Race Report: Ice Breaker Sprint Triathlon

Woohoo first race of the season! Man I was nervous. But it was a good day, and even without my Greg Crutch, I survived!

I won the Women's Under 34 race, but there was a woman in the 35 and over race who had a faster time than I did. So, I finished second overall by 40 seconds to the woman who finished second overall to Eileen last year. Ah well. At first I was really bummed - I had a feeling she probably beat me but since the older wave started 7 minutes later than mine and I didn't take note of my time when I crossed the line, I had to stand around and wait for official results before I knew for sure. But now I don't mind. As Greg says, I didn't deserve to win.

Anyhow, the gory details:

I got to the race and immediately found Chris and Loren and, as promised, asked Loren a trillion questions about what to do. He sort of teased me for not setting up my bike with the shoes already clipped in, but when I told him I just got my new tri shoes on Wednesday and my 20 minutes of on-the-fly entries and exits since Wednesday basically left me feeling like a safety hazard, he snickered and then be'd quiet. Later I made fun of him back, because his "transition backpack" is the hugest 70 gallon Rudy Project Rolling Duffle ever.

After setting stuff up and jogging around for 10 or so minutes to warm up (no biking allowed since there was another race going on), I got half my wetsuit on and walked for like 20 minutes down across a bunch of hot sand to the swim start. Water level in Folsom Lake is clearly at a low point, which mystifies me considering how much snow and rain fell this year and considering that the water source for the lake is supposedly our snow-covered mountains. Also: dude from the gym was dead wrong, I didn't see a single log and the water was definitely not freezing, I would guess it was at least 60 degrees.

So then our race started, I lined up at the front but didn't do a good job of really sprinting into the water and very quickly found myself halfway back in the pack getting pulled and whacked, but I slowly got into a rhythm and managed to stave off my panic reflex. Out of my 4 open water swims to date, this definitely felt like my best. I felt like I actually managed to swim, to focus on good technique, and work on my sighting skills. Yay! I finished at least a few minutes behind the leaders, maybe more, but that's way better than it could have been. My real problem and mistake was at the end of the half mile swim - the race directors recommended that we take our wetsuits off in the shallow water and carry them up the LONG sandy run (I would guess 1/4 mile but don't quote me), and even though I watched men from earlier waves really struggle when they followed that advice, for some stupid reason I did it anyway. By the time I realized that my muscles were too jellied to take the wetsuit off quickly and to maintain my balance, it was too late, so I helplessly watched 5 smarter girls run past me and take theirs off further up the beach while I just struggled and tried not to topple over. NEVER AGAIN. Ugh.

On to the bike... this basically went well. I love my new bike, and I loved myself for taking the race website's advice and pre-riding the course yesterday. It was a twisty narrow rolly slow course, a cyclist's nightmare basically. But since I had a glimpse of it yesterday, I knew what to expect and managed a decent pace. But, and this is becoming my theme for the day, I made some mistakes. First, I spent an hour last night trying to put my SRM head on my bike in a way that it wouldn't slip and point straight down when I went over bumps. I thought I got it, but I totally didn't. I spent 6 miles of the bike reaching down and pulling it up and holding it with my hand before I decided it was fruitless and pointless. I should have decided that right from the get-go because it was such a distraction. Thankfully, after the race Loren showed me how I could improve my jerry-rigging with a couple of cable ties. Second mistake was getting complacent with my shifting - I shifted to my little ring while I was coasting around a turn into a hill (I should know better!) dropped my chain, tried unsuccessfully to shift it back on, and ultimately got off my bike to fix it. NEVER AGAIN. Ugh.

On to the run...As I rolled into transition, and dismounted my bike with my cycling shoes still on my feet (see previous safety-hazard note), I thought I heard the announcer say I was the first woman, but I wasn't sure. The bike course had two loops with no true turn-around point so I even though I had passed a ton of people I still had no idea where I was in the field. My transition went OK, I didn't forget anything but it took me longer to get my shoes on than it should have - side note they are brand new shoes and today was their maiden run, thank god it worked out well and I totally love them! - and off I went. The course was almost all on trails, and there were quite a few really steep up and down portions. I love this type of course, but I wasn't expecting it. My BIGGEST MISTAKE OF THE WHOLE DAY was that I didn't double-check the run format. I thought I had read that we did 2 loops of a 2 mile course, which would make sense since they had run a Baby Sprint race earlier in the morning that did 6.5 miles on the bike (one loop of our course) and 2 miles running (so 1 loop of our course, right?) As time wore on, and as the terrain got more and more difficult, I was thinking "god this is the longest two miles of my life!" and "I have to do this climb again?! Better not toast myself now..." and felt myself slowing. Finally I asked another racer, who told me we did only one 4 mile loop, and instantly I ran faster. I booked it to the finish, berating myself a little bit but there was nothing I could do at that point.

And how do I really feel about it?...

On the one hand, in case you hadn't noticed ;), I feel kind of like a jackass. I feel like I had like 3 minutes of unnecessary farting around (not literally) during the course of the race, and because of it I lost the race. But on the other hand, and in the grand scheme of things, I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to really learn what I need to work on. This is my third triathlon ever, and I am a long way from being smooth. I know that if I had won the overall race, my many mistakes would seem less important, less painful, and less urgent. I probably wouldn't have the determination to really fix my problems that I do right now, and this race would not have served its purpose of giving me much-needed lessons. I know I will be a better racer for this - and thank you Marit and Sarah for indirectly giving me this perspective!

Next up is Wildflower Long Course on May 4 - I am really excited, and I feel confident that I will have a great day!