Snowflake Sweet Tri

The Sweet Tri was last Saturday, August 31st, in Snowflake.  It is a sprint distance triathlon with distances of:  525 yard swim, 13.1 mile bike, and a 5K (3.1 mile) run, with the events done in that order.  I didn't have any real specific goals in mind, other than to finish.  But I did want to do the swim in about 11 minutes, the bike in under 45 minutes, and the run in under 35 minutes.  I'll get to the final results later.

 

My dad and my sister, Melanie, also did the triathlon.  We woke up at 5:00 a.m. to get ready and go.  Here I am with my dad, setting up our transition area.  Transition is where you go between each segment of the triathlon.  So after you finish swimming, you run out to transition, where you put on your shoes, helmet, and whatever else before getting on your bike and taking off.  Then you end up back in transition to stash your bike before taking off on your run.  Anyway, here we are setting up all of our stuff before the race.

 

We didn't have to wait too long after the first swimmers hit the pool for it to be our turn.  I have to say, for whatever reason, I was just not feeling it that morning.  I wasn't real excited or nervous or... anything really.  I think either of those things, or both, would have been helpful.  Instead, I had that feeling of, "I don't really want to exercise today."  Not a good mindset.  But it was all I had to work with.  So into the pool I went.  And it was not one of my better swims.  I felt like I was never able to get my breathing in sync.  I never found my rhythm, which ended up costing me energy I wanted to save for later.

Now, I had never before gone straight from a swim to anything else.  I was surprised to find that it took me about four miles on my bike to somewhat recover from the swim.  I thought that first transition would be easier.  But like I said, I just wasn't feeling it.  But, I could tell that I was doing well on my bike.  I pushed it because I knew I could get a decent time.  Here I am finishing up my on my bike, coming back into transition.

Alright, this is the point where I was trying not to think about the fact that I still needed to run a 5K.  I was just trying to focus on getting my bike back and then moving my legs to start running.  I could already tell that the altitude was taking it's toll on my ability to breathe.  I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I live/trained at about 3,000 feet and this triathlon was at almost 6,000 feet.  And I'm sure the remnants of bronchitis weren't helping my breathing much either.

You may wonder why I included this next picture, since I look about as awesome as a drowned, dying rat.  But I call this picture, "Contemplating the Goo."  You see that stuff in my hand?  That particular one is called Power Gel, though I had some Gu brand that I used too.  It is a packet of goo stuff that gives your body a fuel/energy boost during events such as this.  Let me describe the consistency of this stuff.  I would imagine that if you got a bunch of those disgusting, plump, horned tomato worms and mashed them into a paste, it might resemble this stuff.  Now, it is flavored, and doesn't taste bad... but man, is it unpleasant to swallow.  You swallow it with water, but still.  By the time I got to this last transition, I had already taken one before the swim, and one before the bike, and if I ever needed one, it was right then before the run.  But I was so sick of the stuff.  So this is me, bracing myself and talking myself into literally just sucking it up one more time.  And I gagged on this last one more than the other two.  It was hard to get down.

And then I was off on my run.

 I noticed right away that my stomach didn't feel real great.  I'm not saying the goo didn't help, but I felt like I could feel all those gag reflex-triggering packets of stuff, plus the water I used to get them down, just sitting in my stomach bouncing around as I ran, and it made me feel sick.  That's not something I usually deal with when I run, so it caught me off guard.  It took about half the run for that to settle down a bit.  Ugh... seriously, sitting here thinking about that goo is turning my stomach.

The run was tough.  I had a hard time getting air in my lungs.  I ended up walking some--most of it in the first mile because I just needed the recovery time.  And I ran really, really, slow.  I don't think I've ever ran so slow.  But, I realized as I was running, that I was doing all I could do--and that had to be good enough.

Here I am, coming in the final stretch to the finish line.

And done!  I can't go without mentioning my amazing husband.  Nate has been the most supportive person in all of this.  He has come home from work early so I could make it to the pool and he went in to work late many times so I could finish an early morning bike ride.  He always believed in me and never thought I was crazy, even when I thought I was.  And he was more proud of me than even I was when I crossed the finish line.  I am sure lucky to have him.

Here's all three of us at the finish line.

So my final time was 1:34 (one hour, 34 minutes) which landed me in 24th place out of 50 women.  I have to keep telling my competitive self that that's really not that bad.  (I'm used to sports like basketball where you either win or lose.  This is a different mindset for me.) 

Here is the breakdown of my times.  Swim-- 11:43 (17th overall).  Bike-- 44:22 (10th overall).  Run-- 34:07 (33rd overall).  So, other than my swim being a little longer that I wanted, I met my goals for my times.  I was even amazed that my run was under 35 minutes, because like I said, I was going sooo slow.  I was very happy with my bike time.  The course had some pretty good uphills and I still got the time I wanted.  I actually think I won't be able to do much better until (or if) I get a better bike.  Momentary sidetrack--it is a little annoying to me that part of your ability to perform well comes down to how much money you have to buy a nice bike.  I didn't realize bikes were so different.  But they are.  I have a hybrid bike that is between a mountain bike and a road bike.  The road bikes definitely perform better.  It was a bit frustrating to be able to pass people on an uphill, when I could tell they were struggling, and then have them be able to pass me on the straightaways because their road bike is just capable of higher speeds.  Anyway, that's the way it is.  And I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars for a bike just so I can knock five minutes or so off my bike time for a once a year triathlon.

Shortly after I finished, I went over to check the posted times.  I noticed I was having a lot of trouble seeing the numbers from just two feet away.  I couldn't figure out what was going on with my eyes.  Then ten or so minutes passed and I realized that I had a bit of a headache.  Which then continued to get worse.  Then I realized what was going on.  Migraine blindness.  I was getting a migraine.  I'd only ever had two before.  The first one was random but the second one was a result of the first time I ever rode my bike 13 miles (when I hadn't been training yet at all) and then immediately ran a mile afterward, just too see how hard this triathlon thing would be.  So, the same thing was happening again.  I was physically ready for this thing--as evidenced by the fact that, other than the migraine, I felt just fine afterward and didn't get sore or anything.  I'm pretty sure the migraine was caused by lack of enough oxygen.  And this migraine was a killer one.  Instead of being able to hang around, I had to have my mom come pick me up so I could retreat to the couch with an icepack on my head for the next few hours.  If you've ever had a real migraine, I don't need to explain any further.  If you've never had one... just be grateful.  Really grateful.  Let's just say, there is a reason it's not just called a bad "headache."  What is super unfortunate is that the stupid migraine ended up essentially robbing me of my accomplishment.  I never really got to feel excited about this huge accomplishment that I had been working so hard for.  It's taken me some time to be able to look back on this and feel some pride in what I was able to achieve. 

Okay, here are a few random other things and pictures.

That weekend we got to meet Melanie's....Tyler.  (She informed me that "boyfriend" sounds too much like high school, so I won't use that word.  :) )  It was fun to meet him and spend the weekend with him.  Tyler was our behind the scenes camera man and did a great job getting pictures of the three of us throughout the triathlon.  Oh, and I should mention my awesome sister...3rd place women's overall with a time of 1:18.  After swimming and biking, she ran her 5K in 22:48!  Ridiculous.  Yeah, I can do that too.  In my dreams.

I love this picture.  Look at my cute parents!

And speaking of more awesome... let's talk about my dad.  He will be 63 in a few months.  And this is his second year doing this triathlon!  I barely beat him.  I mean, barely.  Like 7 seconds, barely.  It's not that I think 63 is that old, but I'm only 29!  Go out and look at most 63 year olds and see how many of them would actually be able to do a triathlon, let alone post a good time.  I think it is absolutely amazing.  I hope I am even half that awesome when I am in my 60's.

 

And now for my *note to self* section, or I guess you could call it my *what I learned for next time* section, or in other words...you can skip this section if you want.  First off, I do plan on doing it again next year.  I plan on keeping up on my running and greatly improving it over this next year.  I realized the other day that I really only ever ran, without walking, a full 5K just about a month ago for the first time.  I've come leaps and bounds in my ability to run.  When I first started, a continuous mile seemed insurmountable.   I'm serious.  Now I can run a mile easily without hardly breaking a sweat and without breathing heavily at all.  Well, at least I can at 3000 feet.  :)  I am at the point where a two mile run feels about perfect.  It's fairly easy, but enough to push me for the last little bit.  Over this next year, I want my three mile run to get to that point.  I want it to be easy.  And I actually enjoy that I can run.  (Notice the careful choice of words...I didn't say that I enjoy running.)  I don't want to lose that.  I've worked too hard for it. 

 

Another thing is my transition time.  My first transition was terrible--  3:12.  Not many people took over three minutes.  Most people were between one and two minutes.  Knocking off that extra minute and a half or so is an easy way to move up the rankings a few people.  I went kind of slow because I thought the extra time would help me recover a bit.  In hindsight I can see that for the first few minutes of the bike, it is a slightly hard adjustment.  Taking an extra minute or two before starting did nothing to make it easier.  So, for next time, I don't want to have to adjust my wardrobe at all in between the swim and the bike.  Coming out of the pool, I pulled on a shirt and shorts.  I'm sure everyone is aware of how easy it is to pull on clothing when you are wet, though I did try to quickly towel off.  Next time I will find shorts and a shirt that can double in the pool and on the bike.  I know they make actual Tri shorts, to the tune of $100.  I plan on finding something much, much cheaper though.  I also took about a minute longer than I needed to on my second transition, which again, really didn't do anything to help me recover before starting the run.

 

I've got to do some training at higher elevations.  A few days before the race I was mentioning to someone about how I was afraid of what the elevation difference would do.  She mentioned that I should run in Madera Canyon--which is 20 minutes from my house, is beautiful, cooler, and has a much higher elevation.  I had never even thought of that.  I will have to do that some, starting next summer.

The goo... I wish there were some way to know how helpful it actually was to me.  The problem is that I felt like by biggest nemesis was lack of air, not energy.  But I do know that the goo made me a little sick.  I will use it next time, but I don't think I will use three of them.  I will maybe use one before the race starts and then another one before the run. 

 

Final note to self: don't get bronchitis before the next triathlon and a migraine after.  I've really gotta work on that one.