Hy-Vee Race Report

Well, I was right. It wasn’t a GREAT race. But I think I’m finally at the point I can look back and say it was at least a GOOD race. I had a goal, I didn’t reach it. And for awhile after the race, I beat up on myself a little bit. Ok I beat up on myself a lot. But I’m over it now. Cuz you know what? It doesn’t change a thing to sit here and throw a pity party for myself. It is what it is. I can only try to work harder and be better next time.

Everything about this race was a little bit odd. First it was a triathlon, then the floods hit and it became a duathlon, then four days before race day it was back to a triathlon again. I felt a little relieved when it became a duathlon because of my history with the swim, but in some ways I was disappointed too. The swim was going to be a big challenge for me and one I felt ready to finally conquer. But I came to terms with that rather quickly and began thinking about my strategy for the du. Just about the time I thought I had a strategy down for the du, they changed it back to a tri. So it was back to the original plan.

Pre-Race

This was the first race I’ve done where I haven’t had my mental coach with me. Greyt was not racing Hy-Vee, so I was on my own. It was a weird feeling to not have her there to talk through my swim strategy or to hang out with in transition. But I really felt like I was doing ok. I felt strong on race morning. I felt prepared and ready. For once, I felt confident in the swim. I wasn’t my normal panicky, anxious self. So without Greyt there, I spent the hour or so before race time getting my bike transition all squared away, stretching and warming up, and also talking to some of the gals racked around me. It was a little intimidating to be standing there in the middle of some pretty tough competitors. I had Cathy Yndestad on my left, Tess Taintor on my right, Jana Severson about three bikes down, Jane Riessen across the aisle…man that was intimidating! And I just KNOW that the one open spot beside Tess was the spot Jen would have occupied had she raced this weekend. Now THAT would have been interesting!!! ;)

The Swim

With the flooding situation it was a bit sketchy to get into open water before the race. But, I really felt ready for the swim so I didn’t sweat this as much as I have in the past. As we all moved towards the swim start, I felt excited to start. Anxious, yes, but not nervous or panicky. I looked confidently out at the water, eyed up the buoys, and just said “You got this.” I stood in the pack of white caps and chatted with a friend of mine while we waited for the other heats to go off. Even as I carefully waded into the water to avoid falling on the concrete drop-off or nailing one of the limestone boulders that used to line the walkway (which was now under water), I still did not have that oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing feeling that I normally get right before the horn sounds. I was ready to go. Or so I thought.

The horn sounded and we all took off running into the water. I took my time with this because I had absolutely NO REASON to get myself caught up in the pack of swimmers I mentioned above. Then when I had some open space, I dove in. And then it hit. PANIC CITY! The water was so dark it was like putting your face down into a mud puddle. I immediately jerked my head up and gasped. Then put my head down again and tried to swim. Then another gasp. Then the doggie paddling started. My heart was beating out of my chest. I could not control my breathing. It was a nightmare. I struggled with this half crawl /half doggie paddle stroke for a minute or so then rolled over onto my back and tried to regain my composure, but being on my back made me feel dizzy so I turned back over and tried it again. Same thing. I just could not believe this was happening. It was worse than it was in Galveston, by far. And I think, the worst I’ve felt since my first tri last June. I was struggling. Big time. I felt so defeated. So mislead by my own over-confidence. I wanted to quit, I didn’t see how I could possibly finish the swim like this.

I got to the first turn buoy, and I grabbed onto it to rest. I was so angry with myself, so completely and totally mad that I felt this way AGAIN. And I decided it was enough. I had me a little pep talk at that buoy. I shared a few choice words with myself, said there was no way in hell I was going to quit, and finally took off again. I found some open space along the buoy line and finally got into some semblance of a rhythm. I started catching up to and passing white caps. I caught a couple purple caps too, then a couple of orange ones. It was about damn time. I got to the last turn buoy and felt pretty good. Turned and headed home. I just knew the time out of the water was going to be around 40-45 minutes. That stretch to the first turn buoy felt like it took forever. As I came closer to the swim exit, I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to reach my goal time. I felt extremely disappointed in myself. But, at least I was going to finish the swim. I wasn’t so sure of that when I started. Summary: Sucky, sucky swim. (and dirty! that is NOT a 5 o'clock shadow!!)



The Bike

When I hit the timing mat for T1, I looked down and hit the lap timer on my watch. I was very surprised to see the time on my watch was much faster than I had anticipated. This gave me a little bit of hope for salvaging a respectable race time, but I still couldn’t quite shake the disappointment. I got through transition fine, and was finally out on the bike. What a relief.

The first part of the bike was a little challenging given there was a pretty big hill in the first 2 miles. But I knew once I got up that hill and turned onto the road by the school that I would finally see some supporting faces in the crowd. And, man, did I need that. I pushed up the hill and put the hammer down. My legs felt ready to go, and I was determined to make up some time on the bike. As I passed the school I heard the best sound ever – “GO KRISTEN!!”. There was Laura and Greyt cheering me on. I gave them a little thumbs up sign and just kept hammering. A little further down the road I heard another familiar voice and my friend Deb was there cheering me on too. It was so great to have people on the course, especially at the beginning of the bike, to encourage me and get me going. I needed that so much.

The bike felt really really good. I passed a lot of people. The only people who passed me had those funky helmets and disc wheels. I was ok with that. We hit the Booneville stretch and all of a sudden I was working REALLY hard to maintain a pace that was about 4-5 mph slower than I had maintained through the first 7 or 8 miles of the bike. I was like what the hell is going on? Am I losing my legs already? Then I realized we were riding into a headwind so I didn’t feel quite so bad. I turned around and used the tailwind to my advantage and passed a ton more people on the way home. Summary: Good, hard bike.



The Run
Got through transition in good time and headed out on the run. My legs felt GREAT right away. About halfway through the first mile, I started to pace myself with this woman I had raced against last summer. She is a little faster of a runner than me, so I thought, let’s just see if you can hang with her. I stayed with her for a mile and felt pretty good doing it. Then when I looked at my split and my HR, I thought it would be wise to maybe back off a little and let her go. I didn’t want to push too hard and not be able to handle the hills that were coming up.

The run was set up in such a way that you could always see people coming back from various turn arounds. That was pretty cool. I saw a TON of TRI Racers on the course, and even though I only knew a handful of them, almost every single one of them gave me some kind of GO TRI shout or other acknowledgement. That was pretty awesome.

I felt really good on the run. My pace was right where I wanted it. My heart rate wasn’t getting too out of control. When I got to the hilly section there were a lot of people walking up the hills. Including that woman I tried to hang with at the beginning of the run. Not me. No way in hell I was going to walk ANY of this course. Even that last killer hill was not going to make me walk. Coming up the final hill there were all kinds of people around cheering us to the finish. I passed a few people coming up the hill, turned the corner and made my way through the maze of spectators to the finish line. The finish was set up with grandstands on three sides, and that sweet blue carpet lining the final 25 yards. What a cool way to finish a race. Summary: Good, solid run.



All in all, I’m happy with my race. Even though the swim did not go as I had hoped, it’s quite an accomplishment for me to even have completed a swim of that length. A year and a half ago, I couldn’t swim 25 yards in the pool. I flat out did not know how to swim. And here I was on Sunday gutting out a 1.5K open water swim. I am proud of the fact that I did it, and also proud of the fact that I didn’t allow myself to quit.