Mountain Man Triathlon

WARNING: This post contains blatant bragging. Viewer discretion is advised.

So today was the Mountain Man 1/2 Iron-distance Triathlon in Flagstaff. My memories of this race from last year gave me a bit of a skewed perspective. Last year, I was angry at the world (it had been 6 days since the SkirtChaser's crash, 3 days since his surgery, and 6 days since I had gotten any sleep at all). That anger fueled my race and I was actually pretty happy with my performance. I think I was 3rd in my age group and top 10-15 women overall. I had very few expectations going into today's race, other than I was hoping to match my performance from last year.

It has been pouring down rain in Flagstaff for the last week. In fact last weekend, I rode the length of Lake Mary Road in the drizzling rain. When we arrived at the transition area for packet pickup, the forecast wasn't looking any clearer. The rain came steadily down until about 6 pm, when suddenly the skies dried up. We had no hopes of clear skies for race day, but when the alarm sounded at 3:30 am and we peeked outside our hotel window stars danced across the sky. I smiled and breathed a little prayer that the good fortune would see us through noon at least.

We got ourselves ready for the race and drove down to the lake to join the crowd already beginning to form in transition. As the sun rose over Lake Mary, fog obscured any vision across the lake itself, but the puffy, white clouds in the sky promised a gorgeous day for racing. We set up our transition areas and headed over to the boat ramp for the swim start.

The swim: I lined up in the front row and off to the right. I had my sight set on the green turn buoy just on the opposite side of the lake. A straight shot. The start signal sounded and the mass of swimmers took off in typical triathlon fashion. By some miracle, within about 50-100 yards everyone around my diverged in a V heading in opposite directions as I held my line toward the green buoy. I thought to myself, what the hell is going on? And then rather than question it, I used the opportunity to gain a little lead and some space in the water. After the initial turn, we had to swim roughly a mile down the lake before the second turn buoy. With the fog and the lack of intermediate buoys, it was impossible to know exactly where the most direct route was. Second miracle of the day occurred when I, after swimming solo for the entire event thus far, sighted and found the second buoy directly within my line of vision. I. Swam. On. Course. In a straight line no less. This never happens to me. Of course this motivated me all the more and I picked up the pace, rounded the buoy and headed for home. When I got out of the water, my watch read 31:30. Huh? Double take. Sure enough I had smoked the swim taking 5 minutes off my swim time from last year.

Onto the bike, I was in a good mood. Though this didn't last the entire ride, I did enjoy it for a while. The bike course can be a little disheartening. There are some pretty good climbs. It's tough to cruise along at 18-19 mph and then suddenly find yourself climbing at a very tedious pace of 7 mph. And the 2 x 10 mile loop around Mormon Lake is on a shitty road which totally beats up your body, and your bike. There may have been a few F-bombs flying out of my mouth as I was jostled around. But, I was able to break up the course mentally... 10 mile out, 10 miles around, 5 mile out and back, 5 miles to the start of loop two, 10 miles around the lake a second time, and then 15 miles back to transition. In the back of my head I was hoping for a sub-three hour ride (always my goal on a tough course) and I delivered a 2:58. 6 minutes better than my bike time from a year ago. All my training over the last year has definitely yielded improvements.

Heading out onto the run, I was ready to be done with it. I was tired. Hot. Windburned. I took off and tried to settle into a comfortably hard pace. At 1 1/2 miles in is a long steep climb, switchbacking up a hill. Though my pace slowed, I remained steady and was able to pick off two women ahead of me. (Did I mention I eat hills for breakfast?) And what goes up, must come down. After climbing for 1 1/2 miles, I made the turn and tore down the hill like my shoes were on fire. OK, maybe not quite that fast, but I did enjoy it. At the bottom of the hill is an out and back which should have been 8 1/2 miles, but ended up 9 miles. I was wearing my Garmin and when I realized that the course was going to be a half mile too long by the mile marker placements I was completely bummed! I know this is totally stupid, but I wanted to run a half marathon and finish under 2 hours. Being 1/2 mile too long, I knew I wouldn't go under 2. Just didn't have it in me to run THAT fast.

On the way out to the turnaround, I counted the women in front of me. When I reached the turn at mile 8 1/2 I was 6th. One of the women I passed on the climb was only about a mile behind me. I knew my pace was slowing and my legs were feeling beat up. I took my second gel and hoped I'd have the energy to keep her from catching me. The miles ticked by and with 1 1/2 miles to go I realized I was going to catch the girl in front of me. She was run/ walking and I was gaining on her. At the last aid station I took yet another gel (I was STARVING!) and glanced over my shoulder to see my rival gaining on me. I took off and told myself it was less than 15 minutes. Surely I could suffer another 15 minutes after 5 1/2 hours. I picked up the pace. I caught woman #5 with a half mile to go. She began running when I caught her and she gained a lead. She stopped to walk. I caught her a second time. She started running and this time I thought, OK if you want it you're going to have to earn it. I picked up the pace and it took her a little bit longer to pass me and gain another lead. She stopped to walk. Again. This time, when I got behind her with less than a quarter mile to go, I encouraged her. Alright, let's pick it up. Run it in. She said she was dealing with a really bad cramp in her side. Just breathe, I said, you've got 2 tenths to go. And she took off, running the rest of the way in. If she had been in my age group I may not have let her off so easily, but I'd like to think that someday when I need a little encouragement, there will be a friendly voice beside me, telling me to pick it up. I managed to hold off the woman behind me and finished in 5:39 and change. 6th overall woman, 1st place age group.

Now here's the really fun part. When we got home last night we were on the race website perusing the results. I discovered that I swam the second fastest swim time of the entire half ironman event. Only one guy swam faster than me. One. I beat all the women. I beat EVERYONE else sans one guy. Me. I did. I am really proud of this accomplishment. When I got out of the water I knew I had swam really well. My best swim ever. But I was very excited to see that it wasn't all in my head. Not only did I swim really well for me, I also swam really well compared to everyone else.

So after a long hard day of racing, I'm excited and looking forward to Ironman Canada in less than 3 weeks. I have worked hard, and my effort is paying off. I am approaching Canada in the same way I approached Mountain Man. No expectations. I'm going to go and race hard and finish with a smile on my face. I'm going to give my all and I'm going to be proud of my accomplishment... whatever my finish time may be. I love to race, and Canada is the reward for all the hours and weeks and months of training. Bring it on!