I really can't think of a better artist to portray this race report than with some Ozzy - from soup to nuts, this whole race was literally going off the rails "like a crazy train". The fact that 2019 has been themed mostly by addressing my train wreck tendencies on the bike makes this even more perfect of a post.
On to the real story of Finger Lakes. I signed up for the race about 3 weeks pre race, thinking it would be a great tune up for Barrelman, which was two weeks out from the race. Time to test my kit, nutrition, bike, new goggles and race mental skill set a few weeks prior to go into the "A" race ready to go! (More on that whole "A race" later). In the 3 weeks post sign up, everything that could go wrong, would. First we learned that the 25 mile bike course form 2017 that was switched to 19 miles in 2018 would remain 19 miles for 2019 (um, without the construction of 2017). Lame. I wanted a full Oly, even though the shortened bike was probably to my benefit. But ok.
I set the crazy goal of going under an hour for the bike course, which for 850 ft elevation gain seemed a stretch, but doable (my coach did not concur and set the bar at 1:03-1:05. Who was victorious? Read on). Then my buddy Matt decided to not race, due to his foot and school commitments. Lame. One family member down. The Banter opted for the Sprint, as did Greg. Bruce (new training buddy, courtesy of the Outlaw) and the Outlaw opted for the Oly, like me (though they could take a nap in the space between their finishes and mine, but no mind. They are both racing Barrelman with me in a few weeks and I fully expect a few piggy back rides. Ahem). 2 days pre race, we were informed that the blue green algae in Canandaigua Lake was unsafely high and that the tri would now be a duathlon - a one mile run, 19 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run. WTF. You would expect the swimmers of the group (um, all of them) would be most offended by this change - and they were. But I was a close second, as I knew a few of the women racing were not strong swimmers and that I could likely best them in the water. (Who am I, thinking like a swimmer here? I know, I was shocked, too). Oh well. much like the shortened bike, what can you do but give it hell. I set a soft goal of coming in under 2 hours - 8 minute run, 1 hour bike, 48 minute 10k and whatever the hell transition brought me.
The day before the race my buddy Bruce invited me to do a 100 mile ride with him, which I wisely declined. He then asked if we could do a 10 mile cool down post race, which seemed like a fantastic compromise. (Don't tell my coach.) (Uhhh, never mind. he knows. And yes, I paid for it. He is a smarter person than me).
Where were we? Right, pre race. We had an uneventful night Saturday and headed out to Canandaigua with little fanfare race morning. Until I pulled out my USAT card at check in....and a Dunkin gift card. OMFG. I forgot my ID. In years of racing, I have never done this. The woman at check in asked if anyone could verify my existence, and literally called the RD to confirm I wasn't some crazy banditting girl nuts enough to wake up at 5am and steal Rae Glaser's identity (please, take it. All yours). (I jest. She did her job and did it well. I am a moron).
I can really only describe transition as a party. We set up quickly without wetsuit crap and hung out with everyone pre race, hitting the potty a few times and just being social. I decided to do a pre race warm up with Mary Eggers, and we did a nice easy mile while catching up and just shaking things out. Ran into on my coach on the way back to transition who yelled out "That's my girl!" (Save it for the race, Banter. But thanks). We also saw the outlaw who reminded us that the race started with a run, so WTF were we doing. (Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate your wisdom, buddy).
Run 1: 7:10 (1.15 miles/6:57 pace)
I went off in wave 2, so before the gun went off, I got some hugs from my teammates and found my coach, who probably had some excellent wisdom that I don't remember (poor guy). My instructions were to keep mile 1 at an easy 7:30-7:45 pace (it kills me that this is "easy pace". I lined myself up close to the front next to Wendy, a Rochester Running Company friend and super runner. The gun went off and I realized really quickly that there were some super talented runners in the field. Wendy and I seemed to be running at a reasonable pace and we were about 8-9 women back. We hit mile 1 in 6:52 and T1 in 7:10. Holy crap. I realized at that point that any lofty ambitions I had of a decent placement were out the window based on who showed up (who we later found out it was the Cornell Tri team....bif!) Again, oh well. Let's hit this crazy train!
Bike: 1:00:36 (18.8 miles, 18.8 mph pace - Take that, Banter!)
I mounted my bike with little fanfare and was off for the ride. I did this course in 2017, and honestly didn't remember much except the tight out and back of transition (TWSS?) The first mile of the bike sucked. I got stuck in a clump of people all going much slower than I wanted to with little room to pass. This finally abated about 1.5 miles in and I let it fly. My whole goal of the bike was to shift and to not kill my legs. My instructions were to hold 170 watts, but my bike computers seem to hate me and malfunction at every single race, so I had speed, time, and no power. WTF. Oh well. Keep going. 4 miles in I heard someone yell out "Arrow"! as the Outlaw passed me, calling me out for not getting my ass into aero. I yelled out "Pineapple!" our team safe word - why, I don;t know. It seemed the thing to do. Maybe I was safe wording aero. Who knows. About mile 5, I finally settled into the bike, shifting well and finally downshifting to ride the descents, which were super fun. We made a tight right turn at mile 9 and HOLY SHIT WHATS THAT HILL. I vaguely remembered my friend Kim, who was doing the sprint, joking how she was glad she didn't have that hill...she wasn't kidding. It was the same hill we ran up for the Can half, and it had to be at least 9-10% grade. Did I get into my small chain ring? No, I did not. I am such an idiot. (Though I did pass several people grinding my gears and somehow got two QOMs on Strava doing so, so....uh....there). The last 9 miles of the bike I tried to spin out, hammer the downhills, and not be a wimp. Coming back into T2 i knew a sub hour would be close, and once again, got stuck in the coned area with little room to pass (I actually thought you weren't supposed to pass. Turned out that what I thought the husband said....wasn't true and you could. Whoops). I pulled into T2 in 1:00:36, faster than my coach's projection (yay!) and :37 slower than I wanted to (yeah, yeah. Arrow. I know). But...it was time to run!
Run: 44:37 (new 10k PR! - 7:22/mi)
I ran out of T2 with a big ass smile on my face, as I usually do. God I love the run! This run course is a two looper, pretty flat and some great chances to see friends on the course. My instructions were to hold a 7:30 pace for the first 5k and let it rip for the second loop. My first mile clocked in at 7:42 and I began to doubt myself - seemed a little slow, but let's settle in and see what happens. I saw my friend Jeremy between mile 1 and 2 and he became my race photographer - thanks buddy! I started having a blast, passing people (sadly, no women - I figured I was in 9th place at this point, as I came in run 1 in 10th and passed one woman on the bike). Mile 2 took forever to come, until I looked down and saw I was 2.7 miles in - somehow I missed the beep. Oops! At this point, my buddy Bruce, who was on lap 2 and I saw at the turn around, was gaining on me, and yelled out "I'm coming for you, Rae!" I yelled out "Dammit Bruce!" and as he passed me, he yelled out "Your racing sucks!" (Well, actually, it was "racing sucks" but my foggy brain misheard him. Good thing. I won't have to kill him now). He veered off to finish, and my mile 3 clocked a 7:23, and the first 5k was a 22:31. I'll take it. I was feeling pretty good at this point, so I amped it up and nailed miles 4 and 5 in a mid 7:20 pace. I started to get really tired here - I had been leapfrogging with one woman and really couldn't muster up enough energy to pass her. She reassured me we weren't in the same age group and it woke me the hell up - if I settled now, I might not even place in my age group. Well, we couldn't have that. I turned on the gas, and saw a few women ahead of me. Nope. I can breathe in .5 miles. I passed one, two, three, four women (said in my best Count voice) and sprinted that beast in, for a 7:02 final mile, and a shiny new PR for a 10k!
My overall finish time of 1:54:22 was good enough for 5th overall woman, behind 3 of those collegiate athletes. I'll take it. Less than a minute separated 5th and 10th place, which means kicking it in the end has merit!!
Post race, Bruce and I did a 4 mile cool down, then hit the awards - we both won our age group and he had a freaking epic race!
....then we went out for another 6 miles. Because he needed to hit 25 hours of training. and because Bruce has horrible ideas. And I like them.
So, for what its worth, Finger Lakes 2019 was a wrap. It was not the race I wanted but I did what I could with the crazy train.
Next up is Barrelman half Ironman this upcoming weekend - its a race that was originally targeted as my A race of the season and the race to go under 6 hours. Well, we know one of those is no longer a goal. Stay tuned for pre race ramblings of an athlete tapering, coming soon to a blog near you!
On to the real story of Finger Lakes. I signed up for the race about 3 weeks pre race, thinking it would be a great tune up for Barrelman, which was two weeks out from the race. Time to test my kit, nutrition, bike, new goggles and race mental skill set a few weeks prior to go into the "A" race ready to go! (More on that whole "A race" later). In the 3 weeks post sign up, everything that could go wrong, would. First we learned that the 25 mile bike course form 2017 that was switched to 19 miles in 2018 would remain 19 miles for 2019 (um, without the construction of 2017). Lame. I wanted a full Oly, even though the shortened bike was probably to my benefit. But ok.
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| Clean bike ready to go! |
The day before the race my buddy Bruce invited me to do a 100 mile ride with him, which I wisely declined. He then asked if we could do a 10 mile cool down post race, which seemed like a fantastic compromise. (Don't tell my coach.) (Uhhh, never mind. he knows. And yes, I paid for it. He is a smarter person than me).
 |
| Hi, my name is Dunkin... |
I can really only describe transition as a party. We set up quickly without wetsuit crap and hung out with everyone pre race, hitting the potty a few times and just being social. I decided to do a pre race warm up with Mary Eggers, and we did a nice easy mile while catching up and just shaking things out. Ran into on my coach on the way back to transition who yelled out "That's my girl!" (Save it for the race, Banter. But thanks). We also saw the outlaw who reminded us that the race started with a run, so WTF were we doing. (Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate your wisdom, buddy).
I went off in wave 2, so before the gun went off, I got some hugs from my teammates and found my coach, who probably had some excellent wisdom that I don't remember (poor guy). My instructions were to keep mile 1 at an easy 7:30-7:45 pace (it kills me that this is "easy pace". I lined myself up close to the front next to Wendy, a Rochester Running Company friend and super runner. The gun went off and I realized really quickly that there were some super talented runners in the field. Wendy and I seemed to be running at a reasonable pace and we were about 8-9 women back. We hit mile 1 in 6:52 and T1 in 7:10. Holy crap. I realized at that point that any lofty ambitions I had of a decent placement were out the window based on who showed up (who we later found out it was the Cornell Tri team....bif!) Again, oh well. Let's hit this crazy train!
Bike: 1:00:36 (18.8 miles, 18.8 mph pace - Take that, Banter!)
I mounted my bike with little fanfare and was off for the ride. I did this course in 2017, and honestly didn't remember much except the tight out and back of transition (TWSS?) The first mile of the bike sucked. I got stuck in a clump of people all going much slower than I wanted to with little room to pass. This finally abated about 1.5 miles in and I let it fly. My whole goal of the bike was to shift and to not kill my legs. My instructions were to hold 170 watts, but my bike computers seem to hate me and malfunction at every single race, so I had speed, time, and no power. WTF. Oh well. Keep going. 4 miles in I heard someone yell out "Arrow"! as the Outlaw passed me, calling me out for not getting my ass into aero. I yelled out "Pineapple!" our team safe word - why, I don;t know. It seemed the thing to do. Maybe I was safe wording aero. Who knows. About mile 5, I finally settled into the bike, shifting well and finally downshifting to ride the descents, which were super fun. We made a tight right turn at mile 9 and HOLY SHIT WHATS THAT HILL. I vaguely remembered my friend Kim, who was doing the sprint, joking how she was glad she didn't have that hill...she wasn't kidding. It was the same hill we ran up for the Can half, and it had to be at least 9-10% grade. Did I get into my small chain ring? No, I did not. I am such an idiot. (Though I did pass several people grinding my gears and somehow got two QOMs on Strava doing so, so....uh....there). The last 9 miles of the bike I tried to spin out, hammer the downhills, and not be a wimp. Coming back into T2 i knew a sub hour would be close, and once again, got stuck in the coned area with little room to pass (I actually thought you weren't supposed to pass. Turned out that what I thought the husband said....wasn't true and you could. Whoops). I pulled into T2 in 1:00:36, faster than my coach's projection (yay!) and :37 slower than I wanted to (yeah, yeah. Arrow. I know). But...it was time to run!
Run: 44:37 (new 10k PR! - 7:22/mi)
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| Post race - Greg, Sue, The Banter, Pants and the Outlaw |
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| AG win! |
....then we went out for another 6 miles. Because he needed to hit 25 hours of training. and because Bruce has horrible ideas. And I like them.
So, for what its worth, Finger Lakes 2019 was a wrap. It was not the race I wanted but I did what I could with the crazy train.
Next up is Barrelman half Ironman this upcoming weekend - its a race that was originally targeted as my A race of the season and the race to go under 6 hours. Well, we know one of those is no longer a goal. Stay tuned for pre race ramblings of an athlete tapering, coming soon to a blog near you!
Banter has coined my nickname as RAT girl.
ReplyDeleteGreat job go get Barrelman