The last two weeks leading up to this race had been really, really busy with moving out of the house, buying a new place, getting some hours in at work, applying for a new job, and of course with training. I made sure that I didn’t skip any of the latter, even when it meant a couple short nights. But on Sunday at the Longhorn, 70.3 Austin all the work paid off. I placed 8th in the women’s field.
After two days of acclimatizing to the “heat” (ok, no Texan would consider this weather warm right now, but any Edmontonian will J), spending some time with Mike and Steph (my great homestay) and their triathlon friends, taking a look at the course (during which I fell asleep in the car…oops) and getting everything ready, it was time to race. Race morning was a beautiful, calm morning, with a bit of overcast (meaning it wouldn’t be that hot – am I ever lucky with the weather ;-)!). Mike, who was also racing, drove me out there at 5am, so I had plenty of time to set everything up. With ten minutes to my wave start at 7.30 am, it was still pitch dark, and I started to wonder how anybody will be able to see the buoys. Literally five minutes later the sun rose up, just in time for us to find our way in the swim.
The swim start was fast as usual, but not very aggressive. There was enough space for everybody. My goal was to go out as hard as I can to get onto some feet and not swim all by myself, again. It kind of worked for the first 200m, then the guy I was trying to hang onto was getting too fast for me. I re-oriented myself and started to swim next to another female athlete. All I can say is that it seemed to me like two “troubled” swimmers found each other….I kept bumping into her, or she into me, who knows. So, I went behind her, thinking that maybe drafting in her feet would be easier (easier to do, and easier feeling-wise). Didn’t work out that well. She was swimming off the course, so here I go again…taking my own line. The whole way back we swam quasi parallel to each other, me along the buoys and her a bit (10-15m) out to the side. However, I could still see a bunch of arms swinging out of the water not too far ahead of me, so I knew it is not as bad as in Coeur d’Alene, where I saw nobody anymore. Overall, I guess my swim was as good as it is these days. So, after fighting with some green in the last 50min, I exited the water, got stripped from my wetsuit, shoved all my swim stuff into my bag (everybody had to), ran to the mounting line, and hopped onto my bike, happily passing one girl right there already.
After a little break after IM Coeur d’Alene, and a couple hard weekends training with everybody that was peaking for IM Canada (and thus feeling slow and out of shape ;-)!), I finally felt like my old “fitter” ;-) self again in the week leading up to the Provincial ITT and the Xterra Alberta. The ITT was held on Saturday in Calgary on a new, still closed Highway. The course promised to be fast, and while at it, it felt that way and also looked promising on my Powermeter….However, as the Highway was still unfinished, and had a couple big bumps (which I DIDN'T jump over), my back tire gave out with a big “bang” at km 32 of the race….just as I was getting excited to push through the last, slightly downward + tailwind section of the race. Well, well…there it went my chances to win another TT-Medal. At least I have a good power-number now to train with.
New day, new luck…at the Xterra Alberta in Canmore the next day: 1km swim, 20km Mountain-biking and 7km trail running – all in the Nordic centre. Since my expectations for this race were quite low (considering my chicken-like behaviour on a mountain bike, and not knowing how much I would feel the 32km TT-effort) I went into this race rather relaxed and with the attitude of “having fun”. The “fun” started in the swim, when after ca. 400m I noticed that I was surprisingly leading the swim. Oh, oh….this won’t happen that soon again I thought, and thus pushed to make sure I maintain in this position – once first out of the water, haha! Felt good. Also, first out on my Mountain bike….I realized that it is pretty hard to push uphill, when you just swam as fast as possible. Shortly after that I missed the right trail, and when coming back onto the course saw Nanci, a really strong athlete and great mountain biker, ahead of me. So, I decided to try and follow her, and to do exactly what she is doing :-)! This strategy worked quite well on the uphill, but as soon as it went down….phhuuuhh, where did they go??? Hmmm….back to me just wanting to have fun today, and to improve my Mountain bike skills (really the main reason for signing up for this was tricking myself into riding faster downhill than I usually would want to :-))….and fun I had, even though I probably hopped off my bike more often than any other top10 finisher. Whatever though…I saw other competitors riding their lungs out, but not moving faster than me running and pushing my bike. Felt kinda bad about that. Will practice more ;-)! In the end, about 5 or 6 women passed me on the bike, not as bad as I had expected. Heading out onto the run I wanted to try to stay optimistic about passing people back..you never know. Managed to do this once only, as the mountain bike chicks had put quite a substantial gap between me and themselves. So, in the end, I was happy to have clocked the fastest run, and finish 5th female. Xterra I am coming back. I liked it because it seems more playful, sometimes harder than a regular tri, sometimes easier ;-)! And, Canmore is always worth a trip.
Aftera daylong road trip with my friend Noni (who turned out to be the loudest cheerleader on race day ;-)) fromEdmonton all the way down South to Coeur d’Alene, we arrived at our homestay with the Barnes’ family – true Ironman-enthusiasts: 18-year old Sam getting ready for his first IM, Dave being the Medical Director for the race, Linda and uncle Jim volunteering and cheering all day.
The weather was perfect for athletes coming from Alberta, but, according to the announcer, it must have been a “nasty day” for people from California ;-)! I was just happy to not face a heat record on race day…17 degrees sounded great to me. Prior to the race my worries about a potentially too hot day for my taste, had actually turned into concerns right in the other direction, when they told us at the pro-meeting, that it might actually be wise to take cover in case of a mountain hailstorm! Whaaat??? Just imagining how bad the weather would have to be for any of the pros to really actually stop racing, and look for cover made me fantasize about tennis ball-sized hailstones coming down :-)!
Yesterday I raced the Longhorn 70.3 Austin, TX. A weather-wise perfect day (not very hot or humid, a bit of wind) turned out to be great overall. After coming out of the water in 15th spot I managed to bike and run up to 8th place, and with that fulfilled my goal of placing top 10. It was a great experience, still looking at and learning from the big names, and just really enjoying to race with / against them. A more detailed description of the race in my report.
Thanks to Tom Keogh, Sheila Findley, Noni Herchen, Andy Trevoy, Dwayne Gibbs, Mia Clarke, Jim Greenough, and all my other friends and family for supporting me in my quest to become a better triathlete! Thanks for believing in me, too!
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