Steamboat Olympic Distance Tri

My first road rash after a mild bike crash Friday

A couple of months ago I started the Boulder Stroke and Stride Events and published a handful of goals on this blog.  I have so far accomplished several: hiking 3 "14ers", backpacking with Rachel, and, this past weekend, completed an Olympic Distance triathlon.

But before that - unpacking with Rachel... bubble wrap fun!

We took off to Steamboat Springs on Saturday at lunch, arrived in time for package pick up, had dinner, checked into our hotel, and went to sleep.  I fell asleep with some excitement and some nervousness.  All summer I feel like I have trained for this swim.  I have consistently been in the water 2-3 times per week.  I have only completed the distance of 1500m once in the lake and that's it, and it was long and hard for me.  But I have been much more comfortable in the open water, swimming with people around me, and in my wetsuit.  I was not particularly concerned about the bike or the run, although I did not know what to expect for how hard or easy or fast or slow these might be.

SUNDAY MORNING - wake up at 5:45am, get ready, eat something, put Rachel in the car, drive 10 min to the start.  Temperature = 36 degrees F or 2 degrees C.  A great temperature to put on a wetsuit that was not completely dry and get in a mucky lake.

Rachel feels her Mamma's wetsuit

1500m SWIM - my wave started 18 min after the first start, but I was determined to have a good warm up so I spent 25 min doing lengths in between saying hi to Jason and Rachel while I shivered.  I told Jason I expected my swim to be somewhere between 30-35 minutes long.  The water temperature was 68 degrees, which was fine.  Green algae and goose poop floated all around me and weeds and mud crawled up my legs.  The course was one big loop split into 3 * 500m lengths, and I was nervous about being so far away from shore as I'd never done a 1 loop course before.

I was really happy with my swim, with no major issues and no panic.  The end became a little crowded as people all worked hard to get to the shore.  I exited the water and checked my watch: 29:35!!!  Yay!  I walked over to the wetsuit strippers and felt a little dizzy so it took a little bit to get oriented.  I took a slow transition and made sure to eat, drink, and wear my helmet.  I was so much faster than I thought that Jason and Rachel actually missed me getting out of the water.

40km / 25mile BIKE - I had no expectations about the bike.  All I hoped for was no rain (I've never ridden my road bike in the rain and didn't want to start) and no flat tires / mechanical issues.  I knew my recent sprint bike was 46 min when I was working really hard, so I expected this bike ride twice the distance to take at least twice as long.  I was surprised how alone I felt on the ride - most people seemed to be way ahead of me and this was a little bit of a blow to my confidence.  After 40 min I realized a few things:  1) I would be way more comfortable if I could relieve my bladder 2) I was not confident enough to reach down and drink from my water bottle without falling off my bike and 3) I was almost at the turn around.  So at the turn around I pulled over, ate a gel, drank some water, and used the restroom.  Apparently most triathletes don't stop on the bike on a course this short, so people around me thought I was really in bad shape.  Anyway, on the way home I tried to go a bit faster since the way to the turnaround was really quite comfortable.  I finished the bike in 1:27, which I thought was fast but apparently on this flatter course was actually rather slow.

10km / 6.2 mile RUN - the last 10km road run I had done was on Dec 31st 2011 at sea level and was not able to beat an hour.  So I hoped I would be an hour but wasn't sure what it felt like to run after a bike ride.  For the first mile I had no legs, but then felt better and better and was passing people like crazy!  I started getting more confident as I went, and must have passed 20 people without getting passed by anyone else.  I've never been a confident runner before and for the first time in my life I felt like I was better than some other athletes around me.  I started to realize that I might be able to beat 3 hours, so I really started pushing it.  At the 6 mile mark I was sad to remember that the run is actually 6.2 miles, and I wouldn't quite beat 3 hrs.  My run was 56 min, which I was totally okay with.  I finished in 3:00:50, and hugged Rachel and Jason at the finish.

After we finished, Jason went for a run and then we drove home through Hwy 14 to check out the recent fire destruction along Poudre Canyon.  It took us at least 5 hrs to get home and we were really tired.  We did our best to keep the car ride fun for Rachel.