Federal Escape

My very first Olympic distance triathlon. I was SO nervous! The week before I had literally no sleep as my oldest son was sick all week and up and coughing several times a night. I was a zombie! On Thursday and Friday I finally slept 4-5 hours without waking up which probably saved the day.

The alarm went off at 4:40am. Time enough to grab a banana smoothie with hemp protein powder and make myself a coffee. Out the door before 5am for a long drive from Mukilteo to Federal Way. I arrived at the race site in decent time. Picked up my registration packet and found my teammates as I walked into transition. Rachel, Kristin, Judith, Heather and Scott were all there. Tracy and Brad to show up later for the sprint. My friend Laura, the super speedy tri gal was right next to Rachel. It was so fun to see everyone! I found a transition spot on the end near the swim in and got myself set up. We scoped out the swim and run and ran about 10 minutes to warm up. I was getting really nervous about the swim....

The SWIM
If you've know me, you know that I've breast-stroked all my tris until this year. This year I've been freestyling. All my tris until now have only had a 400m super fast easy swim. I have never done 1500 meters in a race much less doing freestyle. The start was on the beach and a run into the water. I waited until all the gals were in front of me until I started. I started swimming and tried to find feet to draft from. I was able to draft only a little (I think because I was swimming so slowly there was nobody to draft from!). I was going a slow steady pace that was keeping my heartrate down. It felt like a pace I could do forever. My main goal for this swim was to finish and to swim it all freestyle. The first lap seemed to finish quickly and I was into the second lap when I realized that I was actually swimming in an Olympic distance race and I wasn't dying! And I was having fun! Once I looked and realized there weren't many people behind me and lots of people in front of me. I did pass a couple of guys though. I made myself not look and told myself to race my own race. I made it through the second loop and felt like I could have done two more! Unfortunately my time showed this.... and when I ran back into transition I realized there weren't many bikes left.
SWIM TIME: 35:07

T1 - Uneventful. Got my wetsuit off pretty fast, no socks, sunglasses, helmet, shoes, and I'm off. TIME: :57

THE BIKE
My instructions were to get my heartrate to 164 and hold for 10 minutes. It was really quite hard to hold back but I forced myself to calm down and go slowly. Again, this is my first oly and I need to pace myself differently than for a sprint. The course was 4 loops of 5.83 miles. After 10 minutes of holding at 164 I upped my heartrate to 169-170 and held. I allowed it to go up on the rollers and when I had a couple people to pass and then back down to hold. I started counting people I passed on the bike and after 20 I stopped counting. I was feeling great and I was LOVING that I could catch some folks after my really slow relaxing swim. One gal whizzed by me on the bike going at least 25mph. I'm sure she ended up being the overall winner. She was FAST. Nobody else passed me until the turn into transition when I slowed to spin and get ready to run. Then a gal I had been playing cat and mouse with passed me. No worries, I got her in transition!
BIKE TIME: 1:14:31

T2 - Bike racked, helmet/shoes off, shoes/hat on, grab the garmin off the bike and grabbed gels for the run. TIME: :44

THE RUN
My instructions for the run were to assess my body the first mile, then get heartrate to 160 and hold the first 5K. Body assessment - feet numb, little hill on the trail hurt, then feeling good. Heartrate check - well above 160. I'm feeling good. I don't want to slow down to hit 160. I decided to keep the heartrate under 170 for the first loop. I felt pretty good on the run. Didn't get passed on the first loop by any gals. The second loop I let my heartrate rise to the high 170's and low 180's. It was hard for me not to look at the pace on the garmin, so I did.... I wasn't running as fast as a standalone 10K (last one ave was 7:45's) but I was keeping it in the 8's. I wasn't dying though. Should I be running faster? Should I be dying? I wasn't sure. In the last 3/4 mile I was passed by two gals. One who did her 10k in 43 min and one her did her 10K in 46 min. I ran a little faster but again, I wasn't dying. I didn't think I could catch them. Maybe I should have...
RUN TIME: 48:34 (definitely wasn't a full 6.2 miles)

TOTAL TIME: 2:39:55

13/16 in Age Group
31/60 overall women
85/126 overall men and women

To say that I'm thrilled would be an understatement. I was grinning the whole time I was racing. I'm so happy to have completed an Olympic distance race and to have completed it decently. After completing this triathlon I am confident that I can do a half ironman next season. Now if I could just take 10 minutes off that swim I'm golden!