Race Report- Why Tri when you can Aquabike?

1st International Distance Race! 1st Aquabike :)

Date: September 12th, 2015
Event: International Distance Aquabike (1500m lake swim, 28 mile bike)
Time: 2:42:24
(Swim: 47:45, T1: 5:15, Bike:1:49:26)
Female Aquabike Place: 8/9...not last!

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The Swim- 1500m lake swim (47:45)

Average Pace: 3:11 per 100m

While waiting for the swim, a group of ladies were expressing how nervous they were and they didn't feel like they were going to make it.  I told them, "You are going to make it.  You only have two options, sink or swim.  I know you will choose to keep swimming no matter what happens."  They appreciated how much I simplified the task ahead of us.  To be honest, I was nervous too, this would be my longest open water swim by double the distance.  However, this PTTD journey has taught me to never quit, no matter what.  It has also taught me that life is about sinking or swimming.  Are you going to be defeated by your circumstances or are you going to rise above them?

My actual swim wasn't great.  I never seemed to get into a rhythm, I had trouble sighting, and I know for a fact that I wasn't swimming in a straight line (which means I swam a lot further than 1500m). On the last leg of the swim, after turning around the last buoy, there was nothing to sight from except for a brown pier that blended in with the forrest in the background.  That leg took me an absolute eternity.  When I looked down at my watch when I got out of the water, I was in shock at my time.  It felt like I was in there for awhile, but I expected it to take me at least 10 mins less than what my time was.  I wasn't upset, I just know that I need to spend more time open water swimming if I want to improve.  Believe it or not, it is completely different from pool swimming.  Kind of like running outside vs. running on a treadmill.

The Bike- 28 miles (1:49:26)

Average Speed: 15.4 mph

While I was swimming, it was raining the whole time.  This didn't bother me on the swim, of course, but it made the transition area an absolute mess.  The transition area was set up on patchy grass/dirt that was now mud.  As I ran into the transition area, I picked up mud all over my bare feet.  Thankfully, I always keep a gallon jug of fresh water at my transition area, so I used that to wash off my feet.  I also had an extra towel to dry them, then I put my socks on, followed by my cycling shoes. I took my sweet time.  It was pouring rain and was muddy.  This race was about completing it, not about my finish time, especially in these conditions. I spent over 5 mins in transition with everything being so muddy and rainy.  To make matters worse, after I got my cycling shoes on, I had to run my bike out of transition before mounting, as is customary for triathlons, but this time, that really sucked!  I wasn't able to run, I had to walk through the mud in my cycling shoes, which got dirt stuck all in my cleats and kicked up on the back of my legs.  When I got out of transition and mounted my bike, my cleats would not lock into my pedals.  I had to use my fingers to dig dirt out of my cleats to allow them to clip in.  Now my hands were muddy!

My transition woes were hard to shake off, as everything kept getting worse.  The rain went from a sprinkle...to a drizzle...to a torrential downpour.  It was also dark and foggy, no sun was in sight.  Here I was on these back country roads riding in the pouring rain.  I was by myself the whole time, except for when I passed a few riders that had been dropped from their waves.  They put the aquabike as the very last wave, so we were the last ones out on the bike course.  There was water dripping down off the front of my helmet onto my sunglasses (yes, I was still wearing them, it was my only guard against the rain), my jersey was soaked, if I adjusted my seat position I could make water wring out of the padding in my tri suit...and so on. My pace felt good, I was happy with my average pace, but I did realize after awhile that I wasn't enjoying myself.  By the time I got back to transition, I gathered my stuff and left quickly.  My family was ready to go, they were standing in the rain all that time, and I was ready to go.  I didn't stay for any of the post-race festivities, I just wanted to go home!

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Reflection

Long, boring, lonely, and wet!  My fitness was there, I felt great physically, but my motivation left after the 2 hour mark.  I was all alone for most of the course, a serious contrast from the race day experience of my super sprint last month. I realized somewhere out on the road with the rain pelting down on me, that I have come a really long way in regaining my fitness; however, I enjoy the shorter races much more. The best part of this day was being able to end my race without doing the run.  The aquabike category is great for anyone that has weight bearing/high impact restrictions.  It is it's own race category and even has a national championship that you can qualify for through USA Triathlon sanctioned races.