Annapolis Triathlon

The shennanigans of this race started a few days earlier when the race directors sent the following note - keep in mind that triathlon rules dictate that wetsuits are not allowed when the water is 78+ degrees:

*** Remember, if you miss your wave start time, the clock is running. Due to the absence of rain this summer, there is the potential for jellyfish or sea nettles during the swim. Take precautions to limit your exposure. Your wetsuit will help, and there are sun screens which provide some protection. The water temp is expected to be close to the USAT wetsuit cutoff of 78F and we will further advise as we get closed to race day. Bring your wetsuits!!

Um, say what???? Thankfully, Joann was able to track down some jellyfish repellant at some scuba dive shop, and Jon located a sea nettle forecast for the chesapeake bay indicating that I had only a 10% chance of running into one.. even with these two facts, I was still quite relieved on race morning when it was announced that the water temp was 77.2 degrees!

After watching members of the Navy band play the national anthem (dressed in their wetsuits, mind you), it didn't take too long until it was time to line up with my wave. I tried to preview the course, but the last buoy was out of sight. Finally, we jumped in and were off. The swim started out as most open water swim starts do, with people grabbing your legs, kicking you, swimming up your back.. the only difference in this race was that we never really spread out like normal, so the trampling continued for the better part of the swim. But all in all, the swim was nice, the water was warm, and it wasn't until the end that I started to see little swimming things in the water.. I did the 1.5K in 36:17 which I'm pleased with.

It became very apparent that the transition is where I really need to put some focus - I spent about 5 minutes in T1 taking off my wetsuit, putting on my bike shoes, drinking some fluids, etc, etc.. This is an average time for me, but I really wouldn't mind shaving off at least a minute of that.. something to think about for next year....

Out on the bike, I felt good.. this was a great course, with mostly rolling hills, 2 significant downhills (one that led right into a 90 degree left turn which made things interesting), and 1 tough climb right in the middle that separated the men from the boys - as you think you're approaching the top, you go around a bend and realize you're only halfway up! ouch. But, after my experience in mountainous Columbia, MD, I'll take it! Coming into the stadium parking lot, I saw - and heard - Joann, Ingrid, Jon & Marc... definitely helped getting up that last incline into T2! I finished the bike in 1:39:07, which was about what I'd expected considering my training lately has been much more run focused and not so much on the bike..

I spent 3 minutes in T2 before heading out on the run.. again, my focus has been on marathon training, not 10K runs, and so my run became another training run instead of a race pace.. which I'm fine with considering the marathon is 4 weeks away. About 20 yards into the run, I found a running buddy and we decided to pace each other, so it was nice having someone to chat with.. the way the course was set up, it allowed my cheer squad to stay in one area and see me multiple times, which was great. my one complaint is that there were no mile markers anywhere on the course.. of course, it was a nice surprise when we go to a water stop hoping we'd gone about a mile, and the lady told us we were at mile 2.5 - yippee!! 1:32:42 total, and consistent with my marathon training pace - next year, I'll focus on speed...

Overall, this was a great race and I'm glad I did it - and again, SO COOL having friends and family there!!

Columbia Triathlon

My alarm goes off at 5:00 AM Sunday morning... race day. I drink about a half gallon of water and eat my peanut butter & jelly sandwich and head over to Centennial Park. Body marking and transition set up goes smoothly (after all, how can you mess *that* up?!), and I meet up with Deb and Sarah around 6:30 with about an hour and a half to kill before my start time. They get me zipped up in my wetsuit (which normally is no big deal, but this zipper was being stubborn), visit the TriCats tent, and watch the earlier waves go.. by this time it's raining.. great, nothing better than a slick bike course, not to mention the torture of the hills that is the Columbia bike course!

Finally, 8:00 rolls around and before I know it, it's time to jump in the water. People say the water temp was cold, but I really didn't notice.. the countdown begins, and I'm off... the first orange buoy looks about 2 miles away, so I stop looking up, and just make sure I've got people on my right and my left, so I'm not going off course. I actually felt really good with the swim.. that orange buoy came up much faster than I thought... in fact, my swim time of 32:58 was about 7 minutes faster than I'd expected. I was quite pleased with the swim.

It took me just under 6 minutes in the transition, and then was off on the dreaded bike. I've been having such trouble with my chain in the past few weeks, that I didn't know what to expect. I'd done the course twice already, so I knew exactly where the big hills were (well, that's easy- they were every half mile or so!). About 6 miles in, my chain fell off.. I just knew this was a sign of trouble, and did not want to spend the entire 25 miles stopping and adjusting my bike. I stopped, and spent about 5 minutes trying to get the chain unstuck and back on... then, I spent the next 5 minutes trying to get it jammed in there even more so that the race officials would tell me that it was un-ridable, and I'd have to drop out. 10 minutes later, the bike people finally drove by, and THEY WOULDN'T LET ME QUIT!!! Seriously- I tried.. hard.. to convince them my bike just couldn't handle the course, but they refused to let me stop. He fixed the chain, and off I was again... ugh.

About 2 miles up the road, the chain fell off again, as I expected it would. This time, there was a volunteer nearby, and I tried to convince him that I was done... he refused to listen, however he did tell me that my brake was rubbing against my front tire. So, basically, I'd done the first 3 tough hills with my brakes partially on... of course, he fixed that too and made me keep going......

By this point, I thought I was dead last, since during my time trying to talk my way out of continuing, I had watched so many people go by (besides, there were only 2 swim waves after me, so how could anyone be left?). I got on my bike and continued on though, quite mad at these race officials who wouldn't drive me back to the transition area. Actually though, that was the last time my chain came off, though I faked it once just to have an excuse to stop for a brief rest... did I mention this course is killer?? :-) Turns out, I wasn't the last person... I caught up with 2 others and managed to keep pace with them. I planned 2:15:00 for the bike and finished in 2:12:28... and if you consider all the time I spent off the bike with the volunteers, I probably could've done it in under 2 hours..

I had a fairly quick 2:47 transition and was off on the run. There were a few other stragglers around me, however the course was not marked, and without the huge masses of people in front of us, we just could not figure out which way to go. At one split in the path, we started going one way until another runner coming towards us told us it was the wrong way (she'd already gone about half mile out of her way). At another turn, I was by myself and tokd a 50/50 guess about which way to go.. for awhile, I didn't see anybody and thought that maybe I'd made the wrong decision.. I decided I didn't care and would just make my way over to the finish any way I could, thus cutting off about 3 miles. No such luck though.. I had indeed chosen the correct path as I came up to the mile 2 marker... then the hills began. Who'd have known the Columbia, MD area was so mountainous! The run course was just as hard as the bike course, but I finally started catching up to some other stragglers and walkers. I saw a girl in front of me with a 31 on her calf and figured if I could just get in front of her, I wouldn't be the last in my age group... so I over took her around mile 4.. I walked the uphills, ran the downhills and just could not wait to be done.

At the last quarter mile, I saw Deb and Sarah.. Deb joined my run and pushed me through the finish, with a total time of 4:31:43... phew. My dad, Jeremy, Kristen and Jayce also met me at the finish, as well as a couple from my triathlon club who waited it out for me. They even had strawberries for me! It was definitely the hardest triathlon I'd ever done, and I am determined to master that bike course by next year! although... I'm still mad about those #*&% race officials who wouldn't let me quit!!

St. Anthony's Triathlon

Pretty psyched for my third Olympic distance triathlon, Jon and I headed down to Tampa a day before Mike, Greta and Nabeel (thanks to Mike's family for letting us stay in their house).  We hung out Friday night and then went on a kayak excursion during the day on Saturday, then it was an early bedtime for me waiting for my early wake up call.  Unfortunately, that "call" came a little earlier than I had in mind, as Joann, Dan, Ingrid and crew are rolling home from a night out in Old Town.... it took 3 rounds of listening to some awful rendition of Bon Jovi before I got Marc on the phone to explain it wasn't voicemail they were talking to.  Finally back to bed for a few hours sleep.

This was by far the worst swim ever, and I don't mean for lack of training or any other factor on my part.  The local Tampa newspaper ran a story on this swim in the days following the race, with the headline,

"A stiff wind kicked up 4-foot swells Sunday, when more than 50 swimmers had to be plucked from Tampa Bay." -- click on the newspaper logo to read the whole story!

My wave start was 8:35 AM, just a few waves earlier than the team in training group that they mention.  The water was so choppy, there were times that I didn't know if I was going to make it.  The waves and wind made it hard to breath and it honestly felt that no matter how hard I swam, I was making absolutely no progress.  My swim time will show that this was indeed my worst time ever, taking over 15 minutes longer than my normal 1500m swim.  Awful, awful, awful.

Moving on to the bike, the rest of the race was uneventful.  The bike course was relatively flat, though the few minor inclines killed me -- really need to do more bike training -- and partly in the shade which was nice.

The run was hard, for me, because I am not a runner.  I walked most of it, but managed to pick it up and run across the finish line where my friends were waiting for me.  4:10:39 is not my best time, but I was happy to be done!

The reward dinner was at Bernards Steakhouse and it was delicious... though I practically fell asleep during dessert despite my fantastic strawberry shortcake.

Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Finish
0:43:09	0:05:41	1:42:08	0:03:33	1:36:09	4:10:40