welcome to 2019 dear friends and negative three readers. i hope the off season treated you well and that you gained some weight, drank the things, and stayed up past 10 pm more than 1 night a week. in other words - you got craaaaaaazy.
but all good things must come to an end and make way for greater things. over here at casa de H & B (hell yea, we moved in together and straight into the apartment next door), we've been hitting zwift hard and buying new triathlon toys. thanks to being a member of the BASE performance team, we had the opportunity to take advantage of an amazing deal on ENVE 7.8 wheels and they are the prettiest things (besides Jazz and Brian) that currently reside in this apartment. being the super nerds that we are, we also got specialized s-works 7 cycling shoes (different colors) and invested in a couple pairs of Nike zoom fly flyknit shoes (same colors). in other words, we each spent our yearly triathlon "budget" in the first 5 months of the year so don't let me buy any more of the things. except a new bike computer. my converted 910 fake bike computer finally crapped itself and only permits me to use it for approximately 1 x 2.5 hour ride at 100% charge. LAME .
work update: i left my workplace and started working at a new hospital. and it. is. awesome. theres not a whole lot else to say because life is good. sometimes i work a lot, sometimes i don't. im generally happy, invested in work, and i care about what i do again. i was close to giving it all up and exploring other options and i'm glad that i didn't.
so thats life as i know it. can you believe that we already had our first tri of the year? i decided to tackle Monticelloman 70.3 again. i felt like i hadn't figured out the bike course at all and wanted to give it a third try. i love that its laid back and with an 8:30 am start, you can "sleep in". however, much like childbirth (or so i hear), i had forgotten just how hilly the run course is.
Bri and i headed down Saturday morning with the aim to get there around noon. we put our bikes back together and saddled up for a 45 minute bike and 15ish minute run. it was warm but not horribly humid. we saw a number of DC Tri folks as well as a couple of my DC Tri Elite teammates and they convinced us to jump in the water. we did so, sans wetsuits, and it was a beautiful temperature, somewhere in the high 60's/low 70's. following our short, out of order, triathlon, we grabbed noodles and co. for lunch and headed to the hotel because kentucky derby coverage was on and i had missed the first few hours of women in hats, beautiful horses, and $2000 mint juleps. i was having trouble calibrating my power meter to my POS garmin and i took a short adventure around the parking lot without a saddle in running shoes (you have to take the saddle off to put the bikes on the car rack inside the car). that was a terrifying, death-defying 90 seconds of my life that i'll never get back.
we packed our bags for the following day and settled in until capt Y-Bry summoned us to this hotel room and we hung with the guys + Joyce for little bit before dinner. dinner involved a yummy italian restaurant AND i was lucky enough to be able to see my friend Ryan from college. it was an awesome time catching up, drinking a bit of wine, and eating delicious food.
i guess you came here to read about the actual race - so here it is: race morning!
the alarms went off around 4:45 and by 5 am, we were dragging ourselves out of our beds. yes ,we slept in separate beds and neither of us was unhappy about that as im a sleep thrasher. though it wasn't the best mattress, i generally enjoy sleeping in hotel beds and this one did not disappoint. shout out to the Days Inn of Charlotttesville.
to our pleasant surprise, it was raining... kind of a lot. we took advantage of the continental breakfast as both of us had forgotten to pack anything of significance for breakfast. oops. i think i had instant oatmeal and some poppyseed muffins and i was happy.
we packed up the car and drove about 30 minutes to the race site where it was... still raining. we ran into Darren and we made our way over to transition where it was... still raining. i gave joyce a hug and said various "hellos" to teammates and club members, feeling that little flutter of excitement that only race day and seeing a harry potter marathon on TV can bring. i set up transition in less than 10 minutes, glad that we had the foresight to start keeping garbage bags in our transition bags after the monsoon that was wisconsin 70.3 last year. i would have dry running shoes and socks and i cherished the thought of how good that would feel if we continued to be soaking wet for the rest of the morning. i also was excited to wear my new rudy project PINK wing57 helmet with the surprise bonus of a visor - i haven't raced with a visor in a long time and was interested to see how that would feel.
remember that i was excited to try this out because the feeling would not last.
we dropped our bags off at the car (parking is easy and close at this race) and attempted to put on wetsuits on our damp bodies - not an easy feat. i tore a small hole in mine but eh, it happens. finally, FINALLY, it was time to head to the water for a short (like 10 strokes) warm-up swim.
the water felt chilly but i knew it would be perfect for swimming. especially after i peed in my wetsuit and felt all nice and toasty on the inside.
SWIM:
the men took off promptly at 8:30 and we followed at 8:33. the start is a beach run into the water and only after i made a beeline for the water did i realize that it would have been MUCH faster to run to the end of the beach and THEN dive into the water. not my smartest move. the girl who did choose this tactic was immediately way ahead of me and would later be first out of the water.
i settled into a comfortable (read: too comfortable) pace and enjoyed swimming alone. with a small field and being a generally strong swimmer, i knew it would be a fairly solo effort until we caught up to the men. and catch up to them we did - in less than 10 minutes. the buoys seemed far apart and i spent my time counting (again, why? since i have no idea how many buoys there are). i attempted some drafting which is ill advised when you are catching up to people and passing them. let this be clear - it will not help you.
in the second half, i tried to speed up a bit - i was feeling relaxed and strong. then i realized the turn buoy was not the turn buoy and that was a bit of gut puncher. what felt like many minutes later, i arrived at the turn buoy and headed to shore. a faint memory came across my consciousness about swimming to the left of the dock. so - i made a beeline for that area and starting kicking and increased my turnover only to glance over and see a few people waving me and pointing to the RIGHT side of the dock. ah... my bad... a girl in a green cap was coming on strong and i shot for the gap between her and the dock and ran out of the water a couple seconds ahead of her.
31:16 (definitely would have been well under 31 if not for the detour)
T1: 4:10 (for reference, transition was like 20 feet long)
this is where things sort of fell apart. the rain had stopped (thankfully) but the sky was pretty dark. as in - clear sunglasses would have been ideal over my very very dark helmet visor. but first, i had to remove my wetsuit - something i have done many times before but suddenly forgot how to do at this particular time. i couldn't get it over my watch and instead of just taking 10 seconds to remove my watch like sane person, i struggled for a solid minute and eventually succeeded. i put on socks and shoes as normal and then decided i needed to RIP OFF THE VISOR in order to wear equally dark sunglasses... i wasn't thinking clearly. first of all, let me thank Rudy Project for making this task impossible in the heat of the moment. yea yea, its secure and wont fall off your face during the race - but at this moment, i was PISSED. another minute spent struggling, swearing, watching the girl who came out of the swim on my heels peel out of transition, and then pausing in defeat that the helmet bestest me. i consented and just put the helmet on my head, grabbed my bike, and headed out after wasting enough time in T1.
BIKE:
my heartrate was in zn17 after my T1 antics and i needed to calm the F down. it was cool and i wanted to make sure that i got ahead of the hydration/nutrition game. my goal was to drink the majority of my three bottles of infinit over the next hopefully 2 hours and 45 minutes and supplement with snacks of honey stinger chews. my other goal was to find the woman that beat me out of the water and the woman that beat me out of transition. of course, i had no idea if the FOTW girl was even racing the half (possibly aquavelo or relay) but whatever. i settled into my HR and power and just rode. there were no large climbs, but lots of rolling terrain and pretty countryside. i stayed in aero for the majority of the ride and inclines and continued to drink and eat.
at some point, we rode past a little country house and i heard a gun shot. i stiffened and froze. another gun shot. i whipped around to look and see if i could see anybody. i heard a third shot and started riding away as fast as i could. at this point in my life, i have listened to hundreds of stories about murder and true crime and i didn't want to be the next topic for Georgia and Karen on "My Favorite Murder". it was super jarring to hear so close to the road, but its the country. it happens.
i found myself really enjoying the bike. its such a small race that a lot of the time, you are alone. i got passed by handfuls of guys but was able to pick up some power and leap frog a few of them. on one of the longer inclines, i passed the women from transition (YES). i figured that put me into the top 1 or 2. before i knew it, i was nearly back to transition and ready to head out for loop 2. my watch said 1:20 and i was shocked. i wasn't overbiking, i was not comfortable per say but it was a doable pace to continue and possibly pick it up a notch.
a few miles into the second loop, there was a roundabout and a short line of cars in the road waiting to turn onto the roundabout. it wasn't clear if they were stopped by the police or because they were waiting for cars to move around the roundabout. i slowed, assessing the situation and decided to just stay right, but cautiously, and ride around the stopped cars. a man on a road bike came flying up behind me yelling, "move faster, cmon! lets go, lets go, LETS GO!"
sir, may i politely ask you to SHUT THE FUCK UP? the space to the right of the cars was less than three feet wide and cars were slowing moving. after the MANY car-bike accidents that have occurred this year alone, losing 30 seconds was more than okay with me in order to keep myself and others safe.
i replied, "dude, calm down".
the roadie shot around me in the roudabout (are you kidding me) and took off. a minute later, i was coming up on his wheel and passed him. we leap frogged a bit, but on any incline, he fell way back and eventually i passed him for the final time and never saw him again.
the second loop was consistent and i felt strong. i couldn't remember landmarks near the end of the loop and before i knew it, i was turning into the community a minute away from transition.
2:42:32 (10 min course PR)
T2: 1:56
i saw Darren in transition and said a few things, not realizing (because im an idiot) that he wasn't in the race anymore. i took my dry shoes and socks out of the bag, fixed my ponytail and visor, and grabbed my racebelt and water bottle. on my way out, i asked what place i was in and was met with... "i don't know, maybe top three?" cmon! the last time i did this race, the guy said "you're in third.. but theyre way ahead of you!" hahaha.
RUN:
i ran out, shaking the heavy feeling out of my legs. my stomach felt... weird. i kept running, hoping the uneasy feeling would go away. i was having a solid race and excited to get onto the run to see what i could do, but for a minute, i couldn't shake this feeling of nausea. the road out of the community is a slight incline and then a right turn to get onto the road. i ran for another minute, past an aid station, and knew what was happening. i put my head down and vomited a ton of liquid. and remnants of apple cinnamon instant oatmeal. a few more heaves and i paused. a guy passed me and asked if i was okay and i confidently, but wearily, said "yep! thank you!" COME ON GUT! one more heave and i was ready to roll. unlike after the mid-race vomiting of the illinois half marathon last year, i was not able to rally. the magic was gone from my legs and suddenly, i felt tired. this course is all up and down and up and down. its not for the weak. i kept an okay but not great pace for the first couple of miles but then it was all damage control. i shuffled up the endless hills and prayed that the women behind me wouldn't start flying by. i got a lift everytime i saw B and any DC tri kit. at some point, a girl asked if i was "heather the vet" and i was like, "wait, whaaaaat?" and it turned out that she knows my coach and his wife! small world - i love this about triathlon.
by the time i arrived at the turn around at mile 6.5, i hadn't been passed nor had i passed any women. again, no concept of how this race was playing out. however, i now had visual on who was coming up on me and there were a couple girls that weren't too far behind.
i groaned internally since i still had 6 miles to go. i tried to maintain (if not pick up) my pace but i was definitely struggling. i kept repeating lines of the song "one foot in front of the other" (ooooOOOOOOOO! one foot in front of the other! ooooOOOOOOOO!) and each step was one step closer to that finish line. with a few miles to go, i tried to "surge", which essentially meant my heart rate went up but i wasn't really going any faster.
finally - FINALLY - i saw the left hand turn toward the lake - and the finish. i surged and tried to look strong as the road leveled out and i could see the arch and our DC Tri tent. THANK FREAKING GOD. soon after, i figured out that i was the first OA female (cool!) and i watched secod place run in and congratulated her on a great, though tough, day. turns out she had struggled in the run too - that terrain is rough.
i found B and found other clubbers and we sat and chatted for a bit. i had chocolate milk but couldn't really stomach anything else at that point. another excellent part of the race is the shower/bathroom situation - in that there ARE showers. i naturally was unprepared and didn't bring a towel, but i had swiped the shampoo and conditioner from the hotel so i grabbed my event t-shirt and used it to dry off. i relished scrubbing off the raceday grime and finally felt human again.
awards (as is the rest of the race) are pretty low key. though it was a pretty small field, it was pretty awesome to finally be first OA female and a great way to start the season. i love racing with B and the team and the club. friends and familiar faces are what makes doing races so fun. it may be considered an individual sport but really... its not. its hard to train for this sport alone - ive done it - but the sport got infinitely better for me when i joined a club and a team.
next up is Ironman Ireland in June. That one is definitely a tale worth telling.
until next time, negative three readers...
