Chelanman 70.3 - My "A" Race

Chelanman Half Ironman didn't start out as my "A" race this year. That was supposed to be Pacific Crest Olympic. But, I get excited about triathlon (and shoes), and I am easily talked into things that sound fun. So on a whim a few months ago, I filled out the online form and hit that brightly colored "submit" button. Bang! Suddenly the olympic distance didn't sound very daunting and I had an extra few hours of training tacked onto each week. I trained hard and earned every single one of those 70.3 miles!

The distances, with some perspective:
Swim = 1.2 miles. Think NW 23rd down Burnside to the Portland waterfront (except the swim is not downhill).
Bike = 56 miles with 4200 feet of climbing. The distance = Portland to Hood River; the climbing = Timberline Lodge to the summit of Mt. Hood.
Run = 13.1 miles. If you've been on the Clackamas River, this is equal to the drive between Carver and Estacada.

Now onto the race report...

Pre-Race:
If you've ever tried herding a dozen monkeys into one vehicle before sunrise, then you might have an idea of what it takes to get a van full of Headhunters to the race site early in the morning. We arrived with just enough time to set up transition, lube up body bits that might chaffe, and struggle into the wetsuit. I downed a GU as I walked over the swim start, kissed Ken goodbye, and stood in line on the shore waiting for the gun to go off.

Swim:
Time = 38:51, pace = 2:02/100m

This was a mass start from the beach. That means that everyone doing the half ironman lines up in a big crowd on shore and then tries to dive into the water all at once and head towards the buoy line. I was somewhere in the middle of the pack starting off. It was a total washing machine. I was not taking full strokes with my arm because I often couldn't push my hand all the way to my waist without it getting yanked off. And instead of having a nice long glide, my leading arm was in front of my face, protecting my goggles and nose. This only lasted about 5 minutes until I was able to make my way towards the front of the pack. Only...I didn't realize that I was in the front of the pack...

We were lucky and had an underwater buoy line to follow for the entire swim out. But once we hit the first turn buoy it disappeared. I wasn't quite sure where to go from here since the sun was now directly in my eyes and I couldn't see another buoy anywhere. So I sighted a couple of other swimmers and followed them. But I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was cutting the course, so I kept stopping and treading water trying to make sense of where I should go. I finally spotted the next turn buoy and swam like mad to it. It turns out I was on-course the whole time and wasted some serious time by doubting myself. Oy.

As we got closer to the beach I was able to breathe on my right side and look at the spectators. I actually spotted Ken walking away from me (he wasn't expecting me to be finishing the swim yet), so I popped up and hollered at him. More time wasted, but at least I have pictures now! I kept swimming until my hand touched sand and then ran the rest of the way in.

T1:
01:26

I had a pretty sweet transition spot. It was at the exact opposite end of where I came in from the swim, but that meant that I didn't have to run very far with me bike. As I came out of the water, I had difficulty finding my wetsuit pull cord. When I did finally get the top half off, I sat down to pull it off my legs. I have NO idea why I did that. I never sit down in transition. Huh. Oh well, I had the 13th fastest transition time out of 101 athletes. I sometimes wonder what takes everyone else so long. Are they brushing their teeth? Combing their hair? What?

Bike:
Time = 3:41:16, pace = 15.19 mph

Many times in the weeks leading up to the race I was asked "what are you most nervous for?" My answer - "the bike". People were always surprised since I have been making tremendous gains on my biking lately. I'm not a timid rider. I'm not a weak rider. I'm not an especially slow rider. Unless of course, there are...HILLS. And this course had it's fair share of them. I was convinced that I would be slow on the bike that there would be no way for me to make up the time on the run. Because, you see, I'm an even slower runner.

This course starts out with an out-and-back along Lake Chelan. Absolutely beautiful at 7:45 in the morning. There are some nice rolling hills -- nothing too difficult and just enough to get the legs and lungs warmed up. I enjoyed myself on this section, which lasted about 32 miles. As we approached town again, the course veered off south on Hwy 97 and directly into the first long climb. Up, up, up, up. And then...up, up, up. At the tippy-top there was an aid station and a porta-potty. I grabbed a water bottle as I rode by and thought for a split second about the porta-potty. However, Jon had to buy me 2 beers if I peed on the bike, so I kept going. Straight into a spectacular downhill! It was straight and steep and we had a view of the Columbia river on our left the entire time. I shifted the hardest gear I had and pedaled until I was spinning out. And then I peed. 2 beers for me!

The end of the descent led right into the next long uphill on Hwy 971. Twice as long as the last one. And considerably steeper. I think this was the hardest part of the course. It was beginning to get hot, there wern't many people to talk to, and my legs were building up some heavy doses of lactic acid. I gave myself a few pep talks and made myself keep turning my feet in circles. I would count to 10 and then repeat. I would pick a tree and when I made it to that one I would pick another tree. I looked at my watch compulsively to make sure I kept to my nutrition plan. I also committed the cardinal sin of looking at my speed on the bike computer. 4 mph??? Really, I could push my bike faster than that. DON'T YOU DARE!

Finally I made it to the top. Only to be met by a couple miles of false flats. But at least it was easier. And then...the final climb! I had been dreading this climb all week. It's all I could think about. I was certain that I would have to walk it. Or at least stand out of the saddle to make it up. But as I rode, I found myself further and further up the beast. Hey, this isn't so bad! After a little corner I could see the summit. Yay!!!! And then the descent. It was STEEP and FAST. And CURVY. I wasn't expecting the curvy part and thankfully I didn't skid out on that one.

As I turned back onto Hwy 97 I looked again at my bike computer. Holy schmatoly, I was going to finish the bike leg in under 4 hours!!!!! It was that exact moment that I knew I was going to finish the race. Before the cutoff time. I let out a huge WHOOP WHOOP and pedaled my ass off into town.

T2:
01:12

I took my feet out of my bike shoes and dismounted pretty well. As I ran my bike down the steep embankment into transition I could hear all of the Headhunters cheering me on. (They had all finished the Oly distance; Kev, Tom, and I were doing the Half.) What a treat to have them all inside transition talking to me. I didn't need any assistance, but it was cool to have them there asking if I needed anything. I took my fuel belt out of the cooler, threw my runners on, grabbed my visor, and was off. Not a bad transition time considering I just climbed for almost 4 hours and had a few extras (like the fuel belt) to deal with.

As a side note, I had decided to use the fuel belt because I wasn't sure if the aid stations would still be stocked that late into the day. However, I ended up not needing it because this race is TOP NOTCH.

Run:
Time = 2:39:00, pace = 12:08/mile

My legs felt surprisingly fresh coming off the bike. And I felt hydrated and strong. The first few miles ranged from 11:10 pace to 12:10 pace. Too fast for me to maintain. And then...I had to pee. There were no porta-potties and not really any trees to speak of. So my options were (1) hold it for the next 10 miles, (2) go in someone's driveway or yard, or (3) just let it go dude. Haha, if you could smell my shoes you would know exactly which option I chose... I totally hadn't thought through the whole "wet feet for 10 miles" part. Oh well, the blisters will heal.

The pace started to slow down a bit, and as it got hotter and my HR started spiking, I stopped at the aid stations and allowed myself to walk up hills. This slowed my pace to the 12:30-13:00 range. But I didn't care, because I KNEW that I was going to finish! Around mile 9 I started to fall apart a bit. My fuel reserves were running low and it was becoming difficult to not overheat too much. I was also approaching the max distance I had done in training, so my body hurt.

And then...with 2.5 miles to go the Headhunter van comes rolling by. Coach Denise hopped out and ran with me! I don't think that this is really "legal" but I was one of the last ones left on the course and no one cared. At mile 12, Nadine was waiting for us to help run me in. I have the most awesome friends! With 1 mile left to go we could see the park and I knew I was soooo close. Denise said "if you have anything left in the tank, now is the time to leave it on the course." So I picked it up. Big time. My last mile was 8:01! I have never run a mile that fast. Even a single mile. Wow!

Crossing the finish line was amazing and had I not been so anaerobic, I probably would have choked up a bit. After getting my chip removed and getting the medal, I beelined it straight for the lake and laid down in the water. So refreshing! All of the Headhunters followed me down there and we had a fun time congratulating each other. And the best part - kisses from Ken. :-)

After listening to awards -- I got second place by default -- we hung around to watch the last people roll through the finish line and cheer on one more member of our group.

Some Important Notes:
* Special thanks to Ken for supporting me through all of this. And my Mom who was subjected to daily phone calls talking nothing about triathlon. Haha, just wait until Ironman!
* Also many thanks to my many training partners who helped me along the way and kept me motivated.
* My Auntie Anne and Uncle Gordy came all the way out from Puyallup to cheer me on. That was awesome!
* Congrats to all of the Headhunters! Everyone did so great. Nadine and Brian finished their first olympic distance tri. Denise got FIRST in her age group. Bob got second!

Pre-Race

The weekend was too long and fun to try and condense into one race report, so I'll start with the days leading up to the race...

Thursday
After one last chiro appointment, Ken and I drove over the club to load up the trailer/van and head up to Lake Chelan with the Headhunter group. I was horribly naseous. To the extent that people were wondering if I even wanted to attempt the race. Thankfully it passed quickly. I think it was a combination of carsickness and too much coffee on an empty stomach. And, you know, maybe some nerves.

What do you get when you put 7 overhyrdated nervous athletes into one vehicle for a long road trip? Lots of stops! One of the best was at Java Jigglers. Hee hee.

After an entertaining handful of hours in the van, we arrived at our camp for the first night. It was a 1,000 Trails campground just outside of Leavenworth, WA. Thank you, Mikey's Dad for us being able to stay there!!! For those who can afford a membership to 1,000 Trails, it's totally worth it. Nice place. Upon arrival, we all noticed the plentiful "Bear Warning" signs posted all over the property. We didn't really pay much attention to them since almost all campgrounds have similar signage. After unloading the van and setting up camp, Brian cooked us up some yummy meat and we stuffed our faces before crawling into bed. I didn't realize how disturbed Nadine was by the bear signs until it was time to go to sleep and she began asking questions like "do we have any weapons in here?" I convinced her that the warnings were simply to persuade campers to keep their areas nice and tidy. That seemed to help.

Friday
Thump, thump, whack. I woke up to some strange noises outside. I assumed that people from the trailer were up and about. Then Brian whispered to me, "there's a bear on the picnic table." He also pointed to Nadine and gave me the universal "shhhh" signal. Eventually the bear plodded off in search of messier camps. So we did what most people would NOT do...we followed it with a camera. The next hour or so was spent snapping photos and trying to startle it enough to get a better shot. Some funny stuff ensued, but to avoid embarassment of certain people, we'll just leave it at that.

After breakfast (if you haven't noticed, this group is all about the food!) we mosied on over to the campground pool. It turned out to be a pretty nice facility and we all hopped in for a few laps and some horsing around. We decided to do a sprint race from one end to the other...and Ken won! By a body length! Here we are -- mostly seasoned triathletes. Numerous ironman. Swim coach. Ex-swim team people. And the dude who doesn't work out and hasn't swam in like 10 years schools us? That was dumb of him though, because Denise is giving us swim lessons as a wedding gift and now he has to get up at 4:30 am two days a week. Haha!

We packed up camp and spent a few hours in the super cute town of Leavenworth. I could have done without all of the walking prior to race day, but it really was a scenic place worth stopping at. And I even scored a cute leather handbag at a little shop in town.

We arrived in Chelan (after driving on some of the steep bike course) and went through packet pick-up and bike check-in. I had a few moments of "holy crap, I'm really going to do this." And then I sort of fell into my mental hell-hole for the next 12 hours. You know, that dark place where you don't want to talk. Or eat. Or sleep. Or sit still. Or do anything. It's a tortuous place, really. But I suppose all part of the fun.
You would have to be there to understand this. But it's K-Dawg in his true form:As we started getting ready to call it a night, we couldn't help but notice the strong winds that had picked up. They didn't show any sign of relenting soon, so we crawled into bed hoping we would wake up to calmer conditions. About an hour passed and we were all still laying there awake listening to the tent get pushed around by Mother Nature. Another hour passed and yes, we were still awake. Then another few hours passed and I think I might have slept for 10 or 15 minutes. A few laughs and sighs were exchanged as it became apparant we were in for a long night.
Saturday - RACE DAY!!!
Camp began to stir around 4:30am. Not many words were exchanged as people changed into tri clothes, filled water bottles, and tried to choke down breakfast. I knew I needed the calories, but it was so hard to swallow anything. I just concentrated on keeping the food down and hydrating as much as possible.

Around 5:50am we filed silently into the van and drove over to the race, for what was about to become a truly amazing day.

I'm a Half-Ironman!

Yay! I did it! I finished my first half ironman. Within the cutoff time. Feeling strong. Yippee!!!
I'll post a full race report in my usual long-winded fashion as soon as I get a chance. The final results:
Overall time - 7:01:46.9 (71 out of 79 finishers, 71 out of 101 if you count DNF and DNS)
Swim - 00:38:51 (31st)
T1 - 01:26 (13th)
Bike - 3:41:16 (69th)
T2 - 01:12 (26th)
Run - 02:39:00 (72nd)

We're Getting Married

Ken and I are engaged!!! We've made the obligatory phone calls to our families, so I can now post about it. Yay, we are so excited! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have fallen in love with my best friend. For those of you who don't know me, Ken and I were best friends for over a year before we started dating. The romantic side of our relationship was a total surprise for both of us, but obviously it worked out.

It has become more apparant to me over the past year that he is the best partner I could ever hope for. Throughout my quest to lose weight and become a healthier person, he has stood by me 100%. I went from couch potato, to gym rat, to aspiring Ironman. I get up almost every morning before 5am and he has not once complained or asked me to stay in bed. In fact, he sometimes gets up to make me coffee while I'm packing my gym bag. When I come home late from a workout, he has dinner ready. And then does the dishes. When I konk out on the couch at 7pm, he wakes me up (usually feeds me a second dinner) and then puts me to bed. I know my path to triathlons has been mainly a selfish one, and I only hope that I can find a way to return all of his amazing support.

Me with Jerry Garcia after Ken proposed:

The Ring! Isn't it gorgeous?!?! Ken had it custom made from an artist in Portland. The carvings on the side of the stone are inspired from a Maori design, similar to our matching pendants.

Less Than Four Days...

...until my first half ironman.

It's been an emotional couple of weeks. Last week, I has hit with a dose of reality as THE race date drew nearer. As in, the race that I have been working towards all year. THE big one. Unexpectedly, some serious self-doubt set in. I'm typically a pretty positive person, but I found myself asking: am I ready?, did I do enough?, why didn't I train harder?, what happens if I don't finish in the cutoff time??? And for some reason I was telling myself: no you're not ready, no you didn't do enough, shouldn't have skipped those couple of long runs, you're not gonna finish in 8 hours. And I began voicing those thoughts to Ken and a few training partners. They all gave me quizzical looks like I had totally fallen off my rocker.

Well, I've been plagued with injuries since I started training harder. And I'm a slow runner. Really slow. I did what any engineer would do -- entered my best case, worst case, and expected case scenarios into a spreadsheet to calculate the range of my predicted finishing time. The numbers didn't seem to add up and every case put me over 8 hours, or dangerously close to it. Not much room for error.

And then...I went out for a good run towards the end of last week. I was able to shut my mind off and just run. My legs felt great and my body felt free to do its thing. I had my fatest run ever. And then...I got out on my last hard ride this past weekend. I climbed steadily up the hills. Slowly, but steady. Surprise! My legs didn't burn up! And then...I had my first full relaxing rest day in a really long time. My mind started to unwind and my attitude changed. It became unimportant what happens on Saturday. The big thing is that I'M TRYING IT. And dammit, I'm going to finish the dang course. It might not be in 8 hours, but I'll finish it.

Lake Stevens 70.3 - Relay

I've been a bit behind on updating my blog. Training for a half ironman has kept me a tad bit busy...

A couple of weekends ago I headed up to Lake Stevens, WA with a few members of my gym for a 70.3 relay. I did the swim, Kevin (also known as K-Dawg, Pappy, K-Pa) biked, and Julie ran. We knew going into it that we had a kick ass team. Also, Jeff, Natalie, and Jon accompanied us for support. Super fun weekend!

Oh, I should mention that our team name was "Five Boobs". This is important as you read the details of the weekend. The story behind the name -- I have 2 of them, Julie has 2 of them, Kev IS one. Haha.

Friday
Kev & I headed up in one vehicle, while Natalie and Jeff rode up in another. Along the way we got lost in one of the towns outside of Seattle and stopped at a fireworks stand for directions. I of course had to BUY some fireworks. Since we were there, you know. Roman candles! And some poppits for the sole purpose of annoying everyone through out the weekend.

After getting checked into the hotel (and throwing poppits at unsuspecting people), we sat through the mandatory...and boring...athlete briefing. We also picked up packets and browsed the horrendously horrendous expo. Geesh, for an Ironman branded event, this is the worst expo I've ever seen. Actually, as far as any event goes, it was the worst.

On the way to find a place for dinner, we stumbled across a quaint little coffee stand down by the river. T - N - A LATTES!!! On the reader board below the sign, they clarified that T-N-A actually stood for "tasteful - n - appropriate". Um, yeah.

After dinner and a short play time in the pool/jacuzzi, we went off to bed.

Saturday
After some tasteful-n-appropriate coffee, we drove over the race site. Jeff, Natalie, and I rode the entire 56 mile course as a training day while K-Dawg got his bike checked in and tried to recover from the cold that was knocking him down. When Jon & Julie rolled into town we gathered in the lobby for some beers (yes, before race day) and then headed to Seattle to Pike Brewpub for dinner. This is when reasonable behavior took a nose dive for the evening... I'll give the condensed version.

Several pints at dinner. Rude waitress, so pint glasses went in our bags and purses. Souveniers, you know. Shots at the bar with the cool bartender chic. Left with a 6-pack and growler. Jon, Julie, K-Dawg, and I in same vehicle. Poppits at unsuspecting strangers on sidewalks. A little rearranging of the readerboard at T-N-A. Possibly some T-N-A of our own. Roman candles out the hotel window. Security banging on our door. Sweet talking our way out of trouble & didn't get kicked out of the hotel. Went to bed way to late and listened to "someone" snore for several hours before it was time to get up. Not the ideal night before a race, but eh, we were relaying it!
I have no idea how this happened...

Sunday
Kev and I drove over ahead of everyone since I had to get ready first. We got our chip, milled about transition, and made our way to the swim start. I suited up and got in the procession on the dock. I was in the last wave, so there was a lot of waiting around. Finally it was my turn to jump off the dock and get ready for the count down. I inadvertantly placed myself right next to a blind guy and his guide. They were tethered together with medical tubing so that the blind man would stay on course. Very cool. Until I found myself tangled up in the tubing about 100 meters later. I felt horrible, but was told that they probably train for that sort of thing. But still. 38 minutes later (dead on 2 min pace like always) I shot out of the water and ran through transition to our spot. Um, where's Kevin? Okay, there is his bike...where's Kevin? Where in the boondoggle is Kevin??? I stood there for about 20 seconds, then took of my timing chip, ready to slap it on his ankle whenever he decided to meander over. Then I spotted him COMING OUT OF THE PORTA POTTY!!!! Got him on his way fairly quickly though, and we didn't lose too much time.

Kev came in from the bike right on schedule. He did fantastic! Passed the timing chip off to Julie, and she took off for the 13.1 mile run. We were able to hang out on the course at a location where we could see her several times. Lots of cheering! She crossed the finish line in a smokin' time. Our final time was just over 5 hours (we started about 40 minutes after the first wave). Good enough for 2nd in the mixed division. 3rd overall out of about 30 teams. Woohoo!

To the "Anonymous" A-Hole...

...who felt the need to post a rude comment in my blog:

Congratulations on riding faster than me. You are now a member of an elite crowd of 10 billion. You still ride like a dill-hole.

Pacific Crest Weekend

Pacific Crest is held each year in Sunriver, OR at the end of June. It is a weekend long series of events beginning on Friday with the Kid's Splash Pedal n' Dash, ending on Sunday with the Olympic distance triathlon. I headed out of town on Thursday evening with girlfriends Kristin and Margi. Margi was competing in her first half ironman on Saturday, K and I were doing the Oly on Sunday. K's parent's had rented a vacation home in Sunriver Village, so I was staying with them for the first couple of nights. The boys joined up with us on Saturday morning, when Ken and I departed from the group for our stay at McMenamin's St. Francis in Bend. I LOVE that hotel!

Friday morning Margi and I went out for a quick bike ride -- she needed to loosen up for her race and I needed to test ride my bike after doing some minor maintenance a few days prior. In the afternoon we headed into the main part of the village for packet pickup and to check out the expo. Then we were off to Wikkiup reservoir to drop off Margi's bike at T1 (the swim-to-bike transition) and do a quick practice swim.

Margi, Kristin, and I after a practice swim:

Saturday morning we took Margi to T2 (bike-to-run transition) for body-marking and to set up her transition. Initially, she did not have a ride up to the lake for the race start, but she met up with some friendly folks and got a spot on a bus. That freed K and I up to have a relaxing morning -- K went back to sleep for some much needed rest and I went for a 2 mile run. That gave me my first taste of the heat...and it was only 7 am. Yikes! We finally started milling about the house again, and made our way up to the reservoir to watch the finish of the swim leg and hopefully catch Margi heading out on her ride. She came out of the water on schedule and had a huge smile on her face as she climbed on the bike. We also got to watch her finish the half ironman later that afternoon. She finished just over 6 hours and had a rocking time, placing well both in her age group and overall. Awesome!

T1 opened up for us around noon, so we had brought our bikes with us up to the reservoir. As I was taking them off the bike rack I realized that I had a rear flat tire. Oh, fantastic. It was getting hot, so I shouldered it and started to carry it the half mile to transition so I could change the tube in the shade. That's when I noticed that the front tire was also flat. But I only had one tube with me. And no pump. Oy vey. Well, I might as well get one of the tubes changed. And that's when I noticed that my rim tape was bunko. This was NOT something I would be able to take care of on-site. So I took both wheels off and racked the bike by the saddle, dangling all naked-like. People were pointing and laughing...it was very embarassing. I should mention that as I was carrying my wheels back to the car, the end of the skewer popped off but I didn't realize that until I was almost to the vehicle. So I spent a good half hour walking back and forth and back and forth looking for the spring and end cap. Anyway, many thanks to Kevin and Ken for hunting for parts all over Bend and Sunriver while I was stuck up at the lake. You guys rock!

My lonely, pathetic-looking bike hanging in T1:
-------------------------------------------------
And, on to the race report...

Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon
Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008
Distance: 1500 meter swim, 28 mile bike, 6.2 mile run
Time: 3:27:29 -- Athena division, 3rd place!

Pre-race:
My first Oly distance race. Woohoo!

T1 set-up occurred the day before the race. It was then that I discovered my 2 flat tires and bad rim tape job. So I racked my bike by the saddle with both wheels missing. It was very much the most jacked-up looking bike sitting in transition. People were pointing and laughing...my poor bike.

The morning of the race I set up T2 (it was a point-to-point event) and then hopped on the very first bus up to the reservoir so that I could get my bike put back together and take it for a test spin. I spent the left over time relaxing on the shore with my sweetie pie and chatting with fellow training partners.

Me, after setting up transition, and hanging out with Ken at the water:
Me, Natalie, Jeff, DeDe, and K-Dawg before the race:
Warm Up:
Quick test ride on the bike. Short swim. That's about it.

Swim:
00:29:54 (pace = 1:59/100m)

About 3 weeks ago the water temp was hovering just over 53°F. Race day was almost 65°F. Wow! I definitely did not need my full-sleeve. I was in the 2nd wave and started in the front inside corner. I thought that I stood a good chance of getting totally plowed over, but it never happened. The bummer is that it was hard to find someone to draft off of. I passed plenty of people from wave 1, and a few from wave 3 shot past me towards the end. Average pace swim for me, but I'm happy with it. Easy pace and I wasn't out of breath coming out of the water.

2nd fastest swim in my division, and 144th out of 484 overall.

I was very nervous the morning of the race, and you can tell by the look on my face in this photo:
T1:
Time = 2:04
Fastest T1 time in my division. I'm sort of a transition nazi. Free speed, you know? I did have one screw up though. Since this is a point-to-point race, you have to pack all of your items into a plastic bag and tie it up before you can run your bike out. I shoved all of my things into the bag and double knotted it...then looked down to see my bright red beach towel sitting under my helmet and bike shoes. Doh!

On my way out of T1:

Bike:
01:37:24 (pace = 17.25 mph)

Overall, the bike course was super fun! Great terrain, however, the road surface pretty much sucks. Rough chip seal type stuff. With big-ass holes in random places. I almost hit one at 30 mph. One of those 6-inch diameter ones that look like they go to the center of the earth. They should mark those...

Anyway, I came out of the water fairly early so I didn't have many people to chase down. I got passed by mostly dudes and only a few women. Towards the end I started passing people though. My max speed on the downhill was 39.9 mph. FUN!!!! I came up on a fellow-Cervelo rider who was trying to rock Zipps and a sperm helmet. He was hugging the yellow line with no one around him and would not move to the right for me. I kept screaming at him, "hey coming up behind you, move over please, on your left, coming up on your left, DUDE MOVE THE F*&K OVER!!!!" He finally gave me a few inches of room, passed me on the next uphill, and then got a flat about a mile later. Karma's a biatch, ain't it.

One of the fun parts of the ride was when Margi's friend Beth caught me on the first set of hills. She can climb like nobody's business. She was also racing Athena division, so I had some motivation to catch her...I did that on the downhill and then she promptly crushed me again on the next hill. Unfortunately she had some mechanical issues so I passed her for the last time and beat her out on the run. She soon caught me though and continued right on to win first place. Yeah Beth!

Finishing up the bike, I slipped my feet out of my bike shoes right before the last hill coming into transition.

Couple of notes from this leg -- I screwed the proverbial pooch on hydration. I ended up with my aero-bottle gone, but my GU2O bottle totally full. Whoops. Not good when temps were approaching 100 degrees. I really wanted a faster bike split, but I did what I could. More riding this winter and I'll crush it next year.

T2:
01:31
2nd fast transition in my division. I would have been faster, but there was an aid station before the chip mat and I stopped to drink like 4 cups of water and douse my body with a wet towel.

I also almost had a collision with a chic who was running out of transition the wrong direction. With her head down. Directly towards me and my bike as I was running in. She wasn't exactly running in a straight line so I couldn't avoid her. I kept yelling at her to watch it, but she didn't stop until I basically stiff-armed her. I gave her a "damn girl, watch where you're going next time" and then laughed as she tried to exit through the entrance. I think the heat was making people do silly things.

Run:
01:16:32 (pace = 12:19 min/mi)

Big sucky suckfest. I had to walk about 100 yards after leaving transition. My heart rate was sky high, I was sweating so much that drops were coming off my finger tips, and my breathing was way out of control. Every time there was a bit of shade I would walk to maximize my time in it, then I would jog through the sunny parts. I also walked the aid stations and would drink 2 cups and dump 1 on my head. No ice or sponges, which was a major bummer. However, Sunriver residents came out of their homes to give us water, shoot us with super soakers, and set up sprinklers on the course. That was awesome!

My friend Kevin from the gym caught up to me at mile 3. At the time, I was STANDING under a sprinkler staring off into space. Not even moving forward. I'm glad he caught me because he stuck with me to the end and kept me going.

People were on the side of the course for the last quarter mile to the finish line, which was motivating. Lots of music and energy to get you in there. Unfortunately I forgot to hop into the cool showers, because I was focused on finding my dude. Who promptly bought me a sno-cone. Fantastic! I HAVE THE BEST BOYFRIEND EVER!!!

K-Dawg and I crossing the finish line:

Warm Down:
Sno-cone and waited for friends to cross the finish line. Then we found some shade and watched them give out awards. I assumed that I was in the bottom half of my division due to the crappy run, so when they called my name I was beyond shocked. That was a nice end to the day!

Event Comments:
This venue really is awesome. The volunteers are great. The run course is stocked with tons of water stations. The expo has lots of vendors. And obviously the weather conditions can't be helped, but they dealt with it quite well. The med tent was packed full at the end of the day, but it appeared that everyone was being attended to.

Beth and I getting our division-winner medals:
As a last note, there was a death on the swim that morning. Details are still sketchy, but it is reported that the man swam to a jet ski and said that he was in trouble. He then passed out and was brought to shore where CPR was started. Some friends of mine witnessed the incident as they were finishing up the swim, which had to have been awful. Efforts to revive him were not successful and he was pronounced dead at the scene. My thoughts and prayers for his friends and family, who were also there that morning. Very sad.

The rest of the photos from the weekend are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/SarahDBryant/200806PacCrest

Natalie, Jeff, K-Dawg, me, and Beth after the race:

What a difference a year makes

Blue Lake 2007 vs. Blue Lake 2008

Division Rank - 2007: 4/5.........2008: 3/11

Gender Rank - 2007: 164/211.........2008: 59/241

Overall Rank - 2007: 390/458.........2008: 217/532

2007 photos...

#1: What I like to call "nervous whale stuffed into black rubber".

#2: My final kick was really a glorified shuffle.

And the 2008 photos...

#1: Heh, I'm actually in an aero position.

#2: Look, I'm really truly running in a forward direction.

2008 Blue Lake Sprint Tri

My first medal!!!!!

Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008
Location: Fairview, OR
Distance: 800 meter swim/12 mile bike/5k run
Time: 1:30:01 -- Athena division, 3rd place!!!

Pre-race:

Coffee & banana, carpooled to the race, set up transition, and then milled about chatting with other Headhunters.

Nadine, Tracy, and I pre-race/post-body marking:
Warm Up:

Just a quick swim. One of my training partners has a huge fear of open water, so I spent about 10 minutes coaching her into the water and helping her get warmed up and comfortable. Which was great, because it alleviated my own anxiety.

Swim (800 meters):
00:15:52 (pace = 1:59/100m)

During the deep-water start, a lot of people were crowding towards the back and to the sides, so I said "hey, why not?" and swam up to the front inside spot to start. Suprisingly, it was not chaotic at all. The downside is that there wasn't anyone to draft off of until people passed me.

I got a little off-course in the first 200 meters, but once I sighted more often I didn't have any more issues. I had trouble finding someone to draft off, so I hopped from feet to feet until I found a pair that worked. I stayed on him from the second to the third bouy, and then passed him on the sprint into the finish.

I probably could have gone harder on the swim, but I hate coming into T1 with out-of-control breathing. I still knocked almost 3 minutes off of my time from last year, so I'm pretty pleased. I tied for first in my division coming out of the water, and was in the top 23% overall.

Coming out of the water:

T1: time = 2:48
I had the second fastest T2 in my division (she beat me by 1 second) and was about 20 seconds faster than last year. I felt slower, but I think I was a tad slower at my station but ran in and out faster.

Bike (12 miles):
00:37:56 (pace = 18.98 mph)

I definitely passed way more people than passed me, which was a nice change. I passed one guy who blew my mind when he decided to give me a lecture on proper etiquette --

Him as I'm passing: "You know lady, you're supposed to say 'on your left' as you pass."
Me: "yeah well, I can't breathe"
Him: "it's proper etiquette and you need to say it"
Me: blow snot rocket back towards him
Him as he passes me: "here, I'll show you how it's done -- 'ON YOUR LEFT'"
Me as I blow by him and leave him in my dust: "like this? On your left [dill hole -- that part was under my breath]"

My race strategy for the bike and run was to go as hard as I could until I puked. If I hadn't puked, I could still go harder. I was regretting this decision when we hit the head winds and I wanted to slack off. I told myself to suck it up a few times and then reminded myself that I didn't want to get passed by Mr. Dillhole again. Also, one Athena had beat me out of transition and I had leap frogged with another one and was currently in 2nd place. My run is the weakest and I needed as much distance on everyone as I could get.

As we headed back into Blue Lake park, I made the wacky decision to take my shoes off on the bike and try a flying dismount. I say it was a wacky decision, because I've only tried it once on a training day and I almost wrecked. My reasoning was that this was also like a training day and that trying new things would be okay. (Huh? Not sure about that reasoning...) I got my right foot out without any trouble, but my balance taking the left foot out was really shaky. However, running through transition with one shoe on would look absolutely retarded, so I kept trying and finally managed to get it off. My "flying dismount" didn't have too much "flying" in it, but it was nice not to run in my clunky cleats (Keo Look).

Me, on the bike:

T2: time = 01:56
Fastest T2 time in my division. I was 1 second slower than last year though. For the first time ever I had trouble getting my socks on. I have to wear socks due to blistering, but maybe I can figure out a better system. Perhaps a liquid bandage type of thing?

Run (5k):
00:31:29 (pace = 10:10 min/mi)
Well, running is by far my weakest event. I've been working on it a lot over the past year and while I've gone from a 13+ min/mi to a 10 min/mi, I'm just not fast. I saw one gal in my division pass me on the run right from the start and one had beat me in from the bike, so as far as I could tell, I was in third place. I felt a little defeated at that point because I was positive that I hadn't built enough of a lead to hold that position. Which looking back on is quite funny, because I never had any intention (nor thought I ever had any chance) of placing top three in my group. I don't know at what point it became important to me that day...

Anyway, my strategy was still to not back off on pace until I puked. I never did puke, but I was extremely uncomfortable the whole time. At the turn-around point I saw what I thought was someone in my division. That kept me motivated for the second half of the run and I never let her pass me!

I came into the finish chute feeling strong, but worn out. I think I left it all out there, which was my primary goal for the day.

Crossing the finish line:
Denise, Lisa, Dede, Julie, and I after the finish:
Event comments:

This was my first medal ever! When I found out that I had placed, not a single thing could knock me off Cloud 9. I'm still there, actually. :-)

Last year I did this same event as my very first triathlon. I finished happy, but hurting. One solid year of training later and I knocked 12 minutes off my time. In a sprint distance! This was an awesome confidence booster and reinforced that I've chosen the right fitness path for myself. Even better, my sweetie-pie was there to watch it all take place, and he couldn't have been prouder.

The course itself is flat and not very difficult, but it is a great first-time event and/or season opener. I think I'll be doing this each year so I can gauge my progress.

Third Place!!!:
Me, Denise, and Julie with our placing medals:

Cali Trip

Ken and I headed down to northern California last weekend for a mini-holiday. We had plans to attend a wedding, as well as spend some quality time with my family. We left Portland on Thursday afternoon where it was overcast/sprinkling/windy and arrived SUNNY California!

Cute photo of my Mom:

The view from my parent's house:I managed to get in some short runs, as well as an open water swim at Hidden Valley Lake. The rest of the time was filled with cards, yard darts, and eating. Mostly oreos.

Me getting into the cold lake without a wetsuit:

My brother and I taking a break from beer & yard darts:
The wedding was that of an old high school friend and it was nice to see so many faces from the past. Sadly, we had to head back home on Sunday night and back to reality...

Ken and I before Drea & Jared's wedding:

On the way home from the wedding, being goofy in Napa Valley:

2008 Starlight Run 5k

Starlight Run 5k
Date: 5/31/2008
Distance: 5k run (3.1 miles)

Every year during the Rose Festival in Portland, OR, they kick off the week with the Starlight Parade. The Parade routes through downtown Portland and along the waterfront. About an hour prior to the parade, they hold a non-competitional 5k run with a costume theme. We all know how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE costumes! This year's theme was "The 70's" since this was the 30th anniversary of the festival (started in the 1970's). I had the perfect material in my sewing stuff!

A couple of days before the event I started working on Ken to get him to do it with me. As much as I'm not a runner, he's even more so not a runner! And he HATES costumes! But I sweet-talked him into participating, and I even got him into some snazzy polyester green pants and mullet wig.

We took the Max train (again) to the event and put up with the stares and questions (again) as people tried to avoid running into my "boobs". Upon arrival at Franklin Highschool, the start of the run, a reporter came up to me and took my picture. He then asked me a couple of questions about my costume and this is the reply he got:
"Well, I'm wearing a fro wig, I have fem-bot boobies with confetti popping out of the nips, my sparkly-ass skirt is barely covering my heiny, and I have the most awesomest psychedelic fur leg warmers on."

He gave me a horrificly embarassed look and went on his way. Laughing, Ken and I roamed about to find the Crouchers and Gilberts. Bob was Austin Powers, Denise was Felicity Shagwell, their son was Elton John, and their daughter was a hippy girl. Fantastic costumes!

When the run started, we got separated, but still had a blast. There were tons of spectators on the parade route and the children would line up on the side to slap our hands. It was like a 3-mile finish line! The rest of the photos are here.