OK, I guess I can still call myself a triathlete

This is a little race report and a little random rambling.

I did the Bangs Lake Olympic yesterday. I knew I wasn't optimally prepared, probably worked too hard during my taper last week (3 hard brick workouts when I hadn't done any since January?), but my goal was to just do the race, enjoy it and see what kind of time I could do. On paper my goal was 2:57:14, but I actually did a bit better, 2:56:18. Still not a great time, but hey, it's an official Olympic PR for me (last time I did one was in 2000?).

I think the worst part was waking up at 3AM so I could drive an hour to get to the race venue to pick up my packet and set up. I haven't woken up that early in a year. Even with copious amounts of caffeine, I did not feel great. Oh well, everyone else woke up early to race, too.

I found some friends at the swim start (Kevin, Marla and Katie--only Kevin was racing), and so it was nice to do a bit of catching up. I walked over to the lake and stepped in--it felt quite comfortable and I was almost surprised it was cool enough for wetsuits. As I stood there in the water, I thought to myself, and said out loud to another athlete that my last open water swim was 10k. They asked me about that, and I told them just a little about Ultraman. It made me quite calm to think that I only needed to swim 1500 meters.

The swim start was uneventful--I was in the next to last wave (old ladies). The water seemed a bit warm, so it makes me wonder where they took the temperature, but I digress. The air temperature was awesome--maybe low 60's. The day's weather called for cool (high maybe 72), cloudy and some north winds.

The water was a bit choppy, nothing serious, and it was hard to sight due to swimming right into the sun, and there weren't many course buoys, and there was a current pushing me off course, so I probably lost some time doing that, but for the most part I just swam and tried to stay on course. The water was pretty murky, so a little over halfway through, I swam up on some guy who promptly kicked me in the face. I have a nice little shiner on my left eye. He apologized, and I probably lost a minute or two readjusting my goggles and getting my bearings, but it wasn't as bad of a kick to the face as the one I got at Ironman Brazil in 2006, so all good.

When I got out of the water, a girl from a few waves before me said, "You had a great swim!" I said, "No I didn't, I kinda sucked." I guess in relation to hers it was good, but I was a few minutes behind schedule. Oh well, time to get on the bike, my favorite part.

I took a little too long in transition because, well I wasn't winning any awards. But there was a long run to transition, too, so I just wanted to be methodical about transition. I didn't feel too cold, but was glad I'd worn a sleeveless bike jersey (from Ultraman) over my bra top. We headed northwest into some wind, but it wasn't bad at all. Maybe 10MPH is all? I cautioned myself to warm my legs up, and even going what I thought was easy (still no computer on the bike), I started passing people. This continued the whole time. As is typical of shorter, local races (but I've experienced in Ironman, too), there were a lot of riders who were oblivious to rules or pure common sense. The course wasn't closed, and while there were a few sections of road where the asphalt wasn't in good condition so you wanted to ride more towards the middle of the lane, there were plenty of places where the roads were just fine and people were riding far left. Near the end of the bike course, one guy was practically on top of a double yellow line, and I warned him to move right so I could pass. He started screaming that I should pass on the right, and I yelled back that this wasn't a closed course, but then I just kept riding. I thought that if he had any balls he'd pick up the pace and pass me, but that never happened. There were also a few times when I had to shake guys drafting off of me. I guess they forget it's illegal and figure that if there aren't draft marshals (there were none as far as I could tell), then draft away.

When I had finished my first lap I thought I was riding too fast to run decently and tried to settle down a bit on the second lap (45 seconds slower on second lap), but didn't really, I guess. I really enjoyed the bike course--plenty of gentle rollers (I wouldn't call it hilly) where you could keep speed going if you know how to ride. I only got passed by a few guys with disk wheels from the last wave. I should have gone with the disk, but I've been too lazy to mess with it. Oh well, I was quite happy riding about 21MPH for the bike leg.

I had an OK T2 and started running and didn't feel too bad but really wanted to start out holding back. Well, we started climbing soon enough, and I would characterize the run course as hilly! I sucked on the run, knowing I'd paid for my fun ride and just overall lack of run fitness. I knew I was running 10mpm (my goal was 9:41) and that was just that. At one point, someone behind me had read my jersey and asked, "Is that all one race?" That made me smile, and I said, yeah, Ultraman is one race over 3 days.

As it turns out, I was last in my age group. 2nd out of 2! Isn't that funny? It really hit home that I am old seeing only 2 in my age group. Wow. Maybe next year I can win it ;) I am pretty sure I can find 10 minutes if I'm trained up, which would be fine for me.

Did doing this race make me want to go longer? Maybe a 1/2 IM. I did enjoy being back in a race situation, and was happy to note that my swim fitness hasn't tanked that badly (I need to swim at least 10K/week to be strong), and my bike fitness is pretty good (especially for an old lady!). But my running is still off, but that's OK. As is typical, on the drive home I had visions of races dancing in my head, but given that I don't have any planned yet am thinking about riding 100 miles on Sunday, it made me wonder why I am going to do that and then a 200k the next week? Oh yeah, because I really like biking!

On the way to the pool this morning (a nice, cool morning for a walk), I began thinking why am I bothering to swim if I'm not training for anything? I had to remind myself that I do enjoy swimming, especially in the summer, and it seems to be good for me--otherwise I might just bike myself into the ground! I have to decide how much swimming I want to keep up. I really should get back up to about 10k/week, but even 9k would be good. My pool is going to close for 2 weeks starting this Sunday, and I have to decide whether I am going to (gasp!) drive to another pool to swim or not. I probably will, because the one I will go to (even though the daily fee is a rip-off) is a nice pool and has an awesome hot tub which will be a nice change of pace. So I will try and think of it as a "vacation" from my regular Y, and then when the Y opens (I told them to call me if they will let me in to swim once they have refilled the pool and it's ice cold before opening to general public), I can go back to enjoying my morning walks there (while missing the hot tub!).

So Saturday I got stung by something while out riding in my left forearm. The reaction seems to have increased today, not sure why. It reminded me I should start carrying my Epi Pen when riding. Typically my sting reaction gets worse each time I'm hit. Then yesterday I got kicked in the face in the swim, so this morning while swimming, I'm wondering what will be the third thing? And then it happened--some clueless woman swam right into me! Luckily it wasn't a bad collision--she just tapped me on the head while doing imitation backstroke. She said she didn't know the rules. I tried valiantly not to blow my stack too badly, and I think I succeeded in not throwing out any expletives other than "What the hell are you doing?" The rest of my swim I wanted to stop and tell her I hoped she doesn't have a driver's license. But I'm over it. So I got my 3 hits in a row. I hope I'm good for awhile!

I am really fortunate to have other triathlon friends who are younger than me because, well, there aren't many women my age doing this! I am enjoying my "recovery year" and am OK with having no plans at this time. I do know I need a real vacation, and that will be in the offing.