5430 Long Course

The week before the Long Course did not go as I had anticipated. I had been fighting a cold/cough for over 2 weeks but up until the Sunday before the race, it had just been annoying. A week before the race, I did my last long run of 70 minutes and posted my worst pace of the year and had a small vomiting incident around 5 miles. It was not boding well for racing.

I swam on Monday and Tuesday, and did a bike ride Tuesday evening. I only ran 30 minutes on Wednesday and at least it was better than Sunday. And then my low point was Thursday morning at 2:10am. I awoke in the middle of the night with excruciating neck pain. I can only guess that in one of my coughing fits, I gave myself whiplash. As I lay on the heating pad, I actually wondered what the process was to get a medical waiver. Would I need a physician's signature? I really did not know if I would be able race.

I spent Thursday trying to fix my neck. I had a chiropractor appointment with a friend's guy (mine, of course, was on vacation). Then I had a doctor's appointment and got some antibiotics ("If you've been sick for 3 weeks, it's probably a sinus infection"), a cortisone shot and 3 muscle relaxer pills. I was able to do an hour ride in the evening, though the thought of swimming still scared the crap out of me.

The kids had their triathlon on Saturday morning. As usual, super cute. Then me and some of the TriBabes did our last brick practice. We only rode 30 minutes and ran 10, it barely seemed worth the effort. It was nice to think that a 40 minute workout had become beneath notice.

Race day came and while I did not feel like I was at the pinnacle of fitness, I did feel ok. My neck was mostly better, as long as I did not look straight up and to the left. I thought I could manage not to do that during the race.

Even though I was in the last wave, I still had to have my bike racked by 6:15. I was there around 5:40 and got a nice spot on an aisle. My age group shared wave 10 with the 20-24 men and it was weird racking up next to a big guy.

The morning started out nice and cloudy, until right before the start of wave 9 when the sun broke through the clouds. Which was really frustrating because the longest leg of the swim course was right into the sun. I gave up trying to spot on a buoy and just followed the crowd. Luckily, I did not end up off course. My swim was just so-so. I've felt stronger before but I really did navigate ok and like usual, my swim ended up being my best sport compared to the rest of the racers.

When I got into transition, I noted that the guy I racked next to still hadn't gotten on his bike. My transition was short because despite waffling on this all summer, I decided not to change into bike shorts and just wore my (not padded) triathlon shorts. I figured I might as well race it as fast as I could.

The bike was, as usual, was where I felt the strongest. I had already rode the 28 mile loop 3 times the week before. I worked hard where it was hilly and chilled when it was downhill. We even lucked out with a bit of a tail wind up Foothills, which is slightly uphill and not the most scenic of the race anyway. My only mistake was thinking that just because I could eat solid food while training, I would be able to eat while racing. I only ate 3/4 of 2 cliff bars and 1 1/2 of 2 cliff shots. I was thinking there would be Hammer Gel every aid station, but at least 2 of the 4 did not have any. I did drink Gatorade most of the race. If I ever race a longer race, I would need to do the nutrion much better. I squeaked by this time, but I could see getting in trouble too.

The best part of the bike was that I made my goal of under 3 hours with a time of 2:57. And the guy that I racked next to had not put his bike back yet.



The run, as expected, was the hardest part of the race. For the first mile, my left foot hurt in a weird and new sort of way, but it sorted itself out as things unually do after a mile. For the run, I had a goal of running to the aid stations and walking though, thinking about it as a mile by mile race. My first mile was sub-10, way too fast but I soon leveled out. I walked the aid stations, taking water every time, sometimes gatorade too. A girl from last year told me she put ice in her hat and I did that too. My mile to mile race worked pretty well until mile 9, then I was just hot and tired and ready to be done. I ended up walking most of the hills (there weren't that many, maybe 4 per loop, for 2 loops). My hips and legs started getting sore and achy, but at least they were sore and achy in a normal sort of way and not an injury sort of way. I got my second wind about 300 yards from the finish line but at least I was able to run through the crowd with some energy.



And I tried for a good finishing picture, instead of my usual pose of checking my watch.



Post race with the Babes:



There were actully two others that raced, one so fast that she had gone home (she finished about an hour before me) and the other a bit slower and not yet done.

All and all, I was pretty happy with my race. Before I got sick, I made a goal that if I raced well, I could finish in 6:10. I finished in 6:13. The run was hard, but in an expected sort of way, not at all like my marathon of 9 years ago way. When I finished the marathon, I was so sore and dejected, I did not run again for 7 1/2 years. The week after this race, I swam some, walked a bit and then even ran a couple 5k. I would have biked too if I was not 2,000 miles away from home in Maryland. I was a bit sore for about 3 days after the race, but I think the recovery was pretty easy.

1.2 mile swim: 40:19
T1: 2:02
56 mile bike: 2:57:21 (average 18.9 mph)
T2: 3:16
13.1 mile run: 2:30:10 (average 11:28 miles)

Total: 6:13:06