Tuesday, September 29, 2015

St. Anthony's Race Report

Searching for an article for my dissertation, I found this Race Report which I wrote on the plane on the way home from Florida but never published.  Enjoy.

St. Anthony’s Triathlon Race Report - April 26, 2015

Since I started racing triathlon, the first race of the year has been like Christmas, a day when all of my good behavior, or greens in Training Peaks, will be rewarded.  I typically spend time the day before being excited about packet pick-up, planning what I’ll wear, where I’ll park, and having every race day logistic planned to a tee.  When I learned that I would be travelling for nearly three weeks straight and that I would be in St. Petersburg, FL the last weekend of April, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to race St. Anthony’s Tri.  I had been to the race as a spectator and it seemed like a fun excuse to learn to travel with my bike.

In addition to heavy travel, I’m also in the throes of marathon training and while having a 19 mile run the Thursday before a Sunday race wasn’t ideal, it would be a nice break from the long winter.  
Unfortunately, my 19 mile run led to a pretty horrendous sunburn and by the time Saturday’s packet pick-up rolled around I wanted nothing to do with the race.  I was tired of being on the road, tired of the heat and sun; I was sore, blistered, peeling, and generally not excited to do what I’ve been most happy doing in the past 4 years.  As I got in line for pick-up, that dread intensified.  I had the most awful bike, body, and ability insecurity imaginable.  When did EVERYONE in my age group get a tri bike and disk wheel?  Do all tan people have six packs?  Does being tan make you actually faster, or just look faster?  I was already doubting myself and seeing Tri-Barbie at every turn didn’t help. 

I got back in the car after racking my bike and started sobbing; I wanted to go home.  I texted with my husband who told me to just take it as a training day, and I talked with my friend Emily who has the same mental demon taking up space in her head too.  Luckily he only lives in one brain or the other so we can usually talk each other off the ledge.  I contemplated emailing my coach and asking him to just give me a nice Sunday workout. And then I decided, I would do nothing, I would go to bed early, sleep in, and deal with the consequences the next day…until I remembered that I’d have to go back to St. Pete’s and get my bike.  Then as I watched the news that night I saw sadness and grief in Nepal then anger and confusion as Baltimore burned.  I decided that I needed to stop being selfish and take my friend Roy’s advice and simply be filled with gratitude.
So at 1am, I climbed out of bed and decided to pack for the race.

Happily when the alarm went off at 4am I felt good and ready to go, and really, who sleeps in on Christmas?  Having done such nonsense races as Challenge AC in its inaugural year and Philly Tri the year it got so hot that they shut down the race, I’m always hesitant to complain about heat or wind…that said, the winds were howling as I hopped in my rental car and the humidity was already at 86%. 

The quick drive from downtown Tampa to St. Pete’s was easy at 5am.  I followed some cars and luckily found a spot to park since I’d done no prior research.  I met some really nice people from Tampa who walked with me to transition.  It’s a terribly isolating experience to race totally alone, no one to cheer for you, calm your nerves, talk with to get rid of that nervous energy.  I looked at each face and bike that I walked pass, hoping that I’d see a familiar face.  Finally I did.  I saw a mutual friend from Philly who now lives in Naples, Mike Egan.  A quick hello and well-wishes and I was alone again.  I got transition situated and started the long walk to the swim start.  Thankfully I ran into two people I’d met at the expo the day before, Jeff and Kate.  I met them during the expo as I hunted for a shrug to cover my blistered shoulders; they brainstormed with me and even offered to bring me something to wear.  Kate wasn’t racing because she is 8+ months pregnant (and since she was having contractions at the start of the race, I’m guessing is a new mom by now!).  Jeff was racing the Olympic distance for the first time and scared to death that he’d be a dad by the time he finished the swim.  I was so happy they recognized me and let me stand at the start with them.  A few moments later the group that I had walked to the start with approached Jeff and Kate, it turns out they are all in the same training group.  And that’s the great thing about triathlon, the support.  I was happily no longer alone, and the race was about to start.

The swim was really great for the first third, then a ninety degree left turn and the waves picked up.  I found a few feet to hold on to but the waves made it nearly impossible to follow for any length of time.  When I hit land I felt great and took off running, I was floored to see the number of bikes still in transition when I got there. 

Swim time:  31:03, T1:  1:37, AG rank: 9th

The bike is where I started to feel the fatigue in my legs.  The “out” of the first out and back was a gradual uphill, right into a headwind.  I decided that I’d already come this far, so it was time to make myself small and just keep fighting.  Those who know me well know I’m not great at bike handling, so maintaining nearly 20 mph on a very technical course was a huge win for me.  I did make one huge error however…in my total lack of planning for this, I never thought to verify how long the course was and decided that it was 29 miles when it was only 24.  I should have been hammering at the end but instead I let myself get lazy.  I will say that T2 was quite a surprise when I got there! 

Bike time: 1:47:52, T2: 2:04, AG rank: 9th

There’s nothing to say about conditions on the run, other than it was HOT.  Heat index turned out to be in the 90s, temps in the high 80s, and humidity around 86%.  I was certain my first mile was 10:00 pace.  When my watch buzzed, it was 7:48.  At the turn around I had guessed that I was about 4 back from the leader.  At mile 5 I passed two girls in my age group.  In the last 200 yards those two girls plus one more would sprint past me.  They would beat me by 13 seconds, 10 seconds, and 8 seconds respectively.  I can only boost my ego to convince myself that they were in a pack and plotted to take me down.  When they passed me they were three abreast but slowly spread out.  I begged my legs to go with them, but they just wouldn’t.  By my fuzzy triathlon math I was in 6th or 7th at the finish.  Luckily, one of the girls that passed me just happened to be in the Athena category and I ended up taking 5th place in my age group, missing 3rd by 13 seconds.   Even luckier for me, St. Anthony’s goes five deep. 

A great moment happened at the finish, the girl who beat me by 8 seconds stopped to congratulate me, we hugged and went on to congratulate the girl that kicked both of our asses.  As we were doing so we ended up photo bombing her post-race portrait.  It was such a nice moment and an awesome experience to be hanging with the fast kids.



Run time: 49:09, AG rank: 3

When people ask me what my best event is in triathlon I immediately blurt out, swimming.  While I don’t look like a runner, or a cyclist, my shoulders are broad enough to convince people I have some ability in the water, but who knew a girl from up north could take 3rd in a hot Florida run?!  I found wonderful people willing to take my photo as I received an award for which I am SO grateful.

I saw my new friend Jeff as he successfully finished his first oly; they were right off to the hospital!  I can only hope and pray that they had an easy delivery and health baby!  While racing alone isn’t ideal, I met wonderful people, remembered again that I am lucky enough to do this sport, and over the moon about the result. 


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