Boulder Peak Triathlon

Boulder Peak - 1.5 km swim, 42 km bike, 10k run

Last year I had big plans for the Boulder Peak. When I did the race in 2000, my time was 3:05. Last year I had a goal of going under 3 hours and I bombed. To be fair, it was around the same time I got my iron tested and found out my ferritin was only 12. I fell apart on the run and as everybody (and I do mean EVERYBODY) passed me, all I could think was that maybe I could do a bit better when my body was healthier.

Fast forwarding to this year... I still wanted to go under 3 hours but I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself either. This is the last triathlon I plan on doing before Wisconsin and I wanted to feel good about it.

The Peak starts ungodly early - at 6:30. That meant I wanted to get there no later than 6 so I could have my transition set up before it closed at 6:20. I rode my bike out to Boulder Rez and it was a great warm-up, plus I felt vindicated when I passed the long line of cars on the Diagonal and 55th.

Liz and I before the race. Turns out wetsuit pictures are much more flattering from the neck up!



The swim went well. I followed the buoy line pretty well on the way out, but messed up the turn. Before we went out, we were told there were 2 yellow buoys. On was a 45 deg turn and one was more like 110 degree turn. Somehow I never saw the first yellow buoy so when I hit the second one I didn't turn sharp enough. I got all turned around and confused. I was in wave 4 so there were roughly 300 people in the lake... somewhere, but I was out by myself. I could see the shore and there were a couple of lost souls with me so I don't think I messed up too much. My swim time was 29 minutes - I knew I could go under 30 minutes, but my recent performances haven't been close. I had a big swell of relief when I looked at my watch getting out of the water - last year I was at 34 minutes and just thought, "Well, there goes under 3 hours." And I think I have a weird thing going on with triathlon swimming. I'm not fast enough to be in the lead pack of my wave, but I'm also faster than the average for my age group. So that leaves me between the two groups with no one to draft off of.

The bike went great. I have been feeling not as strong this year but I had a good race today. I couldn't believe how quickly 5 miles came up, then Olde Stage was Olde Stage. After getting up that accursed hill and getting past the 35 mph downhill speed zone, I got in my aero bars and hammered, in a smooth and controlled way. I passed a lot of women, mostly in the 30-34 age group that went off 10 minutes earlier (I think the women in my age group that bike faster than me also swim faster). And I got passed by a ton of men - all the men but the 65+ went after me, so there was a lot of passing to be done. I didn't pay much attention to my power meter or my time so I was surprised when I got home and saw that I took 4 minutes off my time from last year.



The run went really well. It's pretty discouraging to be running as well as I can (9:18 miles) and be getting passed by all the people running 6:00 miles (did I mention all those men folk that started behind me? Ok, plenty of women passed too.) But unlike last year, I actually passed 3 or 4 people. I managed to run smoothly on the way out and then speed up for the 5k back. Probably for my own good there were no mile markers on the way back so I stopped worrying about my mile splits and just ran. My final time: 57:39, my first triathlon 10k under an hour.





And my total triathlon time - 2:50:48. That's almost 18 minutes faster than last year and nearly 15 minutes faster than 2000. I'm powered by cow now!

And my favorite part of racing, hanging out with all my triathlon buddies. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture with Michelle - we've been riding and swimming a lot together this summer and she did great, 6th in our age group with a time of 2:30.

Lots of D3 teammates to look for on the course and cheer for and hang out with afterwards. My D3 friend Liz took 41 minutes off her time from last year!



Team D3 - PR's all around!