Boulder Peak

So yesterday didn't go as I had hoped, or had even expected, but that's ok. Really!

Here's the breakdown:

Swim
My best swim ever, I got out really well and swam to the first buoy like the race finished there. Only a few strokes in I realized there was only one other girl around me and another that was coming in from the right. It was a weird, unexpected feeling especially because I couldn't see the second buoy due to the rising sun and there was no pack to follow! I saw some stragglers from the wave before me and followed a trail of bobbing heads to the second buoy. I kept the pace up, swimming about 20 ft to the side of another girl in my wave. I didn't want to get on her feet because we were swimming different lines and I was more confident in the one I had chosen. The swim seemed never ending and I was really knackered from about 3/4 on. Finally the hands started hit sand, I stood up and looked down: 22! Hot damn, where did that come from?! I crossed the mat in 23:10, tying for second fastest time in 20-24...the fastest was 23:09. Lately I've been really trying to stick with Jordan and some of the other Riptide guys in practice and it's apparently paying off.

Bike
Got on the bike thinking that this is going to be an amazing day. Suffered up the steep part of Old Stage and then started passing back people on the gradual incline and second hill. Then the sweet, sweet descent. I passed more people in Left-hand canyon and felt good going out onto 36. I kept track of my time and knew that a sub-2:30 would be in the cards easily if I got in by 1:40. I gradually realized that 1:45 was more likely. I came in in 1:46.

Run
It's ok though, I'm a runner -- I can pull off a sub-44 10k no problemo! Not a half mile in I got a wicked side stitch. I squeezed the hell out of it and slowed to a shuffle. My first mile was over 8 minutes. There was no other choice: I sat down and stretched it out. Got up, and voila! Gone! Now I could get to work. Not so fast. The rest of the run was a sufferfest with a few "No no I can turn this around!" thrown in for good measure. I finished the 10k in 46 something. Ugghh

There wasn't much time to lament my disappointing race, as shortly after finishing I made my way to the bike-in to wait for Jordan. As he came tearing in off the bike in 11th place all thoughts of my race vanished and I ran to cheer for him on the 3-loop run course. He had his best tri of his life and finished in 8th place in a really competitive field.

On a day when I wasn't able to race as well as I would've liked, nothing was better than seeing Jordan succeed. He's had his fair share of disappointing races (see: Boulder Peak last year) and mechanical issues, but none of that mattered yesterday. That's the cool thing about racing, sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down, but you can't let either affect you much in any direction and Jordan does a better job at that than anyone else I know. Yea, it's a bummer to finish 10 minutes behind where you would've liked to, or to get a flat, but those days happen. When they do, you have to fix what you can, stay confident in your training, and eventually, maybe not the next race, or the race after that, or even the race after that, you'll pull it all together and none of the disappointing races will matter.

I'll chalk this race up under the big umbrella that is "learning experiences". Among the lessons learned today is that you can't fake focus nor nutrition for a race this long. Obviously my cycling can stand improvement, but my biggest problem in races is forgetting it's a race and letting my mind wander. On the nutritional front, a sidestitch really shouldn't happen. I wasn't smart about what I ate the day before the race and I didn't really watch what was going in me during the race (too much G-rade at the end of the bike). Don't eat Harribo Raspberries for lunch the day before a race, no matter how delicious they are.