Liberty Olympic Distance Triathlon

Saturday was my second Olympic Distance Triathlon Race. The first one was two years ago in Rochester on a hot and incredibly windy day. If you want to torture yourself, you can read about it here. You don’t need to go read about it. All you need to know was that I finished 13th out of 13 in my division and 52nd out of 62 women. I redeemed myself at Liberty. This will be a much more fun race report to read.

Liberty is held at a beautiful park only 10 minutes from our house. It’s truly my “home course” as I run the run course and bike the roads on the bike course regularly. There was also a half iron distance race starting just 30 minutes before our race, and it was great to see friends like Amy getting ready for their long distance event. Here is Mike helping me zip up my wet suit. You can see my new tri bike with the number 490 on it, all prepped for it’s first race.

Unlike Rochester, the weather for this race was ideal. With just a little breeze and temperatures in the 60’s, the weather would not be a factor. The water was a comfortable 66 degrees and reasonably calm. Since the tri was so close to home, lots of friends signed up which made it really fun. Here we all are getting ready to head to the beach for the start:

The swim wasn’t my favorite part of this race. That is my positive way of saying that I really didn’t like the swim. There were only 45 women in my wave so there should have been plenty of room to swim. For reasons unknown to me, I was bumped and crowded the whole way. When we turned around to come back to the beach, the sun was right in our eyes and it was really hard to see the buoys and finish area. It wasn’t terrible and I was never worried about my safety, it just wasn’t a whole lot of fun. I finished the 1.5K swim in 31:45, just about 20 seconds slower than my Rochester swim time. This time, my swim time ranked my 11 out of 20 in my division. Luckily, the swim would prove to be my worst leg of the day. Here I am getting out of the water with my training partner, Deb, just a few seconds behind me. I’m in the wetsuit with the red on the sleeves.

Transitions are something that have improved simply by experience. In my first triathlon, my T1 time was 7:09. It took me so long that Mike thought I might have taken a little nap before I hopped on the bike. I had rented a wet suit that refused to come off. After 6 triathlons/duathlons and getting more comfortable with my equipment, this time I made it out in 2:43. This is still a middle of the pack time, but a lot better.

Having biked the course several times, I knew it was going to be hilly and bumpy and I was not disappointed. I concentrated on maintaining a high cadence and a moderately hard effort. I was happy to see that my heart rate, which was high at the start of the bike, settled down and was reasonably low by the time I got done. I think the excitement of the swim and getting through transition had really pumped me up. I felt pretty calm by the time I put my running shoes on. I finished the 40K bike in 1:20:10 which is about 19.5 mph and was 6th in my division of 20.

I can’t imagine how many times I have run the 10K loop at Baker Park. I can remember the first time I ran it and was thrilled to make it 5 miles. I had never run that far in my life and couldn’t wait until the day that I could make it all the way around. Out of the hundred plus times I’ve run the loop, I’ve run counter clockwise 99% of the time. I don’t know why, but whenever presented with a circular course, I find myself turning right and going counter clockwise. For the race, we left the transition area and ran up a steep wood chip trail to the campground parking lot. After a half mile, we hit the 10k loop and headed clockwise. Running in the opposite direction with lots of other people seemed strange since I’m always going the other direction either by myself or with just a friend or two. It was hilly and seemed more down hill than up. We were going out and back, so I was a little worried that the way back would be really tough. I was breathing hard even though my heart rate wasn’t that high, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it the whole way without walking. When we hit the turn around, all was right again with the world and I was back on my home course. Even though it seemed more uphill, I knew what was coming up. I scooted up the last big hill and ran hard the last half mile which was all down hill. I ran the 10K at a 8:40 pace, negative splitted and finished that leg 6th out of 20.

Olympic distance triathlons are hard. This is what I was thinking as I crossed the finish line. I forgot to look at my time and was just happy that I ran the whole way and that I put forth a good, consistent effort all day. My finish time was 2:50:10, 30 minutes faster than Rochester. While it’s not easy to compare times from one race to another, it’s safe to say that this was a much better effort. I finished 22 out of 65 women and 6 out of 20 in my division. The weather wasn’t an issue like it was at Rochester but the field of competition was just as tough. I’ve been training harder and smarter and it paid off in the results and in my enjoyment of the day.

I signed up for this race as a training day for the Chisago Half Iron on July 24th. Wow, that was a really smart thing to do. Not only did it get me to start training early, but the day itself has reiterated how difficult the half iron distance is going to be. Not only are the bike and run more than twice a far, the weather won’t be as friendly. It’s sure to be hot and I’ve heard the run course is out in the open with no shade. I felt fine during this race but had some stomach issues right after the race was over. I’m going to have to figure that out so that it doesn’t happen in the middle of a longer race. Friends are suggesting that GU is the culprit, but I’ve used it for years without issue. I will have to do some investigating and figure it out. I will be taking my longer bike workouts very seriously so that I’m not too spent for the half marathon run. My legs felt fine for the 10K but I was ready to be done. Running a half marathon after a 56 mile bike is going to require a lot more fitness and a different approach for the run. I’ll have to figure out how much I need to slow down on the bike to be able to make it on the run. While I’m a little nervous about Chisago, I’m excited, too. If running and triathlon were easy, I would quickly lose interest. Having a puzzle to figure out makes it more interesting and challenging. I think challenging will be a word I’ll be using a lot in the same sentence as Chisago. At least for this season, I can put “Olympic distance” and “marked improvement” in the same sentence, and maybe squeeze a happy in there somewhere.