Arrived Lake Chelan late afternoon on Friday for packet pick-up. This was my first Olympic
distance tri was organized completely different than the previous sprint tri I blindly jumped in year back (Moses Lake). For one you had to arrive by a set time on Friday for packet pick-up, manddistance looked a lot farther than I expected. atory meeting, and bike check-in. Jody and I carpooled down together and this was her very first tri so both of us didn't really know what to expect or do :) When we got there the scene seemed overwhelming to me with bikes and tri athletes and we started to stand in queue to get checked in. Looking out at the lake and the buoy markers for the Olympic distance set fear in me. Although I knew I had the endurance from the pool and practice in the open water theTo give you some background on my first tri will help you understand why I was a nervous nellie....I blindly jumped in my first tri being overly confident as an endurance athlete that I could handle a sprint distance. I swam in the pool 1 time the day prior to the race and never got in the open water - yet alone swam with a wet suit. Had a bike I had moved out to Seattle with but rode it the week prior but was more or less just a bike commuter for cross-training. Running was obviously there so I thought how hard can this be?!? Well, Moses Lake arrived and the swimming part was by far the hardest for me. I did not think I was going to make it and every single time I put my head in the water to swim I started panicking and felt like I couldn't breath. I stood upright in the water multiple times treading water wondering how I was going to get through this race while in the meantime some idiot on his kayaking helping race official is yelling at me "Just put your head in and swim". I contemplated getting the energy to swim over to his kayak, pushing him overboard, and grabbing his loud speaker and yelling the same back at him. I ended up having to breast stroke and back stroke my way through the swim leg which by the way is the worst thing you can do because you just end up pissing off the other swimmers around you and it's not exactly safe since you aren't so aware of others around you. Point being triathlon swims are meant to swim free style....Got out of the water and felt like I was going to puke and then bared through the other legs finishing my first sprint but not gracefully. The good thing that I took away from this experience was that for one it humbled me and made me realize how hard triathlons are and second it got my butt to the pool. Since that summer I spent time in the pool doing endurance swim workouts through pro club and have come a LONG ways since! Yay for learning from bad experiences :)
Pre-Race EveningChelanMan is a multi-sport weekend consisting of a Sprint, Olympic, and Half IronMan Tris along with a 10K and Half-Marathon rae. Due to this our friends turned the event into a girl's weekend and we had quite the crew heading down and rented a condo on the lake for the weekend. The crew included Jody, Tesia, Cara, Tara, Robyn, and Paige. After check-in Jody and I headed back to our condo and started cooking dinner so we could get to bed early for our big day. We cooked salmon, spinach, and broccoli. Yes, I've decided to throw salmon back into my vegetarian lifestyle but only for pre-race meals since I wasn't feeling like I was getting in enough protein with vegan meals. With that said it was just right for a pre-race meal.
After dinner we started organizing gear and the amount of things you have to prepare for a tri vs. a marathon is insane. Reminds me of why I LOVE running so much - simplicity! Tesia just completed her first ironman so being a seasoned tri-athlete she helped Jody and I get everything ready for the race which was a huge relief. We ended up going to sleep much later than planned due to all the prep and laid down around 11pm.
Race Morning
Woke up at 4:30am - 3 hrs prior to race time to eat breakfast. Not that easy with getting to bed at 11pm the night before! Ate my usual breakfast routine for races - oatmeal, banana, and coffee. I was so giddy from getting up at the insane hour that I found myself laughing looking at everyone sleeping peacefully in the living room secretly hoping someone would wake up and join me soon ;) Eventually 5am rolled around and the others started getting up. After breakfast Jody and I packed up and got ready to head to the start line.
We arrived the starting area and immediately went to the transition area to setup our station and prep our bike and lay things out for the run. This involves setting out a towel, nutrition, shoes, etc... You set everything out in a position where it's easy to grab so you can limit transition time since that adds to your overall time. There are tricks of the trade that you learn with each race or by talking to people and incorporate those you seem to think will go well...Bike and station was setup and I started to gather the things I needed for the swim so I could head over and get in the water to start adjusting. There was about 20 minutes to go until race time. Suddenly I realized I did not have my goggles in my bag! Panic!! There is some history that goes with finally getting the right pair of goggles and me, but not having goggles you know fit your face and work is a serious race tragedy! I didn't have my cell phone and other athletes next to me immediately started offering help. One girl offered me her spare pare to use while another offered me her phone. I knew borrowing goggles I had not used for a swim before was not a good life choice and I had no clue what my other friend's cell phone numbers were so I could ring them to bring my goggles. Decided to deal with what I could, put on the wetsuit, and headed over to the beach area to get ready for the swim start hoping I would see my friends. Finally found Robyn and Tara who just got dropped off by Tesia and explained what happened. Robyn ran to find Tesia who was parking to ask her to go back to the condo which was a little under 2 miles away. Super Tesia ended up getting her bike out of the car and hauling back to the condo to get my goggles and miracously got them back to me prior to the start of the race. Thank you Tesia for saving the day!!
Swim 1500 Meters - 31:54
I started off to the right of the center of the pack and towards the back since I wasn't sure where I was at w/ my open water swim ability. I had been doing consistent pool workouts 2 X week and open water swims to gear up for the race but I assumed there would be some stronger swimmers that needed to be more up in front. I got in the lake 5 minutes prior and started doing some out and back swims to acclimate to the water and to get relaxed. The countdown started for the race start and I got into position. The gun went off and the chaos begins! Swim starts are nothing more than that. The first minute or more was simply just tryi
ng to survive the herd of people on top of you, below you, or to your right or left. For a few seconds I popped up in the water realizing that was a mistake before I quickly got back in and realized I needed to bring out the assertive side of Alicia :) You simply just have to force yourself to relax, get in the water and just push your way through the mess. Ran into one of the swimmers that I term "individual medley" doing the damm breast stroke and those are the people you definitely want to either kick or stay way away from since there legs and arms are going everywhere and that's a sure way to get your goggles kicked off. After a few minutes I seemed to get into a decent rhythm and found the underwater cable that ran below all the buoyies. Lake Chelan has clear water and the cable helps direct you on the course which is a huge plus since normal open water swims require you to pop out of the water slightly on your strokes to spot to make sure you are swimming a straight line. By having that cable I could almost adjust to what it feels like to get going in the pool and then the focus was just on relaxing, breathing, and long strokes. The swim went really well after getting past the start mess and I ended up getting 11th for females in the swim leg.
T1 - 2:37
First transition was a little challenging since getting out of the water I was a little out of it. I ran past my bike rack twice but eventually spotted my bike and started to prep for the ride. The wetsuit pulled off super easy since I lathered on body glide prior to the race. Ran the bike out of the transition area and as I was about to jump on kept hearing the loud speaker calling something out to 1503 to soon realize that's my number and they were notifying me that my race belt that I laid on my bike bar was about to fall off. Snapped on the race belt and right before I was going to mount my bike I ended up losing grip and dropped my bike - lovely....So overall not a smooth transition and could use some more practice for future races.
Bike 24.8 Miles - 1:22
Once I got on the bike the course was flat in a lot of areas with some moderate hills in the middle of the race. I recently bought the Cervelo I was racing on and was still adjusting to the bike. The bike strategy was to give all I could and try and hang in there. When I was on the flat ground I was holding a good pace but when I hit the hills I seemed to lose the pace and people would be passing me left and right. I was wanting the biking to get over so I could get them all back on the run :) I ended up taking 15th for women overall on the bike leg.
Woke up at 4:30am - 3 hrs prior to race time to eat breakfast. Not that easy with getting to bed at 11pm the night before! Ate my usual breakfast routine for races - oatmeal, banana, and coffee. I was so giddy from getting up at the insane hour that I found myself laughing looking at everyone sleeping peacefully in the living room secretly hoping someone would wake up and join me soon ;) Eventually 5am rolled around and the others started getting up. After breakfast Jody and I packed up and got ready to head to the start line.
We arrived the starting area and immediately went to the transition area to setup our station and prep our bike and lay things out for the run. This involves setting out a towel, nutrition, shoes, etc... You set everything out in a position where it's easy to grab so you can limit transition time since that adds to your overall time. There are tricks of the trade that you learn with each race or by talking to people and incorporate those you seem to think will go well...Bike and station was setup and I started to gather the things I needed for the swim so I could head over and get in the water to start adjusting. There was about 20 minutes to go until race time. Suddenly I realized I did not have my goggles in my bag! Panic!! There is some history that goes with finally getting the right pair of goggles and me, but not having goggles you know fit your face and work is a serious race tragedy! I didn't have my cell phone and other athletes next to me immediately started offering help. One girl offered me her spare pare to use while another offered me her phone. I knew borrowing goggles I had not used for a swim before was not a good life choice and I had no clue what my other friend's cell phone numbers were so I could ring them to bring my goggles. Decided to deal with what I could, put on the wetsuit, and headed over to the beach area to get ready for the swim start hoping I would see my friends. Finally found Robyn and Tara who just got dropped off by Tesia and explained what happened. Robyn ran to find Tesia who was parking to ask her to go back to the condo which was a little under 2 miles away. Super Tesia ended up getting her bike out of the car and hauling back to the condo to get my goggles and miracously got them back to me prior to the start of the race. Thank you Tesia for saving the day!!
Swim 1500 Meters - 31:54
I started off to the right of the center of the pack and towards the back since I wasn't sure where I was at w/ my open water swim ability. I had been doing consistent pool workouts 2 X week and open water swims to gear up for the race but I assumed there would be some stronger swimmers that needed to be more up in front. I got in the lake 5 minutes prior and started doing some out and back swims to acclimate to the water and to get relaxed. The countdown started for the race start and I got into position. The gun went off and the chaos begins! Swim starts are nothing more than that. The first minute or more was simply just tryi
ng to survive the herd of people on top of you, below you, or to your right or left. For a few seconds I popped up in the water realizing that was a mistake before I quickly got back in and realized I needed to bring out the assertive side of Alicia :) You simply just have to force yourself to relax, get in the water and just push your way through the mess. Ran into one of the swimmers that I term "individual medley" doing the damm breast stroke and those are the people you definitely want to either kick or stay way away from since there legs and arms are going everywhere and that's a sure way to get your goggles kicked off. After a few minutes I seemed to get into a decent rhythm and found the underwater cable that ran below all the buoyies. Lake Chelan has clear water and the cable helps direct you on the course which is a huge plus since normal open water swims require you to pop out of the water slightly on your strokes to spot to make sure you are swimming a straight line. By having that cable I could almost adjust to what it feels like to get going in the pool and then the focus was just on relaxing, breathing, and long strokes. The swim went really well after getting past the start mess and I ended up getting 11th for females in the swim leg.T1 - 2:37
First transition was a little challenging since getting out of the water I was a little out of it. I ran past my bike rack twice but eventually spotted my bike and started to prep for the ride. The wetsuit pulled off super easy since I lathered on body glide prior to the race. Ran the bike out of the transition area and as I was about to jump on kept hearing the loud speaker calling something out to 1503 to soon realize that's my number and they were notifying me that my race belt that I laid on my bike bar was about to fall off. Snapped on the race belt and right before I was going to mount my bike I ended up losing grip and dropped my bike - lovely....So overall not a smooth transition and could use some more practice for future races.
Bike 24.8 Miles - 1:22
Once I got on the bike the course was flat in a lot of areas with some moderate hills in the middle of the race. I recently bought the Cervelo I was racing on and was still adjusting to the bike. The bike strategy was to give all I could and try and hang in there. When I was on the flat ground I was holding a good pace but when I hit the hills I seemed to lose the pace and people would be passing me left and right. I was wanting the biking to get over so I could get them all back on the run :) I ended up taking 15th for women overall on the bike leg.T2 - 1:52
The transition from the bike to the run went better. The legs felt like jello getting off the bike so I took a friend's advice and just sat down on my towel to put on my shoes instead of trying to wobble standing and do it. Raced in my Nike Lunar racers without socks and tried out the yank laces. Ended up running to the wrong exit out of the transition so ran a circle around the area before I got to the right exit - classic. Got out of the transition area and was ready to give this last leg a go!
Run 10k (6.2 Miles) - 41:56
The run started off how I expected where you feel like you are running on stilts and you don't have your normal legs back for the first mile so a lot of pulling with the arms to get adjusted. The temps were heating up by then so it felt warm for running but for some reason sometimes the heat feels good to me...I immediately started taking down road kill. I did not get passed once on my run and no idea how many people I ended up passing but it was a lot. I saw all my tri training buddies out on the course heading back and it was great seeing them and helped lift you up as you ran past. Other athletes were really nice to and as I'd go by they'd yell "great pace", "you look strong" which I loved because you don't see many people in road racing doing that. Finished the 10K pleased with the result after swimming and biking and ended up getting first for women overall in the run! Sweet :)
Overall 2:40:23
I placed 13th overall for women and 7th in my age group - the run being my strongest leg by far. I was super happy with my swim and that motivated me to want to keep at swim training so I can get that leg equally as strong as my run. The bike leg needs some work. Biking will be something I will need to grow into since it will require me developing more strength, stronger core, and flexibility required for that sport. It also requires hours of training on the bike so need to figure out that training strategy. Things I took away that I would do differently:
Run 10k (6.2 Miles) - 41:56
The run started off how I expected where you feel like you are running on stilts and you don't have your normal legs back for the first mile so a lot of pulling with the arms to get adjusted. The temps were heating up by then so it felt warm for running but for some reason sometimes the heat feels good to me...I immediately started taking down road kill. I did not get passed once on my run and no idea how many people I ended up passing but it was a lot. I saw all my tri training buddies out on the course heading back and it was great seeing them and helped lift you up as you ran past. Other athletes were really nice to and as I'd go by they'd yell "great pace", "you look strong" which I loved because you don't see many people in road racing doing that. Finished the 10K pleased with the result after swimming and biking and ended up getting first for women overall in the run! Sweet :)
Overall 2:40:23
I placed 13th overall for women and 7th in my age group - the run being my strongest leg by far. I was super happy with my swim and that motivated me to want to keep at swim training so I can get that leg equally as strong as my run. The bike leg needs some work. Biking will be something I will need to grow into since it will require me developing more strength, stronger core, and flexibility required for that sport. It also requires hours of training on the bike so need to figure out that training strategy. Things I took away that I would do differently:
- Yanks (laces) - don't recommend these. They do save time from having to lace up shoes but they pulled the sides of my shoes up since they tighten the shoe up from the lacing and it made my shoes uncomfortable and led to really bad blisters.
- Socks - I didn't wear socks for my run but I will sacrifice the seconds next race and wear socks. The blisters I got from no socks and wearing yanks in my shoes were bad.
- Transition - study the transition area more to be acquainted with where I will be coming out of the water and heading out for the run and bike since they were different and I lost time trying to figure that out during the race. Additionally, just need to practice transitions more in training to get that to seem more seamless.
Post Race
Lake Chelan rocks. Spent the rest of the day boating with my girls on Paige's boat followed by dinner at a winery overlooking Lake Chelan. On Sunday we continued wine touring and had lunch at a beautiful winery overlooking the lake again. That place is so beautiful and perfect location for active people that enjoy wine + good food. Can't wait to go back - I heart Chelan!!
