Kinetic Sprint Triathlon, May 12, 2013

Um... yea... where to begin this race report. For anyone who reads this, you know I haven't been good (at all) with my training this season. Problem #1 for the day. Problem #2... having been recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism and having gained 15 lbs since last August, I wasn't sure how my wetsuit would fit. Yes, I should've tried it on at home, but I didn't.

Now, onto the race.

Pre-race
We woke up around 6:45am in our camper (yay!) and started getting ready for the day. Kinetic was a late race start - 9am. Around 7:30, we headed to the race site via a path from the campground to the beach. It was really convient.

We stopped by the Team Z tents, chatted with a couple of people, and figured out where I needed to go to get things done. Jon & I wandered over to transition, stopping to get body marked on the way. I think the volunteers that do the body marking have one of the best/worst jobs of the day. They see every single racer but have to do a million squats in order to mark all of our legs. I went into transition, found my rack, and racked the bike. Now, I had 3 newbies near me... and they all had their bikes facing the same direction. It was kind of annoying, but the guys came back and fixed it. After getting transition set up, I headed back down the hill to find my chip, then back up to transition to pull my wetsuit out & put my sunglasses in my helmet.

Transition, pre-race

Once done in transition, we headed back to the Team Z tent, where we chilled for a bit. Around 8:45/8:50, I started the wetsuit dance. I hate my wetsuit. I seriously debated doing the swim without it. The water temperature was 68 degrees... right on the cusp of cold and comfortable.

All smiles before the race

Swim
Right at 9am, the air horn went off and the first wave of swimmers were in the water. My wave was set to go at 9:09. We all got into the water (thigh high) and waited for the horn. While we were waiting, I sat down to get some water in my wetsuit.

Sitting in the water prior to the horn

The horn went off and I held back for a couple of seconds. I knew that I wasn't going to be as fast as some of those ladies and I didn't want to end up in the mix. When I started swimming, I couldn't catch my breath. At all. Ever. So, I started to breast stroke. Once I felt like I caught my breath, I'd try freestyle again. No go. My goggles fogged up (despite using Foggle). Now, I couldn't see and I couldn't breath. I stopped to rinse out the goggles and get them back on my face. The water was choppier than the pictures made it look. The jet-skis they were using to help people out of the water may have had something to do with that. I swallowed a lot of water... that tasted like gasoline... and could barely get my goggles back on. This was not my swim... for sure.

Then, I just rolled over and started backstroking. I knew that if I had any hope of getting out of the water of my own accord, I needed to stop using so much energy breast stroking. So, I alternated between the two. At some point, there was a woman next to me having as rough as a time as I was. I asked if she was ok. She mentioned that her wetsuit was too tight and she couldn't catch her breath. Yea... me too. I told her to stick with me so that if she was having too many problems, she could get out of the water. At some point, she told me to go on without her. I really hope she's ok.

This all happened before the first turn of a 2-turn swim. Yea, wasn't my day at all. I almost said "screw it" on this swim. At some point, I stopped fussing with my goggles and just put them on the top of my head. I muddled through the rest of the swim and got to shore. Thank goodness. Team Z was there in force, cheering along everyone coming out of the water. Patty said "good swim Heather" and I said "no, no it wasn't!" and she said "I know" with an understanding smile & tone.

Coming out of the water

T1
There was a good distance run (up a freakin hill!) to the transition area. This is one of those places that the lake is set down in a "valley". I had a super slow transition, but it is what it is. My first one of the season usually is. Especially with a long(er) run that's uphill.

Headed out of T1 to get onto the bike

Bike
The run out of the transition area was uphill (of course). The mount/dismount line was towards the bottom of the hill (on the road). This is something you need to remember for the dismount! I knew I'd need to be riding my brakes on the way back in. With that, I was on my way.

The bike ride was pretty good. It was easy enough to be beginner friendly, but tough enough to keep a seasoned triathlete honest. The course marshalls were out in force and handing out penalties. Thankfully I wasn't too close to anyone the 3 times they passed me! Whew!

Things to note from the ride were: slowest speed was 5.8 mph and my fastest was 31.0 mph. I'm definitely more comfortable descending than I used to be... at least on straight downhills. If there's a turn, I'm still a little cautious. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.

Remember how I said the dismount line was downhill? Yea, here's the hill from/to the line. I was riding my brakes at this point, knowing that just around the corner, I had to stop and get off the bike. Thankfully the girl behind me let me know she was on my left at the line so that I didn't kick her as I got off the bike!

Headed back in on my bike

Random note: Around mile 12/13, my right hand really started to bother me. I've been having weird feelings lately, like I can't fully crack my wrist. Well, that feeling was getting worse on my bike. At one point, I couldn't really feel my index finger, which is a problem because that's my shifting finger! It's still not really feeling right.

T2

T2 was pretty uneventful. I took my time getting everything off/on and got moving to the run. I knew 35-40 minutes and I'd be done. I just wasn't in a hurry to get there. (Oops?)

Coming out of T2

Run

As we came out of transition, it went downhill a little, we turned a corner (where there was a much needed water station), and then it was back uphill... for almost the first mile. Around .8 miles, I started having sharp pains from my knee, again. The knee problem from last season. Turns out, it's my VMO, and it's not playing nice. Trigger point here I come! Anyhow... I was being stubborn, so I stopped to try to massage it out. No bueno. I couldn't bare the thought of walking the 5k, so I started shuffling along. I met this awesome woman, Pam, who I ended up chatting and running with the rest of the run. It was great to have someone with me. If she hadn't been there, I'm not sure I would've continued running the run. I knew I'd pay for running with the inner quad... but I wasn't quite sure how much.

Final chute

Post-race

After finishing, I found Jon and we chatted for a few minutes. Went back to transition to get all of my crap, I mean gear, and then parked it all at the Team Z tent. We all got vouchers for a personal pizza from Papa Johns (who had a mobile unit at the race site - genius!). Not in the real food plan, but it was good post-race food. We decided to take it back to the camp site and eat lunch there and start to get cleaned up/tearing down.

Now that it's Monday... the VMO thing is bad, really bad. I woke up this morning and it hurt. It hurt to go down the stairs, do lunges at our weight lifting class, and basically to walk later in the day. I did some trigger point on it, so I'm sure that's part of what's bothering it today. I've also iced it a couple of times. Ugh. More trigger point tomorrow and we'll see if we can get to the bottom of what's causing it. I'm super annoyed. It ONLY happens from bike to run, so we'll see if I can train it out.

Hindsight
1) Should've tried on the wetsuit previous to the race.
2) Should've just not worn the wetsuit.
3) I really should train for these things.
4) If the inner quad/VMO is bothering me, it's best just to walk the run.
5) No matter how bad you think you have it, someone else has it worse.

Stats for the race
Overall placing: 539/592
Age group placing (Women 30-34): 49/54
Swim: 21:58 (750m)
T1: 4:21
Bike: 1:01:34 (15.5 -16 mi)
T2: 3:06
Run: 37:05 (5k)
Overall time: 2:08:02