Iron Mountain Sprint Race Report

Another short triathlon, another small field and another podium finish. I could get used to that last part!

I had been warned the race might not be the best organized but was still surprised that it started half an hour late. My swim warm up went from reasonably long to way, way too long - I was in the water for 55 minutes before the race started. That was plenty of time to get chilled and lose all benefit of my warm up run. I guess I'm not used to doing the "second fiddle" races, like sprints seem to be.

It was a beach start but with only about 70 racers and a wide starting area it wasn't too crazy. From some reason everyone seemed to swim way off to the right. After the initial 100m the swimmers around me all swerved to the right and to get a draft I would have had to swim about 10m off course to get a pair of toes.

I opted to keep my line and try to get a draft at the first turn. Unfortunately the swimmers at my pace took the turn wide, I didn't get jostled but I also didn't get close enough to draft. Same thing at the next turn. Very odd. I spent the return leg just out of draft range from a pack of about 10, never managing to catch up.

Swim time: 15:39

I lost a bit of time in T1 cleaning off my sunglasses, it had been raining all morning and they were too fogged up to see through. The guy next to me on the rack took the time to towel off! Did I mention it was raining?

I spent most of the bike passing people, which was good for my ego. There were lots of beginners, so a lot of yelling "On your left!" so they'd move over. It was pretty spread out though, not s terribly crowded course.

One of my bike goals was to be passed as late in the ride as possible by Natasha. I'm a faster swimmer than her (for the moment!) but she's a very strong cyclist so I knew she was coming. She caught me 2/3s of the way through the third lap, so I was happy with that. I kept her in sight the rest of the ride.

Bike time: 48:20

A bit of a rookie move at the dismount, I got off my bike a too soon and had an extra ten seconds of running.

Quick change to run gear, to the cheers of LETC folk who'd done the Olympic earlier in the day.

I could still see Natasha in front of me but knew from her pace it was unlikely I'd pass. Not that I didn't try!

On the second loop Stephanie, who had her schwag from winning the oly women's race, told me I was probably the 4th woman. This gave me an extra push and as I passed a two women I had the urge to ask which lap they were on. Sadly they were on their first and I never caught Natasha so I finished 4th overall. Also, because the race had ten year age groups, Natasha was in my AG and took first.

Run time : 22:04 (4.6 km course)

Overall time: 1:28:41

Post Race Checklist

- Bag full of wet stinky gear
- Jiffy marker on arm(s) and leg(s)
- Body Glide in hair
- Mud / sand / grass on everything
- That thing that your club mate forgot (medal, wetsuit, keys, child)
- Random bruises
- Sunburn(s) in bizarre spots
- Desperate need for food / coffee / shower / nap / trauma counseling
- Big grin

Oliver Wine Capital Sprint Race Report

For my first triathlon of year I did the Oliver Wine Country sprint this weekend.

Normally I've done at least one race by this time of year but having done the Bahamas marathon in January and following it with a disastrous half marathon at the First Half in February, I was happy to take a few months off racing. Alan has said that there's no need to do Olympic distance races to prep for a half iron and I'm happy to stick with the shorter distances for now.

It was fun going back to the Wine Country Sprint (or wino race, as Alan has been calling it) as that was my first open water triathlon back in 2005 and my second ever tri. This was a very different race from 2005, that biggest difference was the lack of pre-race nerves. Well, that and the fact that I'm fitter and way, way more experienced. I lost track some time ago of the number of races I've done in the past six years, but I'm pretty sure it's over thirty.

Mary and I arrived Saturday afternoon and went to Tuclenuit Lake to test how cold the water really was. I proved conclusively that it was too cold to swim in without a wetsuit by swimming in it in just my bathing suit. Actually, once my arms and legs went numb it wasn't so bad! We also rode part of course to get in a ride and to familiar ourselves with the course.

With our workouts out of the way we got down to the important business - wine tasting! We hit a few wineries and came away with several bottles each. It was the Wine Capital triathlon, it would be bad karma not to sample some.

Race morning we arrived in time for me to do a short ride, run and swim warm up. The race start was crowded and chaotic but things got sorted pretty quickly. As usual, I didn't find anyone to draft off so did most of the swim on my own. On the return portion of the out and back course I started to get my rhythm in the swim and feel like I was going fast. For my next race I think I need much more time warming up for the swim.

Coming out of the swim I was happy with my time - 14:24 is close to my pool TT times and definitely not bad for my first open water swim of the year. It went from happy to confused when I got to my bike rack. It was full. I've never been the first to my bike rack in a tri. Ever.

I headed out of T2 happy that I was ahead and expecting to be passed as fast bikers made it out of the water. On my way to the first turn around I was exited to see Nicole in the lead. As I neared the turn I realized there weren't a lot of women between me and Nicole. Not a position I'm used to in races.

Close to the second turn around I passed Nicole as she was changing a flat. Noo! Her lead was lost. I counted the women coming back from the turn to see how places she had lost and realized I was third. Nicole passed me shortly after the turn and I told her her placing.

I was in fourth place and on my way back to transition. I'd never been close to placing well overall in a race and I started to stress about my transition time. It had never mattered much when I was merely racing against my own times and going for a personal best, but now I really, really wanted to place, at least in my age group, and a poor transition could cost that. I may have to pay more attention in transition workouts this season!

I was beat out of transition by a woman at my rack. I was now fifth. I left T2 with the goal of putting in as much space between me and women behind me as I could, fully expecting to be passed.

Near the halfway mark I saw Nicole was now in second but would have to put in an incredible effort to take first. I had just passed another racer and was in fourth but, shortly after the turn, saw Kristie from my club closing in. I decided to kick it up a notch and make Kristie work for it if she wanted to pass me.

With just under a km to go I yelled back at Kristie that if she wanted fourth she'd have to come and get it. Her friends and family were cheering near the finish and I yelled at her to come on, and then tried to put in a sprint. I managed to beat her by five seconds.

She was psyched when I told her she was fifth overall and at least third in her age group. Not bad for her first triathlon! I've decided I'm going to enjoy this victory over Kristie, which may sound unsportsmanlike as she's a rookie but I have a feeling that she'll soon be very fast and I likely won't be beating her ever again so I'm taking my victory now!

In checking the results I found out that I was first in my age group, and definitely fourth overall. I've never won my age group in a tri and never placed anywhere near that high overall so I was very excited. I'll come back to earth when I do a bigger race, but for now I'm enjoying the moment.

Quote for Today

"If you are irritated by every rub,

how will you be polished?"

Rumi

I'm no Rocket Surgeon* - My 2011First Half Half Marathon Race Report

Somewhere around the 8 mile mark in today's race I wondered "What was I thinking?" I had decided pre-race that a 1:50 or faster race was doable, and in fact a PR was well within my reach, however 2/3 of the way through the race reality was viciously kicking in.

For your edification, you may not want to aim for a PR half marathon when:
- you did your first full marathon a month ago
- you miscommunicated with your coach, who didn't realize you had the race on your schedule, but still followed your plan and didn't taper or adjust your workouts the week prior in any way
-your longest run in the past three weeks was nowhere near a half marathon time or distance.

Seems somewhat obvious in retrospect, probably not really anything I needed to learn the hard way.

One thing I was experimenting with was running without a fuel belt or water bottle, relying entirely on the on course aid stations. There were four aid stations, one we passed twice, so not a lot of chances to drink on course.

I definitely had issues with fueling, my mile splits got progressively slower up to 6 miles. I had a gel and downed it with water from an aid station then suddenly was able to run my target pace for a mile. After that my pace dropped precipitously, I'm not sure How much of a difference having my own water would have made but the sugar rush and then crash from quickly downing a gel didn't help me much.

My mile splits are telling (I was aiming for 8:23/mile)
1 - 7:57
2 - 8:52
3 - 8:35
4 - 8:50
5 - 8:37
6 - 8:39 (ate a gel)
7 - 9:02
8 - 8:27 (gel kicked in!)
9 - 8:52 (and the gel is gone)
10 - 8:41
11 - 8:56
12 - 9:20
13 - 10:25 (seriously!)

Final time - 1:56:21

* One of the best phrases I found on the interwebs in 2010. I'm also fond of "all intensive purposes."