Keuka Lake Triathlon-Olympic Distance, June 3, 2012
I drove up to the Finger Lakes on Friday after school to meet up with Victoria at her dad’s house on Seneca Lake. I have never been to the Finger Lakes, so I was really excited. The drive was fine, until I started to get delirious from exhaustion and hunger. Victoria had told me there was a Wegman’s in Johnson City, that was my goal, my refueling/re-humanizing stop. I made it Wegman’s and wandered around aimlessly for about 2o minutes…not only from being tired, hungry, etc but also because the store was set up differently than every Wegman’s I had ever been in. I really like when you walk in a grocery store, and know where you are going, you don’t have to look like an idiot and need a map to find the oatmeal. I purchased a few necessary grocery items before I went over to find something to eat for dinner. I have a hard time selecting food, not only due to food allergies, but also because Wegman’s just has too many choices…do I want sushi, Indian, Mexican, vegetarian, (pizza and hoagies are out). I ended up getting Indian, mainly because I really wanted the cauliflower dish. I finally made it out of Wegman’s, a little more human and a little less hungry, ready to hit the road and finish my drive.
When I pulled into the well hidden slice of heaven, I was so happy, immediately relaxed and did not want to come home. We were right on the lake, surrounded by nothing but nature. It was amazing. On Saturday, we had a nice relaxing morning, took a walk at Watkin’s Glen and even stopped a few wineries (no, I did not have any tasting, I was just being a good girlfriend and bringing Kevin home some wine 🙂 In the afternoon, Victoria and I took a very chilly swim in the Lake and then had a delicious pre-race meal consisting of fish, chicken, shrimp 4 ways, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, and more. It was fantastic. I read on the porch overlooking the lake and the sunset before turning in for the night, knowing the 5am wake up would be here before I knew it.
Waterfall at Watkins Glen
The view from the deck
I showered, braided my hair into my two french braids, and went to bed. This is the second time I’ve had a crazy pre-race dream, about another race that has something go terribly wrong during the race. Maybe, this is just my mind preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. Who knows?!?
Waking up, I dressed in my Philly Pro Tri gear, ate my oatmeal with almond butter and had a cup of coffee. We were out on the road by 5:30 for the drive to Keuka Lake Community College in Penn Yan. The drive was beautiful, we passed dozens of wineries and fields of grapes. We arrived at the college with plenty of time to spare, picked up our race packets, got to transition and found our other teammate, Mike, already getting ready.
I set up transition in my usually fashion, and headed out for a quick warm-up run before transition closed. I got a quick look at the run course, which promised to be flat and right along the lake. After my quick warm-up run, I put my shoes in transition and grabbed my wetsuit and hit the bathroom one more time before the race.
Once I got down to the swim start, the race director said to us: “We pushed the start time up for the impending weather…so: If you see lightning when you are swimming, the race is over. Swim to the nearest land exit. If you see lightning when you are riding. The race is over. Turn around. If you see lightning when you are running. The race is over. Turn around. Oh and if and when you catch up to the guys in the swim, be nice.” Enough said for how the weather was Sunday morning at Keuka Lake.
The swim was in a lake, which should have been flat, but with the storm coming in, it was like swimming in the ocean, with small waves and a current. We swam against the current until the first turnaround, then had the current at our backs for the straight away, until we had to turn to swim to the finish. So, for about 1/2 of the swim or 750 meters we swam against the current. Even though the swim was choppy, the bouys were on our left side, so I thoroughly enjoyed being able to sight them with each breath I took. Also, compared to Harryman, there was a lot of on water support in the form of kayaks, and multiple bouys, not just the ones you needed to turn at. My swim was pretty strong, I got out of the water and looked at my watch, 24:30, not bad for the conditions. Unknowingly, apparently I didn’t read the rules good enough, I acured a 2 minute penalty for stripping my wetsuit half way off (unzipping the back and pulling my arms out, which I always do as soon as I am out of the water). You were supposed to wait until you got to the top of the 25+ stair climb to unzip the wetsuit…ugh (I didn’t find this out until I was at dinner about 10 hours later with Kevin at home).
After I got into transition and started stripping my wetsuit off, my left calf cramped, so I had to take a moment to pause so I wouldn’t fall over. After the cramp passed, I finished getting out of my wetsuit, put on my sunglasses (not that it was sunny, but more for protection from the wind and rain), helmet, race belt, socks and bike shoes. Transition was on grass, which was wet, so I made the decision to put my shoes on my feet in transition, not keeping them attached to my bike (like I do if we are are concrete). I need to remember for next time to either put baby powder in my socks or body glide in my socks to make it easier to put my socks on. I got out of transition and was off on the bike course.
I managed to ride about 5 miles before the rain started. Then the clouds opened up and it just poured and poured on us. The rain pelted my skin from the sky, and sprayed up at me from the road. It was good I had sunglasses on block my eyes from the rain and wind, but it would have been nice to have little wipers on my glasses. The ride had a little bit of everything; long hills to climb up, long hills to power down, and some flats in between, with two tight turn-arounds, which were a little technical because of the wet roads. I was only passed by 2 females on the bike, and I also passed 2 females on the bike, keeping status quo in position, but not necessarily in time. I really need to get faster on the bike (my weakest link) to make my whole performance in the triathlon better. Victoria saw me twice on the bike and yelled at me to go faster up the hills (it was nice having someone yell at me :). The last 3 miles were all downhill, so I hammered it out (as fast as I felt comfortable with the pouring rain and wet roads).
I got into transition feeling ready to run, excited to see how my track workouts would effect my 1ok. Before leaving transition, I stripped off my socks (mistake or not), because they were soaked, slipped on my running shoes and headed out of transition onto the mostly flat run course that was parallel to the lake. It took me a while to feel my toes running, they went numb around mile 10 on the bike. The run is my strongest part of the triathlon, I usually make up time on the run and catch a few females (and males). I passed two females on my way to the turn around (on the out and back course, which I love, you can always know where your competition is, unless they are just that much faster than you). My watch read 21:20 at the 5k turnaround mark, I was happy, but it was time to push it into a higher gear, I knew there were still a few women ahead of me to try to catch. Just a bit after the turnaround I saw Victoria, and she told me I better catch the woman who was ahead of me…I thought, “yes mam!” The last 5k I knew my shoes were tearing my feet up, I could feel hot spots on my heels and on the insides of my feet. I wasn’t really in pain, the adrenaline of the race was keeping my thoughts on running as fast as I could, not on the rubbing of my shoes against my bare feet.
With about 2 miles left of the run, I caught the woman who Victoria yelled at me to catch, and I just kept pushing forward, one step at a time. I wasn’t really paying attention to how fast I was going, but more on picking off one runner at a time, no matter their age, gender, or if they were doing the olympic or sprint distance. During the last 1/2 mile I was passed by the one and only runner of the entire 10k who passed me (a guy who was doing the olympic relay…so he better be running faster than me!) I kicked the last 1/2 mile with a final push as I stepped onto the grass to sprint to the finish line. I crossed the finish line in 2:30 (and some seconds). The second 5k was 20:20, which meant I negative split my run and almost ran a sub-20 5k 🙂 I guess my track workouts are paying off. I didn’t know where I placed, so I would have to wait until the results were posted, which is usually pretty soon after you cross the finish line.
I meet up with Mike, another PPT teammate, and we waited for Victoria who crossed just a few minutes after I did.
Freezing after the race– Me, Mike Balent and Victoria English
We all collected our gear from transition, then headed over to check out the results. I ended up finishing 4th, about 2 1/2 minutes behind the 2nd & 3rd place females (need to bike faster!!), but 1st in my age group. Mike finished 2nd AG and Victoria was 1st in her age group. After checking the results, we put our gear back in our cars, and headed to take a nice, luke warm shower to wash off the dirt and grime from the race. Showering post race is amazing, no matter what the temperature of the water may be…at least a change of dry clothes is a necessity (yes, Kevin, you did tell me I needed to do this from the beginning, you are a good coach!) About 30 minutes later, clean bodies and clean clothes, protein shake and vitamins, it was time to stretch, relax and wait for awards.
Best awards ever- Red wine and organic almond butter!
2:32:18 (with 2 minute wetsuit penalty…so really in my mind 2:30:18)- 4th Female Overall, 1st 25-29
Swim: 26:11
T1: 1:37
Bike: 1:19:49
T2: 1:00
Run: 41:41
Philly Pro Tri Keuka Lake Age Group winners!
Red wine and Almond Butter- YUM!
After the awards were over, we all said our goodbyes and it was time to head home. The 300 mile drive was not something I was specifically looking forward to, but I figured it was a good time to “relax.” The drive home was just as exciting, in terms of weather, as the race. It poured until I was out of New York, then it was sunny skies all the way back to Havertown. Overall, the finger lakes were amazing and the race was a good experience. I do not ride my bike in the rain (ever, this was a first), so it was good practice for future races to gain some confidence and handling skills in bad weather. Also, good lesson to be learned, always, always make sure to triple read the rules, just in case, since I did manage to get a 2 minute penalty for partially stripping off my wetsuit before I was allowed. Lessons learned, wine drank, now time to move on and train for the next race.
Adventures in Life 