This event, Boulder Peak Triathlon, turned out to be quite an event, and I don't necessarily mean just the race itself. The traveling went really smooth aside from some lightning on our last plane ride home. Thankfully, it was far enough away that it didn't cause any problems.
Leading up to the race I had workouts everyday and it was my plan to get in the water each day as well, since I was told that swimming at altitude is like breathing through a straw. However, on the first day I went to the reservoir to swim there was a lightning storm, and I guess you are not allowed to swim in that type of weather. Some of kind of safety thing :P On a side note, I thought it would have been a fun experience. The next day, which was the day before the race, I was to swim, bike and run. I did the bike and the run first and was planning to leave the swim for last. You know, wash off all the sweat from the previous two exercises. Nah, actually I just like to leave the swim for last. Anyways, I finished the bike and run and was just headed over to do my swim when all of a sudden Thor got really mad (at who knows what; yes, I did just watch Thor and the Avengers) and brought on another lightning storm. Lifeguards seeing this, started to herd everyone out of the water.
At this point, I was really starting to wonder what Thor's deal was. Because everyday he brought on a thunder storm. I will have to admit though, on the first night he gave us (me and my sisters) a marvelous show. The only noises you would have heard from us that night was a bunch of whoas, ahs, and oooos. On a more serious note now, I guess I just was not meant to swim before the race.
It was finally race day and I would be hitting the water at 7:07. Through the course of the race I would be racing at 5,202 ft up to 6,394 ft. elevation. Like the race at Pacific Crest the weather was perfect. Nice and cool in the morning and it wouldn't be heating up too bad until the time I finished. Usually, at most of the races I've raced the waves have colored specific swim caps. Here they did the start different by allowing the athletes to pick which wave they wanted to go in based on their approximate swim time. So all the women wore pink and the men green. This confused me a little at first but it didn't take long for me to remember why. Then there was the Elite group, that I raced in, and you had to have certain time qualifications to race in that wave.
I was the second wave to hit the water and it always seems like it takes forever for the start. Plus, it was weird being in a wave with only 9 girls... The men were off and now there were a couple minutes before I would have my turn to run into the water. 5...4...3...2...1 GO! I took off towards the water and tried to get ahead of a few before starting to swim, but there wasn't enough land to make a huge difference. Right before I hit the water my knee buckled backwards. I'm still not really sure how that happened but I'm guessing the sand had something to do with it :/ I felt it a little for the first few 100 meters and then forgot all about it. All the way out to the last turn, which was the only turn, I was pretty much by myself but still could see a few of the girls ahead of me. The water was so nice and flat that it made for a great swim, almost as if I wasn't racing. Then all of sudden as I turned and was on my way back I started to get passed by the wave behind me. My once calm water now turned into an angry, rage of sea monsters! This was quite disheartening getting passed but I knew my swim hasn't been super strong this year so I tried to make the most of it by trying to latch on to some of the athletes who passed me. As mentioned earlier about swimming at elevation, I didn't find it difficult to breath at all. Felt the same as going for a swim in Foster Lake, which is just over 500 ft elevation. Now it was on to phase 2. The bike!
This part of the race turned into a first time event for me. I was about 2-3 miles in to the course and being that the roads are still open to traffic there was a commuter bus stopped just ahead. The athletes that were in front of me were going around it on the left. I was about to go that direction as well but then the bus started to move forward so I figured I would stay on the right like we were suppose to. Apparently, this bus driver was unaware that there was a race commencing right then and decided to turn off to the right without using his signal. At this point, I was about 8 yards behind him and when I noticed he was turning I slammed on my brakes. I didn't have enough time to go around him and I ended up slowing down just enough that I hit the back of the bus lightly. I almost fell over as well but was able to get my foot un-clipped in time. It took me a little bit to regain myself but was able to get going without too much lag time. As I passed the incompetent bus driver I may have said a few unpleasant things that aren't worth repeating. Now that I got myself composed again it was time to climb the 1,283 foot hill. It was a fierce climb! But it was nice to have all the spectators cheering the whole way up. The rest of the course was more mellow. A fair amount of downhill and a few rolling hills.
The run was not any better than at Pacific Crest. If anything, it may have been a little worse. As I look back on my run there shouldn't have been any reason for it to have been worse. First, I was able to get in a couple more weeks of running, even a couple track workouts (that went great!) Second, the course was flat. Lastly, it was warm but not hot and there was an aid station every mile. So I have concluded that my mind was not in the right state and therefore, I sabotaged my run. I'm sure I could blame some of it on the elevation, but honestly I don't believe it had much of an affect. As far as elevation goes, I think most people struggle with it because everyone always makes a big deal out of it. But people forget to realize that the body adapts very quickly. Therefore, I can not blame my performance on elevation. I'm sure it sounds like I'm being very hard on myself, and maybe I am, but at least I can learn from what happened and what I did and work on those things as to not repeat in future races.
On a happier note, my main goal for this race was to qualify for the Hyvee Triathlon in September, and I qualified!!! So this made for a bitter/sweet race. I was 8th in the Elite division and 7th in my age group. I finished in the time of 2:29:02.
On another awesome note, this race also had a Pro division. They started about an hour after the age groupers so I was able to at least watch the run, which was a pleasure. Lisa Norden raced. If you don't know who that is, she was the silver medalist at the 2012 Olympics. At the awards ceremony I was sitting about 5 feet away from her. I had the perfect opportunity to go talk to her but I was too much of a chicken. Next time though......right?!?!? :D
Had some fun exploring Boulder.
Leading up to the race I had workouts everyday and it was my plan to get in the water each day as well, since I was told that swimming at altitude is like breathing through a straw. However, on the first day I went to the reservoir to swim there was a lightning storm, and I guess you are not allowed to swim in that type of weather. Some of kind of safety thing :P On a side note, I thought it would have been a fun experience. The next day, which was the day before the race, I was to swim, bike and run. I did the bike and the run first and was planning to leave the swim for last. You know, wash off all the sweat from the previous two exercises. Nah, actually I just like to leave the swim for last. Anyways, I finished the bike and run and was just headed over to do my swim when all of a sudden Thor got really mad (at who knows what; yes, I did just watch Thor and the Avengers) and brought on another lightning storm. Lifeguards seeing this, started to herd everyone out of the water.
At this point, I was really starting to wonder what Thor's deal was. Because everyday he brought on a thunder storm. I will have to admit though, on the first night he gave us (me and my sisters) a marvelous show. The only noises you would have heard from us that night was a bunch of whoas, ahs, and oooos. On a more serious note now, I guess I just was not meant to swim before the race.
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| Swim caps can be such a pain! |
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| Starting the run. |
On a happier note, my main goal for this race was to qualify for the Hyvee Triathlon in September, and I qualified!!! So this made for a bitter/sweet race. I was 8th in the Elite division and 7th in my age group. I finished in the time of 2:29:02.
On another awesome note, this race also had a Pro division. They started about an hour after the age groupers so I was able to at least watch the run, which was a pleasure. Lisa Norden raced. If you don't know who that is, she was the silver medalist at the 2012 Olympics. At the awards ceremony I was sitting about 5 feet away from her. I had the perfect opportunity to go talk to her but I was too much of a chicken. Next time though......right?!?!? :D
Had some fun exploring Boulder.
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| I'm so strong! :) |
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