Wasa

This past weekend was filled with anticipation, a few nerves, good experiences and great memories. Sunday morning, after having neurotically layed out my "stuf" in transition, after having had my wetsuit done up once only to have to take a quick pee... again, after getting well wishes from Mom and Dad, there I was, wading knee deep in Lake Wasa thinking to myself "I am actually doing this". I first got the tri bug 6 years ago when I started cycling and then again two years ago. When I committed to 70.3 back in December it seemed like a distant dream. sure, anyone can swim, bike and run but let's face it, putting them all together poses a whole other set of challenges. Standing there in Wasa Lake, looking around at the 258 other women then out to the four orange buoys that would soon become the "goal", I was overcome by a fair bit of emotion. I am actually here. I am actually here healthy, my stomach in check and oddly enough not experiencing those crazy nerves that seemed to characterize each bike race (hard to be nervous when you don't really know what to expect)! Finally the race director yells "GO" and off we are. I seeded myself towards the front of the group figuring it might be a little safer. The first 5 minutes or so were a little crazy but by buoy #1, things seemed to have sorted themselves out. I managed to settle into a good rythm and only veered off a few times. I did managed to get two huge face fulls of water and on both occasions I had to stop, tread some water and cough up my lungs!

Coming out of the water I felt really strong. I knew that the bike was my opportunity to make up any and all lost time on the swim. I hit transition. Now for those of you who think that triathletes are these overly organized, anal people, let me tell you, we have no choice. Not unless you want to spend valuable minutes in transition trying to find your stuff. My wetsuit came off super easy, I threw on my jersey, socks, shoes, helment and off I went. Between transition and the 20km turn around I passed about 30 women. I had one woman "attack" but I countered that and that was the last I saw of her. Coming back in on the bike I held my position and finished strong. I did have to pull back slightly about half way into the bike as I could feel my quads starting to tighten a little. So now back to transition..... rack the bike, helmet and shoes off, hat and running shoes on and off I went. The first km was fine and then I really started to feel my quads and my feet were really hot (have since learned talcum powder should help with this). But I pressed on. My goal was to not let any women I had passed on the bike pass me on the run.... the advantage of a course with two out and backs is that it makes it really easy to see where you are relative to any competition. I wasn't running quite as fast as I had wanted but given my quads were getting tighter my the moment, as long as I was running I was good. Finally the finish line and I rounded out the top 15 women!

It was a really great event. Yes there was the last minute decision to leave my fancy and aero P3 at home in favor of actually being able to run off the bike, so I put some clip ons on my trusty 6-13. Yes I am already playing it over in my mind as to where I should have pushed harder. But.... all that said, I am really proud of myself. It was a really positive first experience and I am really looking forward to this weekend's race here in Calgary..... now just have to do last weekend's race distances X 2!

I would like to say a huge THANKS to Mom and Dad for coming down to Wasa with me. It meant the world to have them there. Also, a huge thanks to Jack, Laurel, Jon, Megan and Kelly for all of their help over the last 6 months.

So stay tooned for my race report from this coming weekend. It should be an interesting one!

... And a few pics (I still haven't mastered uploading them to this blog!)


Mom and Me post race

Heading out on the run

Coming out of the water.....

Jack and I post-race

Calgary Half Marathon.... the pitter patter of thousands of feet!

May 31 saw my first race of the year, The Calgary Half Marathon. Having done a half last year with no training, I was really curious to see how things would go given the amount of running I have been doing. The day started with my alarm going off at 4:45.... a nice sane rising time for the weekend! I shoved down a couple pieces of toast and headed off to pick up Jack and then my Mom. The race had a new venue and course this year. It started over in Bridgeland where the old General Hospital once stood. The race course basically wound around the zoo, through downtown and then dumped us on to Memorial where we did an out and back section. But I jump ahead. It was really fun to be back at a running race, they are always really well organized and seem to run like clock work... not to mention you the race tshirts are always great!

After seeding myself at the front end of the race we were off! Nothing like that burst of adrenaline to run a 3:50 first km! I would say the first 10km went really well, came through in about 45 minutes which was where I wanted to be. After that, from about km12 to km16 it started to feel some cramping in my hamstrings and started to loose focus, I knew things were off kilter when I had to stop at two water stations. Once I saw that 16km sign, I finally got back into the game and finished my last 5km really strong. All in all my final time was 1:37:30..... not quite the time I was hoping for but a respectable time. Oh yes and apparently while racing I can't do math. I figured that if I came through 10km in 45mins then I would be able to run a 1:30 race. Yea.... forgot to factor in that 1km extra..... so all in I was only about 3 minutes over where I wanted to be. Something to aim for next time!

All in all it felt really good to tie up the laces and hit the pavement. I don't know if the course was the most interesting (probably because I run a good part of it on a regular basis) but still good to get out and challenge the body!

Next up.... Wasa Lake Triathlon!