The Boulder Peak Olympic triathlon is my first tri racing at altitude. I’ve been living in Boulder now for 6 months, and have adapted well to training at altitude but racing is another story.  It was super nice to sleep in my own bed pre-race and ride my bike to the start.

The Boulder Peak triathlon is part of the WTC 5150 series this year, it’s a qualifier for HyVee the 5150 championship race held in September.  Therefore they have an elite amateur wave which starts first. This was a nice change of pace as all other triathlons raced this year I’ve started at the back and had to swim through previous waves. 

Shortly following the national anthem there was a release of doves. The guys standing next to me and I laughed as we prepared for our start. I noticed while waiting for the start gun my goggles were already beginning to fog. This is never good for me as I tend to freak out in the water when I’m unable to sight. As soon as the start gun shot I took off with the lead guys.

Shortly after I was kicked in the face, this isn’t out of the ordinary but to my surprise I started hyperventilating and couldn’t catch my breath. I stopped to tread water a few times, each time I put my face in the water I began to panic again. So I flipped on my back, fixed my goggles and tried to push on as I watched my wave swim away. I looked to the life boats and thought about pulling out, no I can’t I have to qualify for HyVee here was my thought. A lifeguard from a kayak asked if I was ok, I told him yes and started swimming. Just then the sun came out from behind a cloud and completely blinded my vision. I decided to just swim easy to the first turn buoy and take it from there. (freakin’ amateur hour). As I began to chill out I started catching some of the slower swimmers from my wave. During the 2^nd half I caught the other females and still exited the water as the first female, but not by much. As I ran out I saw my family cheering, I told them what happened rolling my eyes of embarrassment.

I ran into transition and hopped on my bike. All tri’s in Boulder begin with a long climb. I’ve been warned not to go too hard out of the rez because the course heads up old stage road which gradually gets very steep. I took the advice, although a female went by me as we turned off Jay road. I let her go and stuck with my race plan. As I made my way up old stage I felt strong right before the climb got very steep another female passed me. I stuck right behind her as I turned on the power and stood up climbing. As we neared the top I flew passed both girls shortly before the descent. As we descending I heard a few fans warning us of the speed zone coming up. Who ever heard of a 35 MPH speed limit on a race course, I honestly thought people were kidding when telling me about this. I found out post race it was due to severe accidents from previous years. So I held onto my breaks and rode down at 34.5 MPH until the speed zone ended. Phew, that was a rough first 8 miles, luckily the next 10 were downhill.

 I live on this course so I was very familiar with the roads, when to shift, etc. I rode my way back to the rez with confidence, as I turned in I saw teammate Brian Schanning jumping up and down cheering. Riding into transition as the first female is always fun, I stuffed my swollen foot into my K-Swiss running shoes and headed out. Gavin later told me that I ran right through the relay runners waiting for their bikers. I didn’t notice at the time, but I guess they all got out of my way :)

To my surprise my foot didn’t feel too sore, I built into my first mile then continued on my way. All through the bike and into the run I was breathing much harder than normal. The altitude really kicks your butt when going at full speed. As I ran I thought I had this race in the bag. I high fived Drew Scott who lead the men’s race, followed by his dad riding the course and cheering. There are a few short climbs on the run, I slowed slightly up them but felt strong even though I was breathing harder then ever. I was chasing a “carrot” guy from my wave and finally caught him right before the half way point. As we hit the turn around to my surprise, a chick came around with me. I had no idea she had come so close. We ran together for a bit, but she slowly inched away. I kept her within 15 feet. This is when everyone I know started running past going the opposite direction, all cheering for me to catch that girl saying I looked stronger than her. I pushed and pushed but could not bridge the gap. In the final mile I heard my friend Ashley cheering “Go get her” I dug deep and surged forward making up some time, but it wasn’t enough.

The finish line was right ahead and she outran me…something I’m not proud of but today was her day, not mine. There weren’t many smiles at the finish line for me, but I pulled one out to congratulate her.

1^st Loser ;)

(staying off my left foot)

I stayed afterwards to hang out with friends, teammates, and watched Gavin’s pro race.

This was my first race driving the new Ford Edge from Boulder. The long drive was fairly uneventful; it included desert, smelly dairy farms and a speeding ticket from a State Trooper in Texas.

Going into the race I was warned how difficult the course and conditions were. Typically it’s hot windy and hilly but I really had no idea what I was getting into. Walking out of the hotel room at 4:30 am it was already over 90 degrees. We arrived plenty early due to our late arrival in Kansas. Per usual we drove the Edge right up to the start/finish line.

My wave was last, so I got to watch my brother, teammates and friends all start before going off. I noticed as the waves progressed so did the in water start line. By the 9^th wave, swimmers were shoulder deep in water. Naturally when my turn came up I moved towards the front of the group. This is when the race officials determined our wave needed to start from the shore. They refused to start us until we were all back to ankle deep water. When the gun went off I began my usual surge to get out in front, while breathing to the right I noticed many girls running along the shore before entering the water. This has been an issue in this race in the past, but since I can only control myself I continued to swim onto the first buoy.

 The water was quite comfortable I was able to sight with minimal fogging in my goggles. I moved along through the swim course with ease. Unfortunately starting last required me to swim through all previous waves. I attempted to avoid swimming over people but every time my head went down it seemed I came up onto another body. Finally I entered the water recording one of my best swim times at a 70.3 distance.

As I went through my normal transition and hopped on my bike I realized something was missing. For the first time ever I forgot to lay my sunglasses out. Darn, oh well guess it was going to be a dusty eyed race.

While riding through the bike course it went from one extreme to the other. Many twists and turns brought us into strong headwinds, crosswinds, tailwinds then repeated. It was awesome seeing all my Timex teammates around each 180 degree turn.

Just before the half way point I hear a lone man screaming my name, I turn around to see Dave Scott jumping up and down cheering for me. This made me laugh as well as gave me a second wind to push up the next climb.

The final 8 miles were the most challenging, up a long false flat into headwinds. I was happy to hop off my bike into transition. First I ran down the wrong row, when I finally located my area I found my hat had blown away with the strong winds. Guess it was going to be a shade-less and hat-less run.

Heading out I was yelled at and followed by a race official instructing me to turn my number around. Apparently they have a strict policy that the race numbers must remain in front. As I ran away from him I felt the 112 degree heat and sun beating down on me. During the first 3 miles we ran in and out of some shade, but as I progressed the course became hilly.

As I entered the middle stretch we were running out in a field with no protection from the wind into extreme headwinds. Volunteers were driving around with traveling ice carts due to the record heat. I resorted to my trick from Kona in dumping cups of ice down my top and eating them between aid stations to keep cool.

At ½ mile from the turn around I saw an amateur woman ahead of me. She was from a previous wave, but now I had someone to chase so I picked up my speed. I held this pace for the next few miles and finally caught the amateur woman. She asked if any other females were close, I responded that I hadn’t seen any and she had her Kona spot in the bag.

Next I caught up to a 27 year old who ended up pacing me for the last 2 miles. I even slowed down at one point, Eric would not have it, he slowed down with me saying he wouldn’t let me drop off.  For this I shared some boob ice with him and we ran together the remainder of the race.

Overall I had a successful triathlon and locked in my Kona spot, but I was definitely happy to be done with that suffer fest.

Team Timex went out to celebrate post race!

My first long distance race post injury. It’s now been 6 months since surgery, my longest run leading up to the race was 10 miles but coming in I felt strong enough to make it through the run. 

Lawrence, Kansas is equidistant from Boulder and Chicago so I had friends and training partners from both places. Kansas IM 70.3 is one of my favorite race courses on the circuit. One of the great attractions is the run course; it’s a 2-loop course with many turns through the campground. A large group of us camped including teammate Jackie Arendt.  This allowed us to sleep in later on race morning. From our tents it sounded like rain throughout the night. In fact Sunday morning my first words were, “What if I just watch the race from my tent?” the cold, wet, windy weather wasn’t enticing to crawl out of my sleeping bag,

After a group breakfast of bagels, peanut butter, bananas and powerbars. We headed over to set up our two transitions. We must have been lolly-gagging, because by the time we made it down to transition 1 race director Tim Ziebart was asking people to make their way out of transition. I began my pre-race ritual of pumping up tires, lubing chain, filling water bottles and packing my bike with PowerBar nutrition. I made it out in just the knick of time.

Due to predictions of thunderstorms approaching, officials changed time between waves from 5 minutes to 3. This left only a few minutes before my wave began. I entered the water, took a few warm-up strokes and our wave of 18-29 year old women were off.

 The start was wide and to my surprise the other girls gave me a large amount of space. I swam with a younger girl for the first few hundred yards. This is when the waves began, as we swam farther from shore it really started tossing us around. I don’t mind a choppy swim, in fact I enjoy the challenge it brings. My issue was sighting, I was constantly flipping on my back to wipe my goggles clean of fog in order to see the buoys. Once I reached the turns I got really confused, it was nearly impossible to tell which buoy’s to go around, I couldn’t follow others from waves ahead of me because honestly nobody knew which direction to go. I asked a few kayakers who were happy to assist. Finally I was back on track. Swimming into shore I got into my groove, unfortunately I’d counted 6 stops and had lost valuable minutes.

Exiting the water I was greeted by many cheering fans. So I smiled and hopped on my bike, again I fumbled with my pedals being bumped into the wrong position (next time trying rubber bands).

 CA bike mount

Heading out on the bike the skies were gray and the winds were blowing. Luckily they were blowing in the right direction (for now). The first 25 miles we had a strong tail wind. As I approached the turn around I saw the pro’s heading back, their faces were miserable, I’ve never seen my brother Gavin in so much pain. This is when I knew how much it would hurt once I hit the headwinds. As I made the turn I felt the difference, but it wasn’t anything compared to some of the windy spring rides in Boulder. The course has some long rolling hills, but no steep climbs so I tried to push hard the whole way through. I saw some familiar faces on the bike, then noticed two amateur women ahead of me, now I knew who to chase.

My transition 2 was smooth, it still takes me awhile to cram my swollen busted foot into my running shoe, but other than that the transition was quick. Heading out on the run my foot felt decent and my stride felt strong. I saw Gavin coming in and warned him I was chasing him down.

As I headed down towards the water again and made the second turn I noticed a young girl running fast behind me, she was about 1 minute back but definitely gaining. I pushed on and picked up my pace. I could tell my altitude training has positively affected my sea level running, I was holding a quick pace and had caught the two amateur women ahead of me who turned out to be from much earlier waves.

At the mile 5 turn around I saw the young girl had gained on me and was now on my tail. We ran a mile together before I had to let her go. She was running under 6 minute miles which I knew I couldn’t hold for another 7. This was disappointing as I knew I just lost the overall amateur race, but my age group was still up for grabs and I told myself I had to be happy running 13 miles right now at any pace, as it was not expected after my basketball injury this winter. I continued on to run my own race…around mile ten my stomach began to churn, uh oh, thoughts of Kona entered my mind. I pushed through but realized I had taken in too much food on the bike. I slowed my pace hoping to make it to the finish line. Unfortunately I couldn’t, I had to take a bathroom break ¼ mile from the finish.

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=75620&BIB=450&S=230&PWD=

Those last few miles were very unpleasant but at least I know I can dial in my nutrition for the next race and work on sighting in the swim (getting contacts this week). I believe my fitness level is above last year in the swim, my bike could use another month’s worth of training and my run is coming along. My performance in Kansas didn’t show my ability, but I look forward to improving in the next race. Isn’t that why we all do this crazy sport anyway?

Check out the video Shawn Haley put together for our friends.

http://animoto.com/play/mczF7PHs913XrnL1DCrPcw

One of my favorite Midwest races is the Galena Triathlon. Not necessarily because the course is anything spectacular or the competition is steep. In fact the weather rarely cooperates, but it’s the first spring tri within driving distance from Chicago and everyone is always jazzed to race after a long winter of training indoors. Due to a work trip requiring me to travel back to Chicago I decided to extend my stay through the weekend, visit with friends and race Galena for the 3^rd time to defend my title. 

My week in Chicago was quite jam-packed trying to visit with so many dear friends. It including my best friend from college, Lana’s,daughter’s first birthday party. 

My old roommate, Lisa’s going away party as she was moving to London. Dinner and visiting in St. Charles with my family, along with multiple dinners/lunches/drinks with friends. Not to mention my work conferences and of course training. I was able to fit it all in but as the weekend approached my body felt the fatigue. 

15 of us rented a house within the Galena territory. We ended up “getting into the wine” Friday night before the race while enjoying dinner cooked by my great friend and training partner Stacey Izard (sister of Stephanie Izard, America’s top chef).

Race morning was warmer than expected, weather predictions called for thunderstorms all day so we were ecstatic the race started on time. As there is no elite wave, I contemplated starting in wave 1 men’s 25-29. Painting a mustache would have served as my “male costume” although there may have been some questions when I took off my wetsuit so I decided to play by the rules and start in my assigned wave 10. 

Swim: The short 700 meter swim went off without a hitch; I sprinted to the first buoy to get clean water. By the last turn buoy I had caught the men’s wave in front of me and later found out that I swam over my friend Sean Wyatt. Sorry Sean :)

Bike: the transition is on a bed of rocks so running barefoot is never pleasant. After enduring the foot pain I hopped on my Orbea Ordu to head up the first climb out of transition.

The course is a point to point with many climbs throughout. I didn’t feel strong, but not super weak either. About half-way through the rain started coming down, as I was making steep descents I made the conscious decision to sit up and ride my brakes down. The risk of slipping on the wet roads wasn’t worth the time savings.

Run: My bike to run transitions are lacking this year because my swollen foot takes some time to cram into my K-Swiss running shoe. The cooler, wet weather was perfect for running. I felt strong for the first few miles, during my back half of the run my foot started swelling up more and I was limping. I pushed through to finish the race It wasn’t my best performance but I had a good time racing among my Chicago friends.

This is the first Race Henry has beat me at (by 1 second) I’ll make sure to make it the last time as well ;)

The after party is where the fun really began and continued on at our house throughout the evening.  

The first triathlon back after smashing my foot in December is one I’ve desired to do for years. My brother Gavin and I did the Wildflower triathlon up right by driving from Boulder (17 hours each way) and camping among 500 triathletes.

Bob Cranny, my physical therapist advised me to race the Olympic distance race rather than the ½ ironman distance. My foot was not ready for the 13.1 mile run, I would have rather raced the long course triathlon but recovering over 7 months ahead of schedule I was just happy to be back in the game. Because I hadn’t done any speed work on my feet leading up to the race I wasn’t sure how my body, especially my foot would react. I choose to race Wildflower as a “secret race”. This made it a little more fun and relieved much of the pressure I would usually feel coming off such a serious injury.

Gavin raced the long course triathlon held on Saturday so I got to play spectator. This was Gavin’s 2^nd pro race and he didn’t disappoint finishing among the best of the best in 11^th place.

I had a lot of nervous energy leading up to the start of my race on Sunday. I hadn’t competed since October in Kona last year. I tried to bottle up my nerves and use them as energy for the start of the race.

SWIM: As our wave began I took off a bit ahead of the pack. Two girls came with me and we swam together for the first 800 meters. Once we hit the bulk of the previous wave we split up and I swam the remainder of the course on my own.

BIKE: As I hopped on my bike I realized I haven’t practice mounting since last year. So I struggled a bit with my shoes, but soon enough I was off and climbing up the hills of Paso Robles. The women’s waves began behind all the men so I found myself riding on the left the majority of the time passing those from previous waves. In fact I even lost my voice by the end of the bike course from calling out “On your Left” so much. I felt strong on the bike considering I was off it this winter for 3 months with my broken foot. The highlight of the bike was a bee flying into my sports bra while taking a steep descent. (Maybe I need a smaller sports bra from Timex, hint, hint)

RUN: Taking off on the run I felt pretty good, leading the race heading into the run is exactly where I like to be. I tried to ignore my foot pain while running up and down the hilly trails. I twisted my ankle climbing a rocky hill. I’ve had the opportunity to practice trail running often living in North Boulder, running lighter on your feet is the key. This enabled me to come out of the ankle roll with little to no pain after a few more steps.

Fans were lining the course along the campgrounds, as the day progressed so did the beer consumption. During my run I was offered two marriage proposals and a beer bong! I passed on both and chose to finish the race pleasantly surprised with my performance.

We loved everything about Wildflower Triathlon. The huge expo, VIP tent, awards ceremony, camping, race course…It was all executed flawlessly. We’ll definitely be back for years to come. We’ll probably fly next year though…It was a long drive home.