Race Report: Tri in the Buff, July 7, 2012

I love Team Pitt Masters Swim!!!!

A few weeks ago, at Masters swim, I casually asked Tony when his next race was.  He replied that him, and Kamden, and Laura were all going up to Buffalo to go camping for the weekend after the 4th of July and competing in a Saturday morning triathlon.  While competing in a triathlon doesn't interest me much right now, the notion of going camping with people that I really really like for a weekend, drinking beer and competing in a Saturday morning race does.  Immediately, I wanted to go too.  When I expressed this, Tony was like, "Hell, yeah, we have campground space".  And when I got home from the pool, he had already sent me the info and told me the race always sold out so don't dawdle with registration.  (This is a paraphrase: Tony didn't actually use the word "dawdle").

This gave me two weeks to prepare for a triathlon, which just meant I had to go running.  (Ew).   I decided my race goal would be to work up an appetite for an afternoon of sitting around the camp eating and drinking.

On Friday afternoon, I met up with Tony, loaded bikes and camping stuff into his truck, and after an essential stop at the Save-Mor, we were on the road north.

Tony's truck: Bikes and beer, key ingredients for any
good weekend

We got to the campground, which was right on Lake Erie, just a little after Kamden and Jon who had started setting up camp.  For dinner, we went to a pizza and pasta place down the road, because it was "tradition", and had a chill campfire.  I played my ukulele for a little bit, and then turned in early.  It was cold at night in Buffalo!  I was on the fence about bringing my sleeping bag because it was so hot in Pittsburgh, but it turned out I needed it.

The next morning was race morning.  Kam did a wake up call at 5:40 AM, and we had bagels and drove the 2 minutes to packet picket in our PJ's.  We came back to get our stuff ready and to walk our bikes to the transition area.

Hanging out in transition area before the race.

The race started in waves on the beach.  Kamden, Laura and I were in the 10 minutes after the start ladies wave, and we clumped with all the other women in a pen.  From previous triathlon experience, I learned it's a good idea to start near the front because when you talk to triathletes, they all hate it when people swim over them and will complain about it.  In triathlons, I usually always swim over people, so I figure if I start near the front then less people to swim over. (I only swam over one person this race!)  However, the funny part of this is, everyone also wants to start near the front.  So I made an effort as I worked my way up to ask women about their swimming abilities before I got in front of them.  It actually worked out well, because I started talking to a girl who had been a swimmer her whole life, but this was her first open water.  Chatting a little more, it made her realize that she was in the wrong group (she was doing the sprint distance which started at a later wave).   We got in the water and started when the thing went off.  Three women in wet suits went flying out, and I watched them and decided against pushing myself.  I figured my swim time will be good enough without exerting much energy, and to keep to my plan which was to use the swim as a warm up for the rest of the race.  I was disappointed then to notice that none of the other women left were swimming as fast as was comfortable for me, so I thought I had just lost my draft, which strategically I also didn't like.  I ultimately decided, "whatever", and started swimming at my own pace and enjoying how amazing the water was.

Kamden and me, before the swim, gazing at Canadia

Lake Erie at this Buffalo state park on Saturday July 7, 2012 at 8:12 in the morning was the most amazing body of water I had swum in in a long time.  The temperature was absolutely perfect (refreshing after some hot water I've been swimming in in Pittsburgh), the water was so clean I could see the bottom, and there was almost no current or choppiness.  Soon enough, I started passing dudes from the wave before us, and was just enjoying swimming.  On the second loop around, I stopped for a minute to look around me.  I saw a girl behind me, swimming strong but a little slower.  I decided to save my energy, slow down and draft behind her for most of the second lap.  This gave me lots of time to think, as I was in a race and doing absolutely no work; I was totally floating in wonderful water.  When I got near the end of the last loop, I started swimming faster, blew past her and several more dudes, and ran out of the water.  This draft and then sprint at the end strategy is one I learned bike racing at the track, and I'd really been wanting to experiment with cycling strategies in open water.  Anyways, I was feeling great and warmed up when I got on my bicycle.  (Swim time: 29:57, for 1500 m).

I love bike riding.

I mounted, and hit reset on my bike computer.  I started riding at a comfortable gear, because my ride goals were to (a) keep a constant cadence the entire ride (that's Greg Flood talking to me in one ear), and (b) to work harder on the uphills and rest on the downhills (that's "Coach Jon" in the other ear).  I actually really liked both of these strategies, and felt smug every time I passed a lot of people on the ups, and shrugged my shoulders whenever I got passed on the downs.  The course was pretty much all straight and flat with just a little hill, so it was big ring the whole way.  I was doing pretty well, holding my bike around 20 mph, and channeling my inner "Tour de France breakaway".  This helped me to really appreciate aero bars: every time I leaned forward like a breakaway rider, I started going really fast and wished I was in a gear higher.  I never lasted long, because I wasn't comfortable, but it was a neat experience.
When I started the second lap, my computer said roughly about 12.5 miles, and I was warmed up.  I ate a caffeinated gel and started going faster and feeling better.  I was actually doing great until I found out I messed up the course.  Which was when I eventually ran into some race marshals who told me I messed up the course.  I stopped and un-clipped to talk to them, when we decided the best course of action was for me to turn around and go back.  Before I could get upset about it, I quickly told myself, "It's just a race, and you're not racing.  So what if you're biking more - you love to bike!!!!!".  I also told myself, "If anyone in our group was going to mess up, good thing it's me!"  These are two true statements, and I think the truth in them was what kept me from getting upset.  I did pedal a little more slowly on the way back, and when I got back on the course, I still had a little gray cloud over my head and stopped thanking volunteers.   I also realized that I missed that beautiful moment I had been looking forward to when Kamden would whiz by me on Zena, her gorgeous triathlon (or TT) bike, and looking like a total badass on wheels.


I finished the bike at 29 miles, (should have been 25), with a time of 1:27:12.  For 40 km, that's an average of 17.1 mph.  For my actual distance, that's 19.95 mph.  I had wanted to hold at least 20 on that flat course, but I did stop for a couple of minutes to talk to the race marshal, and I had slowed down when riding back.  I think I'm more embarrassed than anything for people looking at my name and seeing such a slow bike time.  Well, at 19.95 pace for 4 miles, that's 12.03 minutes so I can think of my true bike time as under 1:19, which was what I wanted (Roughly my Pittsburgh triathlon bike time from last summer).


Anyways, right before the unmount I un-velcroed my shoes, so when I unmounted I left my shoes on my clips and just took my feet out.  This was amazing!  I rolled into transition, set up to whiz through really quickly.  Put my bike on the rack, put on my running shoes and grabbed my race belt which had my watch and visor on it.  I had put a gel in my back pocket during the ride.  But, whatever, the race was over for me, and I started talking to the women next to me, and then I saw Laura (who I really like), so I went over and waited for her to put on her shoes and socks, and grab her gel, and jogged out with her and jogged next to her for a little bit chatting.  (T2: 2:53).


I have this $10 wristwatch that I've been using for probably about 5 years now for jogging, which I put on at the beginning on the run and set to zero.  (I totally forgot to pre-set all my stuff to zero before the race).  At 4 minutes, I told Laura to go on ahead, I was scheduled for my first walk.  The strategy I had decided on for this run, because I only ended up going on 5 training runs before the race, was a 4 minute run/ 1 minute walk.  I picked this because I found some table on the internet that said this ratio corresponded to about a 9 minute mile, which was about what I needed for a sub-1 hour 10K. I started off really slow.  I know with run/walk, you're supposed to actually run and then power walk, but I was jogging and rest walking. 

I'm serious, here!!

 Before I signed up for the race, Suzanne had told me that one advantage that I had was the fact I am extremely comfortable on a bike, so the transition into running wouldn't be as difficult for me.  This was absolutely true, and I found myself actually thinking about how my legs didn't feel wacko and crazy.  Anyways, near the end of the first 5K, I started really recovering and having a lot more energy.  Then, when I finished the first loop, my watch said 29 minutes and I looked at the race clock and it said (2:43).  We started 10 minutes after the first wave, meaning the clock was 2:33.  Meaning if I could run a 5K in 27 minutes, I could still beat 3 hours.  And as I was recovered by this point, I was in a really good position to do it.  I immediately set my watch back to zero, hoping to race against the 27 minute mark, and put more oomph into both my running and my walking.  I was definitely going much faster than the first loop, and feeling great.  Run/walk is great for the person who hates running because 4 minutes flies by, and then you get to walk!  It was in this second loop that I started passing people.  I would jog with someone, then start walking, and then pass them on my next run.   Anyways, when I got near the end I caught up to a girl jogging and was like "We're at the end, let's go! go! go!") and she took off.  I ran in, at 3:00:20.  Twenty goddamn seconds.  The first place I could have lost time was in T2, and so I am never dicking around in transition ever again.  I hope every newbie triathlete reading this learns the lesson through me: NO DICKING OFF IN TRANSITION!!!


Worse, was after the race. It ended up that woman in front of me was 3rd in our age group and beat me by 8 seconds with a time of 3:00:12.   If I hadn't dicked off in T2, I probably would have gone on the podium even with those 4 extra miles of riding.  However, I still feel like a champion because my 10K time was 59:02.  (Holla!!!)  I feel like this showcases the magic of the walk/run.  Apparently walk/run is the brainchild of this guy Jeff Galloway (Kamden is a fitness expert), so here is his website which I have not read.

Everyone in our group did really great!  Kamden walked up to the podium with a time of 3:41 and some change, and Laura and Toni both beat their times from last year by factors of a lot.  Now was time to pig out, hydrate, sodium-ize, and then start drinking beer.  The real reason anyone races is for the after race:

The gym folk camping.

Saturday afternoon at some point when we were hanging out at the campground feeling good about ourselves, I went to the bathroom and overheard the campground office worker talking to her friends, "We just had the triathlon this morning, so all the gym people are staying here".  Hahahahaha, that's us!!


Comment: I took most of these pictures from Jon, one from Tony, and you can guess where I got the one of me running.  You might see doubles in Kamden's or Tony's race reports!! We'll find out!!!