I arrive in Florida late Friday afternoon and headed to my parents' apartment. To my relief, my bicycle had arrived, so I immediately unpacked and reassembled it. Since I was unsuccessful at getting the pedals off of the Cervelo at home, I bit the bullet and carted the bike over to the LBS for some pedals and air. It turned out that their priced were comparable to others, and I also picked up some CO2 cartridges, just in case I got a flat. After that, it was time for a makeshift dinner comprised of leftovers from when my folks had been in FL, a nice catch up chat with my aunt and uncle. Who were also staying at the apartment, then off to bed early, seeing as I had to wake up at 6 to make it to the open water swim Terrier was hosting down in South Beach.
The swim was lovely, gorgeous day, and I finally learned what dolphin kicks are and how to do them. The Nautica swim is a point to point swim, north to south, and against the current. The entry is also pretty shallow, so you have to run for quite a bit, the do those dolphin kicks for a while before you can start swimming. Quite different on both counts from the other ocean swim I'd done last year.
We also practiced sighting and drafting a bit, and I got to try on my wetsuit and swim in it. What I didn't realize was how long it would take until water actually touched my skin inside the wetsuit. Truly a bizarre experience! It was also difficult to tell if the wetsuit made the swim easier/faster for me. So I was on the fence about whether or not to wear it race day.
After a quick ride on my bike to make sure it survived the journey unscathed and a quick run to make sure my ankle held up after turning it (twice) earlier in the week, I headed over to pick hobby race packet and visit the expo. While there, I got my hair trimmed at the Paul Mitchell booth (gotta love multi-tasking!), picked up some Zico coconut water, and when it was late enough, finally went to the hotel to check in so that I could shower, eat dinner with the team and head to sleep.
Sleep, of course, is a real challenge the night before a race. I finally gave up on it at 4:30 and opted to just get up and ready. Race day breakfast consisted of honey nut cheerios with strawberry yogurt on top and cafe con leche with lots of sugar. Definitely nothing like my usual breakfast, but stuff I could keep down and I knew wouldn't upset my stomach.
After a quick stop at the Terrier trailer for some air and a little adjustment of my front wheel, I headed over to transition to set up my station. Towel, helmet, glasses, fuel, bike and run shoes, goggles and swim cap all present. But no wetsuit. Was that a concepts decision? No, but since there was some confusion as so whether the wetsuits would be allowed I decided to leave it in the hotel room instead of heading back to get it. Instead, I took a little run to calm my nerves and warm up, and used the porto-john, then headed over to the swim start once transition was closed.
The swim: we were, of course, the last wave of the Olympic length (women 30+). So we got to see all the other waves head out first. There were a bunch of Terrier women racing, and seeing familiar faces was certainly comforting.
Then our wave was called and we were off. Ugh. Much more kicking and hitting than other starts, and by 250 meters in my goggles were so foggy that I couldn't see. I was doing some minor panicking and having a lot of negative thoughts before I was able to get my shit together enough to focus on my stroke and on my breath. I noticed that I was swimming much closer to shore than the other people around me, but prefered that to the melée of arms and legs where the pack was. As I passed people first from one wave ahead and then from two ahead, I started regaining a little confidence. The buoys seemed to come a little quicker and it was finally time to make that turn toward shore. I swam in as far as I could then did some more dolphin kicking then some jogging. Around me there were people who stooped to take off their goggles, or who were walking. What were they thinking?! As I got to transition, I hit the lap button on my watch 34:xx. Much slower than I wanted.
I hustled through transition, got my bike and headed out, hitting my watch again. Then I was off. I still haven't learned the rubber band, flying leap combo, so got on the slower way and was off. I tried getting in some fluid, but I froze it overnight so it would be cold, and it still hadn't melted. Not good! I'd try again to break through the ice every few minutes, until finally, about 15 minutes in, I managed to get some fluid. Well, live and learn! A bit after, I had a Gu (vanilla, though it tasted like chocolate to me), and kept sipping fluid throughout. My Garmin was giving me mile splits, and I was pleased to see that those were coming in at under 3 per mile. That was putting me at a 20+ mph pace- faster than I'd clocked before. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sustain it. As I hit the hour mark on the bike, though i was feeling good mentally and didn't think I was fatigued, my splits were coming up slower and slower. I had a Gu Roctane (blackberry-yuck!) to try and get it all moving again, took in lots more fluid, and before I knew it I was back at transition. Bicycle leg was 1:18:xx. Better than my calculations.
The run. What can I say? It kicked my ass. Though it was only 9:00AM or so, it was HOT, and the sun was strong. The run course didn't have much shade, so there was no reprieve from the sun, and after training outdoors in NYC all winter, my body wasn't acclimated to the heat. At every water station, I grabbed a couple of cups of water - poured one over my head and the other down my top. But though those water stations were a mile or so apart, they seemed a long time in coming, and the mile markers even longer! I took the first mile nice and easy- getting my running legs under me after the bike, then started to increase my speed. Miles 2 and 3 were challenging but doable. But somehow, after the halfway point it was as if a switch had been flipped. Running became really, really hard. Though I was putting in much more effort than in the first 5k, my timed were a minute per mile slower. There were so many points where I was tempted to just stop and walk, but didn't. I tried remembering what Spencer said about how 4&5 were the hardest miles, and tried to get through them without losing too much time, and gave a final push for that last little bit.
As I ran through the finish I hit time- 2:53:37 was the official time. 8:37 slower than my goal time. I'm disappointed, sure. But trying to keep it in perspective. 2:45 was a fantasy time considering where I'd started and the numbers I was hitting. But it proves that it's not a pipe dream. I have 2 more oly's scheduled for this year- NYC and the Nation's Tri. Both opportunities to improve.
After a couple of celebratory mojitos on Sunday, and a day off on Monday, I hit the pool yesterday and did an 8 miler today, with renewed commitment to get to my workouts- all of them if possible.
| Distance | Intermediate |
| Clock Time | 02:53:37 |
| Overall Place | 358 / 670 |
| Gender Place | 80 / 179 |
| Division Place | 11 / 25 |
| Swim | 00:35:02 |
| Trans1 | 00:02:22 |
| Bike | 01:18:21 |
| Trans2 | 00:02:31 |
| Run | 00:55:19 |
| Swimrank | 355 |
| Bikerank | 447 |
| Mph | 19.0 |
| Runrank | 328 |
| Pace | 00:08:55 |
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