Colby's Sunday RR

[colby]

Today I did the Valley Girl Sprint Tri in my hometown. This is a great all-womens event for beginners and seasoned ladies alike. It's pretty well-ran, the people who run it are super friendly, and the volunteers and spectators are great. The loot includes a nice technical shirt (for volunteers, too!) and a raffle at the end for all participants (including aero helmets, wetsuits, boxes of gels, etc; I got a 3 month Cricket broadband subscription and some Castelli socks... had one person been ahead of me I'd have got a sweet HRM). The awards are top 5 (except relay, top 3) and it's a cool medal in the shape of a star.

This year, there was a new bike course, which was about a mile longer than previous years (maybe 1.5 miles), but I liked much better. There were a couple of short hills, and there was a little bit of a headwind but not very bad at all. The run course is net uphill - the finish is higher than the start. The swim was in a 72-73 degree lake - very comfortable in a tri suit.

I had decided to race Athena to see how I'd compare. I did pretty well - came in 3rd. I probably could have caught the girl who came in first on the bike, but she would have beat me on the run by 4 minutes anyway. The girl who came in second caught up to me with a quarter mile to go to the finish. She was over 6 feet tall and there was no way my 5'4" legs could catch up no matter how fast I ran! The winner was also quite tall - certainly taller than my 5'11" husband. Because of the proximity to Ironman (about a month), I didn't really "train" but just tried to maintain fitness.

I was second out of the water, had the fastest Athena bike split, and 4th Athena run split. Could I have made up 30 seconds (to get to 2nd)? MAYBE. I turned around the buoy too soon and had to backtrack a little (dumb mistake, maybe cost me 5 seconds, though), then on the bike some jerk was driving their car at 15mph through the bike traffic - and it was two-way bike traffic so no way could we go around. That would have got me another 30-45 seconds (seriously. he drove in front of us for about 3-4 minutes and I was going 22+mph at this point - it was DOWN HILL). Could I have made up 5 minutes? I would have to be faster on the swim and mostly on the run. Or grow 6".

I felt like I had good lines on the swim and navigated through the end of the waves in front of me well, minus my stupid buoy tricks. I either breathed on a 2 pattern or a 3-2 pattern depending on where I was. Transitions were pretty good for me, too. T1 was a little ways to the bike start and a little ways to my stuff from the swim exit, but I didn't put on any socks or do any toweling off or anything. Aside from the dude in the car, I felt like it was a solid bike. I was able to take in gels - a little after 30 minutes total, a little just before I got off so I didn't have to stop on the run. T2 I did wimp out and put on socks to go with my running shoes, but otherwise couldn't have gone much faster and be safe with people around me. On the run, I just felt hot. I am not a very good hot runner. I poured most of the water over my head at the aid stations and that felt good (thankfully there was one every mile).

Swim - 1/3 mile - 00:12:43.920
T1 (long way to get to the bike start) - 00:02:11.676
Bike - 12 miles - 00:37:16.914
T2 (again a long round trip, also put on socks) - 00:02:06.572
Run - 3 miles - 00:29:20.479
Total / Time behind 1st place - 01:23:39.5 / 00:05:09.500

Had I gone age group, I'd have been 16th of 80. Top 10 swim, top 7 bike, and you know what that means for the run. Respectable. The winner came in at 1:08. Overall, I was 79 of 491, bike times near the top (certainly top 25), swim times near the same top 25 area, and the run once again.... not so great.

Guess I really do need to work on my running. :cries:

Oh. I got rear ended on Monday, spun around on the freeway going about 25-30mph by someone going too fast approaching a slowdown in wet conditions. My neck and shoulder have been giving me serious problems all week - I've been in to the chiropractor 3x and felt good Friday but definitely had pain last night and this morning. It made the bike uncomfortable and I probably paid for it on the swim and later on the run to a lesser degree.

[colby]

Sorry, it's fuzzy. Stupid cell phone. Regular pictures aren't up yet, of course.

[Pan Dulce]

Cool! Awesome times too. I think your run time was pretty good, actually. Better than what I could do! And it was pretty hot today, too. I was thinking of doing this one next year.

Is the water really that warm over there?! It can't be that warm in Coeur d'Alene Lake, so I'm jealous!

And a medal for your effort! Neat!

[Tri Girl]

Congrats, Colby!!! 3rd Athena is AWESOME!!! Way to go!! Great RR. Sorry about the car accident on Monday- I'm sure that had some bearing on your performance. Superb job!

[colby]

Cool! Awesome times too. I think your run time was pretty good, actually. Better than what I could do! And it was pretty hot today, too. I was thinking of doing this one next year.

Is the water really that warm over there?! It can't be that warm in Coeur d'Alene Lake, so I'm jealous!

And a medal for your effort! Neat!

Yeah, Liberty Lake's not that big, so it really was that warm. Coeur d'Alene is much warmer than it was a month ago, but no way is it as warm as this was The weather seems to always be HOT... I put on SPF70 well before I got in the water and still got sunburned on my face, neck, and shoulders (all the places I had inadequate coverage!).

The same folks also put on the WunderWoman tri in Wandermere which is apparently the same style, but in August. (It's usually the same weekend as the Danskin Tri that I do with my mother in law in Seattle, so I haven't actually seen it)

If you do want to do it, you'll want to jump on registration when it opens in October - it sells out in hours. I bought someone's spot but then you don't exactly PLAN on it.

[Alex]

CONGRATULATIONS, COLBY!!!

Alex

[OakLeaf]

Way to go Colby!

Hope you feel better after your accident.

[salsabike]

Colby, that's a great race report. I'm glad to hear that the Athena thing went well and actually it sounds like all of your times were really good (my run times are vastly, vastly.....slower). It went well and you had fun. That's pretty good in my book! And the medal is a HOOT.

Scary car accident, and glad you came out intact.

[colby]

Thanks everyone! I'm racing again this weekend (hopefully, they had a change date deadline of yesterday and I slipped in just under the wire) and decided to race Athena there, too. If I can come in 3rd to 6 feet tall ladies, maybe I'm not so slow after all... but no way will I ever be able to run a 19 minute 5k!!

They only had a couple of bike and finish pictures.

Bike (I had no idea where the camera was... so I look like a space cadet. The first is the "up" right at the start, the second is the "down" near bike finish/T2):



Finish (they had announced my name and people were super supportive, so I had to rally!):

[Tri Girl]

Grrrrrreat pictures!!!!

[Veronica]

Very cool! And congratulations! I like your finish line photo.

Veronica

[tribogota]

great finish photo! and I have to say, seeing you run in there, based on looks...not so sure that you qualify for athena and your age standing actually seemed more impressive than the athena standing, just for the future thoughts....
congrats! and thanks for the support for the HIM.

[spindizzy]

Nice work! Looks like it was a perfect day.