"Last Triathlon of 2010"

...or... "the triathlon that almost killed my love for triathlons"




YWCA Womens Sprint Triathlon
Minneapolis, MN
August 15th, 2010
I did this race with my sister, and friends J and A.



Night Before/Pre-Race:



The night before the race, we ate out at Bucca Di Beppo in Eden Prairie, MN. Sometimes I am leary about eating pasta the night before a race, but we selected wisely and I ate just enough to feel comfortable.

I went to bed pretty early, close to 9pm, but struggled to get a good night's sleep. I fell asleep around 930pm, woke at 11pm, 3:10am, and then again at 4am. The alarm went off at 4:40am and I know that I didn't sleep much between then and 3am, but I felt ready to go. J and her hubby picked my sister and I up at 5:30am, and then met up with A.

We arrived at Lake Nokomis around 6am to find our spot and set up transition. With the high number of participants, the transition are became pretty snug. We had heard that close to 1,200 women were participating in this event and over half of them were first timers! How awesome is that?!

After getting bodymarked, timing chips, and checking the out the water, the transition area closed at 730am. Our wave (15 out of 18) wasn't expected to start until 842am so we had quite a bit of time to stand around on the beach.

If I remember correctly, I ate half of a clif bar at about 715am and then took my first gu at about 820am.

(please note the smile)

The Swim:
500 Yds - 15:24


In past triathlons, I never took the time to get aquainted with the water prior to jumping for the swim and in past swims there has been a going trend that my heart rate will jump through the roof when starting the swim. Other bloggers have mentioned getting used to the water prior to the start of the swim and that is what I planned to do for this race. About 20 minutes before our wave started, I spent a few minutes "warming up" in the water. The water was already 80 degrees and probably the warmest water I have ever swam in before.

Before we new it, our wave was on the shore line waiting for the countdown. The plan was to stay to the back and on the outside of the group. Everything started out just fine and I was feeling pretty strong. After we took our first turn, things started to go down hill. My breathing was off, probably too shallow, and I started to feel a pinch in the middle of my back every time I would breath in. At this point, there were multiple times where I would have to roll over on my back and catch my breath. When on my back, I would take a deep breath and my breathing reminded me of how one breathes while bawling their eyes out. You know what I am talking about?

So, needless to say, the rest of the swim was horrible and I was ready to call it quits. I had a bad attitude at this point that stuck with me through pretty much the rest of the triathlon and I wanted to be done.


Transition 1:
4:17

I reached the shoreline and it took everything in me to run/walk through the sand and into transition. The distance from the water to our transition area was the longest transition I have ever done.

I felt like the swim took everything out of me and I could barely manage to do much more than walk through most of the transition. Isn't it written all over my face?

I was hoping that if I took my time getting ready to ride that my heart rate would come down a bit and my breathing would become more regular. Once I was ready, I grabbed my bike and took off. But, I will admit, I struggled to get on my bike at first. It was rediculous.





The Bike:

15 miles - 57:07 (15.76 mph average)

I was so happy to be out of the water but knew I needed to take it easy to start, which was quite easy because it nearly seemed impossible to go more than 13mph at the start of the bike. geez.

The course was relatively flat, but there was some wind that never seemed to be at my back, no matter which direction I was going. In fact, there were a couple wind gusts that almost knocked me over while passing another girl over a bridge. I think if I would have fallen at that point I would have been done. For reals.

After about ten or 15 minutes of riding, I was able to pick up some speed, despite the fact that I felt like I was having breathing issues anytime I really picked up the pace or climbed any "hills". I saw 18-19mph quite a few times, but nothing to get me above a 16mph average. But, given the conditions, I will take what I have.

Usually, prior to the last few miles of the bike, I have gotten into a habit of taking a gu to get me through the run. However, this time, I wasn't feeling too good and was afraid I would puke if I took one.

As I was approaching the transition area, I saw my family and was happy to be done with the ride. Getting off the bike was much easier than getting on less than an hour earlier.

Transition 2:

2:34

Once entering the transition area, I didn't have far to go before reaching my area. I threw my bike on the rack, ripped off the helmet and bike shoes, threw on my tennies and visor and was off. It all seemed to happen so fast at the time, but when I think about two and a half minutes, that's a lot of time for the little amount of things I did. As much as I wasn't looking forward to the run, I was so glad to be off the bike and 2/3 done with this race.

The Run:

5K - 40:54 - 13:11/mile average

Like I said before, I had a pretty bad attitude and really just wanted to be done at this point. I don't think anything would have changed my attitude at this point. However, as soon as I left the transition area, I saw my family and was so happy to be running.

I found my running legs right away, but still struggled to get any good air. Breathing was still really shallow and my lungs just hurt. J and I ended up doing a lot of run/walk intervals and looking back I know I walked a lot more than I needed. We did do a lot of talking and became distracted at times.

Despite what I thought was a bad race all around, this picture makes me happy. My brother-in-law snapped this as I was starting the run... and I am smiling.

As I neared the finish line, all I wanted to do was finish in under 2 hours. According to my watch, I was cutting it close. I kept telling J, "leave it all out on the course"... and that's exactly what I felt like I was doing. The last tenth of a mile I picked up the pace and sprinted across the finish line with my Dad's words "Finish Strong" running through my head over and over again. It felt so good to be done! And done I was.

Results:

Bib#: 859

Division: 30-34

Overall place: 688

Division Place: 111 out of 142

Swim 500 Yds: 15:24

T1: 4:17

Bike 15 miles: 57:07

T2: 2:34

Run 3.1 miles: 40:54

Overall: 2:00:13

Post Race & After Thoughts:

After the race we were handed dog tags and water. There was a huge tent set up with a wonderful array of food: wraps, bananas, clementines, cookies, chips, watermelon wedges, nutrigrain bars, candy, etc.

I know my "training" wasn't ideal the last month leading up to this race, especially with a week of while on vacay. Looking back it seems like I was just putting in the workouts, but wasn't really following any sort of schedule or plan. That irritates me.

Does anyone else deal with such breathing issues? After talking with my mom about it a couple times, I wonder if there's anything in the water that irritates my allergies and affects my breathing. Sounds weird, but I just don't know what to do. I wish I had the ability to do more open water swims, but there isn't much for lakes that I know of around here.

This race was set up so well. There were tons and tons of volunteers that were amazing. I have had a week to think about this race and it bugs me know almost as much as it bugged me when I crossed the finish line. I was just so frustrated and still am. The idea of doing this race again next year has crossed my mind a handful of times. I feel like I have a fight to pick with it and want to do better.

Here's a picture of us after the race. Yes, another smile, but I think I was so happy to be done and just ready to go. Three of us are wearing our race shirts, which happened to be very nice technical tees. Love it!