Roc Tri 2023: Take it All

Well hey there!  It seems 2023 is the summer I can really only pull it together to write older than they should be race reports (my bad). So, as standard for this year, here comes your race that happened two weeks ago that I feel is bad karma not to write before I race (again) tomorrow!  Popular question - How do I handle racing so much late summer?  I wish I had a good answer, but its a mix of free entries and bad decision making, which probably defines me in a nutshell.  Whoops.  Without further pre amble, lets talk about the last race on August 26th - the Roc tri!

I have some pretty decent history with this race - our local tri team, RATs (Rochester Area Triathletes) have put this race on since 2011 (ish?)  I used to race it back in the day, then took a hiatus until 2021, when the new, prez, Mike, twisted my arm.  This is a familiar story.  I managed to finagle a win out of 2022's race, which bought my free entry to 2023 for the sprint distance, which happened to be the State Championships.

Cool story, bro.  Enter this year, the year of Ironman (that sounds so much better than the other terms I could assign 2023), when I have zero business entering a Sprint tri, let alone a State Championship.  So, as always, I decided to "race for fun".  (I'm twisted).  A few weeks pre race, Mike texted me asking me if I wanted to be in the open division or the open division.  Like an idiot, I said...open...uh...what's open?  Turns out, it was elite, winner take all division, no AG group awards.  Well that sounds silly.  Count me in!

Race week, of course, was filled with intelligence stupidity.  As I'm in the middle of build, right off of Sunday's Peasantman race, I did a 100 mile ride and 16 mile run.  My coach gave me the day off on the Roc tri race day, which was a much wiser course than I had planned he begrudgingly adjusted when I told him I was a moron.  Oh this poor mean dude. 

I was flyin' solo for this race - so race morning, after what was now considered sleeping in until 4:30, I headed out to play with some of my very best friends! (This was such an amazing 20 minute drive LOL).

Pre Race was filled with the standard shenanigans - watching the sunrise with my amazing friend Bear (it was our one year anniversary - this woman has been just the most wonderful friend to me since I met her last year and is my swim buddy 2-3 mornings a week!), making stupid bets with my friend Joe (which I technically won - pro tip - if you're gonna bet who will have the faster time, make sure you're running the same race LOL) and adhering to Mike D.'s strict transition standards (yep, I thought he was going in for the hug.  Nope, he was forcibly moving me OUT of transition.  My bad.)   My amazing neighbor and run bestie showed up to support me - I LOVE YOU GUYS!.  As usual, I spent the two hours pre race socializing, and taking zero seriousness about the upcoming race.  I'll never change, and I don't want to.

Before I knew it, we were in the swim corral - the women pulling Charlie's Angels poses, and the men laughing at us - and it was TIME TO ROC!

Swim: 14:25 - 1:45/100

The swim was in Lake Ontario, and parallel to the shore, out and back.  It was an in water start - and so the men and women open all headed out to wait for the gun.  We joked about the waves (they were decent) and our sprinting prowess, or lack thereof, as a few of us were focused on long course.  My friend Jamie compared me to Taylor Knibb with my awkwardness prowess at all distances - and god love that man, he's a good liar, but that stuck with me during the race and made me smile!  

The gun sounded - and we were OFF!  This was actually a pretty rough swim, and I was really glad I knew how to bilaterally breathe - the shape of the swim meant breathing to the right on the way out was breathing into a wave, which was rough.  I swam consistently, albeit slowly (my friend Darren swears he walked by me once, which is probably accurate. Ouch).  Regardless, I burned no matches during the swim, and was out of the water and into T2 in fourteen minutes, good for second woman (WHAT) - my neighbor yelled out my placement as I so seriously wiggled my butt at her and headed out with my bike!

Bike: 36:02 - 20.2 mi/hr

 The bike course for this race is a two looper for the sprint, with two lollipops, rolling hills, and one decent climb.  I fumbled my bike mount like the idiot I am perfected my flying mount, and was off!  My primary competition (and the most amazing, sweet woman, so you can't hate) Bethany passed me a mile in, and I had to remind myself that this race was for FUN and I was not to do idiotic things until the run.  I love this bike course - you can see everyone on it, and I biked consistently and at tempo pace, waving and having a great time - probably not the red lining you are supposed to do in a race, but screw it.  My bike, however, was not pleased with me - its been acting up again lately (I suspect the poor guy is just tired) so I struggled with shifting a lot, which was not ideal.  However, as I always say, in a race you see problems and handle them as best you can.  The bike had a few gears that it "preferred" (e.g. did not make protest sounds in) so I stuck with those, focused on consistent effort, and was back into T2 before i knew it!  My split was about 2 minutes slower than 2022, which was disappointing, but I understood it - I have done almost zero speed in 2023, and that's what that brings!

Run: 22:16 - 7:11/mi

T2 was WILD.  1st, 2nd and 3rd place women were all in T2 at the same time - Abbey, Bethany and myself, and heading out into the run, we were separated by about 100 yards. (I actually ran the whole run with one braid cockeyed out of my cupcke visor - I had zero time in T2 if I wanted to hang!)  NUTS.  I had promised Dave I would be good until mile 2 of the run, and I broke that promise right off the bat.  I knew Bath was a much stronger runner than me, and had zero idea about Abby.  I had resigned myself to not winning this race awhile ago, but again, I remembered my coach's words - you never know what race someone is having ahead of you - and so I made the decision right off the bat to ignore my watch, ignore my pace, ignore my HR, and try to keep these two fasties in my sight as long as possible!

About a mile in, Beth passed Abby, and shortly after, so did I.  I kept my eyes forward and was back about 5 seconds as we headed to the turnaround, and cheered her on (this woman is amazing),  and stayed on her heels.  At mile 2, I made the pass, and tried like hell to hold on.  I had zero idea how fast I  was going, but this hurt like hell, and I literally could hear the breathing behind me, knowing I had no time to consider the hurt I was in.  About mile 2.5, we hit grass to go around transition, and the spectators went wild - this was a crazy women's race!  Beth passed me back, and I had no give, and let her go.  As we hit pavement, I was dying inside - but I knew that the next 3 minutes would pass, regardless of what I did, and dug deep.  At mile 2.9, I passed her back, and gave it absolutely everything I had to hold on, breaking the tape and winning the race by 3. freaking, seconds, for a time of 1:15:37. 

POST RACE

HOLY SHIT.  What just happened??  As I broke the tape (I have never done this before) I had the biggest smile on my face, and then my body reminded me that I just did really stupid shit, and I kept walking to find a private place to die.  My neighbor followed me (I love this woman to pieces), as she was so excited and had zero idea what was coming next - when I promptly hunched over and threw up (I am so classy).  I gave her a thumbs up to let her know I was okay, and once my body calmed down, laughed about my post win shenanigans, knowing that I really freaking left it all out on the course!!

After that, the party started again!  I thanked my amazing neighbors and my run bestie Laura for being awesome cheerleaders, caught up with my fellow athletes, and waited for awards.

Oh yeah, and that heavyweight belt we all posed with last year? Well, this year I got my very own.  I'd like to say I will wear this forever, but apparently it was made for 8 year old's.  Well played, Biz :-P

The Roc tri, as always, was a great race and I had an amazing time!  I set a new sprint PR (really, I should learn to race these) and while i walked away with some lessons learned, I am ridiculously happy with the race and have never, ever, been part of such a crazy battle for the win!  On to Finger Lakes tri - our last hometown race before the BIG DANCE in Hawaii!