There is a word we reflect on in yoga called "Samadhi" meaning a "state of joy and peace".
My choice earlier in the year to focus on triathlons and take a break from doing solely marathons twice per year has led to this. This choice has brought a lot of happiness into my life, allowed me to branch out into two other sports I've grown to love, and I've met some new amazing friends. The pool has become therapeutic - trust me the early alarm at 5am makes me want to yell out loud, but once I get myself to the pool nothing beats the feeling of a good swim workout where the inner fish is released. I also can't say enough about the athlete community we have here in Seattle. I haven't experienced this type of community anywhere else and that alone keeps me here in Seattle. If it weren't for my friends/training partners I might be considering warmer locations where strapping on fenders to a bike in the winter isn't required. To my stellar friends...thank you all for being reliable training partners this entire season and for all of the encouragement.
I also set a goal earlier in the year of doing a 1/2 ironman/70.3 distance, and with the urge from
my friend Cara I signed up for my the Soma 70.3 in Phoenix. Cara gets credit for introducing me to triathlons and I can only aspire to be the talented triathlete she is someday. This past weekend I completed my first 70.3 distance, and definitely was one of the hardest events I've competed in. Props to all my friends who do full ironmans since the one thing that crossed my mind when I crossed that finish line was that I'm really at peace with sticking to this distance for awhile!
This all leads me to a quote I have posted around in a few places from K. Pattabhi Jois which is "Practice and all is coming!" Pretty simple concept meaning you typically get out what you put in for practice and another way of looking at it is consistency is proportionate to growth experienced. I know there is a lot of people that probably roll their eyes at why I put myself through all the training and races when I could be spending that time elsewhere. I realize I'm not an Olympian bound athlete, but I value good health, goal setting, and positive environments. My choice gives me all of this so with those sports I've chosen t do I want to put in a solid effort so I can see what I'm capable of. Simply just that.
So now onto my experience with the 70.3 race...The week leading up to the race was eventful and our triathlon community was shaken up with the loss of our friend Lee. I was getting emails, phone calls of encouragement before I left for my race and Weds after work my friend David called me with the news about Lee. There were a few of us closer to what was going on with him, and the emotions that followed that call were shock, anger, sadness, and then now peace. I won't write entirely about this, but I have found peace with knowing that I was a there for him as a friend and did what I could do to help. I saw his friends David and Porter amongst others pull together and be there for a friend in need. It's apparent how much the guy was loved when you see all the comments on his FB wall and look at all the people who made it out for his memorial ride today. The passing of Lee carried heavy into several of our race weekends, and I did miss having my friend post or text me "BOOM in your face" to get ready for the 70.3 distance he was eager to see how I'd do at. If you knew Lee he was a super computer when it came to people's race times. He always knew everyone's PR's, race stats, and could typically project where he'd thought you'd turn out. I found this out when he asked me to be on his Lake Steven's relay this summer after he recapped my race results he found on athlinks before I even knew him that well - funny guy but I did take what he did offer with me and know he's up there looking down on all of us now.
I arrived Phoenix and was greeted by a heat wave and hug from Cara at the airport who helped kick off the spirit of the weekend by greeting me with a welcome to AZ race bag of goodies. Kicked Fri night off with some sushi in the evening and on Sat. morning we went to ASU for a shakeout swim in the outdoor pool. Swimming under the sun is something I could get used to. Definitely looking forward to spending some more time there since AZ is the ultimate training playground.
Expo and bike check-in was on Sat. so I spent the morning after our swim building up my bike. Big thank you to Sean Harwin for spending several hours with me teaching me how to properly take my bike down, pack, and build back up. Huge help! Once we arrived the expo the AZ temps started making me nervous. I could barely take standing out there for a few minutes since the temps were about 90. My friend Bobby reminded me that it was a good thing I was nervous about that since that means I'm aware so I followed that awareness for the rest of the day and drank plenty of water including salt tablets in my water to store up for race day.
Race Morning
My choice earlier in the year to focus on triathlons and take a break from doing solely marathons twice per year has led to this. This choice has brought a lot of happiness into my life, allowed me to branch out into two other sports I've grown to love, and I've met some new amazing friends. The pool has become therapeutic - trust me the early alarm at 5am makes me want to yell out loud, but once I get myself to the pool nothing beats the feeling of a good swim workout where the inner fish is released. I also can't say enough about the athlete community we have here in Seattle. I haven't experienced this type of community anywhere else and that alone keeps me here in Seattle. If it weren't for my friends/training partners I might be considering warmer locations where strapping on fenders to a bike in the winter isn't required. To my stellar friends...thank you all for being reliable training partners this entire season and for all of the encouragement.
I also set a goal earlier in the year of doing a 1/2 ironman/70.3 distance, and with the urge from
my friend Cara I signed up for my the Soma 70.3 in Phoenix. Cara gets credit for introducing me to triathlons and I can only aspire to be the talented triathlete she is someday. This past weekend I completed my first 70.3 distance, and definitely was one of the hardest events I've competed in. Props to all my friends who do full ironmans since the one thing that crossed my mind when I crossed that finish line was that I'm really at peace with sticking to this distance for awhile!This all leads me to a quote I have posted around in a few places from K. Pattabhi Jois which is "Practice and all is coming!" Pretty simple concept meaning you typically get out what you put in for practice and another way of looking at it is consistency is proportionate to growth experienced. I know there is a lot of people that probably roll their eyes at why I put myself through all the training and races when I could be spending that time elsewhere. I realize I'm not an Olympian bound athlete, but I value good health, goal setting, and positive environments. My choice gives me all of this so with those sports I've chosen t do I want to put in a solid effort so I can see what I'm capable of. Simply just that.
So now onto my experience with the 70.3 race...The week leading up to the race was eventful and our triathlon community was shaken up with the loss of our friend Lee. I was getting emails, phone calls of encouragement before I left for my race and Weds after work my friend David called me with the news about Lee. There were a few of us closer to what was going on with him, and the emotions that followed that call were shock, anger, sadness, and then now peace. I won't write entirely about this, but I have found peace with knowing that I was a there for him as a friend and did what I could do to help. I saw his friends David and Porter amongst others pull together and be there for a friend in need. It's apparent how much the guy was loved when you see all the comments on his FB wall and look at all the people who made it out for his memorial ride today. The passing of Lee carried heavy into several of our race weekends, and I did miss having my friend post or text me "BOOM in your face" to get ready for the 70.3 distance he was eager to see how I'd do at. If you knew Lee he was a super computer when it came to people's race times. He always knew everyone's PR's, race stats, and could typically project where he'd thought you'd turn out. I found this out when he asked me to be on his Lake Steven's relay this summer after he recapped my race results he found on athlinks before I even knew him that well - funny guy but I did take what he did offer with me and know he's up there looking down on all of us now.
I arrived Phoenix and was greeted by a heat wave and hug from Cara at the airport who helped kick off the spirit of the weekend by greeting me with a welcome to AZ race bag of goodies. Kicked Fri night off with some sushi in the evening and on Sat. morning we went to ASU for a shakeout swim in the outdoor pool. Swimming under the sun is something I could get used to. Definitely looking forward to spending some more time there since AZ is the ultimate training playground.
Expo and bike check-in was on Sat. so I spent the morning after our swim building up my bike. Big thank you to Sean Harwin for spending several hours with me teaching me how to properly take my bike down, pack, and build back up. Huge help! Once we arrived the expo the AZ temps started making me nervous. I could barely take standing out there for a few minutes since the temps were about 90. My friend Bobby reminded me that it was a good thing I was nervous about that since that means I'm aware so I followed that awareness for the rest of the day and drank plenty of water including salt tablets in my water to store up for race day.
Race Morning
I woke up at 4am and started up the coffee and oatmeal followed by banana, gatorade, and water. Calorie consumption!
On the way to the race I became so nervous that I felt like I was going to throw up. Cara was dealing with her race nerves by focusing on some pre-race pump up songs but that didn't even seem to help me. I felt nauseous and questioned whether I could handle this race. Put in my headphones and let the music settle me down. Once we got to the bike transition the body marking and setup began and from there I was shifted into auto mode going through the checklist I rehearsed a dozen times. During the bike setup there was a girl next to me that started asking me questions. She said "You look like you know what you're doing, can I ask you a few questions?" I thought to myself that confidence you're sensing is not real lady - fear is behind this pose. But I realized after chatting with her that I wasn't the only one out here racing this for my first time and I've done everything I could to prepare for the race. It was now time to go out there and go through the motions I've prepared for.
Swim - 1.2 miles (40:29.1)
Temps for race day started at 71 degrees so the lake plunge was pleasant! The swim started in waves where all the Pro's and men went off in the earlier waves followed by the 1-34 age group wave for women. I started towards the far right nestled up behind the first row of women. Cara and I exchanged some thumbs up to each other before the wave was sent off. The starting position worked out well since I didn't get trampled as much as I have in some other races and the body dodging for the first few minutes wasn't too bad. When we started catching the masters men's group that is where the body dodging began. I managed to keep a consistent pace without any major interruptions by looking for the open pockets to swim into. Only thing that was hard was when the sun started coming up since that blinded my sighting until we moved away from the angle of glare. I worked around this by following the swimmers on my left side until the bouies came within sight. Exited the swim smoothly (they have to help lift you out onto stairs which can be tricky) and kept moving forward towards the bike.
Bike - 56 Miles (3:01:09.7)
Bike course was 3 legs, mostly flat terrain, and a technical course (A LOT of turns!). Got onto the bike and plan was to spend the first part of the ride hydrating from the swim and not focusing on eating too much right away. I didn't get off to such a smooth start since after the first few turns I missed one and kept riding straight until I reached a volunteer who yelled that was going the wrong way. Seriously such a bummer to do that. It felt like I rode ~3 min out of my way, and all I could think is that I was going to get disqualified for doing that even though I didn't cut the course short. That is when I reflected on what my friend David Cook sent me before the race which was to "keep a clear head and a full heart". That stuck with me the entire bike and run leg David so thank you for always have the right words to offer!
My watch was going off as a reminder to hydrate/intake calories so I let the plan kick in and followed that closely. I was nervous that if I didn't fuel properly I would bonk on the run so I drank and eat like it was my job. Took down my 2 bottles with salt and ironman formula, 2 Honey Stinger waffles, pack of shot blocks, and salt, salt, salt! I had recently picked up the salt stick tab for my bike after Nik over and over reminded me of the importance of that and staying on his wheel ;) There were 2 aide stations on each bike loop and the volunteers were fantastic. I had not practiced grabbing the water bottles so I was really nervous about this, but they put the aide stations right after 2 of the slower turns which allowed you to ease into grabbing the bottles. I took water at every aide station and kept replacing current bottle; taking a bottle of power aide at the last one to take in some sodium for the run. My feet went numb towards the end of the ride and was hoping I'd feel my feet when I got off for the run. Once I pulled into transition and got my bike split I felt pumped! I landed a time far above what I predicted I would do and I think that is due to letting all the hectiness of the nutrition plan distract me.
Run 13.1 miles (1:35:55.5)
Swim - 1.2 miles (40:29.1)
Temps for race day started at 71 degrees so the lake plunge was pleasant! The swim started in waves where all the Pro's and men went off in the earlier waves followed by the 1-34 age group wave for women. I started towards the far right nestled up behind the first row of women. Cara and I exchanged some thumbs up to each other before the wave was sent off. The starting position worked out well since I didn't get trampled as much as I have in some other races and the body dodging for the first few minutes wasn't too bad. When we started catching the masters men's group that is where the body dodging began. I managed to keep a consistent pace without any major interruptions by looking for the open pockets to swim into. Only thing that was hard was when the sun started coming up since that blinded my sighting until we moved away from the angle of glare. I worked around this by following the swimmers on my left side until the bouies came within sight. Exited the swim smoothly (they have to help lift you out onto stairs which can be tricky) and kept moving forward towards the bike.
Bike - 56 Miles (3:01:09.7)
Bike course was 3 legs, mostly flat terrain, and a technical course (A LOT of turns!). Got onto the bike and plan was to spend the first part of the ride hydrating from the swim and not focusing on eating too much right away. I didn't get off to such a smooth start since after the first few turns I missed one and kept riding straight until I reached a volunteer who yelled that was going the wrong way. Seriously such a bummer to do that. It felt like I rode ~3 min out of my way, and all I could think is that I was going to get disqualified for doing that even though I didn't cut the course short. That is when I reflected on what my friend David Cook sent me before the race which was to "keep a clear head and a full heart". That stuck with me the entire bike and run leg David so thank you for always have the right words to offer!
My watch was going off as a reminder to hydrate/intake calories so I let the plan kick in and followed that closely. I was nervous that if I didn't fuel properly I would bonk on the run so I drank and eat like it was my job. Took down my 2 bottles with salt and ironman formula, 2 Honey Stinger waffles, pack of shot blocks, and salt, salt, salt! I had recently picked up the salt stick tab for my bike after Nik over and over reminded me of the importance of that and staying on his wheel ;) There were 2 aide stations on each bike loop and the volunteers were fantastic. I had not practiced grabbing the water bottles so I was really nervous about this, but they put the aide stations right after 2 of the slower turns which allowed you to ease into grabbing the bottles. I took water at every aide station and kept replacing current bottle; taking a bottle of power aide at the last one to take in some sodium for the run. My feet went numb towards the end of the ride and was hoping I'd feel my feet when I got off for the run. Once I pulled into transition and got my bike split I felt pumped! I landed a time far above what I predicted I would do and I think that is due to letting all the hectiness of the nutrition plan distract me.
Run 13.1 miles (1:35:55.5)
1st in age group, 3rd female overall
Started the run in 96 degrees and I knew hydration was the only thing that was going to get me through this last section. Once I got out of transition the run stride kicked in and I was off to a smooth start. Practicing running off the bike throughout the summer helped a lot since the start of the run felt easier to where I only feel awkward for the first 400-800 meters of the run. There was an aide station every 2 miles on the 2 loop course, but some of the stations could have been staffed a little better. I managed to grab 2-3 cups of water at every station but there were some where the cup offered a few sips of water and ice cubes. Who wants to drink ice cubes!?! I took one gel packet per lap and on hot days taking those down a dehydrated mouth can be challenging. I knew I'd pay for it later if I didn't so I would choke a packet down right before a station and take in 2 cups of water to wash them down. That seemed to do the trick since I held together pretty nicely on the run compared to everyone else I was going by. This is the leg where I have to work since it usually comes down to this if I want to place decent. Time to pass all the bikers that whooped me on the roads ;) I predicted I would be much slower on the run so when I ended with a time somewhat close to my open road race times I was stoked especially since I managed to pull that off in those hot temps. Paying attention to hydration and fueling properly I feel are the key things that helped make this all come together nicely.
Results - 5:20:53.55
Started the run in 96 degrees and I knew hydration was the only thing that was going to get me through this last section. Once I got out of transition the run stride kicked in and I was off to a smooth start. Practicing running off the bike throughout the summer helped a lot since the start of the run felt easier to where I only feel awkward for the first 400-800 meters of the run. There was an aide station every 2 miles on the 2 loop course, but some of the stations could have been staffed a little better. I managed to grab 2-3 cups of water at every station but there were some where the cup offered a few sips of water and ice cubes. Who wants to drink ice cubes!?! I took one gel packet per lap and on hot days taking those down a dehydrated mouth can be challenging. I knew I'd pay for it later if I didn't so I would choke a packet down right before a station and take in 2 cups of water to wash them down. That seemed to do the trick since I held together pretty nicely on the run compared to everyone else I was going by. This is the leg where I have to work since it usually comes down to this if I want to place decent. Time to pass all the bikers that whooped me on the roads ;) I predicted I would be much slower on the run so when I ended with a time somewhat close to my open road race times I was stoked especially since I managed to pull that off in those hot temps. Paying attention to hydration and fueling properly I feel are the key things that helped make this all come together nicely.Results - 5:20:53.55
21st Overall Female (244 women competed)
9th in Age Division (30-34)
To give you an idea of how much the run counts for me...I was in 78th place coming off the bike, after leaving transition 2 (racking bike) I gained 8 spots, and then ran myself up to 21st place overall. Everything in these races count. Few minutes off in the swim, speedier transitions, and some improvement on the bike will serve me well next year. I'm excited to keep working at it!! I've already started by joining the bikesales team to where I get to look forward to riding outdoors this fall and spring racing, and anxious to get back in the pool to put in the laps!!
To give you an idea of how much the run counts for me...I was in 78th place coming off the bike, after leaving transition 2 (racking bike) I gained 8 spots, and then ran myself up to 21st place overall. Everything in these races count. Few minutes off in the swim, speedier transitions, and some improvement on the bike will serve me well next year. I'm excited to keep working at it!! I've already started by joining the bikesales team to where I get to look forward to riding outdoors this fall and spring racing, and anxious to get back in the pool to put in the laps!!
I competed in the Black Diamond Olympic Triathlon this past Sunday and continuing to be humbled and reminded of the required patience the sport of triathlon requires. Black Diamond is the 5th triathlon I've competed in. 1 Sprint and 4 Olympics sum of my triathlon race experience so far. A little different when compared to my experience in the sport of running which I've been competing in since I was in 7th grade up through the collegiate level. After college I discovered marathoning which carried me all the way into my discovery of triathlons. I'm learning quickly that swimming and biking don't come as naturally to me, but I am starting to respect the process of improvement. I work hard at improving and appreciate every little inch of progress I get from the effort. 
