Issaquah Triathlon Race Recap

Good morning all! It's been a while since my last post - and even this one is delayed. Life tends to be a bit hectic 'round here and now is no exception. We finally got keys to our rental house and our stuff arrived on Monday. We are now in a sea of boxes and chaos but luckily it doesn't have to all be put away today. But it is going to drive me nuts pretty quickly. And not having my internet working at the new house has not been helpful. Oh and did I mention BOTH of my credit card numbers were stolen? Yea, so that's been fun. Needless to say, blogging has taken a back seat! The universe is playing cruel tricks on me. Check out this chaos in our garage:

I need a drink.

But here is the overdue recap from my first tri of the season, which was last Saturday.

We actually got our packets and body markings on Friday evening to save some time on Saturday. Was a good idea, and Julia got a kick out of it! She wanted "band-aids" too (that's what she calls stamps, or in this case, my race number)

I had no idea what to expect and I was super nervous about this one. Not only was it my first tri since embarking on Ironman training, but my first since September and my first in Washington state. The weather has been chilly here - which is great for racing - but definitely an adjustment from the heat back in Michigan.

I got up super duper early on Saturday and picked up our friend Aaron, who rode with me out to Lake Sammamish (about 20 minutes east of the city and also where our new house is). Remind me to tell you about Aaron one of these days - he's amazing and an inspiration. I'll save that for another post but check out his website HERE.

The race was bigger than I thought it was going to be - I lost count of the number of people but there were 41 women in my age group alone, so a lot bigger than the races last summer.

I got my stuff all set up and had plenty of time to spare

I really need to name my bike...



I also spent time with my fellow Tough Chik Christy, whose bike was right across from mine. Always good to see another friendly face in the masses of strangers

I debated about wearing my wetsuit since the swim was only 1/4 mile but when I saw 98% of the people wearing them, I figured it was wise. The air was about 52 degrees and the water 61 so it actually felt warm.

I decided to go with the Elite wave - as that's what I did all last summer. There were only 29 people who went in this wave, only 5 of us women. The swim felt great, easy and quick. I was 2nd woman out and done in 6:48 and had a long 2 minute run back to transition. It took me a bit of time to get my wetsuit off and wipe the mud off my feet, but I was off on my bike feeling pretty good.

The bike was uneventful and I felt like I was going fast, but not too fast where my legs were going to be shot by the time I got to the run. I didn't take my Garmin, so was unsure of my speed but I felt strong. I got passed by 2 women on the bike, so for those of you scoring at home, that put me last in the Elite wave. Blerg. It was an out and back so I watched the Elite men zoom by but just kept trucking. There were 2 pretty big hills but I powered through.

I finished the bike in 47:48 minutes for 15 miles, putting me just shy of 19mph. I'll take it!

Quick stop into T2 and I was off on the run. They said that the course was on various terrain, but what they should have said was 90% of it was on uneven, muddy, slippery grass. Yuck. It was pretty running through the park, but I could never get my footing fully and always felt like I was going to twist an ankle. I was zipping along, though, and felt great through the 3 mile run.  My run time was 23:34 so a bit slower, but still not bad considering the course.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:22:49. Hard to judge that finish time, as the distances were different than my sprints last year.

I rallied back with Aaron and Christy just as the rain started to fall. Glad I wasn't out on the run course in the rain - I surely would have fallen!

I honestly thought I had done better than that. I was very frustrated, as I finished 13th in my age group, almost 10 minutes behind the woman who won the division. There are some crazy fast people out here but I was 28th overall female out of 171, so I guess that's not too bad - just shy of top 15%. And the finisher's medal is cute

After wallowing in my self pity for a while, texting my coach to apologize that I let him down, and with Rob's help, I came to realize this is not a big deal. I'm in the midst of endurance training for an event that is still 5 1/2 months away. I'm not training for a sprint and need to keep my "eye on the prize" which is finishing Ironman. I have only had 2 "off" days since February 1, so I'm also guessing I'm a bit tired, mentally and physically.

So back to the grind I go with more training, looking towards Lake Stevens 70.3 in 5 weeks and re-focus. Here's hoping that strategy works!

Questions:
1) How do you deal with a disappointing race finish?
2) What is your "big prize" for this year?
3) Want to help me unpack and organize my house? I pay in beer and treats :)