Race Report: Bear Lake Classic
I did it!!! My first open water sprint triathlon!!! :D
As you can see, I, too, am a member of the "First Triathlon at 46" club. :p
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Saturday morning came early at our "Deluxe" Kabin at the Garden City, Utah, KOA. (It was "Deluxe" because it had its own bathroom!) Although we tried to get to sleep by 10:00 pm on Friday, the stifling heat of the un-air-conditioned Kabin, as well as all the chatter and smoke from our neighbors who enjoyed one another's Kompany around their Kampfires until well after midnight, Kept us tossing and turning until the wee hours. (Note to self: vinyl-encased mattresses on futon bedframes should be criminalized.) Sometime around 1 a.m., I thought I heard either a mini-bike outside, or a small lawnmower-engine glider. In fact, it was our refrigerator. (Our "deluxe" refrigerator, no doubt.) I considered pulling the plug on the noisy beast, but the dogs' food was in there. I turned down the temperature and, after a few minutes, Mr. IceBox decided to play nice. At 4:38 (my alarm was set for 5:15), one of my poodles smelled a skunk, and really, really, really needed to go outside to find him. That got the other dogs up, and they wanted to go out to potty. Sigh. After carefully taking the poodles out to take care of business, we got back in bed for the remaining few minutes we had before the alarm went off. The refrigerator again became possessed by ghosts of lawnmowers past. After about 10 minutes, it shut up. "Ahhh," I thought, "A few more minutes of sleep..." As I sighed and snuggled closer to a poodle, I heard the not-so-mellifluous tones of my electronic watch.
Let the day begin!
Within short order, the poodles and DH were fed and I had my breakfast ready to eat in the car on the way to the race site. Although my race would not begin until 9:15, everyone was instructed to be at the race site by no later than 6:45. I was one of the few people to take that edict seriously! That meant that I got less sleep than other racers, but we had a great parking spot.
I wandered about, picked up my timing chip, set up my gear in the transition area, talked to other racers, walked and pet poodles to soothe my nerves, shared with my dogs the hard-boiled egg I could not bear to eat, watched the men doing the Olympic race start their swim (some guys missed the start!), and consulted with DH on all matters triathlon. ("The map only shows one buoy, but there are two on the course. Do I swim around both of them?" :o He was QUITE patient!) Around 8:30, it was time to don my wetsuit.
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I headed down to the beach, feeling a bit anxious and excited, but mostly anxious. DH recommended warming up in the water, so I went out and swam around a bit. That helped me calm my nerves a lot. I don't know what I was doing when he took this photo, but it looks like I'm giving the water a stern talking to. LOL!
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Here are the women sprinters waiting for the start horn. I was repeating my mantra: "I am an oasis of calm." And, I was thinking, "You all go ahead, there, and get started. I'll be there in a bit!"
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And, we're off! Bear Lake is shallow for several yards, so there was a bit of a trudge/run through the water until it reached swimming depth. I glanced down at my heart rate monitor and was stunned to see how high my heart rate was. Clearly, my body did not get the whole "oasis of calm" message.
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It turns out the swim was SO MUCH FUN! I felt great out there. Because I started at the back, I did see several folks immediately flipping over on their backs, trying to back stroke, stopping and treading water, etc. I just kept going, and got into my groove. Before the swim, DH said, "It will be over before you know it" and, after I turned at the first buoy, I thought, "He was right!" I had very little physical contact from other swimmers and I was swimming in amazingly straight lines. Every time I sighted, I was centered on the place I needed to go. I hardly sighted at all on the return leg because, every time I looked, I was centered on the finishing arch!
I wish I had started more near the front because I could have caught a draft. I'll remember that for next time. There was actually a woman doing the swim with a snorkel! Can you believe that?
Even after starting way at the back, I ended up finishing 36th out of 71 women (all ages). Given that I couldn't swim a stroke just nine weeks ago, I am chuffed!
Here I am running, nay, skipping, out of the water. What you can't tell from this photo is that I had a HUGE grin on my face!
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As I passed under the arch, I did a little dance and said to DH, "That was SO MUCH FUN!"
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I ran up the beach to the transition area, got as much of the sand off my feet as I could, struggled to put on my sun-protective bolero over my wet arms, and got ready to rock the bike course. The bike leg was phenomenal. I passed loads of people, even men. It surprised me to pass men because their race started 15 minutes before mine! The bike portion was only 12.4 miles, and I was back at the transition area in 41 minutes, averaging 18.3 mph. I had the 23rd best bike time of all 71 women and only one woman passed me the entire time. It takes away the sting of being passed when you can see that the person is 20 years younger than you (and she's on a tri bike).
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I grinned the entire time on the bike. Conditions were perfect! It was an out and back, which I liked.
Back to transition to start the necessary evil -- the run.
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After the bike, I put on my goofy compression calf sleeves. DH swears by them and he bought me a pair, so I thought I would try them. I think it looks like I'm running in knee socks, but WOW! Those things feel great! Even though it is a HUGE fashion faux pas, I'm sticking with the schoolgirl look from now on.
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As I've mentioned before, I am a REALLY slow runner. So, some of those folks I passed on the bike had the pleasure of passing me back on the run. I did end up passing a few people, but most of them were walking. I was 39th on the run and my Garmin said my average was 9:29 per mile, so there is a lot of room for improvement, and I think I will work on that this winter. When I felt myself start to slow down during the race, I visualized my running buddy poodle on the end of his leash running ahead of me and pulling me along. :D It worked, too!
Here I am making my way to the finish line. I have a really great sun-protective running hat with side and back drapes. I didn't realize it would make me look like I had wings on my head. What I really need are wings on my FEET!
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I finished 34th out of 71 women and was 6th in my age group, just 30 seconds behind 5th place. The woman who won the race was in my age group. My finishing time was 1:39:55. I didn't have a time goal, but when I started out on the run, I realized that a time under 1:40 was within reach, although I didn't think about that while I was running. After the race, we took the poodles for a great walk around the lake and my most water-loving guy had a ball fetching stuff in the water.
DH was an excellent sherpa, camera man, coach, strategist, cheerleader, etc. We capped off the day with a lovely lunch and then drove home to our air-conditioned home, with our quiet refrigerator, and our pillowtop mattress. Ahhh!!!
I really need to tighten up my transition times. After the swim, I put on gloves and the Terry bolero (which was decidedly un-aero and too big in the arms, but I needed that size to cover the exposed areas on my back.) I think we were near 7000 feet in elevation and the sun can be pretty brutal! Next time, I would put the calf covers on under my wetsuit and wear them on the bike, too. That would save me some time. I didn't wear gloves on the bike for my pool sprint, and my hands were numb and tingling when I started the run, so I think I really do need to wear gloves. My hands felt fine yesterday. Maybe I can find some gloves that don't have velcro or are easier to put on.
Thanks for reading this marathon report!
Alex
