Boyne City Triathlon
I have to say, my first week as a "pro" triathlete was not nearly as glorious as I thought it would be! After driving home from Chicago, I threw my exhausted body into bed for a good night of rest. In the middle of the night, I woke up and found my throat was hurting so badly that I could hardly swallow. Awesome. I took Monday off completely, hoping to recover in time to still race in Boyne on Sunday. On Tuesday, I felt slightly better and sat on trainer lightly spinning for an hour. Afterward, I felt better for about 30 minutes, and then I felt even more exhausted. On Wednesday I felt well enough to complete all my workouts for the day as I normally would during a taper week, including an hour long swim and a short bike. By Thursday I was hopeful that I would be able to race, but still concerned I wouldn't be at my best. On Friday morning I made the call: I was going to race. I spent some time musing over how I had clearly proven that doctors make terrible patients. I should have told myself to take a few days off, get some extra sleep, recover and instead re-group for the Reeds Lake Triathlon, but I just didn't have it in me to skip the start line. But I knew in my heart that I was not 100% and an Olympic distance triathlon certainly cannot be faked. But I would give it a go anyway! I'm a bit of an addict.
My husband and I woke up a little early on Saturday morning so we could get all our pre-race workouts done. These included a 40 minute bike and a 20 minute run. After a delicious breakfast of banana protein pancakes (my favorite breakfast!), we loaded the car and started the 3 hour drive to Boyne City. We met my parents for lunch and I think everyone there realized I was not quite myself. I was more tired than I would normally be the day before the race and I wasn't nervously spouting random race strategy. I made an effort to wake up and join in the conversation more, which lead to plenty of nervous chatter, along with a very dramatic display of how my new speed suit works (more details later). After lunch, Todd and I decided to drive the course. Todd had decided to do the sprint distance because his sesmoiditis had been acting up again and forcing him to cut his running dramatically. He was quite pleased to see his course had fantastic smooth roads and was pancake flat. As soon as we made the turn on to the Olympic course, we were greeted by a hill. Which was followed by another hill and another hill and another hill and, well, you get the picture. Yikes. Even more hard to fake a hilly Olympic.
After driving the course, we met up with Todd's family and headed to the race site. I like to do my pre-race swim in the same water as the race, if possible. I prefer this for a couple of reasons. First, it is nice to get an idea of the water temp, especially since I had decided to try out a speed suit for the first time. So let me take a moment to explain. Per USAT rules, wetsuit legal is a water temp below 78 degrees, but for pros wetsuit legal is below 68 degrees. After earning my pro card, my fabulous sponsor Xterra kindly sent me a speed suit, which is what the pros wear when they cannot wear a wetsuit. I don't think the water will be below 68 in Dallas, so I had decided to try out my speed suit in Boyne. Anyway, back to the reasons why I like to test the race waters the day before. In bigger bodies of water, like the Great Lakes and Lake Charlevoix where out swim was, there tends to be a constant rocking motion from the waves and I like to get used to the rhythm of those waves. I also like to see what the bottom looks so I can have an idea of when I will stand up and start running and how rough the bottom will be on my feet. After my little swim, we grabbed our packets and headed back to the rental condo for some dinner.
Happily, race morning did not come nearly as early as it did in Chicago! I woke up and snuck out of the room I shared with Todd to get my 20 min pre-race run completed. I have to say, this is probably one of the most important things I have added to my pre-race routine. Why you ask? Well, it gets the colon rollin', as my coach says, and I will leave it at that! I ignored the dry feeling in my throat and the occasional coughing, and focused on being race ready. My focus was only broken briefly when the automated sprinkler system came on and gave me a quick pre-race shower. I ate what is currently my go-to pre-race breakfast, a Clif bar and a cinnamon raisin bagel, while sipping some G2 and Diet Mountain Dew and continued convincing myself I was healthy and ready.
Todd and I have a bit of a compulsion to get to the race site early, but it works because we both like to be there super early! We arrived about 5 minutes before transition opened, so we pumped up our tires then headed over to the transition area. I set up my area, but it was still too dark for my warm up bike, so Todd and I went back to the car and rocked out to some Macklemore. When it finally lightened up enough, I went for my warm up ride. I like to practice pulling my shoes on, then I warm up for 10 minutes followed by two minutes of race pace with two minutes of easy spinning, then repeat. As I get close to the transition area, I like to look for land marks to remind me when I'm getting close so I will slip my shoes off in time. Finally it was time to slip on my little speed suit and head down to the water. Now, don't get me wrong, I love that speed suit, but it does not keep me warm like a wetsuit does! I pulled on a sweater and ran some circles in the sand around my parents while waiting for the race to start.
And then it was time. I filed into the water, chatting briefly with some of the pro men racing. Once I was in the water, I tried to find a good spot to start from because I knew the start would be rough with so many fast men. Before I knew it, they were announcing 10 seconds to go and then the horn blew. The water exploded around me as the men took off. I desperately searched for a clean path while trying to keep up with the boys. I got my hands kicked a few times before the wave spread out toward the first buoy. I found a good spot in a group of some of the men and followed them to the second buoy before I slowed to a manageable pace for the remainder of the swim. After rounding the second buoy, I focused on two men ahead of me and slowly tried to reel them in. We started the second lap and I pulled even with one of them after rounding the first buoy again. We worked together and started to reel in the second guy before we hit a sea of pink caps from the sprint wave. I'm pretty good at picking a line through swimmers because I refuse to swim over a fellow triathlete to gain a second or two. After working my way through a number of the swimmers, I rounded the third buoy and pointed myself toward the final buoy with some clear water. I pulled even with the second guy and followed him into shore. I fumbled a little with getting my speed suit off, I haven't practice that much. To get it off, all I have to do is flip the zipper up and peel it off my shoulders, but it is a little difficult to flip a tiny zipper up after a 1500m swim! But I got it off, threw on my helmet and sunglasses, grabbed my bike and headed out of transition.
The first part of the bike went by very fast. It was super flat and I was able to chase down athletes ahead of me doing the sprint, which always helps me to push my pace. There was a short out and back on the Olympic course before it turns into the hills, and on that turn around I found I was in first place by a few minutes. I wasn't sure how well I would run, so I knew I had to push my bike. But then I hit the hills. The first few hills went well, I spun up them relatively efficiently using my small chain ring and recovered quickly at the top. But each hill took a toll and I started to slow. At one point I could have sworn a brake must have been rubbing or something and I looked down to see my speed at 13 mph. I felt exhausted. This was the first time during the race when I really wondered if I would be able to finish. But just like not starting isn't in my blood, neither is quitting. It may sound crazy, but I started talking to myself. There was a flatter area after that hill and I hit a good cadence and a good speed, so I told myself "that's it, good job, keep it up!" It may sound strange, but positive self-talk can really help bounce my mind out of a tough spot. When I speak it, I start to believe it, "yeah, I am doing a good job! I can keep this up! I'm doing awesome!" I highly recommend this odd strategy when you find yourself in a tough spot.
My positive self-talk pushed me to finish my bike strong and I was surprised to see transition nearing! I slipped my feet out of my shoes, dismounted and sprinted into transition. Although I had finished my bike strong, I wasn't sure how much my rut had cost me. Whenever I start my run, I focus on form. It is so easy to have terrible form coming off the bike because my legs never feel good! I focus on quick cadence, a strong push off and leaning forward slightly like I am running downhill. I imagine in my mind that I am running strong and fresh, which translates to having better form. The gradual hill started about a mile in, and it is even more important to focus on quick cadence up hills. I felt pretty good through the first lap, although I didn't look at my watch when it beeped for the mile splits because in my mind I was running at a good pace and I didn't want to have my good attitude brought down by slow mile splits. The run was two loops and it is always hard to focus after finishing the first loop and knowing I have to do it all over again. I started to feel a bit of a drag at mile four. I pushed that feeling to the back of my head and focused on moving my feet quickly and getting to each section of the run as quick as I could. I would look ahead and say to myself "run to where you cross the road," then "run to that aid station," and "run to that turn." Doing this breaks the run into sections in my head, making it a little easier to handle when I'm feeling tired. Then I reached the final stretch and I rounded the corner and I could see the finishing chute ahead. My face broke out into a big smile and I crossed the finish line, happy that I had finished and honored to have won. Turns out each section of the race was a tad bit long. I'm not certain how long the swim was, but everyone had times a few minutes slower than usual. My GPS watch had the bike at a half mile long and the run was a quarter mile long. I finished 1st woman overall in 2:16:04.
This race was another family affair and my dad also raced. He had a great race and finished 2nd in his age group in a time of 2:56:03. Also in this race, I saw some friends from the Oak Park YMCA Triathlon Team! Michael Morgan senior placed 4th in his age group with a time of 3:08:38 and his very impressive son finished 1st in his age group with a time of 2:48:09. What is even more amazing is that this was the first Olympic distance triathlon for both of them! Also on the mens side, pro triathlete Brooks Cowan took 1st overall in 1:57:32 and another friend of mine and pro triathlete Ryan Rau finished 2nd overall in 2:00:56. Like I said earlier, Todd race the sprint and finished 2nd Overall with a time of 1:03:57 and fellow MSU alum and pro triathlete Aaron Bachman finished 1st overall in 1:00:55. Some more alumni from MSU also had great races! Scott Pryzstas finished 1st in his age group with a time of 1:08:49 and his wife Renee also had a great race and finished 2nd in her age group with a time of 1:25:45.
I want to take a moment to talk
about the purpose of this event. An
amazing non-profit organization called Team Lucky 7, run by Robert Swartz and
his wife, came up with the idea to host a triathlon to raise money for charity
based on his own love and passion for triathlon. Robert was the seventh person diagnosed with
Chronic Microglial Encephalomyelitis.
Basically it is an autoimmune disease that attacks the brain and spinal
cord and it is obviously pretty rare! It
was very inspiring to hear Robert speak at the awards ceremony and reminded me
to be thankful that I am able to race and compete at a high level. They raised about $5,000 for the Neurology
Department at Mayo Clinic to help fund research into neurological diseases such
as multiple sclerosis.
Well that is another race down! I can’t believe how quickly this season went by and I only have 2 races left! Finishing up my run of three races in a row, I am racing the Reeds Lake Triathlon. Then the first weekend of October I will be traveling to Dallas with Abby and her husband Ross for my first race in the professional division! This has been an amazing year so far!
