Clermont Draft Legal Triathlon: PartII

Pre race

I woke up Wednesday morning with my bags packed and ready to hit the road right after masters. On the way to the Y, I started to feel queezy, like really queezy... This was not just nerves... I started to feel extremely warm and couldnt sit still for the last 5 minutes of our ride...I almost didn't make it, and after we pulled into the parking lot I darted straight to the potty. I ended up missing the first 20 minutes of masters (yeah, it was THAT bad). Fortunately, I had an easier workout than everyone else, so I was able to get my swim in in the hour remaining without too much of a problem.

I hit the road right after in the Prius rental (great car if onlynbecausenindidnt spend a FORTUNE on gas). I stopped in Tallahassee in the afternoon to squeeze in a 30 minute run- a necessity to loosen up the legs after being crammed Ina car all day. I arrive in Tampa at around 9, ate some food (I don't think I ate enough on the drive, I just didn't have much of an appetite after that morning), and had a brief visit with my grams. My Aunt Kathy and I were in bed catching up a bit when the feeling hit again and I had to dart to the bathroom. It was rough...

The next morning I went for a short ride, had some lunch, engaged in some retail therapy, then topped the day off with a very short run at race pace. Legs felt great, body felt depleted. The rest of the evening I made sure to eat with a hearty appetite and go to town with my electrolyte beverages.

Friday morning I cleaned up the bike, ate brunch with grams, and hit the road for Clermont. I met Kyle at the airport and we went straight to the race site to check it out. I jumped on my bike and rode the loop a couple times- legs felt strong- I was ready! We went down to the swim start to check it out. E water was pretty chilly, about 61 degrees, so I decided not to suit up and play around- I could practice starts in the morning.

We had just enough time to sit down to a nice but quick dinner before heading to the pre-race meeting. We had a gift card for Olive Garden which was pretty close to the National Training Center, so we went there. I had the herbed Salmon with broccoli and of course some delicious salad. The bread tasted crappy (stale- yuck!) and the fish was practically sacked with olive oil. Seriously, when I pressed down on it with my fork the oil seeped out. I ended up wasting half of it because I could NoT afford to to get sick again.

The pre race briefing was at the National Training Center. We picked up our packets and discussed the race course and some basic rules. In the middle of it my stomach got that familiar cramping and you know what happened soon after. Explosions. And super-hydration to try to catch up.

The next morning I woke up refreshe and ready to go. This was my race- I had been training hard for several months when most people were enjoying their "off-season", I'd been consistent with my workouts, I'd done everything I needed to do to have a great race.

We arrived at the race site early for athlete check-in. The check-in official used a board to check the length of my clip on aerobars and instructed me to remove them since they extended past my handle bars by a quarter inch. We frantically ripped them off, then saw another girl 4 feet away from us simply anle hers upwards so they were no longer too long. After asking the official if that was ok (he said it WAS) we quickly reinstalled them, which was no quick task. As we received aproval and began walking away, the lead official approached us and instructed us that they HAD to be parallel to the ground and needed to be taken off. So off they went again, and off he went to try to locate the other girls who had already racked their bikes with upward tilted bars.

I was a little freaked out at that point because the 20 minute ordeal had cut into my warm-up and zen time. I quickly got my transition area ready and did a very short and rushed warm up, jumped into my wetsuit, and rushed into the frigid water for a short swim. We got to pick our start position based on numbers, and i had a low one (204 our of 200-230ish), so i checked the start line for the most direct route to the buoy ( it was on the left side of the start line). It was cold. It took me several minutes to get any type of breathing pattern going- I had to work extra hard to just relax and get acclimated to the cold. I finally did and got in a couple hundred yards with sighting. I quickly realized I was going to have major issues with my clear goggles as we were swimming directly into the sun. I jumped out and grabbed my tinted goggles and got ready for call outs.

They had us line up in order from lowest to hightest number, I was number 4. They called our names one by one and we ran to the start line and chose our positions about 50 meters out from shore. I bee lined to the left. After several minutes, I looked to my right and realized a majority of the women were opting to line up on the right. That was weird... I wanted to be in the crowd but we weren't allowed to change our lateral position once we were at the line. Why were they over there when the left appeared to be more direct?

The race

If you've read this far, you'll be happy to know that this part will be considerably short.

The horn blew and off we went. I ran a few steps, began my dolphin dives, and took off in a hurried swim. When I looked up to sight, I was blinded! All I could see was bright-ass sunshine. I tried to sight around me to locate where the other women were... I saw a few here and there, but where was the crowd? Not around me... I could see some splashing around ahead so I used that to direct my path. I had a hard time getting my breathing right, maybe because I was just panicked, and i felt a stitch in my side which gradually got more sever, probably the result of all the fluid and nutrient loss in the previous days. I could finally see after i rounded the buoy. I picked up the pace a bit, got my bilateral breathing on track, and finally felt likes was swimming as I Had in practice.

I finally felt bottom and began those stupid dolphin dives back in. As I regained orientation, I realized the shore was practically empty with exception of a few poor supporters waiting for their pathetic "athletes". The clock read 14ish minutes... Wtf?! I was supposed to be out of the water around 11:30. And that was it. In 750meters, I put myself out of the race. I was done. What a waste.

I arrived in the transition area and ripped off my wetsuit. As my left leg came free I realized my timing chip got left behind. I fished around in the leg for a while, pulled it free, and ran off with my bike. As I mounted I heard Aunt Kathy yell something to the effect of "it's ok honey, keep your chin up". Great, everyone knows how shitty I'm doing! I was grateful for the sup at this point I was already devastated.

I hammered it on the bike, or thought I was, but when I looked down my speed was hovering around 14-15 mph. PATHETIC! My chain was rubbing really bad, and I was having difficulties in every gear I switched to. I just felt like there was a lot of resistance. hindsight, every time I took the bike out of the car it had fallen out of place again. My breathing was labored, i was mentally defeated, and I just couldn't get my legs under me. As I approached the end of the first lap the motorcycle official informed me the lead group was less than a minute behind so I needed to work really hard or I'd get lapped out. It happened right after I started my second lap. I pulled off to the side, turned in my chip, and I was done.

It was heartbreaking. And embarrassing. I know how foolish I looked THEN AND now. I don't care about looking stupid or naive, because I know I'm not and the work and ability was there. What I'm disappointed about is the fact that so many little things got the better of me and affected me so much. The bottom line is that I was prepared to be great, and I let that not happen. It was an expensive learning experience, but a valuable one nonetheless. The good thing is that the training and ability is there, and I'm set up to have an amazing season.

Clermont draft legal triathlon: Part I

This is the post you've all been waiting for- a play by play of the race and an explanation of my experience. I've decided to break this into 2 parts:

PartI: race report

PartII: race drama

Race report

It's hard to write a race report on an event I only spent about 20 minutes in... HOWEVER, after having a difficult time shifting through last years' reports, I promised that I would write a meaningful report that would be helpful to future participants, so I will do my best to do just that.

Although I had a crap race, the experience as a whole was pretty awesome. I'm excited about all that this race has to offer and the opportunities it gives young and up-and-coming athletes. I was also excited to be among the few athletes with the opportunity to compete in the itu style format, since the U.S. is definitely lacking. Jared Shoemaker, professional athlete and founder of this race, definitely had a vision, and seeing it in real life (thanks to rd Bill Burnett) was totally awesome. I know of a few other draft legal races that have popped up around the country, and i hope to see more as the sport continues to grow and we continue to foster more young athletes towards international competition. 

Anyone who is anyone in tri's was at the Clermont challenge that weekend. I saw Olympians (Sarah Groff!) and other big name pros.

This was probably the best organized event I have been to thus far. RD Bill Burnett did a spectacular job communicating with athletes in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the race. There was a mandatory pre-race briefing at the national training center where we were presented specific rules of draft legal racing (in case anyone was too lazy to read the rules emailed...) and picked up our race packets (making the morning of run smooth). We were given specific details for the next morning, schedule of events, and specifics on the flow of things pre-race.

Athlete check-in started about 1.5 hrs prior to race start. I arrived promptly at that time to allow for any mishaps (No bike warmups fyi). Good thing... There was some drama with the check-in official about the length of my aerobars. I anticipated this, so quickly removed them. After they were off, I realized he was letting some women angle theirs upward so as not to extent past the brakes, so I asked him if that was ok and he said it was. Right as we were finishing up with putting them back on, the head official came over and instructed us to remove them. There was definitely some differing of opinions between the two, and it was extremely frustrating for me as my stress levels were quickly escalating.

The organization of the swim start was screwy and downright unfair, in my opinion. We started off the shore and athletes lined up between two posts. I didn't realize it at the time, but the lake bottom had varying depths from one side to the other. When we watched the men's race, you could see an obvious advantage for the men on the right, who began in ankle deep water, verses those on the left,who began in knee deep. The guys on the left were out of the race within the first 20seconds. Kind of really crappy. Also, swimming out was brutal- straight into the sun. I really struggled with that. 

The bike course was flat. We road out about 1.5 miles, made a 180 turn, and rode back to the race site making a loop through the transition area. 4 times through for a total of 12 miles. 

The run course consisted of part of the bike course and was a double loop. It was straight out and back two times. We saw A LOT of athletes miss the turn around to go back out and run thought the finish shoot only to realize they had to go back and try to make up ground. It happened with eVERY race- u25 AND pro races. The crappy part was that there was actually a volunteer there who was SUPPOSED to be directing people where to go, but instead of directing he just stood there looking confused. I  know if that were me, I would have been pissed... It just emphasized to me even more that you really have to be responsible for your own race and know the course before going into a race, rather than relying on others to give instructions. 

 

It's finally here! The Clermont Draft Legal Challenge is just days away, and so many thoughts are running through my head. The past week has been pretty busy with our new 10k training kick-off, the store in general, out of town guests, and of course getting things ready for Florida. I've thought about this week with a certain feeling of dread, and it finally hit me over the weekend that 'the Clermont race' is NOW. There's no more putting it out of my head as some distant date in the future, I'm about to face the culmination of my training for the past several months. As you can tell, there is a little bit of pre-race anxiety here.

Why should I be anxious? This is all fun, right? Of course it is! But at the same time, there are expectations here. 

The top 3 females in the elite developmental race get their elite license. Obviously I would not have dedicated the time or money to this event if that weren't the ultimate goal. Based on the results from previous years, we thought this was a realistic goal, and if nothing else would prove a valuable learning experience. Of course, talent will vary from year to year, so just because we think I might have done well in the field last year doesn't mean the same will hold true for this one. My impression is that the race is pretty stacked this year. I've come to terms with the fact that I can't control who shows up and how fast these other girls will be- I can only control my own preparation and performance. I've  busted my ass, and it will show on Saturday, elite license or not.

I've never trained for a race SPECIFICALLY; I've just trained, and raced. As a result, I see this event as an end, when really it's just the beginning to my best season yet.  I think it's natural to get to this point before a race and feel unprepared- like you should do more JUST to make sure you're where you want to be. At the end of the day, I know I'm exactly where I NEED to be. I trust my training, and I trust my coach. I've trained consistently since July, taking only a few easy 'postseason' weeks in October. I've missed very few workouts, and most of the skipped workouts were done strategically (so I did most of the important ones). Not to mention, my training friends are kicking ass! Ginger swam a 200 in the 2:40's this morning, Brinn and Hannah ran a 5k this weekend in 20:30 & 20:33, respectively, and Elizabeth is not too far behind. Work works.

I feel I can't go into this race without thanking several people for their help. Mr. Andrew Hodges freely gave his experience and strategies for draft legal racing, and it was his New Years' party that ceased any liquor  consumption throughout the rest of this race prep. My training friends have definitely kept me on track and have pushed me through the good and bad days. Sponsors  Timex, Swiftwick, and ESPECIALLY Aerocat for hooking me up with an AWESOME bike deal, without which there's no way I would be able to do this race. My family who is always there for me and are my number one cheerleaders. Lastly, to say that this is an individual sport is simply wrong- my husband and coach, Kyle, is the brain behind this operation, so it's his fault if I suck! 

Regardless of how this race plays out, I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to participate, and I know it's going to be a great learning experience!