Greenswell Triathlon

My training buddy Tom moved to town outside of Columbus Ohio a few months ago, so I decided to register for a triathlon near him as a good excuse to make the 3.5 hour drive to visit.  I registered for an 'International Distance' (.9 mile swim, 24.4 mile bike, 8K run) Triathlon in mid July because the date fit into my busy summer schedule.  The race wasn't until Sunday morning, but Tyler and I made a last minute decision to head up Friday after work in order to check out this cool event in Downtown Columbus  called WaterFire .  We met my friend Tom at WaterFire, and had a great time chatting, listening to the band, and watching the bonfires on the Scioto River.  After that, we followed Tom to his new house, where we were greeted by his sweet dog, Luna.  

Saturday morning we slept in (til 8am!) then got some breakfast at Bob Evans and headed to Alum Creek State Park where Tom competed in an Aquathon that morning (and where my Tri was Sunday morning).  Once we saw Tom had his race under control (he won by several minuets), Tyler and I headed out on our bikes to do one lap of the bike course of my race.  Whenever possible, it's a good idea to bike or drive a race course before the actual race, so you know where to turn and what to expect of the course as far as hills or technical aspects.  This particular bike course turned out to be easy in every way- flat except for one gradual hill, and only three right turns. 

 

After that, we went back to Toms to shower, then went to a music and art festival in Toms town.  When we got home, Toms wife Sylvia was home from work so we all went out to dinner at Olive Garden (their 2 for $25 special is an awesome deal, by the way!)  We went back to Tom & Sylvia's house and hung out for a few more hours until 10pm bedtime. 

Sunday morning came, and it was time to get my game face on.  As I'd predicted, I wasn't really feeling like racing, though.  I went into this race with a weird feeling.  Since I had done a small taper for the Bluegrass 10K, which was 11 days prior, I didn’t want to keep resting after the BG 10K (because my ‘A’ race isn’t until the end of September).   So, the week between the two races, I kept my mileage up to what it was before tapering for the BG 10K, but didn’t do any real intense training.  I went into this race with the mindset that I was ‘training through it.’  I thought that, even with that mindset, I’d be able to still mentally and physically give it my all on race day.  I’d never actually ‘trained through’ a race before, and I discovered last weekend that is really difficult for me to do.  Unless I feel like my body is 100% ready to race, I can’t get my mind to that state of being 100% ready to race.  None the less, I tried to go into the race with the best attitude I could, and see how it all played out on race day.  It turned out to be a really good thing I was just ‘training through’ this race, however, because there were multiple circumstances beyond my control during the race which would have been extremely frustrating, had this been a serious race for me.

Pre-race went as usual, with body marking and transition set up (although, this time I felt much more organized and less stressed than usual).  I had a few minutes before the start of the race to swim a bit to warm up, so that was nice (not all races let you warm up in the water before the start).  I lined up with the other females doing the International Distance Triathlon (there was also a sprint distance, which started a few minutes later).  The race director counted us down, sounded the horn, and we took off, sprinting and splashing our way through the water until it became deep enough to dive down and start swimming.  As soon as I put my head under water, my goggles filled up with water, so I treaded water for a couple seconds while I adjusted them, and resumed swimming. I was shocked at how fast some of the other women were!  I didn’t start off in a sprint, rather just swam comfortably, but even at that, I assumed I’d be ahead of everyone else.  Not the case.  I was actually swimming against several good swimmers, for once! I found myself wondering if they actually trained swimming more than once every month or so, and stated feeling bad about my lack of effort when it comes to swim training. By the end of the two-lap, one mile long swim, however, I ended up passing all but one of the women who took off ahead of me at the start. 

 

About half way through the first lap of the swim, I realized I’d lost my timing chip, which I knew was properly secured around my ankle before the start of the race!  Loosing a timing chip during the swim is something I, and I imagine many triathletes, fear before the start of each race, but, that I know of, doesn’t happen very often.  I broke stroke a few times and reached down to make sure my timing chip was gone, and sure enough, it was.  Upon realizing this, I had a couple thoughts going through my head the rest of the swim (still about ¾ of a mile to go).  “Was my time for the race even going to count?” and “Was I going to have to pay for the lost timing chip?”  I decided that I’d still race my race, and get my swim, bike, and run splits on my own, and then pay attention to my overall time when I crossed the finish line.  I'd tell the race timer my splits and finish time at the end of the race.  I wasn’t sure they would allow the ‘honor system’ to count as an official result, but that’s all I could hope for.  As far as having to pay for the timing chip, I thought about how I’d tell the race director “This is not my first rodeo, and I’ve never had a timing chip fall off.  Therefore, it’s the fault of the Velcro on my timing chip strap, not mine, so I’m not paying you for that chip.”  

By the time I reached the end of lap one, to begin the second lap of the swim, several subsequent waves of racers had been released, so the second lap was very crowded and consisted of a lot of swimming into and around people. I finished my second lap and exited the water, ran to the transition area, and had a pretty smooth transition to the bike (other than clipping my shoes onto my pedals once I was on the bike, which took forever for some reason).  The bike course was two laps, and was flat other than one gradual, approximately half-mile-long uphill.  I thought I would really enjoy and be good at a flat course, but that didn't turn out to be the case!  Although I don’t consider myself strong at uphills, I know I’m typically faster than most of my competition at downhills, and there was not a single downhill on the course. I was bored.  Not having my timing chip on the bike really messed with me mentally.  I was still struggling with the fact that my time may not count at all, and every time I passed someone, or was passed, I imagined they were staring at my ankles, wondering where my timing chip was, and thinking I was banditing  the race (doing a race without paying for it).  I realized at some point that I wasn’t even breathing hard.  Usually I am huffing and puffing during the entire bike leg, but I just couldn’t get my mind in the right place to push myself.  Generally I go too hard on the bike, and then suffer on the run, so I decided that maybe my lack of hard effort wasn’t a bad thing, and that I’d be more fresh on the run.  With about 6 miles to go on the bike, I dropped one of my two water bottles while trying to put it back in the holder.  The water bottle was old and had only cost a dollar, so I just left it.    As I coasted into the bike dismount area, I saw Tyler and Tom.  I told them “I lost my timing chip!” and they replied “We noticed as you got out of the swim, and we told the race director.”  That gave me a little relief as I made my way to my transition area.  As I racked my bike, I noticed my timing chip was wrapped around the bike rack!  I had no clue how it got there, but I put it on, changed my shoes, and grabbed my watch, visor, and race bib and ran out of transition.  I found out after the race that my timing chip fell off as I ran in the water before it was deep enough to start swimming,so it floated and washed up on shore.  

 My friend Tom offered to do the 8k run with me to pace me/ provide moral support.  As soon as we started, he asked what my goal pace was.  I replied "I have no goal pace on this crappy grass and gravel course."  If the course would have been on road, I would have had a goal pace of sub 8 minute miles in mind, but I don't expect much out of myself on grass and gravel, as I'm so clumsy and just hope to finish with some sort of decent time, without falling.  I really appreciated having Tom there with me though.  He was so encouraging the entire time, and I felt like I didn't have to do any of the thinking.  He was my brain, and I was my eyes, legs, and feet.  He'd tell me when we were gaining on someone in front of us (I was looking at the ground the entire time), and if it was a female, he'd figure out about how many seconds in front of us they were.  Tom asked me if I wanted water as we approached each aid station, and he'd run ahead and grab the water for me.  The aid stations weren't manned by volunteers, so he saved me a lot of time by filling up my cup for me and catching back up to hand it to me while I kept running.  As we approached the turn-around, we saw a couple females heading the opposite direction.  Tom told me that I could catch them, to which my response was "I don't think I can catch them."  He replied "You don't know that, they could be awesome swimmers and cyclists, and crappy runners." Of course, the first thought that came to my mind was "I'm a crappy runner!" but I'm pretty proud of myself for refraining from saying that out loud.  I've only recently been working on this whole 'not arguing with people when they give me a compliment or tell me that I can do something athletically, when the negative thoughts in my head tell me they are full of it.' 

After the turn-around, we were running against the wind, so Tom offered to run in front of me to block my headwind.  He was so thoughtful about everything, I couldn't have asked for a better portable support crew during the run!  Not too long after the turn--around, I DID pass one of the girls Tom told me I could catch!  The other girl was still a ways up ahead though, and I didn't know that I had it in me on that grass to pick up the pace to pass her.  As it was, at the pace I was going I had trouble every once in awhile with my ankles giving out and almost falling.  If we were on road, I have no doubt in my mind that I could have kicked it into high gear and passed the woman ahead of me who Tom kept encouraging and bribing me to pass.  We were gaining on her; she was getting slower every mile, and I was staying steady or getting faster each mile.  A portion of the course was on loose, large pebble gravel  Tom had just offered up a bribe of buying me German sausage and a large beer if I passed this girl, when the moment I feared most came: I tripped on something along the gravel path, and supermanned the ground.  Some swear words came out of my mouth, then I got up, looked back to see if anyone else saw, and kept running.  I told Tom that I really didn't care about the girl in front of me anymore, and to just keep looking back and let me know if there were any females approaching me.  After about a tenth of a mile, I realized my GPS watch had fallen off (the band broke on impact) when I fell, and Tom said 'I have it.' He had noticed and picked it up for me.  I'm not sure exactly how much more I ran after the fall to get to the finish line since my watch turned off when I fell, but I wasn't in pain yet because I still had adrenalin flowing through me. 

After I crossed the finish line, I looked down at my knee, and it was bleeding quite a bit.  Tyler and Tom searched for First Aid, but there was none!  What kind of a race director does not have First Aid at a triathlon?!? One of the men serving post-race food had a First Aid kit in his truck, and got that for me.  I used a couple cleansing clothes and some alcohol wipes (which burned!) to clean it up a bit. 

So there it is, the most eventful race I've done to date.  I lost my timing chip during the swim, my water bottle during the bike, and some skin and pride during the run.  I had lost my motivation to race long before the horn sounded at the start, though, so I was able to take all my loses in stride. I ended up 4th Female Overall (mere seconds off of 3rd place), and 1st in my Age Group if you subtract the Overall Winners. 

Thanks again to my support crew: Tyler and Tom, and to Tom's wife Sylvia for letting Tyler and I stay in her home!  All-in-all I had a fantastic weekend, and I may forever have a scar to remember it by :). 

I've already emailed the race director of the next triathlon I've registered for (Olympic Distance on August 11th in Boonville Indiana) to make sure there is no grass, and definitely no gravel on that race course.  He assures me there is only a small patch of grass to run on to get back on the asphalt path.  Hopefully my next race report will be much less eventful!