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May 21, 2007
Columbia Race Report
So I have a feeling this is going to be a long one...so if you don't have the time to read a book right now you may fast forward to the abbreviated version:
The swim was rough. The bike was fine. The run was great. I was the top female amateur. Four pros beat me. I beat 2 pros. I won some money - first time ever for that. I saw an Olympic bronze medalist in action (Susan Williams - top female pro) and during the run when the course double backs on itself she told me "good job". I was so thrilled I thought I would throw up (more on that later). I feel pretty good today although my arms are so sore I think they may fall off. Did I mention the swim was rough? Full results can be found here. :)
The long version goes something like this:
Chapter One - The Prelude
We arrived in Columbia late Friday night. We only got lost a little but don't tell O I said that because he prides himself on his map reading abilities. And truly if it weren't for him I know I would never make it to one race. I cannot read maps worth a darn.
We slept in Saturday and then spent the day checking out the course (really hilly), picking up my packet, doing a little biking (30 min) and running (15 min) and trying to swim a little before they told me I wasn't allowed to get in the water until Sunday (they did however wait to tell me that until AFTER they watched me wrestle with my wetsuit for 10 minutes first :).
This is the first big race I've ever been to so there were some things to learn. One such lesson was that in said big races you have to get your bike/helmet inspected, check it in and rack it in the transition area the night BEFORE the race and there is no taking it back out until you are racing on it the next day. This means that you have to get it all squared away and taken care of on Saturday afternoon and that it stays outside all night (they have watchmen that keep tabs on the bikes throughout the wee hours of night). As we were checking out the course O and I noticed that people were putting big bags over their bikes in the case that it rained. Hmm...I didn't think to bring a bag. To the grocery store we go! I think we bought 4 things but each thing got it's own DOUBLE bag so we walked out of there with plenty of plastic to keep Scotty (my bike) dry and clean until race morning. Good thing we're smart like that... :)
Now don't get me wrong, Columbia, MD is a very nice area. Everything is new and nice and there are biking/walking paths everywhere. The park where the race was was awesome! But the area is also very highly populated being an area where people who work in DC apparently live. There are a lot of cars and a lot of traffic and sooooooo many people. At least compared to what we are used to. Both O and I spent more than a little of Saturday stressed out. But by 5 pm we had everything checked in and checked out and I was showered, stretched, fed, organized and we both felt much better. SOOOO glad we went down Friday night so we'd have the whole day Saturday to sort things out. We rested and relaxed in our hotel the rest of Saturday and got ready for our early wake up call on Sunday. My swim wave was scheduled for 6:50 am Sunday morning and the transition area opened up at 5 am so we got up at 4:30 to get ready and over to the course.
Chapter Two - The Swim (aka Hell, aka Get me out of the water NOW, aka I think I'm going to throw up)
We arrived at the course around 5:15. I got body marked, set up my transition area, pumped my tires, etc, etc, etc... I warmed up with a 20 minute jog around the lake that I was about to swim in. I stretched. I wrestled with my wetsuit to get the dang thing on and then it was Go Time.
And I have to admit. I was incredibly nervous. This was my first big race. There were pros. I was in the "elite amateur" wave and I was about to swim with some very fast MEN and women. That's right, they put the men and women pros together and then the men and women elite amateurs. Now if I had swam in my age group I would have been swimming with a lot MORE people but they all would have been women and there would have been at least some of them as slow as me. UGH.
Anyway, the pros started off and then it was our turn. We all jumped in and the water was freezing. It took my breathe away. But after I was in for a bit I was okay. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think at this point I was in panic mode trying desperately to calm myself down. I immediately started to mess with my goggles as I felt like they were falling off. I tightened them so tight I'm surprised my brain didn't squeeze out. When I went to put them on this morning for my swim I couldn't barely get them around my head. What. The. Heck. I seriously needed to CHILL OUT. It's times like this that I really wish I was a swimmer. I just sometimes really feel out of my element in the swim.
Anyway, they started us and let me save you a lot of reading by telling you simply that the swim was awful for me! I felt horrible pretty much the whole time. My arms were aching. I was gasping for air. And I had some serious nausea. As in - I AM GOING TO THROW UP RIGHT NOW nausea. Hmm...not too pleasant. Now I knew it was a distinct possibility that I would get out of the water last in my wave but still, when it really did happen that way, I was a bit flustered. But I was about to learn a very important lesson that I don't think I really understood until yesterday. The race is not over until it's over. And the race is especially not over after the swim. Thank God for that. :)
After some reflection I think I was just way to tense and started out WAY, WAY too fast on the swim, hence my feeling so poorly. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have gotten out of the water with the lead amateurs even if I had my best swim ever x 10, but I think I would have at least felt a little better had I not tried to stay with men and women that were so much better. By 400 meters I thought I was going to die. Not a great way to start things off you know? I still managed my fastest 1500 meter open water swim (23:07) but I was still disappointed as I had hoped to be closer to 22 minutes. Needless to say, I have a lot of work to do in the water.
Chapter Three - The Bike (aka Is it seriously raining again?, aka Catch up)
As I was getting out of the water I hear O yelling that the top female amateur is 5 minutes ahead. Oh. Dear. Lord. I definitely wanted him to tell me just that kind of info, but I have to say at that point in time that is definitely NOT what I wanted to hear. And I also have to admit that mentally I started to throw in the towel a little. The voice of doubt started to act up a little - "you feel like crap already", "those women are already 5 minutes ahead and they are good cyclists and runners", "you will never catch them!". And then I noticed that it was raining. Seriously - is this some kind of joke? :)
But off I went on my bike. I gave myself some time to calm down a little and end the pity party that I was throwing for myself. And then I went to work. The course is very hilly so it's hard to find a rhythm but I felt strong and smooth. I was just sort of out there pedaling along when up ahead a saw another woman! All of a sudden I felt my competitiveness firing up. I worked hard to catch her and then pass her. And that was a huge mental boost. Mental boost #2 came when I next saw a pack of 3 women on the horizon. Oh yeah baby. Trouble is it took me the next 10 miles to catch them. It would seem like I was getting close and then they would go around a corner or down a big hill and I would seemingly lose them. Finally around mile 24 of 25 miles I got withing striking distance. I couldn't pass them though - I could basically only get within 50 meters of them. And then the bike was over. I was fine with my bike split of 1:14:08 given that the course was ~1 mile longer than standard Oly distance and that it was so hilly (and again wet and a bit scary at times from the rain).
Of note was that my nausea continued throughout the bike and even though I tried very hard to coax myself to take some fluid and my gel I just could not do it. I did not take one sip or one calorie on the bike or throughout the whole race. I do not recommend that one bit at all. I was lucky because it was a cool, rainy day and dehydration wasn't really an issue but regardless it wasn't smart. I was just so nauseaus though - I knew it was going to come right back up if I tried to put it down. And I didn't want to put myself through that trauma!
Chapter Four - The Run (aka I love the run!)
Things were getting exciting. The top 3 amateur women got off the bike together with me about 30 seconds behind. I had a running race on my hands! They took off together and O was yelling at me that this was the race right in front of me. Within a mile or so I caught them all. We ran together until about 2 miles at which point I started to take stalk of my competition. One girl had already fallen off. One girl didn't look like a runner (indeed she proved to be the swimmer of the group that got out of the water 5 minutes ahead of me!!) and then the other girl...well...she looked very much like a runner. Hmm... Around 2.5 miles I took the lead and the girl that looked like a runner came with me. I was feeling strong and relaxed though (finally in familiar territory!) and by 3.5 miles I could no longer hear her behind me. I was running around 6:20-6:45 pace depending on how hilly each mile was. At about the same time I couldn't hear the girl behind me anymore I saw Susan Williams (top pro) running towards the finish. When she told me "good job" (as I'm sure she told EVERYONE) I got another huge mental boost. I finished the run feeling strong with a split of 40:05 which again, given the hills, I was pleased with.
Chapter Five - The Aftermath
Because I told them I felt like I was going to throw up they whisked me off to the medical tent. I'm not sure what they thought they were going to do with me in there but they eventually just let me go. O and his mom and sister (who had also come to watch) found me and we were all very excited! I had finished 5th overall and was the top amatuer and that more than exceeded my goals.
I tried to go on a little 10 minute cooldown jog but my nausea still continued. About 6 minutes into the jog I finally just threw up, right there in someone's yard in nice residential Columbia where the houses cost approximately 8x what our house costs. I just really, really hoped that the owners of said house weren't eating breakfast and reading their Sunday newspaper when they happened to look out their front window and saw some strange, nasty looking critter throwing up on their front lawn. Oh well, what can you do? I finally started to feel better after that thankfully. I enjoyed the awards and that jazz and then we finally headed off towards home.
So overall my assessment of the race was that I was pleased. I was happy to win and happy with my bike and run. I was happy to feel strong. But my swim is very subpar. It was great to finally compete in a big race where you can really see your strengths and weaknesses. And now I know that if I ever hope to be a professional that makes any kind of impact I absolutely need to swim at least 3-4 minutes faster over the 1500 meter distance. Now that's no easy task of course. And I'm not sure I can even do that. But I'm sure as heck going to try!! Step #1 - take a serious chill pill during the start. Deep breathes. It's going to be okay... :)
I woke up this morning with very sore arms. Very, very sore. But the rest of my body feels pretty good. Today I just had an easy 500 yd swim to work out the kinks. Tomorrow is another easy recovery day and then back on the horse on Wednesday!
Thanks for reading! And thanks to O who is the best driver, equipment manager, and cheerleader a gal could ever want. :)
Have a great week everyone!
Posted by beth at May 21, 2007 1:28 PM
Comments
You also beat Amanda Pagon - nee Amanda White a Footlocker Champ in 1992.
Posted by: observer at May 21, 2007 3:43 PM
Beth,
Congrats! Great race report! I am SO HAPPY for you! I hope your recovery is fast and relatively painless.
So weird that you were nauseous through the whole race and I have to giggle a little about the vomiting in a fancy neighborhood yard. I bet you felt a lot better, though. Now we're vomit-buddies I threw up in training just last week, for a totally different reason!).
Seriously, though, many congratulations!
Posted by: Meghan at May 21, 2007 4:10 PM
simply stellar... and it is quite evident, as you both beat the nausea (for over 2 hours!!!) and caught up some competitors with a discouraging lead, that the best is yet to come... i have an idea about this nausea thing happening on your perceived weakest discipline... when it gels i'll let you know :-) ...
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at May 21, 2007 4:18 PM
WOOOO WHOOOO 5th overall and the top amatuer... now rest and recover... especially from the nausea... AWESOME job...
Posted by: Kranky C Dale at May 21, 2007 4:44 PM
AHHH~!! Beth, I am so happy for you. I am so proud you came back to beat your competition after the swim. This was SO amazing and your win was so well earned! (as a sidenote, i can't believe you had to swim in open water with the men!) They're big!! Anyway, congratulations!
Posted by: Audrey at May 21, 2007 4:51 PM
Congrats, and great report. If you ever decide to retire from your nutritionist and triathlete careers may I sugest a stab at newspaper columnist!
Posted by: dawn at May 21, 2007 5:44 PM
Congrats, and great report. If you ever decide to retire from your nutritionist and triathlete careers may I sugest a stab at newspaper columnist!
Posted by: dawn at May 21, 2007 5:44 PM
Wow, congratulations! It sounds like you learned a lot out there, and all of this training is paying off. You're only going to improve, too. We're all so proud of you! (And I have no doubt that you can shave 3-4 minutes off your 1500 time--not that your current time doesn't look impressive to me!)
Posted by: Alison at May 21, 2007 7:55 PM
Congratulations, Beth! Maybe if Austin doesn't work out, you could move to DC. You seem to have a habit of racing around here.
Posted by: brian at May 22, 2007 7:57 AM