Grand Haven Y Festival of Races - Olympic Triathlo - TriathlonOlympic

Now I grew up with a cottage on Lake Huron and have lots of experience playing in big waves. But it's a whole different ballgame when you are actually trying to swim in them. I can easily say this was one of the scariest moments of my life. They sent out the Olympic women (all 40 of us) ahead of the men. The starting chute was lined up directly with the first buoy, so when the gun went off we headed straight into the lake. Big mistake. With each monstrous wave our entire group was pushed further to the right of the buoy, so we had to fight straight back into the waves. I've never heard so much talking during the swim. We were all saying how we were trying so hard, but just not making any progress. I just kept taking each wave as it came and trying to make a little headway. I finally rounded that first buoy and thought I would be homefree from there, but I was so spent that I just couldn't keep swimming. Thought I'd try and flip onto my back for a breather. Big mistake. I was overtaken by a HUGE wave that took my goggles right off. Got them back on, but was completed in panic mode by then. So I yelled "help!" and a lifeguard came over to me on his body board. I asked if I could hang and he said yes, so I just stopped and caught my breath. Meanwhile, two other women came over and grabbed on as well. The lifeguard told us that if we wanted to swim in a little closer to shore so that we could touch if we had to that would be legal. So, I took a deep breath and off I went. Got myself past the white park buoy and knew I was almost close enough to touch. Of course, as soon as I touched down I was overtaken by a wave with a really bad undertow that sucked me under. Now THAT was scary. I can't reall remember the rest, but I somehow got myself down to that last buoy and out of the water. All I can recall is looked out from the water to the people on the beach and thinking "what the heck am I doing out here?"

I don't really know. Lift more weights, so I have more stamina in the waves? If I did it again, I don't think I would panic as much...that was really my downfall. I just couldn't calm myself down in between waves. I do have to say though, that throughout the whole experience not once did I think about quitting. I even wanted to make sure I wouldn't get disqualified by hanging onto the lifeguard's board. As scared as I was, I didn't want to quit.

Because they took us out of the water about 500 meters up the beach (due to severe rip tides at the pier), we had about a 1000 meter run on the beach followed by an 800 meter run on the boardwalk to transition. Actually left some shoes by the state park bathroom for the boardwalk run. Honestly, I was so distraught from that swim that I had absolutely no desire to run through the sand so I kind of walked/ran most of it. Then when I got to my shoes there were a bunch of people standing around and I was so happy to be alive that I just wanted to talk to them, so I did. Then I continued my run to T1 which ended with a huge uphill into the Y parking lot. So...this race was more like swim/run/bike/run.

Keep my head in the game when the race is not going my way. I really didn't put my best effort into the run from the swim to T1.

My legs were already pretty tired as I headed out onto the bike, because of the long run between the swim and T1. There was a big hill right at the beginning of the ride (I mean an out-of-my-seat, I'm-in-my-lowest-gear hill) and then we headed out into a stiff headwind. When I got to the turnaround I was only averaging about 16.2. Saw a friend of ours who was nice enough to get out of bed early just to come shout at us on the race course and that was a huge pick-me-up. Had a bit of a tailwind on the way back that I wished I would have taken more advantage of. I pushed it in the big ring almost the whole way and got the average back up to well over 18 mph by the time I headed into town. Then I got stuck in this weird mix of Sunday morning traffic (this was a completely open bike course) and hit some more hills and rough roads. I just kind of gave up at the end, and that's how I ended up with a sub-18 average.

I wasn't happy with this time at first, but now that I think more about the course and the wind, it's not too bad. I need to work on pushing it through the entire course and not just letting up at the end. Had I continued to push, I would have an avg above 18. Always need more time in the saddle too.

Not much to say here. I contemplated stopping to use the port-o-john but figured I didn't really have any more time to waste, so I didn't. My head just wasn't into the transitions like it needed to be.

Be a little more focused.

As I headed out onto the run, I prepared myself for a long six miles. Luckily the first bit of the course was downhill (yay!) and that got me off to a good start. Running on the boardwalk was kind of cool, but weird at the same time. People (tourists/locals) seemed absolutely oblivious to the fact that there was a race going on and they didn't have any signs or course markings out there so I spent a lot of time running around people. Once I got out onto the island, I spent most of the time wondering if I was going the right way. It was the first time ever that I didn't see one other woman on the run course. I honestly thought I was in dead last place for women (which I wasn't). Much of the time I didn't see anyone at all. And it was hard to follow mile markers because there were different markers for the sprint, olympic and half races. Just hard to judge pace. It was very hot and exposed the whole time, but I did a great job of keeping myself cool which was good. I was also really focused on just going. Believe me, I just wanted to quit but I didn't let myself and kept to the plan. As I got to the end, Jonathan met me at the bottom of the hill and ran with me telling me the finish was right at the end. He lied. When we got to the top of the hill there was yet another nice incline into the finish chute. Ugh. I gave it all I had and had just a bit of a kick at the end. I definitely left it all out there.

Nothing. I'm really happy with this part of the race.

Wow. This ended up being a pretty emotional race for me. It was a mix of emotions...I was upset I did so poorly, relieved I didn't drown and just plain old tired. I saw Jonathan and actually started part crying/part hyperventilating. Got some water and calmed down, then had a big old hamburger courtesy of the Kiwanis who were grilling. That was the best hamburger ever.


Mental focus mostly. Physically I was also pretty tired going into the race because I was training through it and just did a long run the Wednesday before which really shredded the legs. But on race day I really fell apart mentally which is so unlike me.


This is a hard one, because it seems like this race has so much potential. I absolutely love Grand Haven...it's such a beautiful area. But the swim is very risky...three years and they haven't had a full swim yet. The bike course is amazing but open to traffic on a fairly busy road. The run is just blah. They say it's a fantastic course...are you kidding me? Then there's the long run between swim and bike. I don't know. I'm just not sure I'll be back. Oh - and they advertised (and I double checked on Saturday) that they'd have Hammer Gel out on the course. No go. So I was left out on the run with no nutrition. Wasn't happy about that. On the plus side, the volunteers were AWESOME!!