Waterloo Fit City Triathlon--8/12/12

Not wanting my season to end quite yet, I pondered the list of upcoming races that fell on an open weekend and wouldn't use up my entire birthday earnings or require a drive longer than an hour.  Options were few, but Waterloo popped up.  At first I dismissed it because it had a pool swim, and my bias labeled it "not a real triathlon".  The entry fee (half of most others) changed my mind.  

Then I got sucked into the vortex of Past Results--analyzing past winners' times and comparing them to my own.  I noticed tiny age groups (six or seven, maybe?), coupled with race times that suggested most racers were newbies.  I started to wonder again...hardware?  I wondered and wondered and wondered quite a bit, actually.  Because in a tiny race with casual first-timers, I can actually do well.

Race morning.  We drive to Waterloo High and park in the adjacent lot, walking past the bouncy house to the empty registration table about 30 yards from the van.  Man, I love small races.

Time to set up Transition.  You know, that grassy field about ten feet away from the pool.  Hmmm...where do I rack?  Only eight or ten bars, so finding Wave 3 wasn't too difficult.

Scoping out the pool scene.  Wave One was the slowest swimmers so we had some time to relax and watch the proceedings.  So often I find myself at a race surrounded by athletes who clearly spend large chunks (if not all) of their free time training, recovering, tapering, gear-tending...I'm sometimes one of them.  This race's participants are the Average Joe's, just trying their hand at something new to say "Hey, I did a triathlon".  It was neat to see.

My lobster has never gotten a photo of my swim before.  Here's the first.

The bike route was very mild--no sharp turns, no serious hills, no wind, no sun.  The most noticeable difference was a result of the staggered wave starts; I biked alone almost entirely, passing and being passed only a few times.  I clocked the fastest bike split ever, in a race and possibly even in training.  The girls had a good time too, on the Elementary School's playground.

In the end I pulled off 2nd in my AG.  

(I guess not everyone was an Average Joe.)

Then we modeled for each other.

My lobster liked athletic supporting this race because it was small, quiet, friendly and close.  I liked it for feeling like a big fish in a small, quiet, friendly pond.  Perhaps we'll be back again next year.

Wisconsin Triterium Triathlon--6/30/12

I signed up for this one a week or so in advance, drawn by the small size (only seven in my AG last year!  Hardware, maybe?), and only slightly daunted by the bike route's sell (On the Ironman Madison route!  That means hills.  Steep and frequent ones.).

Waiting in line to body mark and set up transition...scoping out the competition.  Looks like a lot more than seven in my AG.  Hardware, unlikely.

The announcement is made...water temp is 80 degrees.  That's like bath water, folks.  Ditched the wetsuit.

Hmm...I need to pee.  Can I find a spot in this lake or do I have to trek all the way up to the port-a-potty line?

I think we can all tell which option I chose.

Of course the girls want to be part of the action.  Crocs (the shoes, not the reptiles) are by law a horrible fashion statement, but they do serve one function:  facilitation of wading in lakes.

While mama's off swimming and biking, the girls found something much more interesting.

I'm back!  And to make up for a smooth-as-butter shoeless mount, I biffed the dismount.  I only got my foot out of one shoe before hitting the dismount line.  I unclipped the other shoe, whipped it off, and threw it to my athletic supporters.  I looked like a royal idiot.

Coming in for the finish, arms out like a chicken, ready for this one to be done.  The hills on the bike and run were overshadowed by the threat of extremely hot temperatures.  Luckily the clouds lingered enough to keep it in the 80s until ten minutes before my finish.

FINISH TIMES


1/3 mi. swim--9:26
T1--2:10
11 mi. bike--38:25
T2--1:04
5K run--29:06
TOTAL--1:20:09
6/17 in AG


With the bug returned and firmly planted, I decided this was not to be my last tri of the season.  Next up:  Waterloo Tri--pool swim!

Capital View Triathlon--6/10/12

I have several ways I mentally approach an upcoming race--usually it's "PR would be great", sometimes "Do better than last year", maybe even "Get through it" or "Don't fall down".  I allowed myself for this one to be sucked into a new and quite dangerous thought--"I have an outside chance of pulling off some AG hardware here."

It all started when I was shopping around for races this season.  Proximity to home and participant number prompted a closer look at Cap View.  I checked out the results from last year.  Hm.  Not a very big AG.  That bodes well for me.  I look closer.  Hey, I could pull off 2nd or 3rd place with my bike time.  My run time would fit around 4th place.  Swim?  Who knows.  But my transitions are okay.  And so it began.  I trained in earnest with the goal/miracle wish of getting in the Top Three.

We arrived that morning bright and early.  The girls wanted nothing more than to frolic.  Way too much energy for bright and early.

I took one look at Transition and started to adjust my goal.  With a T area this large, how on earth could I place in the Top 3?  There's a lot more people here than I thought.  *Sigh*

No matter.  The weather and my spirits were good as I prepped for what I imagined to be a fairly quick and perfectly lovely race.

The wetsuit doesn't fit as well as it did two years ago.

With my wave starting over an hour after transition closed, we had plenty of time for sunscreen all around.

Finally, time to get the party started.  The swim was a very shallow rectangle--dolphin dives all the way out and back.  I kept my standards low from not being in a pool (or a lake) in ten months.  Luckily it turned out to be a FOP (Front Of the Pack) swim finish.  More importantly I still know how to swim.

Onto the bike.  I had practiced to near perfection the shoeless mount and here was my chance to show it off.  My goodness, feet are much stickier when they're wet.  Slow start.

And wow...these hills are steeper than I thought.  I envisioned similar grades to the ones I practice on, maybe a bit steeper but also shorter.  "Yes" to the steeper, "Doesn't feel like it" to the shorter, and to top it all off a fair number of the downhills ended in a 90 degree turn on the road, thereby requiring brakes and losing the full effect of the downhill.  Frustrated.  The MPH average I was hoping for on the bike--the one I can pull off in training rides--didn't come.  Still FOP, barely.

Off to run.  The first half was compacted dirt trails with tiny but steep up- and downhills in (mostly) shade.  Tolerable.  Second half:  It's getting much warmer now, and the novelty of the trail has worn off.  All grass, glaring sun.  No. Way. I will pull off a run split to write home about.  Thankfully (but not in a heartless way) the others are suffering too.

In the end I'm in 6th place for the AG out of 20.  No hardware, but a good start to the season.  Next up:  WI Triterium.

Devil's Lake Triathlon--9/18/11

You wouldn't know it from reading here, but I've done Devil's Lake twice.  The first was in 2010, the Fall after the girls had arrived.  Training had dwindled to one or two short workouts per week and sleep was still in fits and starts.  But I'd signed up for it long ago and damned if I would DNS.  So we spent the night before with friends Nancy and Superstar Chris, whom I believe rolled out of bed that morning, registered for the race and finished in half the time.  Good thing he's a nice guy or I'd be really jealous.  

My abysmal performance in this race wasn't all my fault.  The course is a challenge.  That lake was super hilly.  Or so I tell everyone.

The reason there are no other triathletes in sight in this photo is because I am most likely dead last.

Onto the bike.  No kidding, this leg actually does kick one's ass.  I had prepared for this.  (And by "prepared", I mean mentally.  I mapped out the bike course online to view the grade of hills.  It's the closest I could get.)  But it wasn't enough.  Two or three times I did the unspeakable:  I dismounted and walked up parts of the hill.  The end result was a second-to-last-in-my-division bike time and an embarrassing MPH-average barely in double digits.  I think my athletic supporters had assumed I got lost out there.

The run was redeeming, but only slightly.  I maintained a pace I could live with, but unfortunately so did everyone else.  End result:  17th in my AG.  Out of nineteen.  But I finished, dammit.  I never got around to writing the post however; it fell by the wayside along with my training.

The next year I was back, ready to reclaim some pride.  I knew what to expect this time and was relieved that it was literally impossible to do worse than 2010.  We began the day with a contender for the website "Awkward Family Photos".

Is that me, with an actual smile and a wave as I dash to T1?

T1 time was lengthened to add a layer--it was a chilly drizzly day--but not enough to offset the bike ride nominated for Most Improved.  Not once did I dismount, already a bonus.  Better mental strength and more experienced strategy resulted in shaving a full 15 minutes off the bike split.

And this run meant more than just "do better than last year".  For a few years I've wanted to break 9' miles in a race and this run course provided the best opportunity to get it.  I gave it everything.  My face here shows it:

The run was nearly a 3 1/2 minute improvement and clocked in at 8:37 per mile.  

I'll take it.

I'm not planning on Devil's Lake in 2012.  I wouldn't want to push my luck.  I'll just let this one sit for a while and bask in the glory.