Race Report: Stanford Treeathlon

Pre-Race:
The week before the triathlon, Stanford posted that there would be no race day packet pick up – the only packet pick up time would be Friday evening from 4pm to 10pm. This was not good news. I emailed the race director to double-check, but he said race day only and you had to be there in person to sign a waiver. Since I had to work on Friday, by the time I would get home and drive down to Stanford, it would be at least 8pm, so it made no sense to turn around and go home and then wake up super early the next morning to get back down there, so Kyle and I decided to just get a hotel. Even though we had to drop an extra $100, it was worth it not to have to drive down there twice and to be able to be close to the race site in the morning -- or so I thought! When we picked up my actual chip in the morning, it sure looked like it would have been ok to pick up my packet on race day... grr.

Though I was sad that Kyle decided not to do this one, it was awesome having him there to help carry my gear and get set up. My swim wave wasn’t scheduled to start until 8:20 but the transition area was closing at 7:15 so we had to get there early anyway. The transition area was a total disappointment. First, anyone could go in and out, which didn’t make me feel great about leaving all my gear. Second, there weren’t nearly enough racks. Third, there was no organization to the area. So when we arrived, the racks were totally packed and we had to hunt to find a place for me to squeeze in (and there were still more athletes arriving).

It was pretty cold outside for a triathlon, but lucky for me I had Kyle there so I was able to keep my warm clothes on and wait to put on my wetsuit until just before my start. It was about a half mile walk from the transition area to swim start so most people had to ditch their warm clothes a lot earlier. We spent at least 30 minutes in line for the porta-potty which there were not nearly enough of and then arrived at the start about 15 minutes before my wave. Changed into my gear and headed toward the water.


Swim: 500m in the Bay
The swim started in the water, which I’ve never done before – I’ve only done the run from the beach start. I was glad though because the water was FREEZING and it was good to get in and do our best to get used to it before starting. I got in a couple minutes before the start, swam around a bit, did some bobs to get my face and head wet and then aggressive treading water to try to stay warm.


The swim started on one end of the slough and finished on the other, which was nice because there was only one buoy to watch for to turn. Compared to sighting for buoys in the choppy ocean, this was piece of cake. I started near the front of the group hoping not to have to fight with other swimmers but there were a lot of people around me in the first 250. I was diligent with sighting though and the whole pack veered off too far from the buoy, so I was alone for a little while but was swimming the straightest and shortest path to the buoy. By the time we got around it, the pack had started to thin out and I was able to swim hard. The only thing that I remember thinking during the swim was that it felt like I had my face in a snowbank. I really couldn't feel anything except for my freezing face. I couldn't even feel if my arms were getting tired.

The end of the swim was a buoy on a dock that was probably a foot and a half higher than the water. By the time my wave came along, they had figured out that it was hard for people to get out of the water, so they started pulling people up. When I got to the end I just reached up and two people pulled me out onto my feet.


Swim split: 11:32 (includes the long run to transition, too)
Swim rank: 20/84 women overall, 15/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29

T1:
The swim out was about 400m from the transition area and the ground was mostly rock and gravel, so they had laid out a strip of carpeting to run along. As I was running, I had a hard time grabbing the zipper pull for my wetsuit, I had to try 3 or 4 times before I finally got it, probably because my hands were so cold. I was feeling good because I couldn’t see too many women in front of me, but then when I got to the transition area, it hit me – I had no idea where my gear was.

In the chaos of finding a spot to squeeze into, I had completely forgotten to look for a landmark of some sort to find it again later. I was used to racks that were organized in some way that made it easy for me to find (age groups, letters, numbers, something!). I ran down the racks to the middle-ish area and ran back and forth for probably 30 seconds (which felt like an eternity) before I could find it. So, big lesson learned there – know where your stuff is! Other than that, the transition went pretty well.

Transition time: 2:18

Bike: 20K, 3 lollipop loops, flat
Coming out of the transition area, I knew there were probably women that came out of the water behind me but left ahead of me because of my blunder and I didn’t see them again on the bike course. As I’ve posted before, the bike is my weakest link, but I’ve been working on it, so I decided to just try not to let anyone in my age group pass me. The course was stupid and boring. We did 3 loops in an industrial park, it was all flat, and there were several sharp turns you had to slow down for. I did feel stronger on the bike that I have in the past and I think only one person from my age group passed me right at the end.


Bike split: 38:35 (~19 mph)
Bike rank: 20/84 women overall, 15/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29

T2:
I was nervous coming off the bike because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to find my spot in the transition area again. I had a better idea than the last transition but still had to run back and forth a bit to find it. Had a tough time getting my bike back on the rack because it was so crowded, but the rest of the transition went well.

Transition time: 1:24

Run: 5K, asphalt path, flat
The run route was almost as stupid and boring as the bike route. It was basically a little loop on one end of the industrial park followed by an out and back on the other end of the park. The woman who passed me coming into the transition area must have taken longer than me there, because she passed me again about a half mile into the run. I tried to hang onto her for a while, but she was really going for it. With about a mile to go, just after the turnaround, a girl in black passed to me and I decided to hang on to her.

With 400m left, I was doing pretty well and was about to kick into another gear to try to catch her. The asphalt path was raised a probably an inch or two above the ground on either side of it and there were a couple areas where it would shift slightly to go around a fire hydrant or utility box. As I came around one of these, I must have cut the edge too short or something and I stepped off the path and did a total face plant on the asphalt. This was not a stumble, stumble, tuck and roll fall. No, this was a flat out skidding face plant, right in front of 2 guys handing out water. No stranger to falling while running though, I jumped right back up and started running again, but catching the girl in black was no longer a possibility. Alas, I finished strong and with humility.


Run split: 23:50 (7:40 mile pace)
Run rank: 20/84 women overall, 17/33 women 34 and under wave, 6/13 women 25-29

Post-race:
Kyle was at the finish and we went over to the first aid people so that I could get cleaned up. One guy guessed that I took a fall on my bike. Nope, I was running. They thought that was pretty funny.


Overall, it was great to get a triathlon in as a kick off to the season and it fit well with my training and was good for motivation. I managed to hold people off on the bike and hold my 20th place rank the whole race. It's hard to compare swim and bike times to the other triathlons that I've done, but I cut about 1:20 off my 5K triathlon time for run, so I am improving! As for the course and set up though, I wouldn’t do this one again. Big thanks to Kyle for being my assistant and photographer, but he'll be joining me as a racer in the next one, yay!

Total time: 1:17:41
Final rank: 20/84 women overall, 14/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29