Keuka Tri 2023: Till Ya Legs Hurt

So, apparently I am the slackiest slacker for race reports post Texas - lets see - uh - 3 weeks ago, I did a lil Olympic local race.  Whoops.  I'm fully aware that most of you use this as a mechanism for insomnia, but for the sake of shits and giggles, I like telling stories anyways :) Let's roll!

The Keuka Lake Tri is an awesome local race located in Penn Yan, about an hour away.  It was a mainstay for us back in the beginning days, but the last time i raced it was 2019  - and the last time I did the Oly was prep for Ironman Lake Placid 2018.  Seems like a lifetime ago - and it basically was!

New management took over the race last year - my buddy Joe, who also runs Peasantman, and was clearly out for the lease on Keuka Lake - which is fine by me!  He asked me to be part of his "First Knight" racing team as a nod to his medieval theme, and I was so down to do it!  Put me in a kit and direct me toward your start line - I can't promise anything serious but I will sure have fun and smile the whole way!

Pre Race was pretty uneventful - I helped prep the day before, then Greg and i got up at o dark thirty to travel to the race.  Typical me, I set up shop then threw a party, finding all my like minded crazy people and giving out hugs, high fives and celebrating like the party it was.  Oh we were here to race?  My bad.  I'll never learn or change, and am totally fine with that.  I got to hang out with a few of my awesome athletes, my coach (who keeps trying to keep my eye on the prize, god help him), my old training buddies, and a few new people!  A few girls caught up with me to say hello and thank them for helping them through their first tri back in 2021, which is always so cool to hear - we are such a fun family as triathletes and when people have a good time and good experience and come back for more, it makes me smile!

I waited for the swim start with my friend Blair, who is part of Team USA and sick fast.  She's also ridiculously nice, so any evil plotting I have in mind is moot - I want to see her kick butt and she does the same for me....she just happens to kick it a little faster lol.  I had few expectations for this race - I wanted to give it my all, but really haven't done much with speed since Texas, and was cognizant of that.  With the water a balmy 58 (BRRR) and almost zero hills under my belt (with a HILLY bike) what could possibly go wrong??

Swim - 1523 yds: 30:14 (1:51/yd)

The swim went off in two waves for the Oly (YAY for no time trial start!) and the women were part of wave two.  The Olympic swim was two loops, and not terribly technical but man was it COLD.  I did the standard - double cap, blew bubbles, etc., but the fact of the matter is, I am not great with cold water.  I have Reynaud's and get cold so quickly, so a chilly swim can kind of mess with me.  Nonetheless, the race conditions were the same for everyone, so you go at it with what you have!  The course was kind of triangular, and there was some decent chop going out, but it evened out after about a third of each loop.  I pulled my Rae special and swam super comfy, and as straight as I could - and mostly alone.  Someday I will find feet.  Today was not that day.  I exited the water in 28 minutes and change, but the run to T1 was pretty long and up some wet stairs where you had to watch it, so the official swim time was just over 30 minutes.  Carry on.

Bike: 25 miles: 1:21:30 (18.5)

The sprint course for Keuka is this wonderful 14 mile out and back, with one climb and some fast sections.  I am an idiot and signed up for the stupid race double the fun.  The Olympic bike starts out much like the sprint, then turns right for a 5 mile uphill portion from miles 10-15 that has about 800 feet of climbing and makes you wish you had hella more gears.  In training for Texas, I rode....very few hills.  And i knew this going in, telling myself that maybe they wouldn't be as bad five years later.  News flash - I am still a moron.  I spun it out the first 10 miles, hovering around 20 mph, then turned right and watched my little bike computer tell me I could run faster (I'm not kidding, guys, there were portions where I was riding 8mph, and see ahead for my run pace LOL).  I played leapfrog with a dude here that would pass me, and then I would spin up and pass him.  After the third time, I asked him if he had done this race before and he said no, so I offered him a pro tip to not blow his load on this section of the course - to spin it easy and then give it hell at the turnaround.  I joked with him that we were not in the same AG and he laughed.  (He found me after the race and thanked me for this - see, not all decisions I make are bad!)  The rest of the bike was uneventful - I made the climb to the turnaround and saw Blair about a zillion miles ahead of me, a few fast bike friends and then as I hit the zoom back, I flew anywhere from 25-35 on the way home (in aero - WEEE!!)  As I hit T2, I laughed at myself, as my avg speed was exactly what it was for Peasantman, in the rain.  Whoops.  Maybe you want to work on some hills and not average Ironman power, Rae?  Good talk, thanks.

Run: 6.23 miles: 45:36 (7:19/mi)

As always, the run is my fave!  I grabbed my water bottle, shucked my tri top and was off!  (Running in a sports bra is just hands down the best, and if the rules allow it, I'm down.)  I had zero idea where I was in the shake up, but was pretty sure I was 4th woman.  The course was tough as we were mixed with the sprint folks, and no one had body marking, so hey, this is what we do.  I saw my old coach heading in from lap one (dude smoked me on the swim and bike, as usual), and a bunch of RATs I danced with.  My athlete and friend Maria was at the turnaround (this was a 2 looper out and back) so I danced and high fived her.  My goal for the run was to be consistent and pick it up if I could - I was averaging about 7:15-7:20 for the first loop and it felt great.  As I hit the second loop one of the spectators commented "You're just gonna run down the field, aren't you?"  And I laughed and said - I'm trying! 

I'll admit, loop 2 was a challenge, but my mantra during the run (and actually, the whole race) is to just have fun and give it my all.  Hit the vollies at the turnaround and danced and high fived and they laughed and said - there she is - smiling again!  Bet your ass I am.  I ran down two women in the second lap that I thought were in the Oly (I was right) and the second pass was with a mile to go, so I hit the gas!!  Passed my crew that did the sprint on the way in, swapped high fives, and ran it in for a time of 2:40 - and a 10k time that was faster than my standalone 10k 3 weeks ago (I am such a triathlete LOL)

Post Race

Post race was just a continuation of the giant party - I came in 2nd female, and since 1st place female won OVERALL, I couldn't be grumpy about it (Go Blair!)  2:40 was about 3 minutes of my Oly PR, which is soft, but since I don't race them that often, I wasn't upset.  We stayed for the awards, caught up with our peoples, and called it a day.

Overall, a decent race - I need to work on Open Water swimming and biking hills and I know this, and I'm cool with it.  Since Texas, I haven't done a crazy amount of focused work, and I'm at peace with it.  When I toe the line at a race, I always try to give it all I've got, but they aren't all A races - and this was not.  It was a Sunday among good friends, doing what we love best - and sometimes, that IS the goal!

Up next - Musselman Half Ironman on July 9.  What's the goal here?  Darned if I know, but we will soon fund out!