Loveland, CO, 6/26/2010
Pre-race: I was worried about making this race on time, and because of it, I hardly got any sleep the night before. Craig and I were camped about 30-40 mins away from the race site, on top of a mountain with little reception. I think I checked and rechecked whether my phone alarm worked with no reception at least 10 times before I went to bed. We got up early, I forget what time now, and packed up real quick. It didn't take too long, because we didn't set-up an extensive camp. On the way Craig needed to stop at Starbucks. Stopping on my way to a race is not something I am usually keen on doing, but this guy got up super early on a non-work day to take me to my race and then spend hours standing around waiting for me, so of course I was okay with it! When we got to the race site, at Loveland High School, there was a giant line around the building. Time crept away, and it was soon to be race start time, and I was no where close to being ready. What made me feel better, though, was that I was in line with everyone else in the race, so I knew they wouldn't start the race until this line died down, whatever it was for. By the time I got to the front of the line, I realized it was the line into transition, where they had 1 person checking your bike out, and body-marking you. HUGE race organization fail! You need to split that job up, and have several people doing each. Once I get into transition, I realize the lack of organization didn't stop at the entrance. The bike racks were not numbered at all, and it was a free-for-all on finding a spot for your bike. This was the first race I had done that didn't have race-number specified bike racks. Oh well, found a spot and set-up my gear and headed down to the lake.
Swim (1.5 km): Craig and I swam a bit in the lake the day before the race, after I checked in. The beach is nice, but it was kind of crowded, so we walked to the far end of the beach, and it was real mucky! Gunk mixed with gunk, over mud, was all we could walk on. "Good thing the swim tomorrow starts/ends on the beach!" was all I could think.The water was nice, a little warmer than is ideal for swimming in a race, but good enough anyways. For me, this swim was very important, because it was my second Olympic distance swim after my disaster swim. My first try at this distance was at the Age Group Nationals the previous year, and I was totally unprepared for it. With my poor swimming skills, and the fact that the gates on an upstream dam were released before the race, I had no chance and finished that swim in almost an hour and a half, but that's another story! So this race I was hoping to get this sour taste out of my mouth, and gain some swimming momentum. The first buoy was about 50 yards from the beach, and so I decided I would take this start to get into a rhythm and just swam nice and slow to find it. Once I got around the buoy, I maintained my rhythm and just picked up my pace a little bit. The swim went great, I was able to maintain my rhythm the entire time, stroke-stroke-breathe-stroke-stroke-breathe, and I didn't stop the entire time. The only time I lifted my head out of the water, was to site and make sure I was going in the right direction. This gave me huge confidence, and also made me feel stronger going into the next leg of the race. Getting out of the water, there was at least a 1/4 mile run from the beach to the transition area, and this added time was included in my swim time.
Swim Result - 33:44 (2:03 min/100 yards), 382nd overall
Transition 1: My transitioning seems to be getting more consistent, and I didn't have any trouble switching between my wet suit and my biking shoes. Although, I hardly burned a blazing trail.
T1 Result - 1:52
Bike (30 miles): Leaving the transition area and heading out on my bike, I was completely expecting on having an awful bike ride. I hadn't tried riding at elevation before, and the race was a couple thousand feet above sea level, so I was thinking that this was going to really affect my race. That coupled with the race distance (the longest I've raced to date), I wasn't expecting much. The first 10 miles were mostly through neighborhoods, which made it difficult because of the constant turning from street to street. I couldn't get into any great spinning rhythm. Then the Rocky Mountains showed up. Huge massive mountains! For climbing sections of the race, I just dropped my gears down real low, and focused on just spinning my legs until I was at the top of the climb, not worrying about other people. To date, my fastest mile ever biked included the decent of one of these climbs, at 1:52 for the mile (31.9 mph average), I was flying! The bike leg finished with a long straight section of rollers, which I was able to keep a really good pace at. People were cranking on this part, flying down the rollers and powering up the other end, so I just kept pace. This is what really helped me pick up lost time on the first part of the leg.
Bike Result - 1:33:29 (19.3 mph average), 338th overall
Transition 2: With the confidence gained from my swim, and the confidence I gained on the last section of the bike, I was feeling excellent going into transition. There were so many volunteers and spectators surrounding the transition, that my adrenaline starting pumping so hard, and I bolted out like a rocket...
T2 Result - 1:32
Run (10 km): ...bad idea. As soon as I left the safety blanket of cheers from the crowds of spectators and volunteers, my spirits died, along with my lungs. At this point, the elevation was taking a noticeable toll on my running, and I knew I was in for a long one. Since graduating college, I haven't been as good a runner as I once was, and the longer the distance, the worse I get. A 10k run for me, was very difficult at this point, and I walked far more than I would have liked. The run was an out-and-back, taking the competitors around Loveland Lake. The last half-mile before the turn-around was great, because it was along a very nice path along the lakes edge, and it gave great views of the lake and the mountains in the backdrop. On the way back to the finish, I ran with another guy that seemed to be having as much a hard time as me. We chit-chatted about how much we were hurting, how we hated ourselves for doing the race, and for doing triathlons. Then the most amazing music came upon our ears, the finish line music! I love hearing the DJ at the finish, because it always gives me a new sense of confidence. So I pushed myself hard to the finish, and sighed a relief when I crossed the line.
Run Result - 1:01:47 (9:53 min/mile pace), 518th overall
Post-race: After crossing the line, leaning on the edge of the fence for a moment, grabbing a water, I found Craig waiting nearby. I was half-expecting him to have a bored expression on his face, but he seemed rather excited, and told me that he actually enjoyed being at the race and watching. I might have converted another person to the triathlon lifestyle after all! We chilled out on the grass for a bit longer, watched a little bit of the awards, then headed inside to grab a bite to eat. FREE FOOD! The best part of doing a race. Food this time was breakfast foods that you could make into a burrito: eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, peppers, etc. It was pretty delicious, and I think Craig even went up for seconds. It wouldn't surprise me.
Final Result - 3:12:25, 16th in my age group, 407th overall (56th percentile)
Overall, I was super excited about my time, but knew I would be able to improve all my legs at future races. My swimming confidence gained was tremendous, and I felt really good about how I was able to have the bike leg that I had.
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