It was an early AM on Saturday when the alarm rang at 3:40
AM! I had solid sub 6 hours of sleep, but was feeling pretty good. Made some oats
and coffee and AA and I were out the door by 4:40. The hour-ish drive to
Loveland was uneventful, it started in the pitch black but the sun came up
quickly and it looked like a great day!
AA dropped me at the high school and I went in to get my
packet. They had run out of shirts so they are supposed to mail it to me,
hopefully! We parked, and brought over my gear to the transition area. I
realized my two reusable grocery bags probably aren’t the best, as I saw
everyone with sweet tri bags. O well. There were 6 racks in the back designated
for the Sprint Race, and the remainder were for the Olympic race. The
transition quickly cleared out as the Olympic athletes started the waves at
6:30 AM. We took some more time and headed down to the beach to see some of
them take off! My wave was scheduled to start at 7:19 AM.
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| Bike in transition area! |
The lake was gorgeous. There was a sea of athletes in funny
looking wet suits, pretty fun. The waves went off, and it was neat to see the
washer machine begin and they made their way around the 1,500m course. In
around 20 minutes, the elites were already out of the water – we went and
cheered a few on as they ran and stripped off the top of the wet suit. I wasn’t
too nervous, but was excited to get started.
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| Watching the Olympic waves take off |
7:15 came before I knew it and then men’s wave was off! The
women’s wave hopped in the water. It was a wide start, I opted for the middle
near the back. We were off!
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| Women's Sprint Wave in the water |
There were two turns around buoys back to the
shore, which all seemed to be about the same length. The first leg was pretty
uneventful, my breathing was on and I wasn’t feeling panicked. I tried hard to
spot, and kept my eye on the big orange buoys. Surprisingly, there wasn’t too
much of a log jam at the first buoy and I easily spotted to the second. I tried
to stay on course.
As we neared the second buoy though, there was a traffic jam
of swimmers and it started to get messy. There were swimmers on each side of
me, both swimming towards me. I definitely had to fight my way for space. To
make it harder, it was nearly impossible to sight the big orange buoy so I
wasn’t exactly sure where my end point. I fought for my spot, and one time
literally stopped and went behind some chick because she was totally swimming
across the path for the buoy. Every time I came up for breaths there were
swimmers around me, it kept my pace up. The space didn’t free up the whole time
– I made it towards the beach and hopped up. I noticed a lot of swimmers were
walking, but I jogged through the area and up to the beach. I spotted AA as he
was snapping pictures, and it put an even bigger smile on my face.
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| Here I come! |
750 m swim time: 15:42
Average for my AG: 16:18
Rank: 5 of 8
Note: AG is Female 25-29 with 8 athletes
It was a ¼ mile to the transition area. My spot was right
near the entrance. I put on my helmet and tried to get my thoughts in place. I
started my watch satellites and began drying my feet and putting on my socks.
During this time I also put on my sunglasses, clipless shoes, and almost forgot
my bib. I stalled a minute to see if I had forgotten anything and then grabbed
my bike and jogged out of the transition area.
Transition time: 2:13
Average for AG: 2:16
Rank: 5 of 8
I clipped in my right pedal, hopped on the bike, and got my
other pedal in fine, success! I was definitely breathing heavy from the swim
and it took a mile or two to calm it down. We headed out of the high school and
there were lots of volunteers directing us where to go. It was a big square-ish
route of the route. On the first mile stretch about 3 bikes passed me. I got in
to the grove, and I wasn’t passed until about mile 4 or 5, but it was someone
in my AG unfortunately.
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| Route around Loveland |
The ride was really pretty, along semi-busy roads, but it was all coned off
with volunteers at every turn. I saw someone having to change a flat tire, and
I spent most of the ride trying to avoid anything, praying I wouldn’t get a
flat…since I had zero gear or knowledge to fix it! The course was really flat
compared to the Evergreen course. There were some rolling hills, but I stayed
in my middle ring the whole time. It was a gorgeous day out and I was really
enjoying it.
The sprint course met back up with the Olympic course during the
last 4 or so miles, I could hear the tri bikes zooming by me. We made our way
back in to the high school area – I was excited to have made it under an hour
for the 15 miles!
15 mile bike time: 53:18
Average for AG: 51:03
Rank: 5 of 8
It is interesting looking at results – for the bike there is
a clear division in times for top 4 and bottom 4
Average for top 4: 47:16
Average for bottom 4: 54:50
I unclipped and headed in to the transition area. I spotted
AA near the back where my station was. I took off the shoes and put on my
sneakers, grabbed my hat, a sip of water and I was off!
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| coming in to the transition, hi AA! |
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| sneakers...on! |
Transition time: 1:15
Average for AG: 1:24
Rank: 3 of 8
We headed down the field and made our way to the
pavement. I didn’t put in my iPod and
just got to listen to my heavy breathing :-)
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| Ready to run! |
It was sunny out, so I was very happy to have my hat on. I kept glancing down
at my watch during the first mile and it was reading 9:20ish min/mile pace. I
was wondering if I should slow it down, but it felt good! I thought maybe my
watch was off.
There was water and Gatorade at every mile, the support and
volunteers for this race were great! The course went through some neighborhoods
and eventually made its way around Lake Loveland. I could tell a lot of the runners near me were
the Olympic racers, and clearly really good ones! I cheered on what appeared to
be the top 3 women and they made their way back from their run.
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| Around Lake Loveland |
We rounded the lake, in to this little park place, and
looped around for the finish. There was great support coming in to the finish
and I kept my eyes peeled for AA, spotted him! I made my way through as they
announced my name. It felt great!!
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| Coming down the stretch! |
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| Final haul |
Run time: 41:32
Average for AG: 41:19
Rank: 6 of 8
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| Timing...but pace is off! |
The girl that passed me ended up beating me only by 15
seconds overall! I had her on the first 2 events, but she ran about 45 seconds
faster on the run! Darn it all! I had her by 6 minutes on the swim, but got
back about 5 minutes of that on the bike. Officially I had a 9:40 pace, my
watch said 9:25 so the distance must have been off. I am super happy with that
pace!
As I am studying the results, I think the girl with the flat
tire was in my age group. Her bike time was super high, 56:57, but the other 2
events were stellar. She had a 7:48 running pace, 2nd in the swim
and 2nd in the run. Poor girl! If she were on pace with first place,
she lost 10-13 minutes from that. I really need to learn how to change a flat!
So all in all, I was so happy with how the race went! It
helped the bike wasn’t hilly. I am feeling okay for the Olympic, but am scared
of the bike the most (and in turn how tired I’ll be for the run). I am doing
the aquaman race tomorrow at Cherry Creek, and I’ll do the 1 mile swim then the
5K run. I think this will be good to see how the longer swim feels in a race
setting. I’ll do it the following week, as well.
Looking at the results, I am pretty happy with the my swim
time, always room for improvement though. As I mentioned on the bike portion,
there was a divide between the top 4 and bottom 4. I definitely need to improve
on the bike. The run, as always, is a bit slow, but I don’t ever see myself as
a super fast runner, so I’ll just continue to train and improve on this!
All in all, a great day. It was great to have AA there to
support me along the way!!!!
