Race Report- Victoria 2008

It is Monday evening and I’m back in town after a fabulous trip up to Victoria this weekend. Pictures now up! Here is the scoop:

I spent most of Friday evening swigging Root Beer (yes, I know it was supposed to be Nuun) and getting my gear together for the trip. We took off for the ferry at 5 a.m. Saturday morning as planned, making a quick stop at a 24-hour Starbucks on our way up to Anacortes. The ferry ride was uneventful and I took about a 1.5 hour nap. We arrived well before packet pick-up opened and the mandatory race meeting started so decided to drive the bike course. I realized that it was more difficult than I had anticipated and adjusted my goal time to be a bit longer for that portion (thinking 3:30:00 would be great). There were some good climbs, tight turns and lots of open, windy road in between. The course looped around the beautiful Saanich peninsula (Victoria is at the base).

After driving the course, we headed over to Brentwood Bay to find some lunch. We settled on the Seahorses Cafe overlooking the water where I had incredible brie & baugette and Alden had yummy quiche. After a quick stop at the grocery store for some fresh essentials, it was then back to the race site. I went out for a quick spin on my bike to make sure it weathered the journey as Alden got ready to head out on a ride. He did two loops of the bike course (as I would race day) while I checked in, racked my bike and attended the mandatory pre-race meeting. Cory texted me good luck wishes which felt great. Alden and I met up again at the truck and headed to the hotel.

Our hotel was nondescript, tinier than expected (a bit of an issue when one of us is 6′4″), but we made it work. We ate sandwiches from home, made some chicken noodle soup and got everything ready for the next morning. After a pep talk from Molly, I was asleep by 9 with Alden following soon afterward. The real excitement came around 11:30 p.m. when I woke up with the beginnings of a screaming migraine. Nice timing, but not totally unexpected give how my sleep schedule was off (one of my triggers). Some Aleve calmed my head right down and I got back to sleep without any problems.

We were up at 4:30 a.m. and I ate while mixing Perpetuem and Recoverite. It was chilly as we headed out to the race site arriving around 5:15 a.m. We were early enough to secure a spot in the race parking lot which was nice. We grooved on some Linkin Park which somehow calmed my nerves. Then it was on to body marking and into transition. It was so chilly that I kept my hat and gloves on for the set-up. I was done in time plenty of time to pee and head back to the truck to transition out of my clothes and into my wetsuit. By this point, Alden had found a Hagens Berman teammate with whom he was chatting.

I headed down to the beach, hearing the announcer state that the water was a chilly 15 degrees celsuis and thanking my lucky stars I couldn’t remember how to do the conversion to fahrenheit. The men’s wave went off at 6:45 as planned- love the organization and on-timedness (fyi, this will be theme here). The Canadian military brought a Howitzer (putting that guy with a shotgun down at Lake Tahoe to shame) to announce the beginning of the race- ka boom! I went in a few minutes after the men took off. The water didn’t seem too terribly cold. Now, with the power of the internet at my fingertips, I did the conversion and it was 59 degrees. I didn’t warm up which is normal for me. I stood around and chatted until we heard that it was almost time…

Swim: My wave went off at 6:59 a.m. by my watch. There were some fast swimmers out there and I stuck with a good sized pack through most of the race. The neck of my wetsuit began to rub in a not-so-good way and I felt it before I made the halfway turn. I’d bodyglided, but wondered if I’d done it up high enough or if the velcro was on a bit crooked and was rubbing… I decided to let it go and deal with the effects later rather than try to fix it mid-swim. I thought of Molly, avoided the shipping lanes and just stayed long and strong. We only began to catch the slower men right at the end and I clamored up on the beach with a bunch of other folks. Fast swimming for us all!

Swim time: 30:34
HR average: 155

T1: T1 was fairly uneventful. I dropped my googles on the way into transition and it seemed like it took me an eternity to get out of my wetsuit. My bike was racked differently (hung by the seat rather than the handlebars), but I adjusted well and got out in good (maybe even record) time.

T1 time: 2:10

Bike: I got out strong on the bike and found my rhythm. Remembered Jen and Meg as I settled in. The first lap I took extra precaution about where I was downshifting and paid a lot of attention to the course.

Now, triathletes generally have some pretty sweet rides, but this race seemed to have an overabundance of such bikes. Almost everyone who passed me had a bike that rivaled or surpassed my Scott Plasma in its pedigree. I did get to bond with another Plasma owner and felt like Scott and I had a good time on our debut duet of racing. Beautiful stuff! However, that helped me to realize how much more comfortable most folks are descending and cornering than I am, especially in the aero position. Something on which to work for sure. This was also my first race wearing a heart rate monitor and I noticed than my hr was way high on the bike throughout (see average below). I’m not quite sure what to do with this. Cheryl, thoughts?

There were great spectators and amazing race support out on the course. Fans were plentiful as well. One guy had his floor pump next to his lawn chair with a sign that said Free Air! Another woman had crazy pompoms and a kazoo. I heard some great words of encouragement I’d never heard before. For example, in the middle of one long uphill a guy look at me and said: “This hill’s got nothing on you.” Right on!

Alden rode out to the passby spot for the second loop (it was a lollipop course with about 2k on the stick). I didn’t recognize him behind the telephoto lens and sporting a different shirt, but tuned in when I heard his voice. He’d run a lap around the lake so was warming up nicely in the sun. I was warming up as well and it was great to get to do the course twice as I could look forward to support folks again and felt more confident in my pacing, etc. on the second go-round. The 35 and dryers carried me into pushing a strong second lap.

I drank more than I expected and so picked up an extra bottle at Brentwood Bay. The whole village was out manning the bottle exchange and I felt badly only taking one as they were so ready for a higher volume operation. Again, great support! I manged to get in all my food and even more liquid than expected which was good since the sun was certainly warming things up quickly. I spun out the last bit heading back towards the park to get my legs ready to run!

Bike time: 3:13:54
HR average: 141

T2: I saw Alden lounging in a lawn chair just before the dismount reading and he yelled words of encouragement. Once in transition, it took me a minute to find my rack as someone had thrown her wetsuit over my entire transition area (usually easily identified with my Little Mermaid towel). Yuck! Everything was wet, including my shoes. I threw the wetsuit under another bike (not on someone else’s stuff) and sat down. At this point, the announcer was heralding the finish of the 3rd place guy. I decided not to switch socks so just did a quick shoe/hat exchange, picked up my Gu and was on my way!

T2 time: 1:46

Run: I headed out on the run expecting a gravel trail. What I found was much more similar to the trail running at Discovery Park minus the hills. Clumsy me had to really think about picking up my feet around the tree roots. The water stop crews were great and I especially enjoyed the hula ladies (full clothed, but donning crazy grass skirts on top of it all).

I peed about 2k in and had my first Gu.I thought of Alden and his newly acquired mad running skillz out on this lap. I felt strong and kicked it up on the backside of the lake. The trail was great and the twists and turns kept things interesting. Every kilometer was marked and it made for a good progress check every 6 minutes or so. I finished strong on my first lap, seeing Alden on the left and resisting the urge to turn right into the finish chute.

I started to feel a bit out-of-sorts at the beginning of the seond lap and popped my Endurolyte and Gu a bit sooner than expected (1st aid station instead of 2nd). I felt a bit better on the backside on the lake, but the nausea and beginnings of cramping in my belly weren’t going away. I took it easier the seond 5k of the last lap, keeping run club and a lap of Discovery Park in mind. I stopped for water at each aid station and walked inbetween as needed. I managed to finish strong despite feeling still a bit out-of-sorts, going three minutes slower on the second lap than the first.

Run time: 1:57:58
Average heart rate: 152

Overall time: 5:46:19
Heart rate average: 146

I crossed the finish line and grabbed a bit of food. Alden and I found some shade and shared impressions. I noticed that I had raw spots on my neck from my wetsuit and on my lats and inside upper arms where my arms rubbed out on the run. I also had a good welt on my right armpit I can’t explain (maybe that’s from the wetsuit too). I’ve got to get back in my racing gear and figure out where to bodyglide up for next time. I’d forgotten about how sensitive my skin is and these were new spots that I hadn’t know about before. All the more reason to do a practice race like this and see where the gaps are for Vineman.

I ate a tiny bit of food, but was still not feeling great so mostly stuck to the recovery drink I’d mixed up. We checked the preliminary results and then headed to get my gear out of transition and pack up the truck. I got out of my salty, wet clothes and climbed into the truck for the short ride back to hotel. Showering was a relief, despite the stinging on my various abrasions. I had good blisters on both feet as I usually do, but one set looked nasty and still hasn’t gone away 24 hours later.

The nausea was sticking around which was a new post-race feeling for me. I still was feeling like anything I ate might come right back up, so we decided to head to the Inner Harbor to walk around. Alden convinced me to sit down for some food around 3:30 p.m. and I ordered what I thought I might like to eat if I’d ever had an appetite. My appetite came back in spades once I started putting in the food. That’s a good lesson to learn: I have to eat post-race even if I don’t feel like it.

I’m not sure if I managed my nutrition badly at the end or if my stomach was just unhappy I’d given it all, but things got much better once I started having some food in my belly. We walked a bit more, found some coffee and headed to see Kung Fu Panda. More food after the movie and then back for an early bedtime.

We slept in this morning, headed out for a yummy breakfast and walked around Sidney (site of the ferry dock) before getting on the boat back to Anacortes. Many of the ferry/customs officials we met along the way were a combination of confused and impressed with my feat which was fun. I really enjoyed spending some downtime after the race and felt like we got a little weekend in, not just racing and traveling.

All in all, it was a great time full of racing, food and fun. I’ve got a whole list of musings, thoughts and revisions for my Vineman plan. I’ll work on getting those up in a post mid-week. For now, it’s 9:40 p.m. and I’ve got to get to sleep so I can get up in the morning and train!