I was really nervous for this race. Really nervous. I’m not sure why I was so nervous, I guess the added length was scaring me and I wasn’t sure how I’d come out of the race. Kyle captured it:
Kyle and I stayed a hotel in Gilroy the night before so that we wouldn’t have to wake up at 3:30 to get t o Morgan Hill, which is about an hour and a half drive. So in the morning, we were only a 20-minute drive from the race site.
I should preface my report with my expectations that this race was going to be super well organized because the race web site basically said so. This company does lots of races and so I expected they would have everything down to a science. Not so much.
Got to the race site and there wasn’t actually parking, everyone was just parking along the road. Luckily Kyle brought his bike too so we were able to get my bike all ready and then ride down to the course. The racks were unassigned, which I hate, and unmarked, which I hate more. We asked where packet pick up was and it was on the other side of the site so I decided I better grab some space on the rack. People who get there first always totally spread out their stuff initially, so I had to approach some people, and ask, “Do you think there’s space for one more here?” to which they all give you a pissed off look and then slide over a little bit. (And it’s not like I was late, I bet only half the racers were there at that point.)
Headed over to get in line to pick up my packet and the line was pretty long. Stood in it for a few minutes with Kyle and it was literally not moving. So I left Kyle with my ID and USAT card and went back to the transition area to set up. Came back 10 minutes later and Kyle had barely moved (and the line was now twice as long). I felt bad for people who didn’t have someone with them to hold their place in line while they set up. I think they actually delayed the start of the race a bit because of the packet pick up hold up. When I finally made it up there, it was just totally disorganized. It should have been a quick assembly line, but instead it was two people shouting orders to other people who were gathering everything, it was a mess.
Finally back to the transition area to finish setting up and I realize there’s no number for my bike or helmet so I start looking around and half the bikes have numbers and half don’t. I asked a girl near me what the deal was and she’s like, “Yeah, they don’t have bike numbers for a bunch of people so if you didn’t get one then you’re supposed to wear your race belt with your running number on the bike ride. If you don’t and they see you, they’ll pull you over to check your chip in the middle of the bike race.” My response, “There’s absolutely no way I’ll remember my race belt in T1.”
On to getting body marked – approached where it looked like it was happening, and turned out there was just a box of skinny sharpies and people were just marking each other. Nice. So some people ended up not getting marked at all and lots of people didn’t have their age on their leg which sucks when you’re trying to figure out who to beat. After all that, there wasn’t much time before the start so just headed down to the water.
Swim: 3/4 mile in the UVAS Reservoir
In was an in-water start which I’m not a huge fan of but it was probably good since the reservoir bottom was pretty mucky. The water wasn’t too cold – or at least it was cold compared to the last two swims in the Bay. It was pretty gross though, I think I prefer chlorine or salt water to water that tastes like dirt. I started in the middle of the pack and then cut a bit to the outside so that I had room to swim. I thought there was a decent sized pack that got out way in front of me and by 300-400 meters in, I was swimming all alone.
The swim went around a peninsula which was nice because there were really three straight sections and just turns to make so it was easier to get into a real swim stroke. The second straight away was the longest and when I got around the corner, I could see quite a few swimmers way further out than they needed to be. I was still swimming alone but I just kept as straight of a line toward the buoy as I could and was stunned that these other swimmers were so far off course. I think they must have swam at least 30 yards more than me.
When I came around the last straightaway there was another girl with me who was clearly a great swimmer. We were swimming the same speed but I think she was taking half as many strokes as me. She definitely gave me motivation to really go at the end and we came out of the water together. Overall, I really enjoyed the swim. It felt as long as I thought it would, but in a good way instead of a bad way. The length and the lack of waves gave me a chance to actually swim a solid stroke like in the pool instead of just fighting to make forward motion and not drown.
Swim split: 22:40
Swim rank: 4/16 women 25-29
T1:
The exit from the water was up a concrete boat launch that had traction ridges and that really hurt. I heard Kyle ringing the cowbell on my way up the ramp, and started getting my wetsuit off while I was running. I didn’t struggle with it at all which was great. Also great were the purple socks on the end of my rack to identify it. Best news, I had the fastest transition of my age group, yay!
Transition time: 1:23
Bike: 16 mile rolly loop
Is there any remedy for slippery shorts on the bike seat? That always bugs me until my shorts dry. The ride was a great loop in the countryside. It was full of good rolling hills and when I remembered to look around a bit, it was beautiful. My bike computer thankfully started working about a half mile in after I swore at it a bunch. For the first few miles I cruised around 20-21 mph, then slowed to around 18. I drank lots of Gatorade and water because I knew I needed to prepare for a long hot run. Oh, have I not mentioned that yet? The forecast for the day was to hit 100 by midday. I think it was already 80 or so when we started at 7:15. So I was conscious of hydrating. A few minutes into the ride I realized I didn’t have my race belt, but I figured I still had body markings so hopefully they wouldn’t pull me over (and they didn’t).
At the beginning of the ride I was pretty much alone then about 5 miles in the super fast people from the waves after me start passing me, some really awesome women from the 35-39 wave and then men from a later wave too. Lots of people with the aero wheels that make the WHOOT WHOOT sound. I decided to cruise along at a comfortable pace until after the “steep hill a half mile long at mile 11” that was noted on the course description. Here and there I’d try to keep up with the fast people passing me, but I was mostly concerned with not letting girls in my age group pass me. And it’s always fun to pass slower guys from the waves in front of me. There were some fun downhills, but they usually ended at turns so you’d have to slow down at the bottom. They had volunteers before the turns trying to get us to slow down, but they’d just yell and you fly by them so you can’t catch what they’re saying, so I just started to assume if I saw volunteers, there was probably a sharp turn coming.
When I was approaching the hill at mile 11, I had just been passed by a pack of 6 or 7 fast people. They hit the hill and it killed them and suddenly I was keeping up with them, it was like the hill was the great equalizer. The best part (for me, not the guy) was this guy on a totally stripped down aero bike who was barely making forward motion, his poor wheels were just going whhhoot….whhhoot….. whhhhhoot. About halfway up I passed him YEAH! I don’t care if it was because he probably only had one huge gear, I still passed a dude with an aero bike and that’s awesome. I also don’t care that once we hit the top of the hill, he and his buddies were gone in the blink of an eye.
The hill was super tough, but I told myself to bike hard once it was over and use up all my biking energy. It was right around mile 14 when two things happened: 1. My legs were done and 2. It became hot outside. Most of the ride the heat hadn’t really kicked in, but around mile 14 was probably when it went over 90 degrees and made an impact. I was trying to go, but couldn’t get over 17-18 mph. I just pushed it out as long as I could. I was glad though that I experienced really burning out on the bike because in the past I hadn’t been sure that I was giving it all I could. When I hit the transition, I was just really excited to run and finish.
Bike split: 53:52 (17.8mph)
Bike rank: 10/16 women 25-29
T2:
Pulled into the transition area, ran for the rack with the purple socks, grabbed one quick last drink of water before running out. Second fastest transition time in my wave, holla.
Transition time: 1:13
Run: 5 miles out and back
Run was an out and back along the road. As I mentioned it was now getting hot, really hot. Luckily, the one thing these race organizers did right was have awesome aid stations every mile. I had a Gu just before Mile 1 and took water to drink or pour down my back at each station. My plan was to trudge out getting to the turn around and then focus on picking it up for the last 2.5. The first mile felt like hell of course, I was pretty sure I was running about 20 minute miles, but I was catching some people so it wasn’t that bad. I came through the first mile in 8:45, which I thought was kinda slow, but then I hit mile two in 6:59 - clearly the mile markers were off, so I didn’t give much attention to my splits after that. Since it was out and back, I could start counting women and I figured I was in the top 20 or so of my wave. The run had a few little hills but was mostly flat.
When I made the turnaround I focused on trying to reel people in and got quite a few guys from the back of the waves before me. The best part about the run was that Kyle was on his bike, so he’d pull up, talk to me for a minute and then bike ahead about a mile to take pictures. So I had that to look forward to, and of course I tried to run faster when he was taking pictures, and I even smiled.
The run actually went by a lot faster than I thought it would. Just before the finish, you had to turn and run over this piece of plywood over a ditch and then it was less than 50m to the finish line, but the turn and narrow plywood meant you had to slow down, which was actually kind of great because when I turned the corner I had to slow down a little and that gave me just enough rest to crank out a good sprint to the finish.
Run split: 39:29 (7:54 pace)
Run rank: 5/16 women 25-29
Post-race:
The web site for the race made a big deal about the post race party saying that there would be all sorts of food but there were only bagels and then a little later a bunch of pizzas delivered. Yeah, after a triathlon when it’s nearing 100 degrees, I’m totally craving pizza. Not. The Web site said "free catered food which includes chicken and fresh pasta salad, fresh fruit, hot bagels with shmear, fresh spring water, recovery drinks, beer and more." Humph. There was supposed to be a good raffle, but it wasn’t going to start for at least another hour and it was so hot out, we decided to skip it.
Overall I was happy with my race. I figured it would take me about 2 hours and it did. Now when I do my next race, an Olympic distance, I won’t be so nervous and can try to go a little harder. The HIM is getting closer and closer…
Total time: 1:58:40
Final rank: 4th out of 16 women 25-29, 17th out of women 34 and under, 57th woman overall - yeah, you read that right, women 35+ kicked butt.
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