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| Rich about to go paddle-boarding post-race. |
Having
watched my husband and so many friends toe the line in Los Cabos just two weeks
ago, I was really looking forward to getting my own race season underway this
weekend. I was a little slow to get really focused in training since last November’s
Cozumel race but I had been having some decent swim and great bike workouts in
recent weeks. The run had been looking particularly questionable, but I’d even
had some fantastic runs in the last 2 weeks!
The
lead up to my first race of the season could not have been much better. Rich
and I flew down to San Diego on Friday morning and immediately drove to meet
our host for the weekend, Katya Meyers,
at the PAC pool in Carmel. After a short, stretch-out swim, we headed to meet Nick
Nicastro, the man behind SagMonkey to
pick up our bikes for a quick spin and run to shake out the legs. Nick was
staying in a house convenient to transition so he offered to keep our bikes
until the following morning rather than pile everything into the rental car. I
cannot say enough wonderful things about Nick and the service he provides. The
rest of the day was chilling and we did not even have to think about dinner as
a friend who happens to be a personal chef, Jess Cerra, had generously offered to
cook up a pre-race dinner for Beth
Walsh, Rich, myself and a few other friends. It was delicious and so nice
to not have to worry about shopping and cooking.
The
alarm sounded at 4:15am and after a lazy 15mins checking email and Twitter, we
finally got up and dressed and ate a breakfast of almond butter and bananas on
toast washed down with some Nuun-infused water.
We drove to meet Nick at SagMonkey and picked up our bikes, dropped off our run
gear and then headed to T1 to get set-up. It’s great to race with my husband.
He came to check on me as soon as he was organized and we spent the time
leading up to our race starts together. He was set to start 16mins after me and
we figured that I should see him about halfway into the bike, as I am usually
5-6mins slower on the swim and he usually rides 15mins faster in a
half-ironman.
My
wave departed at 7:17am and the gun took me a little by surprise as I never
heard the 10 second warning. It was a smooth start and I was barely touched as
I set off swimming. I swam tight to the yellow buoy line and had clear water to
the first red turn buoy at which point, I found some feet and never left them
for the rest of the swim. I found myself fighting a few times to hang on as the
feet seemed to swerve (or I did?) but those feet dragged me to the finish. I
was beyond ecstatic to see 31:XX on my watch. Last year I swam 36:XX and the
year before was 34:XX. This is the fastest swim I have ever done and I thought
to myself right there: “I don’t care what else happens today, I just got a swim
PR and I’m happy!”. People have talked about a short swim and that’s possible (my
Garmin measured 1.18mi) though Andy Potts only swam 1min faster this year. I
think the conditions were much calmer this year with no swells.
Into
transition and the run was long and slow as I was stuck behind a few folks on
the narrow carpet but I was soon on to the bike and feeling pretty good. I
began drinking and fuelling (Nuun and Clif Bloks are my 70.3 nutrition of
choice) and was flying past lots of people with no one passing me. The course
can be a little tricky with lots of bumps in the first few miles (and last few
miles since you return the same way). 11 miles into the bike course, I hit a
bump really hard and heard a loud “smack” noise. I continued riding but quickly
realized something was wrong, as I was not moving very fast in spite of the
200w I was supposedly putting out. I thought that I had a flat. I pulled to the
side and got off the bike to check the tires, review the wheel speed sensor (it
had stopped working so I wondered if it was hitting the wheel or was caught
somewhere) - all good - and then get rolling again. The issue had not
disappeared. I ride a few more hundred yards and then pull over again. A guy
stopped (such nice people racing in triathlon!) and asked if he could help. I
thanked him and said I was fine, just trying to figure out what was rubbing my
wheel. I watched as a few girls in my age-group rode by (Sandrine Micoleau who
had exited the swim with me, Polly Crawford and Cherell Jordin, both of whom
usually swim slower than me). I was getting frustrated trying to figure out
what was rubbing. I did think to myself that my husband would probably be along
in a few minutes so if I was still on the side of the road, he’d stop to help
me. I was trying to be methodical, checking things on my bike, reviewing the
front and rear brake calipers to see if either were catching. The front wheel was
causing the problem but however I adjusted the brake caliper, the wheel
continued to rub. I was beginning to feel chilly and frustrated but I kept
reviewing playing around with the front brake caliper/wheel. Suddenly, as I was
spinning the wheel, trying to adjust the brake, the front wheel almost slid out
of the fork… the skewer was loose! OMG. That’s why I could not fix the brake…
it was the entire wheel that was unstable. I quickly tightened it and got back
on the bike and became focused on catching back the ladies that had just passed
me by. I was doing a little cursing to myself as I had really wanted to ride a
2:3X:XX bike split (and had told my coach and Rich that was a goal) and knew
that with good conditions, it was within my capability. I also knew that with
my swim time, I could possibly race close to 5hrs which would be a dream time
on this course. I know… I was getting ahead of myself!
I
quickly got my head back in the game and focused on re-catching the ladies that
had passed me by. Rich rolled up around mile 20 and I gave him a quick recap of
the events before he was on his way to a speedy 2:24 bike split (13 days after
Los Cabos!). I was riding hard and looking for the Nytro kit of Polly Crawford,
as this would give me some confidence I was back in the race. I caught Polly on
the rollers after the big hill and we traded places back and forth a few times
on this section before I rode away from her on the flats (riding steady watts
usually means I pull away on the flats). I continued to fuel well and feel good
through the rest of the bike ride and watching my SRM, I was thinking a sub
2:40 bike time would be close! Indeed, I hit T2 in 2:39:40 but of course, that
did not account for the time on the side of the road :( My official bike split
was 2:46:09.
After
a quick transition, I hit the run course and was feeling pretty good. I clicked
off the first few miles in around 7:40 pace (did not eat anything the first
3 miles?!?!) but was pretty disillusioned to see Angela Bancroft leading the
AG, quite a ways in front of me (and running fierce! She looked awesome). Rikka
Aramo was not far behind her and I spotted Cherell also way ahead of me and
looking very strong on the run. I think I gave up right about that point. I
walked the next aid station, took in some food and thought to myself that this
would be a nice run but I didn’t need to make myself hurt since I wasn’t
catching anyone! The miles slowed to 8min+ but I was just fine with that. Polly
ran by me but I was fine, giving out a few cheers to fellow OC team-mates and
watching my husband back up his recent Ironman AG win with a very solid race
here. My stomach was in a good place all day and as the miles clicked on, I
picked up the pace a little more, bringing the miles splits back under 8mins. I
crossed the line in 5:10:00, slightly faster than last year but not a PR for
this course, and it was well off the top 3 in the AG. It was good enough for 5th
place.Rich also scored 4th in AG so we showered and ate Mexican food at Katya's house before heading back to Oceanside for awards.
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| 5th place AG |
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| Women's and men's 40-44 podium |
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| Men's 45-49 podium |
Who
knows what would have happened without the mechanical, I couldn’t control that
part of the race… but I could control how I ran… and the effort was not good
enough!
I
have a few more running races coming up over the next few weeks before my next
triathlon in late May. Time to make myself suffer on the run!
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| Spring-time mule cocktail at The Pearl |
Rich
and I spent Sunday morning hanging at the beach with Katya and her husband,
Andy, before meeting up with Linsey and Chris Corbin, Steph and Britt Swanson
and Luke McKenzie for a late lunch at the Pearl… awesome food and cocktails!
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| Seal pup |
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| Huge halibut that divers caught off Tides Beach |
