Vindication

Today was a day I have anticipated for one year. If you’ve read my blog, you know that I had a lot of expectations for Columbia ’09.  I am delighted to report that the day was a success beyond my imagination.

As most of you know, last year the Columbia Triathlon was my first ever tri. I vividly recall my trepidation. In fact, the week of the event I posted a request for advice on the DC Tri bulletin board. My question was whether I should withdraw from the event. Based on my swim times in the pool, and the practice bike/run I did on the course two weeks before the event, I was seriously concerned that I wouldn’t make the cutoff times and would be disqualified from the race.

I was not looking for assurances when I posted my question. I really just wanted to know if folks thought I should bother showing up. However, the supportive folks of the club convinced me to go for it, and told me not to worry about being prohibited from finishing. So I went for it. I finished, but with the medevac drama (resulting in a 10-15 minute holdup) my final time was 4:19:52.

After that, I decided last year that I would aim for Columbia’s “Most Improved” award. I have trained pretty solidly for a year. I am so happy to be able to say that all of the hard work and sacrifice seem to have paid off.

The Plan

Below I laid out my plan for the day. I wish I could say that I followed it to the letter, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Long story short, the one mile backup to get into the park put me way behind schedule. I thought I left enough time, but I didn’t. I got into transition 10 before minutes closing. Once it closed you were not allowed back in. I stayed calm, but it was stressful. I missed the opportunity to warm up in running shoes, and I was not permitted to swim because by the time I got to the swim start the race had already begun. Nevertheless, I set up my area and got out in time.

I was a little flustered, but I found a bench and sat to get into my wetsuit. I had heavily sprayed myself with  olive oil to avoid getting stuck in my wetsuit like I did at practice the other day. Weird, but it worked.

I saw a Team Z-er, and introduced myself. He helped me zip up, and we talked for a little while. I started to calm down.  I headed over to the DC Tri Club tent and saw a bunch of my friends. That was calming but I was still quite stressed. Then my friend Sandy appeared, and said she had read my post about my plan, and asked me to go though it with her. I am pretty sure she thought she was doing this for her own sake, but it was exactly what I needed at that time. Thanks, Sandy. It really calmed me down.

I hung out with the girls until my wave was ready to enter the water.  I don’t know if it was the higher water temperature, or just the benefit of experience, but getting into the lake wasn’t as traumatic as it was last year. Last year I actually stood there saying “I don’t want to get in the water…No, I’m not kidding, I really don’t want to get in there.” This year I just walked right in and treaded water until the start.

Swim

It wasn’t a fabulous swim, but it was heads and tails above last year. I swam straight (for the most part). The best comedic moment came when I decided to take a break and backstroke. After a few strokes I looked up and asked out loud “Where am I? Why is everyone swimming in the opposite direction?” Somehow I turned around 180 degrees. Glad I caught that quickly.

Overall, the swim was good. Although I did get somewhat trampled on by the subsequent wave (orange swim caps – I couldn’t come up with any good nicknames for them like I did for last year’s purple “people eaters” and “greenie meanies”), it was only one wave and it was okay because I expected it.

I made it out of the water in 41:13. Last year was 46:48. I shaved a full five and a half minutes of my time.  Still not fast, but I just don’t care. I improved. Yay.yay.yay me!

Time 41:13 (.9 mile swim)– 87/88 age group (what?) – 1477/1569 overall (Last year 46:48 – 1695/1730 overall)

T1

I walked into transition and was very conscious of keeping my heart rate down.

Times are not yet posted for transition 1, but I can pretty much guarantee that I obliterated last year’s time of 9:14. [I could calculate it based on the times for everything else, but I’m too tired.] I joke that I have no idea what the heck I was doing for over 9 minutes last year, but today I was reminded that not only did I do the whole clothes changing thing, I also put gloves on my wet hands and had to run back for my helmet which I had forgotten.( Fortunately that was pointed out to me before I reached the mounting line or I would have been automatically disqualified.)

Thank goodness my wetsuit came off easily. Laugh all you want, but I think I’m sticking with the Trader Joe’s spray olive oil.

Bike

My sheer and utter joy at my improved swim time lasted me all the way through the bike course. Seriously. I was so happy with myself. Tons of people passed me on the bike. There were a few swim waves after mine. I didn’t care a bit. I was out there for myself, and I was just doing my best.  I was so happy I couldn’t believe it. I did pass some folks, but not many.

Not much more to tell about the bike course. It was hilly and brutal. I was pretty good about pedal stroke, but I need to practice not mashing so it isn’t so challenging. My heart rate was stayed in zones 3-4.

I was aiming to break 2 hours. Really, I wanted to do the bike course in 1:55. Last year’s time was 2:10 with the medevac delay (around 10 minutes). I realized around mile 18 that I was going to make my goal. Around 21 I realized I had a shot at 1:50. I entered the park at 1:45. The chip time is 1:51:07. I don’t think that is right. [It has been pointed out to me since posting that the bike time listed probably includes the transition time - I'll do that math tomorrow.] Still, I am elated. I shaved around 20 minutes off my time. Yay yay yay again.

Bike (25 miles) 1:51:07 – 69/88 age group; 1348/1569 overall. (Last year: 2:10 – 1677/1730 overall).

T2

I’m not sure exactly what happened here. I ran in, I changed shoes, I grabbed my race number and I was out. Somehow this only took 2 minutes, which was 49/88 in my age group and 611/1569 overall. I am not questioning this.

Transition 2: 2:00 49/88 age group; 1477/1569 overall. (Lst year 4:37)

Run

If I was happy before, now I was downright elated. So much so that I couldn’t wait to tell someone. And I did. I told the first person I could find how excited I was about my improvement. I didn’t mean to brag, but I was just so thrilled. She was really nice about it and seemed to appreciate my enthusiasm.

My legs felt heavy, but I was on top of the world. I just kept shuffling along. I had nothing on me (Garmin, footpod) to tell me how fast I was going. I felt slow. I hit the 1 mile mark under 10 minutes. Wow. I was quite surprised.

Last year’s time was 1:09:13. I hoped to shave 2 minutes off that. I had been thinking about my 10k times, and they were both around 1 hour so I didn’t think I could do much better on a hilly course after having swam and biked.

 Only afterwards did I realize that I’ve only done two official 10k’s before– one when it was 90 degrees and once when it was cold and rainy. I didn’t think about the 10-miler I did where I hit the 10k marker in under 55 minutes.

I kept moving and was shocked every time I hit a mile marker and realized I was still running 10-minute miles on that brutally hilly course. I was hurting, but it was just not an issue. I simply ignored the pain. I was so focused. I was happy to see a bunch of familiar faces on the run – some Z-ers, some DC Tri Clubbers. I made some new friends, too.

I incorporated one-minute walk breaks roughly every 9-11 minutes depending on where I was as far as hills and how I felt. It worked for me and I hope to do the same at Ironman if I can.

Run time:  10k (6.2 miles) 1:02:18. 61/88 age group, 1161/1569 overall. (Last year 1:09:13 – 1474/1730 overall).

Final time: 3:36:36. 71/88 age group; 1355/1569 overall. (Last year: 4:19:52 – 1654/1730 overall) 43 minutes faster.

Next time:

Did anyone notice that there was nothing about nutrition in my well thought out race plan? Me neither. I didn’t really give it much thought. Traditional wisdom is that someone my weight should take in 200-300 calories per hour for an event like this. When I run, I know exactly what I need. I have a routine that works for me. I haven’t gotten there with tri’s.

Before and during the race I consumed:

·        

Half a bagel and a glass of juice pre-race

·        3 chomps (gummy things) and 1 gel and half a bottle of water on the bike

·       1 small cup of Gatorade and a cup of water on the run.

This is bad, bad, bad. It worked for me, but it will not work in the future as the distances increase. I didn’t even realize it until afterwards.

I am totally exhausted, but giddy. I feel ready to conquer to world, and more importantly, Ironman Florida. I am so incredibly satisfied that I have made such progress. My aforementioned training partner and friend kept telling me how improved I am, but I thought he was exaggerating. In fact, yesterday he said he couldn’t wait to see my face when I saw my times for Columbia because he said he knew I was going to be pleasantly surprised. I am glad he was right and appreciate his faith in me. (And by the way, he kicked butt himself today. It was his first Olympic distance tri. He beat me, just like I expected him to.)

I don't know if I won "Most Improved" but I will find out. 

Here a before race picture, the one picture I have so far (thanks, Casey.) I didn’t plan to match, but now I think I’ll have to have a wardrobe of wetsuits to match whatever color swim cap I’m assigned.