Oliver Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

ok - so we all know swimming is my weakest sport. I only started swimming 3 years ago, did my first tri on my back. Every time I see the buoy's for a race - I say...holy shit do I really have to swim that far?!?!? Every time my swim seems like an eternity and that time can't go any slower.

Well NOT on this day. I guess when you consistently swim over 1 hour twice a week and throw in a couple of swims IN THE POOL that are 1 hour 52 minutes you gain a different perspective.

We got to the beach and I looked at the buoys. For once, that's all I did - just look at them! Then I actually said...wow that doesn't look too bad. They have lots of buoys down the first side then the back side a few less. No butterflies, no freak out, no nothing. Hopefully I can capture that calmness on August 30!

I swam out to one of the closer buoy's. The water was AWESOME. It was about 70 degrees. Hung out in the water until our swim start. There were 3 waves, I was in the middle wave. Figuring a lot of the final wave would lap me....so prepped my mind for that.

The first group took off....then 5 minutes later it was our turn. I waited just a couple of seconds and then started on my way. I actually caught a few folks. Man it was a freeway out there. Lots of chop and churn and I just continued to tootle along. I counted 10 strokes then sighted on the buoy. Got bumped a lot, but again, just kept counting and sighting. It was actually a bit surreal. It didn't scare me, freak me out, or anything. It was just natural that all these people were around me and we were just swimming along. I did have some folks swim over me, but I didn't get pushed down. Just bumped. Just about the first turn, a green cap from the next wave did get aggressive and swam hard over me, but again, I just kept going.

I was never alone out there, there were always caps around me swimming along. Got to the end and stood up. Feeling GREAT! I didn't have a clue about my time as I didn't have a watch on. Took my wetsuit 1/2 way off and then let the strippers do the rest. Crossed the timing mat and saw my time. Wow. Not bad! With all the work I have been doing I would have liked it to be faster - but hey, if I can feel like I felt in that swim ALL the races, I'll take 47 minutes EVERY Race and I'll take that in IM too! Totally refreshed, not wasted in the least little bit! Perfect!


NOTHING!

Yes you did read that right! 9:38 No, I wasn't drying my hair, well maybe towel drying it a bit. This time is primarily due to the fact that we had to go about .25 miles from the swim to the transition..on the road BAREFOOT. I am not fast anyway, let alone barefoot. So I slowly jogged to the transition where I asked the folks why we were doing the run BEFORE the bike. Got a few laughs from that one.
There were many bikes still left around my area....ok, many bikes is a bit of an exaggeration. But really there were more bikes that my first few tris. :) Gals from my rack were getting ready to go...to me that means progress on my swim. There was a gal a rack over who was so happy she made it out of the swim, she was chatty so I talked with her and congratulated her on her first TRI!
Sunscreened up, glasses, helmet, jersey, yep all check!
Yep, need to work on my transition. Still not my record thank goodness!
oh yeah, stopped on the way out to put chapstick on! Didn't want chapped sunburned lips!


not have as far to jog from swim to transition, but maybe that's an excuse for not moving faster in transition. LOL.

This is always the fun part of my day. I love my bike, I feel good on my bike. Took out for the first loop. Feeling good. Saw my 'food' beeper on my computer wasn't working, so was going to have to pay attention and make sure I ate! Bummer!

I wish I would have hit my lap button on the computer to compare the lap times. The first lap we had very little wind, but man that second lap. We had a fair amount of wind. I thought of Seujan and her race wheels and thought I am SOOOOOO glad I don't have race wheels. SCARY. I thought of Lynne who got 'pushed' off her bike last year in a race due to wind. But even with the wind, I felt really good and positive.

The course was beautiful. We did to stretches on hwy 97, but most of the rest of the course is on back roads along the wine country. It reminded me of my first 1/2 Iron course in California - Barb's Race. This course is much prettier and the pavement is way smoother! I leap frogged a few folks for awhile. One guy I passed as said on your left, he was grumpy and said 'everyone is on his left today'. After that instead of on your left, I tried saying Good Morning instead.
The first hill, I spun up and even had a couple of folks comment on my cadence! Hey look at me! I was amazed at how many heads were down on the hill. Me of course I was soaking it up. Granted it wasn't an easy hill, but it was short and wasn't that hard. I of course found the photographers too! Always on the look out for those guys right!?!

Made it around to the second lap. Gave the crowd a hard time, they weren't cheering, so I said they needed more coffee! Then came the cheers! Yes, I do have fun on the bike.

I knew with the wind that I wouldn't make under 3 hours. I tried....but alas a bit over 3 hours. I felt great - nutrition seemed to be on track.


Nothing, except maybe work a bit harder, but it's a training ride and I really felt I rode within my ablilities.

Yep, no excuse this time. No wait I do have a little excuse, all the POPs were full and I had not stopped on the bike, so a good 2 - 3 minutes are due to bathroom stop!

Got out of my bike stuff, put on running socks/shoes, doused up with sunscreen again. Pulled my fuel belt out of my 'keep' cool bag and the blue ice had kept the goodies at least cool. Good plan. My stuff was not wet either, the bag and blue ice things were a good idea I think. Nice to have cool gel instead of 'hot' gel at least for running. ;)


nothing - had to go to the bathroom.

This was the hard part for me of the day. I did hit a couple of lows on the run. Not quite sure what happened here.

I slammed down a GU on the way out of transition and I started out walking my 5 minutes as planned. I passed some on lookers who commented it was getting a bit windy. I said this was nothing, they should have seen it on the bike. They laughed....I kept on walking. I am sure people see me walking and wonder why. I just keep a smile on my face and know that I am following my plan. The announcer was announcing a finisher as I walked by. They announced that Ann Sloan, from North Bend, was just heading out for the run. That's always fun....going out for 13.1 miles, while someone just finished.

Anyway there I went. My watch soon beeped and I began running. Feeling pretty good. My food beeper was set to go off to keep me on track for eating. The first 4 miles were ok. They weren't spectacular, but not awful. Then I did start hitting some lulls. Just couldn't really go any faster on my run. My Hr wasn't high and really just couldn't get myself excited about working any harder. I did grab some water at the aid stations as well as flat coke at one point. At one point I decided I was going to just keep a smile on my face as that might help my attitude a bit. It seemed to for a while. Finished the first lap at about 1 hour 15 which wasn't too bad. Kept chugging away. While I didn't feel great, I wasn't feeling bad. People looked WAY worse that I was feeling. There did come a point where I actually was going to walk when there wasn't an aid station and my watch did not give me permission to walk.....I didn't give me permission either. I gutted it to the next aid station. Then walked a bit...as it was an aid station and the watch beeped. I did think about IM thinking holy cow I am glad today is only 13.1 not 26.2 of course that doesn't help the mental attitude since IM is in the back of my head.

hooked up with another gal the last 2 miles of the run. She was WAY worse than me...walking / running. We leap frogged a lot. She actually made me focus on something else - her. :) She said she just wanted to be done and she was never racing again. I said we only have 2 miles left, and like any Triathlete....you will want to do another about 10 minutes after you cross the finish line. We continued to stay close. In the last 1/2 mile I told her that I wasn't going to race her across the finish line...she could beat me if she just kept running. I pushed her at the end...Come on push through....and then I passed her and yelled she shouldn't let me beat her. She kicked it in as did I ....guess I didn't leave it on the course as I had enough and she didn't have enough. I finished strong into the finish line. Nice to have a different focus other than me those last 2 miles.
She thanked me after the finish line for pushing her.

long walk to transition.
two choco milks...back to penticton and then out for a nice dinner at the pasta factory. YUM


outback does a GREAT race! looking forward to Desert.