Rain, rain go away; come again another day!

After a hot dry summer in the Pacific Northwest, it rained on race day.  Once upon a time, I didn't mind racing in the rain.  Who am I kidding?  I've always hated racing in the rain.  When I looked at the weather forecast for the Bonney Lake Triathlon, rain showers were forecasted.  I held off on signing up because of that, figuring that I would make my decision on race day.  When I awoke at 5:30 on race morning, the deck was damp, but it was not raining.  I decided to head to Bonney Lake and see what the weather looked like there.  As I headed down 512, I saw sunshine over Bonney Lake, so I drove to the race site.  The parking lot looked full, but I decided to take a quick look anyway, and found a lone open parking spot.  I parked the van and headed off to register for the race.  After collecting my race packet, I started to get my bike ready.  Chris Blair drove up and I chatted with him for a bit.  Turns out that he fell and thought he had cracked a rib while mountain biking, so he was "just" going to ride as part of a relay.  He headed off to find a parking spot, marveling that I had found one so close.  At that point, the weather was still nice.  Paul Palumbo then drove up and we chatted briefly; he had initially signed up for the Olympic distance race, but decided to do the sprint instead, so we'd be racing each other.  He then headed off to find a parking spot as well.  Still no rain.

I entered transition, looking for Bruce or his bright green Lynskey.  I saw neither, and thought that maybe he decided to forego the race.  I racked my bike and got my transition area ready, then spent some time warming up on the run course.  Still no rain.  When I returned back, I met up again with Paul, and chatted some more with him as he got set up.  With 20 minutes before the race start, he was done, and we decided to do a swim warm up.  And then the rain started.  It was gradual at first, but by the time we started our warm up, it was raining hard.  We then headed to the start area, where the start was delayed for a few minutes.  The rain then tapered for a short time, and then began to come down hard again... which it did for the rest of the race. 

I headed to the left side of the swim area for the start.  It's funny.  No matter how far to the side I try to start, by the time the gun goes off, people have migrated over and I'm again near the middle.  Oh well, it was what it was.  I saw Bruce in the water, and wished him good luck.  He informed me that he had been hiding under some trees to stay dry and that his support crew (Karen and Lucas) were staying dry in the car.  When the gun (or in this case, Rory Muller yelling, "Go!") went off, I started swimming.  It was strange, because I was surrounded by a bunch of people swimming at around the same pace as me, so no one tried to swim over me, and nobody stopped right in front of me.  I got near the first (and only) buoy at the turnaround feeling great, not stressed and not out of breath, and, shockingly, could see the leaders  just turning around.  "Hey," I thought.  "I must be having a pretty good swim."  The swim back was similarly uneventful, although it was a bit more circuitous as I could not find my line to the finish.  As I ran out of the water and into Transition, I saw Paul just ahead of me.  Usually, Paul is in and out of Transition before me, so that confirmed that my swim was a good one for me.

Because of the rain, I made a conscious decision not to race the bike.  My biggest goal was to stay upright on the bike.  Since we have had very little rain over the last month, there was a lot of oil on the ground which made the roads even more slick.  With the Bonney Lake bike course having a lot of turns, I knew that it would be a slow bike for me.  On most of the turns, I was out of my aerobars, and even on the downhills, I was out of the aerobars and braking.  I arrived back in Transition cold and wet, but I remained upright and one of my biggest mental hurdles left over from my crash in 2011 had been overcome.  Funny enough, whether it was because it was so wet, or because I wasn't pushing the bike that hard, I didn't feel very thirsty during the entire ride.  I only took two short drinks of my HEED.

I left Transition and headed onto the run course with a couple of other racers.  One racer went hammering by me early.  I steadily reeled all of the other racers, including the guy who passed me early.  Looking around at around 2 miles, I didn't see anyone in front or anyone behind, so I knew that I was stuck in whatever place I was in.  None too quickly, the race ended.  I saw Paul at the Finish and congratulated him.  Last year, the roles were reversed.  His conclusion was that we are so close in ability that the sharper person usually wins.  And his definition of sharper was the person that had raced the previous week.  Last year, that was me, and this year, it was him.

As I made my way back to Transition to collect my gear, I stopped by to chat with Rory.  I thanked him and Deanna for putting on the race again this year, even if it did rain on his parade.  I also apologized that I was not going to stick around for the awards, because I was cold and wet and needed to get home, clean up, and warm up.  I checked on the results on my way out, and saw that Bruce had won for the third consecutive year, that I had biked REALLY slow, and that I had finished 9th and won my age group.  My bike split allowed two young ladies to "chick" me, even though they never passed me on the course.  Oh well, I was intact, and that was the biggest accomplishment of the day.

When I got home, I got out my bike, took out the seatpost, and flipped the bike upside down.  Over a cup of water came pouring out of the seat tube.  Yes, it was a wet race!  And a fun way to finish my somewhat short season.

Wait! We're at altitude?!

David and I competed at the YFC Seeley Lake Triathlon a couple of weeks ago.  Last year, Trayc and I made plans to go to Yellowstone this August.  When Tracy found out that one of our friends, Bryan Brosious, had done the Seeley Lake Triathlon last year on the same weekend we planned to go to Yellowstone this year, she "suggested" that we reciprocate and race at Bryan's local race on the way.  So, there we were, headed to Yellowstone with a couple of tri-bikes on the roof of the van.
 Unfortunately, we found out that Bryan had decided to call it a year and wouldn't be at the race.  David's comment was, "That's too bad.  But now, I have a chance to win!"  Those words would be somewhat prophetic. 

Just as at Moses Lake, David's Hammer kit was black and mine was lime green, so he asked if I wanted to switch helmets so that we had matching helmet and kit.  Of course I agreed.

We rolled into the Riverpoint Campground at Seeley Lake on race morning.  After picking up our packets and getting everything ready, David and I looked around.  The transition area was pretty empty (and would remain that way.  We found out later that the publicity for the race didn't happen, so the turnout was very low).  We got our instructions and headed to the water's edge. 

The gun went off and I started swimming straight into the sun towards the first buoy.  As I made the first turn, all of a sudden, I felt like I was swimming backwards and was short of breath.  I switched from my usual bilateral breathing to breathing one side, alternating sides.  Apparently, David flew through the swim, and exited the water in 1st place by over a minute.  In fact, he was so fast that he beat everyone out of transition... including the volunteer who was in charge of manning the first turn on the bike.  So... while the course was supposed to be a right turn out of the campground, David went left (I nearly made the same mistake, even though the volunteer was there and yelling at me by the time I got there). 

I got out of the water in 7th and quickly moved up into 3rd place.  I trailed eventual winner Micah Hill to the bike turnaround and then went past him and the first place rider, so I was leading the race.  Since I did not see David, I had the sinking feeling that he had made a wrong turn on the bike.  I led Micah until the turn into the campground, and then he turned inside of me and took the lead.  We exited transition within 50 yards of each other, but I knew that I was in deep trouble, as my legs felt dead. 

As I headed out on the run, Tracy yelled at me: "David took a wrong turn."  I filed that in my brain as I tried to make up ground on first place, but to no avail.  Micah put two minutes on me in 3.3 miles.  Finishing second was somewhat bittersweet; I was happy with how I had done, although a win would have been better, but it was tempered by David's disappointment.  He had pushed so hard during the first few miles of the bike that he lost all of his focus when he realized that he had made a wrong turn.  And seeing Tracy on the run basically sunk it for him.

Struggling to keep it together until the end:

Thanks to Ryan who took over cameraman duties and got these great photos of David and me.  After the race, I thought about it and wondered if Seeley Lake was at altitude.  I looked it up and, yes, indeed, it is over 4,000 feet in elevation.  Needless to say, that helped to explain the fact that I thought I was going backwards on the swim, and had dead legs on the run.

 

 

Oh, to be young again

Last Friday was the 4th of July.  Since I have lived in Steilacoom, I have tried to run in the "4 on the 4th" whenever I can. It is hard to NOT run this race, because I can almost roll down the hill from my house to get to the start.  It is a little race with a very honest (read: somewhat hilly) course.  There are  only two hills, and the 1st uphill is small, so of little consequence.  The second hill, though, gets your attention.  The course is an out-and-back, so you start off flying down the hill for the first 1/2 mile.  Of course, what goes down must come back up in an out-and-back, so the last 1/2 mile of the race is a good attention-getter.  I first ran this race back in, I think, around 2000 or 2001 (when I was much younger, fitter and faster).  My time was somewhere in the 22 minute range and I was in the top 10.  And every time I have run this race, I have gotten slower (and, naturally, older).

This year, I was not expecting to run very fast.  I'm not very fit and I have not done any speedwork.  So, I was wearing a T-shirt rather than a singlet and not my lightest flats.  As I jogged down to the start, I thought, "Well, at least my legs weren't feeling dead."  I paid my entry fee and waited for the start.  In keeping with the feeling that I wasn't going to be running very fast, I only did a single stride-out (and even that wasn't very fast).  We lined up and I made sure not to be up front.  The starter (I think it was Pat Kenworthy) yelled, "Go!" and off we went.  I held back going down the hill and cruised through the first mile in 6:23.  The first mile marker was pretty accurate to my GPS.  As we wended our way along Chambers Creek Road, and crossed the bridge, my GPS hit 2 miles.  We headed up the first hill and turned around, and I thought, "We're way over 2 miles.  How hard is it to get an accurate course on an out-and-back?"

I got chicked by Jenny Stevick shortly after the 3rd mile.  We ran together for a bit, and chatted about how the last hill was a pretty miserable hill.  And then she dropped me.  I gathered myself for the last hill and as I started ascending, my GPS hit 4 miles.  I thought about stopping for just an instant since it was 4 miles, but decided that I really should finish.  As I went by one of the last bushes, somebody came out of it and started running towards the finish just in front of me.  That seemed a bit strange to me, and as I passed him just before the finish, I wondered, "Would someone actually cheat in a little race like this?"  Seemed strange that he would pop out just before the finish: if he was in front of me, why was he running slower at the finish than I was?  Oh well, to each his own.

I finished in 27:19, which, according to my GPS was 6:33/mile, nearly 1 minute/mile slower than 2000.  Funny thing is that my overall place is the same as last year, but I actually podiumed for my age group.  The course was definitely longer than it has ever been, so my overall time looks worse than it should, but getting older clearly has its disadvantages.  I guess it's time to get serious, so that I can try to recover lost youth!

Start of the season

A day (or 30) late but I raced last month at Moses Lake.  It was hot on the other side of the mountains, and, given that my fitness was not great, I didn't figure that I would be having a great race... and I was right.  It was a struggle for the entire day.  But we'll get to that.

David and I made the trip over to Moses Lake on Friday night for the 3rd time.  As opposed to last year, it was a very easy drive and we rolled into Moses Lake about 9:30 PM.  It was nice to get a lot of sleep, since we went to bed shortly after arriving, knowing that the race started at 10:00 AM. I love this race, because of the late start.  It gives me a chance to ease my way into racing season, since I can wake up without an alarm. 

After a leisurely breakfast staring out at the race site, David and I went back to the room to get ready.

 As we changed and loaded up our gear, David looked at me and asked, "Do you want to trade helmets for the race?"  You see, our new Hammer kit was all black for him and lime green for me.  And our race helmets are fluorescent yellow for him and black for me Rudy Project Wingspans.  I thought that it would be fun to swap and have matching kit from head to toe, so I said yes.

We headed to the race site and got our stuff out of the van.  Bryan Brosious rolled up to us and we chatted briefly, picking up where we left off last summer.  We had ample time to warm up, and as I took a long jog, I was already warm.  I figured it was going to be a hot run.  Finishing by the water's edge, I tested the water, and it seemed reasonably warm.  It was definitely not going to be the bone chilling swim of 2 years ago.

Too quickly, it was race time.  I did a short warm up (since I have not been swimming much, I figured that I needed to save up as much as I could).  I wished David and Bryan good luck and took my place near the dock near the front.  The gun went off and I got stuck behind a guy swimming Army style:  left-right-left-right.  I finally had enough of him and got around him, where I had open water for the entire race.  I exited the water somewhere around 10th place, feeling more tired than I've felt swimming in a long time (And why is it that there seem to be so many people in front and on top of me at the start of the swim, but, by the time we're done, they're nowhere to be seen?  I just have to learn to sprint).  I jumped on my bike and set off in pursuit.  Looking down, my heart race was at 156, where it stayed for the majority of the ride.  I felt out of breath, and didn't seem like I could catch my breath.  I could feel the headwind all the way out.  As I headed to the turnaround, I saw Bryan heading back in 1st.  I yelled some encouragement as he passed by; David followed Bryan soon afterward in 4th place.  I yelled some encouragement to him as well.  At the turnaround, I felt the tailwind, and sailed back, riding the wind.  It was windy enough that I was pushed around a little on my bike, feeling some sidewind gusts.

By the time I made it back to the transition area, I was in 6th place.  I saw David heading out of transition as I was entering.  He yelled, "I beat you!" I could tell that he was proud of his swim-bike split.  I later found out that he was 2nd out of the water, just trailing another 15 year old, as they traded off the lead.  I caught David about 1/2 mile into the run, and set my sights on the 4th place.  Unfortunately, he was pulling away from me.  And it was hot!  I was already suffering and my legs felt dead.  Close to the turnaround, the eventual race winner, Bryan Lindsay, came at me from the other direction.  He was flying!  I later found out that he was running at 5:25 pace.  Soon afterward came Bryan Brosious.  I yelled some encouragement and we exchanged high-fives.  Joshua Fitchett was next in 3rd and then Ethan Carlson was 4th.  And there was no way I was going to catch anybody on that day.  As I made the turnaround and headed for home, I saw David approaching and yelled some encouragement to him, also exchanging high-fives. 

I finished the race in 5th place, totally spent, and then jogged back to cheer David on.  That's what I love about sprint races:  you can go from total exhaustion to recovery in minutes.  David was desperately hanging on to 13th place, 2nd AG, and was less than 1/4 mile from the finish.  Unfortunately, his swim buddy, Matthew Creagan was moving faster than him, and passed him for second place.

Overall, we had a successful Team Hammer day:  Bryan was 2nd OA, 1st AG; David was 14th OA, 3rd AG; and I was 5th OA, 1st AG.  (Thanks to Ayla Wyman for the picture)

 

 

And now I have to try to get into shape! 



Why run?

After having spent a week in the warm sunshine of Arizona, I'm back to the reality that is the Pacific Northwest.  While the days in Arizona warmed up to 70 degrees, the mornings were chilly, usually in the low 40's.  When the sun came up, though, it would warm up quickly.  So, 43 degrees in Scottsdale felt a lot different than 43 degrees in Tacoma.  Still, when we returned to the Northwest, it was cool but clear (not rainy).  Last Friday, after a busy morning and just before a busy afternoon, I escaped at Noon for a quick run.  I contemplated even skipping the run, because I was so time-crunched, but then figured a short run was better than no run at all, so off I went.  As I was starting out, I heard a loud noise overhead, and looked up to see two F-18's taking off from McChord.  And then while I was still looking up, I spotted two bald eagles soaring high above.  Those two images, as well as the sun shining above, definitely made my run, though short, worthwhile.

On Sunday, it was another cold, sunny day.  I decided to go for a run on the trails.  Ryan's first question, upon hearing that I was going for a run, was, "Are you bringing the puppy (Sancho)?"  I had originally planned on running by myself, but Sancho looked expectant, so I said yes.  I asked Sancho, "Are you ready to go?  Did you stretch?"  Almost on cue, Sancho did a downward facing dog, followed by an upward dog.  I guess that meant yes.  He kept me company, pretty much running by my side during the entire run, dropping me on every hill, and then looking back as if to say, "Are you coming?"  While it was not a fast run, it was great, as I enjoyed the sunshine, the freedom of the trail, and the company of one of my puppies.