Peasantman 2022: Knocked Out

Time for another fabulous race report!  I know y'all left the last post with some concerns - mainly, what kind of drugs is this woman on (I did tell you) and who allows her to hit a publish button?

Well, guys, you do.  All three of you.  I thank you, for real. (Actually, that last post had 342 readers, which means my SEO is on point - what's being searched for, I'm not sure I really wanna know). But....I digress.  On to our race.  When we last left our slightly out of commission hero, I was whining about poison ivy and crappy bikes - where else could we go but up?  

To Penn Yan, apparently!  My buddy Joe race directs a fun race called "Peasantman" which is right in the heart of the finger lakes and has been going on for ten years - he features the only crack at "Steel" versus Ironman distances - with a standard sprint, and a slightly longer than Olympic, Half and Full - that instead of "Iron" are "Steel".  It's a ridiculously fun looking race that's low key, full of medieval fun, and sadly, has conflicted with my race calendar for the past few years.  Not this year!  I signed up for the Olympic ish - which was a 29.5 mile bike, 6.55 mile run, and mile swim.  Awesome.  I had few expectations of this race except to have fun with it (famous last words?)

The day before the race, I worked on RAT's board stuff (our local tri club had its big race coming up the next weekend and I was on cookie delivery duty with my buddy Mike - two hours of walking around in flip flops in a 90-degree day is perfect race prep, no?) I joked around with Mike that I was blaming these bad decisions for poor race execution and I guess we would see who had the last laugh...

The Outlaw (Ryan) came up for the weekend to race, and we all hung out the night before, which was awesome.  I had a little last minute inspo when browsing Slowtwitch and Tim Hola had posted his Norseman recap, complete with video (no guys, I'm not over it and no, I did not sign up for the lottery (crosses fingers behind my back)).  The video was, of course, epic, and stirred up the racing bug in me - complete with words to live by from the RD of the race quoted as - "Comfort will be waiting for you at the end" and a sweet soundtrack embedded on the  bike portion of the video that I pulled the music out of and ended up blasting Canon's "Knocked Out" a gazillion times on repeat - I'm not sure about the tune but the lyrics really got me revved up - 

Ain't no L's I gotta get it, no callin quits'
Gotta Keep movin' no matter how hard it gets

Oh yeah baby.  Its time to race!

Race day dawned early, as always.  Unfortunately for me, ever since I started on the course of prednisone two weeks ago, I've been unable to sleep for more than 3 hours straight (it's getting so, so old), so when the alarm went off at 4am, I'd been up since 1:30 and wasn't fazed at all.  SMH.  I did what anyone does on race day - shelved the tired, the sore, and blasted some music to get it done.  I felt sort of bad for Ryan and Greg as I was alternating between "My Money don't Jiggle" and "Knocked out" while twirling a bagel and dancing badly around the kitchen.  Seriously.  They might be jointly contemplating my demise and to be honest...I don't blame them.  Somehow, we all made it out of the house on time and arrived in Penn Yan without killing anyone - as the clouds darkened, we looked out the window uneasily and wondered what was in store for us.  

Pre race, I set up transition easily and got right into focused race mode flitted around like the crazy idiot that I am, socializing my face off.  I ran into a ton of friends I haven't seen in awhile, and hung out with a new friend, Joel, who I met at Musselman, who made me my own "She's a 10 but" sign for the course to make me laugh, which was totally on point.  I stole his cupcake cartel hat to wear on the run because I have a history of racing in men's stuff why not try something new on race day?? With twenty minutes or so to go, I decided to pretend to be a triathlete and got in a quick swim warm up when I realized I forgot to turn on my bike computer.  Shit.  I ran up to transition and my saint of a husband hooked me up (that man puts up with so much shit, for real).  Back into the water, where I ran into my buddy Lindsey, my fellow dancing unicorn - we saw a rainbow in the sky and did a small dance hug party in the water as the first raindrops started to fall!

Swim:  1750 yd - 31:53 (1:51/yd)

The swim was a mass start (WHAT- this is still a thing and it was awesome!) but I found my rhythm pretty quickly.  It was a rectangle shaped course, with the turnaround buoys for the Oly colored green to match our swim caps.  I spent a lot of timing wondering if I was off course because they looked distinctly yellow to me....which, I was informed later by my dubious husband....that's what tends to happen when your goggles are tinted.  Seriously....I don't know how I don't fall down more. (Face palm). 

The swim was actually pretty uneventful.  I felt great, there was little contact and I couldn't decide if that meant I was doing well or really crappy.  Turns out I was third woman out of the water, so overall, we were doing just fine.  I exited the water with zero to report other than a great swim where I burned no matches and it was off to dance on the bike!

Bike: 29.75 miles - 1:35:53 (18.5 mph)

I really wasn't sure what to expect here.  My friend Marcus and Greg both thought I was doing the sprint up until the day before, and when I replied that I was in for the Oly, they laughed and told me to prep for the hills.  Uh, ok.  Well, I hadn't done much with hills since Iowa, so this would be interesting. 

 Right out of T1, the rain started coming down, and within ten minutes, it was pouring so hard I could barely see.  Standing water pouring.  Sweet.  I was pedaling down 54A going about 17 and I couldn't see for shit. I had a brief Placid moment, guys - I won't lie.  I wondered if maybe it would be wise to call the race.  That lasted about two seconds, and I reminded myself that that was excellent prep for an A race - where I had expectations.  I wiped off my glasses as best I could, settled into aero, and went with it.  

The first part of the course was super slow - which was a bummer, as the descent into Brachport is usually fast.  We made a right turn at mile 11 and I passed a female athlete at that point.  I finally was able to gain some speed here and was averaging about 21 until mile 13 when I encountered my first....horse and buggy??  What??  I gave them room and made the pass, giggling to myself - this was a new one!  This happened again at mile 17, when I actually had to slow behind 3 buggies with oncoming traffic.  I laughed to myself and thought, well, this is a new excuse for a slow bike split!  I was able to pass after a minute or so and the biggest obstacle for the next five miles was the massive amount of horse poop in the road.  This, again, made me laugh because I am such a #serioustriathlete. Take no shit, am I right??

 About mile 20, the rain picked up again and I felt somewhat badass - I was hitting a descent, going 34 in the rain, and a car passed me - and I didn't even flinch.  Sweet. At this point I started leap frogging with a guy on the bike - he would pass me going uphill and I would pass him going down, which is really weird for me.  The final turn onto 14 hit about mile 23, and this was supposed to be the FAST part of the course - unfortunately, with the headwind and rain, it was not meant to be.  My power meter, which was reading perfectly up until then at about 165-170w, hit a high of 2400 watts, then settled between 480-600 for the next 6 miles.  Going downhill.  In case you don't know what that means, I'm roughly the next Kona (male) world champ.  SCORE!  

The rest of the bike was uneventful, save for mile 24, when, after a decade of trying, I FINALLY peed on my bike.  (Uh, for those of you that aren't triathletes, this is admittedly gross, but a skill).  I was super proud of myself for both this and nailing the final "low gear" descent without flinching, and I headed into T2 with a slower bike split than I wanted but knowing that I did what I could with the day. Also - the bike netted over 1500 ft gain, which was doable but yes - there were hills!

As I sailed into T2 with a big ole grin on my face, Greg was cheering me on, and I proudly proclaimed, "I passed four buggies AND I PEED MYSELF!"  Oh...he was recording.  Whoops.  He told me to pull my shit together and get out on the run, which I happily did!

Run: 6.55 miles - 48:32 (7:25 pace)

This run, like the bike, was a bit longer than a standard Olypmic.  We were routed out of T2, where, of course, the rain had stopped and it was humid as shit.  We ran the first mile or so on uneven sidewalk to
avoid bikers, which was honestly a PITA, but everyone had to do it.  As we spit out onto the main road, I saw my biker friend and passed him, telling him to leapfrog me!  He laughed at told me he was too old to catch me, but that I was pretty cute and he wished he could.  LOL.  (I met him later and he was pretty awesome, even if he hit on me in spandex - I love our little community).  The first half of the run was great, I was all smiles, and had plenty of boost from people watching who yelled out how great and strong I looked.  I was averaging 7:30 pace, which seemed a bit fast for me but hey, I'll take it.  I wasn't sure what place I was in, as I had passed some people on the bike and had no clue if there was still a woman in front of me.  As I counted the men off I saw three ahead of me and no women.  Wait, WHAT.  I was 4th??  Hit the turnaround in 24:30 and headed back - and after a minute I saw second place female behind me.  So, okay, two minutes back.  We have shit to do. Because....who knew what pace this woman was running?? Was she gonna catch me?  Oh hell no, not if I could help it. 

I slowed for a few seconds to down a gel and get my breathing calmed at the next hill, then hit the gas.  I passed one dude, and my game face came on.  Miles 4 and 5 clicked by between 7:15-7:20. I smiled as people cheered me on but was completely in the zone, as "Knocked Out" played over in my brain - 

When I'm focused I'm dangerous
Aint no limit till I tank
I'm runnin' on fumes, the opposition dont amaze 

As I hit mile 6, I was completely in the hurt locker.  I reminded myself that comfort would be there for me at the end - and that was NOT now.  With a half mile to go, I gave it my all, gritted my teeth, and finished strong with a sub seven minute last .55 mile to go.  

As I crossed the finish, all my friends cheered me on and affirmed that I FREAKING WON the women's race and came in 3rd OVERALL, including the men.  HOLY SHIT! (Also, apparently, I put down five more minutes over second place, winning by seven...that song was some powerful stuff!!)

Post-Race

After I regained some semblance of breathing, it was totally time to party - or at least as much as you can after a near three hour effort!  I was knighted by the queen (this was so cool) and got my winner's plaque (and free entry to next year's race - sweet!).  After I changed, we all grabbed beer from the beer tent and hung out - it took me approximately half a beer to achieve tipsy (wait, you're supposed to eat after a race??) and I hung out with Marcus, Maria, Greg, Dave, Jeremy, and my new bad decision friend Joel, who had lots of ideas about my 2023 season (get in line buddy - and uh, yep, I'm in!) It was an epic day and I'm still blown away - I've been racing for seventeen years and have never won a tri - and this year, I've won two!  Crazy stuff.  I have to say, I felt a lot better about Musselman after this race and am ready to get it done for the second half of the season. Once they let me out of the penaly tent, apparently (Yes, I'm a lightweight. I'm totally okay with this).

Up next is The Rochester Triathlon (well, it already happened as the timing of this post is eight days post race - whoops) but for all intents and purposes, at the post race wind down of Peasantman - this was the next dance - a local sprint and Olympic that I helped organize and execute and uh...once again...was running for fun.  Stay tuned as to how that one panned out, and if you're looking for a fun later season race that's affordable and fun - highly recommend Peasantman!