Iron Eagle race report

Today we ventured out to Eastern for the Iron Eagle sprint tri, which would be Andy's first tri of the year, and second ever. Needless to day, she was pretty nervous Sunday morning, and I could see the tension building on her face as we got closer to the race site. It probably didn't help her spirits much that the rain was coming down pretty good...

Other than working on trying to speed up my transitions, I didn't do much thinking about how I wanted to approach this race, because I wanted to be focused on helping Andy have a good day. We set up our transition areas, and chatted with the rest of the Tri Fusion crew that was racing...I was particularly excited that my A+ team would finally be racing all together for the first time this season. I got to be on tattoo duty, and between that and talking, I sort of lost time. Suddenly, a race official called everyone to the pool deck for the pre-race meeting, and I had to leave my transition area in a total unorganized mess. I took a quick glance at Andy's setup, and was glad to see that she was right on top of things.

Check out them tats!!

Andy was in the 8:50am (first) heat, and I thankfully wasn't scheduled to start until 9:25am, so I knew that after she was out of the pool, I would have some time to finish getting set up. I played IronSherpa and collected Andy's pre-race clothes while she got warmed up, and then I tried to give her some last few words of encouragement.

I counted laps while Andy did her swim, and even though I could tell she was having a tough swim, I was super proud that she kept on toughing it out. I tried to give her more words of encouragement between her 50s, but I gotta admit, I was pretty nervous for her at this point. I think most of all I wanted her to have a good experience, and seeing her struggle was tough. She was keeping up with a girl in the lane next to her, which was nice, because I knew that she woulnd't be the last one in the pool. But, with one 50 to go, the other girl decided she'd had enough and got out...WHAT!?!? Uh oh, now Andy was on her own to fight thru that last 50. And fight thru it she did, like a true champion. I could see the relief on her face as she got out of the pool, and my nerves calmed considerably. After I caught up to her at her bike, I talked her thru her transition, then set her off into the rain. Time to think about my race now.....

Finished with my transition setup, I headed back to the pool to warm up for my heat. Because I felt like I was behind schedule and was hurrying to get everything together, I only had time to do one quick lap in the diving well. Oh well, no worries, since I didn't really have any time goals in mind for the race anyway. There was one nice advantage about the race being at the same place I work and train during the week. While I was hurrying to get to my warmup, I totally ripped my Tri Fusion swim cap in half. Boo hiss! :( Fortunately, I have a locker with a complete set of swim stuff that I use during the week, including an extra swim cap. Whew!!

The heat I was in was the "fast" heat, and I was very happy to be able to swim with Jessi and Tiffany...in fact, we all got in the same lane, and it was just like old times when Team A+ would pound out the laps on Sunday mornings! Woo hoo!!! Amanda Berquist also joined us, and quickly proceeded to swim away from us. But Team A+ kept it together and had a nice "pace line" going, although I felt a little bad for being a slacker and just drafting on Jessi. Even though there were tons of unfamiliar faces around, once I got in the water, it literally felt like a January Mornings with Martin swim, which totally made me feel great.

Team A+ going for it!!

Once out of the pool, the three of us again met up in transition, and I felt like I had a better T1 than last week, although Jessi still beat me out onto the bike :) The one good thing was, for the first time, I successfully got thru T1 with my shoes clipped to my bike, and got going pretty quickly. Off into the rain, I set out chasing down Jessi. My glasses were fogging up pretty good, and I just laughed as I had to wipe off the insides of my lenses. Real aero, there! Oh well.... I finally caught Jessi just before the turn around, and felt like I was moving ok, despite the less than ideal conditions. I also saw Andy heading back into town, still fighting thru the conditions on her mountain bike. I gave her a quick wave, and I think I caught a smile out of her. Tough tough tough!!!

Hmmmm, think Jessi and I are on the same team?!? :)

At the turnaround, I continued my weird obsession with counting how many riders are in front of me (as if I have a chance of catching them....), and I guessed that within my heat, I was in third spot. Whoa! I have never been this close to the "pointy end of the field" (said with an Aussie accent, ala Macca), and it was a very strange feeling.

Here's me heading back into town. Ugh, not a big fan of my bike position here...while I may be "comfy", I think I could stand to get a bit more aero. I think I'll work on that after Ironman maybe....

I got back to campus and had a really good T2, despite more numb feet. Off onto the run, my calves cramped up a bit, but I just decided to run harder to try and get rid of them. Amazingly, that seemed to work. Weird. As I crested the first, muddy hill out of transition, I could actually see the 2 leaders up ahead. Again, totally unfamiliar territory. Since my run is my strength, I continued to run hard, and who knows, maybe I could catch these guys. Silly dreams of a race win began to creep into my head. Ha ha ha. I sort of closed on them as we were going up another small hill, but I knew there was a pretty good downhill coming up, so I knew that there was no way I would actually catch them. In fact, it looked like they were maybe racing eachother, so they certainly weren't going to give me any openings. As it turned out, I ran out all of my speed in the first mile, so after the turn around, I just had to hang on for dear life and maintain my position. In the end, I was only about 1 minute behind the top two guys, which, considering how much thought I put into this race (zero), was a pretty good result. The highest finish I've ever had in a race, so that was cool.

Heading out on the run......

Heading back in....ouch!

I did pass Andy with about a mile to go on the run, and seeing her out there gave me a nice boost of energy and pride.

She finished shortly after me, and seeing her come down that finish chute, it seemed like her tough swim was ages ago. I really saw her get stronger during the course of the race, and I was immensely proud of her effort.

After Jessi finished, she showed off her nasty sliced up leg from her bike crash. OUCH!!! The fact that she toughed out the run and still managed to be the first woman overall, well, lets just say that I'll be handing over my A+ captain status to her. That was one hard core effort! She even had enough left over to drag me back out onto the course to run in Tiffany and Trish.

Here are the highlights of my day:

1. Seeing Andy get to the finish line, smiling

2. Watching Andy fight thru her struggles in the pool, and come out stronger on the other side

3. Finally racing as a complete A+ Team, and re-uniting with A+ in the pool

4. Running in with Tiffany and Trish, who both had amazing days

5. Seeing Jessi's toughness while blood was flowing

6. The PITA PIT Payoff after the race :)

7. And lastly, the fact that when we got home, Andy had rallied enough to want to head right out to Fitness Fanatics to look at bikes. WHAT?!?! We've only been kicking around this topic for a year or so, and I've been trying not to pressure her into making the leap before she's ready. So, that Andy wanted to go for it mere hours after a tough race, well, that just made my so happy I could hardly stand it!!! She looked so freaking cool testing out the bikes, and after an hour or so, she had pretty much decided that she would join "Team Cervelo". Woo hoo!!!

Andy's new ride....

What a great way to end a great day!!