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 Swim
Comments: My wave wore purple caps, and we were the 7th wave to go. I found some women that were friendly and whose goals were to just survive the swim (just like me!). I positioned myself to the right, about 2 rows back. Turns out that there were rocks on the right at the beginning of the course that I ended up bumping my knees on. Sure would have been nice if someone could have told the swimmers that BEFORE the race. A nyway, once we got going I tried to swim long and not worry about the milfoil and swim my own race. I got bumped around by a few people at the beginning, and then things started to spread out and I had room. The first leg wasn't too bad. I tried to get into my rhythm, keep my chin down, swim long, and sight every once in a while to make sure I was heading towards the correct bouy. It seemed like I was never going to get there, but eventually I did. I rounded it, and then things went down hill from there. I did a bit of backstroking to catch my breath, and then turned over, but I could not catch my breath. Everything seemed so hard, and I just knew I was swimming pretty inefficiently. At one point, I think I did the crawl - and at another I stopped swimming altogether and just floated. It was so sad. My sighting sucked, and I found that I was zig-zagging towards the second bouy. By this time I was towards the back of my pack - although all I wanted to do at this point was just finish the freakin swim. Eventually I rounded the second bouy and after a bit, was getting passed by the the fastest swimmers in next wave (the 19-25 female AG). At this point I finally got a grip and focused on "just keep swimming" even if it meant breathing every other stroke. Other than getting passed by some of the next AG, I was really swimming alone. This got me a little worried, so I was sighting quite a bit. I was exhausted and the finish line seemed like it wasn't getting any closer, but I powered on and eventually got to the shore. I swam further into the shore than the people in front of me, which was good. I slowly fumbled out of the water towards my rack for T1. I had never been so grateful to have my feet on dry land again. The swim was BRUTAL! Because I had been frazzled during set-up, I wasn't in the right state of mind to get through the swim like I should have. I had put in plenty of yards at the pool, but got freaked out when seeing the distance right before my eyes. My pessimism really ruined this portion of the race for me. What would you do differently?: I definitely need to get more open-water swims under my belt to be better at dealing with the sun, waves, other people, and milfoil.  Transition 1
Comments: I was pretty dizzy coming out of the water, so getting my wetsuit off was uh, quite interesting. I almost fell over TWICE while trying to get it off, even though I put on a ton of body glide around my ankles. If anyone watched me struggle with my wetsuit, I'm sure they were laughing hysterically. Eventually I got it off, threw on my helmet, shoes and ran my bike down out of transition. What would you do differently?: Start my watch on time! It wasn't until I was out of the water that I realized that I forgot to start my watch. More body glide! And maybe wear ear plugs in the water so that my balance isn't affected so badly.  Bike
Comments: This was actually a lot of fun! It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride along Lake Washington. As soon as I got comfy on my fantastic Specialized Dolce bike, I grabbed a Gu Chew - and then lost the rest of the bag of chews. :( I drank a bit of water at the beginning and then tried to power forward. I knew the hill was coming, but didn't know how steep it was. To my embarassment, once I realized I wasn't going to be able to get up the hill, I jumped off my bike and ran it up the hill, shouting apologies to everyone behind me the whole way. Once I got to the top it took me a ridiculous amount of time to get back on my bike, exacerbated by the fact that I knew I was annoying people behind me. Once I got going, I could not get my right foot in my cage (no cage on lefty) and probably spent a minute or two trying to get my foot in there. Pathetic. While swearing under my breath, I got my speed up and enjoyed the ride on the bridge. Riding in the tunnel was pretty neat, although it was pretty stuffy in there. I was tempted to sing a few notes in the accoustically alive space, but didn't want people to think I wasn't taking the race seriously. So I yelled a few "woohoos" instead. :) Sometime after the turn-around, I was biking next to another woman and we exchanged a few words of encouragement to eachother. She passed me, but I stayed relatively close for the rest of the ride. The ride back in to T2 was fun (because it was down hill!). I was actually surprised at my bike time. Apparently I was going a lot slower than I thought. But this was actually the most enjoyable portion of the race. Despite the aforementioned embarassing moments, I felt it was a solid ride on my awesome bike. I'm not sure how many people passed me (plenty, probably) or how many I passed. What would you do differently?: Not lose my Gu Chews! And get clips on my freakin' pedals - although I probably would have fallen into a bush on that hill if I'd had them for this race. Transition 2
Comments: The transition area was pretty crowded, and I had to run my bike farther than anyone because my rack was at the other end of the transition area. Unfortunately I got stuck behind a very slow-moving woman in the narrow aisle down the racks, and had to patiently jog behind her until she got out of the way. Once my bike was racked, I threw on my visor and belt, grabbed a graham cracker and off I went! What would you do differently?: Nothing. It was an awesome transition for me (well anything beats the wetsuit saga from T1).  Run
Comments: The first mile is always the hardest for me, and I think at one point I even yelled "I hate this!" My legs tried to convince me to walk during that first mile, but I told them to shut up and keep going. My goal was to just keep jogging, no matter how slow. The run was hard enough on its own, but running with the sun in my eyes just plain sucked (even though I was wearing sunglasses and a visor). Right around mile 2 we turned up a hill. And this was a HILL. I told my legs to just keep moving, and that worked for two thirds of the hill until I realized that I was shuffling at the same pace as the lady walking next to me. So I walked up the rest of the hill, letting my heart rate go down for a bit, and fixed my hair (yes, it needed fixing! and I am a girl afterall). At the top of the hill I grabbed the water and nuun offered by volunteers, and then jogged back down the hill. Even though I knew I should be running down the hill, my legs were wimping out on me and could only jog. The last mile was tough, but I powered through. I was really hot during the race - and hated running towards the sun. BUT in spite of walking for that last bit of the hill, I jogged the whole time and managed to stay pretty close to my 10-minute mile min bar goal. It felt so great to see the finish line and hear/see people cheering the racers on to the end! I saw Chris, and he told me to keep pushing. So I pulled out the small amount of energy I had left inside me and ran towards the finish line!!!! I had done it - I had finished my toughest race of the season. What would you do differently?: I would have poured water on my head to cool me down. Post race
Warm down: After my timing chip was removed from my ankle, I immediately moved towards the pile of orange slices and devoured at last 4 portions. I grabbed water and a banana half...and another orange slice. Then I went back to grab my stuff and made the painful walk up the hill to the car. I inhaled brunch and then went home for a shower and nap. What limited your ability to perform faster: Wow, where to start? 1. Going out dancing until 3am two nights before the race which strained my legs and threw my sleep schedule 2. Sleeping only 5 hours on night before the race 3. Feeling rushed during setup because I didn't get there early enough 4. Freaking out over the swim distance 5. Funky bike pedal setup. Need clips so that I can both push and pull through the stroke. 6. Not controlling my negative thoughts before the race. If I had been more positive I know I would have performed better. Event comments: Well - I did it! This was the toughest race of my season and I completed it! Was it a good race for me? Yes and no. I met my big three goals, in that I survived the swim, I finished, and I had fun (on the bike portion, that is). And I didn't commit any of the tri fouls that I'd done at Cottage Lake. But I complained the whole way, and knew that my swim could have gone much better. Because of this race, I know that I need to do more open-water swims and figure out how to turn my attitude around when things don't go well. I definitely plan on doing this course next year to redeem myself! Last updated: 2009-07-03 12:00 AM
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United States
Beneroya Research Institute and SeaFair
72F / 22C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1275/1458
Age Group = 25-29
Age Group Rank = 90/124
This was my second triathlon ever - and first full sprint (Cottage Lake was a super sprint). A day or two beforehand, I did an open water swim at Juanita Beach in Kirkland to get used to the milfoil. Based on how badly I swam that day, I started to get worried about SeaFair since the swim distance was so much longer than Cottage Lake. I went to bed around eleven or midnight, which left me with about 5 hours of sleep before the race. Not good! I had packed my things the night before so I didn't have to fumble around much in the morning. I ate oatmeal for breakfast, and packed three bottles of water with Nuun and Crystal Lite. Chris (my swim coach and tri mentor) and I got on the road around 5am and drove towards Seattle. Starbucks was still closed - and we could not find me coffee anywhere. I started to worry that I wouldn't have enough energy to get through my toughest race of the season. :( We parked on a residential street and walked our bikes down to the park with the tons of other participants. I walked in (bodies had been marked the day before)and saw my coworker Jen. It was good to see a familiar face, as none of my family or friends were able to come cheer me on for this race. After a quick hello I walked towards my rack. My rack position was awesome! My rack was in the front row of racks facing the water, so I was super close to both the swim and run exits. My bike was the second bike in on the rack.
Because of the long walk down to the park, I didn't have much time to get set up and the anxiety started to set in. I got my things out, drank some RockStar energy drink, ate a graham cracker and tried to get in the zone while listening to classical tunes on my Zune. It didn't work. Once my area was set up I got in the bathroom line but it barely moved, and as the minutes went by I got increasingly anxious. I was worried I wouldn't find Chris in time to get in a swim warm-up, so I jumped out of line and figured I'd just count on my bladder to power through the race. I walked towards my stuff and found Chris - thank goodness - and got my wetsuit on with plenty of body glide around my ankles since I was racing in a suit that was a size smaller than what I wore in my last race. Chris and I got in the warm water and swam out to the dock. By this point I was freaking out - and seeing the actual swim distance freaked me out even more. 800 yards seemed SO FAR! I couldn't turn back or give up, so I had to rely on the knowledge that I had put in those yards plus plenty extra at the pool. There were so many people there - and this was my toughest race. I was not calm or center or confident that the swim would go well, although I was extremely grateful for sunny skies and warm water. I was looking forward to the bike portion most.