Giant Acorn International Race Recap

This was a somewhat local race to DC - allowing me to wait to the last minute to register and no need for a hotel or extensive travel plans.  The late start time even allowed for a normal amount of sleep the night before.  This race was 6 short days after Augusta 70.3.  I spent the time recovering my legs in hopes to be able to race and PR at the Giant Acorn.  The weeks training consisted of elliptical with almost no resistance and swimming.  By Wednesday I knew my legs would be able to race on Saturday so I registered online just in time before the race sold out.  I worked out a ride with some DC Tri friends and focused the last couple days on getting my legs and body as ready as it could possibly be.  I had set a goal of finishing Nation's under 2:30 but with the canceled swim my 1:56 was under 2:30 but missing the swim portion.  I am confident that I would have still finished under 2:30 but I wanted to prove it at Giant Acorn.

Race Morning
  After having the breakfast of champions, Special K Red Berries with frozen banana, my ride was soon to be here so I double checked my bag and headed outside.  I was lucky enough to have curbside pickup from the DC Tri crew.  We quickly loaded my bike on the roof rack, thank goodness because my bike is so tiny that it doesn't fit on all trunk racks, and hit the road for the Lake Anna Marina in Bumpass, VA.  It was overcast, slightly raining throughout the drive and cold.  I spent most of the drive mentally dealing with the fact that I was going to race in the cold air.  I came to the conclusion that the faster I biked and ran the sooner I could get out of the coldness and it would probably feel good during the run anyways.  Race start was at 10:00 so we planned on arriving at 9:00 to give ourselves in hour for packet pick-up, transition set-up and warm-up.

Pre Race
As planned we arrived around 9:00 with what we thought would be plenty of time to pull ourselves together.  We soon realized we were mistaken - either 90% of the athlete's arrived at 9:00am or the race was not prepared to handle packet pickup in the AM.  The line was out of control.  We waited in line for 40 minutes, transition closed at 9:45.  I had to run to the car get my bike and gear and set up transition in 5 minutes!  Yikes.  I was in go mode.  Luckliy it seems some athlete's decided not to show due to the cooler conditions so transition was not as packed as it might have been.  I created an organized mess around my bike before getting into my wetsuit.  As I got into my wetsuit I realized I had left my awesome red swim cap in the car.  No big deal I went back to packet pickup and got another red cap, much easier than heading to the car.  I got body marked, donned "DAD" (no time for black armband) on my left arm and took some deep breaths for a few minutes before the starting gun of the first wave.  As I took in the crowd and the course I noticed that there seemed to be an unusually large amount of females in my age group.  Come to find out it was the Collegiate Regional Championships.

THE SWIM - 1500m - 31:48
The water was choppy - I'm used to pretty flat water and there were a huge amount of people in my start wave.  I found myself a nice starting position toward the inside of the course in front of most of the crowd which may or may not have been a good decision.  I got pummeled the first 400m of the course - both by waves and other athletes.  Many athlete's were swimming off course and having difficulty sighting.  Definitely not a good race to draft unless you were keeping track of where you were headed.  The swim was hard, I battled waves and athlete's the entire distance.  Overall I was happy with my swim time, I expected worse given the conditions.  I will continue to get better at the swim.

T1 - 2:58
Not my fastest T1 time but I had to get the wetsuit off and deal with my organized mess when I got to my bike rack.

THE BIKE -   - 1:09:53
The air felt cold on the arms at first - now I know why people get arm warmers.  The rest of me was ok a little chilly but I warmed up quickly.  Shortly into the bike I went to take some water and realized that in my rush of the morning I had not dumped my water into my aero bottle while setting up in transition.  Luckily I had a bottle of Heed in my bottle cage and dumped that into the aero bottle.  At least I had Heed and PowerGels - I needed whatever I could get to push my legs to a PR.  The bike course was 2 loops of rolling hills.  It was fun - none of the climbs were outrageous and there were some long downhills.  The course never really felt crowded but was definitely much busier as I came around on my 2nd loop.  I took 3 gels during this bike to help prepare myself for the run.  I would have like to have a bit better bike time, my average speed was 21.34 MPH, looking for this to be about 22 MPH and above on flat courses.  My legs started to feel the previous weekend's 70.3 effort near the end of the ride.

T2 - 2:03
Nothing too exciting here, back to the organized mess.  Got into my run shoes and grabbed the race # belt before heading out to the run course.

THE RUN - 10 - 50:23
The run course was 2 loops of 3.1 miles.  I was not cold at all - the cooler air felt nice for a change.  It was on the run course that I saw the massive group of girls in my age group coming back towards me while I was heading out on loop 1.  I thought I had done well enough on the bike and positioned myself in front of those in my age group - little did I know the collegiate's were way out in front.  My legs were feeling tired so I just passed people 1 by 1 during the run to keep me mentally in the game.  I was realizing that I probably wouldn't break 2:30 but still could PR so I was pushing as much as I could.  I took advantage of water and Heed at every opportunity.  A small section of the run course was through a wooded trail and I loved it - trails always make me run faster!  The run was not close to my 10k PR but good enough considering my legs were pretty beat.

OVERALL - 2:37:02
A new International Distance PR for me.  I was happy with that but a bit disappointed about not breaking 2:30.  There will be many more chances and many more races more conducive to such a goal.  With the amount of girls who had finished in front of me I figured I probably didn't place.  I asked some of the timing people of the collegiate's were in the age group divisions or if they had their own division and was told they would be in the Age Group divisions.  I met up with the DC Tri crew, put on some warmer clothes and got back on the road.  Come to find out - I won my AG!  Wish I would have known at the race site but no big deal.

Post Race Thoughts
I don't like being rushed before the race, now I really am sure of this.  I will always be at races much too early rather than rushing around.  This seemed to be the most unorganized Set-Up events race I have done.  I was happy to finish the season with a PR - my body and mind were ready for a break.  My focus now shifts to the marathon that is only a couple of short weeks away.  I have been developing goals for next year, putting together the 2012 race schedule and seeking out Ironman Training plans.

Luray Sprint Triathlon Recap

PRE-RACE SATURDAY EVENING
Luray, VA got pummeled with rain on Saturday evening.  Rory and I had luckily just finished securing the rain fly, throwing ours bags in the car and covering the bikes before the rain hit.  We headed down to the town of Luray for packet pickup before dinner.  The rain started pouring down just after we left the campsite.  When we got to packet pickup we got drenched just running from the car to the store.  We then had to wait in line in the store to go back outside to actually get out packets.  Luckily they had a couple tents set up for packet pickup so you just had to take a couple leaps through the rain and dodge the puddles.

With packet pickup behind us we set out for dinner.  We chose Uncle Buck's for convenience and style, it was right next door to packet pickup and it was definitely and locally owned and operated establishment.  We were not disappointed at all.  It was a hoppin' place but we were able to be seated right away and the service was good.  We were enjoyed our dinner and got out to see a line out the door to wait to be seated!  We walked up and down the main drag of Luray exploring the quaint town's uniqueness.  We found an underground bowling alley, extravagant murals, small boutiques and local bakeries and eateries.  After our post-dinner walk we jumped back in the car and drove up the road to check out the Luray Caverns parking lot and bell tower.  We didn't actually want to go in the caverns and they were closed.

We headed back to camp and found we had a few new neighbors at our campsite area.  We took some reading material and H2O under the pavilion with us since it was still early in the evening.  We had a relaxing evening and prepared for the next morning before hitting the sack. Luckily everything in the tent had stayed completely dry!  We attempted to go to bed quite early – but some of our entertaining neighbors were the stereotypical couple on a camping trip!  Bickering, bossing around, the whole 9 yards.  Eventually we were able to get some great shut eye.

PRE-RACE SUNDAY AM

We awoke a bit earlier than planned on Sunday morning due to the events company setting up for everyone and others around us who had gotten up.  I ate the breakfast of champions (Special K Red Berried, Milk, Banana) in my car.  The rain had let up and we were able to easily prepare everything for the race.  We got our bikes ready, which had managed to stay completely dry, got body marked, and set up transition.  We were quite pleased that we indeed had one of the best transition spots in the entire area - transition was set up alphabetically so Rory and I were of course right next to each other.  Before heading our of transition we both donned or black "DAD" armband.  We then set out to check out the swim course and get a warm-up swim in.  The water temperature had dropped just enough to make the race wetsuit legal, but we both decided to forego the wetsuit option.

THE SWIM – 750m – 16:18

Not my best swim, not my worst.  The swim start was more brutal than the day before among all women <34.  I was repeatedly kicked, slapped, swam over, etc.  I was able to keep my cool and try to swim “my race” the best I could.  Before the start of the race I ran into some DC Tri folk which was nice and calmed the nerves a bit.  The water right before the swim exit seemed much darker than the day before.  It was black, you could not see a thing!

T1 – 1:59

A few lessons learned from the day before and a prime transition spot help me cut a solid 12 seconds off this time.

THE BIKE -  16.5miles – 58:18

Not quite as good as the day before.  My legs started to really feel it toward the end of the bike.  The massive hill at the end of the course was lined with spectators with cow bells, fog horns, and the like which was probably the only thing that got me up said hill.  Would like to have seen some faster splits but with the tough course and 2 days in a row I wasn’t disappointed with the performance.

T2 – 1:03

Another 12 seconds faster than the previous days transition.  I’m convinced it was the prime transition location.

THE RUN – 5k – 24:24

I knew the course well and was determined to push it up and down the hills.  A bit faster of a split time than the previous day so I was happy with my effort.  The legs were feeling the previous days effort during the run but I was able to block out any discomfort and push to the finish line.  I didn’t have an age group competitor near me to directly compete with but there was a younger athlete that I used to push myself for my final kick to the finish line.  I love passing people during the last 800m.

RESULT – 3^rd Place 20-24 Female – 1:41:58

Not much of a close race.  The 1^st and 2^nd place finisher had more than a few minutes on me, though they didn’t compete in the international race the day before.  A good result considering I had done the double.

Once again we enjoyed ice baths and peanut butter and jelly post race – with our own chocolate milk of course.  After refueling and taking some pictures we cheered on some of the final finishers before the awards ceremony.  Rory checked his finish time – he improved by 14:00 over his last sprint distance tri!  The awards ceremony last forever but I complete my wine set – another stemless wine glass for 3^rd place and a goblet for completing the double!

An awesome weekend with my brother out in the woods.  It was good for the soul and mind.  I am so glad we camped, it was free convenient and awesome.  I didn’t feel sleep deprived either night and transition was literally across the street from us.  

Tri Latta Sprint Triathlon 2011 Race Recap

I was lucky to have finished school the Tuesday before the race, therefore freeing up time to travel to the Charlotte area on Thursday.  Now you might wonder why this was important.  The the open divisions, age groupers, athenas, and clydesdales all race on Saturday at Tri Latta, leaving Sunday for the novices.  As Ryan and I both compete as age groupers it made for our first Saturday race.  I don't know if the result would have been any different but I do think it was a game changer traveling on Thursday and having Friday to relax and prepare for the race on Saturday.

Pre-Race: Saturday 4:45 AM

Alarm clock goes off - time to get out of bed, stumble to hotel lobby and obtain "grab and go" breakfast.  Made it back to the room, was able to enjoy Special K Red Berries with Almond Milk and a Banana.  If you aren't aware this is my go to breakfast, preferably with frozen banana in the Special K.  After breakfast it was time to put on the race wear, fill water bottles, pump bike tires, grab the transition bag and head out the door by 5:15.  Next year we will leave at 5, as the parking situation at Tri Latta is almost a disaster.  We were a little cheated of some warm up time but we handled it.

The Swim - 750 m - 17:35

Post-Race

I need a swim coach.  I felt good in the water, I thought I was headed for a decent time around 15:00 - not quite, as you can see.  To date this was the most brutal swim wave I have ever started with.  All women ages 15-40 started the race at the same time.  I was smacked, pushed down, kicked, elbowed, and everything else.  Within the first 150m my goggles were kicked off my face, I had to stop, tread water, and fix the goggles after I stopped panicking for all of 1 second, though it seemed like about 30s of panic, wondering what in the world I should do about the goggles.   The water can make you go crazy and not think straight.  I drafted for about the first 350m, I thought that would have helped the time.  Most disappointing is the fact that this time is more than 1:00 slower than my time in the Kinetic Sprint last month.  Had I met my goal of hitting 15:00 I would have won.  Lessons learned from this swim are never settle for comfortable in the water and every course is different, at least it was an improvement from last year's time! Do you have any advice, any workouts, know any good swim coaches in the DC area?

T1 - 2:43

Improvement from last year and the Kinetic Sprint.  A bit of a hike from the water up to transition at Latta.  Put on socks and shoes, put on helmet, and off I went.  I tried a new technique with my hair, I left it in a ponytail under my swim cap, no messy bun.  When I took the swim cap off my hair was already in a ponytail for the bike, no messing with wet hair.

The Bike -  17 Miles - 51:42

One great ride.  My legs felt awesome the whole ride.  I taped a PowerGel to my bike frame for some nutrition around mile 11.  I need to start taking in more water during the ride.  Adversity struck again at the beginning of the bike when I went to mount the bike - my chain was off!  I tried to pedal and pedal with no avail.  Luckily I realized this before falling over and was able to quickly fix the problem. 

T2 - 2:02

This was a smooth transition.  Re-racked the bike, changed shoes, grabbed the race # belt, and fixed my hair on the way out of transition.

The Run - 5k - 24:57

A good run for me.  I felt great the whole way and was consistently passing people.  Saw a fellow FCA-E Teammate on the Run!  Reminded me of why I race and helped me push through.  Ample water stops along the entirely shaded 5k route were awesome.  1/2 cup in my mouth the other 1/2 over my head at every water table.  

Lessons Learned

I need to focus on my swimming, and pushing myself in the water.  My bike is going well and I couldn't be happier, I will continue to build on my strengths.  My run is also coming along in good fashion.  Improvement over my last running performance and felt great the entire run.  I would like to continue to improve my transition times as these are two areas I never want to look at think if I only would've transitioned faster.  Have you done any races lately that you've come away with some take home lessons?  If so what, were they?

Overall Time - 1:38:56

Finished under my goal time of 1:40:00!  Very happy with my overall performance.  I took home 2nd Place in the Women's 20-24 Age Group Competition.  Bittersweet, as had I met my goal swim time I would have took 1st Place.  Can only look to improve my weaknesses and keep building on my strengths.  Awesome race, I will definitely be back, it has a special place in my heart.  Ryan also improved his race time by about 4 minutes!  We are looking forward to an Olympic Distance Race in July and can't wait to see what we can do.

20-24 F AG Winners (3rd, 1st, 2nd)

Culpeper Sprint Triathlon

Continuing on writing about my Triathlon experiences thus far I am back tracking to August 1, 2010. Ryan and I packed up our Swim, Bike, Run gear and drove out to the Blue Ridge Mountains for the Culpeper Sprint Triathlon. It was a nice get-a-way from the city with a quaint small town and my dear mother even met us there to support us and cheer us on all the way! After making the couple hour drive out there Ryan and I checked into out simple hotel room, got Subway for lunch and met up with my mom in the small quaint town of Culpeper. I must add I have been wanting to do Culpeper for a couple years until this point. Culpeper was my first triathlon experience ever in 2008 - I cheered my brother on a couple days before my last preseason of college soccer. Ever since seeing him and all the others swim, bike, run I knew I had found something I could and wanted to do when soccer came to an end! I am so blessed to have fallen in love with everything about multi-sport.

We spent a wonderful afternoon with my mom - she even drove us to the race site and drove the bike course and the run course for us. Before checking out the race course we went to packet pickup at the local bike shop, which is worth checking out if you are ever in town. This was our first experience checking the course out intentionally before race day. It's a good thing we did and I definitely recommend scoping out the race course if it is was one you are unfamiliar with. We hadn't realized it until the drive but it was a very hilly course-duh it was in the Blue Ridge Mountains!

We all retired early so we could wake and arrive at the race site with plenty of time to prepare ourselves! Morning came and we enjoyed some good continental breakfast ( a la my own Special K Red Berries) before heading to the race site. To our surprise crazy triathletes on a tight budget had popped tents in the parking area! The transition area was clearly marked and set-up so the morning went smoothly.

After setting up our transition areas we got in our race spandex and headed to the lake for a warm-up swim and the National Anthem. We were happily surprised by my mom shortly after our warm-up, with her camera in hand of course! As the usual Ryan's wave was before mine so I was able to cheer him on at the beginning! Soon enough it was my turn, lined up in the water waiting for the GO. Alas, we were off, I chose to start near the bouy and in the front, may have been a mistake, but it worked! I was able to find some toes and draft another swimmer-allowing me to stay on course and improve my swim time by 3:10! I must admit some of this also has to do with the previous open water experience and the training I had been doing.

I ran out of the water and up to my transition area. I had a smooth transition and was off on the bike in no time. The bike course was hilly! There were enough people that you were most often near or in sight of another racer which was nice, and fed my competitive fire to catch people from behind. I took my PowerGel toward the end of the bike to get my energy back up for the run.

When I came in to dismount my bike there was mom right at the corner with the camera cheering me on! Another smooth transition and I was off on the 5k run! The run was hilly as well-it was an out back with 2 little out and back off-shoots down side roads. I saw Ryan on his way back on the first off-shoot and I never looked back! I pushed myself the whole run just trying to catch him. At each aide station I took 2 waters-one to drink and one to dump over myself. I read this in a Runner's World I believe and I do love the tactic. I was about 2.9 miles into it and headed around the big turn with all the fans and racers back to the finish shoot! I got such a boost when I got near the finish line-I started running as fast as I could while licking my chops and trying to catch anyone in front of me!

An awesome finish, with Ryan and my mom to greet me! Needless to say, I never actually caught Ryan. The finish line offered us pizza, pretzels, fruit, sports drink, water, etc. Nothing too special tho. We enjoyed the fresh air while basking in our accomplishment and waiting for the results and rewards. The results were posted and my first words out of my mouth to Ryan were "My name's above yours! I beat you!" I couldn't contain my excitement but he did great and I only beat him by 30s or so. We stayed around to see the awards-which in themselves were disappointing as they were folding blue camping chairs. I guess Models or Dicks had a sale.

Overall, Culpeper was a great race with great company. Challenging for the sprint distance due to the hills. I would recommend this race if you have never done it but I may be looking to try a different one this year during that time frame. The finish line festivities and awards were sub-par compared to what I had seen 2 years previously.

Final Culpeper Results:

750m Swim: 14:50

16 mile Bike: 56:58

5k Run: 24:46

Finish Time: 1:40:18 ( Good enough for 6th in the age group)