Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

We get into the corral area and have about 3 minutes to wait before the start of the swim. I actually consider myself a pretty fast swimmer and so I line up towards the right and in the front of the group of girls that I was swimming with. We are told that we have to keep one foot on dry land for the start and I actually want to keep both feet on dry land because there is this nasty green algae stuff pooling at the edge of the lake. It doesn't seem to be bothering other girls so I reluctantly stick one foot into it and wait for the gun.

The gun goes off and we take off. And here's where I have some issues. The lake is pretty low at this point. So low in fact that you are only about knee/thigh deep all the way out to the first buoy. I didn't know this beforehand because I hadn't gotten in the water and because last year we jumped into the deep water off of a pier. So I take off running along with all the other girls in my group. Which means that my HR goes sky high!

I get out to near the first buoy and start swimming .... and I start panicking. I couldn't get a good breath because my HR was high. I was getting pummeled by girls on all sides (we hadn't spread out enough yet) and I couldn't seem to calm down enough to see that everything was going to be okay. It was the first time that I have ever had issues with a swim during a tri. I have been swimming competitively since I was 11 and this is my 3rd seasons of tris and I have never felt like I did out there on Saturday. It took me the entire time from the first buoy to the second to tell myself that I'm a swimmer, that nothing is going to happen to me, to work my way from the girl that was kicking me in the arms and start getting my stroke back together.

It was short time of thinking that there was no way that I could finish that swim, but it seemed much longer in the water. I think that I might have a *little* glimpse at what a non-swimmer feels like during their first OWS experience. Luckily, once we spread out enough and I got my HR back down, I managed to have a pretty decent swim. There was this one girl in my wave that was swimming the exact same pace as me. When she breathed right, I was breathing left. We continued this almost the entire way in, but I think that she dropped at the last turn buoy.

Also, a neat thing to note is that the water was pretty warm in Lake Michigan that day (76 degrees), but there were times throughout the race that you could feel a drastic difference in the water temp. It was obvious that it was the current moving when you were in those cooler places. I started seeking out those places to swim in and I think that it helped me out a lot!

Um - not panic? In a race this large, I'm going to rethink my seeding situation and also the deal about getting in the water so quickly. I'm pretty sure that I ended up passing most of those girls that ran out there anyway.

What a LONG transition. First the run from the swim to the TA was long and then the actual TA was huge. I had issues getting my wetsuit off my shoulders, off my elbows and off my legs - I don't think I'll ever be quick getting it off! I ran all the way up to my bike, sat my behind on the wet grass and yanked it off. Hurridly put my socks, shoes and helmet on and took off with my bike.

18/92 Age Group
364/1789 Overall

Not much. There really wasn't a place that I could make myself faster here unless I get a breakaway wetsuit. :)

So I get out of transition and hop on my bike at the red line and right away I hear this rubbing noise from the front wheel. At first, I think that maybe it's my aerobottle rubbing on the tire since I had noticed that it was lower than normal the night before, but I thought that I had adjusted it so that it wasn't a problem. I lifted the aerobottle up some to see if that would stop the noise and it didn't. So I faintly thought 'What if my brake is rubbing on that left side of the wheel?', but didn't want to stop and see because I knew that it had just been tuned up on Wednesday and I didn't know what I was going to do about it if it wasn't an easy fix. So I kept riding.

Right at the first turn, this girl ahead of me had ejected a water bottle and she had turned around to go pick it up. I noticed her trying to work her way into the crowd to go and get it, but I soon passed. The next thing I knew there was a lot of yelling and I looked back to see someone on the ground. I let the next volunteer know that I thought there was a crash back. I just can't imagine going down on my bike in the first 2 miles of the race because someone thought they needed to go back to get their water bottle. I know that it's a USAT penalty to litter on the course, but some things are just accidents.

So, I decided to try eating and drinking every 10 minutes. I alternated water and gatorade each 10 minutes throughout the first hour. I took a gel at 30 minutes and was going to take salt tablets at the hour mark on the bike, but I dropped them out of my bento box when I was reaching in for the gel earlier (be more careful, Rebecca!). Everything was going okay by hour 1 - I was getting passed a lot by everyone that started after my wave, but I was thouroughly anticipating that.

Between hour 1 and 2, I started feeling just a little woozy in my stomach. I think that I mgiht have overdone it on the liquid intake during the first hour. So I cut back on liquids (only taking in fluid every 15 minutes) and decided to wait on my 2nd gel and ate a fig newton at the 1 and 1.5 hour time. I'm glad that I was able to handle that on the fly becuase it seemed to calm everything down and get me feeling A LOT better by mile 40.

The Steelhead course is comparitable to the Cartersville Bud plant ride that we have up north of Atlanta. The hills and difficulty are similar and you are riding past lots of open, country fields. It was really beautiful out there, but I was really feeling a struggle to maintain speed and cadence around mile 40. I started dropping time going up the hills and I couldn't seem to find why it was so hard for me to keep moving forward. I was excited to start seeing familiar sites that I knew was the end of the bike course and looked forward to getting off my bike.

Later, when I went to pick up my bike from transition, I started to push my bike out and noticed that it was really hard to move and that the rubbing noise was still there. I took the time to inspect a little more closely. Turns out that the ride from GA to MI had managed to take quite a toll on my fresh tune-up. The wind resistence that we picked up on the ride caused my front wheel to shift quite a bit and it WAS indeed the left brake causing the rubbing noise. For an entire 56 miles! One small minor 10 seconds adjustment and I could have actually had a faster and more enjoyable ride. URGH!

Check and make sure that everything is in working condition the way that I want it to be before I leave the bike in transition. I was in a rush the night before and just wanted to rack my bike and get on my way to teh hotel and dinner.

Be more careful when getting items out of my bento box. Luckily I didn't need my salt tablets on the bike, but I still would have liked to have had them just in case.

Got to dismount line and hopped off the bike. Ran it ALL the way down to my rack and put it up. Helmet and bike shoes off. Running shoes on. Grabbed race belt, visor, gels and salt tablets. Made sure to take some salt tablets with water as I was running out of the transition area.

8/92 Age Group
119/1789 Overall

Learn the flying dismount that other NAMC members know. :) Otherwise, not much - you can't really do anything about a huge TA.

Anything had to feel better than being on the bike, but I was a little nervous about this run because I had blown up a little on the run during my last HIM (weak legs, icky stomach). I decided that I was just going to have fun with this and run so that my HR wasn't going out of control. There was a hill right before mile 1 that was ridiculous and lots of people were already starting to walk up it, but there was no way that I was stopping. I kept chugging along and made it to where the 'loop' of the run starts. I really thought that I was going to be discouraged to see that I was just starting my first loop and knowing that others heading the other direction were about to start their 2nd loop or even be heading to the finish line, but I really just tried not to think about it that much. I had taken salt tablets leaving transition and I made sure to take a couple about every 2 miles after that to try to make up for anything that I had lost by not taking them on the bike. I made sure to alternate water and gatorade through each run stop and grabbed a sponge or some extra cups of water to douse over me to *try* to keep cool.

Between miles 4-5 (and again 9-10), you run on the main Whirlpool campus on this paved trail that they have around a lake. It was really pretty and offered a lot of shade. As I was leaving this area the first time, I feel something on my left leg but don't look down. Luckily someone yelled at me 'Hey - your timing chip and band just fell off' and someone else ran up to meet me with it. They had been used the hospital wrist type bands to hold timing chips so I'm not real sure how it came undone (it wasn't broken), but thank goodness it happened then and not on the bike! I got it from the person, thanked them and stuffed it in my back pocket. Someone around me told me to make sure that I held it low over all timing pads or it wouldn't register. It wasn't a big deal and didn't slow me up any, but it was just another mental worry that I shouldn't have had to deal with.

I was pleased with my splits through the first loop of the course and I knew that they would probably slow down just a bit on the second loop. There were a lot a people out on the course (one lane with people going out and back), but I think that I liked it that way better than some of the other courses that I've done. You were always right there with people encouraging you and you encouraging others. Right before the water station at mile 9, I pulled over because my left heel had been bothering me. I didn't do such a great job pulling my sock up in T1 and consequencely I was running with some pretty bad rubbing on the back of my foot. I tried to make it through as much of the run as I could, but knew that the last 4 miles would be pretty unbareable if I didn't fix it.

After going through the timing pad for the 2nd loop, I knew that there was just a little bit more to go and I was feeling good. I didn't pick up the pace incredibly, but it was really fun to run through the dunes with people on all sides cheering you on. I swooped over the timing pad to make sure that the chip picked up (my finish line pic will probably be pretty funny).

Make sure that my socks are pulled up far enough and make sure that my timing chip is safe and secure on my ankle!

Got medal and water and sat down in tent to cool down a little bit. I stretched for about 10 minutes waiting for the transition area to reopen and then I walked over to get my stuff and walked the mile back to my car to load up and get on the road.


I missed a couple of my training long runs and some of the scheduled longer bricks that I had in my training plan. Also, I can't help but think that the rubbing brake on my bike might have slowed me down a bit there, but I guess that I won't know until next year!


I'm happy with the time that I produced since I wasn't real sure where I was going to stand after missing a *few* training opportunities due to my upcoming wedding. The best part about the race was that I was able to overcome and obstacle in all 3 events and still finish happy and healthy! :)

This is my second year doing Steelhead and I will probably try to keep it on my schedule as long as I can. The course is absolutely beautiful, the race organization keeps everything running smoothly with everything on time and lots of other perks (pre and post race food) and the volunteers were some of the best around.