Oliver Half Iron - Race Report

Pre-Race
The morning was pretty relaxed - actually more like 'surprisingly relaxed'.  The alarm went off at 6 AM and I laid in bed for just a few more minutes - trying to stretch out the down time for as long as possible.  I went over in my head the things that I needed to take care of, working backwards from my wave start time of 7:40.  It went a little something like this: find a starting position, warm-up swim, lube up with Pam and Body Glide and pour myself into my wetsuit, eat a banana, set up my transition area, get my body marked, eat breakfast, make up my water bottles, roll out of bed and get dressed.  And...for the most part it went like that.

I slowly rolled out of bed and ambled over to the washrooms to splash water on my face to get the blood flowing and plop my contacts into my eyeballs.  Upon returning to the Rialta I was a bit at a loss for where to start (despite my well laid out plans).  I sifted through my tri clothes and finally settled on the same outfit I wore for Stevens (even though I had brought about 5 different options - you never know what the weather is going to be like).  With clothes on I started to figure out breakfast.  Again, not hard because I already knew what I was having - peanut butter on an English muffin (too bad we forgot the toaster).  

I was moving at a much slower pace than I had expected so I started to hurry a bit as I got my water bottles together.  I had prepped my aero water bottle mix the night before as well as my gel flask so I just had to take those out of the mini-fridge.  The only thing left to do was to mix up Ultima in my cage water bottle and then make a few transition bottles for 'just in case'.

With all the bottles ready I packed up my duffel and walked over to the transition area.  I saw Robin unpacking her stuff on the first rack - lucky!  My rack was about 4 away but I still got pretty lucky in that my bike position was on the end.  This would make my bike and run stuff easy to spot in T1 and T2 as well as give me a bit more room to stash all of my transition paraphernalia.  Setting up the spot was a piece of cake.  There really isn't much to it.  

I then had to pump up my tires.  That was a bit of a disaster.  I'm used to letting Gabe do all the grunt work and although I know HOW to pump up my tires I'm not all that confident in my skills.  I always feel like I'm going to mess things up.  Anyway, I got down to business.  Pumping them both up to 110 and gouging a big chunk out of my finger in the mean time.  Oh well - at least I didn't blow a tube or let all the air out.  Following the tire pump I quickly got my timing chip and body markings and then I was on my way back to the Rialta to shimmy into the wetsuit and head to the swim start.

Swim - 44:02 (Stevens = 42:41, Goal: 38)

I eased my way into the water from the camp ground beach area and swam out probably 25 yards, bobbed around, and then swam back in.  Call it a warm-up I guess.  The first wave hadn't started yet and I didn't want to be warming up for 20 minutes so I just made my way back to shore.  I gave Gabe one last peck and then walked around the fence to the start.  My initial strategy was to start on the far left - out of everyone's way and with a good b-line towards the first swim buoy.  For some reason, however, I was talked OUT of doing that and started meandering my way towards the middle.  The MIDDLE of all places!  What an idiot.  Oh well, I have no one to blame but myself (which sort of makes it worse).  

The countdown for my wave began and then the horn blew.  I waded in a few more steps and then just waited as people in front of me started swimming.  I feel like it took forever to actually start swimming but I'm sure it was only seconds.  The only thought that was going through my head was - man, this is really going to slow my time down.  Little did I know that actually swimming wouldn't make me gain my time back either.  Like I said, I was in the middle therefore I was in the thick of the biggest swim wave I've ever started in.  AWESOME!  I would take a few strokes, get bumped from all sides, try to site and see just splashing in every direction - no out.  This lead me to swim freestyle with my head out of the water which is completely exhausting and not advisable.  This did, however, help me to see what kind of mess I was in and any potential openings.

I'm not sure how long I swam like this but I did see the first buoy go by and thought to myself - SHIT.  But I had no choice.  It was better this than bob around doing nothing.  Finally (couldn't tell you when) there seemed to be a little thinning and I saw someone's feet in front of me and took that first opportunity.  Now it was just about calming down and trying to find some sort of rhythm.  Mentally I was pretty defeated.  I wanted out, I wanted to quit, I was pissed off at myself, and I couldn't get my breathing under control.  This was going to be the longest swim of my season - and to think I had trained for so many months for just this day.  I think the only saving grace is the fact that swimming is by far the most calming sport for me.  All you can hear is your breathing and your strokes and that's all you really think about too.  Besides - you can't really stop and give up.  You have to at least get to the beach to call it a day.  

So, after probably half the swim I was relaxing and just following some chick in front of me.  I sited a few times just to make sure the girl was going in the right direction and for the most part she was.  I'm not sure she was the straightest swimmer but I really didn't care at this point.  My only reasoning was that I didn't want to work hard anymore and I wanted her to just pull me through it.  There were moments when I looked up and the girl wasn't in front of me.  In fact it appeared that I was in the middle of an inverted 'V' and I was following no one which meant that I was working harder than I needed to be.  So at those moments I would veer towards the inside and find another person's feet to follow.  The rest of the swim went pretty much just like this and it seemed to take FOREVER (which pretty much it did).  Oddly enough, it wasn't until the last buoy that the wave behind me started to pass us.  I was expecting them a bit sooner.

T1 - 4:50 (Stevens = 3:07)

I know, I know - this is also much slower than Lake Stevens.  Well let me just put it this way 1) there were wetsuit strippers at Oliver which should have improved my time but laying on the ground having someone tug a wetsuit off of you is no faster than ripping it off yourself (just my opinion) and 2) the transition zone was a 1/2 mile away from the swim beach.  This is really the crux of the issue.  Once they rip the wetsuit off of you (which may have counted toward my swim time - not sure about that), you have to run along the road to transition carrying all of your gear.  I passed quite a few people in this zone simply because they were walking.  I guess they have sensitive feet (I heard a lot of complaining about that as I shuffled by).  Really, the pavement was swept and it was flat so it shouldn't have been that hard to trot along.  Again, just my opinion.  The rest of transition was uneventful - throw on aero helmet, sunglasses, socks, tank top, and shoes and we're good to go.

Bike - 3:07:25 (Stevens = 3:27:11, Goal = 3:15)

Woot!  Wow, okay, I never thought I'd use that word but really, that's what best describes my bike leg of this race.  I mean look at the gap between what I had 'hoped' to do and what I actually did.  Yea me!  The bike started strong.  I did the upper portion of the loop (a section we would do 3 times throughout the course of this leg) and knew where everything was going to be.  The first few miles were flat and on Hwy 97.  At around mile 5 there was a slight hill once over McAlpine bridge and at the turn to head South on Tuc-ul-nuit drive.  Once on this road, it winds its way back down into Oliver and the lake.  It's not a steep descent but you can really get a lot of momentum and it's a good time to use the aero bars.  It is here that we blow by the transition area and all the cheering fans and head out onto the southern part of the loop and the one and only hill on the course.

My plan, as far as the bike leg went, was to pace myself.  I was shooting for averaging 17 so when I kept checking my watch and realizing I was hitting 19s and 20s I tried to back off a bit.  The hill at mile 8 was definitely granny gear material but I had ridden it the day before and knew what to expect.  It was a steep and short accent followed by a section of flat and then a rocking downhill.  So, I stepped it up and flew by several of my competitors on the climb and hoped they'd stay back there once we hit the flats.

The next 17 miles or so we wind our way through wine country, over cattle guards, old wooden bridges, and across the valley to Hwy 97 again to head north - all very picturesque.  At the hour mark I checked my watch and I had gone 19 miles exactly - excellent!  That meant that I could ease up a bit for the second lap which seemed like a good idea to prep myself for the run.  If I could bang out 18s that would be awesome but I knew that if I started to fatigue I had a little wiggle room to back off even more.  This was an additional relief at the time because I had been having a bit of groin/inner thigh pain when I was in the aero position and now was the opportunity to sit up a bit and try and stretch it out.  Maybe even switch up my peddle stroke slightly.  Apparently that helped because shortly thereafter it disappeared and didn't come back.

We hit the upper portion of the loop for the second time and I knew I was half way done.  It's always interesting hitting that second loop - for some reason it's a relief to know that you are half way there and at the same time it's like 'man - aren't we DONE yet?'  My attitude at this point was still not that great.  I was making good time but I was easily irritated by my fellow competitors.  I have to say that there was a lot of 1) drafting, 2) blocking and 3) poor bike handling taking place on this course.  So very different from Lake Stevens.  I even saw an official scoot by on his motorbike only to be followed shortly by 5 racers drafting like they were in a peloton.  I know there were portions of this race that were pretty crowded and there were moments when you couldn't really help but draft for a second or two - but to be passed by a whole stream of riders...that's a different story.  

Blocking...oh how I hate blocking.  I experienced this several years ago at the Lake Samish sprint triathlon.  This is where a rider will saddle up next to another rider and then just sit there.  No passing, no falling back, just sit there and ride side by side like we're out for a group ride.  This then leaves any trailing cyclists to either violate the rules and pass over the center line (not safe) or squeeze between the outside rider and the yellow line hoping that they hear you coming and don't swerve out and kill you (also not safe).  All in all it's just lame and poor racing.  Inevitably I end up slamming on my brakes or making such a fuss that they move out of my way as I buzz by them (and I do mean buzz - I get as close as possible and make sort of a grumbling noise so they know I'm irritated).

Which leads me to the last item on the list - poor bike handling.  So, let's say a person blows by me.  One would expect them to keep going - steadily pulling away from me.  Well, oddly enough that wasn't the case several times on this course.  I would get passed and then the person would pull back in, sit up, and fumble with either food or water while swerving all over the damn road.  Ridiculous!  I won't belabor the point - but learn how to eat and ride folks.

Okay, enough of the venting.  Back to the race.  The second lap around I was feeling a bit fatigued.  I coasted in a few sections, soft peddled down a few of the shorter descents, and really just tried to stay relaxed.  Surprisingly the time went by pretty fast and before I knew it I was rounding the top section for the last time and within reach of the transition zone.  

T2 - 1:33 (Stevens = 2:27)

Smooth transition.  Not much to report.  Swig of Ultima, change of shoes, visor and race number on, ready to rock.  One nice thing about this transition as opposed to last year was the fact that I knew the race number was supposed to be in front.  Last year I had my race number already on from the bike leg and it was turned around backwards.  So, as I'm running out of the transition zone an official had to yell at me to turn it around.  Since I was wearing a Fuel Belt it was all tangled and it slowed me down a bit.  Lesson learned.

Run - 1:55:09 (Stevens = 2:07:01, Goal = Under 2)
I exited transition feeling great.  The mantra in my head - 'pace yourself'.  My plan was to go no faster than 8:30 and no slower than 9s.  I was shooting for an 8:45 really and pretty much that's exactly what I did for the first several miles.  It felt good.  Not 'easy' per se but I definitely wasn't working hard.  I scanned the passing crowd for Tjalling thinking I'd see him as I made my way to the out-and-back while he chased me down probably on his second lap - but no such luck.  Instead I ran solo down the side streets and then down towards the river.

The run course in whole was a bit interesting.  There is a section of residential street running that takes you up and down a hill and near the finish area but there is also an out-and-back section and a little loop that are right along the river and on fairly packed trail.  The bummer is the transition between the streets and the trail - there was loose large rock gravel that had me completely paranoid and cautious of my every step.  But, that only lasted maybe 10 feet and then you hit the trail so it's nothing to write home about.  Another quirk is the footbridge that crosses the water.  It's only wide enough to allow for single file so you hope you don't get stuck behind a slower runner and it has stairs on either end.  So, to add insult to injury for this long endurance race is that you have to do two sets of stairs.  Again, not something to write home about but man does it make you kind of grumpy when you're tired.

The best part about the run is the fact that you can see everyone and you can take the time to voice encouragement.  I tried to say 'good job' to everyone I passed.  Although that may irritate them I always feel good when others do that for me so why not?  I got a chance to see Robin and Carol several times on the run and cheer them on - both looked so strong and kept me motivated to run hard because the competitive side of me did not want them to catch me.  :)

The aid stations were great - completely stocked with bananas, gels, Gatorade, Coke (although not flat which makes for a lot of burping), water, sponges, and of course encouraging volunteers.  I never felt like I didn't have what I needed and the sponges were a nice touch even though the day was cool and overcast.

To be completely honest, now that I've waited so long to write this race report up, I can't really tell you many details of the run other than I felt good and I ran my first negative split EVER!  With 3 miles left it was go time.  There was a girl right on my heals breathing down my neck that kept me in check.  I slowed just a bit to let her get ahead of me so I could draft off of her for awhile - thought it was only fair to share the duties.  Around mile 11 or so she started to pull away.  I didn't think I could go that soon so I just kept her in my sights.  Unfortunately that distance that she put on me there remained and that's how we finished.  It's always great to have someone to chase though and I thanked her once we crossed the finish line.  As I ran down the last little hill into the finish chute I had a little kick - I'm pretty sure I was a jerk and passed someone right before the finish line but oh well.  I glanced at the race clock and it said 6:02.  At first I was bummed thinking that was my race time but then I remembered that my swim wave started 10 minutes after the first wave so my official time was 5:52!!!  Under 6!

What's next...well, I'm kind of hooked on this racing thing.  Originally my plan was just this race and Lake Stevens but now here's what I'm thinking: Clear Lake Sprint Tri - July 10th, Lake Padden Duathlon - July 24th, Lake Stevens - August 15th, Waterfront 15k - September 11th, Road bike leg of the Bellingham Traverse - September 18th (maybe, if I find a team), Black Diamond Half Iron - September 26th (If I'm feeling ambitious).  So stay tuned.  More long-winded race reports to come.

Zen and the Art of Triathlon Camping

This is it - the day before the race.  So far I have to say that camping and getting to the race two days early is the way to go.  Now, I'm not talking tent camping - because that looks miserable - but mini-RV camping...AWESOME!  Gabe and I got here yesterday afternoon, just in time to check in, head over to registration, and then hop in the water for a quick and relaxed swim.  Wait, that made it sound like Gabe got in the water with me which we all know is NOT the case.  Actually, I ran into Tjalling and Robin at registration and so we all took a dip.  I'm pretty sure I was weaving all over the place.  Guess that means more focused sighting tomorrow.

We were to bed at a decent time and up relatively early.  I was pleasantly surprised by the sunny skies and mild morning temperatures (although it has gotten quite warm throughout the day).  I eased into this morning with a quick 20 minute ride - seeing the only true hill on the course - and then out for a 10 minute run.  Everything felt in working order.  Then it was time to max and relax which I believe I have perfected over the last 8 hours.  The remainder of today was mostly spent sitting or sleeping.  We did take a quick tour of the bike course which winds its way through the Okanagan valley and past several gorgeous vineyards.  Something we'll have to check out on another visit. 

So now, I have racked my bike, attended the pre-race meeting and I'm settling in for dinner.  Which as some of you may know by now, is the ever faithful pho.  All the way from Bellingham.  :)  Didn't want to take a chance that I would have to eat some 'other' type of meal before race day.  Don't mess with a good thing.  Okay - dinner is served.  More news tomorrow on how things unfold.

Wish me luck.

It's Here!

No, I'm not referring to a package that I've been anticipating, nor am I referring to anything that's being delivered to me...I'm referring to my race weekend!  I can't believe it's already here and that 1) I'll be exhausted in a few days, 2) I'll know how my training paid off, and 3) I missed creating posts about MOST of my training.  I guess number 3 is just too bad for you.

So yea, back to this weekend.  I took tomorrow off from work (that would be Friday) so Gabe and I will be driving up to Oliver, B.C. in the late morning.  I decided to drive up there two days before the race so that way the actual 'day before race' is mellow and stress free.  In addition, I opted out of staying in a hotel because Gabe's Mom (sister's husband's, daughter's....just kidding) owns a mini-RV.  Actually it's a Volkswagon Rialta.  I thought it would be much more fun to stay as close to the race as possible and roll out of bed to the start of the race.  It's going to be awesome I think.  I reserved a camp site at the Lakeside Resort which I believe is right there at the start/finish line of the race.  Besides, it's the 'hip' thing to do - all triathletes are doing it now (or at least the triathletes I follow blogs for).

Tonight will be spent packing the remainder of my gear and running errands trying to get all necessary items.  I already started packing last night and my head is just scattered with checklist after checklist.  Here's a link that Robin sent me today that creates a customized list that you can print (much better than writing it all out even though I've already done that).  It's amazing the amount of stuff one has to bring for these races.  Luckily I'm staying in the Rialta so I don't think I need to be as organized as I would have to be if I was staying in a hotel (or at least that's what I'm telling myself).

My plan is to bring a computer and update this blog with the latest and greatest from this epic weekend but if I get too stressed out about all the stuff I have to bring then the computer will be the first thing to go.  So, if the latter is the case then hasta pasta until at least Monday!