Loveland Lake to Lake Olympic Tri - Recap

I'm a little bit too excited as I sit here to do the recap of this race, it was FABULOUS! Like I have said before - it is SO extremely rewarding to work hard for something and have it PAY OFF. I know I am new to the sport of Triathlon, and so the first few seasons should yield pretty significant improvements, but I still can't help getting so excited over small gains!

We arrived in Loveland Friday night to spend the night at the Residence Inn. It's about a 1.5 hour drive from our home to Loveland, and rather than getting up at 2:30 or 3am, we opted to spend the night in a hotel and get up at 4am! Ha - that still is pretty darn early - but race day somehow always makes it ok to get up that early - my body seems to always know, and wakes up early anyway!

My husband and I drove up to Loveland last week to ride the bike course and run the run course with his coach, who has done this race numerous times in his career. I am SO glad we did! The elevation map for the bike does NOT tell the whole story. This is a TOUGH bike course (not to mention a longer than usual olympic distance course at 30 miles) - the first 15 miles feel like rolling hills, but definitely a steady climb, with a couple of longer steady climbs. There are a couple of pretty steep drops, short, but steep as well. The course is a loop, so one would think that the 2nd half would be easier and have more downhill than the first half; not so. The second half is a gradual uphill also, with a few rollers. The steep drops take all the descent (and more) away, and leave you having to climb back to the starting point. There is a killer headwind also along the long lonely road back to the lake. Fortunately the wind was not horrific yesterday (it was worse last week when we came to test the course). The run is a pretty simple out and back, partly along the lake, and pretty flat.

There were 723 athletes competing, including a BLIND guy and his guide - who finished the race - amazing! 315 females and 399 males finished the race.

After a breakfast of oatmeal, protein shake, and half of a banana we headed out. We got to the race about 5:15am Saturday morning to get our transition area set up. The race had a wave start and for the first time, my husband and I started together in the very first wave at 6:30am. All the age 35-39 male and female athletes and the elite athletes started first.

6:30am - Swim Start
Nothing really to tell about the swim - I felt good, after the initial frenzy, and got into a groove. There were lots of athletes so I always had someone nearby to draft off of, and I tried to do that as much as possible. I think I even drafted off my husband for a time, it's hard to tell who's who in the water! I felt like I was going pretty hard, but felt ok doing it. I got out of the water and headed up the grass hill (about 200m) to the transition area - a long way to run to get to transition, and it is actually part of the swim time because the timing mat is at the entrance to the transition area. I was shooting for an under 30 min actual swim time and I think I was actually in the high 28/low 29 min range. My husband has the waterproof garmin and got his actual swim time at just under 29min as soon as he got out of the water. I came out of the water about 45 sec to a minute ahead of him (that's the ONLY portion of the tri that I will ever beat him! and that may not even last long!), My race swim time was 30:45 (including the 200m+ run), I was 87/315 females for my swim. I got into transition and got ready for the bike. My husband is faster in transition than me and we actually exited transition together on our bikes.

BIKE - 30 miles
The ride was great, tough, but fortunately I knew what to expect and tried to hold back a little bit and save some energy for the 2nd half of the bike. If those headwinds were blowing it would be torture. The steep decents were super fun and a nice break for the legs. But as all downhills are, short and sweet, and then back to the climbing. I lost my gels at the beginning of the bike and only had my gatorade and HEED bottles for fueling. The weather was cool and there was a cloud cover that remained throughout the bike and for the duration of my run. Because of that, I didn't need as many fluids as I would have had it been hot and sunny. There were a just a few girls who passed me on the bike (and lots of guys). The 34 and under men started the swim 4 minutes after us, and some of them caught me on the swim, and then a  bunch of them passed me on the bike! Getting to the final stretch the winds were mild, still there, but not bad. I finished the bike feeling pretty good and ready to run. I averaged 18.5 mph (which I am VERY pleased with for that course) and was 76/315 females for the bike portion; 1:37:10.

RUN
As is the case on most triathlons, my left foot was pretty numb by the time the bike is finished and running is a bit of a trick. I've done it enough that mostly now it's just plain annoying, and doesn't hinder my speed too much. I usually take off fast for the run and have to settle myself and remember how long the run actually is. The first mile is the toughest for me, to get used to running and get my breathing in check. I started passing a few runners and that always gives me a boost. The course is an out and back and when I was at 1.7 miles, my husband passed me coming the other direction, headed into the finish. He was about 2 miles ahead of me at that point and finished about 19 minutes ahead of me (he ran a 6:54 average pace - his best yet!). My first few miles were low in the low 8min range and I wanted to push it harder to really be at an 8min average or lower. I took gatorade or water at every aid station and just took one big gulp before tossing the cup. Mile 3 was a sub 8 min mile, but 4 and 5 were just above 8 minutes. I really felt good by the time I had a mile to go and started to push it. Mile 6 was a 7:50 average and I strided into the finish pushing the pace even more. I finished the race in 3:00:01 with a 7:55minute/mile average for the 10k (49:08). My fastest yet.  I was 46/315 females for the run and finished 6th in my division out of 63 (and was only 6 minutes off the leader in my division).Overall I was 50th out of 315 females and 262nd out of 723 total athletes (including guys).

What did I learn? My transitions need work, and I can push a little harder at the end of the run.

Fun tidbit: The Lake to Lake Triathlon is a special qualifier for the National Championship Triathlon. Both my husband and I qualified for the National Championships in our age groups. Not that we will go there (this year), but fun to know we qualified!