Collegiate Triathlon National Championships ~ April 16, 2005
I woke up at 4:30. Ate half of a whole wheat bagel, some gatorade, coffee, and oatmeal. We got to the race around 5:20. I warmed up 5' on the bike to make sure it was working, a 10' jog with 3x30sec pickups and about 15' in the water. I was in the second wave, so I didn't have to stand around too long.
SWIM (1500m 21:23)
The swim was in a canal that meandered back and forth a bit. I planned on swimming it as straight as possible, cutting the tangents, not following the exact path buoy to buoy. When we all lined up to start the swim, I didn't line up in the center behind whom I thought would swim the fastest... there were only 20 in my wave so I didn't need to be way on the outside... so when we started, I had to cut in back across to the middle to get in behind the leaders. But I didn't quite make it there fast enough to hang on. I thought it was a big group ahead of me and I felt like such a loser for getting dropped when that was what I worked on all winter to avoid. So I swam the whole swim completely alone, thinking about how I was going to have to hammer on the bike to catch the girls ahead of me. I got out of the water and my transition was relatively slow for me, 1:20, because I was trying to get the sleeves of my wetsuit off. But my rival arrived in transition just as I was unracking my bike. I had a surge of confidence knowing I swam faster than her! There was a girl running carefully throught transition in her cleats and I ran quickly by her, crossed the mount line and leapt on my bike almost taking out this girl trying to get on her bike while she was swerving across the road sideways. So I passed 2 girls in transition, and even though I thought there were a lot more ahead, there was really only 1 girl ahead of me.
CYCLE (40K + (it was 25.5 miles! in 1:11.12)
I started the bike really strong. It was a little lonely since there was only 1 girl ahead of me, but I just thought that they were REALLY far ahead. I kept watching my bike because I knew my rival wasn't too far behind. I was thinking about trying to sprint and hold her off when she would try to pass me, but I would only do that if an official was there. (It's NOT EVIL, I swear! It's how the game works!) So the way out was uphill pretty much, but not steep, just rolling/gradual... My rival passed me around mile 8, then we were back and forth a bit, and I was leading into the hilly section. This section is steep short hills like 10-15% grade. The whole section takes like 10 minutes, and its really just all about power. I led through there and climbing back out of that section, she passed me but I stayed with her, an even (legal!) distance behind her. Then we turned out of that section, heading back downhill on the road we came out on. It was windy, but it was heading down hill into the direction of the wind, and THIS is where people with expensive aero equipment REALLY had an advantage. I'm talking like 2-3 minutes on a 40K. So my rival, with her TT bike and aero wheels, rode away from me with probably no increase in effort. And I was hunched in my aerobars as low as I could go, but still sitting up like a sail in the wind. I got down into my drops, resting my head on my aerobars in an attempt to get lower... guys started passing me, interrupting my rhythm since you have to give them 3 bike lengths when you get passed (GRRRR I HATE NONDRAFT RACING!) so the gap between us got pretty big. In fact, like 2 minutes big. I knew I was gonna have to run fast, and I was concerned because I didn't know how many were ahead. My T2 was very smooth... 0:41.
RUN (10K 40:18)
So the first mile I didn't want to go out too hard. I focused on "looking good" - good form, breathing, high cadence, things like that. The volunteers on the first turn said I was in third, and the girl ahead of me "didn't look so good." haha. So I hit mile 1 at 6:15 but probably closer to 6:30 because I started my watch late. I was getting passed by guys but with each one, I matched their pace for a few strides to keep me running strong. On this out and back run you can see the guys finishing ahead of you, and that was pretty cool to see my friends finishing well. Mile 2 was 6:27 and then that mile I started running with this one guy, we went back and forth, keeping the pace up, for a couple miles. I saw the girl in 1st and she looked really strong... I knew I wasn't catching her so I focused on the girl in second. She was running with a guy on her team, and it reminded me of bike races with that team and how another girl on that team would do the same thing with her guys. Mile 3 was 6:30, then I wanted to pick it up for the last 3 miles. Mile 4 was 6:29 and I dropped the guy I was running with. Mile 5 and 6 were a little lonely because I was alone and because I knew I wasn't gonna catch 2nd - my rival. So I just maintained pace and finished with a 2:15.00. I wasn't like keeling over like I do most of the time after a race, in fact I felt pretty good. I was happy that I ran an even pace without having done much pace work in training, and even after losing 6 weeks of running with that hip flexor injury.
So later, I found out that a girl in the 5th wave beat me by 4 seconds. This is why I am sick of doing races like that. Sure, yeah, its an individual time trial effort. But I've discovered that I am the type of athlete who can't make myself hurt unless there is someone there to hate on. I am a tough competitor, but only if I can SEE my competition. I am confident that if we were in the same wave, I would be 3rd place, not 4th.
Anyway, it was a decent race I guess because early season races have the potential to really suck, and this one didn't really suck. Only a little bit because I was too lazy to be fit in aero position on my new bicycle. I learned my lesson! When I get my new bars I'm heading to the shop to get fit correctly.
