I can’t really describe how amazing it feels after finishing a race and talking with others. I think that’s the part I truly have missed the most about competing. Talking with others after races is great, but talking with others after you’ve both raced is even better.
First, Megan and Mark. Thanks for driving with me, entertaining me, and being my second set of bike mechanic eyes this weekend. Kati, thanks for hanging out with me and getting out our nerves :)
Ryan. First race without you, but you managed to still make sure everything was set up perfectly for me. How did I get so lucky?
Denise Smith of Smith Physical Therapy….more to come on her! BUT, if you’re in the Crystal Lake area and in need of a great physical therapist, definitely check her out!
On a related note, Katy Sandberg (if you live in the city and need a PT, she’s your girl!) is amazing as well. These two PTs both checked in on me before and after the race…talk about support!
EGO Power Plus for providing support to keep me racing and believing in my comebacks… and for helping us keep our house look like we aren’t just out training all day (though, wouldn’t that be the life?!).
Sammy’s Bikes for keeping me on the sweetest bike around.
PowerBar for fueling me and helping me not “bonk” on the bike or run.
Ice Friction for my super smooth chain to help the P5 perform well.
Alto for my super fast wheels. I was SO nervous to bike without Ryan (aka my mechanic) being there on race day, but Megan, Mark and I triple checked my bike, and it was ready to go. Every time I’d speed up and hear the “zoom zoom” of the wheels, I would just feel unstoppable (though, a few times, my legs didn’t quite match that feeling!).
The biggest goal I struggled with was “make myself uncomfortable,” as I knew I simply couldn’t afford to do this on the run. Was I uncomfortable on the swim? Yes. And it resulted in a HUGE P.R. Was I uncomfortable on the bike? Yes. And overall I’m pretty happy with the result. Was I uncomfortable on the run? At times.
I’m finding it more of a mental than physical struggle with the run component lately as I don’t ever want to get myself back to the random injury state I was in from the end of March through May. When something as random as my cuboid stress reaction happens, it’s hard to ignore the, “What if?” questions that come up.
We arrived to dark skies, but hopped out of our car ready to pick up our packets. Except the volunteers yelled at us to go back to our cars. Sure enough, we were less than 10m from Megan’s car and it started downpouring. My previously stick straight hair was curly within seconds. It was insane! Mark and I quickly realized we would NOT be getting in our pre-race ride.
I had considered completely taking the day off since I was obviously not going to get the chance to ride my bike, but really wanted to test the new speed laces I put in my Fastwitch. Really happy I made that call as my foot flared up. I had two choices: run in the Fastwitch and hope the flare up was just a fluke or run in brand new Kinvaras with my orthotics. Since both of my fabulous PT friends had texted me, I told them my situation and my plan to go back to the stinking orthotics.
I always situate myself near the inside of the buoys as I’m pretty good at swimming a straight line (one of the only things I’m good at in the water—I just want to get out as quickly as possible!). There were only a few girls in front of me, and I remembered Ryan’s advice, “Put yourself near the front; you’re not in Kona where everyone is better than you… you’ll have one of the top swim splits today.”
I remembered there were 8 or 9 yellow buoys going out and 8 or 9 orange buoys going back, so made a game out of counting the buoys. Unfortunately, the few waves that started right in front of my age group (F30-34) were Males 35-39 and Males 40-44 and I was already passing some by yellow buoy #3. It was going to be a congested day! Once we hit 8 yellow buoys, we turned right and swam past one yellow and one orange buoy before making another right hand turn. During this stretch, I stayed super close on the inside line to the buoys and didn’t run into too many guys. The main congestion began once I made the second turn and began going for orange buoys #2-8 as not only was I practically swimming on top of guys, but I could also not see as well since we were swimming into the sun.
As I exited the water, I saw 33:xx on my watch and about fell over. I swam 4 lengths of the lake by my house (approximately 1.2miles) on Monday in 34.5minutes, so I figured low-34 would be a great swim… I was SHOCKED to see a time in the 33s.
Once again, I found myself running all over the place to get around the guys in front of me. It is so crazy to me that people WALK out of the water (it’s probably a good ¼ mile from the water to transition) and take up the whole carpeted area. While the rocks I had to step on while weaving in and out of these walkers didn’t feel good on my feet, my adrenaline was pumping from such a good swim that I didn’t even care that my feet were getting beat up.
After slipping and sliding around in a little mud and literally carrying my bike through transition, I was finally able to put it down on the ground and get situated.
Once I was on the bike, I felt like I was constantly saying, “On your left!” so it was no wonder that my throat was hurting me near the end of the day. The first 5.5-6miles are through residential areas before getting onto US-35. Once onto US-35, we go down and back two times before heading back through to transition.
It took me a bit to get going, which isn’t uncommon. I made sure to take in fluids and grab some nutrition during the residential portion so that I could really try and hammer once onto the highway.
Ryan marvels at my ability to get faster as the race goes on, so I kept reassuring myself that my legs would come around eventually. I knew two strong swimmers would be in front of me for sure, so made it my goal to search for them once onto the highway. I clocked the first girl as about 4minutes in front of me on my way down US-35. I told myself if I could gain one minute on her each loop, we’d come into transition together. Game. On.
Except my legs didn’t agree fully. I’ve never really had this happen so it’s hard to describe, but there were four different times where my legs just felt as though they were going through the motions. Like, no matter what I did, they just wouldn’t respond. This would only last :30-:45, but it was still precious time that I was losing when added all together.
Once I came around to the 2nd down-and-back 180-degree-turn, I clocked only 3:10 down. Not a full minute improvement, but I was gaining! The 3rd down-and-back 180-degree-turn had me just under 2minutes down, so I knew I could potentially be hopping off the bike with these girls if my legs held out.
I was just shy of the power goal Ryan set for me, and would like to think that if I had hit his goal (I was 2 watts shy), I would have come off of the bike at the same time, but, I was still happy with my overall bike split.
Halfway through the bike, my split was 1:14:08… double that to be 2:28:16, so I was slightly faster on the second half. This was a 3+ minute PR again, so I was pretty pleased hopping off of the bike.
I decided to take my little pit stop to use the porta potty here in hopes that my sloshing stomach might calm down a bit for the run. After clearing the muddy/watery timing mat, it was time to go!
Typing that run split is a bit frustrating because it totally does not represent where my run fitness is at right now. But, it does represent me being smart, and that was part of my promise coming into this race: I need to be smart and not damage my body since my KEY race would only be 15 days later.
As I exited transition, SO many awesome people were cheering for me (thanks!!). It made me just float during the first mile. I clocked a 6:45 comfortably, but knew holding onto that pace might not be the smartest of choices at this time.
I had already checked off 3 of my 4 goals (swim PR, be uncomfortable, see where I’m at), so with the only goal left being “Qualify for 70.3 Worlds,” I told myself to make a smart decision. I knew Fiona was still ahead of me, but she already had a slot for Worlds so catching her would not really matter. I also knew there was another girl in my age group ahead of me, but was uncertain if she had a slot or not. My plan was to catch her then dial things back.
My stomach was feeling a little upset and I still had liquids sloshing in my stomach, so I figured taking a little porta potty break wouldn’t be a bad thing. I felt SO refreshed and ready to go, but had to remind myself the need to be smart. I was starting to feel a slight blister at this point as well, which actually helped me in dialing back the effort.
As I climbed the final hill and turned onto the grass to head into the finishing chute, I couldn’t help but become a little emotional. I never take any finish line for granted these days.
Yes, you can still have conversations after races even if you don’t compete, but it’s a much different conversation when you’re healthy and able to compete.
Thank you to everyone who talked with me post race… I have a huge cheesy grin on my face thinking of all of the fun talks I had and can’t wait to chat it up with people after Lake Placid!