Last time I saw my “Fireball” dressed up with these sexy wheels was in Cozumel last
December!
Ready to fly!
It has definitely been too long since I toed a tri start
line, which can only mean one thing – lots and lots of excitement, some nervous
but positive energy, and of course a bit of healthy pressure that comes with being
the defending champion!
Not a great number to fly under the radar with!
It also meant I had to conquer taper week! Thankfully once you actually train
a bit more, taper weeks aren’t all that boring, and between work and still
training twice a day on most days, my taper week crankiness has been limited to
a minimum.
Before I knew it, Saturday morning rolled around, and it was
go time. Seeing lots of familiar faces on race morning made the time before the
start go by that much faster. I also got to warm up on my Fireball in what felt like my
own warm up area! Yet another perk of local races thanks to the pro set up by
coach Jorge.
Fireball just waiting for me
My first PR of the day was visiting the porta potty only once the whole morning and that is some serious record right there!
THE SWIM: (35:56 –
1.35 miles – 1:31/100yards)
2nd PR came on the swim! Yes – I know the time
may not seem fast, but when you are dealing with longer swim course (confirmed
by the RD) that time is huge for this swimmer wanna be! My new toy – Garmin 910XT
told me I swam 1.35 miles which is highly likely a bit extra than the course
really was, and 100% due to my inability
to swim straight, but outstanding ability to zig zag my way through the entire
swim course. I however didn’t get
dropped like a hot potato in the first few hundred yards of the swim, and only
came out of the water 40 seconds behind Carolyn who usually swims at least 3
min faster than me on any given day.
I felt great the entire swim, although seeing Carolyn and her swim buddy in front of me the whole time and not be able to catch them because someone with bacon or maybe some chocolate coconut rice cakes was surely hanging out to my right and way off the buoy line (I never found them) was a bit frustrating. I would catch up to her and her swim buddy, then decide to go look for my bacon friend, look up and find myself waaaaaaaaaay to the right, correct my course of action back towards the buoys, get closer to the white goggles of Carolyn and repeat for pretty much the duration of the entire swim!
I felt great the entire swim, although seeing Carolyn and her swim buddy in front of me the whole time and not be able to catch them because someone with bacon or maybe some chocolate coconut rice cakes was surely hanging out to my right and way off the buoy line (I never found them) was a bit frustrating. I would catch up to her and her swim buddy, then decide to go look for my bacon friend, look up and find myself waaaaaaaaaay to the right, correct my course of action back towards the buoys, get closer to the white goggles of Carolyn and repeat for pretty much the duration of the entire swim!
Regardless of being the best zig zagger ever, I wasn’t done
with entertaining the crowd at the swim exit. My hand very unexpectedly hit
the bottom (water was so dark you could not see the bottom), which is normally
a queue to standing up. I stood up only to realize the water was still way
above my knees but now not deep enough to dolphin dive so the slowest exit out
of the water ever began. I felt like I was trying to get out
of quick sand! The icing on the cake would have been the face plant I almost
awarded the crowd with for cheering for me so loud. Thankfully I saved
myself a little bit of embarrassment by just barely stopping myself from smashing my
face on the ground, and once my feet hit the land, I ran out of there as fast as I could.
Face Plant just barely saved! Now get me out of here!
T1: (1:17)
I got into T1 and saw bikes! Lots of bikes! More
importantly, Carolyn was still there, and Amanda’s bike was too! I did a little
happy dance, and was out of there fairly quickly. I knew both of these girls
can run so I needed to not be too far behind out of the water (mission
accomplished) and put some cushion in between myself and them before the run!
THE BIKE: (2:26:16)
Not to disappoint any T1 spectators, I continued with the
entertainment theme of the day. Apparently clipping my shoes into pedals is now
also an issue and I had struggled to actually clip in what felt like forever!
Once I got that out of the way, the show didn’t stop! I was trying to get my
potatoes that were carefully taped onto my handle bars to my pockets. The plan
I had carefully rehearsed over and over in my head didn’t work at ALL, and I
spent the first mile losing the wrestling match! Potatoes: 2, Jana – 0. After few minutes of quality swerving all
over the road, and almost knocking over the race photographer, I made a comeback
and while one potato went into the back pocket, the other straight into my bra
and soon my belly. Probably not very
aerodynamic, but easily accessible! The first loop was quite uneventful and
just like I remembered this course being from last year. It’s flat and fast
although not as fast as one may think looking at the profile. Great roads but
with enough turns (most of which are right hand turns at which I suck unless I
come to a near dead stop), and false flats to keep you honest and break up the
rhythm. I kept looking for carrots to chase and found one! There was a guy that
absolutely flew by me maybe around mile 10 or so, and from that point on he
became my carrot. My goal was to just keep him in my sights which I did for a
while, but I eventually lost him most likely due to my inability to make quick
right hand turns which there was no shortage of especially in the first few miles
of each loop.
Beginning of loop 2
I was having a descent
ride and my legs felt good, but my watts were hovering just a little below
where I really wanted to be. I couldn’t quite reach that “magic” number. With about 10 miles left, I caught up to few
men who seemed to be on a fun little group ride. I knew as I was getting closer
that they wouldn’t just let me go by, and I was right. I spent the last 10
miles trying to figure out what the fastest way to get to T2 would be without
burning every single one of my matches and my level of frustration kept growing
when every one of my attempts at breaking away was squashed almost immediately.
I eventually let go of my frustration, established
legal distance, sat up, and rode all the way to T2. I had my focus set on the
run.
T2: 1:44
I rolled into T2 behind one of my “friends” that I made on
the bike, ready to run! Bike racked, socks on, and off I went.
THE RUN: 1:32:10
Of course all 3 of my bike friends took off and left me in
the dust, which didn’t sit well with me at all. Not to worry, I eventually got
2 out of 3 of them back, but I struggled through this one. My legs felt great,
but I couldn’t breathe. I wasn’t hot, but I simply couldn’t get any air. I felt
like I was breathing through a very small straw for pretty much the entire 13.1
miles and it became apparent that my run goal time was not going to
happen. As much as I wanted to just roll
up into a ball on the side of the road and cry in exchange for some oxygen, I
fought. I kept trying to pick up the pace, but every time I did, or the road
went even slightly up, I was frantically searching for air that wasn’t there.
Given the situation, I continued to move as best as I could. I knew I had to keep moving because both
Carolyn and Amanda were most likely coming after me and they can both run! I
had no idea how far behind me either one of them were until about mile 9 when
Jorge told me (thankfully he told me the truth this time instead of lies which
he has been known to do, to have me hopefully find the extra gear), but until
then I made up in my mind that they were most likely running together which
meant they were running super duper fast, and if I didn’t keep moving, I was
going to get caught which wasn’t an option. I also knew that given my run
training, I could hold my own against both of these speedsters, but I just wasn’t
ready for my sudden inability to breathe.
Sucking air from mile 1
Total Time: 4:37:24
Although, I didn't have the run I was hoping for, I ended up
defending my title from last year, going 7 minutes faster, with most of the
improvement coming from my swim, and run, but also improving my bike time, and setting a new 70.3 PR in process.
Carolyn wasn’t too far behind and we went 1,2! You can read her RR
here, and you better watch out for this girl, because she will run you down!
Now that the cob webs are off, I am walking away from this
race with lots of positives and also things to work on as I continue to work towards the September/October WC double.
Huge thank you goes out to all my supporters near or far, E3training and coaches Jorge and Karen, and of course SunMultisport for putting
on a top notch race! Can’t forget
my awesome sponsors: Landry’s Bicycles,
PowerBar for keeping me fueled on race day, Beet-It for giving me that
extra edge when it counts the most, EC3D for keeping my mega legs happy at all times whether it be pre
or post race, Castelli for almost making me forget I was wearing a kit on
race day, and Race-Pak for one of the coolest prizes ever!
Happy racing and training to all! It’s time to do more work!
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