A Long and Lonely Drive - Kansas 5150 Triathlon

I made a quick trip to Lawrence, KS for the Kansas 5150 event while Wes stayed home to take care of our urban farm.  The goal for the race was to finish (top 15 qualify for the championships, and I correctly guessed there wouldn’t even be that many women racing in the elite wave), and get some mental confidence going into the last training block for Age Group Nationals in 3 weeks.   I achieved both of those goals, even though my race was lackluster.

I packed my car Thursday night so I could leave right after lunch from work.  The drive was over 5 hours and I wanted to get to Lawrence in time to have dinner at the place I was staying.  Made it just in time to settle in, whip up a quick dinner, and watch a movie before heading to bed.  Oh, and a quick call to Wes to let him know I was safe.

Saturday morning I slept in until 8am.  It was awesome!  Even the cat clock didn’t wake me up!

I made breakfast, looked up a few place to visit while I was in town, then loaded the car back up for packet pickup and a quick bike/run on the course.  Packet pickup was at the same park as the race, and I did quick drive of the bike to make sure I could figure it out.  I’d been there 3 years ago for the Kansas 70.3, which uses the same roads, so I at least knew they were low traffic and rideable. 

My workout for Saturday was an easy 20 mile bike followed by a 3 mile run.  The race course was a 25 mile out and back bike followed by a double out and back 3.1 mile run.  So, I rode most of the bike, and did 1 lap of the run.  The bike course has a little bit of everything…some hills, some rollers, and some flat.  The run has a long, steady hill right at the beginning, then flat, then back down the hills, done twice.  I was glad to get a chance to run it prior to the race to see how not-so-bad it is compared to the holly-crapness it looks like. 

While riding I noticed all the really fast looking women out riding as well.  It made me a little concerned at how stacked the elite field would be at the race, then remembered there is a pro field as well.  I’ll just pretend they are all pro women, and not actually anyone I’ll be competing against.

Saturday afternoon was spent doing a little shopping in the downtown area (lots of cute shops with tons of people wandering around), picked up a few things to cook up from their coop, stopped by a really cool wine and beer shop (Cork and Barrel) for a mix-and-match 6 pack (worker guy was VERY helpful in picking out a selection), hy-vee, finally writing up the blog post from last weekend’s races, another movie, and finally asleep at 10pm.

So many to choose from!!

Narrowed down to 6

Electric Vehicle parking with charging station at Hy-Vee

 Sunday morning came early as most races do.  4am wakup call (I wondered if the cat clock set to not go off in the middle of the night, but it went off just after my alarm), breakfast, then off to the race site by 4:45am.  I have a massively long check list for packing for triathlons, and for some reason it doesn’t contain a headlamp. And, the sun is not even close to being up at 5am when transition opened.  Most races this isn’t a problem as they tend to have spotlights everywhere, but the LONG walk from the car to transition was pitch dark.  With the road surface a little sketching in a couple spots, there was no way I was going to ride my bike, so walking it was.

The racks were set up with each person assigned a specific spot on the rack.  I was fairly close to the bike in/out.  Yeah!  Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to leave T1 with my shoes already attached to my bike.  But, today was not going to be the day, especially with the hill coming out of T1. 

For a warm up, I was able to get in about a 25 min bike (rode to my car to drop off my transition bag, then continued to the park entrance and back with some bursts of effort up the rolling hills)  and 1.5 mile run (one last feel for the hill out of transition).  The swim warmup was only allowed for the pros, so called it good. 

Swim – Water temp was measured at 77.9 (wetsuits are allowed up to 78 degrees).  I assumed they hunted for a cold enough spot to make most racers happy, but I was not one of them.  I wore my wetsuit as did almost everyone else in the wave.  While waiting I talked with Aryn (tri chick from Des Moines) and we counted the women in the wave.  Seven.  Our wave was both men and women, which gave me more opportunity to find someone to draft off of.  With the water temp so warm, I found some feet and settled in.  I didn’t want to work too hard and overheat.  I still figured it was better than just wearing a speedsuit.  I misunderstood where the swim exit was, so went a little off course.  The feet I was following went the correct way (I should have trusted him), and he came out of the water 11 seconds ahead of me.  I tried to find him later to apologize for touching his feet so much, but never figured out who he was.

T1 – Not real smooth, but not horrible either.  The wetsuit is never easy to get off over the timing chip.

Bike – I settled in.  I told myself to try and negative split the bike, but I just didn’t have the motivation.  It wasn’t until I loaded my data that I realized that I not only didn’t negative split, but my second half watts were much lower than the first (192 and 181 for the halves).    I was alone most of the ride, with just a few guys passing from the wave behind. The bike was a mile long, so my time is a bit slow.  It’s an out and back, so not sure why it was long.  Maybe they thought it was better to make it long than have us turnaround in the middle of a downhill. 

T2 – Again, not real smooth, but not horrible either. Ever since Holiday Lake I’m more careful putting my shoes on, which takes a few more seconds.

Run – Starts with a long uphill then flattens out and returns, done twice.  It was very hard to tell where I was compared to the other women as we were now mixed in with the sprint race, and it was also hard to tell the pro women from the elite ones.  I continued my day of just settling in.  I was pretty sure Aryn was next behind me (by about a minute), and I really thought we were pulling up the end of our wave.  At the final turnaround (with 1.5 miles to go), I noticed another women catching Aryn.  That put a little bit of fear in me, so I finally picked up the pace a little.  Avg pace for the race was about 7min/mile. This pace felt pretty comfortable, whereas at Age Group Nationals last year, this same pace had me redlining the entire run.

I crossed the finish line with a good amount of energy left in me, and in 3rd place out of the 7 elite women. Much better than I had expected while racing.  I know I could have done better.  Not sure if I could have come in ahead of 2nd place, but it would have been much closer.  Even though I didn’t give it my best attempt (felt like I was doing half-ironman pace), I was pleasantly surprised at how high the watts were for the first half of the bike and pace for the run were for my effort.

After the race I biked up to my car to take a quick shower before the awards ceremony that was scheduled for 11:30am (it was about 10am at that time).  I biked back down to transition to find out that we were just picking up our awards.  No ceremony.  This was one of several things about this race that I was disappointed with.  At least it meant I could leave earlier than I had expected, and I was getting hungry (the post-race food is another disappointment).  Maybe I’m just spoiled with the caliber of the local races in Iowa.

Beer Stein Award

In all, I’m glad I made the trip.  I’m qualified for both the Age Group and Elite Age Group waves of the Hy-vee 5150 Championships.   Top 5 receive awards.  I think it’s a long shot that I will be in those top 5, considering I was 3rd in this qualifier and there are SEVERAL other qualifying races.  But, I think it’s worth the try.  It will be my last race of the season, so hopefully that will give me some motivation.  It’s also nice to be in the first wave behind the pros instead of having to wait around.  Time will tell.

Weekend Double - Lake Geode and Lakeside Triathlons

I've race the Lake Geode Triathlon the past two years, and it's been on my to-do list for 2014 for months now.  I love Saturday races so I can still get 'chores' done around the house on Sunday.  But, a few weeks before the race, my coach, Daniel, told me about the Lakeside Triathlon in Decatur, Illinois.  The race was created to honor Rodney T. Miller who was a local triathlete.  Daniel had done well at this race over the past several years, and thought it would be a good one for me to do.  I did a bit of research, including finding photos from last year.  I couldn't resist the chance to hold the oversized check and Wes agreed to drive me around, so I signed up a few days before the race!

2013 Men's Overall Podium Picture

Friday Night

I'm not a huge fan of getting up extra early and rushing out the door to a race.  I like to take my time, have a few cups of coffee to get things moving, then leisurely pack up the car and leave.  Lately we've been camping at a good amount of the races, so the drive's been pretty short (or, preferably, not drive at all as we can camp at the race site).  Lake Geode is about an hour and a half from our house.  The past two years we camped at the lake, but I didn't want to haul the camper to Decatur, so I reserved a hotel room in Mt. Pleasant, which is still about a half hour from the race, but takes an hour off the drive in the morning.  To me it was well worth it.  We even got there in time to take a quick dip in the hot tub.

Saturday Morning

The goal for the race was to conserve as much as possible in hopes to have something left in my legs for tomorrow.  I knew Joanna Hall was racing, and would probably be my toughest competition.  Her and her fancy new bike have been really closing the gap in our race times.

I arrived at transition when it opened, but it took longer than I had expected to get my packet and chip, and set up in transition.  The amount of time to warm up was really shrinking.  I got set up as quickly as I could and headed out for quick bike ride (about 2.5 miles total) to refamiliarize myself with the short out and back section near the end of the course.  It has some steep hilly, windy sections where you have to break and slow down to get through.  They even have bales of hay just incase.  I also got in a short (2/3 mile) run, and (few hundred yards) swim.

It's a pretty small race, so there are only 3 waves. They split the men into two waves, and us women all take off together.  The water temp was just above wetsuit legal, so I wore my speedsuit.  I was very happy not to have to squeeze into my wetsuit!  I lined up in the water on the inside of the line.  This required a little floating as it was just a bit too deep to stand up.  I wonder if that's why it was kinda lonely in that spot.

The swim is an out and back, with the buoys curving to the left on the way out.  This means the shortest path is not by staying next to the buoys.  I noticed shortly after we took off that there were only a couple of us still up front.  Then soon there were only two of us.  She seemed to be going a good speed, so I tucked in behind her and she pulled me almost all the way to the swim exit...until she started drifting off course.  I stayed on course and we pretty much exited the water together.  After the race I thanked her for pulling me along, and found out she swims for Grinnell College.  Nice!

T2 wasn't my best.  I couldn't get my speedsuit off over my timing chip.  Probably only added a few seconds, and still worth it to wear.  Took a quick look and didn't see any other women in transition.

Off on the bike and coming to the 'T' intersection swimmer chick was still ahead of me.  Unfortunately for her, there was no volunteers at the corner and she chose the wrong direction.  While I was second guessing myself on which way to turn, the guy behind yelled "Wrong way" so I yelled at her as well to turn around, and that's the last I saw of her.

I spent the rest of the bike just waiting for Joanna to catch me.  I kept my effort low and steady, including through the hills.  At the out and back section near the end I finally got my first look at Joanna, and she seemed to be over a minute behind me, and the next woman was much further back. Good stuff!

Coming into T2

So, Joanna kicks my ass at short distance running, but I've been able to catch her with my endurance and doesn't do well in heat.  I knew I could take it fairly easy, but didn't want to rule her out until I at least got a look at her at the turnaround.  At the run turnaround she hadn't made any ground on me, so I was able to slow it down a bit more into the finish line.

After the race, I headed to the beach for about a 500 yard cooldown and a massage in hopes to keep my loose for the Sunday race.

Lake Geode Podium with our cool geode awards!

Saturday Afternoon

As soon as I picked up my award (cash and a really cool plaque with a geode attached to it), we hit the road for the 3 hour drive to Decatur.  Ugh!  I realized shortly after we started driving that I had VERY little water with me.  Wes wanted to wait a bit before stopping, and I agreed with it.  Finally, about 2 hours later, we finally stopped at a gas station. Not ideal.

It was about 4pm when we checked into our hotel.  Just enough time to look up a place to eat for dinner, stop by packet pickup, and drive the course before sitting down to eat.  The Beach House restaurant was right next to transition and had good reviews, so we ate there.  It was good enough, but not a place I'd recommend or ever go back to.

Sunday Morning

The hotel was about 10 minutes from the race site.  Transition opened at 5:15 with the race at 7:30am.  I was up at 4:15am, made breakfast (the Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker is PERFECT for hotel rooms!), and checked the weather.  There was a line of storms south of the red dot on google maps.  Sweet!  The storms missed us again!  And, about 15min later I heard thunder.  WTF!??!  I pull the weather map back up and realize the red dot was on Decatur, IOWA, and Decatur, ILLINOIS was right in the middle of the storms.  Crap!

We hung out in the hotel room until 5:30am when the rain subsided enough to not be drenched while loading the truck.  I wasn't sure if we'd be able to leave the race before checkout, so we had to take everything with.

By the time we got to the race site the rain wasn't as bad.  Not too many cars there yet, either.  I picked up my chip and set a towel over the transition bar to save a spot for my bike.  I slowly got things ready as I wasn't excited about my bike sitting out in the rain.  While waiting I found out that the race was changed to a duathlon.  Not because of the weather in Decatur, but because the rain further north had caused dangerous currents in the water.  Instead of the 750m swim, we had a 1 mile run.  I was fine with that.

I knew each race this weekend had a chance of rain, so I packed both pairs of racing shoes.  I placed my Kiawe's in transition in a plastic bag to keep them dry, and wore my Ultra Tempo's for my warmup and the first run.  Since there was no swim, I decided to wear my Garmin so I'd have some run data.  

Swim (aka run 1) - There were 5 female elites.  For about the first quarter mile I was in dead last.  Then, like all other duathlons I've race, I slowly worked myself up and ended the run in second just ahead of Lauren (this was the woman I knew was going to be tough to beat).  I felt comfortable the entire run.  Not pushing too hard.  

Bike - After a HORRIBLE T1 by the run leader (she had 20 seconds on us coming into T1), I came out on the bike in the lead with Lauren passing me shortly after that while I couldn't get one of my shoes clipped in.  With the change to a duathlon, they only spaced the waves a minute apart.  It didn't take long before we were caught by a guy from the second wave, and we leapfrogged with him a bit until he took a wrong turn when the volunteer wasn't paying attention.  Good riddance!  I tried to keep just a bit behind (very legal distance) Lauren, which I did until a little before the turnaround.  After that, she quickly gained ground on me.   At that point I wasn't sure if it was due to my legs starting to feel really sore, or if she was picking up her pace.  After the race, when looking at my watts, it was the former.  My watts were 188 for the first half and 177 for the second half.  These are both REALLY low numbers for me.  They should be much closer to 200.

Run 2 - The second run consists of an out and back section that the intermediate race does alone, then heads back to transition, then merges with the sprint distance to run with their 5k, which is another out and back.  As soon as I got off the bike I wasn't feel well.  Not sure what it was...the heat from yesterday, being dehydrated from not drinking water for the first two hours of our drive yesterday, dinner last night, the water I drank from the swim yesterday, or just the race catching up to me.  After weighing myself Monday morning, I'm pretty sure it was due to dehydration.

My second run was pathetically slow.  The first turnaround is after just a half mile, and Lauren had over a minute on me.  With how I felt, I knew I had no chance in catching.  The next woman was about 2 minutes back, and I thought it was a stretch that she would pass, so I didn't push it at all.  At the second turnaround I knew Lauren had widened the gap.  The next woman behind me was a little too close for comfort, so I picked up the pace.  Eventually I realized she was in the sprint race, so backed down slightly, but still faster than the first half...just in case I was wrong.  Garmin has the run as being a bit short (4.36 miles instead of 4.5 miles) for a pathetic pace of 7:42.  Same pace as the hilly 10k at Lake Geode the day before.  

Trying to keep it together.

I ended the race in second place.  Good enough for a payout, but not good enough to hold the giant check.  If I hadn't raced the day before, or at least didn't feel like I could throw up at any moment during the second half of the race, I think I could have had her...or at least made it more interesting.  But, it is what it is.

Lakeside "Triathlon" podium...I'm the one hidden behind the check :(

Wes and I had a great weekend of traveling together, so I'm glad I went and raced.  On the 4 hour drive home, we managed to find 4 breweries along the way.  Unfortunately, the second one was closed on Sundays and the last one (Against the Grain Brewery) didn't have any of their brew available.  Good reason to go back.

Destihl Brewer in Normal, IL 

Iron Spike Brewing Company, Galesburg, IL

Against the Grain Brewery, Rock Island, IL

I spent a lot of the second run at the Lakeside Triathlon thinking that racing Kansas 5150 the following weekend was not something I wanted to do.  This thought carried with me for the first few miles of the drive home as well.  But, here I am, in Lawrence, Kansas writing this blog post waiting to race tomorrow morning.

Copper Creek Triathlon, Old Friends, and Chickens!!

This weekend was my 20-year high school class reunion from Ames High.  I knew it would be the same weekend as Copper Creek in Des Moines, so why not do both!?!  Previous year the race has been Saturday morning which would have worked out slightly better, but they moved it to Sunday.  It is what it is.

Two years ago was the first, and only time, I've done this race.  It's really well run with closed off roads for the bike.  The prize purse is one of the heftiest around, which also makes it appealing.  In 2012 we camped at the fairgrounds, which worked out perfectly as it's only a miles or so from the race.  I called Thursday to ask a few questions and found out the Junior High National Championships was in town, but they would still have a section for people camping that were not with the rodeo.  Good deal!

Friday

Friday was a little bit of a late start, then made later when a half hour from home Wes realized he forgot his computer at home (needed it for work), so we turned around to get it.  My hopes of getting to the campground for lunch were no longer, but we pulled over at a gas station and ate lunch in the kitchen we brought with us.  We finally arrived at the fairgrounds only to find out they changed their minds and were not allowing non-rodeo people to stay there.  Ugh!  I remembered from the lsat time racing that there was a campground off of the bike course, so we headed to Yellow Banks campground.  As we were driving through we notice how LOUD the cicadas were.  As much as I wanted to find a campsite, I wasn't too disappointed to find out it was full.  The ranger let us know that spot #5 was open at Thomas Mitchell, so that was our next stop.  As we were pulling in a camper was leaving, but thankfully the spot was still open.  A few campers down told us it had driven by and decided it wasn't good enough and was going to Yellow Banks to check it out.  We were lucky!  Our next option was to call my aunt and uncle, and drop cord to their house.  By the time we pulled in and set up it was 3:30, 5 hours after we left North Liberty (the first time)!  I had planned on some shopping at East Village, but that wasn't going to happen with how late it already was.

After a tiny bit of relaxing, we headed to my aunt and uncles to catch up (they just got back from 2 weeks in Alaska!), check out their awesome new garden, and eat dinner.  That night was a meet-up for my class at Old Main Brewery in Ames.  Great to see those that I haven't seen in so long.  Craziest thing was Wes knowing one of my friends, Dan, from high school that I didn't know he knew.  So, we spent most of the night with Dan and his wife.

Garden pre-Alaska trip.  Veggies were MUCH larger when we visited.

Saturday

Saturday morning we slept in until 7:30am, then I went for a short bike and run while Wes headed out for a run himself.  The roads were decent enough we could leave from the campground.  I headed north for a bit until the road T'ed with a road I wasn't comfortable riding on, so I turned around and rode south of the campground.  It was going well until a huge, fast dog ran out from a farmhouse.  Holly crap!  And, of course I don't have my phone on me.  I ALWAYS have it with me.  I kept heading south to get in the miles I needed, and debated on what to do coming back.   Try to hitch a ride? There wasn't much traffic at all.  Go around the block?   I'd have to take gravel and without my phone I didn't know how far out of the way I'd have to ride.  I choose option 3....try to outride it.  It came within feet of me both times, or at least it appeared to in my head.  A truck was coming the opposite direction right after I passed it, and part of me hoped it would hit the dog.

I get back to the camper, text Wes to tell him not to go south of the campground, then go out for a short run.  I got back, showered, made breakfast, and Wes still wasn't there.  I called, and heard his phone ring in the camper.  Not good.  Several minutes later he arrives and tells me his story of the same dog.  Knowing he couldn't outrun him on the way back, he tried to wave down a car to hitch a ride the few blocks to get past, but no luck.  So, he ran through the muddy field behind the house on the other side of the street.  Continuing the bad start to our camping weekend.

Our next stop was in Ames at my college roommate's house.  They got chickens this year, and we wanted to see how it was going.  Ames doesn't have any restrictions on backyard poultry, and I'm amazed at how many houses have chickens.  Up until we got ours last year, we didn't know of any in Ames, and now I hear about them constantly.  They have a few Ameraucana's (Easter Eggers) that will lay blueish/greenish eggs.  I wouldn't mind replacing a couple of hens with that breed, but we'll probably keep what we have for at least another year, although we're about ready to send one of ours to the axe!  I'm jealous of their fenced in back yard that allows their chickens to run freely while they're home.  Currently they have 8 chickens that are a few months old, and 12 adorable baby chicks!

Chicks chillin' under the lilac bush

Next up was the final class reunion activity that I was participating in.  They held a lunch at Brookside park catered by Hickory Park restaurant.  If you are ever in Ames and like meat (or ice cream), check it out!  More talking with Dan and his wife, and meeting the 4 kids.  Also caught up with fellow triathlete and Zoot teammate, Mark Harms, and learned about Cluck, a chicken store south of Madison. Can't wait to visit while we're there in September!

Finally time to do some shopping!  It was already getting pretty late in the afternoon, so just a quick stop at West End Architectural Salvage. They had some great stuff, but I prefer the prices at ReStore in Iowa City.

Last stop for the day was packet pickup.  Hardly anyone there, so got through quickly.  The swag two years ago was CEP compression socks.  This year was Tifosi sunglasses.  Nice!  Oh, and a free beer.

Pink to match my bike and kit :)

As I was leaving one of the volunteers saw my race number and said "You're supposed to beat your race number".  I was race number 2. Yeah, sure.

Pretty cool packet pickup printout with the schedule on it.

Back to the camper to get the bike race ready, and chat with the old folks camping near us.  Learned about a few good camping spots for more trips!  Dinner, an episode of An Idiot Abroad, popping corn, and time for bed.

Sunday (Race Day!)

Finally, race morning!!  I arrive just as transition opens at 5:45am.  First elite there, and still the only elite after 15min.  Guess I didn't need to be in such a hurry to arrive.  Oh, well.  Gave me more time to meet fellow Zooter, Ben Lindell, who was volunteering in transition.

Ben and I after the race

A bit later my coach, Daniel Bretscher, racks his bike next to me.  Huh?  Didn't expect him there.  Off for a bike and run warmup, then down to the beach to swim.  As I arrive they announce the swim warmup is over.  What!?!?  It ended early so they could get the race started early due to the storm front moving it.  Well, ok.  I guess that's a good enough reason.

While we're waiting around I talk to Daniel about the elite women field.  I knew Claire Bootsma, and had beaten her earlier this year at the Pigman Sprint (she's not training as much with a wedding coming up and other stuff), but didn't recognize the other woman in transition. Daniel tells me she's a decent swimmer (so get on her feet), she's a strong cyclist, but my run is faster.  Seriously?  My run is faster?!?!  Oh, and she's a pro.  She's a what?!?  And, that's all them women we knew were there.

The race is an in-water start.  I line up with Claire on my right, then pro chick, Morgan Chaffin, moves to the right of her. I just stayed in my spot, as I didn't want her to know I would be stalking her feet.  The cannon goes off and we all sprint.  Claire, who I swam faster at Pigman by 30 seconds, was ahead of me.  Not a good start.  My hopes of moving over to Morgan's feet were not looking promising.  I finally get ahead of Claire, but Morgan's gaining time ahead.  Dam it.  I notice as I'm swimming that I seem to be headed toward the turn buoys, but am pretty wide of the spotting buoys.  Still not sure how straight my line was.  If only I could have just followed Morgan!

I finally climb out of the water, and next to me is Claire, and then she passes me going into transition as I'm pulling down my speed suite, which I never even thought that it would be a non-wetsuit race, so this is my first time wearing it this year.  Claire's shoes are attached to her bike, so she makes it in and out of T1 much more quickly, and probably more gracefully, than I do.  But, I make most of that time up while she's getting her feet in while cycling.

Bike out.  Attempting to put my sunglasses on while riding.
Every little second that I can do something while running/riding helps.

Out on the road it took longer than I thought it would to catch and pass Claire.  I used more energy then I expected to make sure I made a quick and clean pass as I knew there were race marshals on the course.

Every few miles I'd watch Morgan ride past a post or driveway or something, and then count to see how long it took me to get to that same point.  On the way out, it really didn't change.  On the way back, I lost sight of her in the last few miles.  Not good.

Bike in.  Mike bike seems huge in this picture!

While in T2 I get an update the Morgan only has a 10 second lead. Um, what?  I'm a little flustered as I leave my rack, and a few steps later I realize I left my bib behind.  Ugh!  I quickly turn around, grab it, and head back out on the run.  I doubt it cost me more than 5 seconds, but those are very precious seconds when first place is within your reach.

The run route is along a pond for just a little bit, then does an out and back in the subdivision next to the lake (which is very rolling), then the last mile finishes around the pond.  I figured I was about 20 seconds back at this point.  Was coach right that I really do have a faster run?  At this point in the race I don't feel confident in my ability to catch her, but I don't give up either.  Through the first mile I could tell that I was getting closer.  I see Coach Daniel heading back.  He yells at me that I CAN catch her.  I'm still not sure about that.  He's usually deep in the zone when I see him racing, so I wondered at this point if he cared more about my race than his as his didn't seem to be going as well as hoped.

For the first time ever in a triathlon I have the thought cross my mind that I wished the run was longer.  Halfway through the run I still didn't think I had enough distance left to close the gap.  And, then, just as we're about to hit the 2 mile mark I caught up!!  Now I have the fear of her staying with me and being out-sprinted at the finish line.  Instead of leisurely passing I went into another gear to make it more definite.

The race had a cyclist for the lead man and lead woman, and now it was for me!!!  I only had to yell at him once to go faster :)  It was right after I made the pass and we were going down a short hill.  Maybe he was too distracted with the excitement behind him.

A half mile later I look back for the first time...and see nothing.  Where'd she go?  It starts sprinkling, and felt soooo good!  With a quarter mile left, it rains a bit harder and I see Daniel and his wife Katie waiting for me.  He tells me she's 20 seconds behind me and looking back over her shoulder.  "This is what we've trained for!  You have a quarter mile left!  Just one lap around the track!" Even though at this point I know she can't catch me, I finish strong with what felt like my fastest pace of the race.  However, that last chunk seemed to last FOREVER!  These are times I wish I wore my Garmin while racing.  Was it really a quarter mile, and did I actually run faster or imagine it?

The race has so many great touches that make me want to come back and race again.  As I approach the finish line, two volunteers are holding tape across it.  I love little things like that. And, the Casey's breakfast pizza in the food tent :)

Photo curtsy of Copper Creek Triathlon

Wes was an awesome sherpa, especially given the conditions at the end!

Claire and I on the podium.  Morgan must have left early.

Race Results here.

Thanks

As always, a few thank you's...to my coach Daniel Bretscher for pushing me beyond my mental limits, Zoot Sports for the great clothes and awesome shoes, We Run for hosting group runs so I don't have to run by myself all the time, EpiCor for keeping me healthy and for quicker recoveries from hard training days, Core Fitness for having classes that help with injury prevention, Geoff's Bike and Ski for keeping my Specialized Shiv is race ready, and Wes for waking up early for sherpa duty on a not-so-ideal weather day.

Holiday Lake Triathlon and Iowa City Duathlon...Racing Back to Back

Not the ideal setup, but I raced two events last weekend.

Holiday Lake Triathlon

The past two years I've participated in the Holiday Lake Triathlon.  It's such a great event.  The money raised goes back to the Holiday Lake community, and therefore the community really helps out to put on the race.  They also have a great selection of post-race food, including pizza!  The start time is 9am, which allows for a little sleeping in.  In previous years we've taken the camper up (we can camp there for free), but since we wouldn't be staying Saturday night I just drove over myself.  Thankfully one of the people organizing the event, Ebe, is a friend and has in-laws that live on the lake who are VERY nice and let me crash at their house.  The race site is only an hour from our house, but it's nice to not have to rush in the morning and make the long drive.

The race is pretty small with about 100 total registered with only 25 being women.  With so few women, it wasn't too difficult to figure out the competition.  With Jenny Lorenz only swimming and biking due to a injury, I figured I just needed to stay ahead of her and I was good.

I'm trying to do better at getting in a decent warmup before races.  Today consisted of a half mile run, 15 min bike, and I swam the course.

There are two swim waves for the race.  The first was men with the second being women and teams.  I lined up a away from the rope so I wouldn't get caught up in it.  Next to the rope was a former swim teammate from high school, Eric Greving.  As I'm sprinting the first 100 yards or so I realize I should have started next to him so I could draft.  But, it didn't matter as I passed him before we got to the turnaround.

Jenny heading out on the bike.

Out on the bike I kept an eye on Jenny.  The route heads east out of the lake area, then south for about 5 miles, turns around and leads north past the turn to the lake, then turns around again to head back south towards the lake (kind of like a T with transition being at the bottom of the T).  This gave me two chances to see where the women were.  It looked like Jenny was keeping the same distance, but I was gaining a decent amount of time on the others, so kept my watts in check for pretty much the entire bike...with one exception.  A few miles before the second turnaround I caught and pass one of the men.  Shortly after that he passed me, I passed him, he passed me again, and I made my final pass and push to keep ahead of him.  By the turnaround I had gained almost 30 seconds in those few miles.  I'm guessing he didn't like being passed by a chick on a pink bike.

I saw Jenny's runner (and Ebe's son), Sage, in T2 waiting for her to arrive.  We talked a bit, and I let him know she wasn't far behind me.  He was super excited to be racing, and it was pretty cool to see a kid that young running the 5k.

Sage and Ebe.  Love the mini Gear West uniform!

The run is full of short, steep hills.  I cruised through the first half, and counted back to see where I stood.  I saw Sage before any other women.  With the duathlon being the next day, I took it pretty easy to the finish line.  Ended up in first place by over 4 minutes.  Good stuff!

Final descent to the finish line.

Ebe and I with our awards at his awesome post-race party!

Iowa City Duathlon

I knew the Iowa City Duathlon was going to be a tough race going into it.   It's a series of three races with this one being the second.  For the first one at Macbride I came in second place.  The first (Jen) and third (Joanna) place women were also racing, and didn't have a race the previous day.  The Iowa City race had a longer bike and shorter run, which was an advantage for me as Jen is an amazing runner but I can out-bike her.  Joanna just got a new bike and has increased her speed to the point that she's right with me.

My warmup was about a 20min bike followed by a 5min run with Joanna to check out the north side of the run course.  Not much soreness going on.

The first run was a 2-mile all-out sprint for most people.  I held back a little not knowing how my body was going to handle everything.  As I was heading into T1 Jen was already out on her bike and Joanna was at her bike.  

The bike is 20 miles as two 5-mile out and backs.  With the last run being the same distance as the first run (2 miles), when you get to mile 10 of the bike the race is exactly half way done.  At the first turnaround at mile 5 Jen was still pretty far ahead and it looked like I was catching Joanna, but it was very slow going.  For the next 5 miles I wondered if I even had a shot at passing either of them, but I didn't give up.  Just as I approached the half-way point of the bike, I passed Joanna and just after that passed Jen.  All 3 of us were within seconds of each other and were were exactly at the half-way point of the race.  Things just got interesting.  I hoped my endurance was better than theirs.  I spent the final 10 miles of the bike trying to gain as much time as I could on both of them.  Joanna and I traded places a few times, but I was finally able to pull away, but not by much.

Getting ready to run...fast!

Joanna was heading into T2 as I was changing shoes.  I didn't see Jen until I was out on the run course, but knew she could still catch me.  I spent the final 2 miles running scared.    The run is a big loop around the lake, so no chance to see how things are going behind me.  With about a half mile to go I saw Jen's husband, Jeff, waiting for her.  Just after I went by him I thought I heard him cheering for Jen, so assumed she wasn't far behind.  I picked up the pace to whatever I had left in me....and, it was enough!  I crossed the finish line, looked back, and I had plenty of time to spare (26 seconds to be exact).  I saw Joanna with Jen so close behind her and closing the gap!  I yelled at Joanna to GO!!  She made it across the finish in second place with Jen only 3 seconds back.  

It's rare that I wear my garmin in a race, but had done so for this one.  It was fun to see my exact paces for the two runs.  The average pace for the first run was 6:38.  For the second run, my average pace was 6:32 pace over the 2 miles and 6:07 pace for the last half mile.  On the bike, my watts for each 5 mile segment were were 198 (don't think I have a chance of catching), 211 (I'm actually catching them!), 203 (passing took a bit out of me), and 205 (need a bigger gap!).

Overall I'm extremely happy with this race.  I was able to negative split the two runs, and the negative split the second run.  My watts for the duathlon were the same as the Pigman triathlon, even with a 5 mile longer course and racing the day prior.  In the past I've mentally given up too early, and I didn't do that.  Today hurt, but it was so much fun at the same time.  Can't wait for my next challenge!

Women's Overall Podium

The Little Pig

Every spring since the beginning of my triathlon journey I have raced the Pigman sprint triathlon.  Most years, including this year, it’s my first triathlon of the season.  It’s also my first chance to see the impact of the hard work, or lack of, that I put in over the winter.  In 2011 I was training for the Kansas 70.3, which was the weekend after the Pigman sprint. With the half-ironman at the beginning of the summer, I had a great base going into Pigman.  That was also the year we did Ironman Wisconsin, and then promptly lost motivation for training.  It wasn’t until the middle of last summer when I switched to Daniel Bretscher for training that the interest in training returned. 

The Marion Half Marathon and Macbride duathlon were slight glimpses into the outcome of my training, and it looked good.  But, they weren’t triathlons, and they weren’t races that I could use to really compare my fitness from year to year.

Leading up to the race, I’ve been busy with training and other life things that I didn’t have as much time to stalk the starting list as I have in previous year.  I think this helped keep my nerves down as I didn’t really know who I was competing against…except for one triathlete, Heather Lendway. She not only won her age division at Age Group Nationals last year, she was the fastest overall female.  If she showed up for the race I knew I had no chance of beating her.  The race places to the top-5, so I hoped no more than 3 other fast women would register.   I also didn’t create any expected hopes for my times.  Let the cards fall where they may.

Friday night we hauled the camper to Palo.  My job during camper setup is to keep the water spigot open.  This involves me sitting still for about 10min on the handle of the water pump thing.  Thankfully a few days earlier we had picked up some Bug Soother!  The gnats were horrendous!  Sprayed some on, and I wasn’t touched!  I could see them swarm around me. It was kind of surreal.  

Campe with a loft a the campground...interesting.

Slept in Saturday as long as I could, then relaxed a bit before a quick bike, run, packet pickup, and a stop at Peck's Nursery for a few garden plants.

The line to get into transition always starts early in the morning, and I arrived with at least 25 people ahead of me.  Good enough.  I was racing elite and there is usually plenty of room on our racks.  One of several perks of being in the elite waves.   Typically I spend most of the pre-race time socializing with others, but Daniel gave me a warmup to do which would eat into a lot of that time.  

I knew the traffic coming into the park was not going to be fun to deal with, so I brought my trainer and did my bike warmup at the camper after a short run.  Then, back to transition to start the dance of pulling on the wetsuit.   This was the first race with my new wetsuit, and it's a little snugger than my old one.  Not necessarily a bag thing, just takes more time to get on.  Time was already getting away from me, so my swim warmup was cut a bit short.  I still was able to get in more swimming, biking, and running than I ever have pre-race.

The elite women take off first, followed by the elite men.  The time between the two is meant to equalize the field, and the first person across the finish line gets a bonus cash prize.  Makes things a little more interesting.  So, my wave had 5 of us.  I had hoped that I could keep up and draft off at least one of the women, but no luck.  Our swim finish times were about 40 seconds apart from each other.  When I came out of the water I knew I was in third, and was told the lead woman was a minute and a half ahead (she ended up with the fastest swim of the race..including the men!).   

As I was coming into transition I could see second place leaving.  T1 was a little bit of a struggle with the tighter wetsuit.  I also haven't learned how to mount my bike and then put my shoes on, so I get the pleasure of running through the entire transition area with my bike shoes on.  Never fun.

I could tell I was gaining some time on the second women, and ended up catching in her the first few miles.  Now, I just had to keep up that pace.  At the first turnaround I saw that I was continuing to gain time on her, and fourth place was a decent distance back. At the second turnaround it looked like I was extending my lead over third and fourth, and loosing ground to first.  

Last year the men started catching me as I was riding by the lake in the park.  It was nice to get into transition without being passed yet.

I love my Zoot shoes, but still need to practice putting them on in T2.  Everything else went well.  As I was leaving transition I saw third place come in.  I figured I had a few minutes on her.  Hopefully good enough for a 5k.   At the first turn I spectator let me know that the lead woman was only 3 and a half minutes up.  Only?!?!  Yup, catching her is not gonna happen.

The run is an out and back with a turnaround at halfway.  Usually I feel pretty crappy running the entire time, but this year it didn't take much before I got into a good groove.  I've been working a lot on my form over the winter, and I felt it was helping. But, I didn't wear a watch, so had no clue if I was actually running really slow.  At the turnaround it seemed third was closing the gap, but I didn't think there was enough distance left in the race for her to catch me.  But, you never know, so I kept up my effort.

I looked over my shoulder a the last turn into the final stretch and couldn't see any women behind me.  It's all downhill from there, so no reason to let up then.  I crossed the finish line with Wes Anderson.  If the race truly is gender neutral with the staggered start, then I'm very honored to be the female version of him :)

Photo finish with Wes Anderson

In all, I was very happy with my race.  Comparatively to my previous PR, I'm further ahead than I expected to be.  My swim is a little lacking, but maybe I was able to draft in 2011.  I'll just thinks that why I wasn't much faster this year :)  The bike course was slightly different this year, with a full turnaround instead of four 90-degree turns in Palo.  That probably slowed my down a little in 2011, but not almost a minute.  The run has by far been my greatest improvement.  And, for that, I'm very happy. 

2011: 

Swim 7:18

T1 1:56

Bike 41:33

T2 0:56

Run 21:55

Total 1:13:35

2014: 

Swim 7:19

T1 1:51

Bike 40:46

T2 1:02

Run 20:35

Total 1:11:30

 I'll take a 2 minute PR :)  Looking forward to see how the rest of the season goes!  Event got a little writeup in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. 

Women's Overall Podium

2nd place club - Iowa HEAT