RACE DAY!
The morning went according to plan, as I got up early (4am), ate my usual breakfast (oatmeal w/ peanut butter & craisins, a banana and Scratch Labs drink), drove a few miles to the event, and parked our rental car (in team color: red) at North Idaho College. We walked (about half mile) toward
the Ironman Village where I navigated the
bustling transition area to drop off those “special needs” bags and add all my
nutritional stuff (water bottles, bento box) to my trusty ride. Then I took
my time getting into my wetsuit while hanging out with my husband, Larry, in the park near
the start. I found my parents just
before entering the swim start corral, and it was awesome to spend some time with my wonderful support team before I took an
emotional walk to the beach. I was really
excited because I was much more prepared (thanks Coach Jim!) this time, and I
had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the opportunity to tri this ironman
thing again!
Swim
I made my way down to the beach to take a quick dip to get used to
the chilly water (low 60s, but warmer than Tahoe). Then I lined up on the beach according to my predicted swim finish time. I decided to start with the 1hr30min-1hr45min group, which is a little on the
slower side for me, but I’d rather swim through people than get swum over. While waiting for the start, I met a local woman who raced last year. She gave me a few pointers for the course and chatting with her kept me from being nervous at the start.
I really like the new rolling start they have enforced at these events because it allows us athletes to calmly enter the water in smaller groups (rather than a huge mass start). After crossing through the swim start
arch, my strategy was to stay wide and to the right of the other swimmers in hopes of finding some open water to settle into my race pace.
I quickly adjusted this strategy as the water was much choppier than it
looked from shore. No wonder most of the
paddle boarders were kneeling rather than standing! I decided my new strategy was to just go with it
and not battle anything/anyone: ride the waves (or duck under a the bigger ones!) and use breaststroke whenever
necessary to let the diagonal swimmers pass. Sighting was easy because it was relatively
straight course and there was no fog. The crazy
chop and wind kept my mind off the distance, because I spent most of the time
playing Frogger in the water trying to swim past the other frantic zig-zagging
swimmers.
The choppy conditions did make this one
of the most physical swims I’ve encountered to date. As much as I tried to stay wide and out of
the way of other swimmers, it was definitely a full-contact sport for the first
100-200m as well as the entire length of the turns (between the 2 far buoys)
about half way through the laps. I only
managed to get slapped on the back/shoulder a few times and pushed down once, and
the most brutal hit was a hard elbow to the left quad. PSA: Dudes
– please control your stroke and try not to drown the lighter folks out there! The water was clear so no excuses to swim
over people (or if you do by accident – no reason to push down on them as you
do!)
The IMCDA swim consists of 2 loops of a large rectangular course extending straight away from shore (700m out to 2 turn buoys and back) with a quick walk on shore in between. My first lap was faster than the second
due to the pack I got stuck in on lap 2 (couldn’t shake this dude swimming back
and forth – took me something like 300m to get away from him) but overall was a great swim.
Result: My watch said 1hr 18min from shore to shore (not sure where the timing mats were) and finished with an official clock time of 1 hr 20 min. I was thrilled with this, especially in choppy water!
Fun Fact: Not sure if I told this story already but…. I credit my early days on the Brookfield Muskrats (swam to age 13) for my love for open water swimming. The Muskrats were the summer swim team that practiced at the Town Park at Candlewood Lake with lane ropes suspended between a series of 2 sets of docks. I learned to swim laps without the black line in the pool to sight from, and I didn't realize how handy that skill would be later on! Thanks for bringing me to all those practices as a kid, Mom! Go Muskrats!
T1
I exited the water and gave some high
fives to the volunteers! Yeah - one part done! I caught a glimpse of my husband in the crowd as I
walked across the beach, which was awesome!
Gave a big smile, waved, and was on my way to transition…
Transition was slow, as I was really cold when I got out of the water (air temp low 50s). I had a really tough time putting socks, shin
compression sleeves (zensah calf sleeves) & arm coolers (Pearl Izumi) on my wet body with cold hands. I also decided to take my coach's advice and wear a light jacket for the 1st lap (which I planned to drop with my support crew
at the start of lap 2 – thanks guys!).
Note to self: when they provide warm up tents in T1 - use them!
All bundled up in layers, I made my way toward my bike. The good news was that I had a great swim and made it out of the water in front of a lot of people. The bad news was that there were tons of bikes still racked...
I had made a good mental note of which row my bike was in (before the tree with caution tape - plus they are numbered), but I completely forgot where in that row it was racked (first
section, dummy!). The photos of me
running past my bike, turning around a few times, running back and forth, and finally finding
my bike... are hilarious.
As usual… lost in
transition!
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