Bear Lake Classic Tri - Race Report

We headed to Bear Lake Friday afternoon, by way of Logan, Utah. We had to stop in Logan for packet pick-up, to see my sister who just moved there, and to have dinner at Firehouse Pizza. Packet pick-up took a lot longer than we had planned. For some reason they only had 1 person (well, 2 by the time we left) handing out packets, and the line wound around the room. It was kind of weird because they had Ronald McDonald roaming around chatting with everyone. I thought it might have been better for him to be helping with the packets, and I was even about to volunteer to help out at one point, but I just stood my ground.

Anyway, we got our stuff, then had a great dinner with some family and headed up to the KOA in Garden City which was another hour drive. We got there just before dark. Pete set about putting up the tents and had me go buy some firewood and matches from their little store. The firewood ended up being wet, though, so we never did have a fire, and we just went to bed as soon as we got everything set up, at about 10. Not the funnest camping experience.

We had a nice air mattress, though I forgot to bring sheets or anything to put on it, other than our comforter. We didn't really plan for cold as much as we should have because it was just so hot in Salt Lake. We all slept well, though. That is, we all slept well until I woke up at 3am feeling like my throat was about to close in and my nose was running like crazy. I don't know what it was, but I was seriously allergic to something up there! Since I haven't had allergies for so long, I also forgot to bring allergy medicine. I was also so cold on that air mattress!

Well, there was no way I could go back to sleep feeling like that, and Pete looked on his iPhone and found an alleged pharmacy not far from our KOA so I got up and went in search of some meds. I felt bad starting the Jeep at 3am. It was so loud, I felt like I woke up the whole campground for sure. No one yelled at me or anything, though. I drove around for a while without finding anything open, and headed back to the camp. Luckily I found some decongestants in our first-aid kit. I took those, put my compression socks and jacket on and that made me feel much better so was able to go back to sleep.

In the morning, we got up bright and freezing early. My sister, brother, sister-in-law and their little girl arrived at about 6 to help out with the kids and bring me allergy medicine. We had planned on riding in to the race, but since it was freezing cold and we had less time than we planned, my sister drove us in. Then we realized that we forgot the water bottles so I called her and she brought us those too. What a great support team we had that day! They took down our tents, packed up our Jeep, took the kids to breakfast and played with them until we were done with the race. It was so great to have them there, otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to do it.

All the olympic women started at 8:15, 15 minutes after the men. I really didn't love the swim start. The water felt nice and warm compared to the air, but it was hard to get in and warm up because it was shallow for so far out. When the gun went off, we ended up running through the water for several minutes before we were able to start swimming. There was a lady racing who I'd done Masters Swim with back in Heber, and I was going to try and stick with her because she said she'd probably do it in about 30 minutes. Well, that was hopeless. It's impossible for me to stick with anyone in the water. The water was really weird too. It was so clear and blue that it felt like we were swimming in a pool, but there was no bottom. That was more freaky to me then swimming in the nice murky water I'm used to. It was also hard to see the buoys with such bright water, and I kept finding myself veering way to the right. I'd get so mad at myself for wasting precious time when I'd do this, but the I'd end up doing it again. I also forgot to start my timer at the beginning so I could only guess how long I took. When I got out, I thought I'd only taken 30-31 minutes, but then I had to run a ways back up to transition.

Swim Time: 35:54

Worse than my last 2 olympic races (not counting Spudman of course). I'd like to think it was because of the shallow water and the longish hike to transition, but that couldn't have added 4-5 minutes!

Anyway, I took a little longer in T1 than I liked because I had forgotten to put my socks out. I took a few seconds rummaging in my bag for them, then decided to forget it and go sock-less. I was worried it would really bother my feet because I've never done that, but it ended up being just fine. I didn't notice it at all. I think I'll start doing that from now on. Socks take forever to put on. :) I also made sure to get my shoulders dried off and spray sunscreen on. Another time killer, but probably worth it not to get totally burnt.

T1 Time: 3:42

The bike was really fun and fast. It wasn't as fast/flat as Spudman, but I like having hills. I enjoyed it a lot, and the best part was that only 2 people passed me (not counting the crazy fast guys coming in from the half), and one of those was when I had to stop and put my chain back on right after the turnaround. I felt nice and fast, and I didn't see anyone from my age group so I started to get hopeful that I might be able to place. (hahaha)

Bike Time: 1:19:50

(That's an average of 18.9 miles/hour.)

I was nice and fast in T2. I just took my bike stuff off, put my hat and race belt on, grabbed my shoes and ran bear footed to the port-a-potty. I love it when they put them right before the run start like that! (Kudos to Bear Lake Classic!) That way, I was able to multi-task while putting my shoes on.

T2 Time: 1:08

I got out on the run and soon found all the women in my age group. I counted 5 that went flying past me. I felt like there was no way I could keep up with any of them, but when I got to the finish, I wasn't dead. I definitely could have pushed it harder out there. So disappointing.

Run Time: 1:02:00 (My usual pace of exactly 10 minute/mile)

Total Time: 3:02:32

The most disappointing thing was being over my goal of 3 hours by just two and a half minutes! If only I would have started my watch when the gun went off...

I did beat Pete by 1 minute! He also didn't have his Garmin, though. It was dead when he put it on in the morning.

Here are my stats:

#10 out of 12 in my 25-29 age group

#26 out of 38 olympic women

#81 out of 106 olympic finishers

I'm so tempted to do another race this year to try and to better, but I think the fact that I didn't push it as hard as I could have means that I'm burnt out or still recovering from Ironman or something. I'll have to save the better times for next year after I focus on running this winter. I WILL get faster!