This was not just my “A” race of the year, it was my last one and the only triathlon I signed up for this year. I had done two half marathons, a 24 hour relay trail run, an almost century (we were cut off at mile 77 due to “significant weather”), but no triathlons. We decided to focus this year instead on spending long weekends at our seasonal campsite in Connecticut, which is also where I spent the bulk of my long training days the three months prior to Pilgrimman. It was invaluable training because its much hillier than the area where we live, which is very hilly to begin with.
The Wednesday before Race Day we drove to Connecticut to spend the night in our RV and on Thursday we packed it up with the minimal things we knew we’d need at the campground we’d be staying at through the Monday after Race Day. Things like chairs and our dog food and beer cooler. The really important stuff. We then moved the RV and dug a moat to show our campground host where we wanted the gravel to be laid in our absence and drove the roughly 1.5 hours to the Pinewoods Lodge Campground in Plymouth. Pinewoods is shady in the lots of trees kind of way, making it a great get-away from the blazing summer sun, but its noisy as hell most days. If it wasn’t for the karaoke parties, local airport flyovers and shooting range, it would be great. Instead, it was great only when those things weren’t happening, which was reliably between 8:30pm and 7:00am. After getting all set up, which took about an hour, we agreed to spend the rest of the day and night chilling in front of the fire pit.
The Thursday before Race Day I had an open water swim on my schedule, which I originally planned to do in the lake at Pinewoods, but upon discovering on our morning kayak trip how thickly it was populated with hydrilla, I decided to embrace my cautious side. I even polled one of my triathlon clubs on whether they would swim in this stuff. While the responses weren’t unanimous, I was met with a lot of comments to the effect of “nope,” “noppity,” “no way.” The condition of that lake made me nervous about the condition of the race lake, but I tried to think positive and was grateful for maybe the first time that I’m an average swimmer. Let the elites and fast age group swimmers clear the way for those of us in the middle to back of the packers.
The Friday before Race Day was rainy, so we ended up just hanging out at the camper reading and working and talking and drinking. Lou cooked each of us a giant steak for dinner. It was so big we had to have our sides (baked potatoes and corn-on-the-cobb) on separate plates. Lou was able to eat his entire steak, but I saved a quarter of mine for another time.
The Day before Race Day I was to do a short swim (10)/bike (30)/run (10) brick to shake out my arms, legs and nerves. As mentioned on Thursday, I was too chicken to swim in the campground lake, so skipped the swim. Lou accompanied me on a leisurely bike ride through a cranberry bog and 55+ community then explored Pinewoods while I continued on with a short run. Upon returning to the camper I double checked my race day checklist to make sure I had correctly packed everything I needed so that I could buy missing items while we were in town to pick up my race packet. I prefer to pick up my packet the day before the race because the lines are shorter, I can sleep a little longer on race morning and its one less thing to stress about. This was by far the fastest packet pick up I had ever experienced. Ever. It literally took less than five minutes. No one else was there when I arrived. I got my envelop, selected a hat over a kerchief (although I thought we were getting tees?) and was back out the door before Lou could find a place to park. Because they were a small gym they didn’t have the Honey Stinger items I needed so we stopped at the Marathon Sports which sponsored the marathon I did a few years ago. Turns out, the store manager lives in our home town! He gave us his contact information in case we wanted to go trail running with him. When we got back to the campground I assembled everything I would need for the next morning into my bag and put it into the car. Lou meanwhile cooked up my traditional pre-race dinner: wheat pasta with bland marinara sauce, shrimp and scallops. No veggies!! They disturb my stomach on race day. One glass of wine only. Lou and Moja had no trouble falling asleep. I, on the other hand, spent far too much time going over my course notes and getting up to fetch the water bowl for my old lady lab. According to my Fitbit data, however, I miraculously managed to get over 5 hours of sleep.
Race Day started at 5:00am. Lou made us coffee and pumped up my tires while I got dressed and made my peanut butter and fig jam sandwich. The venue was about 25 minutes from the campground and I like to arrive at least an hour before transition is scheduled to close. We knew that parking was going to be an issue because, well, there’s no actual parking AT the venue. We all had to park along the road leading up to and around the venue and then walk our equipment to the race site. Fortunately the race was small. There were less than 100 half ironman competitors and a couple hundred doing the Olympic and Sprint distances. After I got body marked I took my stuff into transition, got everything laid out, ate a banana, finished my NUUN, went to the bathroom (flushing toilets!) two more times, and visualized the swim, bike and run transitions. I also finally got to meet a fellow triathlete who is using the same trainer as me. We snapped a picture together for him.
Swim (0:51:37; Nutrition: 1 Honey Stinger gel pre-entry). I had learned the day before that I was going to be in wave 2 with all the other half ironman females and that the Olympic distance elites would start half an hour later. This made me nervous because I knew the elites would catch up to and possibly swim over me, especially because we had to get out of the water three times to run across the beach back to the starting line before swimming another .3 miles for a total of 1.2 miles. The water was going to get pretty crowded after that with the slower HIM, and all the Olys and Sprints swimming in circles all at the same time. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as I feared. My foot was grabbed only once but no one swam over me. At one point I was sandwiched between two fast swimmers who were neck-and-neck. I was disappointed with my time as I had anticipated a 45 minute swim, but failed to account for the lag caused by running on the beach.
T1 (0:03:16 PR; Nutrition: 1 Honey Stinger Waffle): I had some trouble stripping off my wetsuit. Time for a new one. I was surprised to learn later than this was my fastest T1 ever.
Bike (3:15:15; Nutrition: 1/4 Cliff or Bonk Bar every 15 minutes; Hydration: 2 bottles NUUN): The bike course is described as “rolling hills.” Its not the hardest course I’ve ever biked, but having to ride the course four times was a bit tedious and for the first time ever I struggled with calf cramps in my left leg. It may have been the compression socks. I rolled it down and stretched every chance I got on a descent and eventually it went away and I was able to pull my sock back up. It also got very lonely on my last loop. It also had zero porta-potties. It also was not spectator friendly. It also had a tight turn-around. It was not my favorite course ever. I did well with staying hydrated and fueled, but was a little hungry starting out on my run. In future races I’ll allow myself one additional quarter cliff bar at the top of every hour and one bottle of NUUN every hour.
T2 (0:02:25 PR; Nutrition: 1 Honey Stinger Gel): This was my fastest T2 ever by about half. I just grabbed everything I needed and ran, putting it where it needed to go as I ran out.
Run (2:45:06; Nutrition: 1 Shot Block every two miles; Hydration: Water at every stop followed by a gulp of NUUN): This was my second slowest run after IM 70.3 Austin, when my plantar faciitis was almost at its worst. As with the bike, it was a four loop course. It was almost as tedious as the bike course, but made better because I got to see other athletes multiple times. Also as with the bike course, there were no porta-potties and no spectators except at the transition turn-around. They did have three water stations, which I utilized every single time. It was humid as muck out there that day so I grabbed two waters each time: one to drink and one to pour on my head and down my shirt and pants. I ended up walking more than I planned, but always at a race-walk pace. I saw a few people out right walking as though they were strolling through a park just bird watching. That’s OK, too, but that wasn’t my goal. I had a good time joking with other athletes and made a few laugh and a few groan when I kept holding up my Fitbit arm and declaring that I had met my daily goal.
Summary (planned: 7:10:35; completed 6:57:38):
I was so happy on the return of that last lap because I knew that even though my run fell apart and I was hurting, my husband and youngest daughter and her boyfriend were going to be cheering for me at the finish line. It felt so good to run under the banner, to hear them call my name and then tell me that I finished third in my age group. We all walked over to the race tent to collect my award and then took podium pictures. Too bad the 1st and 2nd place winners came in so far ahead of me that they left before I finished. It still felt good that I was one of only three people in my age group who felt she could do this distance. If I do end up doing this race again in the next few years I’m a sure shot for #1. There were NO competitors in that age group. I could walk the entire way and still come in first, which is what happened to the woman who finished after me this year.
Race Pros: Packet-pickup was easy and quick; the venue was pretty; the lake relatively clean; the beach wide; the race is small; the post-race burgers were delicious.
Race Cons: No porta-potties on the bike or run course; parking was a hassle; not spectator friendly; FOUR loops of everything; the water stations were abandoned while there were still people on the run course (but at least they left the water and gels); the bike course was not closed. The worst con is that its incredible easy to cheat this course. With four loops of everything and no way to track splits the less honest athletes could ditch the final loop of any one of them. I don’t know for sure if this happened on the swim or the bike, but I personally witnessed two people do this on the run. I knew they cheated because they finished their bike leg after me, never passed me on the run, TOLD me they had two more loops to do, but then I never saw them again. Naughty, naughty, naughty!
Post Race: By the time I finished hamming for my fan base it started to rain. Lou went to pick up the Jeep (so I wouldn’t have to walk further than necessary) while Jess, Jeff and me went to the food tent to stay dry and grab a burger. One of the reasons I love to race is because I can then eat things like burgers and an occasional order of onion rings without feeling guilty about doing so. On the way to dropping Jess and Jeff off at their car I wolfed down the veggie burger, a bag of fries, another NUUN, and two shots of tequila. The tequila being my post race tradition since my very first race. I’m telling you truthfully. The agave nector is efficacious against enteric (intestinal) bacteria you might have picked up during the swim and acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. Winner, winner, chicken-dinner! As soon as we got back to the campground I showered the nasty smells off my body, put my race clothes into a hermetically sealed bag (I wish), put the bag outside where it could do no harm, and put my legs up. Lou brought me a glass of proseco to enjoy while he prepared our post-race dinner. Burgers. Twice in one day. Lou’s version was beef with portabello mushrooms and feta cheese with a side of sweet potato fries. Truly amazing, but strangely I was unable to eat more than one. In past years I either napped or went to bed early. I broke tradition this year by doing neither. My mind couldn’t stop racing even though the race was over. I wasn’t so much fixated on the race which just happened, but on what my next goal is going to be. Pre-race I was sure I wanted to sign up for a full Ironman next year, but now I’m not so sure. Its a lot of time and money to devote to an endeavor which has no discernible benefit other than to satisfy my own desire to know whether I have it in me. Lou supports me. The kids support me. Heck! Even the dogs support me. I’m making no rash decisions during the next few months. I’ll spend some time working on my book, chores I neglected while training, building up my strength, and upcoming travels with Lou. Then I’ll decide which endurance goal I’m going to pursue next.