Steamboat Springs Triathlon - TriathlonSprint


View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
United States
5430 Sports
Total Time = 2h 36m 32s
Overall Rank = 205/255
Age Group = Athena
Age Group Rank = 6/15
Pre-race routine:

Went up to Steamboat with my awesome friend Rosalba. She had wanted to come to my last race but had no way to get there so I said she should come to Steamboat with me. She surprised me and agreed. So we went up friday night and made a weekend of it. After the pre-race meeting saturday morning we went shopping downtown, ate awesomely good sandwiches for lunch, rode the alpine slide, and went up to the hot springs that night. I lived in Steamboat for 3 years so it's kind of a home away from home for me. Oh and I went up to my old high school there...wow how that has changed in the last 5 years!!!

The night before the race I had a nightmare that I had forgotten to bring any nutrition with me to the race. In the time it had taken me to go back and get it it had started w/out me. It was super real so I was soooo relieved to wake up and realize it was just a dream. Woke up race morning at 5:00, made it to the race by about 6:15. Saw Shannon (swgtri) and met her husband Ocky (who thankfully reminded me to take my lock off my bike before the race! :)) Pumped up my tires, hit the porta-potties, and tried not to get too insanely nervous (kinda failed on that one...)
Event warmup:

I didn't warm up. I probably should've. It might've helped my swim, which sucked.
Swim
  • 32m 59s
  • 1143 meters
  • 02m 53s / 100 meters
Comments:

Holy slow swim!!! This is almost the same amount of time it took me to do an oly swim last week. Yikes! Maybe I should've swam some this week...

The water was freezing and I hadn't been able to get a wetsuit. It was definitely the coldest race I've done. I had some pretty major goosebumps before we'd even started. Thankfully it was a lot warmer out than the day before so I didn't totally freeze. The water was also completely full of algae. At the start, between the algae and the mud the water was pitch black. Couldn't see anything. Farther out it was lighter but still pretty much solid green...and I guess this was much better than previous years! Every time I put my face in I felt like I was entering some sort of crazy drug trip with crazy green floaty swirly things everywhere. I think my bra is permanently died green from all the algae I took with me!

I'm not sure why this swim was so slow overall...nothing went wrong but I just really couldn't get it together. I never quite found a rhythm. I just felt off. I had to do side stroke multiple times to catch my breath...not for very long but still so not like me. My sighting was also horrible...as usual. I ended up way off course. By the time I got to the second bouy I was already being passed by ppl in the wave behind me. Definitely disheartening. By the time I was about half way back from the 3rd bouy I was being caught by the 3rd wave. Even more disheartening. One really big person swam over me right before the end too...just to keep things interesting I guess.
What would you do differently?:

I'm not really sure....I need to get a wetsuit and I need to work on sighting, but I also need to figure out how to focus better. Focus seemed to be as big an issue as anything else. Maybe I should've warmed up more...or maybe I should've swam some this week or gone out in the yucky water on saturday so I could've known what to expect. Lots of maybes....or maybe I can just blame it on the altitude! lol
Transition 1
  • 03m 48s
Comments:

The transition area was split up by waves...mine was the farthest from the swim so I had a long way to go. There were lots of rocks so I ended up walking to save my feet. Otherwise transition went well. I'm getting better at placing things so I can find them quickly and easily.
What would you do differently?:

Get tougher feet? I don't know...
Bike
  • 1h 09m 51s
  • 20 miles
  • 17.18 mile/hr
Comments:

Definitely very very happy with my bike time!

I think my anger from my horrible swim transferred into my biking. I started out fast and hard and never really slowed down. Once I got over my frustration I felt great being out there! There were some super fast ppl out there w/really nice bikes! I'd be doing what was to me a super fast pace and I kept getting passed by ppl who looked like they were just out for a quick spin. At least I got to admire bikes as they passed. Since I had been in the first wave I got passed by tons of ppl on the bike. I passed a few of 'em back though, and maybe even passed a couple of people who had been ahead of me. It was much less depressing getting passed on the bike though 'cus I know I can't expect to keep up w/everyone when I'm on a mountain bike. I only saw 3 other mountain bikes out there and they were waaaaaaay behind me.

I couldn't seem to eat anything on the bike. Usually I love my vanilla gu's but everything just sounded gross to me. So strange for me to ever not want to eat! lol I managed to get one gu down early on and then got some shot blocks from the aid station on the way back. Usually I really don't like thos but they sounded much less disgusting to me than gu and they seemed to do the trick. Kept me going for the rest of the bike and the run.

When we went through the neighborhood before the turnaround there was a family out watching and cheering from their driveway. They were out in pj's and having their morning coffee. It was pretty cool to think that I'd already swam .75 miles and biked almost 10 miles while some ppl were still just having their coffee. :) The turnaround was just passed the hockey rink where I used to play when I lived in Steamboat. I was thinking how cool it would be if my hockey coaches could see me now. I've always been decent at hockey, but i've always been the slow fat one that gets tired really fast. I'm still slow, fat, and get tired really fast but boy has my endurance improved since even last winter!

Around mile 18 it hit me that I still had to run 4 miles. Ugh. In all my biking joy I had totally forgotten about that. For the last 2 miles I started trying to visualize the run and get myself ready for it. Also my feet had gone numb (need to figure out what that's all about) so that didn't help anything either.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing...aside from get a new bike, but that's not really feasible right now.
Transition 2
  • 02m 26s
Comments:

I didn't realize just how numb my feet were until I got off my bike. I couldn't feel them at all!! I accidently racked by bike in the wrong spot on the wrong side of my stuff, but other than that this transition was pretty smooth.
What would you do differently?:

Figure out why my feet are going numb on the bike. It happened last weekend also but I thought it was because my brother's bike was so uncomfortable. Now I'm wondering if it's because my new shoelaces (yankz) are laced too tight or something.
Run
  • 47m 29s
  • 4 miles
  • 11m 52s  min/mile
Comments:

Now I know for an actual runner my run time looks pretty pathetic, but to me it's amazing!!! I've only broken 12 minute miles one other time before and it was on a standalone 2 mile run. Since 4 miles was the farthest I've ever run (5k was the previous record) I had gone in thinking I'd be happy even up in the 13's...I'd be happy just to finish w/out my body freaking out on me! My ultimate goal was for flat 12's but I thought it was wishful thinking. All through the run I kept checking my watch, not believing that I was actually on pace to do it!

Since I knew it would be tough for me I decided to just stick with my 1 min. running, 1 min. walking intervals. I didn't want to push it because I didn't want to make sure I had a pace I could maintain for the entire 4 miles. So I started out slow and steady, feeling pretty good. It took about 1.5 miles for me to really be able to feel my feet though. I also saw something I've never seen on a run course before....hills! I've never run on hills before...never really given it any thought. I just have one word for them....ouch! My thighs were killing me by the end but I was still able to keep my intervals, even on the hills, which was awesome! My thighs were burning like crazy but in a way it was good because the only pain I was having was from something explainable, rather than my usual weird, out of nowhere running pains.

When I made it to mile 2, the turnaround, I was amazed at what I saw. People behind me! Lots of them! I wasn't a straggler! My biggest fear when signing up for this race a month or so ago was that I was going to be the last one out on the course, and that i'd be so far behind it wouldn't be fun. Well instead there was a huge crowd behind me!! Granted I had had a head start on most of them, but still!! I kept up my intervals until I saw the finish in sight and then I ran the last 2 minutes. I was a little worried I might have my breakfast come back up before I got to the finish but thankfully it stayed put.

When I made it to the finish I couldn't believe the clock. 2:36. My original goal had been to do this in under 3 hours. Ha! Almost seems funny now, but I really wasn't sure I could do it. Not only that but I was worried about getting last and ended up 6/15 in Athena! Would've been 15/17 had I raced age group, but not even DFL there. Yay!
What would you do differently?:

Ok obviously my running needs work...I need to run more, and figure out how to run more than a minute at a time, but for the place I'm at now I definitely couldn't have asked for anything better!
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around the finish area w/Rosalba. Took a while for my body to calm down after those last couple of minutes of hard running. Eventually made it over to the food line, got a bagel w/nutella (yum!) and some oranges. Found Shannon and Ocky who had already secured a nice spot in the shade. Felt like I could've stayed there forever but eventually had to drag myself up to get back to the hotel before check-out time. Had to race to get a shower in before checkout.

After checkout we went to this awesome little lunch place in downtown Steamboat. I got the world's greatest breakfast burrito w/eggs, potatoes, spinach, onions, tomatoes and cheese. Yummmm. I didn't feel very hungry at first but once we were there my body seemed to finally register how many calories i'd burned and I ate everything in sight! lol

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Sucky swim + lack of road bike + lack of training

As I said above though...all things considered I really couldn't have asked for anything better! I far exceeded my expectations!

Event comments:

Great race...great volunteers...couldn't have asked for anything better! (Ok the lake coulda been better, but I guess there's not much that can be done about that!)




Last updated: 2007-08-06 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:32:59 | 1143 meters | 02m 53s / 100meters
Age Group: 0/15
Overall: 166/255
Performance: Average
Suit:
Course: Counter-clockwise triangle around 3 bouys.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current:
200M Perf. Below average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Below average
Rounding:
T1
Time: 03:48
Performance:
Cap removal: Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike:
Jump on bike:
Getting up to speed:
Biking
01:09:51 | 20 miles | 17.18 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/15
Overall: 199/255
Performance: Good
Wind:
Course: Beautiful course along the Yampa river and up to the edge of town. Some hills, but still nothing like Danskin!
Road:   Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Drinks:
T2
Time: 02:26
Overall:
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
00:47:29 | 04 miles | 11m 52s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/15
Overall: 222/255
Performance: Good
Course: Out and back along the road. Lots of hills!!!!
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5