My running has just been so sucky since my hamstring strain in 2015. I've also suffered from some calf problems which just slows me down so significantly. I've grown to dread runs in general and if anything has to get shortened in my weekly training, it's usually the run. With this in mind, I'm not sure if I'll be competing in the triple sport category next year and may shift to the aquabike division. We'll see. But first, I still have 8 weeks until Santa Rosa, so I need to get consistent with running at least over the next 8 weeks.
Now on to the race report...
PRE-RACE
I was able to make it to packet pickup on Thursday night and get in a swim at Boulder Reservoir that night. It was a HORRIBLE swim. First time I put the wetsuit on this year and what should have been a 1500m swim was nearly 2400m. I just couldn't see where I was going and it took me time to adjust to wetsuit reality again. This concerned me for race day. In other news, the Colorado Triathlon swag bag is off the chain: hoodie shirt, water bottle, pint glass, lots of samples. If you didn't know already, I primarily pick races based on the swag they distribute.
I planned to go into this race knowing that I could very well end up DFL (dead freaking last), but I was planning to just race my own race and not worry about how good everyone else is in this state full of super fit triathletes. I'm over it.
RACE MORNING
Up at 4:40a, load up the car, on the road by 5:15. Ben slept in because he gets up every morning at 5:30a and I told him to just sleep. He deserves it!
I had a bagel with peanut butter and a Bing cherry energy drink instead of coffee. I was at the race site by 6:05 and had plenty of time to set up my transition, body marking, timing chip and a short warm up run. You couldn't ask for a better weather day: cool air temps, sunny, dry, light winds.
Swim warm-up opened at 7 and whew lord, that water was COLD. They said 66 degrees which is not the coldest I've experienced but I felt it. Lots of folks were freaking out about water temps but it is an early June race so...that's what's up. Did a few hundred yards around the practice swim perimeter and felt FINE. Let's do this thing.
SWIM
Outstanding swim. If you look at my Strava, you'll see my route was on course and total yardage was almost exactly race distance. My start to shore time was 33:42 but I took my sweet time from shore to transition so my official race swim split was 35:01. T1 was 3:04....which is slow, but whatevs.
BIKE
Decent bike, but not my best time on this route. Basically what I expected...1:38:33 on 23.5 miles (not a true Olympic bike course). I probably could have pushed harder on the bike. I was just phoning it in a bit and having a nice ride. Same for T2...wasted a lot of time (4:02) doing I-don't-know-what...dreading the run, perhaps? Likely...
RUN
Well, as I said, not good. In positive news, it was better than my run/walk pace of 15 minute miles at Bolder Boulder, but it was still pitiful. And in better news, I wasn't DFL! Run time was 1:28:17.
Total finish time: 3:48:58
Overall, I achieved my goals:
Now on to the race report...
PRE-RACE
I was able to make it to packet pickup on Thursday night and get in a swim at Boulder Reservoir that night. It was a HORRIBLE swim. First time I put the wetsuit on this year and what should have been a 1500m swim was nearly 2400m. I just couldn't see where I was going and it took me time to adjust to wetsuit reality again. This concerned me for race day. In other news, the Colorado Triathlon swag bag is off the chain: hoodie shirt, water bottle, pint glass, lots of samples. If you didn't know already, I primarily pick races based on the swag they distribute.
I planned to go into this race knowing that I could very well end up DFL (dead freaking last), but I was planning to just race my own race and not worry about how good everyone else is in this state full of super fit triathletes. I'm over it.
RACE MORNING
Up at 4:40a, load up the car, on the road by 5:15. Ben slept in because he gets up every morning at 5:30a and I told him to just sleep. He deserves it!
I had a bagel with peanut butter and a Bing cherry energy drink instead of coffee. I was at the race site by 6:05 and had plenty of time to set up my transition, body marking, timing chip and a short warm up run. You couldn't ask for a better weather day: cool air temps, sunny, dry, light winds.
Swim warm-up opened at 7 and whew lord, that water was COLD. They said 66 degrees which is not the coldest I've experienced but I felt it. Lots of folks were freaking out about water temps but it is an early June race so...that's what's up. Did a few hundred yards around the practice swim perimeter and felt FINE. Let's do this thing.
 |
| Transition area rocking my "Pathetic" T-shirt |
SWIM
Outstanding swim. If you look at my Strava, you'll see my route was on course and total yardage was almost exactly race distance. My start to shore time was 33:42 but I took my sweet time from shore to transition so my official race swim split was 35:01. T1 was 3:04....which is slow, but whatevs.
BIKE
Decent bike, but not my best time on this route. Basically what I expected...1:38:33 on 23.5 miles (not a true Olympic bike course). I probably could have pushed harder on the bike. I was just phoning it in a bit and having a nice ride. Same for T2...wasted a lot of time (4:02) doing I-don't-know-what...dreading the run, perhaps? Likely...
RUN
Well, as I said, not good. In positive news, it was better than my run/walk pace of 15 minute miles at Bolder Boulder, but it was still pitiful. And in better news, I wasn't DFL! Run time was 1:28:17.
Total finish time: 3:48:58
Overall, I achieved my goals:
- didn't drown
- didn't crash
- didn't finish DFL
- first and only in my race category (Athena Olympic distance)
- didn't completely embarrass myself
So 8 weeks until Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa. I think I can actually do better than my pitiful time at Ironman 70.3 Boulder last year but not sure if I could come close to beating my Ironman 70.3 Steelhead time from 2015. Going to work hard and stay consistent over the next 8 weeks. If nothing else, training in Colorado this time of year is the absolute best. Every day outside is a delight. Makes the process fun as well. Stay tuned!
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