After the award ceremony, notice the bling

After the toil and turmoil that was my last race I was leery to sign up for anything else for a while. Then along came this multistage, spaced out through the day, less than a sprint tri race (10 km bike, 400 meter swim, 5 km run). Hmmm maybe I should do it. Okay I’ll sign up.

The order of this race is a bit kooky since they have a town festival going the same day. The bike is first so the roads can be cleared of riders before the normal, sane people are out of bed. It was a bit chilly so I kept my team jacket on. They started the riders off in two waves, the first wave was the group that was doing the longer version of the race called the Man of Steel (30km bike, 800 m swim and a 10 km run) the kind of irritating thing is that they did not adjust the time of the second wave by the 2 minutes or so that we waited to begin. As you see I am getting a bit competitive, no timing chips in this local fun race. Mark reminded me that all of my direct competition was at the same time disadvantage. The bike went really, really  well. I was able to surge ahead and keep up with some teenager types. I felt good and I knew it was only a 10 km ride, hilly though, and I had promised Mark that I would leave it all out on the course. According to my watch I did the 10 km in 19:34. Really happy since there is a pretty skookum hill in the middle of it.

Next came the swim. But first is the waiting around, as the events are separated by many hours. I knew that several of the ladies in my category were much stronger swimmers than me (wink Taryn, Bryn) so I just had to try my best. The challenge with most short distance events for me is that I need a fair amount of time to warm up and then I do well. 400 meter swim I can do that without drowning, sure. I got in and warmed up for a couple of lengths  and then started swimming. I felt like what my coach has described as the “crazy dog” too fast of stroke turn over, gasping breaths, and getting nowhere fast. My “turns” were terrible, did I mention this part was in the pool? I probably wasted 30-60 seconds with my turns. Oh well I got it finished and I wasn’t the slowest, not that I am competitive or anything.

After the swim I had a pretty good chance of getting a top 3 place, there were 8 participants in this category. I am ashamed to say that I googled the other lady who was close to my time to see what her 5 km run time was like. Again, competitive much? She had a fairly similar time to mine so it would just depend on how the run went.

My lovely friend Heather ran along with me in the run, I know pacing is wrong but you can’t have your medal back. Besides she said that was close to a PB for her on that course too. About half way through the race we had the dark horse behind us at a safe distance. From then we just booked it and tried to get the fastest time we could get. I was very pleased with the time and I definitely think that I left it all out there on the course. Time 29:08 I believe. Sub 30 min on  this hot and hilly course at the end of the day made me very happy.

my ever supportive family

My finish time was 58:23 sub 1 hour. With this time I was able to secure first place, something I have never seen before. Over the moon!!!! My hilarious friend Bryn came a close second with 44 seconds separating up. She totally killed the run knocking almost 10 min of her previous time. I gotta watch out for her.

with Mike who won his age group

I have to remind myself on those hard training days with the gang that are all more experience, lighter, stronger… that all my hard work with them pays off in spades when I bring my fitness level back to my peer group and as my coach said “crush the field”. he he he . That might be a bit braggy sounding for me but my new competitive self really likes the sound of it.

I have some great news about my latest 5 km race to share with you next time.

Cheers

Betty

cycling, running, swimming, triathlon cycling, running, swimming, triathlon

The Before shot

I have been a naughty, naughty poster. I promise to make up for it with a fascinating post about my recent adventures in triathlon.

May 16th does that sound like a good time of year to go swimming in a lake, in CANADA? Well whether it is rational or not early in the morning on that chilly spring day I embarked upon my very first Olympic distance triathlon. The event is the Wine Capital of Canada Triathlon which is an Olympic distance triathlon, 1500 m open water lake swim, 40 km bike ride, 10 km run.

I need to give myself a bit of a break as I go on to describe the ensuing trauma created by the swim, since I had never really worn a wetsuit, only practiced open water swimming once this year and the water was frigid. I experienced things in the swim I totally had not predicted and never thought would happen to me. I had at least 3 severe panic attacks. To me a panic attack involves rapid breathing, rapid heart rate and a feeling of impending doom. Check, check ,check. I wasn’t sure what was bothering me the most, the restrictive feeling of the brand new wetsuit, the cold water, the mob of people at the the mass start, or perhaps all of the above.

This experience was defining moment of mind over matter for me. I essentially floated on my back, breast-stroked, floundered and did the occasional back stroke. There were moments of bargaining when I was asking a higher power to let me go through labour and delivery with twins again rather than continue on with this madness. I considered stripping off my wetsuit, throwing it at the kayaker and trying to continue on, I was sure death from hypothermia would have been better than finishing this swim.

But… I did carry on. Pretty much the only thing that kept me going was the fact that my family and friends were there at the crack of dawn to cheer me on, and I am a very stubborn person who does’t like to disappoint people. As I rounded the turnaround bouy the Race Director Joe grabbed my hand and encouraged me on. Okay I can do this, back in the water I go. The second lap was pretty tough but somehow a bit better than the first. I do take a while to warm up as I have mentioned before.

Encouragement from Race Director Joe

As I finished the swim, not last, I don’t know how that was possible. Some poor souls dropped out due to the cold and panic attacks. I am glad I didn’t really know of the prevalence of panic attacks before I signed up for an early season race.

What are my feelings about this first race in the open water?

A lot to learn, to improve on, a lot of time to shed. I will get back on the horse that bucked me, because it didn’t kill me, I am stronger.

Stay tuned for the Bike portion of the race report.

family, fitness, goals, swimming, triathlon blogging, fitness, goals, swimming, triathlon

I am still alive. I completed an Olympic distance triathlon recently and I will post a big race summary soon.

Uncategorized running, swimming, triathlon