I remember last year thinking this was a hard race. Maybe when I’m done here I will go back and read last year’s report and see what I had to say. That’s what I remember though, it was tough.
I’d been in Austin for a couple of days before the race, and it had been super hot. I was prepared for the heat with extra water, electrolytes, and a strategy that I thought would hold up. As we will see shortly, heat wasn’t the problem.
I won’t go into details about my last minute mechanical problems, or the lunatic racked next to me that thought he was God’s gift to triathlons, or my anger at finding someone had moved my bike overnight. Suffice to say it was a stressful morning and I couldn’t wait for the race to start.
The water was cold, so I wasn’t real thrilled with treading water for 8 minutes, but that is what they wanted. I hung on to the dock to conserve energy which meant that once the race started I was at the back of the pack. The swim lanes were pretty wide and it wasn’t long before the pounding and thrashing was over. I tried to find some feet draft off of, but every time I found some I ended up swimming right on by. That is the problem with starting in the back. I focused on keeping my cadence down, long strong strokes and before long the swim was over. I did have some trouble getting my balance coming out of the water and needed several helping hands to get going. They had wetsuit strippers this year. As I plopped down to get stripped I remembered I hadn’t tied my shorts after my last potty break, and hoped she wouldn’t pull down more than she expected! No problems though and I was quickly back up and running into transition.
While the run to the mount line is pretty long, I was soon off on my bike, only to hear some serious banging and clanging coming from the back of my bike. One more stroke and I knew something had come loose and was banging around in my spokes – the sensor for my bike computer! This usually happens when I change out my rear wheel. I’ll bet you can’t guess where my mechanical problems were before the race! It didn’t take me long to fix and then I was really off. I’d used up most of the early flat area before discovering the problem and now had to quickly get my feet in my shoes as we were going up hill.
The goal for today’s ride was to push myself harder than I have in the past to see what happens on the run. I’ve been doing well coming off the bike all year and was looking for the line that said I’d gone too hard. I’d gone back and forth with several racers on the first three laps, so I really pressed the last lap and never saw them again.
One thing crossed my mind once I finally got off the bike; uh-oh! My legs were their normal wobbly self, but a pain in my hip made it difficult to manage even a simple jog. I told myself just to keep going, get out on the run, and then figure out what is going on. I’m not sure when it started, but before going 1/2 mile I had bad cramps in both sides of my stomach. “Just keep on running” I said, it will work itself out.
I stopped at the early aid stations and dumped 2 cups of water (this would climb to 4 cups by the end) over my head. I wasn’t hot yet, but it is much easier to keep cool than get cool. One mile into the course we turned around, right into a brutal head wind. It had been a mostly cross wind on the bike so I hadn’t thought about it much. I was going to give it plenty of thought on the run.
Aside from the early stomach cramps, I could feel some rubbing on my left ankle. I was irritated at myself for not doing a better job of securing my timing chip. I even thought about carrying it in my hand, but wasn’t sure how the race people would feel about that. When it started in my other ankle I figured it was my shoes and that it would be a fairly painful run.
I was doing ok for the first 3 miles, but around marker 4 the wheels fell off the bus. I walked first through the aid station, and then a couple of other times as well. At one point, with just over a mile to go, some girl behind me shouted some words of encouragement. I made sure to track her down at the end, because I never walked again. I saw Natasha about 1/4 mile from the finish line and she was telling me to push harder now, that I could die at the end. I was already dying, but I did manage to hold to that pace until the finish.
In the end I set a new PR by several minutes, knocked 15 minutes off of last year’s time, and moved up about 180 slots in the overall standings (this morning it was up to 230, so I’m not sure what the real standings are). I should be pleased, and I would be if I hadn’t of had such a bad run. I remind myself that part of the goal was to find that line on the bike that I shouldn’t cross, and this was probably it, but it still bothers me. I was passed by two peers on my last walking session. Usually it is the other way around. I don’t feel badly that I walked, I had to. I feel badly because I had to walk.
I’m sore and beat up, but today starts another training week and I’ve got to get back at it. Now that I’ve documented my thoughts, I can put the race behind me and move on. Lessons learned and more experience gathered.
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