My planets were in alignment yesterday and I had a really good day. My race came off almost exactly like the race plan I wrote last week and it was really fun...this was a course built for me.
We woke up before the alarm about 4:30 and had plenty of time for coffee and getting to the race course...got a stellar parking spot about 50 ft. from the transition area. All went smoothly and we had plenty of time but not too much...before I knew it, I was looking for the right spot to hop in the water and we were swimming. There were only 2 waves for the swim start 2 minutes apart (we were in the 2nd one) and it was a beach start. The swim was much less of a shark fest than Blue Lake and I was hapipily surprised to have lots of open space almost immediately without any combat. Bumped into a few people when I started picking off some blue caps (somebody doing breaststroke, somebody else doing backstroke, several other peeps weaving around...) from the first wave, but overall the swim was great. I was a bit anxious in the first loop ("ohmygod, this is a Half Ironman" followed by "settle in, this is my confidence part of the race"), but the swim was long enough to hit my groove. We had to come onto the beach and around a buoy between loops, but this was good to clear my goggles and I flopped right back in. In the second loop I felt great and hit "the zone." Was already visualizing the bike and, at one point, forgot I was even swimming...coming in, I had my transition theme of "calm and efficient" in my head and thought through my T1 plan. My goal for the swim was under 35 minutes and I was in at 33:38. Sweet. Got the wetsuit stripped by the volunteers and got into T1 where I was the first person on my rack to come in...this, of course, was different later when I was last off the bike, but I do like the confidence building I get from the swim and having some real estate to myself in transition.
Took off on the bike and a guy told me that one of my bottle cages (brand new, unused...I know, I know...) attached to my saddle was loose. I jammed one of my 2 perpetuem bottles in tighter and kept on going. Right out of town, the climb up Richter Pass ("The Richter" as the race director calls it) started...within 2.5 miles I was in the lowest gear and headed UP with the sun high, a bit of a headwind, and a gorgeous view. People started dropping me early, as usual, but I just did my thing, kept a decent pace and started eating and drinking ASAP. A lot of the people passing me were breathing a lot harder than I was and I thought, "OK, they are RACING today...I'm on a fact-finding mission and am committed to staying within my ability and following my plan. Let 'em go." I knew the first aid station/bottle exchange was at the top and I wanted to drink a whole bottle of Nuun by then to toss the bottle...done, no problem, and took in some PowerBar and Perpetuem, too. The descent down The Richter was SO FUN. It was sunny, the view is amazing, and I hit 40mph...I kept thinking THIS right now is why I do this...it's so fun and I feel great. I also was thinking how much I love this climb and that I'd love to just ride up and down it when I remembered that oh yeah, we DO get to do it again on Tuesday...I'm on vacation! OK, back to the ride. Headwind continued, but some clouds came over and cooled things down for most of the ride...nice gift. The 7-8 rollers were tough, but short and kept things interesting...the course is basically out-and-back, but in a lollipop shape with a loop at the top; when I turned onto the loop, the apricot trees were blowing right at me...pain in the ass wind, but I knew I was paying it forward and the turnaround was soon, so I was getting psyched for the tailwind. Went through the 2nd aid station at about mile 25 and had to pee, but decided to wait till the last station. When I hit the turnaround, the tailwind was as sweet as I'd hoped...was easily cruising at about 23mph in the aerobars before the return of the hills. I missed seeing Seujan (bummer) as she was on the top of the lolliop loop, but I saw Jeff as he was turning onto it. The rollers were...the rollers. On the way back some of them looked steeper going up than I remembered they'd been coming down, but they were fine. I was happy I'd done hill repeats in training and felt fine taking them on; stood up to stretch out on some of them. Stopped as planned at the last aid station before The Richter...hydration had gone well and I had to pee for about 15 miles! Took a quick honey bucket stop, grabbed a banana from a volunteer, and headed up the last climb drinking perpetuem and water consistently. Somehow, the wind had done a reverse and, again, the climb up the pass was into a headwind...I asked (yet another) chick who dropped me, "Didn't we climb this in a headwind the first time?" and she said we had. The descent was way fun again, and I was starting to think about T2 and the run. I enjoyed the view and said out loud, "I'm having a GOOD day" to set my attitude for the whole day--it ain't over yet-- and get my head screwed on for the run, the anxiety producer of the day. This last descent was more windy than any of the others and it was a slight sidewind. I held on in the drops pretty tightly thinking, "Shit, Seujan is going to HATE this..." She did. Goal time for the bike was 3:30-3:45 and I was at 3:30:58...with the pee stop. Sweet.
T2 was fine; kept the "calm and efficient" mantra going, didn't break any speed records, but no major hitches. Headed out onto the run course with my Endurance shake in hand and heard the announcer say, "#404 heading out on the run, that's Ruth Frobe from Seattle..." The announcer is the same one who does IMC and, even though I was just going out onto the run, his voice prompted an emotional moment and I got a bit choked up...not sure exactly what happened, but I felt like I had asthma for about 4-5 breaths, reprimanded myself for being a major cheeseball, and settled in. I knew that the "mile" markers were going to be km markers, so I decided to take my splits at each 5k to monitor my pace and keep on plan (plus, Seujan was brilliant and had told me her mental strategy was to chop up the course into 5k segments which I liked). I stopped at every aid station to drink water and use the sponges (I have a new love and respect for the sponge...total lifesaver)...walked for a few steps only, and kept motoring through. I felt really really great for about the first third of the course and kept thinking "This isn't supposed to be so much fun," but I didn't let myself push harder--at that point, I definitely had more, but I figured it might not last. "Dont try to go out of your head...stay within your ability." I was right...I didn't get totally miserable, but I did push through a sideache about halfway and each 5k got a little slower. The course is a double out-and-back and you have to go past the damn finish 3 times before you get to go THROUGH it...of course, watching other fast guys getting done when you have another 10k to run. Sigh. A nice volunteer gestured me back onto the course (not toward the finish line) for my second loop and I half smiled and said, "How'd you know?" I got to pass Seujan 3 times on the run and exchange some good energy...she kept telling me she was proud of me which felt great...I was proud of me--and us-- too and I was really happy to see her out there. I also got to see Jeff and it was fun to push each other along out there. It was getting damn hot by the end and I was ready to be done. Goal time for the run was 2:14-2:30 and I did it in 2:14:49.
I had some gatorade and a swim in the lake to cool down and felt OK for a while. However, I was sitting in the sun for over an hour and, about 2 hours after I'd finished, I totally felt like crap and thought I might throw up and couldn't stand up...Seujan took good care of me and after she basically force-fed me at the air-conditioned awards ceremony (Jeff won a draw prize bike rack--whoo hoo!), I felt much better. We also stretched last night after beers, dinner, and gelato (to the victors go the spoils!) and today I feel good.
I'd hoped to go under 6:30 and I feel really great about doing it 10 minutes faster than that...I was 13 of 19 in my age group and solidly middle of the pack, but I think this could be my distance and my race in the future.
Summary:
2k swim: 33:38
T1: who knows, not on website
90km bike: 3:30:58 (including pee stop!)
T2: who knows, not on website
21.4 km run (damn run course slightly longer than supposed to be): 2:14:49
Total: 6:19:24
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