A Good Idea Is Sometimes Stellar

Please sit back, relax, make yourself comfortable for the wit of my guest blogger. Today's race report comes from none other than my partner in crime. Please enjoy something different this time around. Comments are welcome and encouraged. Without further ado, I present the musings of Melissa Rosen:

Sometimes, I have good ideas. These ideas usually come in the form of something small, as in, “I think I'll have a piece of chocolate”, or, “I'm gonna wear jeans today.” Sometimes my ideas occur to me as a matter of course. But mostly, any good idea I ever have enters my brain after much thought and trepidation. After painstaking research and fact checking. After a good night's sleep.

But this time around, my obvious better half had a good idea. His idea: “Let's go to Vermont again for vacation.” Now I must say, this is as good as ideas get. We had gone to East Burke, VT last year, to enjoy a vacation on the beautiful mountain bike single track of the Kingdom Trails Organization. Sporting over 100 miles of single track, plus some wider trails and downhill, the Kingdom Trails has something for everyone, even a beginner like me. But as much as I enjoyed it last year, I kept thinking-- “Do I want 7 days of mountain biking again? I mean, it was fun and all, but. . .”. I kept thinking there ought to be more we could do. And then it occurred to me (undoubtedly after that good night's sleep I mentioned): let's do a Tri while we're in Vermont! Now that would be FUN! Now that's a good idea!

And so, after what amounted to only a small amount of research, I located some triathlon options that we could build our vacation around, and sent an email off to Jim telling him of my good idea. And you know what? He thought it was a good idea too. So, lickety split, we chose to do the Vermont Sun Triathlon held in Branbury State Park: 600 yard swim, 14 mile bike, 5k run.

I've been training for my triathlons this season with what I admit is a bit of an ad hoc approach. January through March I had pushed my training for the Monument 10k pretty hard, and having achieved my goal there (broke an hour for the first time, hooray!), I must say I've found it hard to return to my training regimen with the same intensity. I have been very consistent in the frequency and amount of training I've been doing, but I just can't seem to get to the same level of intensity that I had for the first 12 weeks of the year. Still, I've managed to average a run 2 -3 times a week, swim 2x a week, and bike 2x a week. I work in doubles sometimes, and also some brick workouts because I need to get used to running off the bike (and the initial cramping that comes with it).

We arrived at our motel in Brandon, VT the evening before the race, and had dinner at a local restaurant. We could not have our usual pre-race meal of salmon, greens and potatoes, so we had to settle for what they offered. I ordered the Fisherman's Pasta, and although it was tasty, I was surprised to find bacon in it. The last time I checked (and I check regularly because you never know what creepy weird things are crawling about in the water), pigs don't swim. So, I don't know where the swimming pigs are coming from, or what fishermen are catching them, but apparently they are not smart enough to ignore a worm on a hook. The food was ok, but I kept wondering how it was going to make me feel the next day, and hoped it wouldn't decide to lurch about in my stomach all night. Luckily, that did not happen.

Sunday morning came, and I was more than happy to get up at such an early hour, since I did not sleep too well in the strange and somewhat uncomfortable motel bed. Triathlons usually start early, but this one actually started an hour later than I am used to, so that was nice. Getting to the race site early has the advantage of picking a good spot on the bike rack in transition. It is convenient to be on the end so that when you run into transition, it is easy to find your stuff. And to all those who are better, faster, and more experienced than me, I say-- get there early if you want the end spot, cause if I'm there first, I'm gonna take it. So there. HA!

The race started knee-deep in the lake. It turns out that my wave was last, Women 40+. We waded in and the water was warm- had to be at least 76 degrees. My goals for the race were framed rather loosely, and as this is only my third triathlon ever, I am fine with that for now. My goals were:

1. Finish the 14 mile bike in under an hour.

2. Finish the entire tri in under 2 hours.

3. Shoot for a 30 minute run.

4. Don't be dead last overall.

5. Don't be last in my age group.

And as I looked around me at the starting line, I added one:

6. Don't be last out of the water.

As I waited for the gun to go off, I was nervous. I'd never swum this far in a lake before, and it is quite different than swimming in the pool. In the pool, you have a wall to push off of every 25 meters, and the security of knowing that the wall and bottom aren't far away.

Well, the gun went off, and off I went. Into the fray, trying to hold back but not really succeeding. As was typical, I went out too fast and about 5 minutes into the race, I was breathing harder than I should have been. I kept telling myself, “This is only 600 yards. Seriously. Not hard. Not far. You can do this.”

I kept getting a bit off track, since my sighting isn't very good (the practice of looking where you're going while you swim, ideally without disrupting your form). First I was next to the buoy line. Then to the far right of it. Then a bit to the left of it (oops). Then next to it. Then too far right again. Ugh! As other swimmers pulled away from me, I reminded myself that I should try to enjoy the experience at least a little. I mean after all, wasn't I on vacation? I needed to use the side stroke here and there to catch my breath, and at some point I must have got it together a bit because before I realized it, I was heading toward the last buoy. As I passed the final buoy, I was surprised to see a photographer in the water taking pictures of the athletes as they came around the “corner”. All I could think was, “That better not be Mr. DeMille, because I am truly not ready for my close-up”. Not even a little bit.

I swam into shore and as my hands hit the sandy bottom, I swam a few more strokes and then up I went, ran into transition, and did not look back. Was I last out of the water? I wouldn't know that for sure until much later, when I examined the race results. I was pretty sure there was at least one person behind me and at the time, even though I was really curious, I preferred to remain oblivious to it. I could have easily looked around the transition area to see how many bikes were still there, but that would have only gotten in the way of what I needed to do. Besides, it is counter to a racing mantra I like to adhere to: Run Your Own Race. Sure, my goal might have been to not be last,but I wasn't going to let that thought dominate my mind to the point of distraction. I find Run Your Own Race to be a good Life mantra as well. After all, we've all got to find our own pace in life. We might have some false starts, we might go out too fast, blow out our quads running downhill-- but ultimately we've got to find our racing groove and get in it. Only then can we be our best.

I won't bore you with too many other details, as the hilly 14-mile bike ride, as beautiful as it was (“Am I really on vacation? This is awesome!”) is a bit of a blur to me. It started out on a hill, which for me is not good. But once I found my pace, I passed a few people, including two riders who were struggling up the steep 1-mile hill at mile 10. Passing a sign that said “Camp Cupcake” gave me a chuckle early on, too. Must've been a camp for kids, but all I could think was “ I don't see any cupcakes on this course.” And I don't mean the sweet sugary kind either.

As I've found with the first two triathlons I did, the run ends up being the hardest. It didn't help that the out and back course started on an uphill. And then kept going uphill (mostly) until the turnaround. I had some calf cramps for the first few minutes of my run, so I just kept going since I know from my training they will go away if I just push through. Same with my stomach. If it starts to feel queasy or sloshy (from ingesting liquids), I know that feeling will go away If I can just ignore it. Plus, a 5k isn't that long, so I just tell myself that it will be over soon and I just need to GO. I passed a few folks on the run course (one of them over 70-- I was impressed!), and the downhill helped me pick up speed. I had glanced at my watch when I took off, so I knew I wasn't going to make the 30 minute goal I set, but really, at that point it didn't matter.

As I came to the bottom of the hill and entered the park, I noticed that most of the spectators had cleared out. Ah well, that's how I know I am near the back of the pack. I always manage to have a little kick at the end, though I'm not sure where it comes from-- sometimes during a race, I try to hit the gas pedal but there doesn't seem to be any gas in the tank. So where was it all this time? In the reserve tank? As I neared the finish line, I saw the only spectator that mattered-- there was Jim, cheering me on! Yay! Seeing him always puts a smile on my face and as he high-fived me, I sprinted to the end. Panting, and walking in circles as I tried to catch my breath, I was elated to be finished and felt such a great feeling of satisfaction. Was doing this triathlon good idea? Yes. In fact, it was stellar.

How my goals stacked up:

1. Finish the 14 mile bike in under an hour - check

I finished the bike leg in 58:17

2. Finish the entire tri in under 2 hours - check

   Total finish time: 1:49:53

3. Shoot for a 30 minute run

   Total run time: 33:28

4. Don't be dead last overall - check

   I placed 181 out of 199

5. Don't be last in my age group – check

   I placed 17^th out of 19 women 40-44

6. Don't be last out of the water – check

   There were 3 women who exited the water after me. I completed the swim in 15:01.