The whole plan was a bit vague, Raquel and Sami were trying
to decide if they were gonna race/come along, but between Raquel’s exams and
Sami’s last long training weekend by the end of last week it was obvious this
was going to turn into a solo race.
I had made plans to room with two friends of mine if nobody
from my family end up coming, so we cancelled one of the rooms in our
reservation and figured we would make it a fun girl’s weekend. The one part I
was not thrilled about was the drive since I was by myself, the trip itself
wasn’t a long one but is always nice to have somebody to chat with.
Fast forward to Wednesday and it hit me all of the sudden
that I had been on a funk all week long, it was time to shake it off and
concentrate on the race. By Thursday morning I did all that I could to change
the mood and get pumped for the trip.
Friday I was ready, packed my bags and loaded Pandora with
everybody’s pre-race tunes. I have to say that no, I did not like all of them
but it was pretty cool to see/listen to the music on my way to Knoxville.
Saturday morning I woke up early, had breakfast and loaded
the car. Backed the car out of the garage just to find out my front right tire
needed some air, thank GOD Sami had the bright idea to look at the tire to make
sure there were no nails. Come to find out I had no one but two nails, so had
to drop off the car at a Goodyear store nearby and ended up heading out 2hrs
later than I had initially planned.
By the time I made it to Knoxville it was almost the cut off
time for the practice swim, so went directly there, swam in the river and
proceeded to check in for both the race and the hotel. Changed into my tri kit
and went for a spin and left my bike in transition. Which by the way was
FAAAAAAAAAAAR from the swim end, if you’ve done this race on the past and
thought T1 was far well they moved it even farther due to construction, next
year I am taking roller blades J.
By the time I got back it was time to shower and meet Dasha,
Jennifer and Tony for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent laughing and
chatting which is always good before a race.
Heading to transition
The morning off we headed to transition, got a quick run in
and made it to the swim start. I was surprisingly calm, I think I am getting
good at not loosing my mind before every race. I know I’ve put the work and at
that point there is not much to do just to follow the plan and hope everything
comes together.
The swim was a wetsuit legal with some current, I don’t think
Chattanooga current but there was some. If you’ve been following my blog from
the beginning you probably remember reading my ‘summary’ of IMFL as a volunteer
and some things I needed to do/change, my wetsuit being one of them (long
sleeves vs sleeveless).
A couple of weeks a go right before New Orleans Haley Chura
was nice enough to offer her TYR Hurricane for NOLA 70.3 that way I could see
how it worked and I could borrow it for IMFL, well there was no swim in NOLA so
this was the one race where I was going to give it a try. Mind you she is
probably the BEST amateur triathlete swimmer out there, so I have to admit I
felt a bit of pressure knowing that same wetsuit had been top female out of the
water on this same race two years in a row (2010 for the Olympic and 2011
Half), I knew there was a good chance there were still some ‘speed power’ in
there and was looking forward to take advantage of it.
The gun went off and I went out like I always do HARD, the Olympic
distance is a swimmer’s distance so I wanted to put as much gap on my
competition as possible, not knowing where I was (rank wise) I took the turn
around to head to the swim finish and GOSH that was messy! At this point the
people doing the half and those doing the Olympic are swimming together, it was
not pretty and if you think I swam over you please accept my apologies, there
was no way out of the pack (or multiple packs I should say). As always I tried
to be as close to the buoys as possible and made it to the swim finish.
I glanced the clock and I thought ‘uh, oh 25min is NOT good’,
but then of course thought, well that means it was long which means is probably
going to work to my advantage. Other the run to T1 everything went super fast,
I had practice leaving the shoes on the bike so I just had to grab my helmet
and glasses and was on my way out. Now I just need to go to one of the Multisport
Explosion bike practices and learn from these kids how to do a flying mount and
dismount (yes, I had my shoes on the bike but I mounted old lady style).
As I was heading out I saw a couple of friends, and then
realized if they had started 5min ahead of me and I know them to be pretty good
swimmers I might have done ok. A couple of min later I realized I had swam a 20
NOT 25, not a PR since I have broke the 20min twice in Chattanooga but I really
don’t think this current was as strong, I will take it!
The bike course on this race is HARD, hill after hill after
hill, and I am not talking about rollers I am talking about 9mph climbs. I
wanted to go hard on the bike. By the time I made it to T2 two girls had passed
me who by the way were drafting of each other, the good thing was that as they
passed me and started taking turns an official pull next to them and apparently
gave one of them a penalty.
T2 was pretty fast too, I haven’t had a chance to compare
transition times because they are still working on the final times, but I am
willing to bet I had one of the fastest transitions in the female field.
I started running and felt ok, a bit out of breath but controlled
(I don’t know any other way you’d run a 10K in an Olympic race). By the turn
around I thought I could push a bit harder but my legs were done, I stared to
feel very fatigue and my breathing was out of control. Around mile 3 a fellow local
triathlete (Kat Tindol) passed me, Kat ended up taking 1st in our AG. I knew my run was not going too well but
wanted to make sure I finished. It was hot and the more I tried to control
my breathing the worse it got. The last mile an a half I just wanted to be
done, I was taking landmarks one at the time, a couple of times I really questioned
if I was going to finish, by the time I took the turn to the finish shute I was
just in heaven thinking I was done.
1st – I will probably not race again two weeks after a HIM, I was not able to do a couple of things in between those two races which probably harmed me more than helped.
2nd – You can turn things around, the beginning of
the week was not ideal but I managed to turn things around and by Friday I was
pumped and full of positive thoughts.
3rd - I am SO proud of myself for keep pushing, I
knew I was not having a great run, in the past I would have given up and gotten
mad, but talked myself into doing all I could to cross that finish line which
reminds me of one of my favorite quotes... “Don’t be afraid to fail, be afraid not to
try”
4th – We are all entitled to a bad day and/or bad
race, just make sure you hold your chin up and give it all.
5th – This will probably be the last time I EVER
go by myself to a race, I wished so bad that Sami, Raquel and the kids were
there, especially after the race. I was
glad to have friends there but it was not the same.
My goal is always to give it my all and I did, now is time
to recover and get back on the training wagon. While I am home I will be doing shorter
workouts, since it is the only one time I get to see the family, but they’ll be
more intense so that at least I can keep my fitness. I am eager to come back
and start with IM training, I know I am in a good place and it is only going to
get better by November.
Before I go, shoutouts to everybody who raced the half
distance… 90 degrees on that course is not something anybody can do! I was so
proud of everybody but specially my roomies Dasha and Jennifer and my friend Heather
Holland who the first thing she said when she crossed the finish line was ‘I
rather give birth to triplets than doing this again!’, well the truth is that
you have done one of the hardest courses with one of the hardest race
conditions… piece a cake from here!. As well as to Kat for taking 1st in our AG on a VERY tough day!!Happy training!
Carmen.
