Race Report

This past weekend I did my final goal race of the season. It was a Half-Ironman Tritathlon, which consists of a 2K swim (1.2 miles), 90K bike (56 miles) and 21K run (13 miles). I've done this distance once before, three years ago. I had big hopes going into this race because I had done so well in my race in Kingston five weeks ago. But due to myt hip injury/pain, I had not run in almost two weeks. Plus, having been on vacation for six days the week before meant that I didn't do any training during that time. Here's how things played out:

Thursday evening: Had a mild panic attack when I realized that I had left my wetsuit at home in Toronto. Made a frantic call to my best friend H (who was enroute from Boston to TO) to see if she could get it from my place (she's the only one with a spare key) and leave it for my friend EW to pick up before he left on Friday. Plan B was to source a wetsuit from a friend of a friend in Ottawa. Plan C was to do the swim sans wetsuit, which would have been a bit of a challenge. I'm a strong swimmer, but I've become quite dependent (more mentally than physically) on the wetsuit.

Friday evening: Met some friends for an early dinner/drinks. Some of us had never actually met in person as we belong to the same on-line running board. When I got back to I&G's place where I was staying, EW and the wetsuit arrive. Phew!

Saturday morning: Woke up at 5:45. Ate breakfast and waited for EW to be ready to go. Loaded our gear into the car and off we went. Got to the transition area around 7AM and got set up. I had been having a debate with myself over whether or not to do a full change of clothes after the swim as I'd been having some issues from riding in wet cycling shorts. Decided to do the full change, so I set up right near the women's change tent. Since we were there so early, just milled about getting body marked, etc. Chatted with a few friends and put some posters up for our "on-line" team. Got into my wetsuit around 8:40 and headed down to the beach. Got in the water so that I could readjust it around the shoulders. Took a few strokes and noticed how brown and murky the water was. Blech!

The gun went off at 9AM sharp. It was a weird course and with the sun it was hard to spot the buoys. Had to readjust my goggles three times - first, because they had fogged up (despite the anti-fog stuff I put in the night before), then twice more because they had filled up with water. After the first turn I found a nice clear patch of water to swim in (clear of other swimmers, that is). That lap seemed to be finished much sooner, so when I made the final turn for the beach I knew I was almost home free. My 2K swim time in K-town was 41 minutes, so I would have been happy to have a time in and around that today. As I got out of the water I hit the lap split on my watch and looked down: 38:29! Holy Crap!! That's one fast swim for me! It was a short run up to the T-zone from there. I grabbed my little bag of clothes and went into the change tent. I was the only person who had elected to change. No matter, I sucked back a Gu and headed out on my way.

It was a loooooong run in bike shoes from the T-zone to the mount line - probably 300m or so (and that's tough to do in cycling shoes with cleats on the bottom). Got on my bike and headed out on the course. I thought I hit the lap split on my watch but apparently I didn't, so I don't know what my (insanely long) transition time was. Out onto the bike course my plan was to just do reconnaisance for the first lap and try to get my heart rate back down to below 150. Well, that plan didn't work and it was in the 155-157 zone most of the first two laps. That was baaaaaaad for me because by the time lap 3 came along I was toast. I spent most of Lap 2 trying to distance myself from the try-a-triers (these are people who were doing a much shorter distance race than I was and who are generally less experienced) who were riding in little packs (uh, that's called DRAFTING!). Again, I used more energy that I had wanted to. Laps 3 & 4 were nasty. I was really struggling. Laps 5 & 6 were OK as I knew I was almost done.

Since I had had difficulty with the transition run earlier in my bike shoes I decided to try something different this time (normally it's not a good idea to do anything new on race day). I actually got my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike (my shoes were still clipped into the pedals) and run in my socks. That actually worked out pretty well except for some of the rocky bits of the path. I might do that again, depending on what the terrain is like. A quick change then off onto the run.

My legs felt surprisingly good considering how bad I felt on the bike. I settled into a pace and as I passed a guy who was on his second lap he said to me, "Nice pace!" I replied, "It's only my first lap!" Well, he paced off me that entire lap (my first, his second) but always managed to pass me when I took my walk breaks every 10 minutes. I always passed him again once I started running, but towards the end of the lap I had created such a gap that he was unable to catch me, even when I was walking.

All the athletes have markings on their bodies to indicate their age and the race they are in (presumably so that you can try to catch/pass someone who is in your age group). So, on the back of my left leg was written 1/2 T (for Half Ironman triathlon) and on my right, 42 (for my age as of December 31st). Plus, since my age was circled, it meant that I was in the Athena category, which is for women who weigh more than 150 pounds (yes, we have our own division!). The male equivalent is called Clydesdale and their weight cutoff is 200 pounds. There are no secrets in triathlon! On the way back to finish the first lap this young guy (34 on his leg) ran past me and said, "Hey, you're running more like a 24-year-old than a 42-year-old!" Gee, thanks!! That made my day!

As lap two started, the skies opened up. It was a nice break to have the sun go away and the first sprinkling of rain was very refreshing. But when it started for a second time it was a torrential downpour! I was soaked to the bone, but felt quite refreshed (memories of Lake Placid in 2003). As I made the final turn at the furthest point, I said thanks to Volunteer George who had been standing there all day. At first he was startled to see that I knew his name, but I pointed out to him that he was wearing a name tag! I pretty much kept up with my 10:1 (run:walk) the whole way, except in the final lap where the 1s were more like 2s and I walked some of the water stations. I did remember to hit the lap timer on the run, so my first half was done in 1:10 and the second half in 1:19. I'm a bit disappointed in that time, but I've since found out that the run course was likely 23K as opposed to 21K, so I don't feel so bad. And my sore hip held up beautifully - I was barely aware of it, so the two weeks off probably did the trick.

Finishing time by my watch was 6:50:30, but the Sportstats web site has me down as 6:53:48, so not sure how that happened. There's no indication that I got a penalty. My swim and run times are the same, it's my bike + T1 +T2 time that is off. After the race, I scarfed down a burger and some pasta salad, got my medal and headed home. The results weren't posted yet (not for my time, at least), but it turns out that I was first in my category (Athena 40+). This time there were two in my category and there was one other Athena (39-) and I beat her, too! Woo!

My time was five minutes slower than when I did this same race three years ago, but the race was set up in a different location, so the longer runs in/out of the transition zone had an impact on that. Plus, if it's true that the run course was long then that would also account for it.

What I learned:

I always try to learn something from every experience. Here are this year's learnings:

1. Always use a checklist, even if it's your 100th race! It's easy to get complacent about pre-race prep when you've done it so many times. Forgetting my wetsuit was a reminder that I have to continue to do this.

2. That I have come a long way in remaining calm under pressure in the face of having to do the swim without a wetsuit if it came to that.

3. There's a difference between Goals and Expectations. I was listening to talk by a local triathlete who was giving a lecture to the Triathlon Clinic talking about how our expectations can be affected by so many things outside of our control: weather, the course being mis-measured, mechanical difficulties, other competitors, etc. Therefore, "finishing time" is more of an expectation than a goal because there are so many things outside of our control that can affect that (could be said for "scale weight" as well). Goals, on the other hand, we can control to some degree. I felt really strong on the swim and the run, which is what I wanted to do, so that goal was achieved. I did not achieve my goal of riding within my heart rate limit and I am just glad that it didn't have a negative impact on my run (which it very well could have).

4. That losing weight really had had an impact on my performance this year, especially on the run.