2008 Triple T Race Report

That's my finisher shirt, medal and FIRST PLACE PLAQUE!

I’m not going to describe the races here—you can read my 2007 race report which goes into quite a bit of detail. If you’ve never read one of my race reports, welcome to epic, detailed writing! Now, you might think you can skip over all the preliminary stuff before I get to writing about the actual races, but you’d be wrong—you might miss valuable information like don’t forget to bring your lobster!

Pictures from this year’s race are here.

If you read my race report from last year, you will see a difference this time around—it’s the voice of experience. Everything seemed more methodical to me this time, and I suppose it also helped that I had done nearly the entire race in training a few times.

Thursday, May 22

I was originally going to travel with my friend, Jostein, who did NothingMan with me last September. However, while he was vacationing in Norway, he developed an MRSA infection that required hospitalization and surgery. His wife, Kathleen, emailed me to break the bad news last week. I had reserved a minivan for us to drive together, so I canceled that reservation. I wasn’t looking forward to making the drive by myself, but it is what it is.

I was up at 3:30AM because, well, I’ve been waking up that early anyway, which comes in handy when I’m traveling to the Eastern time zone and lose an hour (thanks Cindy for reminding me en route that I was driving into EST since I totally forgot!). I knew I still had a lot to do to get ready. I had “organized” all the triathlon crap in piles around my house—my crap lives partly in the basement, living room, kitchen—uh—I guess it’s everywhere. I hadn’t made the food bag containing all my nutrition powders and such, but I had made a chart (OMG, no I didn’t put it into Excel) of what I needed so I’d know how much to bring with me. I should have saved my chart from last year—but I have now put it into my master humongous triathlon spreadsheet since I’m definitely doing Triple T in 2009.

I also had some other last minute things to get done that just weren’t getting done earlier in the week because I worked out at least 2 hours per day Monday-Wednesday, and work has been busy, and then I had massage school on Monday night, and on Wednesday night I made a trip to my brother Mike’s house to meet up with my financial planner to sign some more paperwork for my Dad’s estate stuff. So between all that and trying to eat and sleep, there wasn’t much time for packing. I repaired my Kona Timex hat, after remembering it was in my sewing room—I was freaking out when I couldn’t find it and then I finally remembered that I had put it aside to fix the bill coming apart from the cap part.

I had everything organized in bags and boxes by about 7:00AM, and then I began putting everything in my car. I should have taken a picture of that. Once I was fully packed, I washed dishes and vacuumed the house, because, well, it’s pretty easy to clean once I get all my triathlon crap out of there!

The last things I needed to do were to stop at my mechanic’s to get my tires checked and then get a document notarized and in the mail to my financial planner. I’ve had the same mechanic for over 10 years, and they are really good to me, and so I just pulled into the garage and the whole crew came to greet me. The owner, Gene, asked his guys to check my oil and just take a look under the hood to see if there was anything up. Gene knows I do triathlon, and upon seeing the bike in the back seat, asked what I was up to, so I told him. He said it was really cool that I do all this stuff, my car was pronounced in good working order, and off I went.

I filled up my car with gas and then headed to the bank where I have my Dad’s estate checking account to make a deposit and get my document notarized. Well, the notary wasn’t in yet (it was 8:30), but they were kind enough to tell me that the Village Hall had a notary, and I hoped it was open, but wasn’t optimistic because, well, you know, government and all. But the Village Hall was indeed open, and one of my neighbors, Sue, greeted me, asked what I was up to (most of my neighbors know me as the girl who’s either running or biking or gardening), and I told her and she notarized my document, and then I was ready to take off.

I sort of needed to pee (again), and thought about stopping at home, but then I figured I should get some ice for the big cooler, so I started heading in the general direction I needed to go and stopped at a gas station. Funny thing is that when I was married, my then husband Ken and I would always stop at this particular gas station to get ice for the cooler, which was usually filled mostly with beer. Well, my life is a little different now—the big cooler had my defizzed Coke and Ultra Violence, a bunch of cans of Coke and Ultra Violence, a few beers for the evening, and some Gatorade. I bought the ice, used the bathroom, and now I was off for a long drive.

I left the gas station pretty much 9:00AM straight up! A few days ago I was thinking of leaving by 11:00AM, but I guess that didn’t take into consideration that I’d wake up at 3:30AM! I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of traffic getting out of Illinois and into Indiana, and thought it was a wise decision to leave town on Thursday rather than Friday. I did expect to hit a traffic jam in Indiana on the infamous 80/94 corridor, but miracle of miracles—I didn’t! There have been improvements to the roadway, and while there was some good traffic, nothing that stopped the overall flow.

Next I got on I65 south towards Indianapolis. Again, traffic wasn’t bad, and now I started using the cruise control. I won’t say exactly what speed I set it to—let’s just say that the speed limit was 70. There were, as always, a lot of Indiana State Troopers patrolling the road, and I know they look for us Illinois peeps, so I was careful to keep an eye out for them. Next was I465 circling around Indianapolis to I74 east towards Cincinnati.

I drank a Coke before I hit I65, and then I started on the Ultra Violence. But in the interest of not getting fat, I decided I needed to switch to Diet Ultra Violence, and at 2 of my pee stops, that’s what I picked up. At some point I had a disgusting chicken and cheese sandwich (with no mayo or mustard) from a gas station and a piece of string cheese. I briefly dipped into my Pringles, but I wasn’t that much into them. They tasted pasty. I’m sure they will taste like heaven in a day or so.

In my approach to I275, I saw the road was closed, and well, I had to just get off on this ramp and wasn’t quite sure where I was headed, but luckily out of the corner of my eye, in typical Indiana (“Wander Indiana”) fashion, there was just a small sign pointing to the official detour! I slid over 3 lanes rather quickly to get off there, and just followed the signs. They had us do some sort of circle jerk, because I think I was going backwards at one point and hoped I was going the right way!

The next major road was OH32, and it started out as a giant clusterfuck. Slow traffic, and some construction, and I thought I was fucked as far as my driving time. But that didn’t last too long, and the road opened up and all was good.

The last stretch is on Sunrise Avenue. Finally a fun road to drive on! It is hilly, and reminded me of the bike course I’ll be on soon (actually part of it is the bike course on Saturday afternoon), and I mean H-I-L-L-Y! There are some whoop-dee-dos where my stomach about dropped, and I hoped I figured out which way the road went at the crest. There were some locals behind me, so of course I needed to impress them with my cornering prowess, and I was happy that even though I hadn’t slept that I was driving well. OK, so the Ultra Violence helped!

I arrived at the Lodge with a door to door time of 6:50. Mapquest had said 6:49, so I was right on the money, and my time included 4 stops to pee, so not bad! I checked myself in and headed to my cabin. I was the first person to arrive in the cabin area, and it was so peaceful, and I just felt so happy to be here. As I was unloading, I saw a critter under the front porch, but only its tail—see the photo—I originally thought it was a small raccoon, but it turned out to be a cat. I also listened to all the birds singing, and it was tranquil being in such a beautiful place. I grabbed a cold beer and finished unpacking and slightly organizing stuff in the cabin, and then I headed to dinner.

Well, since I didn’t work out today, I wasn’t really all that hungry, but knew that this weekend is all about keeping up with your energy needs, so I ordered a bunch of food and laid into it. The sweet potato fries were so good, especially with maple syrup to dip them in. But I ate maybe 1/3 of them so I could take the rest for later. Then my main course arrived—steak, baked potato and carrots. I wasn’t much into the carrots, but I polished off the baked potato first, and then I was sort of full. The waitress asked me if I was going to eat any of the steak, and I said, sure, I’ll have a few bites, but then I’ll finish it up later. I made my “to go” cartons and headed back to the cabin.

Next, I blew up the palm tree to create some ambience in our cabin. While I was doing it, I’d stop every few breaths and just smile, thinking why the hell am I blowing up a palm tree for a weekend of triathlon? But as it turned out, I think we got a kick out of it, and at one point there was a wet swimsuit hanging on its coconuts. I think it will be making a trip to Lake Placid as well. And then I polished off my dinner, knowing that I’d need the calories this weekend. My last effort was to file my fingernails so I don’t rip my wetsuit like I did earlier this spring in one of my NothingMan’s (I have since repaired it), and then I put sparkle polish on them, and finally, put on my fake tattoos.

I had bought a hula skirt and fake lobster for each camper. I don’t recall exactly what possessed me to do it, but it seemed to go with the theme of Tiki Hut (sadly, I didn't have room in my car to bring the original Tiki Hut plus all its residents with me). Plus, I just really like lobsters! When I placed my order, it indicated 2 lobsters, but I didn’t realize they came in packs of 6, so I actually got 12! The universe seems to like to give me extra crustaceans regularly. A year ago, I ordered a crab and lobster sculptures and a Swarovski crystal crab pin from the Smithsonian Institution catalog (they have really neat stuff). When I received the order at home, there seemed to be too many boxes. When I opened them, I saw they had shipped me 2 crabs and 2 lobsters by mistake. And then there was a slip from Fedex indicating there was another package that I needed to sign for. I already had the crab pin, so I called Fedex and they gave me the runaround, but as it turned out, they were holding another crab pin and I told them to return it. I ended up giving one spare crab sculpture to a friend (I hadn’t been charged for it) and kept both lobsters—I can never have enough of them! Fast forward to about 2 months ago. I ordered a new tablecloth for my kitchen table and matching dish towels and placemats. All of them have lobsters and assorted crustaceans on them. Well, when my order arrived, guess what? Only 1 tablecloth, but extra placemats, and while I had ordered 2 dish towels, I received 12! Again, I had only been charged for what I ordered, so once again, I gave some of the excess crustaceans to a friend. Finally, when my Partymart order arrived, I was laughing hysterically since there were a ton of lobsters in it!

I carefully placed a hula outfit and lobster on each bed in the cabin, and then I turned in for the night around 9:00PM.

Friday, May 23

I woke up at 5AM. Perfect! I slept really, really well—aided by the fact that I brought one of my own bed pillows with me (note: the pillow in the cabin suck—bring one or two of your own). I was so happy that I slept pretty much through, and got up and started my day. It was so nice to wake up in the woods and have this cabin all to myself, since later today it will start to be mayhem once the Canadians arrive and bring all their crap into the cabin. I made a pot of coffee for myself and got my bottles ready to be filled. It’s very important that when you are doing an Ironman or a stage race like Triple T that you make your bottles and then create a bottle shrine and take a picture of them. Or at least I feel it is important. I spend so much time fixing and washing bottles, that I feel I must turn it into a festive occasion for important events. Which I did. I was truly happy that I had made my chart of everything I needed for the races, and I just methodically measured and filled and shook. I used the last of my custom Infinit mix, but I ordered a new mixture (with slightly more calories and more caffeine) a few days ago, so that should arrive by next weekend when I’ll need it for my first century ride of the year.

Well it’s 7:30AM and it’s raining slightly and I’m done with breakfast and about to go for a walk.

I walked to the Lodge, which is slightly downhill and less than a city block from the cabins, and called some friends staying there and woke them up. Told them I’d see them later. I kept on going and walked all the way down the big hill to the lake we swim in. It was nice to see it all empty and calm before everyone starts arriving. On the way down, I stopped at the park office and looked at a number of snakes that are in aquarium tanks. I asked if any have ever escaped, and the ranger said yes. But she also said they are all pretty tame, and have been raised in captivity. Then she showed me some photos of someone who was bitten by a timber rattler twice. It’s not pretty. Another ranger arrived and told about a man who was bitten by one all up and down his arm and said it was like the flesh was practically torn off, and the man required something like 20 vials of anti-venin. I asked how it happened, and he said the guy was probably trying to trap them or something. What an idiot.

I walked back up the hill just to give my legs some hill action, and on the way up I worked up a slight sweat. I also became hungry! I kept going to my cabin and met the family of Shannon Kurek, who is one of the Race Directors. Very nice people, unlike this girl I introduced myself to yesterday because I saw her car was from Illinois—what a bitch. She acted all unfriendly. Well, let’s just chalk that up to the exception. Most of the people here will be quite friendly.

I came back to the Tiki Hut and decided I wanted a little more coffee, so I got that going and changed into some yoga attire to stretch. Stretching felt really good after all that driving yesterday. It’s still overcast and dribbling every now and then, but I’m sure it will clear up by this afternoon for our first race. I still need to clean, lubricate and check LGL. I’m glad I didn’t bother washing her before I came, because just going for a spin in the cabin area she got all dusty, and that will be the deal for the weekend.

Now I’m just waiting for some friends to wake the hell up and motivate so we can spend some time together. And then before I know it, it will be time for lunch!

So I’m basically milling about the cabin when I hear a knock on the door. It’s a guy and a girl, and they ask if I have any more room in the cabin for them. I tell them to come in, let’s look around and see what’s what. As it turns out, there was space for them, and even though I had never met these people, they seemed pretty nice, and so I helped them bring in their stuff, told them I was waiting for some Canadians to arrive, and we were generally talking and getting to know one another. Their names are Julie and Rob, and they raced as a coed team, and they won that division in 2007.

I had thought the Canadians would arrive early afternoon, but when they weren’t here, Rob, Julie and I became a bit concerned. There is no cell phone service in the park (allegedly there was one spot in the parking lot of the Lodge where you could get a signal), so it wasn’t like they could call me or anything. But I knew they’d make it, and so we just tried to relax.

I think it was around 4:00PM when the Canadians rolled in. I wasn’t even at the cabin—I think I went down to register, and when I got back all these people were piling into the cabin! It was hilarious, because they were expecting ME, but instead they were greeted by even more complete strangers, Rob and Julie. I’m sure it was comical when they all introduced one another and talked about how they ended up in a cabin with a Crackhead.

I pitched in to help bring in all the provisions that the Canadians (Ian, Mike and Dave) had brought with them. That was the deal I made with them—they didn’t owe me any money for the cabin—they just needed to bring food, cook and clean. While bringing in the groceries, I saw they had brought plenty of good looking food and what looked like a good amount of beer! So I figured we were all set, but we all needed to get ready to race at 5:00PM.

I got all the food that needed refrigeration into the fridge and told everyone to get ready to race, and then there was a flurry of activity as everyone got dressed to race and their bikes and transition bags prepared. Then we all rode our bikes down to transition.

Race 1: Prologue (Super Sprint)

Over the loudspeaker, we were told that the lake was rather cold. The dude should have just said it’s fucking cold! I had brought my own latex swim cap to wear in addition to the race-supplied one, but other than that, it was just me and my wetsuit. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t wear a wetsuit for a 250-meter sprint, but for most of us, it was a requirement today.

Man, that water was a shock to the system! I had swum in 58° water a few years back, but this was even colder! To add to the fun, it had started raining before we started, which conveniently wet down the roads that we would ride on. Luckily, I had a big garbage bag and put my bike and run shoes and stuff in there so they weren’t totally wet.

I love my Metal Cell wetsuit. It comes off really fast without using any Bodyglide or other lubricants. I decided against wearing sunglasses for the bike since it was overcast. I took my time in transition (and my overall time reflects it), because I didn’t really care about my time for this race, and I wanted to be steady on the bike. Since the bike course is basically a big up and down, I figured there would be even more crashes than normal.

Well, me being from flatland, that bike ride was a shock to my legs. Although I train with power, there is something different about actual hills, and it felt like crap. But I expect that and it didn’t concern me. Also, I was pretty much freezing to death after being in that lake, but I know everyone else was. We did a little jog to the right out of the park and then a U-turn and then up the big hill right into the cabin area! Of course, I thought, “Gee, I could just stop and I’d be home right now!” And then back down the big hill. I was real careful because last year I saw a few people crash out on the downhill, and while I didn’t see any this year, I heard there were several people who skidded out or crashed.

Here’s what the bike ride looks like:

Note: in all the Ergomo files, the red line shows altitude, while the yellow line is wattage.

Back into transition and I put my running shoes on. My legs didn’t feel particularly bad, but I think that the cold water did a number on me. I felt like I was running in cement. I ended up running a little slower than 10K pace for me, which was fine. My objective for the first race was to totally lollygag, and while I can’t say I was able to do it 100% due to the cold water and general adrenaline, I was fine with my effort.

Some people hung around for the post-race food, but my cabin had stuff to cook, so I suggested we cart our asses back up the hill and get moving on some dinner! We all rode our bikes back up that hill, which at the time didn’t seem like too big of a deal, but it was the LAST time we rode our bikes back up to the cabin because, well, your legs do not need any extra exercise throughout the weekend.

The guys started preparing dinner just as they said they would, and it looked good, and it gave me a chance to prepare for Saturday’s races and just hang out and chat and get to know everyone. There were so many laughs, it’s impossible to remember it all.

Hard to believe, but I was not the first person to crack a beer Friday night. Even though we had discussed via email that there would be some beer drinking, I wasn’t really sure how “serious” everyone was until Friday night, and when I saw pretty much everyone with beer in hand, I joined in and decided this was the best crowd to hang with.

We definitely talked about how fun the first race was, even though it’s always somewhat hard for most participants, since many athletes arrive just before the gun goes off, and add to that the water being so cold and a little rain and a big hill, and it was a nice little challenge to kick off the weekend.

The boys made some fantastic food for dinner, and damn it, I should have taken pictures of it, but let’s see if I can remember: we had pasta with marinara sauce and chunks of grilled chicken (or wherever you wanted to put your chicken), this awesome salad with all kinds of good stuff in there—bell peppers, avocados, sprouts, more beer, wine, lots of laughing. I remember that I filled my plate once and ate it all and then went and got myself some more pasta. I think the guys were a little incredulous at how much I was eating, but I have done this before so I just ate as much as I could. And then I wanted some dessert, so I had a Twinkie and shared some with everyone else.

We made time to utilize the cabin’s hot tub, and it was good. It seemed like a constant parade of people going in and out. Julie and Rob went into “town” (Portsmouth) to get some supplies and also a regular swimsuit for Julie. We were laughing that she scored a pretty nice suit at Walmart! Since there were several bikes in the porch where the hot tub was, there was quite a bit of activity in there. Dave changed his chainrings and Rob did something to his bike, and there was a lot of lubrication going on.

Off to bed for some sleep. I passed out quickly with a nice, full belly of food. I think I woke up once or twice to pee and I heard others’ trips to the bathroom, but nothing to stop me from sleeping.

Saturday, May 24

I woke up just before my alarm was supposed to go off, as I had set the coffee pot on auto and heard it click on to brew. We had all agreed on what time we would get up (5:00AM), so I didn’t need to be quiet or anything, and I turned on lights, put some music in the CD player and proceeded to do a bed check and make sure everyone was getting up. It was like being at camp—I guess I was the Camp Counselor—and I took pictures of many of the campers in various states of awakeness.

Then the activity began. God, I wish there was a video camera running while we are all getting ready to race. You’d think we’d be in one another’s way, but we weren’t. Everyone sort of just used whatever available space there was to do what they needed to do.

Julie asked me to draw pretty eyes on the front of her swim cap so Rob could recognize her in the water. When I was a kid, I liked to doodle (still do), and eyes were one of my favorite things to draw, so I told her I’d try and do a good job. She stood there while I made eyes on top of her head, and they came out pretty nice—lots of lashes (at Julie’s request) and lots of eyeliner (my choice). Again, I didn’t take a picture, but I hope Julie saved her cap and will take a picture and send it to me. Then Julie wrote CRACKHEAD on the front of my swim cap. We were the only people that wrote stuff on our swim caps, and it was pretty funny when someone would be looking at the top of our heads trying to figure out what was going on.

At this point, people were still pretty excited about racing, so there was this desire to get into transition with lots of time to spare. We rode our bikes down again, and it was freezing cold going down the big hill (race started at 7:30AM). It made you wonder how we would feel getting on our bikes for the first ride of the day.

I spotted Gordo Byrn (a pro triathlete) in transition, and since a friend, Brett, had requested specifically that I get pictures of him, I waited politely for an opportune moment and then I asked. I told the guy who was with Gordo that my friend had a huge man crush on Gordo. The guy said he probably wasn’t the only one, and we all had a good laugh. No matter when I saw Gordo, he looked totally relaxed and fresh. That is one of the hallmarks of a great athlete, I think. At least one who gets the mental aspect of the sport.

Unfortunately, the first photos of me and Gordo were by the porta potties. Not exactly stellar. So when we were all back in transition, Gordo came up to me and said why don’t we get some here? What a nice guy! So we got a few more shots, and then I told Gordo he should touch my lucky lobster. He did, and he won the race overall, thus proving the power of the lucky lobster, which will be making an appearance in Lake Placid.

While getting ready to race, the usual guy is blabbing at us over the loudspeaker, and since I’ve done this before and we had heard most of this yesterday, I decided to just summarize for my rack mates what he was saying, so I spoke rather loudly:

In summary, the water is fucking cold. Wear your wetsuit. The bike course is fucking hilly; be careful and don’t crash. The run course is fucking hilly. Have fun!

I got a lot of girls laughing over this, and I repeated my same spiel before Races 3 and 4. I mean, that’s basically what they are trying to tell you!

Race 2: Individual Time Trial (Olympic distance)

And then we all lined up for the individual time trial Olympic race. We’d need to do 2 loops in the lake. The atmosphere at Triple T is so great when we are all huddled up before the swim start. Some people have their game face on, but many of us are laughing and joking as we know it’s going to be a long day. I tried to cheer everyone from the cabin with lower numbers than me (I was 214) as they went into the water, and also I’d cheer for other athletes I knew. I really enjoyed giving people a send off. Since most athletes don’t have their families present, I just think it’s a nice thing to do, and easy since we have a time trial start.

Well, the water was still fucking cold. To help assess where I was on course, and also to keep my wits about me so I wouldn’t hyperventilate, I counted my strokes. Or rather, I used the “rule of 100.” Just stroke 100 times with the right arm and see where I was. It made the swim go by pretty fast even though the water was damn cold. Did I say the water was cold yet? It was fucking cold. And there were parts of the lake that were even colder. You’d swim in a slightly warmer spot and then be hit with this blast of cold.

Since the air temperature was also rather cold (low 40’s), getting out and into transition was a shock. Hands were cold, feet were cold, and now I have to take my cozy wetsuit off! I had joked before the race started that I was just going to bike in my wetsuit.

Well getting the wetsuit off was no problem, but immediately I began shivering. Although I had brought arm warmers with me to the race, I didn’t have them in transition, and I just thought I’d go hardcore and deal with it. Also, I didn’t wear shorts—just my tri bottom—I figured a little extra fabric on my legs wasn’t going to make a bit of difference in my comfort, and besides, it’s sort of a tradition with me now. In retrospect, the one thing I did wrong was to wear my official race jersey during the swim. I should have left it in transition and put it on DRY to begin the bike. Note to self for 2009!

My teeth were chattering as I methodically prepared to bike. My feet were frozen, as were my hands. Oh well! Time to ride!

Well, big surprise, the bike course was fucking hilly! Also, there were some extremely sharp turns, and the road was well marked to warn you to SLOW DOWN! I remembered the turns from last year, and so I was pretty careful. I heard that as expected, there were some crashes. People—listen to me when I’m yelling out the summary in transition!

My riding objective was to ride as cheesy as possible. Meaning, if I could generate less watts, do it. I was just enjoying the beautiful scenery (at least once I warmed up), and knew my ride would take me about 1:30, so no worries. The bike course was beautiful even though it included some killer climbs. I polished off my 1.5 serving bottle of Infinit, and was happy to get back to transition since I basically froze my ass off the entire bike ride.

Here’s what the ride looked like:

I was happy to get into my running shoes, and since I had cheesed out on the bike, my legs felt really good and strong. But that run course is still a bitch! Did I say it was fucking hilly? I’ll save you some effort here and show you the run course elevation profile below:

I managed to “run” most of the way up the hill, and then the downhill was a piece of cake. I was still in energy conservation mode because I really wanted to feel good for Sunday’s ½ Ironman.

I didn’t get any actual race photos this year, but to give you an idea, here are last year’s photos from this race.

After finishing, it was time to get back to the cabin to get some nutrition in and get ready for the second race of the day. I copped a car ride up the hill, as most of us left our bikes and crap in transition.

I immediately began sucking down Endurox R4, and then Mike made this awesome smoothie and offered me some, so I had some of that, a Twinkie, ½ a grilled chicken sandwich (leftover from Friday night’s meal), another serving of Endurox R4, and something else that I can’t remember. I think I dumped in about 1,200 calories, which was good. I was already beginning to feel tired (DUH!), and with all the rushing around, I finally got to the point of laying down in bed just to try and relax. Plus I was hypothermic, so I had put all these clothes on and needed to warm myself up. I knew I wasn’t going to sleep, but it helped to put the legs up for awhile. Others were in various stages of actually napping or trying to nap or eating or eating and sleeping at the same time!

I saw Ian drinking coffee, and someone had made a full pot, but I didn’t need any of that since I was using caffeinated Infinit and also various amounts of Coke or Ultra Violence.

The second race begins at 3:00PM, so when all is said and done, nobody has a whole lot of time in between races, and since your cardinal objective is to eat and relax a bit, the time passes quickly. So we piled in various vehicles and drove back down the hill to race again.

Race 3: Team Time Trial (Olympic distance—order is bike, swim, run)

By now, the weather is warming up rather nicely, and everyone who is on a team is getting excited because the second race is a team time trial. I had so much fun doing this with Cindy last year, and I knew it would be harder for me this time since I was solo and couldn’t draft off anyone or have a teammate by my side to jabber.

In transition, Ian asked me whether he should use his wetsuit. I admonished him to use it, letting him know that he probably would cramp up and appreciate the floatation. He wavered briefly, but then said he would probably use it.

The second race starts on the bike and then we swim and finally run. All the bikes line up (see last year’s photos here). It’s pretty fun getting in line with your bike, and there is a lot of excitement that builds up.

And then they start “releasing” us to go for a nice ride. As I began the small climb out of transition, I didn’t feel right. As we reached the first god awful climb (3 miles worth), I felt like complete and total shit. My legs just felt wrong. The voices in my head were telling me that I was done and would need to stop. I let them talk to me for a few seconds, and then I told them to shut the fuck up and pressed on. I think it took about an hour before I started feeling OK again. It was just one of those things. Part of the problem was that I was riding all by my lonesome, and watching all these teams kicking it going really fast drafting off one another. But where I was, there were a number of other solos, and whenever we’d go by one another, we offered encouragement. It is a completely different experience racing this thing solo, but since I had done so many NothingMan’s in training, I didn’t expect to feel alone, yet I did for awhile. My bad feeling may also have been related to the fact that I ate that chicken sandwich. Dumbass! I should know better than to put solid food, especially a big hunk of protein, in my stomach in between races. But it was tasty, and I felt like I needed the protein.

Even better, I had forgotten just how fucking hard the bike course is for race 3! We basically leave the park on the road that I drove in on, go 12 miles out and turn around. When I hit the first really big downhill, all I could think was, fuck, I have to ride back up this shit. And I did, but at least by now the weather was pleasant.

There were locals out in their yards while we were doing this and there was some comical shit going on. One man was having a yard sale and was on a chair in his front yard behind a table full of all sorts of glass. Apparently, he made a point to say something to every woman who rode by and also many men. I missed the guy waving a Confederate flag. I had a kid on a BMX try and race me briefly—that was fucking hilarious! He was a young little redneck boy that was just beginning to grow out his mullet! Considering the mental and physical state that I was in, I really didn’t know whether to try and talk to him, laugh at him or what! But he only rode next to me very briefly, and then he peeled off in a flashy maneuver, darting clear across the road.

When I was just about back in the park, after the nice downhill (thankfully, the very last climb had been marked on the road with the word GOLDEN in it, which I didn’t know what it meant), I could swear someone was calling my name. SHEILA…SHEILA…right in my left ear. I figured there was some cyclist behind me, but when I looked back, nobody. A few seconds later, same thing. I was freaking out. What the hell??? I figured it was something to do with the way the air flowed into my Catlike helmet and also the mental and physical condition I was in. Nothing like a little audio hallucination to make your race interesting.

All I know was I was glad to be finished with that ride. Look at the pretty picture:

I told you it was fucking hilly!

Now, I get back in transition and need to put my wetsuit on. Why? You should know by now. The water is fucking cold. The way to get your wetsuit on after you are all sweaty is to put plastic garbage bags over your feet and then it more or less slides right on. But you still have to deal with your nasty ass huge giant bulbous butt and squeeze it into the suit.

And then, gee, you are just so excited to go jump into the cold lake! It’s funny trying to “run” into the lake. I mean you do, and you can, and your body is thinking you are going for a nice run, but guess what? Nope. Swimming!

At least this time, the water didn’t feel too bad since we were all warmed up from the bike. But after you swim about 100 yards, you realize that—and I kid you not—the water is fucking cold.

I felt like I was swimming in mud, but I was shocked when I got out that I had actually swum faster than in the morning! How about that? I guess it paid off to do all that swim training and to swim after riding many times. Not only that, but it was an Olympic distance swim PR for me! I guess cold water ain’t so bad after all!

Nonetheless, I was happy to get out of that water and get to running. For the first time today, it would feel warm. As soon as I started out, I felt great! How about that! After feeling like complete and total crap while riding, feeling sorry for myself and hearing voices in my head, I felt awesome! I suppose the lift of a swim PR helped, but I think it was just part of the usual ups and downs of an Ironman-type experience. This is part of the beauty of Triple T—you get to go through all the same ups and downs as in an Ironman, only MORE!!! And you get to do it 2 days in a row!

Even though I felt like crap while riding, I had been careful to limit my watts again, and this set me up to run decently. I think I ended up running the same split as for the morning race, which was good. I felt happy and strong and my quads weren’t in too bad shape yet.

I finished with a huge smile on my face, and now it was time to get down to the business of eating again. I spotted Mike and Dave in transition and asked them for a ride up the hill, and they said they needed to drop their bikes and then they would come down and get me. I walked part way out of the transition area, and they came and got me and it was all good.

By this time, you are about ready to just throw your bike into any other mode of transportation, but I still love LGL, so I was careful with her. We were all endorphined up at this point, and I think it was non-stop chatter driving back to our cabin.

You know how chatty you get after just one triathlon? Well, we are 3 down, 1 to go here, and between the caffeine I (and others) had consumed and the endorphins and the company and the fact that there is nothing else to do but race, eat, sleep, get up and do it again, there’s a ton of energy flying around, and Saturday night was no exception.

The boys were already getting busy fixing dinner, and so I had the luxury of just talking with everyone and having a great time. There was also preparation for Sunday’s race. Since I had fixed all my bottles on Friday, I got to watch everyone making theirs. I am easily entertained!

Once again, the boys came through with an outstanding meal—a shrimp stir-fry over jasmine rice, another salad even bigger than the day before and with more ingredients (fruit, vegetables, sprouts, you name it), only tonight it was more important to eat than drink, so we each only had a few beers. We debated on whether or not we should use the hot tub tonight, which was funny considering we were drinking beer! A few of us dipped in just to warm up and kid ourselves that we were relaxing.

With everyone fed and somewhat prepared for Sunday, we had to decide on wake-up time. I suggested we not get up any earlier than Saturday, even though the race technically started ½ hour earlier (7:00AM). By now, if you haven’t got your routine down, you’re pretty much fucked, so we were all good with 5:00AM again.

I think I snuck out of the living room and into bed first. I was pretty tired, and when my body tells me it’s time to sleep, IT’S TIME TO SLEEP! I passed out blissfully again, aided by my home pillow.

There were a couple of times when I woke up totally sweaty. This happens to me regularly when I’m in hard training, and in the past I’d attributed it to hormones. But someone told me that when your body is pushing glycogen into your muscles that it’s a very exothermic activity and that it’s common for athletes to have night sweats. So now I know that this is just my body doing its thing, turning all that lovely food into stored energy for the next day’s outing!

Sunday, May 25

In a shocking development, I was awakened BY MY ALARM CLOCK on Sunday morning! It’s rare, indeed, that I need it to wake up, but I needed every last minute of sleep, so I was laughing when I heard mine go off, followed a minute or so later (my clock is just a few minutes fast) by other alarms going off in the cabin. Oh well, WAKE THE FUCK UP!

I had forgotten (or been too tired) to set the coffee pot, but Dave was kind enough to get that going, although he reminded me that I had shirked my ONE DUTY for the cabin :) Sorry, Dave, I was just so tired last night I completely forgot!

And then the cabin sprung into pre-race activity. I put some Metallica on, and Ian commented, “If Metallica doesn’t get us going, I don’t know what will!” There was a lot of bottle action, a lot of eating, a lot of lubrication (of bodies and bikes), and a little bit of fear in the air. I knew exactly how I’d feel by now, and I wasn’t disappointed in the least. It was SHOWTIME!

Some of the campers drove down with their bikes. I rode down the big hill for the last time, and it was fucking cold again! I was shivering and wondering how the hell was I going to put my face into that cold lake again?

Race 4: Half Ironman Team Time Trial

Getting down into transition on Sunday morning is a buzz. Nobody is in any great hurry, and thankfully, the Race Director is very understanding. So while we were allegedly starting at 7:00AM, at that point I’d say maybe half the field was actually almost ready to go. The atmosphere is so relaxed, as we all know how nuts we are to be doing this and that it’s going to hurt.

Finally, close to 7:30AM, most of us are at water’s edge. Once again, I tried to cheer in everyone I knew with a lower number than me. Whereas for the other races, athletes ran and dove into the water, on Sunday morning, many of us pretty much waltz into the lake like we are going for a walk (see last year’s pictures here). There is just no pressure.

Up until this year, there were “regular” people racing in Sunday’s ½ Ironman, but not this time. Instead, HFP Racing added about 100 entries to Triple T, and so it was the same crowd as for the prior 2 days. Last year, I remember being in the water and some ultra fast people zipping by me, and they were the “regular” people. This year, it was just us fishies in the water, but I think I managed to pass a bunch of people either on their first or second laps. Even though my arms felt like lead weights, apparently I was moving at a respectable pace. Either last year’s courses were extra long, or I am in better shape this year, because I swam really well for me.

The air was really cold again (we could see our breath on shore), and getting out I had the same dread of getting on my bike. People were really taking their time today to put on jackets, arm warmers, gloves, etc., but me, I was being all hardcore and didn’t put on any of that stuff. I figured in the end it wouldn’t make a difference, because we were all chilled from the lake and wet, and no amount of clothing would change it. Plus, it was expected to warm up nicely, so I didn’t want to be stuck with too much on. Again, though, I should have not worn my singlet in the swim.

Well, it was fucking cold getting out on the bike course, as we started with a slight downhill in the shady woods. Teeth were chattering, hands were frozen to the point where I couldn’t put them on the hoods because the metal was too cold, and I couldn’t feel my toes. Perfect! I realized I needed to get some nutrition in me, but first we needed to go up Boy Scout Road or whatever the fuck it’s called. It’s a pretty climb through the woods. At one part, someone had painted on the road HTFU RICK, and as I rode over it, I shouted to nobody in particular, “HARDEN THE FUCK UP!” I guess nobody appreciated it, because I didn’t hear any laughter. It was funny that after the race, several of us were talking about HTFU WHO, and Ian and I remembered it was Rick, but a few other people had some other name in mind. Here’s to you, Rick!

Somewhere into that Boy Scout climb, I heard a guy behind me yell, “Hey, Crackhead!” I kept grinding away and asked how he knew it was me. I think Cindy was next to him and said it must be because he recognized my ass :) The guy said he recognized my face, and then I said, “Yeah, but you’re behind me so what were you looking at?” And then he laughs and says how normally he feels pretty good about his training but that sometimes then he looks at my blog and feels like a slacker. I took that as a compliment, and told him that it’s just the way I roll.

Once that climb was finished and I was about 30 minutes in, I decided I had to drink, and I was not confident in my ability to grab a bottle and continue maneuvering my bike with my frozen hands, so I stopped briefly to get some bottle action. Every person who rode by me asked if I was OK, and that is part of the spirit of Triple T. You just want to be sure everyone is OK. I’m pretty sure all I was able to respond to them at that point was some sort of mumbled statement about bottles, since my face was still frozen. I don’t really remember. But I noticed that it wasn’t so cold just standing there without creating your own wind!

Thankfully, the air did begin warming up, and then it got really fun. Sunday’s bike course is so beautiful, it’s just stunning. I want to ride it sometime without being in a stinking race! The countryside is beautiful, we had beautiful weather, it was just perfect!

But I had to be mindful of my nutrition. At almost exactly 1 hour in when I was finishing up my first bottle (I carried two on the bike and had two more back in transition for the second loop), there was a convenient blue plastic garbage can by a house, and all I could think of was BOTTLE TOSS!!! I threw the empty, hit the side and in it went! I pumped a fist in the air and shouted really loudly, “SCORE!!!” and hoped someone else saw and/or heard me. I was just so pleased with myself for nailing the shot. I find it amazing the things that keep me entertained while riding.

Now I knew I had maybe ½ hour to finish up the first loop, and the scenery never disappointed, and I had so much fun on the downhills I could have just exploded! I know I had this huge grin on my face, because I’d done this last year, and it was just as fun and pretty, and I was getting all comfortable descending really fast on LGL, so every downhill just became progressively more fun. And I think I was passing people on tri bikes on the downhills.

In one area of the woods, a guy rode up on me and I was a bit surprised. He told me he missed a turn and got off course for a little bit, and that he went by a house with loose dogs and got chased! One of the nice things is that on the actual bike course, every dog I saw was either chained up or behind a fence. But this poor guy had to do dog sprints! Those suck, especially if you’re on your third day of triathlons, you know? Anyway, he was in good spirits, and I told him to look on the bright side—he wasn’t going to get gypped out of his 56 miles of riding! The Race Director had said it was 55 something, so this guy would easily top 56 (my computer said it was 57.488 miles without any lostness)! He looked super fit, so I knew he’d make up a lot of time, especially since we had finished most of the big climbs on the loop.

Just like last year, and several times earlier this weekend, as we approached the road sign for Town of Nile, I was thinking “Town of Denial.” Also, it signals the last climb before you head downhill towards transition. I rolled in, and there was a volunteer at the bike bottle table with a pink shirt, and I shouted at her, “Pink girl—PINK GIRL—MY BOTTLES ARE RIGHT THERE!” She grabbed one bottle, and I shook my head and said, “NO MINE SAY CRACKHEAD!” And then she located them and asked me if I wanted to dump out my remaining bottle from loop 1, and I said no, give me a second I need to chug it down, and I did, tossed her the empty and she handed me the two fresh bottles, I caged them up and got on my way.

I saw a lot of athletes just hanging around in transition, but I wanted to git ‘er done at this point so I just headed back out. On loop 1, I was extra cheesy on the Boy Scout Road, knowing that it would feel harder the second time around. And it did, but not by too much. Once again, when I saw HTFU RICK on the road, I shouted to nobody in particular, “HARDEN THE FUCK UP!!” Once you finish that climb, the rest of the loop isn’t too bad, and you can just enjoy the scenery and get things done.

The weather was extremely pleasant by now, and I was quite comfortable in my relative lack of clothing. The Infinit was going down well, and at one point I decided I wanted the fun size Pay Day candy bar, and it tasted totally yummy, although whenever I eat anything while riding (including gel) my nose runs non-stop, which is highly annoying if you are trying to chew something. At one point, I had the urge to pee on LGL, because I’ve never done that, but I decided I wasn’t ready to desecrate her like that yet, and stopped to pee instead. One time I just backed up against a guardrail and didn’t care if anyone saw me. I didn’t need to take down my panties—I just squatted down and peed through them. No big deal—it’s all water anyway.

The second loop was just as fun as the first loop, and nearing Town of Denial, I was glad it was going to be over, because now I’d be doing my final workout of the weekend, and I hoped it would be fun. Here's what the bike course was like:

Getting off LGL in transition, I could now tell my legs were a little beat up. But it felt good to put on running shoes, as my feet had really taken a beating on the bike. Since I live in flatland, subjecting myself suddenly to all this climbing is stressful to the old feet.

It was very sunny out now, and I smiled as I put on my race belt with streamers, the Fuel Belt all loaded up with Ultra Violence, and headed out to run.

Even though my quads were complaining a bit, I didn’t feel that bad. My stomach was feeling great, and I was even a bit hungry, which is exactly how I like to feel at the start of a triathlon run. I began taking tiny running steps, knowing I would start climbing that hill very soon.

It’s very hard for most MOP athletes like me to “run” the whole run on Sunday, so I expected to need to walk. But when you’re going uphill here, it’s almost like a fast hike anyway, so again, I invoked the “rule of 100” and went for 100 running/fast hiking steps as I made my way up. I took water at the aid stations to supplement the Ultra Violence and was feeling really good as I hit the turnaround on the first lap.

Then I wondered how my legs would feel going downhill. Well, not great, but not bad. Rule of downhill applies—no walking downhill! You have to be careful on this course, though, as it’s quite rocky, and if you’re not careful you can do a header. Ian said he saw a giant snake at one point and managed to leap over it! I saw some guys jumping some washouts, and I marveled at the fact that their hamstrings were able to do that. If I had tried that maneuver, I would pull something for sure!

This year, unlike last year, I wasn’t dreading the fact that I had to go all the way down and then go back up again. Honestly, I was feeling really good. By now I had worked out all the being alone stuff, and it was feeling more like an Ironman marathon to me, and I love that. I didn’t even need to sing songs or anything to entertain myself—I just ran and smiled, ran and smiled, ran and smiled! Of course, I also encouraged any other athlete I saw, and it came back to me as well. There were a few times when I just gave a thumbs up or some other gesture—but we all understand that—we are all tired and just getting it done.

On the way back down, I was sure I was going to be passing people—I may have on the last time up, too, but I wasn’t paying attention. But now I was ready to make time on some people who maybe hadn’t paced properly, or it was their first time or whatever, but I was all good to go! And I did pass maybe 10 people and I was literally on a roll!

There were a few times during this run that some random athlete would yell at me, “I love your blog!” And I would not know who it was, but would say thanks and we would both continue on our way. I guess they recognized the streamers from a blog post or two :) There were also several people from the Slowtwitch forum who recognized me and we did our best to chat as quickly as we could and encourage one another.

When I saw the Mile 6 marker for the second time, as much as I wanted a short walk break, I decided, nope, we are running all the way in, and I started getting a little choked up and told myself to save it for the finish. There were a million times throughout the weekend where I thought about Dad and how brave he was to tell the doctors to stop treating him so he could die last fall, and I knew that whatever I was experiencing was nothing compared to that, so I was able to stave off the emotional blowout.

When I crossed the finish line, they took my chip and then I bent over and let it out. I was thinking about Dad and the effort I had just put in and I was simultaneously sad and incredibly happy. I wiped my own tears away and walked over to the food area.

If you think there are a lot of endorphins running around on Saturday afternoon, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Sunday tops that easily! I got some water, and there was no pizza left, so I took a plate of salad because I had to have something. I was chewing and talking and laughing and feeling good and already thinking about next year, and wondering why the fuck am I eating salad???

After making my way through that area, I went to my transition area and began packing up. I was feeling pretty good for my effort on the day and for the weekend, and it occurred to me that I might be the oldest female competitor! I wasn’t sure, but I knew I needed to go to the awards ceremony, as I had expected there to be hardware waiting for several of my cabin mates.

Ian, the fastest one, came down with his car, and me, Dave and Mike jammed our bikes in there. Mike and I got to ride up the hill hanging our feet off the tailgate. It was really fun, and of course we were talking the whole way. The boys told me they were going to leave tonight, which was fine, so we just gathered up stuff to head to the awards ceremony.

Thankfully, they had fresh pizza there, and I was yelling at Ian (third place overall), Rob and Julie (first place coed team again) as they collected their hardware, and I had already seen on the printed results that I was, indeed, the oldest woman, and so I was going to get one, too! They all stayed to cheer for me and then it was time to say goodbye to the Canadian boys. They had a long drive ahead, and I wished them safe driving, thanked them and congratulated them.

Rob, Julie and I headed back to the cabin, as they also needed to pack up and get going. I talked with them while they got their car loaded. Rob made Julie rinse off her saddle, since she had peed on it during the race and Rob didn’t want to smell it driving home :)

This left me alone for awhile until Cindy and I decided to go get some dinner. We drove to Portsmouth to Buffalo Wild Wings, ate, drank, laughed, and then it was time to shut down for the day and get some sleep.

I ended up waking up at 5AM and decided to get the hell out of Dodge before the Memorial Day weekend traffic, and it was a good move. I was on the road at 6:10AM, and while I was totally tired, I had my trusty caffeine friends at the ready. I ended up only stopping twice to pee, and I made it home in record time—6:20 for 400 miles door to door. Now, I was never the fastest car on the road, but there were times when everyone was highly exceeding the speed limit, so what’s a girl to do? I was so happy the ride was uneventful.

When I got home, as much as I needed sleep, I was now wired from the caffeine, so in order to keep my fans happy, I uploaded all my pictures to Flickr and called some friends to tell them how I had done. There was no cell phone service while at Triple T, which is fine, as it just adds to the theme of the weekend being about nothing other than racing.

I’m starting to recover, as I’ve got to get ready for Ironman Lake Placid! I’ve reserved a cabin for next year already (sadly, the hot tubs were already taken), and I think Rob and Julie are brave enough to repeat staying with a Crackhead! I don’t know about the Canadians—Ian is moving clear across the world to Vancouver, and I haven’t heard from Mike and Dave. I’m pretty sure Cindy is in for next year. There are many repeaters at Triple T.

I want to thank Ian, Mike and Dave for all the cooking and cleaning up they did and also their company, Rob and Julie who were wonderful company and who also helped out in various ways, and Cindy who while on a team of her own, was right there with me.

Thanks for reading!