Silverman Half Race Report
I am currently in the Apple Store in Reno, waiting for my genius appointment, monopolizing one of their display laptops, and fending off dirty looks... So, perfect time to post my Highly Detailed and Fascinating Race Report!
Silverman was an incredible race. It is the only half-iron distance race I have ever done, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it really felt like a true test that pushed racers to their limits while taking them through some amazing scenery. I am already planning to return next year, and break my course record ;)
Which should be a reasonable expectation, considering that my swim should be much better by this time next year. I expected to have a slowish swim because it was only my second ever open water swim, and they started everyone together rather than separating out the women, but due to high winds that caused a big swell, my swim was downright Slow. No "ish" about it. Good news was I didn't have any freakout panic attacks like at Tinley's, and I gained a lot of confidence by the end. I exited the water with 152 racers ahead of me, but at least transition was pretty clear and it was easy to locate my stuff!
I started passing people as soon as I got on the bike. The course started out with rolling hills but relatively favourable winds. There was an out and back portion with a turnaround point at mile 23 (so, 33 miles to go after that), and this allowed me to count how many women were ahead of me. I reached the turnaround with 12 women to catch, one of whom was 10 minutes ahead. I slowly but surely reeled all but 2 of them in, and I was incredibly grateful to have this motivation in my head through the second half of the course because it was brutal. Steep hills, headwind, and 10 miles of this narrow headwindy and STEEP PITCHED bike path that felt worse than the Ridgecrest portion of Alpine Dam, for you Bay Area cyclists. Additionally, focusing on catching these girls also enabled me to NOT think about the fact that I'd have to run an inconceivable 13.1 miles after getting off my bike. This was a very good thing!
So, I got off my bike and started running and actually felt not too bad. Greg ran with me, because his back had seized up during his bike leg so he opted not to start the run, then he stretched and waited for me (for a long time I think...) and did his run at my side. We ran a pretty reasonable pace at first, this was a hilly course and I had no idea how full or empty my tank was, so I wanted to start out conservatively. I caught the first of the two girls at mile 2, the second at the turnaround at mile 8, and as I headed back towards the finish I saw that there were a few girls within 5 minutes of me, and they were running fast. But no way was I going to surrender my lead, so with five miles to go I started really running and that was that!
It was great. It really was.
There were so many volunteers out there - we had an aid station at pretty much every half mile of the run! I got lots of coke and gatorade all over my face, I will have to work on my aid station skills for next year. There were also tons of policemen making sure the course was safe, which was so nice - never for one moment did I feel like I didn't have room or like I was about to get squished by a motorist. And, for the last 5 miles, it was so incredible to hear all these women cheering for me. Even women who were racing! Up until that point I had been calling out encouragement to other racers, but at the end I was reaching my limit and then I started really appreciating other people's encouragement.
And one final bit of trivia regarding me and my horn-tooting race performance: after the swim, I passed 140 racers, and not a single person passed me. Man or woman. So that was cool.
Now it's time to buckle down and get ready for Oceanside 70.3 at the end of March!
Silverman was an incredible race. It is the only half-iron distance race I have ever done, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it really felt like a true test that pushed racers to their limits while taking them through some amazing scenery. I am already planning to return next year, and break my course record ;)
Which should be a reasonable expectation, considering that my swim should be much better by this time next year. I expected to have a slowish swim because it was only my second ever open water swim, and they started everyone together rather than separating out the women, but due to high winds that caused a big swell, my swim was downright Slow. No "ish" about it. Good news was I didn't have any freakout panic attacks like at Tinley's, and I gained a lot of confidence by the end. I exited the water with 152 racers ahead of me, but at least transition was pretty clear and it was easy to locate my stuff!
I started passing people as soon as I got on the bike. The course started out with rolling hills but relatively favourable winds. There was an out and back portion with a turnaround point at mile 23 (so, 33 miles to go after that), and this allowed me to count how many women were ahead of me. I reached the turnaround with 12 women to catch, one of whom was 10 minutes ahead. I slowly but surely reeled all but 2 of them in, and I was incredibly grateful to have this motivation in my head through the second half of the course because it was brutal. Steep hills, headwind, and 10 miles of this narrow headwindy and STEEP PITCHED bike path that felt worse than the Ridgecrest portion of Alpine Dam, for you Bay Area cyclists. Additionally, focusing on catching these girls also enabled me to NOT think about the fact that I'd have to run an inconceivable 13.1 miles after getting off my bike. This was a very good thing!
So, I got off my bike and started running and actually felt not too bad. Greg ran with me, because his back had seized up during his bike leg so he opted not to start the run, then he stretched and waited for me (for a long time I think...) and did his run at my side. We ran a pretty reasonable pace at first, this was a hilly course and I had no idea how full or empty my tank was, so I wanted to start out conservatively. I caught the first of the two girls at mile 2, the second at the turnaround at mile 8, and as I headed back towards the finish I saw that there were a few girls within 5 minutes of me, and they were running fast. But no way was I going to surrender my lead, so with five miles to go I started really running and that was that!
It was great. It really was.
There were so many volunteers out there - we had an aid station at pretty much every half mile of the run! I got lots of coke and gatorade all over my face, I will have to work on my aid station skills for next year. There were also tons of policemen making sure the course was safe, which was so nice - never for one moment did I feel like I didn't have room or like I was about to get squished by a motorist. And, for the last 5 miles, it was so incredible to hear all these women cheering for me. Even women who were racing! Up until that point I had been calling out encouragement to other racers, but at the end I was reaching my limit and then I started really appreciating other people's encouragement.
And one final bit of trivia regarding me and my horn-tooting race performance: after the swim, I passed 140 racers, and not a single person passed me. Man or woman. So that was cool.
Now it's time to buckle down and get ready for Oceanside 70.3 at the end of March!
Labels: enjoy the blog, racing
posted by Courtenay at 11/14/2007
5 Comments:
C - Awesome! Congratulations on the win! You will surely be a name on everyone's list of people to watch at Oceanside... Plus you'll have the benefit of training and living at altitude, then racing at sea level. You will kick a$$!
One of the coolest most uplifitng posts I have read anywhere in a long time ct.
...inspiration for us all to pass even one person en route to a better idea.
wicked props from Seoul:-)
hey court nice job . . . liked lisa's valueact emails - the new stuff looks good huh? hey you gotta change my link to martinayellowbug.missingsaddle.com when you get a chance. I've even got you back up there, life at a new blog is hard to adjust to I am a tech dummy. glad to hear that you are kicking ass at the tri's, greg better watch out before you start beating him.
Wow! That is a great detailed posst--thanks! I gotta say that your description of the last 5 miles, cheering women etc, reminds me so much of what the last 20 min. of my homebirths ar like! You birthed a winner!
hey! Hans and I were talking about you on our morning ride. he wanted me to tell you congratulations on Silverman. and then he started swearing something about how it sucks to be old like us.....
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