With just two weeks until race day I tried to get in a bit of training to maintain my Timberman fitness. I also managed to get sick, which first started as an ear infection and then evolved into a cold. One week out from the race I was not in good shape. I did try to make everyone around me as sick as possible hoping that, through some kind of triathlon six degrees of separation, it would soften up the competition, but I knew that I needed to get better. By race morning I was maybe 90% recovered. The ear infection was now a minor annoyance and the cold had been downgraded to just coughing. But I felt okay.
Race morning, things were looking up. The weather was warm and the lake was smooth. I got my number, racked my bike, and set up my transition area as the other athletes were coming in. Remembering my own advice from Timberman to get in a rigorous warm-up, I set out on a run, and decided to just run the whole run course. This was a mistake. While only three miles, it was very hilly. Worse, however, was the fact that the race coordinators hadn't fully marked the run course so I ran what I thought it was which meant that I was out there much longer than I had planned, and more tired than I would have liked.
Back from my warm-up I got ready to race which meant, for the very first time, putting on my borrowed wetsuit (thanks to team equipment manager TOMasz!). At 8:00 I was ready to go, in the water with the first wave of 20-49 year old men. This was by far the best swim I've had in a race. First, despite the melee at the beginning, I quickly found some open water and could get into a stroke. Second, because I immediately went to a 1-2-breathe rhythm I felt more under control. The course was a clockwise triangle and, out to the first buoy, things looked good. There, however, problems emerged. The second leg had us swimming right into the sun (well, not literally) so it was really hard to see the buoys to sight. For a while I just paced with the guy next to me, but soon it was apparent that it was the blind leading the blind because we were both off course, having gone far out from the buoy line. Working my way back into the course, I started hitting bodies again. Things opened up at the second turn, and then it was just a straight shot. I could see the leaders out in front with a big gap between me and them. I exited the water 6th, finishing the .5 mile in 14:40.
Coming into T1 my goal was to get out of the wetsuit smoothly. I did get slowed up a bit when I had to stop to tell an official my number (which I could barely remember) and my goal of being stripped to the waist (wetsuit wise) before reaching my bike was not met. Nevertheless, I got out of it fairly easily and got my bike gear on and was out the gate. Now here I notice where the elites also do well. My T1 was 1:47--people ahead of me were out in :46. That's something to work on since that's a free minute of race time.
The course started out right on a climb out of transition onto the main road. For the most part the first half of the out-and back course was pretty much downhill. At one point, coming into an intersection a large van had pulled besides me and put on his right run signal--I was not amused. I hit my breaks until I was sure that the van was being stopped and I was being waved through, but I lost a lot of momentum. The turn around was also a bit tricky--literally a U-Turn in the middle of the street. I really had to fight to keep my bike out of the dirt, and again lost quite a bit of momentum. The ride back was a bear--up, up, up, and up again. Fortunately there was a nice headwind on the way back so I could really feel good about complaining. I was getting passed by people and becoming discouraged. I rolled into T2 just shy of 57:00 and was out on the run 46 seconds later.
The run started up that same hill as the bike course, and here I think the extra long warm-up did not help. My legs just did not feel fresh, which wasn't helped by the hilly bike course. But, I motored along, again getting passed by a couple of people. It really wasn't until the last mile that I found a happy rhythm, but by then it was too late. The 3 miles took me 20:14, which I wasn't really happy with, but oh well. I was happy to see the finish line and bring the day to a close, finishing in 1:33:49.
That was good enough to put me in 3rd for my age group, which garnered me a nifty coffee mug. Finally I had something to drink my syrup out of! The real action after the race, however, took place during the charity raffle. My dad and step mom (who had come up to cheer) bought a bunch of tickets and won just about everything--a T-Shirt, two running caps, some certificates for kids triathlons (which they gave away) and a complimentary entry to an Xterra race next August (which I will do).
So, with the awards and prizes handed out I made my way back to transition to collect my things. That's when I noticed it: my water bottle cage was dangling off of my rear seat mount by a single, loose screw. So now, once again, I must venture into a bike shop and who knows what I'll walk out with this time. Or, maybe I'll just order some on-line.
