I was supposed to run the Olympic distance triathlon at East Canyon today, but the Deseret Half last week left me feeling too awful to want to do go through with the Olympic distance. So I ended up transferring to the Sprint distance...
Friday, August 1, 2014
Since I missed packet pickup in Sandy on Wednesday evening, I went to packet pickup at East Canyon for the Friday pick up and T1 set up. I brought Sparkle along to leave her overnight. I was a little worried, since the last time I did that was at The Nation's Triathlon back in 2008. Not many races offer the option to leave your bike overnight... at least not the races I've run here in Utah.
On the way to the marina, I got stopped by this...
I ran into my teammate, Erich, and a former Desert Sharks teammate, Jodi, whom I hadn't seen in quite some time! She'd probably hate me if I posted her pic on this blog, so I'll just leave it out, but I was so glad to see familiar faces!
I left Sparkle in T1, and then drove down to Morgan, UT, to scope out the bike course and T2. It made for a long evening... longer than I expected anyway. I was hoping to go watch the Movie Under The Stars at the Capital building, but didn't make it. I had more prepping and packing to do for my race. I scarfed down some pasta for dinner, and tried to get to bed at a decent hour. 3:30am was right around the corner, and I still had to drive an hour back to Morgan to catch the shuttle.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Yup... 3:30am came pretty quickly! I don't know how I'm unable to drag myself out of bed for work in the mornings these days (usually between 5:30 and 6:00am wake up), but I can get up at 3:30am for a race? How does that make sense? Anyway, I got ready and made my way up to Morgan, UT around 4:10am. When I got to T1, it was soooooooooooooooo cold! Note to self: when running a tri up in the mountains, don't forget to bring sweats for pre-race.
I set up T2, then went to go get my timing chip and body marked. I ran into my teammate, Brandy! More familiar faces! I love it! I can't help but second guess whether or not I have everything whenever I have a race. I'm not sure even a checklist will help, because I'll always think I left something at the wrong location. I got on the shuttle and rested all the way to the reservoir.
As I closed my eyes, thoughts entered my head. Calming thoughts. I thought of The Nation's Triathlon I ran in September of 2008. My parents and sister came to watch me. It was a pretty tough race. It was so incredibly hot during the run, I kept dumping water on myself to keep cool. In the middle of my race, my dad ran with me. He told me to keep running and that I could make it. It really meant a lot to me. And then, I thought about my swim at the Giant Acorn Triathlon, and how relaxed I was. I had to keep thinking that so that I would calm my anxieties about the swim (since the Green River Triathlon swim portion was cancelled back in June).
When we got to the reservoir, it was still really cold! I had wished I brought sweats right about now. I finished setting up T1 and then chatted with some of the other triathletes. I met Mitchell, Caroline, Colleen, Shelby, and Erin. They were all running the Olympic distance. I talked to Colleen about running a half iron, and she made me feel a bit better about cut off times.
I put on my wetsuit, way early, to keep warm.
The Olympic distance tri started at 8:00am. I got to warm up and test out the water while we waited for the Sprint distance to start. The water was perfect! Not cold at all. I kept telling myself, "You got this, Joyce! You've done this before. You're going to be fine!"
8:30am - my wave goes off. The water was nice, and I was doing fine, but my anxiety set in and got me again. I had to keep reminding myself to relax, and that I would be fine - just take my time and relax. It wasn't the temperature that got me this time (like it did at Herriman last year), but the crowding during the swim. I asked one of the lifeguards if I could relax for a second, which helped a lot. He said he swam, of course, but not in triathlon - so he was amazed that we were all out there doing it!
I finally relaxed a bit, when the next wave went off. But I did what I could, and just told myself to go buoy to buoy, using my rest stroke when I needed to. I don't think it helped that the water was pretty choppy today, but thank goodness there weren't any white caps! Slowly, but surely, I made my way to the end of the swim. I was so tired from the constriction in my wetsuit.
The "run" to T1 was all uphill. I walked, along with the guy who finished the swim at the same time. I stripped off my wetsuit and headed for T1. I'm glad I left my shoes to wear, as it was so gravelly! I threw all my gear into my T1 bag, got on my bike gear and headed out on the bike. Of course the bike started with an uphill out of the reservoir, which left me a bit winded. But I got a little bit of a reprieve after that, as most of the course was downhill. As I was pulling a gel out of my bento box, my inhaler dropped out. I had to turn back and get that - too risky (and too expensive) to leave behind. There were some rolling hills along the course, but for the most part it was either downhill or flat. Oh, how I love the flats!
The wind didn't help today... definitely left me "winded!" It definitely made it difficult during all part of the race for me.
Close to T2 was a final gradual incline which felt almost steep. I felt like my legs wanted to give up right about then. I wasn't pushing it too hard, as I wanted to save myself enough energy for the rest of the race (remember, I hadn't really trained much for anything this past month). I got to T2, stripped off my bike gear, and changed into my running gear.
My legs felt like 500lb weights. And the first part of the run was on grass. Grass and I, unless I'm playing field hockey or something, don't get along when it comes to running. It didn't last too long before we finally got to paved trail. My legs felt like they were going to start cramping and have Charlie Horses again, so I took it easy. I walked a bit, with first time triathlete, Jason. He rode a mountain bike, so I could only imagine how he was feeling. And he told me he had really bad anxiety on the swim. Good for him for at least trying and conquering though! We ended up chatting and running together into the finish line!
Brandy met me at the finish and gave me a hug! It was so nice to see her again! And all the rest of my Desert Sharks teammates were there to congratulate me!
Yay for another race in the books, and all the new tri friends I made today! My teammates swiped a lot of the awards, as well as my new tri friends! Today was a great day for triathlon!
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