Triangle Triathlon 2009 Race Report

Highlights

Got third place age group, 26th overall female. Came out of the water in 7th place age group. Got #1 BIKE SPLIT FOR AG!!!, 8th overall female bike! I beat the bike time of all but one of the Master’s Open Females, and most of the Open Females, too! Those IOS rides are really paying off! Came off the bike in 2nd place, age group. The best part of the day was holding off two really fast chicks on the run. I was amazed. I did not beat Aquaphor Chick, but it’s all good! Had a fun day.

Official Results

Swim 750m – 16:40, 7th ag
T1- 2:10
Bike 17.5 miles – 48:27, 1st ag, 8th of, 21.67mph
T2 – 1:26
Run 5k – 24:57, 8th ag, pace of 8:03
Overall time – 1:33:39

164 avg HR whole race, 178 max. 151 avg for swim, 166 avg for bike, 168 avg for run. Wow, I was red-lining the whole way!
19 females in age group.
335 females overall.

Pre-race thoughts:

I did not think I had a shot at the podium, because there were a lot of fast chicks out there today. Even with all these fast chicks, I went for the podium anyway 🙂

Scoped out my rivals to see who showed up. I like to give my rivals nicknames: There is a girl who I call ‘Chrissy’, because like Chrissy Wellington, she could get a flat and still win! Of course there is ‘Aqua Phor’ chick, who I met last year at Pinehurst, and is now my friend. Another girl I see at alot of races…I’ll name her ‘Speedracer’, because she always wears a speedo swim suit. And a new girl I named ‘Uber Buff Girl’, because she is, well uber buff. You should see her rock hard abs!

I covered my stop watch with tape, so I could only see the HR. I did not want to see my time, so I could just relax and go, go, go! Redline all the way was the plan for today!

Event warmup:

Parked at Sharron Harris visitor center and biked 3 miles to site, to avoid parking hassles. Was a good choice, and a nice warmup.

Hung out with Aquaphor Chic. That was lots of fun. I was very relaxed. Didn’t even think about our rivalry at all. Did some running strides by the water. Did a short swim just to make sure goggles were good.

Swim

Comments:

Lined up behind Speedracer and Aquaphor chic, hoping to stay on their tails. Did not happen. Immediately got started out to the left of a girl who kept swimming right into me. With each stroke she was splashing water in my face. Three breaths in a row I got water. So I stopped, treaded, let her pass, then went on the other side of her. Lost a little time there.

After that, I was swimming great. Steady, straight, handling the little bit of chop well. I was happy with the chop, and thinking I’d have a great swim time, because I am good at choppy swims. I saw a big group about a pool length ahead of me. I hoped it was the wave ahead of me, but I knew that it was probably my wave!

Since I had covered my watch, I did not konw my time when I exited. I am glad, because would have been bummed to see 16+ minutes. Still, 7th out of the water is not bad at all!

What would you do differently?:

Went out too conservatively.  My avg heart rate of 151 confirms this.  I think it’s better to swim out faster to the first buoy, then try to find feet to follow.

T1

Great transition. No problems. My T times are good compared to top of my age group. I practice transitions ALOT, so I can do them with mindless speed.

Bike

Comments:

I was very proud of my bike performance. I set out to get the #1 bike split for my age group, and I did. No easy task with Chrissy and Speedracer out there.

I knew I would never see Chrissy at all. She just too fast. I saw Speedracer coming out of T1 and heading out on the bike. Inched closer to her with each speed bump along the park road. Passed her right at the park exit, on the turn onto New Hill / Holleman road.

Rode aggressively for a few minutes to make it really hard for her to catch me. Passed a ton of folks. Each time I passed aggressively, and yelled left at everyone who got in my way! I was really quite the bitch out there on the bike course. I feel kind of bad, but the bike was the place to win it here for me today. So I did what I had to do (within the rules, of course).

I eased up my pace after a while. Then I heard Speedracer say “left” behind me. In a much nicer voice than I had been using all day. I did not see her, but I pushed hard and did not let her pass me. I pushed hard the whole rest of the way, so as not to let her pass. Chanted “You must be a masochist, go, go, go, pain, more pain” in my head. That is from one of the TdF cervelo commercials.

A little while later, I passed Uber Buff Girl. I sped up as I passed to give her a clear message not to even bother trying to pass me back. Haha, that really works!

Not long after, I passed Aquaphor chic. I said Hi to her, and told her that Speedracer and Uber Buff girl are close behind.   I did not feel the need to pass her aggressively.  I knew she had her own game plan which would be to pass me back during the run!

Then I kept pushing, pushing, pushing. Just pedal to the medal. My bike computer was not set right, so I didn’t know my avg speed. But my heart rate was always in the high 160’s, so I knew I was going hard. My quads burned a little. My breathing was really hard.

The last 5 miles was a bit of a headwind. I put my head down and tucked into as small a size as possible. I glanced behind every once in a while to see where my rivals were. Every once in a while, I thought I caught a glimpse of Speedracer’s pink speedo suit. That made me push harder. I kept looking ahead and hoping I’d see Chrissy. No such luck! Still, I beat her bike time, but not by enough to make up the 2 minutes she beat my swim time!

What would you do differently?:

Nothing. It was the ride of my life.

T2

See what I wrote for T1 🙂

Run

Comments:

Jogged easy through transition to get my visor, race belt, and palm holder water bottle in place. As soon as that was done, I started running hard. Not quite as hard as I could, but I was going HARD. I was breathing hard. I was trying to focus on good form: fast feet and good posture.

Something I wonder alot about is why am I so good and so focused on the bike, but not on the run. I decided to try to tap into my biking karma during the run. I imagined my feet going fast as if spinning. And my upper body nice and stable. This worked! I was actually enjoying running and I was running fast. Cool!

I was also pleased to see that I was passing alot of people. Rather than getting passed. This was exciting.

About the half way point, I started to fade a bit and lost this feeling of running power. Then I started to dig deep and push hard. That doesn’t really work. What works is fast feet and good posture!

At about the 2 mile mark, Ginger passed me. As she passed, she said “quick feet”. That snapped me out of my push harder mode and got me thinking fast feet and good posture again.

Then I hit the turn around point, which marked about 1/2 mile to go. Very soon after I saw that Speedracer and Uber Buff Girl were both very close on my tail. I thought “Oh crap, no way can I hold them off”. Then I thought “But hell, I have to TRY!”. I chanted quick feet in my head and really dug deep to make my feet go fast. I was hurting. At times I wanted to just give up trying because still, I had very little hope that I’d be able to hold them off. At one point, I even moved over the right of the trail, thinking not to get in peoples way who were passing me. Then I thought “What the hell am I doing? I will not make it EASIER for them to pass me. I will make it VERY HARD for them to pass me!”

Still amazed that neither of those two fast girls passed me, I turned off the trail, and hit the road. I knew it wasn’t far now. I tried to pick up my pace just a little more. I glanced back. Didn’t see them. Wow! I might actually pull this off. A third place spot at Triangle! When I could hear the finish announcers, I ran as fast as I could, all out, balls to the wall to the end. Glanced back just before entering the chute, just in case one was on my tail – remembering Lake Norman!  Nobody was there. Holy crap. Ran over the first mat. Ran harder to the 2nd mat, once again, remembering Lake Norman! I collapsed in exhaustion at the end and rolled on the grass. What a great race!

At Lake Norman 2008, I got passed by a female in the finish chute because I was not paying attention and had slacked off thinking nobody was coming up behind me!  I started going harder to catch her back, but gave up as I crossed the mat.  But it was just the first mat which is not the finish line!   That mistake cost me 3rd place!

What would you do differently?:

Swim harder and maybe just run a little faster so I can beat Aquaphor chick next time!!!

Post race

Warm down:

Jumped in the lake to cool off. Talked to alot of people, including my friend Tom H, Harold (hrliles), Kevin (klowman), Scottie (halfpint) and Pat (pctsab – thanks for introducing yourself!).

Talked a little with Speedracer. She had stopped during the swim to help a girl who was having trouble, and waited for the kayaks to arrive. She crossed the finish line less than a minute after me, so she would have beat me if not for being a hero today.

Here we are on the podium: Aquaphor Chick, “Chrissy”, and  Trakkers Gurl (me)!    If you ever see Aquaphor Chick at a race, go say “hi” to her and tell her you are a bloggy peep.  Her real name is Ginger.   She’s super nice and friendly, and will give you some free samples!