A few of us swam Saturday and the water was rough! I'm glad we did as it better prepared me for the swim come race day.

Sunday morning the sea is much calmer then the day before. The current is taking us right to the swim exit, it looks beautiful! Well, of course my boat is last out there and the waves are getting bigger as we wait. Awesome! Many of the girls are freaking out but I at least feel a bit confident about what is to come. Even so, it was quite honestly the hardest swim of my life.

I positioned myself towards the front but had no plans of racing the swim. I learned last year to take the swim easy so I have more left for later. The gun goes off and it's madness as usual but I just zone it in and take it easy. The lead group heads off and I break away from the rest and have my own water for pretty much all of the swim. It was beautiful! For a while I swim next to a woman and decide to drop back and draft off of her. But, she was a major kicker and that just annoyed me. Luckily I didn't try to draft because she ran out of steam pretty quickly after that and dropped back.

I was tired of being thrown around by the waves and the swim seemed to take forever. I wanted someone to draft off of but was all alone. I wanted out of that water! I could see the lead group out about 200 feet to my right but continued on my path, all alone. I spent the first half trying to site and thinking I was right and they were wrong but felt like I was going nowhere. Finally, I put my head down and trusted the current to take me the right direction. I decided I'd just swim, get a rhythm to my stroke, get to shore and when I got close if I was off in either direction I would correct then. No pushing the swim! Just get comfortable and find my pace. I do this and instantly feel more relaxed and hit my rhythm. Then I hit the last bouy - literally! Crested a wave and hit it. All the others had floated to the right and taken the group slightly off course, I had taken a straight shot in! Whoop!

I finally got out of the swim beaten and exhausted but knowing I was in the top 3-4. The run to transition was at least 4 blocks long and I think that counted in our swim time (I don't remember a timing mat until we hit the transition area), so I might have swam faster then it said I did. Got the wetsuit strippers to take off the wetsuit and continued on my long journey back to the bike.

Trusted the seas from the onset rather then trying to fight to see where I was going in the waves.

2nd in AG.

I haven't practiced with my shoes on the bike lately and the course started immediately uphill so I put them on in transition.

Wetsuit strippers were too close to the swim exit and I couldn't figure out to sit on my butt to get the suit off, I was way too discombobulated from being tossed around in the ocean for the past half hour

Practice!

So, the bike starts on a slight uphill, then makes a right turn up a bridge that was a huge steep hill. I don't use my front chain ring EVER, but everyone is telling me I have to on this one. You go up a huge bridge, down the bridge and make an immediate U-turn to go under the bridge and climb the other side. Morning of the race I practice in the parking lot going in and out of my big chain ring. I finally get it down and feel halfway confident if I start in the small ring I can get it back in the big ring where I belong.

I get on the bike and take the first hill easy (too easy). I wanted to pass 2 guys but knew the downhill and no passing zone where right there so I settle in behind them and take it easy. I get passed by 1 guy but I'm used to being passed by fast guys at the beginning of a ride. Go up the hill no problem, down the hill and on the flats I'm unhappy - can't find a nice gear but I don't want to shift because I have to climb the bridge again in just a minute, so I suffer. Get up the other side of the hill and switch to the big ring and think "Momma's home" and start hammering.

Only passed by 2 guys and I can't count how many I passed (no girls passing or being passed, there are none around). Go and go and go and feel killer. Hit the turn-around and keep it going. Passed many more, found some open road, passed more, etc. Get to the hill (2 loop course) and know I can take it in the big ring. Stand up and hammer and pass a few more guys. My drills in Woodlane have been working - I get in my hardest gear and stand and hammer for 90 seconds at a time. I can feel it working on the hill and my legs feel absolutely fine as I ride by several more people.

I take the corner a bit faster this time and hammer up the other side. Now I know I'm done with hill sand I can just kill the ride from here on out. And I do. Average 1st 10 miles was 18.6, average the next 10 was 19.4. Garmin died slightly after mile 20 but it had 21 for the next mile. So, I was definitely speeding up as I went along. The slow start on the bridge really dropped the average up front.

Anyway, I'm flying along, I've now been passed by only 2 women and caught 1 of the 2 in my age group who beat me out of the water. I'm feeling great, know I'm within 3 miles (not sure exactly how long the course was but I know it's less then 29) of the finish when I hear "PING!" and feel something sharp hit my calf. OW! Then it suddenly feels like I'm riding through mud, my bike is vibrating violently and my speed had instantly dropped from 21 to 11 and I'm pedaling hard.

I get off thinking I have a flat but my tires are fine. I look and a spoke is sticking straight out to the side! WTF do I do about a broken spoke??? I first think "stick it back where it belongs" but it's too short, a good inch long piece is missing, that must have been what hit my calf. So, I think "just take it off". Well after several minutes of monkeying with it, I concede that you must need tools to take off a spoke. So, I decide to tie it around it's neighbor. Well, those spokes are some seriously strong metal! I'm sitting there, muscling this metal and finally get it wrapped up and take off on my bike again. OW! It's so heavy and shaking and pretty dangerous, so I get it up to about 11 mph and have to sit straight up, ready to jump off at any minute. After a little while, I take off my bike computer because looking at my speeds is making mew ant to cry (computer had 19.2 avg when I took it off, even with the slow stuff!)

I think about DNFing and calling the SAG. I ask a cop how much farther and he has no idea. I ask another, none. Keep moving forward so slowly and just about decide it's too dangerous when I see the bridge. I know the turn is right before the bridge and it's less then a block from there to transition. So, I keep it going. Get off the bike and have to carry it when I hit the dismount because it won't move forward! See 2 bikes from my AG there - one was the girl I passed, she must have passed me while I was off the bike. UGH!

Trusted myself and my skill level to take the bridge harder the first time around.

Know what to do and have a backup plan for every situation. The spoke really cost me - I had no idea at all what to do. Had I known I couldn't remove it, I would have spent less time trying and immediately tied it to another spoke. I need to do some research and come up with a list of everything that could go wrong on the bike and what to do / not to do so I won't be caught so off guard and waste so much time next time.

11th in agegroup

Ugh, I was so upset about the bike that I needed to regroup. I happily dismounted and tried to wheel the bike towards transition. WOW - it was heavy! I finally hoisted it up and carried it the rest of the way! I got to my rack and spent way too much time just thinking and trying to regroup and took this really slowly.

Get over it. What happened happened and I need to just pick up and get on the run.

I started feeling really sorry for myself and I had no idea on pacing because the Garmin crapped out on me. I always run too fast off the bike but didn't have any sense of my pace so I intentionally took it easy. I should have grabbed my watch in transition but didn't. So, off I run. I'm passing some guys and see Kristen cheering so I say hi to her. I'm still feeling sorry for myself. I see Buck followed closely by Michael finishing up the run and think "Damn, I want to be fast like them one day, they're almost done and I have 6 miles of run ahead of me!". I keep running.

I finally get to mile 1 after what feels like forever but have no idea how fast I'm going. The website said only the first in each age group get to Alcatraz, so as much as I want to catch girl #2, I'm not going to kill myself so I just keep a comfortable pace. One lady runs by me, but I sat next to her on the boat and she said she runs a 20:30 5K and she's in her 40 so I cheer her on and don't feel bad about being passed by her. 2 or 3 miles in another girl passes me and she's flying. But, guess who got her at mile 5? Yep. That's right.

At mile 3 I did kick it up a bit, I had been running a bit hard but keeping it in check and definitely had more in me so I picked it up. Not to my fastest, but something sustainable and slightly faster.

So, I am running blind and keeping it comfortable but my lungs are heavy. One guy I passed said he had to ask me how I could possibly look so fresh - like I just started? Everyone else he's seen looks exhausted and I look like I'm just starting my Sunday run! A volunteer said "OMG - You look awesome AND you're smiling, how are you doing that?" I told him "I love this stuff!" Several guys gave me a "you go girl" as I ran by. Mile 5 I catch Chad who goes "Wow, you're smoking, bring it home" and I kept it going. Get to the end and could keep going at the pace I was but had no final kick, I'm slaughtered.


Have a backup plan. If I knew I was running in the 8s, I would have known I could kick it up to the high 7s and sustain the faster pace. I just have no judgment of speed off the bike and didn't want to hurt myself going too fast too early.

Went to the medtent to have them bandage my bloody foot. As much time as I spent in T2, I didn't clean out my shoes or feet and the sand in them had cut my feet to pieces. Luckily I didn't let this affect my run, i just let my feet hurt and unknowingly start to bleed.

I knew Chad was close behind so I waited until he crossed, then we went to get some food and stretch.


Mechanical issues on the bike - they cost me my slot to Alcatraz :(


I put a no on "events on time" but that was due to the fact that it took them longer to get us off the boats then they expected. It was no big deal and they even said it will be taken care of next year with a more realistic schedule. I was nervous doing a first time event, but it was incredibly well organized and went off very smoothly. I would definitely do this one again in the future but would probably not recommend it to a first time / weak swimmer as the swim was pretty brutal.