Gold Coast Sprint Triathlon 2008

Short Version:
Swim 12:50
T1 1:30
Bike 37:12
T2 0:53
Run 21: 59 (includes T2)
Total Time 1:14:26
1/69 F25-29 AG, 10th overall female (Last year 4th AG, 17th OA)

Long Version:

Friday
As the day progressed, I was definitely getting sick. I had felt the start of the cold in my bike on Thursday afternoon, my legs felt like lead and I cut the hour ride short to just 14 miles. I was unfortunately not at all surprised by this, for a few reasons. First, I turned my AC on in my apartment this week, and it usually causes a sore throat/stuffy nose when I first use it. I tried to avoid it, but upper 90s with 90% humidity doesn't lend itself to open windows. Second, before EVERY big swim meet I have ever swam in (East Coast Regional Championship in high school, Metros (the DC area high school champs), and even NCAAs in college, I would get sick. Purely mental, but with definite physical symptoms: sore throat, cough, runny nose. So I got some Vitamin C chewables, and started drinking Emergen-C like it was water.
My mother and sister were in town for a few days, they got amazing seats to see Phantom of the Opera, which is one of my all time favorite shows, so I was able to at least take my mind off how badly I was feeling.

Saturday
Woke up feeling WAY worse. I debated getting up and going to the gym to do an easy 30 minutes on the elliptical just to loosen the legs up, but decided an extra few hours in bed would be better to get ready for the race. Had a lazy day, went to brunch with the family, and think I drank more OJ than I have in years. Also was eating Vitamin C chewables like they were candy. But I was starting to feel a bit better.

Sunday, race day

Some major storms moved through the city on Saturday night, and each time I woke up during the night, the wind was howling or it was pouring rain. I woke up to no rain, but definitely overcast and humid weather. Got picked up and was at the race site by 6:30am. Went to set up my transition and was getting SO SO excited to just be racing again. Although I did run a 10k a few weeks ago, I had no intention of taking this run easy. I decided my race plan was to hammer the swim and the run. If my hip/leg hurt, I would deal with it at the time, but I wasn't going to hold back, after all, it was only a 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run.

The only stress leading up to the race was my coach telling me not to wear my wetsuit. The water wasn't as cold as last year, and since it was only a 1/2 mile, he said the time I would save wearing the wetsuit wouldn't be worth it. I debated and stressed, but in the end decided to wear it because I had worn it last year and my ONLY goal going into the race was to beat last year's time.

Swim, 1/2 mile, 12:50 (last year 13:30)
I was in wave 8/10, so did a lot of standing around watching waves go off. It was good to see some strategy in terms of the course, as it was a u-shaped swim, with two left hand turns. However the start on the beach was a bit inside the first turn, so you had to swim a bit at a diagonal to get around the first buoy, however MANY people were swimming way too wide (I think there may have been a bit of a current). I also realized the waves were all very mixed in terms of age and gender, which was a bit intimidating.

Regardless, when our waves was called, I lined up front and center. The friend who was in my wave moved back a bit after we got some interesting stares from the 'big boys' (ie the M35-39) in our wave. I smiled back and held my ground. Gun went off and I felt GREAT. I had decided my swim goal was to be first out of the water from my wave. Who knew if this was realistic, but I would be racing whoever was around me for the entire swim. One guy shot WAY out and I realized there would be no keeping up with him, but I found some other feet and tucked in.
Definitely the WRONG feet to tuck in behind, as this guy's idea of sighting was to do a breast stroke kick every 4-5 strokes. And he was going way wide. So I got out from behind him and decided to swim my own race.

When I made the first turn and looked for the next buoy to site, I realized that the wave in front of me was orange caps. The buoys were also orange! It took me quite a bit of time to figure out just which orange circle in front of me was the buoy... Overall, the swim was unevetful. I felt really good, and ended up coming out the water second in my wave. The swim time includes the run up the beach and into transition.

T1, 1:30 (last year 1:38)
Nothing remarkable, I was on the other end of transition, as last year my rack was literally next to bike out.

Bike, 12 miles, 37:12 (last year 36:35).
As soon as I mounted my bike and tried to shift to a higher gear, my chain slipped. I was worried about the state of my bike all week (it started making some new noises and hadn't been shifting too great the last few rides), but I just tried to ignore it. The bike course is 2 6-mile loops, with some nice office park views and rollers. Not great road quality, there were bottles all over the road, and has 2 sharp, 180 turn-arounds. The course was really crowded by the time I got on it, as I started 32 minutes after the first wave. I didn't have much trouble in the crowds, only got blocked in/cut off a few times (by the same guy both times, in fact, who strangely also kept trying to chat with me).

I got passed by 2 females the entire bike, one of whom I was passing back and forth for most of the ride. I felt good about that, and didn't look at my computer at all. I didn't want to see my time or speed, as I was afraid if I was behind last year's time I would get discouraged. I do remember really pounding last year's bike course and being worried as I got closer to the run. I felt a bit of the opposite this year. As I got closer to the end of the bike, my legs felt really good and I was worried I hadn't pushed as hard as I could have.

T2 0:53 (last year 0:43)
Again, nothing special, had to run much farther in my bike shoes than last year (still worried about the flying dismount with my hip so I havn't done any this year yet, didn't want to start in a race). As I headed out of transition, my coach was right at Run Out and yelled at me to calm down and not hurt myself. I yelled back "It's only 3 miles- I'm not slowing down!" and took off :)

Run 21:59 (last year 22:43)--> I am pretty sure these run times include T2 as they have my pace as 7:02 for this year.
As I have said, last year this was my first Brick, and I thought I was going to die. My legs felt awful and I wanted to vomit. Looking back, this may have been because I hammered the bike WAY too hard last year for my fitness, even if it was only 12 miles. This year, the transition to run didn't even phase me. As I am thinking about it, there was NO point in the run where I thought "this feels funny" (it terms of running off the bike OR in terms of my hip injury). I also decided to NOT start my watch at the beginning of the run, as I again didn't want to discourage myself if I was running 'slower' than I wanted to be.

This year's run was a total contrast to last years, in all good ways. Last year, I think I passed a total of three people, non of them being women. This year, only a handful of people ran past me, only 1 being a woman (the same women who I was going back and forth with on the bike- who ended up winning one of the older age groups). This obviously is in part b/c I started in a much later wave this year, but I also felt REALLY good on the run.

The run is two loops, with the first loop being a bit longer than the second. I pushed the pace s much as I could in the second loop, and even though I was feeling it, I was having a BLAST out there- trying to soak up being healthy enough to be out there competing and racing again. Coming into the finish, I tried to push it as much as I could. In crossing the line I was SO happy, regardless of finishing time (OK that is only half true- I coudln't WAIT to see my time!). I knew that based on when my waved started and the time on the clock at the finish line my time was going to be VERY close to last years time.

Aftermath:
After I finished I was really happy with my performance, and was trying to hold in my excitement to see how I did. I talked to my coach before I knew my results, but he just gave me a hard time for letting a boy beat me in the swim :)

When I first looked at the results, they had my as 3rd in my AG. I was SO excited to have moved up from last year, and to have achieved my main goal of improving last years overall time. When they posted the final results, I had moved up to 1st in my Age Group, as the two in front of me had placed in the overall results. I hadn't even bothered to look, and some others from my team told me the great news! I had in no way expected that, so it was a nice treat. This was my 4th triathlon (1 sprint, 2 Olympics last year), and the first time I have placed in my age group. To have it be a win is just icing on the cake.

The main thing I am proud for this race is that, despite a stress fracture, 3 months off running, and 2 months in India and Africa, I improved my run time. It is so nice to have tangible results for all the hard work I have put in over the past two months, and only makes me more excited as I move forward to keep up doing all the 'right' things: ART, strength training, long slow running, ice and stretch!! I have to admit that I am a *tad* bit bummed that my bike time was slower this year, as I have put more effort into being on the bike this season so far, but at the same time, it's only 40 seconds :)

Now my short term goal is to somehow flirt/sneak my way into the NYC Triathlon next month. I have one idea that I am working on, that may or may not include sexual favors, so cross your fingers (that I get in, and don't have to provide said favors to do so...)