Harvest Moon Long Course Aquabike - Aquabike

The swim in Boulder Reservoir and was very choppy and rough at 66 degrees. There were white caps on the lake! My new Roka LS wetsuit was going to get quite the indoctrination! I was in the 7th wave and as I waited, I watched the water crew bringing in person after person, not too reassuring.

When I finally got in the water I was met with the challenge of sighting and breathing in the swells. Sighting was very difficult as it seemed the buoys were too far apart, then mix in the waves and it was really tricky to see where to go. Keeping good form was kind of thrown out the window. I found myself doing this lurching/lifting motion to breathe and sight to avoid the waves. Despite this, I got water up my nose more times than I can count and swallowed some, too, when waves would hit. At one point I thought, "I can't die on the swim, my sister (who was along and spectating) would kill me!" LOL

After the last turn buoy, it was still very tough to see the buoys, so I was trying to sight off the big, red arch at the swim exit. I thought I was doing OK until I saw a kayaker easing toward me like a Border Collie herding a sheep. Oops, guess I was headed a bit left! I’m pretty sure I swam a bit extra on the way back in from the last turn.

Although I am a confident swimmer, I was so very glad for that to end! I got a lovely wetsuit hickey, though. Ouch! I guess I need to Glide up better next time.

Not swim off course, but it may not have been entirely my fault - the wind likely played a part. Needed to be more generous with the Body Glide (although I thought I had done a good job).

Ran past the cheering Michelle and TJ, told them something about how ridiculous that swim was. Had a little trouble getting out of my wetsuit, I think mainly because I was trying to be careful/semi-gentle with it. It is new and was more than I'd ever spent on a wetsuit so I didn't want to rip it on its first adventure!

Eventually got out of the thing, chatting a bit with the fellow I was racked with. Got my helmet, shoes and sunglasses on as well as my race number and was out of there before him.

Nothing, I guess. I didn't want to wreck my new wetsuit.

The bike was 2 loops and the majority of it was head/crosswinds. St. Vrain road was heaven with a tailwind! I think I got up to almost 46 mph. Otherwise it was mostly battling the wind, trying to stay on the road and at a decent pace.

Just a few miles into the bike I took a drink of water, went to replace the bottle using muscle memory from my bike (this was a rental bike) and sure enough, dropped a bottle. This early into the game there was no way I was letting it lay there. I stopped, leaned the bike on a metal thing sticking out of the ground and clomped back to get the bottle, chuckling a bit because it was kind of near an abandoned prairie dog hole. Thankfully no one was home!

Passing the ghost bike where the lady was killed during IM Boulder was very sobering and sad.

It was so interesting riding in a completely new place in completely new conditions. I loved the scenery and found myself looking at the mountains very frequently and taking in the gorgeous blue sky. The conditions and my performance in them was a huge unknown to me that I didn't want to learn the limits of the hard way.

The altitude and/or wind kept my HR up a bit higher than it should've been, it was tough to keep it in the prescribed [by my coach] range. I felt like I wasn’t working nearly hard enough, just cruising casually along, yet I was hesitant to push more because I wanted to stay in the range and also not have some sort of altitude or hydration related problem because of pushing too hard.

I drank frequently, fearing dehydration in the dry air and because I sweat a lot and got a water at the aid station that is approximately half way through the loop. I stopped to fill my bottle instead of just taking theirs.

I finally finished lap 1, made the turnaround, and received more cheers and support from my sister and TJ, thanks guys! So nice to have a few familiar faces! I went just the slightest bit harder on the second lap but felt just a bit nauseous for a short spell and was also fighting some hip pain on and off. I actually stopped a few times to try to stretch out my hip.

At the same aid station as before, I took a water and a Gatorade. Wow, did that Gatorade taste strong! I ended up not drinking as much of that because it was so overpowering and stuck with the water mainly. Once I got past that aid station I felt confident that I could up my game a little and I actually caught and passed just a few people in the waning 10 miles or so.

Overall I was pretty disappointed in my ride time, although I did just nose in under my very general time goal of 4 hours. Had it been at an altitude more like home, I’m sure I would’ve had a much faster time. Not dropping my water bottle and needing to stop to retrieve it would’ve made for a faster time, too, as well as my mini stretch breaks. Probably an extra 10 minutes of messing around, not moving.

Nutrition went OK. I mainly ate gels, approx. every 40 minutes. I drank frequently, but not necessarily a lot each time. I started with one bottle of water and one bottle of Infinit Go Far and took what I mentioned previously.

It was great getting off the bike and knowing I only had to run 50 feet! I crossed the line and enjoyed the slip n slide (it hadn't blown over yet) and was so glad to be done!



Again, I probably could've gone faster on the bike but with never having raced in dry, dry air at altitude, I was a bit afraid to push too much and not be able to finish.

Not drop my bottle like a dork.

Preferably race on my own bike instead of a rental, but even though I was on an unfamiliar bike, it went OK, really.

Slip n slide! Water! Hung out with Michelle and TJ as we watched for Mary to come through on lap 1 of her run. Just before we saw her is when the crazy wind burst blew through, it's truly amazing no one got hurt by crashing bikes/racks or the airborne Slip n Slide. We cheered her through, then I got changed and got some fish tacos, beans and rice. Yum!!

We chilled until she finished her race which was such a wonderful, wonderful experience, seeing her finish such a feat! Our faithful Sherpas (and us!) definitely deserved the pizza and beer we had at Kokopelli's afterward! Big, big thanks to TJ and Michelle for all their support throughout the day, and patience, too! It was so fun getting to spend time with TJ and Mary who I met through the manatee group. And really, it's Mary's 'fault' I even did the race and went to CO!



I also got very sunburned despite putting 50 SPF sunblock on before I put my wetsuit on. I think maybe the wetsuit rubbed it off, especially on my shoulders. I burn easily anyway. In hindsight, maybe slapping more sunblock on in T1 would've been worth it!


Being unsure of how the climate would affect me and also not being acclimated to the altitude. Plus the usual, carrying around some extra weight. One of these days that won't be listed as a reason!


Nice race, nice swag, nice course. The weather can't be helped. I'd definitely do this race again!