But on Friday, I was wondering if I’d even be able to race on Sunday. I was cooking dinner for Ryan (yep, two times in one week… I’m getting the hang of this cooking thing!), and I went to go grab something from the frig. The second I lifted off of my left foot, the area that I had a stress reaction in (cuboid bone—in between the 4th and 5th metatarsal) FLARED up. Immediate pain. Like 8/10 pain level. Standing on my feet, no issue. Pushing off of my foot, immediate pain. I was seriously worried.
I think I hid it pretty well, but I was EXTREMELY nervous for this race. Being that it was a Sprint Tri (1/2 mile swim, 15.5mile bike, 4 mile run), it really wouldn’t play into my strengths so really no one would expect me to do well. Plus, having just come back from my weird foot problem, I really didn’t have too much pressure to do well. But the competitor in me naturally wanted to do well, so nervous energy surrounded me for a few days leading up to the race (because I literally waited until the last day to sign up for the race!). I was probably most nervous about my foot holding up since I had only done a handful of runs, and only 3 “speed workouts” up until this point. My former strength was now the question mark in this race.
Ryan and I had a wedding the night before, so I made sure to control things that I could: as soon as we left the church, I swapped my dressy sandals for my Birkenstocks; I made sure to stay hydrated (it was pretty hot and humid!); and I made sure to stay off of my feet as much as possible with the fear of my foot flaring up like Friday in my mind. We had a lot of fun at the wedding, but didn’t get home until midnight. 4 hours of sleep before my first triathlon back? Sure, no problem.
I was all sorts of emotions at this point and went to join my #RyBreadRacing friends in the water. Before I knew it, the “elite wave” was just about to begin the race.
Everyone in the “Elite Wave” would be a faster swimmer than me, so I tried to just focus on taking the shortest path. The swim began straight out into the sun, making the first turn buoy hard to see. Fortunately, I wore my tinted goggles and was pretty much swimming solo and able to sight well. My wetsuit felt so strange on my body (I hadn’t worn it since Lake Placid last July), so I think my time could have been faster had I done a practice swim or two in my wetsuit. But, in all fairness, I hadn’t planned on doing this race until 3 days prior. I will definitely be doing more practice swims in my wetsuit, though, before Lake Placid!
My swim time was 12:2x (depending if I count my watch or the official results—I prefer my watch!). I had swam a 400 in the pool on Friday in 7:06, so I was feeling okay with my time in the water.
As soon as I got from the sand onto the pavement where our bikes were racked, my foot started hurting. OH NO. The same feeling had happened in Kona the year I ran with my (unknown) torn plantar. I told myself to ignore it as barefoot running is just something I’m not used to.
Once I got to my bike, I had a familiar face cheering for me: Sara Nelson. Sara and I lived down the street from one another growing up, she did cross country her senior year, and actually ended up at U of I during my time there and met Ryan along the way! We had exited the water in similar times and were both hardcore struggling with taking off our wetsuits (stupid bulky Garmin!).
The start of the bike has you going straight up a hill. I had debated clipping my bike shoes in ahead of time and decided to leave them clipped onto my bike. I definitely struggled up the hill, and probably lost a few seconds (as evidenced by being passed) from fumbling to put my feet in my shoes, but oh well. At least I didn’t fall off of my bike.
As Ryan had predicted, we immediately encountered a huge headwind going up the Miller Road “hill.” Now, when I lived at my parents house, this was a ride I would do often. It is by no means steep, but with the wind coming straight at you, it’s certainly not pleasant. Fortunately I saw Megan’s dad right before the climb and Jess and Istvan right after the climb, so at least I had some cheers to keep me grinding away!
My quads were on FIRE.
That’s the thing with these sprint triathlons: if you want to do well, you really have to be uncomfortable pretty much the whole time you’re racing. My watts were right where Ryan had told me to be, so I thought I might even have the top female bike split (spoiler alert: I was 2nd). I knew if I could pass my former coach, Jen Harrison, before coming into the second transition, I’d be in a pretty good position. I checked my bike clock just before going down Miller Road and was really pushing to break 40-minutes. Unfortunately, I forgot about the whole slowing down to dismount thing (and nearly wiped out as my disc wheel skidded quite a bit), so came in just over 40minutes. Not a bad ride.
After skidding to a (barely) stop before the timing mat, I quickly hopped off my bike as Jen was right on my tail. I racked my bike, took off my helmet, and slowly/calmly put on my socks. Jen yelled to me, “C’mon, Jacqui!” as I grabbed my belt and a gel before following her out of T2.
Best part of T2? My dad was the one directing us out of it! Very, very cool. Happy Fathers Day, pops!
What used to be the best part of my race was again in question this time around. I had 10 runs under my belt at this point, five of them consisting of some pace work. I had just done 3x1mile descends on Tuesday and hit 6:35, 6:18, 6:13, so was hoping my average pace could be 6:30, but also knew not to set super high expectations for my first race back.
The second mile starts with a bit of a downhill, so I was very happy to be able to open up my stride and use that free speed. I was definitely gaining on the guy who had passed me, but also knew my legs were already starting to feel the “out of shape-ness” from only 10 days back of running. Second mile: 6:28. Nice.
The third mile is tough. You’ve just come off of the bike path and into a neighborhood before heading up a horrible hill where you eventually get to turn around in a school parking lot. Fortunately, this is also where they have water and Gatorade…because you definitely need a swig at that point.
I was able to see everyone I had worked so hard to pass on the bike as I was coming down the hill, and was determined to keep the momentum going once I would return onto the bike path. Mile 3: 6:39.
Overall run time was 26:32… 10 seconds short of the fastest run split. Having the fastest run had always been my “proud moment” in my races, but I knew I had tough competition and was also super unsure of where my run fitness was at, so have to be happy with my result.