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July 2, 2007
Age Group Nationals Race Report
After the drama of Thursday and Friday morning, Friday afternoon started to feel a lot more normal in terms of race preparation. O and I put my bike together as soon as he got back from the airport Friday and then headed directly to the course to get some training in.
One thing I must say - Portland is beautiful. The race site was something you'd see on a postcard (pictures to come) - beautiful green colored water in the lake (pretty green, not slimy green), huge pine trees that lined the roads and hills, lots and lots of hills.
The bike course was 2 loops of which I did one of on Friday to check it out. And then I jogged an easy 15 minutes with O on the out and back run course. And then I pulled on my wetsuit to try out the water in the lake. It was cold at first but then almost perfect temperature wise after you had been in for 4 or 5 minutes. It was a great championship course - very challenging in my opinion because of the hills on both the bike and the run.
On race morning I was pretty nervous. I felt like I was about to do something I had never really done before - which was silly considering I've definitely done this before. This was different though in the sense that I hadn't ever competed at this level, with some pretty big names as far as amateurs go. And you can always tell by the bikes. Nobody was messing around today.
My wave went off at 8:12, pretty much right in the middle of things. Before my wave were several waves of older athletes and then the 24 and under group and then us - 25-29 year old women.
The swim was okay. It was very rough at first - the group I was swimming in almost went to the left of the first buoy when we were really supposed to be going to the right. I was sort of on the outside so when the gals on the inside realized what was going on, we all got crushed on the outside as they scrambled to get around the buoy on the correct side. I looked up when the mele started and heard one of the kayakers yelling "to the right, to the right" and then realized what we had done. It got a little ugly for a while, people pulling and pushing and trying to swim where there was no water. But a few minutes later we had all gotten it figured out and I was swimming in open water again. It seemed like it took forever to get to the turnaround (the swim was like a big rectangle) but then when I finally made the turn to head home I got in a real good groove. I felt strong and relaxed for the first time and started to catch a few swimmers in front of me. That lasted for about 400 meters before I started to feel again like the finish would never come. The swim isn't the most fun for me, I'll definitely admit that, but I will say this swim was better than in Columbia.
In the results several people did not have accurate swim splits and I was one of them. I did glance down at my watch though as we were running up to the transition area and it said ~24 minutes meaning my swim was roughly equivalent to what I did at Columbia. I'll take it.
Nothing exciting happened in T1 - got my gear and headed out on the bike course. Of the 3, the bike went the best. It was a very hilly course and seeing as how it was 2 loops you got it twice! But hills are probably better for me than not, so I can't complain. I felt relatively strong although I could feel the nausea that had plagued me in Columbia creeping back in. Regardless, I was able to push pretty hard on the bike. My split (1:10:13/21.2 ave MPH) was pretty average when compared with the rest but it was actually superior to my split at Columbia on what I considered to be a harder course. One thing that was challenging for me that I haven't yet really encountered was a lot of traffic on the bike course. Because I was one of the middle waves and because the course was 2 loops, there were lots of people out there with me! It was good in a sense that I always had someone to go after but I was also quite concerned with inadvertently drafting and getting busted! There were lots of race marshalls out on the course looking for just that!
Regardless, back into transition and out onto the run course and pretty much right away I knew today wasn't going to be a good running day. My nausea instantly seemed much worse once I started running and my stomach was all jarred about.
Coming right out of transition there is a pretty steep hill to climb and I felt like I was walking I was running so slow! But once I got out onto the road I started moving a little better. I got through the first mile not feeling great but not feeling too badly when my nausea finally reaching it's height. I stopped somewhere around 1.5 miles to throw up. I felt a little better afterwards which lasted about 400 meters when another wave of nausea hit and I had to stop again. It was at this point that I considered dropping out. I just didn't know how I was going to get through another 4.5 miles with my stomach playing tricks like this. I stood on the side of the road for a bit with my hands on my knees and watched as people streamed past me. And then I talked myself into walking a little bit up the road and then I started jogging again. And then finally started to push some to run just a bit harder.
Because you know what? Dropping out of races is not what this sport of triathlon is about. More than any other sport that I've ever done or ever watched or ever heard of, triathlon is about perservering. And I think it's that way because SO MUCH CAN GO WRONG. And so much does go wrong - even for the very best of athletes. Swimmers go off course, the water is rough, you lose your goggles in a slugfest to get to the buoy first. Then you can't find your bike in transition, your helmet refuses to snap, you get a flat or you drop your chain. You fight nausea or cramping but you continue to push on because also very important in triathlon is the fact that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. I knew if I could just get through the final 4 miles somehow I still had a chance to get myself to Germany.
And that's exactly what I did. It wasn't pretty. I could probably run 10K faster in training on any given day. I wanted to cry every time another hill would appear but truthfully the downhills were worse because my nausea returned with a vengence any time I started to open up my stride a little. I don't know if I have ever been so happy to see a finish line in my life. But I made it. And I am so, so, so, so happy I didn't drop out because I was 15th and they take 16 to Worlds.
It certainly wasn't what I had hoped for and dreamed of at the beginning of the season. I really wanted to have a huge race here and finish in the top 3 of my age group. I was far from that on Saturday for sure. I could beat myself up for running so slow, for not pushing harder on the bike, for not getting out of the water a minute or two faster. I could get down by the fact that the winner in my age group was over 10 minutes ahead. But reality is the fact that lots of things went wrong for me starting June 1, but I still hung in there and I still fought as hard as I could and for that, I am proud of myself.
So I am going to Germany in September with an amazing group of athletes and I simply cannot wait. I was truly inspired at the awards ceremony when they handed out the awards first to the older age groups where women the age of my grandmother and mother absolutely amazed me with their performances on a brutal course, and then to the younger, faster women who raced to times I didn't think possible for amateurs on those hills. I was definitely surrounded by people who only made me want to work harder and push more because there is a lot more to aspire to in this sport. And even though things don't always go right, it's still worth every little bit and more.
Posted by beth at July 2, 2007 11:39 AM
Comments
i was waiting for this race report! congratulations beth; i'm so proud of you!
-audrey-
Posted by: Audrey at July 2, 2007 3:46 PM
this was really moving Beth! And I am really happy you qualified. The impressive part is how all this experience is growing on you :-)
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at July 2, 2007 5:21 PM