Skeese Greets Triathlon 2013 race report.
This year has been very weird, race-wise. My trail running season lasted a lot longer than normal, and my tri season started very late. As such, Skeese would be my first triathlon of the 2013 season, in late June. Weird.
Before
Racing in late June in Austin is typically very painful, and even with a "cold front" moving in on Sunday, the highs were still forecast to be in the high 90s. But when I woke up in the middle of the night Saturday night (after a wild night of puppy birthday partying) (yes, really), I heard thunder and rain. That continued through the early, early morning, and when I got up to get ready, it was still thunderstorming. We wondered whether the race would still go on, whether it would be late, or whether it would be shortened (swim removed? bike removed?).
Sun rising over the lake between bouts of rain
All pictures, unless otherwise noted, were taken by Matt
The weather cleared up on our drive over (Matt came out with me to cheer), and it was beautiful and vaguely eerie as the sun rose over the lake. I found some of my crew (Betsy, Karen, Pam), and racked my bike with theirs. They'd chosen the ideal spot, right next to Bike In/Out, and with a landmark tree. Karen was setting out on a warm up/get the innards moving run, and so I joined her. We tooled around for about 10 minutes, ending up at a portapotty. Jamie would be so proud if I told him I did a warmup. But then he might expect it of me every time, so I think I won't mention it to him.
Next we wandered down to the lake to try to find my parents (who came out to cheer, as well!), and ended up wandering into a big group doing an instructor-led yoga session. And we just sorta joined in. Because why not? Other than that whole "nothing new on race day" thing, anyway. Also we kinda spent a lot of time laughing loudly and mocking each other, which I'm sure wasn't that relaxing for the people around us. Eventually we got distracted and wandered off to find a place to sit for a spell.
Pre-race yoga in the rain
While we wandered, (a) it started raining, and (b) Logan announced that the race start would be delayed 30 minutes. As we tried to sort out what this meant for our pre-race gu consumption, Logan got back on and announced that the race would, in fact, only be 10 minutes delayed. And then a few minutes later, he announced that, as it turns out, the race would start exactly on time, no delays. We were a whirlwind of emotions at that point. Mostly glad to just be able to start soon.
Mine was the 3rd wave to start, 8 minutes after the first wave went off, so Devon and I wandered down and pushed up near the front. We waded into the water, and discovered it was waaaaarm. Bathwater-warm. Which was nice if you're just hanging out in skimpy spandex. But maybe a little warm if you plan to actually swim aggressively in a few moments. But we forged ahead, and I lined up right at the very front in the middle. Next to the girl with the snorkel. (Yes, that's legal.) Counted down from 10, and we were off!
Swim 300 meters
I love swimming. And I'm a decent swimmer. And I even love the 2.4 mile Ironman swim. I loved swimming a 5k. But I gotta say... swimming 300 meters is kind of awesome. It's over almost immediately. Swim, turn, swim, turn, done! I thought I saw one fellow red cap waaaay out in front, but I couldn't be sure. I was in a cluster of other women, but as I made the final turn, I could only see one red cap directly in front of me. I had no idea how many had already exited the water at some blazingly fast speed, but I knew I had to probably be within the top 5 from my age group.
Chasing down the red cap ahead of me, not evening noticing I'm passing Tom and Ryan
T1
Came out on the heels of the other girl from my age group. I could hear my family and possibly some other people cheering for me as I exited the water, but I was too amped up to really focus on any faces. Tried to smile for the cameras as I ran up the hill, sticking close to the girl in my age group. I gained some ground on her, and complimented her on a great swim, and then we parted ways as we entered transition.
Found my bike immediately (never again, Couples Triathlon, never again), tossed goggles and swimcap, put on sunglasses and helmet, shoved a gu in my pocket, and swung my bike down. Incredibly brief run out of transition, and over the mount line.
Bike 11.1 miles
Mounted without incident and headed out of the park. The rain had stopped, but the roads were still very wet, and mission #1 was to remain upright the entire way, especially on the tight turns. Mission #2 was to ride really strong and minimize the number of people in my age group who passed me. Hold them off as long as possible.
Got my feet into my shoes on the first stretch down Hog Eye Rd, then just settled into my aerobars and pushed. There was some standing water on Hog Eye and Decker, but mostly the course was relatively dry and I never felt unsafe out there. I was pretty cautious on the turns, though.
I felt pretty strong on the bike, powering up the hills and trying to push on the flats. I passed a lot of women (all younger than me, since the waves ahead of me were all younger), and though I kept watching for them, wasn't passed by anyone in my age group. Some time around mile 7, I heard someone coming up behind me, but it was Claudia. Sure, that means someone from the wave BEHIND me passed me, but she's also crazy fast, and ended up first Masters, so I can't really bemoan that too much.
1 or 2 more women ended up passing me, but again, they were from the 40-45 age group, not mine. In fact, nobody in my age group passed me. I tried to ride the entire course like there was someone directly on my wheel that I was trying to hold off, and evidently I was successful. (I never looked to see if someone actually was, because if they WEREN'T, I was afraid I'd get comfortable and slow down.)
Ate my gu around mile 8, spun up the hills in the last miles as quickly as I could, and started mentally preparing myself for the run. Got to cheer for crazy-fast Adele on her run as I got near the last turn, and thoroughly confused a guy when he cheered randomly for me, by yelling, "Thanks, Amy's boyfriend!" back at him. (I blogstalk a fellow Texan Amy, and actually introduced myself to her before the race. I hadn't met her boyfriend, but recognized him from her blog. I kinda enjoy freaking people out like that. Is that wrong?)
The final turn is followed immediately by an uphill, which makes it hard to get my feet out of my shoes as I approach the dismount line. Once it flattened out, I slowed waaaay down (thereby negating any time I saved by dismounting without shoes) and got both my feet out, then hopped off right at the line.
Barefootedly running my bike into transition
T2
Once again I could hear my family cheering for me, but couldn't spare the brain cycles to look up and find them. Hopefully I smiled.
Managed to find my transition area again (thanks, mustard-colored transition towel!), racked my bike, tossed my helmet down, slid my wet feet into my wet shoes (no socks), grabbed my race belt, and ran in the direction that I blindly assumed Run Out was, because that's where it usually is. Fortunately I won that gamble.
I was pretty proud of that speedy transition.
Run 2 miles
I kinda hate this run. It's nearly exclusively off-road/trail, but it's the really hard kinda trail, with lots of divets and holes and giant, difficult-to-navigate mulch. On the plus side, despite the rain, it was NOT a puddly bog, like it was at the 5k9.
Started down the hill, directed and cheered by volunteer Ryan. A girl passed me, and after establishing that she wasn't in my age group, I used her as my rabbit and stuck close to her down the hill. Didn't take anything from the aid station, and wheeled around to start back up the hill. Ended up passing my rabbit back on the uphill, and never saw her again.
As I ran up, I saw Devon running down the hill, not too far behind me. After pretending I didn't see/know her (it's a thing we do), we cheered for each other, and I pushed even harder up the hill, using her as a reverse rabbit, trying to make sure she wasn't the first person from our age group to pass me.
Got cheers from Devon's husband, from Ryan again, and then from Kelly Williamson, who told me I was beating Karen, only because she thought Karen and I were in the same age group. She also told me this as she ran the course backward to cool down, having finished/won the race many moons ago.
The first mile seemed to take for-freaking-ever, but eventually I passed the sign for it. 1 mile to go. One painful, mulchy mile. But hey, the weather was still fantastic, and one mile can only take so long, and then I'd be done!
Passed the aid station again, again didn't take anything, and then eventually got up to my brother-in-law John, the human cone. He pointed out the turn to me, and told me there would be pavement in a quarter mile. Music to my ears. And he was far superior to the next volunteer down the trail, who told me that I had less than a mile to go. Duh, sir. The 1 mile marker was several minutes ago, and this is only a 2 mile run. But he also assured me there was pavement just ahead, so I forgave him.
And then there was pavement! I made an effort to pick up my pace when I got on more solid ground, and I could see the finish line up ahead. Managed not to break my neck or turn an ankle on the horribly broken-up pavement, and passed a few women as I pushed (slightly uphill) toward the finish line.
As I got close, I saw Matt cheering for me on one side, and Brian, Adele and Mary on the other. Tried to pass the girl right in front of me, but ran out of real estate and finished just behind her.
Running to the finish line!
Done!
Results
Cheered in some other folks, and then when we ran out of Our People to cheer in, we went to look at the results.
3rd in my age group! 2 women from my age group had come out ahead of me on the swim, and they were crazy fast, so I never had a chance of catching them. The good news is.. the only other person who beat me on the swim (by 1 second), I passed. And nobody else in my age group ever passed me! So 3rd!
3rd!
Picture by JoAnne
I think, overall, 2-3 women passed me on the bike (not in my age group) and nobody ever passed me on the run. Which left me 15th overall! 3/67 in my age group, 15/315 overall.
Swim: 5:46 (1:55/M)
T1: 1:33
Bike: 37:52 (17.6mph)
T2: 0:33
Run: 15:56 (7:58/M)
Total: 01:01:43
My goal at races of this distance is always to come as close to an hour as possible, and this is the closest I've ever gotten! I've had faster runs, but my swim+bike+transitions were enough to make up for that, and so this is faster than my previous best, Skeese last year.
I'm also pretty proud of that 33 second T2, I gotta say.
So overall, I was pretty nervous about my first triathlon of 2013, and things worked out really well. Hopefully this means that I'll only continue to get stronger and faster, and have a great season!
Before
Racing in late June in Austin is typically very painful, and even with a "cold front" moving in on Sunday, the highs were still forecast to be in the high 90s. But when I woke up in the middle of the night Saturday night (after a wild night of puppy birthday partying) (yes, really), I heard thunder and rain. That continued through the early, early morning, and when I got up to get ready, it was still thunderstorming. We wondered whether the race would still go on, whether it would be late, or whether it would be shortened (swim removed? bike removed?).
Sun rising over the lake between bouts of rain
All pictures, unless otherwise noted, were taken by Matt
The weather cleared up on our drive over (Matt came out with me to cheer), and it was beautiful and vaguely eerie as the sun rose over the lake. I found some of my crew (Betsy, Karen, Pam), and racked my bike with theirs. They'd chosen the ideal spot, right next to Bike In/Out, and with a landmark tree. Karen was setting out on a warm up/get the innards moving run, and so I joined her. We tooled around for about 10 minutes, ending up at a portapotty. Jamie would be so proud if I told him I did a warmup. But then he might expect it of me every time, so I think I won't mention it to him.
Next we wandered down to the lake to try to find my parents (who came out to cheer, as well!), and ended up wandering into a big group doing an instructor-led yoga session. And we just sorta joined in. Because why not? Other than that whole "nothing new on race day" thing, anyway. Also we kinda spent a lot of time laughing loudly and mocking each other, which I'm sure wasn't that relaxing for the people around us. Eventually we got distracted and wandered off to find a place to sit for a spell.
Pre-race yoga in the rain
While we wandered, (a) it started raining, and (b) Logan announced that the race start would be delayed 30 minutes. As we tried to sort out what this meant for our pre-race gu consumption, Logan got back on and announced that the race would, in fact, only be 10 minutes delayed. And then a few minutes later, he announced that, as it turns out, the race would start exactly on time, no delays. We were a whirlwind of emotions at that point. Mostly glad to just be able to start soon.
Mine was the 3rd wave to start, 8 minutes after the first wave went off, so Devon and I wandered down and pushed up near the front. We waded into the water, and discovered it was waaaaarm. Bathwater-warm. Which was nice if you're just hanging out in skimpy spandex. But maybe a little warm if you plan to actually swim aggressively in a few moments. But we forged ahead, and I lined up right at the very front in the middle. Next to the girl with the snorkel. (Yes, that's legal.) Counted down from 10, and we were off!
Swim 300 meters
I love swimming. And I'm a decent swimmer. And I even love the 2.4 mile Ironman swim. I loved swimming a 5k. But I gotta say... swimming 300 meters is kind of awesome. It's over almost immediately. Swim, turn, swim, turn, done! I thought I saw one fellow red cap waaaay out in front, but I couldn't be sure. I was in a cluster of other women, but as I made the final turn, I could only see one red cap directly in front of me. I had no idea how many had already exited the water at some blazingly fast speed, but I knew I had to probably be within the top 5 from my age group.
Chasing down the red cap ahead of me, not evening noticing I'm passing Tom and Ryan
T1
Came out on the heels of the other girl from my age group. I could hear my family and possibly some other people cheering for me as I exited the water, but I was too amped up to really focus on any faces. Tried to smile for the cameras as I ran up the hill, sticking close to the girl in my age group. I gained some ground on her, and complimented her on a great swim, and then we parted ways as we entered transition.
Found my bike immediately (never again, Couples Triathlon, never again), tossed goggles and swimcap, put on sunglasses and helmet, shoved a gu in my pocket, and swung my bike down. Incredibly brief run out of transition, and over the mount line.
Bike 11.1 miles
Mounted without incident and headed out of the park. The rain had stopped, but the roads were still very wet, and mission #1 was to remain upright the entire way, especially on the tight turns. Mission #2 was to ride really strong and minimize the number of people in my age group who passed me. Hold them off as long as possible.
Got my feet into my shoes on the first stretch down Hog Eye Rd, then just settled into my aerobars and pushed. There was some standing water on Hog Eye and Decker, but mostly the course was relatively dry and I never felt unsafe out there. I was pretty cautious on the turns, though.
I felt pretty strong on the bike, powering up the hills and trying to push on the flats. I passed a lot of women (all younger than me, since the waves ahead of me were all younger), and though I kept watching for them, wasn't passed by anyone in my age group. Some time around mile 7, I heard someone coming up behind me, but it was Claudia. Sure, that means someone from the wave BEHIND me passed me, but she's also crazy fast, and ended up first Masters, so I can't really bemoan that too much.
1 or 2 more women ended up passing me, but again, they were from the 40-45 age group, not mine. In fact, nobody in my age group passed me. I tried to ride the entire course like there was someone directly on my wheel that I was trying to hold off, and evidently I was successful. (I never looked to see if someone actually was, because if they WEREN'T, I was afraid I'd get comfortable and slow down.)
Ate my gu around mile 8, spun up the hills in the last miles as quickly as I could, and started mentally preparing myself for the run. Got to cheer for crazy-fast Adele on her run as I got near the last turn, and thoroughly confused a guy when he cheered randomly for me, by yelling, "Thanks, Amy's boyfriend!" back at him. (I blogstalk a fellow Texan Amy, and actually introduced myself to her before the race. I hadn't met her boyfriend, but recognized him from her blog. I kinda enjoy freaking people out like that. Is that wrong?)
The final turn is followed immediately by an uphill, which makes it hard to get my feet out of my shoes as I approach the dismount line. Once it flattened out, I slowed waaaay down (thereby negating any time I saved by dismounting without shoes) and got both my feet out, then hopped off right at the line.
Barefootedly running my bike into transition
T2
Once again I could hear my family cheering for me, but couldn't spare the brain cycles to look up and find them. Hopefully I smiled.
Managed to find my transition area again (thanks, mustard-colored transition towel!), racked my bike, tossed my helmet down, slid my wet feet into my wet shoes (no socks), grabbed my race belt, and ran in the direction that I blindly assumed Run Out was, because that's where it usually is. Fortunately I won that gamble.
I was pretty proud of that speedy transition.
Run 2 miles
I kinda hate this run. It's nearly exclusively off-road/trail, but it's the really hard kinda trail, with lots of divets and holes and giant, difficult-to-navigate mulch. On the plus side, despite the rain, it was NOT a puddly bog, like it was at the 5k9.
Started down the hill, directed and cheered by volunteer Ryan. A girl passed me, and after establishing that she wasn't in my age group, I used her as my rabbit and stuck close to her down the hill. Didn't take anything from the aid station, and wheeled around to start back up the hill. Ended up passing my rabbit back on the uphill, and never saw her again.
As I ran up, I saw Devon running down the hill, not too far behind me. After pretending I didn't see/know her (it's a thing we do), we cheered for each other, and I pushed even harder up the hill, using her as a reverse rabbit, trying to make sure she wasn't the first person from our age group to pass me.
Got cheers from Devon's husband, from Ryan again, and then from Kelly Williamson, who told me I was beating Karen, only because she thought Karen and I were in the same age group. She also told me this as she ran the course backward to cool down, having finished/won the race many moons ago.
The first mile seemed to take for-freaking-ever, but eventually I passed the sign for it. 1 mile to go. One painful, mulchy mile. But hey, the weather was still fantastic, and one mile can only take so long, and then I'd be done!
Passed the aid station again, again didn't take anything, and then eventually got up to my brother-in-law John, the human cone. He pointed out the turn to me, and told me there would be pavement in a quarter mile. Music to my ears. And he was far superior to the next volunteer down the trail, who told me that I had less than a mile to go. Duh, sir. The 1 mile marker was several minutes ago, and this is only a 2 mile run. But he also assured me there was pavement just ahead, so I forgave him.
And then there was pavement! I made an effort to pick up my pace when I got on more solid ground, and I could see the finish line up ahead. Managed not to break my neck or turn an ankle on the horribly broken-up pavement, and passed a few women as I pushed (slightly uphill) toward the finish line.
As I got close, I saw Matt cheering for me on one side, and Brian, Adele and Mary on the other. Tried to pass the girl right in front of me, but ran out of real estate and finished just behind her.
Running to the finish line!
Done!
Results
Cheered in some other folks, and then when we ran out of Our People to cheer in, we went to look at the results.
3rd in my age group! 2 women from my age group had come out ahead of me on the swim, and they were crazy fast, so I never had a chance of catching them. The good news is.. the only other person who beat me on the swim (by 1 second), I passed. And nobody else in my age group ever passed me! So 3rd!
3rd!
Picture by JoAnne
I think, overall, 2-3 women passed me on the bike (not in my age group) and nobody ever passed me on the run. Which left me 15th overall! 3/67 in my age group, 15/315 overall.
Swim: 5:46 (1:55/M)
T1: 1:33
Bike: 37:52 (17.6mph)
T2: 0:33
Run: 15:56 (7:58/M)
Total: 01:01:43
My goal at races of this distance is always to come as close to an hour as possible, and this is the closest I've ever gotten! I've had faster runs, but my swim+bike+transitions were enough to make up for that, and so this is faster than my previous best, Skeese last year.
I'm also pretty proud of that 33 second T2, I gotta say.
So overall, I was pretty nervous about my first triathlon of 2013, and things worked out really well. Hopefully this means that I'll only continue to get stronger and faster, and have a great season!