Blue Lake Olympic Race Report

Pre Race
The night before I ate and drank until I physically couldn’t get any more down. Michele and Johan hosted a kick ass BBQ and had a ton of food. I made sure to sip on water throughout the night….fighting the temptation to drink alcohol and party with everyone was a bitch! My favorite indulgence of the night had to have been the smoked venison, wasabi almonds, chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies. FYI 128 oz in 2.5 hours will bloat a girl up.
I spent the rest of the evening rolling my legs, doing Pilates stretching and washing Cadence. I thought cleaning off the lb or two of dirt she was carrying would help me go faster….haha, who am I kidding? At least her chain was would be well lubed and shift nice and easy for me.

The morning of the race I awoke at 4:45am. I couldn’t sleep I was excited. This was my first race of the season. I entered upon months of built up fatigue with no taper, this was no A Race….but it was still a race where I could compete and it would be the last time I could get my HR up for a long time until Pacific Crest ½ Ironman; so I was going to give it my all. My expectations where low…just to beat my time last year on the same course under the same circumstances…that’s all. I ate a big breakfast, did some more Pilates stretching and made my way out to Blue Lake as I rocked out to Kill Bill’s Battle Of Honor.

They say a perfect race makes for a boring race report so I’ll just bullet point a few things.

Swim
*At the start my goggles didn’t seal and I had water leaking in on the right eye. Ugh, I tried to just ignore it but amount 5 mins was all this girl could take. I came to a stop, drained the goggle, resealed and on I went.
*Some girl right next to me was swimming the breaststroke and doing so in a diagonal line and kept swimming into me. I decided it was time to swim over her….she backed off. As did the person grabbing my feet after I kick them very hard.
*Woot! Woot! I’m passing some yellow and green caps, 1 & 2 waves starts ahead of me. Is this really happening?
*First swim EVER to feel pretty much effortless. I was calm and collected the whole time and just glided through the water….which means maybe I should have pushed myself more. Oh well….again my swim is just my warm up to the race.
*I see the Red Bull finish for the swim. I run out of the water and quickly check my HR monitor for the time. 29:30, Oh! Oh! Oh! (yes that is my O face : ) ). First time I have ever come out of an Olympic distance swim in sub 30 mins. This alone made my race.

T1
*One disadvantage of my new TT helmet, it’s a pain in the ass to get on. It barely fits over all my hair. I can’t keep my hair in a bun or a ponytail in the back, too much hair for that, so my only option is pigtail French braids. I look like I’m 12, hot I know Anywho, the helmet just barely fit over those.
*T1 was slow in comparison to others; something over 3 mins. I was disoriented more then usual once I had hit my transition; I think the helmet threw me off. I rode sockless and gloveless, just shoes and a helmet.
*I ran passed Coach Jane in T1, I fought the urge to run up and hug her….I credit her for my swim.

Bike
*HR is through the roof! 170-180 90% of the ride. I was a little worried this was going to tax me on the run but said “frick it” because this was my chance to give my all…it never did tax me : )
*Wind? Was it really windy? I couldn’t tell, maybe because my new alien helmet kicks ass yo! Seriously the bike felt GREAT!
*Played a little bit of cat and mouse with David and Fred, that was fun.
*I passed a girl with tri shorts that read “Living The Dream” on the backside; they were awesome. Complimented her as I passed.
*Rolled in off the bike with a 1:09:35, Avg’ing 21.5 mph PR Baby!!!

T2
*Ugh, another slow transition with a mid 3 minutes. I was disoriented again. My HR was high and it was hard to run in bike shoes when I couldn’t feel my feet.
*Stupid race belt/number: I ended up putting it on backwards…ooops.

Run
*Never really had brick legs; I think it’s because my feet were numb so I couldn’t feel them. Good thing because they never felt heavy.
*I always get commented on my run sound. Today two people said I had a nice “pitter patter”. Ok, so my stride is still short, at least the turn over is quick.
*The entire run pretty much kicked ass the whole time. I came up on a few gentlemen that I sparked up some conversation with. Now that I look back that might have not been the best choice, I probably could have gone faster if I had focused on running, but I was so happy with my last 2 PRs I was really just enjoying the run. There was one guy on the way back that was cramping REALLY bad. I just kept saying positive things to him trying to help him block it out. At the end of the race he thanked me….he had also passed me in the last mile .
*Homegirl with the “Living The Dream” shorts passed me in the last 1/3 mile.
*I managed to conserve enough energy to sprint to the finish about to puke with a 188 HR. LOVE it! Finished my run in a 49:44, 8 min avg. PR BABY!

Finish
2:35: something…I’ll post the division stats as soon as they’re posted on the net.
PR in all three sports, 16 minutes faster over the same course last year, running off of a ****load of fatigue and PR in Olympic distance Triathlon by 6 minutes. Very unexpected and awesome at the same time. Progression is happening and that makes me a very excited Kat. Makes me wonder what I could have done with a taper.

AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE FROM TNT that came out to cheer. You guys MADE my race! It’s kind of lonely when your family or outside training friends don’t make it to see you put into action everything you trained and work so hard for.….TNT is a wonderful extended family.