I woke up that morning at 5:30. Thrown off because my race wasn't until 10. I didn't even need to leave the house until 7. I dawdled around, getting my act together, but much more slowly than I ever prep for race day. Normally I'm high energy, nervous, excited...yeah, none of it.
I drove to Boulder and set up transition in about 8 minutes flat. My rubberbands for my aero-bottle snapped so I gave up on that. I did ask the Kompetitive Edge tent if they had the things to secure aero-bottles, but no such luck. I'd brought an extra bottle of water so instead I just threw the bottles in the normal holders and though it meant about 10 oz. less of water, it was still close enough.
Starting my run warm-up my knee felt a little off. "Great," I thought, "just what I need." But after some drills it seemed to loosen up. Who knows. The bike warm-up went all right, but I could feel that my lack of practice on my tri bike was going to wear on me because I could feel the tension between my shoulder blades.
By the time I was done, it was barely 9 am. Race didn't start until 10:10. Cool. So I stood in transition, downing water. I remembered I usually try to drink a ton of Gatorade so... -1 pt Andrea. I started milling around and also remember I'd left my timing chip at home. Awesome. -2 pts Andrea. They were luckily able to give me a new one (so I guess, +1 pt?) and by that time it was around 9:20 and I went to get in my wetsuit.
The water was VERY VERY cold. I did two laps of the mini swim area thinking that it was probably the coldest water I've ever swam in. I was surprised because I thought it was going to be around 74-degrees and I know I've swam in the mid-60s.
Still, no jitters. My stomach felt pretty empty though. When you're used to being ready to race at 7 am, but now you have to wait until 10, fueling is kind of...hard. I thought back to Nationals in 2012, when I raced the open division and just sat around eating pretzels all morning. Pretzels probably would've been a good decision. Or, ya know, GATORADE. Oops.
I met two guys in the water and we started just chatting about the race and gels and such nonsense.
Ok so fast forward through me standing around to the actual swim.
The swim felt pretty great for the first half. I focused on using the back half of my stroke. I felt like I was flying. 1 buoy, 2 buoys, boom boom boom. I couldn't believe how fast I got to the first turn buoy. I thought "well maybe something good will come of today!" As I neared the second buoy my left goggle starting filling up with water. Boooo. But it was a departure from the salt water in my eyes I'd been dealing with while diving on vacation and so even though I had water splashing around my eye, it didn't seem all that irritating.
As I made the second turn, I felt that I went too wide. As always with this course, siting on the way in was nearly impossible. I kept trying to site the big red finish arch, but it always resulted in me going out way too far left. I finally got back on course thinking "ok, maybe my little out-left detour won't be too awful." Finally I started seeing the orange siting buoys and then all of a sudden - woosh - our course intersected with the sprinter course and the fast male sprinters swam straight over me. "Well, at least I guess that means I'm on course pretty well if they're all smacking into me," I thought. However, this was a little jarring and continually happened for a good 200 meters as more and more came barreling through the end of their course.
Now normally, a little kicking and hitting doesn't faze me, but this was just... a lot all at once. I didn't panic or stick my head up but I knew it was severely breaking down any sort of form to be getting hit so often. Plus I knew I'd slowed down with my (a) detour, (b) difficulty siting and (c) I was getting tired!
I came out of the water in the high 35s. I watched my watch hit 36 mins as I ran to transition up the hill of sand. Apparently I finally hit the transition mat around 37 mins. *sigh* It could be way worse but I'd just really like to break 34 mins in the swim. Then again, I need to actually do work when training if I want to do that so... my own fault. I probably should be glad I got as close to normal as I did.
I got on my bike without any problems, headed out of the reservoir and man it felt like people were speeding past me. That is not usually my experience on the bike, but then I saw it was the 30-something and collegiate male sprinters. Alright well - ok then. I chugged along over the rollers, not feeling great. Definitely really really hungry. Oops. I could feel the pit in my stomach full of water...and nothing else.
At about 35 mins I took my first Gu and was happy to get in some calories and wash it down with some water. I could tell I was drinking less water than I normally would because I had to think, reach down for the bottle, and actively drink (as opposed to the straw smacking me in the nose as if to say "DRINK ME, STUPID"). I also could tell this was slowing me down, because even though I kept pedaling while drinking, I wasn't able to lay down as much power with a bottle in my hand - I was focusing more on stabilizing than power output.
I came through an hour at 17.54 miles. Eesh. NOT what I expected. In June, I'd come through at 18.55 so I was a full mile per hour behind my time. My hamstrings felt awful, my abs felt awful, the hills seemed so much larger than I remembered. At least it was almost time for another Gu! It was around then that I realized "Oh. My abs feel awful because it's the cramps. My hamstrings feel awful because they haven't sat on my TT bike since the end of July. Oh yeah." I still was bummed because I'm training most of my rides faster than or around 17.5 for much longer, hillier rides so... no excuses.
Coming back in through transition I honestly had no idea of my average. I think I'd given up on my race at that point. I believe I came through with an average of 16.7 mph. A pathetic performance, really. Dismounting I felt the all too familiar abdominal cramps that told me "Seriously, Andrea? You know better than this." That's what I get for being an idiot about nutrition and hydration. I winced through T2 and stood there and drank more water out of my bottle. I never run in socks, but knowing it was going to be a long run with these cramps, I was thankful I'd listened to my Grandma who on the phone the night before said "you should pack some socks - just in case!" They were stashed in the side pocket of my transition bag, so I grabbed them and put them on.
I walked out of transition, squeezing my stomach, trying to get the cramps to release. I stopped my Garmin, but let my race clock on my left wrist keep ticking as I pulled into the first water stop, maybe .2 miles into the run. I bent over and asked for salt. The volunteers looked at me bewildered, so I just grabbed some water and lemon-lime gatorade (gross, but I needed it) and stood there trying to get my muscles to release. I'd been here before, so many times. Workouts, races, you name it - with my damn abs cramping. I was feeling pretty calm, honestly. Debating if I should even continue. I thought to myself "if you can get them to release, you may as well finish, because DNFs blow...but so does walking 6.2 miles... that's really long." A race official who was less bewildered for my request for salt, had dashed over somewhere and brought me back six packets. I thanked him and immediately poured one into my mouth. SO DRY. I washed it down with LOTS of water.
"Are you going to be able to make it?" He asked.
"Yeah, if I can get this to release I can probably bang this run out in about an hour," I said.
"Well, you have two hours until the time cut off, so you're good."
"Honestly, I've done so many of these at this point, I'm kind of wondering if it's even worth it. We'll see," I replied.
After 5 cups of water, 2 salt packets, about 2 oz of Gatorade (because I was choking it down as I could), and about 15 mins at the rest stop, I felt the pain start to ease up. One of the volunteers really wanted me to finish. It was sweet, actually. It reminded me that so many people do these things just to finish. This sport is really hard. Not everyone can max out at it.
I set out to try one lap and see how it went.
Funny that within seconds I ran up on one of the guys I had been talking to earlier that morning. "I thought you said you were a runner?" I said, jokingly (and knowingly because...this stuff ain't easy). Brett told me a similar story of cramping and I sympathized. He only had one lap left to his run though (LUCKY!) and we agreed to run it together.
We spent about 25 mins distracting each other from the utter hell that triathlon can unleash upon your body. He ran ahead with about .5 miles to go as I felt myself starting to break down again. It was amusing as always that when I was running, I was usually holding between an 8:50 and a 9:10 min/mile but then my chest hurt, my heart rate went up...and I just needed a break. Kids, don't try this at home.
Coming through my first lap, the volunteer who I'd spent so much time doubled-over next to handed me 3 cups of water (lol) and said "Look at you! You were going to quit and now you're almost done!" Then I made the loop and he handed me 3 more cups. I must've looked like crap (understandably so).
I honestly didn't feel all that bad. I mean, yes, it was super hot and every time I ran my heart rate went through the roof, but my muscles weren't anywhere near their limits. I was much much stronger than anything I'd done that day but I just hadn't fueled myself to prove it.
Walking/running the last 5k I met a woman doing the duathlon, and we agreed that rain would be nice. I met another girl my age, named Lauren, doing her first sprint. I assured her that as you do more you get better - and that while I was having a bad day, experience usually makes it easier. I met an older man who congratulated me - and I felt like such a poser. I should be congratulating him - there was nothing to congratulate me about yesterday. There were a few other exchanges along the way and even though I couldn't get my body to do what I knew I was capable of, I actually had....FUN?!
I didn't let a bad attitude get the best of me. I didn't pay attention to time or even feel like a failure. I was kind of glad I kept going. I finished in 3:40 (probably more like 3:25 of actual moving time without my long "abs stop cramping" stop), which is 3 mins faster than my first Olympic distance during which I almost blacked out. See, I've come so far! -sarcasm-
I think yesterday served as a reminder that, hey, guess what Andrea, triathlon is actually really difficult. It's pretty impressive that you can race it and post times that are fairly decent in all three sports on a regular basis because... that's not easy. You can't just not train, and not have the right nutrition and...do something like that. It gave me a sense of respect for the sport that I'd had and lost.
In the interest of being candid I am totally burnt out on tri at the moment. I've stopped feeling excited and driven and so I think it's time for a break. I'm going to spend the fall and winter just doing whatever workouts I want to do (which probably means riding my bike all the time) and then when March comes around I'll evaluate whether there is a multisport season in store for me or if 2015 is going to be the year I take a break.
...the funny thing is I am fairly sure I will be doing a sprint in September so, maybe that will change my mind.
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