Oly Race Report

First of all my 3 goals were met: don't puke (although I came close), don't get sunburned ( I used spray sunscreen between the swim and bike), and finish around the 3:30 time frame.  Now that being said I felt I could have done a lot better and was feeling really strong until I let something get to me and I fell apart!

Pre-race
For some reason I was really nervous and jittery.  I couldn't sit still Sat. and I had a hard time sleeping that night.  We were up just before 4 am and hit the road early to drive to the race.  We got there early with plenty of time to get settled and stare at the ridiculous hill that they were calling the wall that you had to mount your bike with no head start and immediately attempt to climb up.  I got really nervous about that and went and tried it out just a little to make sure I could actually clip in and have it in the easiest gear possible.  I changed my mind a gazillion times on if I would wear my wetsuit or not.  It was 75 degrees.  I decided to wear it.

Swim

It was a 2 loop triangle open water swim.  The first wave was catching up to us just as she yelled for us to start!  I somehow stayed right on course and didn't swim that much extra.  I felt surprisingly good considering I hadn't done an open water swim in 4 years and up until that week hadn't swam a full mile in training this season.  When I saw my finish time 36:20 I was happy and I felt really good!  During the swim I noticed I got a little motion sick from not being able to see anything other than the moving mountains every time I went to breathe but I shook of the puky feeling and powered through!

Bike

We road over the dam on what was a really bumpy road where you could feel your entire body vibrating and when we finally got on some smooth road it still felt like you were vibrating :-).  I actually took some water on the bike with me but ran out during loop 1.  I was still feeling really good at this point.  Then it happened, the volunteer said Olympic I said yes he pointed straight so I went.  There were no signs to confirm.  (btw I don't blame the volunteer at all he obviously did not get good instructions and had no signs to back him up) Then I noticed I was going downhill and it said "boat ramp" on the sign NOOOo I was headed down the dreaded wall back to transition.  I asked and someone else coming up had just done the same thing so I turned around.  I think I did about 3 miles extra.  But mentally it ruined me.  At first I got really angry and I took off and went out way too hard on loop 2.  By the time I got to the uphill part with shaky legs and no water I was really hurting. I had eaten 2 shock blocks before the bike and to during the run, this seemed to be enough nutrition to get me through.  I finished in 1:45 about 16 mph which with the hills and road I was happy with this time just not the extra miles.

Run
At this point I was past angry and began to not care I figured it was over.  As a tried to "run" up the 1/2 mile wall I started to walk.  Then at the top it turned into a shuffle then I jogged as I got my legs back a little.  Unfortunately my calf muscles were spasming the entire run.  I thought I did better on my hydration so maybe it was that I pushed too hard on the bike?  Either way I thought I would average about 9 min/mi it turned out to be more like 11:30.  I made it and survived.

Somehow I got 2nd in my AG but I think that is because there were only 7 in it to start and a few must have DNF or DNS cause my total time was 3:35.  But I'll take what I can get!!! :-)  I rewrote this paragraph several times and have decided that I will not let my inability to deal with emotional stress during a race bias my feelings towards a race.  But I have chosen not to do another race by this particular race company again due to a history of mistakes in all their races.

Afterwards my mom really wanted to go to a nearby national park Tent Rocks and since she put up with two nervous and grumpy triathletes and took awesome pictures of us we obliged.  But even a 1.5 mile hike in the middle of the day heat was excruciating after this tri.  This is where I almost puked for the 2nd time.  My dad did awesome and felt good the whole time.  We are on our way to IM.  I learned some valuable lessons, #1 being don't let your emotions get the best of you.  I know where my strengths and weaknesses are and I will be making some changes to my training.  For this year I will concentrate on the IM but next year I vow to conquer the Olympic distance tri!!!!

What is your favorite race lesson learned?