1.5K swim, 30 mile bike, 10K runThis was my first year at Lake to Lake. Overall it was a great race and definitely one I would do again. It went much better than expected. I've been dealing with a nagging hamstring for the past few weeks, ever since Deuces Wild. I was a little worried going into it since I haven't been doing much. I've had a race every other weekend for the past 6 weeks, so every second week is a bit of a taper. I also took 4 days off (4 very long days!) of no running or riding last week in an attempt to heal the hamstring. But I found that it really didn't make a difference - it still hurt when I finally went back out again last weekend, so instead I probably just gave up some good training time. But this is not the point...
The day started out very early. Matt and I woke up at 3:30 and struggled out of bed. He somehow had a bit more energy than one would expect of anyone at that hour, but kept saying that he really didn't want to do this and I have to admit it was tempting. Especially snce I was not nearly as awake as he was. Even the dogs had no idea what was going on. They were like "Why are we going out so early? It's still very dark outside and we should all still be sleeping". Naturally, as soon as I pulled out the food they were immediately awake and ready to go. At They went back to bed immediately. Lucky them.
We got the car loaded and were on the road a little after 4. I still had to get gas and didn't realize that there are not so many options at 4AM. I always thought that pay at the pump stations would be available 24 hours. But as I learned very early this morning, this is not the case. Of course, instead of telling you this outright, it lets you go through all the steps of swiping your card and entering your zip and actually authorizing your card, making it seem like you're ready to go. Only you're not, because when you try and start pumping gas, nothing actually happens. Good to know for next time.
The drive was uneventful, but I was oh so tired. We arrived in Loveland a little before 5. Packet pickup was supposed to open at 5. The road to the high school was blocked off and there were no signs saying that athletes could still go through. I started to drive through the intersection where we were supposed to turn and then ended up doing some crazy veering through cones in order to get through. We were one of the first ones in the gym to get our numbers. However, when Matt got up to the table, he apparently had some big orange sticker on his packet. The volunteer said that he would have to wait for "this guy" to show up with the computer and verify his USAT status (he had the one day membership, for which he had already paid during the initial registration but for whatever reason, didn't seem to be valid). So we began the wait for "this guy". We were not the only ones waiting for "this guy". There was another woman sitting with us whose registration never seemed to have been recorded in the first place. I thought Matt had a lot of energy in the morning, but this woman made Matt look like he was still sleeping. "This guy" never seemed to show up, but a woman with an air of authority did show up. She also had with her what looked to be waivers. I told Matt to go talk to her. He got a waiver and came back to the table. Apparently there was only one pen in the cafeteria, and Matt was not the lucky recipient. But I had one for him to use. He filled out the form and then had to go back and stand in line. After all of this, which took at least 30 minutes from our initial arrival, he ended up getting up to the desk and they gave him his number, but never took his waiver! So what exactly was the point of all of this? A lesson in patience?
At this point, we didn't have a lot of time to get everything set up. The transition area was a cluster. There were supposed to be 10 bikes per rack and most of them looked full. We were able to squeeze ourselves in without much of an issue, but according to Amanda and Amy, there were many crabby people there that just didn't want to make room for people. It was a little bit of a tight fit and I ended up having to stack things on top of each other. It just seems like things would be so much easier if the racks were numbered. There wasn't too much time to worry about this - we still had to get marked and make our way down to the start.
Matt started in the first wave and I was 4 minutes behind him. My instructions from Craig were to start at the front and cut left to the first buoy. I was pretty close to the front, but I think I was too far over to the right. There wasn't exactly a designated start line and since everyone was entering the water to my left, I didn't really have a good chance of getting farther over without being in the middle of everything. I decided to stay where I was. The swim was pretty rough up to the first buoy. I couldn't find a clear path. The woman to the right of me kept swimming to the left and the woman to the left of me kept swimming to the right and I kept getting trapped in between. After rounding the first buoy, I was finally able to get through them and had an open path. Aside from some floaties, most of which hit me full in the face, the rest of the swim went well. The water was warm, calm, and relatively clear. It seemed to go by pretty fast and I have to think that it was a slightly shorter course. But perhaps they made up for it with the really long run from the beach back to the transition area. We're guessing it was about a 90 second run...it was quite a hike.
T1 went a lot faster than my past two races, though I'm not sure I did anything different. I actually sat down to dry off my feet and try and get most of the grass off of them before putting on my socks. Yes, I'm a sock wearer. I can give up a few seconds for a little more comfort. And I do have to say that I like the grassy transitions - it makes for a nicer run with the bike without fear of wiping out before even getting out of the transition area.
Commence the bike. The bike didn't start off that well. I just couldn't seem to get my legs moving. I was trying to get myself motivated when a guy in front of me crashed. He wasn't wearing a shirt and was pretty scratched up. Fortunately, he was able to get up and get back on the bike and was able to pass me shortly after that. But it wasn't a pretty sight and we did a bit of leapfrogging for the next 5 miles or so. Each time he passed, I got a little more queasy with the dripping blood and all. Finally he left me once and for all so I tried to reflect on nicer things. Once we got off the main roads, the ride was actually really nice and scenic. I felt really slow but tried not to focus on it and just told myself to keep the cadence up. My hamstring was bothering me on and off for that first third, which also didn't help since I just kept worrying about it. I finally got to a point somewhere during the long climb towards the midpoint of the ride where everything seemed to kick in and I finally felt like I was riding. I was actually able to start passing a few people on the climb. I kept thinking back to what Craig said with attacking on the hills and just went for it. Most of them caught me again on the downhill before the really steep climb - they had a bit more weight on me. But I really pushed it on the steep hill and flew right past them again. And most of them didn't catch up again. There was one woman who was annoying me for a while. She clearly couldn't climb or was just too tired at the point to do so. I kept passing her on the climbs and she'd come flying past on the downhill as I was recovering, but then immediately stall again once the hill ended. We finally got to a section of rollers and I decided I was going to pass once and for all. I didn't see her again after that. The rest of the ride went pretty well, though there was one section towards the end where we were riding on the other side of the road. It was a little weird. No one was completely sure where to ride and which side to pass on. Finally we pulled back into the parking lot and back to the transition area.
T2 was a little more of an effort than I had expected. I got back to my spot and someone else's bike was already there. I really couldn't put my bike elsewhere because then I'd be taking someone else's spot. So I made the assumption that this person was really next to me and somehow managed to move their bike over and get mine squeezed in. Also, because of the whole stacking of my stuff, I had to do a little digging to find everything for the run.
The run for all three races I've done this year have all started the same way. I've felt like I had way too much to drink and that there's liquid just sloshing around. I purposely stopped drinking when I through we were about 5 miles out, but it didn't seem to make much a difference. And it's kind of a hard feeling to shake. But I pushed forward. I really didn't like the run. There was a little too much on the main road and the side roads were pretty sloped. It was an out and back run and there was also a section where someone decided that people heading out should run on the sidewalk so that people heading back in could have the road. And of course, once one person did it, everyone followed. This would have been fine, but it was a sidewalk (as opposed to a bike path or something), so every few feet their were driveways, which meant that it dipped down and then back up. This does not make for a smooth run. I saw Amy somewhere between miles 2 and 3, and then Matt shortly after. Both looked like they were running strong. Heading back, I saw Amanda. I must say, the new HEP shirts are so bright that you really can't miss people. The rest of the run I just focused on one step at a time, telling myself that it was almost over. We finally got back to the park and the volunteers said there was only half a mile left. I didn't believe them. It didn't seem like it could be that far and they didn't look like the types of people that actually knew how far half a mile was. So, shortly after passing them, I started picking up the pace. Big mistake. I thought the finish to the Marine Corps marathon was bad being uphill and around a big circle (you can't see the finish until you're right there). This was so much worse. Having no idea how the run course actually went, I assume that the finish was always just ahead of me. Only I couldn't hear the crowd that one normally hears approaching the finish line. Every time we rounded a corner, there was always another runner way up ahead of me. Where the hell was the finish? And it didn't help that everyone lined on this section of the coarse kept cheering "you're almost there". There should be lessons in cheering - you should never say that someone is almost there until they really are almost there. I rounded another corner and saw people on the other side of the water still running. So I still had to go forwards, cross over the water somewhere, and then started heading back. I was really dying at this point. I was passed by a 66 year old man. I think that must have been what got me moving again. Finally I was on the other side of the water and could finally hear people cheering. There was a timing pad many feet in front of the finish (I still couldn't see the finish). I was thinking "wow, this is kind of a lame finish" and was all ready to stop after this pad, but fortunately there was a volunteer telling me not to stop. At this point, I could finally see the finish and saw that the clock said 2:58. My goal was sub-3 so I charged across the line as though the clock were about to jump ahead a minute. And then I was done. And I had completely forgotten that I had started in the second wave, 4 minutes after the clock started, so I easily met my goal, with several extra minutes to spare. Final time, 2:54. A great race indeed.
Swim: 26:42
Bike: 1:34:29 (19mph, which is pretty much a PR for me at this distance)
Run: 5.:19
Total: 2:54:19
17/58 in age group
226/596 overall
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