Mamma G's, technicolor magic, and lots and lots of vomit

Nautica South Beach Triathlon Race Report
April 6, 2014
South Beach, FL

Most of my friends and followers are now well aware of my long-term triathlon goals, and my short-term goals to get there. MIAMI! An early-season race which would determine the next year's race schedule. The first weekend in April came quickly this year, but I was ready! I was feeling strong and confident. This was my race, this was my year. I conquered the winter with consistent and focused training. Nothing left to do now but RACE!

Kyle and I left Hattiesburg Friday evening when the shop closed up. We wanted to avoid closing  more than necessary, so the weekend was going to be jam-packed. The plan was to drive all night and arrive in South Beach for packet pickup, check out the race course, and prep for Sunday's race. We hit the road just before 6- it was going to be a long night, but I was SO excited.

Trip Highlights:

Momma G's Nachos.
Simply can't be imitated.

DINNER. Since we were going to be driving through Mobile, it simply made sense that my super-important pre-race dinner be at Momma Goldberg's. I pity anyone who has never experienced the Mamma's Love or their loaded nachos. I got my own orders of each and ate *everything*. DELICIOUS.

Listening to& watching Will Smith's "Welcome to Miami".
This was the trip theme song.

Kyle snapped this funny
photo of me snoozing on the drive. 

Sleeping 8 hours straight of a 14 hour drive. Perhaps the sleeping is less of a highlight than my wonderful husband who drove my butt across the country in the middle of the night and LET me sleep so that I could arrive feeling fresh for a great race performance. Yes, I realize how lucky I am.

Breakfast and coffee at Dunkin Donuts. There's not much better after a waking up from a comma than being treated to delicious coffee and an old-fashioned.

When in South Beach,
DRESS LIKE YOU'RE FROM THE '80'S!

We arrived in South Beach about an hour before packet pickup opened, so we went out for a little swim in the ocean. I've never done an ocean race before, though I HAVE swam in some calmer ocean waters before. This was not-so-calm. I spent some time practicing getting past the break and praying that the waters would be calmer tomorrow. Once I got past the waves it was smooth swimming. The problem was getting out and keeping my heart-rate down... Fighting the water and getting tossed around like a rag-doll is exhausting. Not much better coming back in because of the under-tow. I switched from my wet-suit to my speed-suit and tried again. SO much better! I was able to cut through the waves and control my body movements better. The difference in the added buoyancy from the wet-suit and how much it affected me in rough water was dramatic. Enough to NOT want to wear the wet-suit. The chances of the race being wet-suit legal at this point is 50/50. If it IS wet-suit legal, what will I do? This swim is only 150 meters out & in, and the rest is parallel to the shore. So in the long run, the difficulty the wet-suit would cause is pretty small, right? I decided if it IS wet-suit legal, I would benefit more by wearing it than not. But crossed my fingers for warm waters!

The rest of the day was perfectly uneventful. Pick up race packet, attend pre-race meeting, check into hotel, lunch, nap, shake-out run, dinner, gear prep, early bed. With one exception- this was the first race of the WTS ITU series! We stayed up maybe a little later than we should have watching the women's race in Auckland, but it was the perfect way to focus for tomorrow morning's event. I'm feeling confident- tomorrow, pro or no pro, is going to be a great day. Tomorrow, I get to see how fast I am.

Arrived to the race site early to set up and get warmed up. The morning was a little thrown off because I took everything out of my gear bag & transferred them into these silly plastic bags the race staff gave us (they said they wouldn't be allowing personal bags into transition; not enforced). My run warm-up consisted of running to the car to grab a forgotten item. Not a big deal just a little frustrating to not have my familiar equipment because I'd tried so hard to downsize from my already reasonably sized possessions. That combined with 15 bathroom breaks and I ended up feeling rushed.

The water temperature was 78 degrees EXACTLY, wet-suit legal. My heart dropped. I grabbed my suit & walked the half mile to the swim start with Kyle. It looked like everyone else in the women's elite amateur wave would be wearing wet-suits, too. Good move, level playing field. The water didn't seem to calm down much. It's ok. I practiced this yesterday; it's not THAT bad; everyone is dealing with it, too; I'm a stronger swimmer, now- it won't affect me as much as some others. Regardless the conditions, I'm going to have a great race.

Official race image of the pro women taking off.

Swim
The waves went out one-by-one. Pro men, pro women, elite men. Our turn! I lined up around girls Kyle told me to keep an eye on. It didn't matter- once we hit the water we were all tossed around and away from each other. Stick to the plan- dive through the waves until I can't reach anymore, then fast strokes to the first buoy. I dove through then swam fast. The buoy wasn't getting any closer, and I'm getting pounded by waves. Did I get pushed back, because I can touch again? Keep diving, can't touch, swim fast! It took forever to get to that first buoy, and I was getting clobbered the whole time. I was SO relieved when I turned the first corner. WHEW, easy swimming from here- pick it up and let's make up for it!

Negative. Unfortunately that first buoy, and every one after it, were not quite past the break, which made for some rough swimming. The buoys were spaced 200m apart. I would look up to sight and see nothing but waves. Again- nothing. Again- there's a buoy, keep swimming against the waves, they're pushing me into shore. I ended sighting about every other stroke, and only got about half of the breaths I attempted because the water was so rough. UP and DOWN. I was watching the sand get further away as the waves took me up and closer as I dropped down towards them. I hit the orange 1/2 way buoy and wanted to stop. I could see purple swim caps around me- I'm struggling, but so is everyone else. I heard Kyle's voice from earlier telling me, "Whatever happens, don't get in your own head".

Finally the last buoy! Turn right to swim to the shore. I actually took a moment to evaluate the incoming waves to ride them in. I don't want to swim one more stroke of this course than I have to. I'm out of the water and I hear a man yell at me what # I am in my wave. Oh, that's Kyle. I am out of it! I run to the transition area, what feels like 1/2 a mile to my bike, gasping for breath. 34:37- not great, but still faster than it felt... Quick transitions, I'm still in this.

Bike 1:09:16 21.6 mph
I hop on my bike and take a few moments to catch my breath while peddling though south beach. There's a woman in front of me- I can get her. It doesn't take long to settle into a rhythm, and I am moving! Maybe the wind is at my back, but I'm feeling strong and I'm working hard. I see Kyle at the halfway point & he yells something at me that I can't make out. A small loop and I pass him again as he's yelling at me to go. Shortly after things go bad. I've been burping from all the salt water I ingested, and as I'm letting out a huge belch salt water goes trajecting out. I didn't think much of it- better to get it out now than have it sloshing around on the run, right? I keep pumping my legs. Another salt water belch. Suddenly I'm not feeling so well. I can tell the 2nd half of the bike isn't going as well as the first. I'm starting to fade. I take a gel, sip on my nuun- I need to stay fueled. Keep pushing. More salt water comes up... 3 times total.

T2
I'm not feeling great getting off the bike. I ran that same 1/2 mile to my transition spot, only this time was more difficult trying to maneuver my bike around competitors from the sprint and the mounds.holes in the ground. I have a mental image of myself running through T2 with my bike flying though the air along with my cleats with me barely able to control my body or my gear. Quickly through on my shoes, grab my safety gel, and go! I'm exiting T2 with one other girl from my wave, and I think we're #2 & 3. She takes off. I tell myself to hold onto #3.

Run 52:03 8:23/mile
My legs are heavy, and they don't shake out. If anything they are getting heavier. Kyle usually discourage me from saying a course sucks, but this run course SUCKS! You run out and back 3 miles on concrete along the boardwalk in South Beach, one of the most populated beaches in the world. And pedestrians don't care that you're racing or in pain, they will still walk right into you. Same goes for bicycles & roller blades. My 10K was probably closer to 6.5 miles from all of the weaving. Maybe if I were moving faster people would have moved out of my way? After the concrete, you enter the beach and run through "hard sand" for a short period, then "soft sand" for what felt like a quarter mile until you pick up another concrete trail and do another ~1.5mile out and back.

I hit the 1.5 mile mark and was starting to loose it mentally. I'm so hot, my legs are loosing it, I have to slow down... then the ocean made another appearance. #4. I walked through the next aid station. Ok, time to suck it up now, we're in Miami. I hit the "hard" sand and about lost it. Legs cramping, just trying to push off the sand and keep what I was doing closer to "running" than stumbling. Kyle was waiting for me at the half way point with coaching words. I blurted out that I threw up as if it would excuse this awful running performance. I was ready to stop, it took a lot to run past the race site & finish the race. "Just a 5K left, just 3 more miles". At this point, I don't care what my time is, I just want to be done.

When I hit the soft sand I just got mad. WHY are we running through this? How is it that other people seem to be moving so efficiently, and I am just holding out from collapsing with each step? That next turn around point seemed to take miles to get to. On the way back in, I had to walk. I was so hot, my head was pounding, I couldn't get my heart rate under control... I thought I was going to pass out. People are passing me & some are yelling words of encouragement, which I appreciated. I felt like I looked like such a rookie struggling out there. Like that girl who hasn't quite figured out how to run a full 10K yet because she doesn't know how to train right. I couldn't care less about pride at this point.

One last stretch of soft sand before I hit the finish. Have you ever seen that mime that says, "I run like a sloth through peanut butter?". Well I was running like a drunk girl though soft sand. But I was a determined drunk girl. That last quarter mile was a battle. Legs and lungs against the sand. My body has never worked so hard in its life to JUST finish.

Finish 2:40:42
My feet hit the blue mat & my name & home town were announced- I wanted to stick my head in the sand. Don't look at me.This is not what I came here for & this is not the race I want to go home with. After I crossed the finish line I made a bee-line for the water. I just needed to cool down and be alone. Kyle came over and I blurted out "I'm such a LOOSER!". He laughed and said there's not much you can do about it after you throw up like that.

I had a hard time sleeping that night- I could not get that feeling of being tossed up and down and those images of the sand close and far out of my head. I don't have any regrets about the race- I did the best I could and the rest was out of my control. The kicker is that as miserable and ugly as this race was, it was still a top 4 Olympic distance for me. I struggled big time, and still managed a 2:40-ish. 2 years ago that would have been a PR. Have to keep things in perspective.

 I'm not really sure what the next step is. I won't be doing as many local races this year. This season is less about experience in racing and more about just racing. Just need to keep working, get faster, and get ready for the next one! That is TBD.

I would NOT do this race again. It's too far away and I feel they were trying so hard to produce a race in a city that was not willing to cooperate. I'm confident I'm not the only one who was a little peeved that we weren't taken out past the break in the swim, even if it would have added an extra 100m. And the sand running was ridiculous.

I had a lot of  friends and family cheering for me.
My dad said, "Stay out of Florida!"- he's right, I don't have very good luck there.
My mom said, "The only person you compete against is yourself"- today that was true, and I won.
My Aunt & Grams said, "Honey, we're so proud of you for finishing"- that was the real accomplishment today.
Kyle "Some races are good, some are bad. This one was bad, but we'll keep at it and hopefully we'll have a good one soon."

Let's hope so!

Another highlight- Indian Rocks Beach pit stop on the way back up. Stopped just outside of Tampa to visit my Grams, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Gary, & Jack. We relaxed in their spa & went to dinner. I don't get to see my family very often, so I was grateful that Kyle was willing to go out of the way for a visit.