Lake Stevens Triathlon Race Report

This is race week for me! I did the Vancouver Triathlon 5 days ago and today, September 8, I did the Lake Stevens Olympic Triathlon. My brother lives here in lovely Lake Stevens, a suburb of Seattle, and I came down to do his favourite local race with him.

Yesterday, I felt sort of awful - so sore and tired. I slept a lot and took lots of ibuprofen and went to bed early. I wondered what kind of a race I was going to have today. But, I woke up this morning feeling much better so we headed off to the race in good spirits, looking forward to a good day. This was my second Olympic distance and my first one sucked so, so badly that I can never say out loud what my time was. If you think of a time that sucks and add another 20 minutes, you might still be underestimating how badly I sucked that day. So, today, I knew I could beat that time by a long shot. I figured I could do 3:30 and I really hoped I could do 3:25.

It was a sunny, warm day - about 80 degrees by the time we were running. We arrived at transition at about 7:00 a.m. and got set up. I chatted with a couple of people around me and then with Kim, my sister in law, Cheryl, her mom, and Stephanie, my niece, who raced with us last week in Vancouver and then drove down from there to cheer us on today. I also met a couple of Paul's friends who were racing, too. At 7:45 we went down to the lake for the pre-race meeting and then pulled up our wetsuits to wait for the start. I got into the lake for a warm-up swim. The water was nice and warm - the race director had said that it was 70 degrees.

The swim started in deep water so we jumped in at the end of the dock and treaded water until the gun went off. My wave had about 50 people in it so there was lots of room. I started out a little too quickly and had trouble catching my breath but I just stopped kicking for a minute to get my heart rate down and all was well after that. I got into a nice groove and before I knew it, I was making my way through the second loop. There was about 200m at the end of the loop that was in fairly shallow water so the weeds were very visible and really thick and I really don't like that. I feel like they are reaching up to try to grab me. I just tried to tell myself that it was an underwater garden and I managed to get through that stretch (twice!). Otherwise the water was clean and fine and the swim was good.

Swim (1500m) = 31:11
T1 = 2:31

The bike course heads out through town and out into the country. It follows some beautiful tree-lined roads, passing by streams and horses and lovely houses. It's generally uphill on the way out so coming back is a bit faster. I felt good on this rolling and sometimes hilly course and really enjoyed this ride. When I got back into transition and saw what time it was on my watch, I started to think that I might be able to pull this off in about 3:20. That made me happy.

Bike (25 miles/40K) = 1:30
T2 = 1:13

The run is a two-loop course that goes along the lake, with a good hill to climb just before the turnaround. My legs cooperated from the start so I found a good groove and off I went. My first loop took 31 minutes. Kim and Steph and Paul's friend Darryl were cheering wildly at the turnaround, which was so great. At that point, I started thinking that, even if I slowed down a little on the second loop, I might be looking at 3:15. So, I kept plugging away. I slowed down after starting the second loop but then started to feel stronger at the turnaround point so I picked up the pace a bit. About 500m from the end, it was starting to look like I might be able to do 3:10. So I poured it on. I pulled around the last corner and into the finish area and got 'er done in 3:07. I was pretty pleased!

Run (10K) = 1:02

Total = 3:07:53

I went to look at the official results and discovered that I was first in my age group. More happiness and high fiving ensued. Later, I found out that I was the only one in my age group! Bummer. It would have been nice to have some competition. But, I looked at last year's results to compare: there were six people in my age group in 2011 and the first place person did it in 3:03. My time would have put me in second place if I had raced with those women so I still felt like I did a good job and earned a podium finish.

This has been a good year for me. I finally feel like the real deal!