A Ticket to the Big Dance

ChelanMan Olympic Triathlon
Chelan, WA
1500 m Swim/40K Bike/10K Run

The Short Version

Overall Time: 2:49:09 (173/377 OA, 38/170 F, 7/29 AG - 9/31 if you count the OA winners) - 6:08 Oly PR!!!
Swim: 32:05 (2:08/100 m) - You can tell where my focus isn't....
T1: 2:21
Bike: 1:17:19 (18.6 mph)
T2: 1:26
Run: 55:56 (9:01 m/m)

Breakfast Report: 2 packets Cinnamon roll oatmeal, coffee, Gatorade
Fashion Report: Black Skirtsports tri shorts, red Sugoi shimmel, LIT visor
Race Nutrition Report: 1 vanilla Hammer gel 20 minutes before the swim, 1 vanilla bean Gu on the bike, Water
Post Race Libation: Hornsby Crisp Apple Cider

The Long Version

Maybe I'm biased but the PNW LIT crew has got racing and playing together down to an art. This time, the Muszynskis, the Bannons, and the Magnusons converged upon a small campground in Manson, WA for a weekend of camping, visiting, eating, wine tasting, oh and racing. Tammy and I were signed up for the oly, Matt the half Ironman, Chad the half marathon, and the rest our support crew. This was a B race for me since my current focus is on the Grand Columbian Half Ironman (*gulp*) in September but I wanted to race it well, PR if I could, and see where my fitness lies.

A super busy week at work kept me from obsessing over much more than making sure we had all the right things packed for the race and our camping trip. So the promised hot weather and deep field due to USAT making this race the Northwest regional barely touched my radar screen. We arrived at the race site on Friday afternoon for packet pick-up and bike drop to a balmy temperature of 100 degrees. Definitely not PR conditions. In fact, it was shaping up to be a survival exercise with predicted temperatures touching the 80's by 10 AM. More incentive to finish faster, right? After taking care of the pre-race stuff, we headed off to the campground for the night.



4 AM came early on Saturday as all the racers crawled out of bed to eat breakfast and head down to Chelan for a full day of racing. Even though it was a B race for me, I wanted to see if I can break the 2:50 barrier. Properly tapered, I was sure I could but I'm technically training through this thing. The depth of the field finally hit me as I walked into transition that morning to the site of A LOT of bike bling and hard bodies with serious faces. In addition to the HIM, this was the USAT NW regional with the top 33% in each AG punching their ticket to Nationals in Tuscaloosa. I was lucky enough to rack next to Tammy so we set up our spots, begged a pump off a cute boy, and took our bikes out for a short warm-up and final mech check before making our way to the water and wiggling into our wetsuits and doing a short swim warm-up.



This year, my swim is what it is. I'm not spending a whole lot of time on it. In fact, I've kind of lost my swim mojo because following the black line is so boring compared to finding new hills to climb on the bike or more speedplay to do on the run. But, I'm still at the pool two times a week just to maintain and I'm OK with that. This race is actually my first open water swim of the season. So I am thankful for a clear lake and thoughtful race directors who placed bouy lines marking the entire swim course. As long as you didn't mind being in the thick of the scrum, you had the most direct line mapped out under water. Despite my lack of swim focus this year, I'm still pretty comfortable in the water so I placed myself in the front/middle of the swim start. I caught the line at the start and stayed on it throughout the swim bumping other swimmers the entire way. Even though my swim split isn't as fast as I'd like it to be, I still managed to catch and chick a few guys in the earlier wave. I'll take it. The swim was over before I knew it and I ran into T1 for the next round of wetsuit tango.





I must be getting good at the wetsuit dance because I turned in my fastest T1 yet! Soon enough, I was on my bike and I was ready to fly! The bike course follows the lakeshore and is flat to rolling. Perfect. I kept Bellatrix in the big ring and just focused on staying just below my red line and keeping a steady cadence going, popping out of the saddle when I needed to on the rollers. I saw Matt on his return trip from the first HIM turnaround, Tammy when I was on my way back from the oly turnaround, and Chad a short while after I passed the turnaround for the half marathon. He was looking strong and leading the race but the second place guy was hot on his heels. Well that's shaping up to be a good HM finish....too bad I probably won't be there to see it. For the most part, the bike was pretty uneventful - just a focused solid effort at race pace for me reeling a few folks in, getting passed by stronger cyclists as if I was standing still. I did have a couple of heart rate elevating moments. The first was a 16-yr-old boy who had issues with getting chicked as far as I could tell. I passed him the first time on a hill and kept a steady pace. I heard heavy breathing a few minutes later and he passed me again and moved in front. OK, whatever but then he slowed....considerably. So I passed him again still trucking along steadily after which he did the same pass and slow move. OK dude, if you pass me, I expect you to either ride away or continue on at a similar pace so I wouldn't have to keep feathering the brakes to keep the draft zone free. Prepare to get schooled by a thirty-something tri chick! I kicked my gearing up a couple of notches at the bottom of a roller, hopped out of the saddle, and just hammered away getting close to my threshold in the process. Never saw the kid again after that move. I'll say that was worth the few minutes above the red line. The second moment was infinitely scarier. The course itself wasn't closed but the city and volunteers were doing a fantastic job directing traffic. That didn't prevent impatient a$$es from endangering racers. As I approached the final turn back to the main road to T2, a guy decided he'd waited enough and tried to pull out into the shoulder in front of me despite yelling from volunteers, etc. I was close enough to him that I had to pop out of aero, brake hard, and mentally prepare to lay my bike down as I cursed like a drunken sailor. Luckily, he pulled back into traffic and I was able to control my bike and keep it from skidding as I made the final turn for home. I spent the last mile getting my heartrate back down from the stratosphere and spinning my legs out for what was promising to be a very, very WARM run.



Scratch that. The run was just plain hot. Another quick transition and I was back on the main road for my final 10K and the first mile sucked as usual. I saw Chad, still looking strong, but with his competition hanging off his shoulder. Yeah, that was going to be a good finish. I focused on taking in water at each aid station and keeping my form. I have to say, the support that the community gives for this race is top notch. The volunteers were awesome and the families living along the race course made it a truly special event. In addition to cheering, many of them turned on their garden hoses and gave their children soakers to spray down all the runners. I swear I could have kissed the first family that I saw doing that. To take my mind off my misery, I started counting females I saw coming back to gauge where I am in the overall standings. I lost count by the turnaround point but figured I was 50-60 OA. Luckily, my legs finally loosened up nicely about halfway through and I started to pick up the pace, right about the time I saw the entrance to the pain cave in the distance. As I entered into my own personal circle of hell, I saw Tammy outbound for the run and vaguely heard her say something and I can't for the life of me remember what. About a quarter mile from the finish, I glanced at my watch and saw it turn over to a 2:47. This was going to be close. I dug deep and surged up the final roller and down to the finish line.



After recovering from that hard effort, I found out Chad lost to his nemesis by a measly 3 seconds. D'oh! We headed back out to the course and brought Tammy and Matt home, both of whom had extremely solid races. We ended the weekend with some wine tasting and relaxing at camp. Another great time with Team LIT PNW.



I was very pleased with my race this past weekend. I PR'd and got my sub-2:50 on a day that was not conducive to doing either. In addition, I punched another ticket to Nationals thanks to my AG placing. I hate to disappoint y'all in the South, but I won't be visiting Alabama to race. The thought of racing in Tuscaloosa in August is enough to give me heat rash but this race did give me the confidence in knowing that I can be reasonably competitive in my AG the next time I want to try for an invitation to USAT's Big Dance.