Glenda's World

Official Race Pics

Here are some of the better pictures from the official photographer at Perth.

On the run:

 

Starting out on the bike:

Bike lap #2:

Down the finish chute:

Crossing the finish line:

Perth LD worlds race report

Today was the big day!  After several days getting used to Perth, it was time for the race.  3K swim (1.86 miles), 80K bike (49.7 miles), 20K run (12.4 miles).

I'd been anxiously watching the weather forecast, and the day looked to be interesting to say the least.  Early race day morning the wind was gusting up to 30 mph, and the forecast high was 90 degrees with no clouds.  But nothing I could do about the weather, so I'd just have to take it as it came.

The winds outside our hotel room window:

Suellen and I woke up early, both excited about the day.  Around 6am we headed over to the transition area, where I set up my shoes and nutrition, and checked my bike.  Everything was set.  The wind was really blowing, 15-20 mph I'd guess, and it was whipping up the waves on the river quite a lot.  It was going to be an interesting swim!

After getting body marked (the only thing they marked was a letter on your calf, that told what age group you were in.  Mine was "S"), I headed with Suellen off to the swim start.  There had been some worry whether the water was going to be cold enough to allow wetsuits, but the temperature had dropped several degrees in the last couple days, so wetsuits were legal.

I got my wetsuit on, and before Suellen headed down to the swim exit to cheer, she took a superhero pose picture :)

My swim wave started at 8:17, so it didn't take long to get into the water to start (the elites started at 8am).  When I hit the water, I found out why it was wetsuit legal.  It was COOOLD.  Much colder than when I swam in it on Thursday.  It actually hurt my face when I put it in the water.

I swam about 100 meters to the start line, with the rest of the women in my wave.  The whitecaps were coming in.  As I finally got to the start, suddenly they started our wave.  No chance to catch my breath, time to go!

We started, and I immediately knew this was going to be a crazy swim.  The first 1800m went directly into the wind.  And it was really blowing.  Salt water would crash into your face when you tried to breathe, and when you tired to spot the buoys, half the time all you could see was a 2-3 foot wave coming right at you.  It was completely disorienting.

All my swim technique flew out the window.  I was just trying to stay calm and survive.  I knew if I could make it to the turnaround, I'd have the wind behind me for the last 1000m.  But the turnaround seemed to never come.  Every time I passed a buoy, I'd look ahead to see if people were turning, and every time they kept going on.  

About halfway to the turnaround, the 30-34 year old men who had started behind us caught up.  It was like getting run over by a speedboat.  A dozen of the leaders just plowed over anyone in their way, kicking and smacking.  I did my best to move the side, but still got kicked in the face.  Definitely a full contact swim!

I think there must have been 8 buoys before we finally hit the turnaround.  It was much smoother going back, but still seemed to go forever.  It was at this point that the next swimming challenge appeared.  Jellyfish.  They had told us there were harmless non-stinging jellyfish in the river, but I didn't run into any until we hit the last 1000m.  Then they were pretty thick.  You'd just stick your hand out and feel something gooey, eewww.   At least the water was muddy enough you couldn't really see them.

With about 400m to go, a jellyfish smacked me in the face, and it stung!  It hurt for about 5 minutes.  I found out later that the jellyfish in the river do sting, but only in certain seasons.  And this wasn't supposed to be the season, but a few people had been stung.

Finally we got to the last buoy.  At this point I was telling myself "I'm doing duathlons next year, no more swimming!".  It was that bad.  I made the last turn, came to the stairs out of the river, and thankfully climbed out of the water.

I'd hoped in decent conditions to do the swim in about an hour, so I was very happy to get out of the water in about 1:03.  I saw Suellen as I ran to transition, she was a great cheering section.

Relieved to be through the swim, I grabbed my bike and headed out on the course.  The wind was still blowing pretty hard, and the bike course was shaped like a +, meaning we had sections of headwind, tailwind and crosswinds.  It was much more challenging than I expected.  Even though it was fairly flat, the wind kept you on your toes. 

The bike course was 4 loops of about 12 miles each.  I wanted to go steady the first two loops, but not too hard.  It was really neat seeing all the other athletes in their country's uniforms.  One Aussie (with the last name "Courtney", written on his shorts) I saw several times, as we would leapfrog each other, one leading for a couple miles, then the other catching up and passing.  By the end of the bike leg we were chatting each time we passed one another :)

The bike course was very pretty- the first part rode along the river by Kings Park, then it did a loop onto a freeway that took a bridge over the river.  The crosswinds on the bridge were intense.  With my rear disc wheel, I got blown around on the bridge.  I was glad someone warned us before the race, so I knew to hold on tight and not be in my aero bars for that section.  At the end of each loop, we rode by the transition area, and there were tons of cheering spectators lining the road.  Very cool to do a race in the middle of a city!

The first couple loops went by quickly, I was averaging about 21 mph and eating regularly.  By the third loop, the wind shifted and we seemed to have more headwind.  I decided not to push harder, but stay at the same effort.  On the final loop, I started to lose a little steam.  I figured I still had a long run to go, so I should just ease off and recover.

My bike time was about 2:23, an average of 20.8 mph.  A bit better than I'd hoped, especially with the wind!  

As I jogged out of transition, Suellen was there again, cheering for all she was worth.  It was a great boost.  

The run course was four loops of a 5K course that wound around the park and nearby streets. Pretty much flat, but no shade to speak of.

I'd noticed on the last loop of the bike that it was getting hot, and as I started the run I found out that was only getting worse.  I originally hoped to average around 8 minute miles for the run, but went out too fast for the first 5K (7:46 average).  I slowed down the second lap, but too much (8:11), and during that loop realized I had to hydrate better, it was really scorching.  Unfortunately, the water stops were pretty poorly set up.  The volunteers seemed easily distracted, and weren't always handing out cups of water.  At the start of the second lap, I took a gu while running up to the aid station, and someone sprinted up next to me and took the last two cups of water.  So I was running long with a mouthful of syrup, and no water to wash it down.  I ended up running another mile before finding water.

After the water fiasco, and realizing I was really sweating out the fluids, I decided to just stop at each aid station and grab 2-3 water cups from the table myself.  Between that and my electrolyte pills, it seemed to stabilize things.  But my lap pace was still falling.  The 3rd lap was 8:28 average.  I'd gone out too fast, and the rising heat was taking its toll.

The one thing that got me through the run was the great cheering from Suellen, the other Team USA family members, and just random spectators.  The run course had wonderful crowd support, and even some Aussie's would cheer "go USA"  when I ran by.

On the run course:

I started my final loop, and decided it was time to give it all I had.  I was running about a 8:10 mile, still stopping at aid stations to drink and pour water over my head. Coming into the last mile, I passed another woman in my age group (from South Africa!), but I had a feeling she was hanging behind me.  We came down the final straightway, and entered the 100m finishing chute.  Suellen and our Team USA captain was there cheering.  The captain handed me a little US flag, telling me "go get her!".  I kicked all I could, but couldn't quite close the gap.  But I didn't care, because I crossed in just under 5:15, in 5:14:32!   Before the race, I thought if I had a near perfect race I'd be around 5:15.

After the finish I nearly collapsed, from pushing too hard the last 100m and being dehydrated.  I sat in a chair near the finish line while the medics got me some water.  After a couple minutes I was better, and was able to limp around a bit.  I was sore!  But very happy.  I got a finishers medal with a kangaroo on it :)

Checking the official results later, I found I'd placed 13th in my age group!  I just hoped to maybe finish in the top 20. 

It was quite an experience to get to compete in the event, and I have to thank Suellen for being there to sherpa and cheer for the whole race.   I couldn't have done it without her support.

Australia Trip, Day 4

The day before the big race!

We had to start the day with my normal pre-race meal, pancakes!  A very yummy breakfast of pancakes with fresh berries and a nice latte.  Perth is big on espresso, and I've had some great lattes here.

Breakfast!

Then it was time for a short pre-race bike & run, just to keep things warmed up.  The wind was REALLY blowing today, gusts up to 36 mph.  Hopefully things will calm down tomorrow.  Suellen walked down to the race site with me and watched my bike while I did my run.  She took a few pictures of me, showing off my Riff Raff team singlet :)

After my warmup, I went and checked my bike into transition.  Everyone had their own numbered spot (even labeled with your name!).  

Checking my bike in:

After taking care of all the race stuff, we wanted to do a little sightseeing.  We hopped on the tourist tram that runs around Perth, and took it past several landmarks eventually up to Kings Park.  Kings Park is on a hill overlooking the Swan River and downtown, and is the largest urban park in the world (1/3 larger than Central Park).  The views were incredible.

Shots from Kings Park:

After a short walk around, we took the tram back through town.  Had a quiet afternoon, then it was time for the Team USA dinner.  More pasta!  Mmmm.  We met several new teammates and it had an enjoyable dinner.  Now it's off to bed, to get up bright and early for the race!

Australia Trip, Day 3

It's Friday, only two days away from the race!  After a light breakfast, I went for an hour bike ride.  I rode along the bike path on the Swan River, a very scenic route.  The wind was blowing pretty hard, so going into the headwind was interesting.  It was also nerve racking watching for cars, since they are driving on the left side of the road.  

I had one little incident on the bike- crossing at a crosswalk I went up on the sidewalk and hit a patch of sand, which took the bike out from under me.  Luckily no road rash this time, just a sore hip and shoulder.  

For lunch, we met a friend who lives here in Perth.  We had seafood at a great restaurant on the other side of the Swan River, with a gorgeous view back across to the city.

The view of downtown from the south side of the Swan River:

Lunch with our friend Scott, I'm wearing my official USA parade uniform!

After lunch, we had our Team USA team meeting, to go over some of the race logistics.  If I wasn't nervous before, I definitely was after hearing all the details to think about!  And the warning that the European competitors are brutal on the swim (elbows, swimming over you, etc).  

There are 107 athletes here from the US, and we took a team picture after the meeting.  I'll post it when I get a copy.  Lots of nice folks, all ages (two 18 year olds, and at least one 70+).  One woman in her 60's has a jacket with patches from all the world championships she's been to, it must be 30 or 40 (she's gone to nearly every short & long tri and short & long du championship for 10 years). That's pretty awe inspiring.

After the team photo, it was time to pick up my race packet.  I'm number 405, which seems like a good number (404 would have been geekier, but then maybe nobody could find me on the course :) ). 

Friday evening ended with the opening ceremony and pasta party.  700+ athletes from 25 countries!  They didn't have a parade of nations this year (evidently they usually do), instead had us sit at tables by country and stand up as they called our country name.  Tons of Aussie's and Kiwi's here!  I guess it is their local race after all.  But also a good groups from Great Britain, South Africa, Brazil, and smaller groups from Japan, Italy, Germany, Ireland, and more.  Each team was wearing their official parade uniform, making it quite a rainbow of colors.

After a few local dignitaries spoke, they did a short interview with Craig Alexander, the local Australian who just won the Kona Ironman (2nd year in a row).  He was very nice, seemed pretty down to earth.  Evidently his wife & kids travel with him to all his races.  We had some decent pasta (but they ran out of dessert- triathletes need cake!!!). 

We were fading pretty fast by 8:30, so back to the hotel to try to get a good nights sleep. I'll leave you with a picture from the top of our hotel, looking down on the race site:

Australia Trip, Day 2

I guess it's really day 3, since it took us two days to get here, but I'm calling it day 2!

We got a good 8-9 hours of sleep and then after checking our mail (internet is 50 cents a minute!  It maxes out at $28 a day, and I think we hit that pretty quickly) we walked down the street to a little cafe/restaurant for breakfast.  Had some of the best pancakes ever!  With marscapone cheese on top, which I'd never tried.  It was quite tasty, almost like whipped cream but a slight cheese flavor.  Lots of fresh berries and real maple syrup.

Perth is very pretty, and we're only a block from the Swan River and Langley Park.  That's where the race will be on Sunday.  It's fairly windy, which is making the water pretty choppy.  Hopefully it won't be quite as windy on race day.

Langley Park:

The Sawn River:

I was able to re-assemble most of my bike, then got the Team USA mechanic to fix up the few things I couldn't do. Everything seemed to make it fine, so that's a relief.

We've been running into lots of Team USA people, met several also from Texas (Houston, Galveston, and even another couple people from Austin).

After a light lunch, we headed down to Langley Park to pick up our numbers for a warmup Aquathon (swim/run) that was today.  Suellen was going to do the 200m swim, 2K run, and I was doing the 1K swim, 5K run.  I figured it would be a good way to get in the water and see how it felt.

Downtown Perth and the finish chute for the race on Sunday:

Suellen's race started first, and unfortunately the toll of the long flights and the 10K she'd run on Sunday caused her to get leg cramps while swimming warmup.  She decided to pull out of the race and just cheer, which I think was a very good choice.  The water was really being blown around, and it just wasn't going to be fun for her.  She said the lifeguards that were patrolling in the boat were very nice, and reassured her it was probably the smart thing to do.

I got my wetsuit on and got ready to swim.  While the swim is in a river, we're only a mile up from the ocean, and I didn't realize it would be salt water!  And boy was it salty!  You couldn't help getting a mouthful of water now and then, with all the waves, and that was pretty nasty.

The first half of the swim went well, because the wind was behind and to our side a bit.  But once we turned around a buoy to head back to the finish, the wind was right in our face.  It was pretty mean, getting tossed around and splashed in the face when you tried to breathe.

Finally I finished the swim and climbed the steps up to the shore.  My swim was about 19 minutes, which I was very happy with.  I'd been trying to just swim a steady pace, about what I'd do on Sunday for the 3K swim.

I ran across to our transition area, waved at Suellen, who was cheering, and put my shoes on to run out.  I'd planned to run around my Sunday race pace (7:40-8:00/mile), but it just felt too good to run faster.  It was really neat seeing all the other athletes in their country's uniforms.  Since each uniform has the country's three letter abbreviation, you knew right away where someone was from.  Lots of AUS (austrlia) and NZL (New Zealand), but also Great Britain, plenty of USA, and several other countries.   The race guide said 25 countries and about 600 athletes were here for the big race.

I ran steady and just enjoyed myself for the 3 mile run, and saw Suellen again at the finish.  All in all a good way to get a little familiar with the course and knock a little rust off.

Suellen and I after the aquathon:

After we cleaned up we walked up to the shopping district and pedestrian mall, and did a little window shopping.  

The long day caught up with us around 5, and we both had to take a nap!  After a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant (I had Tasmanian Salmon!), it was time for a little Australian TV and off to bed.

Australia Trip, Day 1-ish

Monday night we headed to the airport to begin our big trip "Down Under" for the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in Perth, Australia.   We had a flight from Austin to LA around 6 pm, a few hour layover in LA, then a 15 hour flight from LA to Melbourne, another couple hour layover, and finally a 4 hour flight to Perth.  Planned time was about 30 hours total!

Our flight to LA was pretty uneventful, I got my giant bike box checked in and the security screening didn't take the entire bike out to look at it, thank goodness.  They did open the case, but just looked around a little before closing it back up.  As a huge bonus, since our flight was booked as a Qantas flight (even though the first leg was on American), we got to check our bags & bike free!  I was expecting to pay the $120 American normally charges for a bike.

While we were waiting at the gate in Austin, we met another Team USA member who was flying to Perth as well!  I didn't expect to run into anyone on our same flight, so that was fun. 

LA's international terminal was kind of a zoo.  Tons of people and not very well organized.  And we had to check in with Qantas, since they wouldn't let us check in for the whole trip in Austin.  Qantas is kind of crazy too, even though we bought our tickets 6 months ago, the wouldn't assign seats until you actually checked in for the flight.  So while we hoped to get an aisle seat, they initially tried to put us in two middle seats!  The plane was a 3/4/3 config, and they had us in the 4 seat section with aisles on both sides given to someone else!  I at least got them to change us to a window & middle on the side. 

After waiting a few hours we finally got ready to board.  The plane was an Airbus 380 which is huge, it must seat 400 people.  So it took a while to load.  Finally we got our seats and settled in for 15 hours of fun to Melbourne.

We slept for about 6-7 hours, and it was going pretty well.  I figured maybe it wouldn't be such a bad flight, even with 8 hours to go.  Then things went downhill.  Someone on the plane had a medical emergency, and a couple hours later they announced we were going to make an emergency landing in Fiji.  After we landed and the medics came to take the person who was having trouble off the plane, they had the worst time getting the plane ready to fly on.  Evidently they don't get giant planes in Fiji much, and they first couldn't get us close enough to the fuel truck to refuel.  Then the plane broke a tractor that was trying to pull us back to the runway.  Finally, after sitting on the tarmac for 3 hours, we took off again.  We did get to take a picture of the sunrise over Fiji out the window at least!

Sunrise on Fiji:

Another 5 hours to go, and I was getting pretty antsy.  The time just seemed to drag on forever.  Finally we made it to mainland Australia, and about an hour or two later landed in Melbourne.  Total flight time, 19 hours.  One of the flight attendants told Suellen that was the longest flight she'd ever worked!

We'd missed our connection to Perth, but luckily there was another flight a few hours later the booked us on.  So we got all our bags, went through customs and immigration, and got rechecked on the flight to Perth.

We had to get something to eat, and I really wanted something familiar.  I can't eat airplane food at all, after getting ill from it many years ago on a flight to Tokyo.  Now even the smell of an airline meal nearly makes me reach for the air-sick bag.  So all I'd had on the 19 hour flight was some peanut butter crackers, a cliff bar, and some cereal (I could eat breakfast, just not the hot food). 

It wasn't the healthiest option, but we grabbed a burger in the food court at the Melbourne airport.  The Burger Kings in Australia are called "Hungry Jack"!  But they still have the same food (even call their burger the Whopper), so a little Whopper Jr and some fries tasted pretty good.

Australian Burger King:

The 4 hour flight to Perth from Melbourne actually went OK.  After the nightmare of LAX to Melbourne, this seemed like a piece of cake.  And speaking of dessert (rimshot!), they gave us the best fruit juice popsicles on the plane (they called them Ice Blocks I think).  Pineapple and mango, mmm.

Finally, 33 hours after we left Austin, we landed in Perth.  My bike and our luggage all made it safely, and we got to our hotel around 5pm.  We put on our running clothes and did a very short run in the park by the hotel, just to get our legs flushed out from the flight. Then a dinner at the little pub attached to the hotel and upstairs to watch a bit of TV before bed.  We actually were able to stay up till 9pm, so I think we'll be able to sleep well tonight!

The Austin Tri

This morning was one of my favorite races, the Austin Tri.  It's on Labor Day every year, and runs in loops right downtown.  Swim in Town Lake, bike up and down Congress Ave & 1st/Cesar Chavez, and run around auditorium shores.  Because it's a 3 bike loop/2 run loop course, there are plenty of spectators, which I love.

I was looking at this race as my last warmup before the half iron in Australia (7 weeks away!).  Last year I did the race in 2 hours and 32 minutes, and was really hoping to break 2:30 this time. 

We got a little break in the weather, it was still hot but not 100+.  Unfortunately, all the 100+ days this summer made Town Lake as warm as a bath, which meant wetsuits weren't allowed.  The extra float in the wetsuit really helps your swim times.  So I kind of figured going in I was going to lose 2-3 minutes on the swim from last year, putting me in a hole to try to break 2:30.   But I had been swim training extra this summer, so I hoped that would help.

After getting to the race site and getting set up, it was time to wait.  And wait.  With 2000 people doing the olympic and sprint races, it took a while to get every wave started.  And just like previous years, the 40+ women were the next to last wave.  So while the first wave started at 7am, we didn't get to go until after 8.

Finally it was time for the swim.  1500m (just under a mile), in a big loop up and down Town Lake.  The water definitely felt warm, but it was kind of nice not to be all bundled up in a wetsuit.  After treading water for a minute or so, we were off.  I settled into a strong and comfortable stroke, and must have lined up in a good spot because I didn't have too much trouble with people swimming into me.  After the first few hundred meters, I ended up right behind another girl in my wave who was going the same speed, and it was nice to be able to draft off her a bit.  I lost her at the first turn, so I was on my own from there.

Shortly after the first turn my goggles started to completely fog over.  I swam a few minutes until I realized I couldn't see a thing, and had no idea where I was going.  I couldn't even see any other swimmers.  I finally decided I had to stop quick and rinse the goggles out.  After I rinsed them out I could see I wasn't too far off course.   I had passed several people in the wave ahead, and as I got towards the last buoy I actually passed a few from the wave before that!  Usually I'm the one getting overtaken by waves behind me.

Rounding the last buoy it was a short sprint to the swim finish.  It got kind of crowded, but I found an opening and go to the ramp to get out.  It was really steep!  But they had carpeted it, so it wasn't slippery at least.  As I jogged up to transition, I glanced at my watch - 30 minutes!  That was only 45 seconds slower than last year, when I had the wetsuit on!  Much better than I hoped, so I was pumped.

Running into transition I found my bike and sat down to get my shoes on.  With no rain in Austin this summer and hardly any grass in transition, it was a mess of dirt.  My feet were just covered in mud.  I had a towel to try to clean them off, but it didn't help a lot.  By the time I got my bike shoes on and got up, my hands and backside where all muddy too :(  Nothing to do but press on.

The run with your bike to the bike mount line must have been 200 yards.  They put the later waves farther away, which doesn't seem fair!  Running through the dirt and sand in bike shoes was a challenge.  Finally I got to the pavement, hopped on the bike and started riding.

The bike course is 25 miles, three loops of 8+ miles.  There was one climb (not too steep, but long) up Congress Ave going south of the river, but you got to ride back down so that was fun.  I tried not to push too hard, knowing I had a ways to go.  Once I hit the turnaround though I geared up and really was flying.  The first loop went by quickly, I paid attention to drinking lots of water and took a Gu about 15 minutes in.  As I started the second loop, the course was getting pretty crowded.  The Sprint distance race started at 8:30, so lots of those people were now out on their bikes. 

I pushed a little harder the second loop, it was so fun screaming down Congress with the Capitol in the distance.  At one point, I even saw an old co-worker, Ken, taking pictures of the race. I yelled "hey" to him, but have no idea if he knew who I was :)

There were a couple harrowing moments riding through the crowds on the second loop, but I made it OK.  I was really trying to ride strong but hold back just a little, so I had something left for the run.  Starting the 3rd loop, I picked it up just a little more, feeling pretty good.  As I finished up the third loop, and the course narrowed to return us to transition, I had one big scare.  I was coming up on a girl that was riding in the middle of the lane, and she started drifting to her left where I was passing. I yelled "on your left", but that seemed to startle her, because she just jerked the bike farther left, right in front of me.  I swerved around a road cone into the other lane and just barely missed her.  Eeek!

That excitement over I spun down to transition.  Another long jog with the bike back to my spot, and I swapped out my running shoes.  I'd averaged 22.7 mph on the bike, and shaved 3 minutes off my bike time from last year!

As the run started I had decided to try something new.  I normally don't race tri's with my Garmin watch, which tells me my pace, because it's not waterproof enough for the swim.  This time I decided to see if I could put it on coming out of transition, so I'd be able to pace myself a little better.  With some juggling (I had a hat, race belt, some electrolyte pills, and the Garmin all in my hands as I ran out) was I able to get everything in the right places.  I even had enough wits to take my first two electrolyte pills and grab water as the run started.

The Garmin didn't turn on as fast as I hoped (it has to find satellites, which doesn't work as well when you are moving).  But I was just warming up on the run anyway, and after a couple minutes it came on.  The first bit of the run was cross country style on grass, but eventually we hit the road.  I was doing pretty well at around a 7:30 pace, which was my goal.  Even though it was getting hot (no clouds unfortunately) as it was 10am, I didn't feel too bad.  The run course was two 3.1 mile loops, and I got to see lots of people I knew.  

The first couple miles on the run I tried to get an idea of what other women masters runners were ahead of me, but I really could only see one that I recognized from the swim wave (she was the only one who oddly had the wrong color swim cap, so she stood out).  At first she was a minute or so ahead, but as the miles went by I slowly gained on her.  I kept holding my pace, drank as much as I could at the water stops, and took my other couple electrolyte pills.  

As we came down to the last two miles, I was right behind the other masters woman.  I couldn't decide whether to pass her then, or hang back.  But I know how annoying it can be to have someone shadowing you, so I thought I'd pass her and lead for a while (we were going fairly similar paces).  That didn't last long, she evidently really wanted to be ahead, since she kicked it up a notch and passed me back.

At that point I figured I'd just hang near her til closer to the end.  We ran up across the 1st street bridge, then started back for the last half mile.  Coming down the final stretch we both picked it up, and were almost stride for stride.  I'd hoped I could kick it past her and get clear, but just didn't have another gear.  So we turned off the road into the last 50 yards to the finish.

This is where things got weird.  We're both sprinting nearly all out, in a chute maybe 6-8 feet wide.  I'm right beside her in the last 10-20 feet, when suddenly she starts moving over to block me, and hits me with an elbow.  Whoa.  I've never had that happen.  I don't know if it was intentional, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.  As we jostled to the finish line, she kept crowding me off towards the edge of the timing mat, all I could do was drop back or keep going ahead.  I pressed on, and crossed the finish line a fraction of a second ahead, and then suddenly she went down.   I felt so bad for her, even if she was the one who had started bumping me.  

What happened next shocked me even more, as I rushed back to check on her and offer her a hand up, she just went off on a complete angry rant.  Accusing me of pushing her, saying something about that I should have passed her some other way (I don't know what else I could have done, since I was blocked in to that one side).  I stayed with her for a few minutes and did my best to be sportsmanlike, even though I knew I hadn't instigated anything.  But she would have none of it.  I finally left her with some of her friends, since it was obvious there was nothing else I could do or say.

So a very bizarre ending to an otherwise good race.  When the results were finally posted, my time was 2:25:30, almost 7 minutes faster than the year before!  And it turns out we were battling for the first overall woman masters spot (maybe that's why the other girl got so intense at the end!), so I was very surprised to take that award.  

I think in the future if I get into a close race where the other runner gets physical, I'll just drop back and let them go.  I like to be competitive but it's not that important to me to get into a situation like that.  This is supposed to be fun.

Sponsorship!

When I finished my last race, the Darndst Du, I was approached by a rep for Etonic, the running shoe company.  He said they had seen how competitive I was in recent races, and wanted to sponsor me!  My first ever sponsorship!

It's not a big cash Elite sponsorship, but they'll provide me with shoes throughout the season, along with some swag clothing to wear (singlet, running shirt/shorts, a really nice warmup jacket & pants).  I'm so excited!  

The shoes and other stuff just showed up, and I did a test jog up and down the driveway in the different model shoes (Tayu, Kendari, and Jepara).  The Tayu's felt especially good.  I can't wait to get some training runs in with them.  

Here's a picture of the goodies:

Darnd'st Du

Today was the annual Darndst Du, one of my favorite duathlons in central Texas.  I've done this race for 5 straight years, and it's always fun.  This year there was an added incentive, it was the Texas State Duathlon championships.  That meant plenty of fast competition would show up.

Things didn't get off to a great start.  My bike frame has a crack in it (discovered a week ago), and the replacement frame didn't come in soon enough to swap out before the race.  So I had to chance it that it would stay together one more race.  It was on the seat post, so it wasn't like the bike would fall apart, but I was a bit nervous that any bump I hit would suddenly drop my seat down about 4 inches.   On top of that, I was worried about volunteers I was supposed to round up for the race for Austin Duathletes.  We'd had a very hard time getting anyone to commit (and it turned out the few who did commit didn't show up).  And of course I was nervous about racing against some very fast women.

But the race must go on, so Suellen and I got up at 5am and headed down to San Marcos.  The weather was like every other morning this summer.  Hot and humid.  They announced it was 81 at race start, and I think it was around 80% humidity.  Thank goodness there was some cloud cover, which kept it from just baking.

After getting good luck wishes from Suellen (who was helping man the grill cooking hamburgers and hot dogs for post race), I made my way to the starting line.  I'm always intimidated by how fast everyone else looks at the start.  But I just kept telling myself to run my own race and let the results fall where they may.  Last year I'd been just under an hour and 42 minutes, and was really hoping to break 1:40 this time.

With an air horn blast we were off.  Right away Lisa Pohlit, the girl who beat me at the Howdy Du, and is training for the US Olympic Marathon trials, took off like a rocket.  I knew there was no point chasing her.  But what really surprised me were the other dozen women who went off at a sub 7-minute pace.  It made my planned 7:15 seem slow.  I did get caught up in things a little bit, and was down in the 7:05's early on, before I pulled back.  I just had to hope all those other women were not as fast on the bike, or hadn't done very many duathlons.  Triathletes who are doing their first du invariably go way too fast on the first run.

Gradually I caught up to a girl here and there.  By the end of the 3.1 miles I was in about 9th place.  My pace was a pretty steady 7:12, so I hoped this would pay off later.  Next it was on the bike and out on the course.  

I settled in on the bike and tried to ride strong and smooth, no pushing too hard up the climbs but really getting up to speed on the flats. With my new disc wheel, I've found I can sustain a good 25mph on a flat stretch without killing myself.  I passed a few women over the first half of the course, and was feeling good.  The seat post on my bike seemed OK, and passed the biggest test- a steep downhill that ended over a bridge that gave you quite a bump.  Despite hitting 37mph going down nothing shook loose.

The bike course was about a quarter mile shorter than last year, which took me a bit by surprise.  The U turn at halfway came up a little quicker than I expected!  I was able to brake quickly and get around it OK though.  I passed a few guys who had disc wheels, which is always fun :)  After a nice shady couple miles, we turned back north for the last 10K.  This was where I wanted to push pretty hard and make up as much time as I could, since we had a little tailwind and smooth roads.

Almost before I knew it the bike finish was coming up.  I took my shoes off while leaving them clipped in, and coasted to the dismount line.  I debated doing this, because I wasn't sure how much time it saves and I'm always worried one of my shoes will come unclipped as I'm jogging my bike into transition. Sure enough, I looked back and one of my shoes was there on the ground.  I stopped and went back to grab it, then ran into transition.  

My bike split turned out great- 22mph and almost four minutes faster than the year before.  I had the fastest bike split of all the women by a minute and a half.  My poor bike may be getting re-built, but it hung tough for its last race.

I was pretty shocked to hear the announcer call out "here goes Glenda Adams on the run, she's only 10 seconds behind the leader".  As I ran out, I saw it was Lisa P, so I knew I wasn't going to catch her.  But I had a shot at second place and first Masters.  My excitement was a bit short lived, as I heard the announcer say Sharon Sander (the #2 ranked triathlete in the region last year) was coming into transition right behind me.   I didn't know how fast she'd run, but knew she'd be gunning for me. 

I tried to settle into a strong pace, and was doing pretty well around 7:20 for the first mile.  I didn't want to look back to see where Sharon was, but knew I'd have an idea at the halfway turnaround.  Sure enough, she was 10-15 seconds behind me at that point.  I thought if I could make it up the last hill still in the lead I might have a shot holding her off.

To my surprise she didn't catch me up the hill.  But right as we crested, with a couple hundred yards to go, I heard footsteps.  Here she came.  I kicked with what I could, and held her off about 100 yards, but as we came down towards the finish she pulled ahead.  I chased as hard as I could, and closed the gap a little, but just didn't have enough to get the lead back.  We did the last couple turns into the finish line and I ended up 1.25 seconds behind, in 3rd place overall.

My final time was 1:37:14, almost five minutes better than last year!  That took some of the sting out of missing out on on the overall Masters trophy.  I'd run a far faster race than I thought I would, and was able to hang with some really fast people.  After a yummy burger from Suellen's grill, we headed home with one more Darndst Du in the books.

STARR Trek Triathlon

Captain's log, stardate 2009.8.8

Our continuing mission to swim, bike and run through strange new worlds has brought us to the far away locale of Corpus Christi.   Our science officer's scan of the planet revealed a hot and humid world, with surface temperatures approaching 90 degrees even in the early morning hours.

Scans showed no hostile life forms, but a large gathering of an peculiar alien species known only as "triathletes", preparing to engage in a test of physical endurance.  In order to learn more about this alien culture, an away team comprised of myself and our science officer, Dr. Suellen Adams, were to beam down and participate in this event, known as a '"triathlon".

Captain's log, stardate 2009.8.8.1

After a routine transport to the surface, we proceeded to set up our equipment.  My standard Starfleet issue Felt B2 tri-bike had just come back from Engineering, where routine maintenance had discovered a crack in the seat post.  A problem that would require repair the next time we were in stardock, but unfortunately nothing that could be fixed before this mission.  A suggestion by Chief Engineer Scott to reverse the polarity of the carbon frame was noted and ignored.  I would have to chance the cycling portion of the event on the bike as-is, hoping the crack did not go critical.  Setup of other equipment went without incident.

Dr. Adams and I made our way to the first phase of the event, inspired by the oceanic regions on the Triathletes home planet, Ceti Multisportia V.  A 200 meter swim took place in an engineered pool at the local campus of higher education, Texas A&M Corpus Christi.  The start of the event was delayed approximately 45 minutes, due to technical problems with the aliens' primitive computer systems.  Taking advantage of this delay, I swam a few laps of warmup in the pool. While exiting the pool, I received a small wound on my shin.  It was a minor scrape, nothing worth beaming back to sickbay to have Dr. McCoy look at.

Eventually the bugs were worked out of the timing systems and we took our places amongst the other competitors.  

I was hoping my recent training in the swim simulator on the holodeck would pay off, and looked to complete the swim in 4 minutes.  After jumping into the pool I used an ancient Vulcan technique known as "freestyle" to propel myself back and forth through the first 50 meters.  Swimmers were then required to navigate under the lane buoys and into the adjacent lane to swim the next lap. This was a maneuver I hadn't practiced on the holodeck, and proved difficult. On the initial attempt, I managed to get into the next lane with only a minimal inhalation of water.  

After swimming another 50, and passing a swimmer ahead of me, I again was required to traverse the lane buoys.  This time it did not go well, as I became disoriented and veered back into the lane I'd just come from, like a Romulan warbird wandering into the Neutral Zone.  I immediately undertook evasive maneuvers to avoid a head on collision with the woman I had recently passed, and was able to safely return to my correct lane.

This minor incident behind me, I finished the remaining 100 meters, negotiating the final lane change with care.  Exiting the pool I noted my time for the swim was 3:53, well within my original mission parameters.

Captain's log, stardate 2009.8.8.2

After the swim I jogged towards the transition zone, to begin the cycling portion of this alien test.  A quick change of equipment and I was out on the road, which bore astonishing similarities to a 21st Century Earth "chip seal" pavement.  This primitive technology involved embedding gravel in asphalt, and was less than ideal for navigating personal transportation vehicles such as the model I was riding.  Eventually the road did smooth out some, providing a less jarring ride.

Midway through the ride I was surprised to have exhausted my complete supply of dihydrogen monoxide (supplemented by Dr. McCoy with a balance of electrolytes suitable for the planetary heat and humidity).  I hoped I had taken enough hydration to last me through the remainder of the test.

In order to complete this mission in the shortest time possible, I requested Mr. Sulu initiate the terrestrial equivalent of warp speed and in spite of a persistent headwind for part of the course was able to maintain a factor of 22 mph for the 10K bike course.   The structural integrity of my bike remained sound, despite the crack in the frame.

As I was approaching the bike finish, I decided to attempt the Klingon strategy of puv'Hegh, the "flying dismount of death".  I removed my bike shoes while coasting towards the finish line, and then successfully sprung from the bike to jog into the transition zone.  A true warrior's dismount!

Captain's log, stardate 2009.8.8.3

Finishing the cycling portion of the event, I prepared for the final test, the run.  It was a short 2K (1.2 miles by some ancient measuring systems), over varied terrain.  

By this time, my life support systems were extremely compromised by the climate.  The local primary, "Sol" was blasting me with the ferocity of a Denebian slime devil.   I started the run trying to keep a quick and steady pace.  A few minutes into the run I passed by a group of locals who had gathered to give offerings of water to the Triathletes.  I gladly accepted some, and continued on.

Pushing to finish the run as quickly as possible, I requested Engineer Scott give me all the power he could.  His reply of "the engines canna take any more" confirmed my fears, I was at my maximum sustainable speed.  

Luckily the finish line came into view shortly.  With one final burst, I crossed the line, in just over 31 minutes.  My Starfleet training and the Federation's more advanced technology was sufficient to place me as the first female to complete the course.  The mission was a complete success.  This "triathlon" was an intriguing event, and very enjoyable.

Captain's log, supplemental 

Note commendation, Science Officer Dr. Adams.  She completed the mission in record time, with a performance 3 minutes faster than her previous participation in this event.