I have been kind of missing triathlon a little and had the chance to do a sprint tri, Echo, up close to Park City so made it happen. I'm a sucker for my kids so drove back down to get them, brought them back up to Park City with me to enjoy a hotel night. We swam, wandered the hotel, enjoyed the lounge, walked for slurpees and enjoyed cable (we don't have TV at home). My friend Jen and her 15 and 5 year old daughters came up and joined us and boy was it a party room :)
We all eventually got some sleep and Jen and I left for the race. She was so great in helping set the Altra tent and shoes up and worked it while I raced. It was so lovely to have so many friendly familiar faces say hi. Even though it's only been since last summer it's crazy how it felt like I was coming out of a long retirement that way, loved visiting with friends!
Funny moment - left the house in a hurry so just threw in what tri clothes I could find. Put my tri shorts on at the race, the only pair I brought, only to find out the butt was completely sheer. Like even Jen told me so. I didn't want to have to buy a new pair right then because I am incredibly indecisive, cheap, and didn't love the one pair there. Happened to have my tight Altra shorts in the car and hated to put them on a bike seat but threw them on over the sheer tri shorts (because who doesn't love a pad?) and was good to go.
Kept transition setup quick, simple, and easy - just like it should be. You do not need a duffle bag or bucket next to your, or someone else's bike. Swim cap, goggles, wetsuit. Bike, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, nutrition/hydration on bike. Running shoes, race belt, hat/visor, any nutrition needed. That's it. I've learned with ultras too that the more stuff you have around the longer it takes you with a tired brain to determine what you need. I believe my fast transitions are due to experience and setting out only what I need.
Swim - 6th, 13:56. Seemed like everyone went out fast! I stayed with the leaders in my wave but there were more around me than I was used to. It took until the first turn to loose many. That first 1/3 was hard, anaerobic. The rest of the swim still felt challenging but better, more fluid, familiar. I felt so calm and mentally experienced. I believe I came out of the water second woman of my wave.
T1 - 2nd, 1:21. I ran right up the long ramp with a heart rate high, removed the whole wetsuit by my post swim shoes (this is a dirt, rocky transition area) since I knew it would be a long run to my bike. Good decision. Normally clip my shoes onto the bike but with such a rocky and possibly thorny transition area I decided to put them on there. Got everything else on quickly and ran out, bike held up until the road.
Bike - 8th, 37:19. It was nice! I felt comfortable in aero, enjoyed watching the lead men come back toward me and just enjoyed the sunny nice day and non technical bike course. Was passed by a lot of men in the first 5 minutes which didn't bother me, just made me think I had a good swim, better than I thought with the lack of training (I did like, uh, 4 pool workouts before hand). But it was disappointing to not hear anything. Maybe it's the now ultra runner in me, but seems nice to offer a "hello", "good job", "good morning" when you pass someone. While I did enjoy the bike, and didn't feel particularly weak, times showed I didn't have a lot of power behind me, which I pretty much expected given the lack of time on the bike.
T2 - 6th, 1:00. The guy next to me with too much stuff had his too much stuff all over my running gear which made racking my bike and transitioning hard, but whatever. Simple quick transition. Always know which way ins and outs are.
Run - 1st, 20:24. I was excited to get here and see how many men I could catch. I kind of thought I was lead woman since I didn't see any ahead of me at turn around, but there was another heat in back of me so I wanted to push as hard as I could. Boy does running a 20 minute 5k hurt after so much ultra length, and consequently, slower running. I ran almost as fast as I wanted, but it never felt easy, as it has before when I'm well trained for this. I caught a lot of men, wishing them well in passing, but not quite the guy I was hoping for. Was neat to see so many Altras out there! I wore the Altra 3 Sum 1.5
I didn't go check awards after because I wanted to hang out with Jen at the tent, and I really wasn't too concerned. I was there to have fun. We'd find out at awards. I was kind of surprised that they did age group awards for sprint and olympic before doing overall awards. I've never seen that before. There was almost no one there by the time they did overall. They finally did ours and for the winner called up "Leslie" so I started walking up "Rockwood" or some other last name that wasn't mine. LOL, that could have been embarrassing :) Guess she got me by 1:40 in a wave behind me I think. And that's ok! I had a 2 minute faster run, 20 second slower swim, great transitions, but a considerably slower bike that cost me. 2nd place, 1:14.02. 9th overall with men and women T1 and Run. It was fun just to be out there racing, going through the motions, and seeing so many friendly faces! Not to mention seeing the sweet disabled (I hope that is the right word, I certainly mean no disrespect if not) kids and young adults being pulled by caring strangers so they could do a race they otherwise could not. I would love to do that too sometime.
This may or may not be my only tri for the season. Trying to be good about training for my next big race next month. We shall see!
Funny moment - left the house in a hurry so just threw in what tri clothes I could find. Put my tri shorts on at the race, the only pair I brought, only to find out the butt was completely sheer. Like even Jen told me so. I didn't want to have to buy a new pair right then because I am incredibly indecisive, cheap, and didn't love the one pair there. Happened to have my tight Altra shorts in the car and hated to put them on a bike seat but threw them on over the sheer tri shorts (because who doesn't love a pad?) and was good to go.
Kept transition setup quick, simple, and easy - just like it should be. You do not need a duffle bag or bucket next to your, or someone else's bike. Swim cap, goggles, wetsuit. Bike, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, nutrition/hydration on bike. Running shoes, race belt, hat/visor, any nutrition needed. That's it. I've learned with ultras too that the more stuff you have around the longer it takes you with a tired brain to determine what you need. I believe my fast transitions are due to experience and setting out only what I need.
Swim - 6th, 13:56. Seemed like everyone went out fast! I stayed with the leaders in my wave but there were more around me than I was used to. It took until the first turn to loose many. That first 1/3 was hard, anaerobic. The rest of the swim still felt challenging but better, more fluid, familiar. I felt so calm and mentally experienced. I believe I came out of the water second woman of my wave.
T1 - 2nd, 1:21. I ran right up the long ramp with a heart rate high, removed the whole wetsuit by my post swim shoes (this is a dirt, rocky transition area) since I knew it would be a long run to my bike. Good decision. Normally clip my shoes onto the bike but with such a rocky and possibly thorny transition area I decided to put them on there. Got everything else on quickly and ran out, bike held up until the road.
Bike - 8th, 37:19. It was nice! I felt comfortable in aero, enjoyed watching the lead men come back toward me and just enjoyed the sunny nice day and non technical bike course. Was passed by a lot of men in the first 5 minutes which didn't bother me, just made me think I had a good swim, better than I thought with the lack of training (I did like, uh, 4 pool workouts before hand). But it was disappointing to not hear anything. Maybe it's the now ultra runner in me, but seems nice to offer a "hello", "good job", "good morning" when you pass someone. While I did enjoy the bike, and didn't feel particularly weak, times showed I didn't have a lot of power behind me, which I pretty much expected given the lack of time on the bike.
T2 - 6th, 1:00. The guy next to me with too much stuff had his too much stuff all over my running gear which made racking my bike and transitioning hard, but whatever. Simple quick transition. Always know which way ins and outs are.
Run - 1st, 20:24. I was excited to get here and see how many men I could catch. I kind of thought I was lead woman since I didn't see any ahead of me at turn around, but there was another heat in back of me so I wanted to push as hard as I could. Boy does running a 20 minute 5k hurt after so much ultra length, and consequently, slower running. I ran almost as fast as I wanted, but it never felt easy, as it has before when I'm well trained for this. I caught a lot of men, wishing them well in passing, but not quite the guy I was hoping for. Was neat to see so many Altras out there! I wore the Altra 3 Sum 1.5
I didn't go check awards after because I wanted to hang out with Jen at the tent, and I really wasn't too concerned. I was there to have fun. We'd find out at awards. I was kind of surprised that they did age group awards for sprint and olympic before doing overall awards. I've never seen that before. There was almost no one there by the time they did overall. They finally did ours and for the winner called up "Leslie" so I started walking up "Rockwood" or some other last name that wasn't mine. LOL, that could have been embarrassing :) Guess she got me by 1:40 in a wave behind me I think. And that's ok! I had a 2 minute faster run, 20 second slower swim, great transitions, but a considerably slower bike that cost me. 2nd place, 1:14.02. 9th overall with men and women T1 and Run. It was fun just to be out there racing, going through the motions, and seeing so many friendly faces! Not to mention seeing the sweet disabled (I hope that is the right word, I certainly mean no disrespect if not) kids and young adults being pulled by caring strangers so they could do a race they otherwise could not. I would love to do that too sometime.
This may or may not be my only tri for the season. Trying to be good about training for my next big race next month. We shall see!
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