misdirected on the course. Bryan and Paul ran the whole thing side-by-side and when we passed each other going opposite directions, they let me run right between the two of them for double high fives!

I had bought new running shoes the day before, and while I don’t recommend racing in shoes you haven’t practiced in, they felt fantastic. It was the same make and model shoes I’ve been running in for the past couple years, so the risk of them not fitting right was pretty low.

The run was two out-and-back laps with a cone and a black van at the turnaround. The black van was playing some great tunes, hand-picked for racing I’m sure, as the first time I came around it was pumping out Clubbed To Death from the Matrix soundtrack. Not likely that this song is on the airwaves in Elma.

My finish time was 2:36:04 and I came 3rd in my age group, behind Monique and Laura. We pulled off 1, 2 and 3 which was great. I got a pre- and post-race massage. I think it help stave off my leg/back/bun pain quite a bit.

It was a really fun day out and I just loved seeing everyone out on the course.