Cassadagaman: The Final Countdown

 Did you think I forgot this little gem?  No way!  For posterity's sake, this race report is way out of order, but I'm saving it to align with the race because - well, its my blog  - and the story is best told in some sort of order, as Cassadaga was intended as World's prep.  We already know how that story shook out (next time I should just insert myself in the middle of a tropical storm and call it a day, right?) but hey, this is a fun story to tell, so grab yourself some coffee and lets rock!

Backing up to five weeks ago....

Last year, in the year of no races, I did Cassadagaman as a "what the hell" race.  I signed up 5 days before, had done one long ride, no expectations, and in the midst of trying to out-bad decision one another, the Outlaw and I did the race "for fun".  Cause who doesn't like Placid like elevation gain for the sheer heck of a training day?  Sign me up!  The race was awesome - I certainly didn't have the fitness to race it, but I finished respectably and had a great time.

Fast forward to this year - the year for Ironman Mont Tremblant and Barrelman!  Oh wait- nope- that didn't happen.  With Canada still inaccessible, I signed up for C man again because I wanted to race, dammit.  Then, in June, by the force of who knows the hell what (lower standards, shhh) Ironman decided I was quick enough to represent at World's 70.3, which just happened to be a mere 13 days after the hilly ass half Ironman I had just signed up for. I debated not doing Worlds but as my super intelligent and awesome husband put it "You don't just turn down a World's slot.  You're going". (Damn I knew I married that guy for a reason). 

Smart decisions for Cassadagaman included:  deferral to 2022 (yep, this was totally an option) or Aquabike (again, a totally on the table option).

Since when am I smart?  Not only did I stay registered, I also decided to race a formula 1 du and an Olympic triathlon two weeks beforehand, so Cassadagaman would be the third race in so many weeks with a World 70.3 race less than two weeks later.  Perfect.

Um, so with that in mind (no, my coach wasn't a fan, in case you're still debating his wisdom - keep in mind, he's much smarter than me) I promised to just train the day and NOT race it (unless, of course, I was in a position to podium.  Which, since there was a podium, I was rightfully dubious of).  The day before the race, I headed down to Cassadaga to pick up my packet, drive the bike course (I was a little fuzzy about the hills and looking for some World's assurance, as the Cassadaga bike course was 3700 ft and Worlds was rumored to be 3900 (foreshadow - it was)).  The hills didn't look horrible, but as always, they look much more doable from a car!  Post packet pick up, I headed down to PA, where the Outlaw lives, for a little hang out time - since I barely get to see him, it was a double win to be able to hang out pre race (of course he was racing, too!) and also have lodging closer so I didn't have to get up and drive 2.5 hours in the am!

We played around at open water swim (I got some super, um, helpful tips at getting faster, which is always helpful the day before a race), did a little race stalking, carbed our faces off, and in general, had a great time catching up.  I'd love to say we crashed early, but in a fit of nerves, I think we were still awake at midnight chatting about the race (he had designs to do well - like - really well - whereas I just wanted to finish under 6 hours and possibly beat my old time of 5:55). 

Either way, race morning dawned at o dark thirty, and we were off!  It was actually COLD out, and I was legit worried about the beginning of the bike - with temps in the low fifties, it was ideal running weather but the first ten miles of the bike would be iffy, especially with my sleeveless tri kit.  Welp, I suppose...roll with it!  We got to the race, took care of transition-y stuff, and I got to catch up with some of my local C man faves - Chris, Mindy, Blair, and of course, the whole Ohio tri team!  I was definitely pre race nervous, but my plan was pretty simple - swim easy, bike easy, and run/walk the run - running the flats and walking the hills.  My soft goal was a 5:45 - 37 minute swim, 3:10 bike, and 1:55 run - which would give me a pretty good idea as to what to expect for worlds (spoiler alert - no it wouldn't).

Swim - 35:02/1:50/100yd

Pre swim, I got in the briefest of warm ups then climbed ashore to hang with Joe, a new tri buddy I met at the ROC tri.  I was a frozen mess and despite my best efforts (I really didn't make any) he didn't share his coffee or hoodie with me, so I despondently headed back in the water a few minutes prior to my wave send off.  I was in the water with about 60 other women, mugging for the drone the RD sent off, when the gun sounded - well, lets race!  The swim for this race is held in a wonderful little lake with almost no chop, the only drawback was the last 700yds were in direct sunlight.  I kept the swim super smooth and easy and debated lots of little life topics while enjoying myself immensely.  I made contact a few times but found no feet to draft off, though one gentleman tried to take me down a few times, I'm not easily flappable in the water and swam wide to get around him.  After what seemed like no time at all, I saw the shore and exited the swim in just over 35 minutes, which was not too darn bad for me!

Bike: 3:10/17.5 mph

As I exited T1, I somehow got caught in a little group at the bike mount - I moved over to the side and coolly mounted my bike with the skill set of a highly advanced triathlete got my wet tri shorts caught in the seat of my bike and almost fell over.  Oh WTF.  I unclipped, hiked up my shorts, and was off. The course is a two looper, so I wanted to put out an even effort, and was aiming for 1:35 per loop.  The first five miles of the course were  rollers, then a decent climb, screaming descent, and nice fast riding until mile 10.  I managed part one rather well - oh, it was so nice spinning in aero - and flipped it into the small ring early for the first climb.  I was only paying attention to effort, and the first hill was smooth and manageable.  I again forgot the importance of the descent, but managed it decently, with minimal brake feathering (yep, this is on the list of things to work on for 2022!) and really enjoyed the next 8 miles of flat and downhill, until the next ascent smacked me in the face.  OMG.  I think the combo of the steep climb and the lack of using my legs really was a double whammy and I started to doubt my ability a little bit here - I was in my granny gear and wanted an even easier gear, which I searched for in vain....no dice.  Thankfully, I'm stubborn as hell, so we settled for going about 10 until I crested the hill and resumed actually going somewhere.  This continued basically for the next 7-8 miles, and as I hit the last major hill, I saw some girl bite it on a ridiculously steep section.  

Oh hell.  About a half a mile up, two guys were cheering everyone on and I yelled out (gasping, going 5mph in my granny gear) that there was someone that need help.  They laughed at me and I yelled louder "I'M NOT KIDDING" - they probably thought I was psycho- hope she was ok.  After all that drama, I also finally hit sweet, sweet downhill, and took full advantage.  About mile 20 I saw an Ide jersey zoom by me and yelled out "Go Jeff!" (note - Jeff is my buddy Joe's friend, and has absolutely no idea who I am.  This would change over the next few hours, as it usually does during a race).  I enjoyed the hell out of the next few zoomy miles, with the caveat of one intersection that was actually busy as hell where we had to cross that was unmanned, and I had to stop for (note, this was not normal and post race I cleared it up with the RD, it was a miscommunication, which can happen).  With that bit of fun over, we swung out to the main road where the last 5 miles of the loop were uphill (of course).  At this point, I passed Jeff and yelled out something resembling encouragement, and then we leap frogged for a bit.  I found out this was his first ever tri (he's a badass) and relayed that if he beat me, I would never hear the end of it.  Apparently he was having some equipment issues with his bike, and ended up having to spend some time at special needs to fix it (bummer).  With that little bit of banter done, I finished up loop one in 1:34, right on schedule.  

Loop two was pretty uneventful - same lather, rinse, repeat of loop one, though I swear the hills were bigger (I don't know how the RD does it, but he does!).  At mile 40, I went to power into my big ring and somehow cross chained like a dumbass and locked my chain up.  Spent a few minutes fixing it and cursing, and of course, this was when Jeff zoomed by me again (mission- catch this random person I literally just met an hour ago - and I did on the last uphill, lol).  With that in mind, I hopped back on my bike, hit the gas, and was off! I wrapped up the ride in 3:10, for a pretty perfect even split if you count the time I spent on the side of the road.  Sweet.  While this broke no speed records, I was perfectly happy with it - my average power was 130 watts, which is an easy spin for me, and with 3700 feet elevation gain, this was a total win.

Run: 1:54 (8:40/mile)

Here was the deal with the run.  I promised on everything sacred to me that I WOULD NOT race the run unless I was in a place to podium.  Which, of course, I had no idea if I was or not - I passed a few women on the bike but mostly rode with men (typical).  Either way, my goal was to run comfortably, not race, and walk all the hills.  The first four miles of the course are pretty fast, and I was averaging about an 8:00-8:15 mile.  At the first aid station I was asked if I was a relay, which I found odd, and I replied I was doing the whole thing.  About mile 2, I connected with a dude named Mike, who I ran the next 3 miles with.  I saw my friend Blair, who was in the lead at that point (and like, 4 miles ahead of me) and cheered her on.  At the first turnaround, I lost Mike, who was a bit fast for me, and had counted the women ahead of me - there were 4.  Oh cool!

I thought one of them might be catchable, but I was in a good spot, and had no designs to race for fourth.  I kept up my run/walk for the first major uphill, and joked with every person I possibly could (yes, we all know I throw a party on the course.  No, I'm not changing) The course was super chat friendly, with three out and backs, perfect for me!  At mile 6, a woman flew by me, going super fast uphill, and biffed her water hand off, snapping at the volunteer.  Woah, what the hell.  Bless the volunteer, who chased after her to give her water.  I contemplated trying to catch her for a minute, but hell, no thank you.  I resumed my happy race, seeing both Mike and Jeff at all the turnarounds and cheering them on, yelling (what tired me perceived to be encouragement, anyways) throwing witty remarks out.  Halfway through, I was averaging 8:40s, right on my time goal for 5:45.  I took in nutrition at miles 5 and 10 and with 5k to go, I passed one woman, back in 5th place.  Mile 10 was the last big uphill and I saw another guy and woman killing themselves to get up it.  I implemented my run/walk, and as I crested the hill, I passed the dude, and on the other side, the woman.  

I yelled out encouragement and she yelled back "I'm dying, you look great!".  So...4th place?  Well now.  That's pretty cool.  At this point I knew the first two women were way ahead of me, and I had no idea where the grumpy woman from mile 6 was, but hey, with less than 2 miles to go, I would be darned if the woman I just passed was gonna catch me.  

I passed mile 11 in 1:38, and picked it up for the next mile to hit an 8:00 pace for the mile.  The same volunteer that saw me on the way out yelled out "You go girl, you look better at mile 12 than 1!" and I grinned and tossed back a joke.  I felt amazing.  I kept it up, and about mile 12.5 I saw the same dude I had been running with, Mike, and passed him easily, yelling out encouragement, and he laughed and replied something about wisely saving my energy, as I grinned and pushed the pace down to 7:30s.  And OMG, I saw her.  Mile 6 lady.  Could I?  I stepped up the gas a bit more and with a quarter mile to go, zoomed past her as she yelled out "Oh FUCK!" (I kept my game face on, guys, but I probably smiled a little bit).  With that done, I zoomed into the finishers chute for a time of 5:44, a sub 7:00 final .2 mile segment, and a grin all over my face.

Post Race

So - I *thought* I came in 3rd female, which blew my little mind, with the concept of the podium AND awards ceremony.  I was wrong.  I came in SECOND WOMAN!  The other woman I saw was part of a relay, and the only female that beat me was Blair, by 28 minutes, and lets be real, she's practically a pro, so I was pretty tickled pink.  Post race I hung out with Joe, who put up with my smelly butt and made decent amounts of fun at me (he fits right in) and we waited for Jeff to finish, which he did in stellar fashion!  We then connected with the Outlaw, WHO WON THE RACE (go Ryan!) and got food and....well...ya know.

We did the thing.

                             Check out that gorgeous podium, folks.  Holy cats. It freaking happened.

What a race.  As always, it brought a great time, plenty of smiles, laughter, and a real home town small race awesome personal touch.  And with that, I was off and back to the mart tapering for 70.3....worlds!  

Just kidding.  I totally did a bandit Sprint tri the next day.

When I will I ever learn (never). 

Rochester Triathlon 2021: Party in the USA

 Another day, another race report, right?  I suppose that's what happens when I decide four races in five weeks is smart...well, maybe four (stay tuned, kids!).  Ahem, sorry.  At last count we were at race #2 of 4 - the Rochester triathlon!  This is, without a doubt, the hometown race these days.  I was SUPPOSED to be living it up in Mt Tremblant doin the 140.6 thing, but since Canada is still no Bueno, the race was cancelled AGAIN and I found myself nicely free to support the Rochester Area Triathletes (RATs if you will) in their home race!

Years ago (actually, over a decade ago) Greg and I joined the RATs and partook in their shenanigans (Greg even designed the kit!) but for a few reasons, we stepped back from the team.  Enter the new prez, Mike Smith, who is full of ideas, enthusiasm and general shenanigans.  Take my money.  He's grown the club exponentially, has a welcome, fun, atmosphere, so we said - why not - lets support local.  While we haven't had the opportunity to do a lot of team stuff, its always nice to be part of thr tri community and support the team!

Going into the tri, I was amped to see what I could do with  his course - I raced the inaugural Roc tri back in 2012, so this was its tenth year - and the bike course is quite a bit different.  Its four loops (sprint does 2) so definitely some of the "same time next year" feel, but closed to traffic with half the course on new, fast roads.  Huzzah!  The swim is about standard - Lake Ontario, two loops, nothing crazy.  I hate two loops but it makes sense when you're putting on two races.  And the run was a nice out and back with one monster hill and two kick your butt hills I forgot about until mid race (spoiler alert).  All in all, a good race.  My Olympic PR was 2:38 and I was dying to get that number closer to 2:29 - lets do the thing!

Race week I felt pretty good, considering I had just raced the weekend before.  My coach had me on the no mercy plan (mutually agreed upon, since Worlds 70.3 on September 18th is my goal race) so I had a normal volume week leading up to the race.  Greg was racing the sprint and had designs to PR (totally doable) and I talked the Outlaw into the race (it wasn't tough).  We all hung out the night before and got ready to rumble the next day!

Race morning dawned not so early for us at 5am (what is this sleeping in!) and we were ready to go.  Oddly enough, I never felt nervous, which has some of my friends rolling their eyes, but I always have some pre race butterflies.  We headed out and were in transition 20 minutes later (yess for the local race!).  For lack of a better word, transition was a party.  I think I've finally aspired to my inner Matt Kellman, who I idolized years ago - he is an icon in the Roc, and everyone knows him. (Greg and I even got a signature selfie with him #starstruck.

 Somehow, through joking on Facebook, random workout meet ups, or general notorious behavior, it seemed everyone knew me at this race - including people I had no idea who they were (insert inner ego - though I'm pretty sure its not for amazing reasons!!)  I met Laura, a fellow racer who is my Facebook bestie (she is, she freaking rocks and I love her more now that I know her), Joe, the dude that body marked me that I have chatted with on Strava (apparently I was nervous because I had no idea who he was until post race when he busted me - fair, Joe, fair) Blair, the girl who routinely smokes me and I can't even be mad because she's talented AND nice as hell, New triathletes mother and daughter Cheryl and Joanna (15!) who were super nervous and next to me in transition - I helped them out with things they needed and a ton of things I'm sure they didn't need) and my favorites - Marcus and Ken, my Worlds buddies, Joe Tally (a super bike and runner who wishes he could beat me), and so many others.  I'll admit I played social butterfly pre race and paid little attention to - ya know - the business of racing.  With a few minutes left, we headed down to the beach and got ready to rock - when Greg informed me my Uncle was there!  I ran up the hill to give him a squeeze and barely made it back before my wave went off (I'm so hard core).

swim: 31:54 (1:51/100)

This must be the year when I can't pull a fast swim out to save my soul.  The two loop course was a little bit annoying - there was a ton of shallow unswimmable water, so we ran through the water for a good minute before you could dolphin dive (and again for the second loop).  Not much to say about any of it - it was comfortable, which is probably the problem - I need to learn to race the swim!  In the second loop, my HRM, which is an armband, fell off, and I had to dive a bit to grab it - Eff.  That's never happened before.  I stuffed it in my trikit and ditched it in T1 - sorry coach! There were 3 buoys, which made sighting a little difficult (I'm so spoiled with Ironman's buoy every 100m), but aside from that, nothing to report.  I exited the water just under 32 minutes, probably the crappiest swim time wise I've had in an Oly since 2018, but it is what it is.  (I later found out I was 3rd woman out of the water - so - apparently not that crappy!) And - new off season goals!

Bike: 1:14:46 (19.95 mph)

And onto the bike!  It still makes me smile that I can now say this with a big smile on my face!  I was ready to rock this - until I realized I never turned ANY electronics on at all - no bike computer, no varia.  Whoops.  I booted them up super quick in T1 and was off.  It was pouring at that point (where did this come from??) so I took off with a little caution then settled in.  The course was sort of a lollipop- 1 mile out, tight turnaround, then 3 miles back, a loop through some shitty hilly road, a fun downhill, then do it 3 more times.  The first loop was pretty uneventful and I got the lay of the land - the turnaround sucked in the rain, but other than that, not too bad.  During loop two I got passed by the Outlaw (that didn't take long) who yelled out "Hold Your Line"  (dick - I was) and I replied with something smart ass (turns out later he was yelling out something totally different and highly inappropriate regarding my race goals, which, pity, that would have made me laugh).  Coming into the hilly portion, I was rounding a curve and heading for the descent when I saw a rider on the side of the road who crashed - I always hate this and yell out to see if they are okay.  Getting closer - I recognized the kit - it was Greg.  SHIT.  I asked him if he was okay and slowed - he yelled to keep going - gah - so I did.  (Turns out he hit a big pothole going 24 when he dodged to avoid a bike that swerved in front of him - he was okay except for some road rash and finished the race with a near AG placement - he is such a badass!).  

Loops 3 and 4 were pretty uneventful except for the fact that with so many people on the course, passing was tough - and in some cases, impossible.  My speed took a hit as I slowed to wait for people to make the turn arounds or find clear road.  I called out on your left a zillion times (which many people thanked me for) and almost got plowed over by a dude that passed me unannounced with about an inch to spare.  He yelled out something unpleasant and I yelled back "Call your pass, dude!".  Idiot.  I wouldn't have minded but riding far to the right - no reason for that kind of pass.  I later passed him on the hills and bit back a snarky response - not worth it.  I saw my coach on loop 3 and in general felt pretty legit riding in aero in the rain (I later found out he was more impressed with my shifting - hey, Ill take what I can get!).  Of course, without reason my bike computer died at mile 9, so clearly the shifting was going to be the thing - data wasn't.  Whoops.  (I have no idea what happened, it booted up later just fine.  Technology was not my friend today).

Off the bike with little drama (thank goodness - and now it was time to run!)

Run: 48:14 (7:45 mi)

After FINALLY remembering how to run at mini mussel, I was excited for this 10k.  I realized that I wouldn't PR - which was fine - but if I could pull out a sub 50 minute 10k, I would shake out around 2:45 (clearly I have no math skills).  I also had absolutely no idea where I was in the race, but with my shitty swim and so so bike, I knew I wasn't in placement overall, so I decided to just have fun.  My instructions were to run mile 1 by feel, miles 2-3 and controlled in the hills, then zoom home.  Okey doke.  I hit mile 1 in 7:45 and knew it was not going to be a fast day.  Alright - they aren't all fast!  I saw my coach and gave him a big grin, then immediately put on serious face (he hates it when I smile during a run in a race - clearly I should be working harder (I don't listen to that, mostly)).  I couldn't keep the face and started laughing, and  a dude across the way yelled out - keep that smile on, you look great!  And I heard my coach mutter something I won't repeat.  I flipped him the bird (truly, I do love that man) and was on my way.  The hill at mile 2 wasn't bad - 8:12 and heading into the neighborhood stretch I saw Blair heading it in for the win - that girl is smokin!  Through the neighborhood, I got thoroughly twisted with the out and backs.  I saw another woman ahead of me that I knew and cheered her on to not let me catch her (I wasn't gonna - she runs six minute miles) and then a few other women.  I roughly guessed I was in 5th or 6th place (which was oddly disappointing - who am I???) then realized you can't win em all - so I focused on just smiling away!  with a mile to go, I saw my coach again - who yelled out some shirtless dude is trying to pass you - you might like that!  and I cracked up.  Turns out it was Ben who I leapfrogged with at Summer Sizzler - I'm a better biker and he also runs six minute miles and had been trying to catch me since I passed him on the bike.  We laughed and I chased him to the finish for a 48:14 - not my best, but certainly not bad for the humid day and course!

Post Race

Apparently my shitty math was - shitty - and I finished with a time of 2:37, good for a whopping 12 second PR.  For the course layout and conditions, I was super happy with that.  I immediately connected with Greg, who was alive and well, and the Outlaw, who finished second overall despite feeling like garbage, and commenced the post race hangout!  Somehow, all oblivenessness aside, I managed to place third overall for the ladies, which blew my mind because I honestly had no idea I was even in the race.  The two women that beat me are both SMOKIN' fast so I was really pleased with the effort - and we acted out our silly shenanigans with the fun race belt Mike got for the winners! (Lest anyone get concerned - there was NO podium, but an awards ceremony, so the streak is NOT broken (Mike I love you - please don't get a podium next year, it'll kill my chances)

The coolest part about all of this is that I finally have some awesome overall Female awardage - for every race I've placed in there was an engraving error or nothing on the award indicating placement - but now I have legit swag! (This found a spot on my wall immediately)

All is all, it was a great race.  Did I go my fastes?  Nope, probably not.  That bugged me for about five minutes before I realized I had a fanastic time at the "party" - with all my old friends and new friends - at the party in the Roc!  So, guys, this is for you - thank you for making the tri community so much darn fun and I'm so grateful to be able to get out and play with all of you for 3 hours on a weekend!

Ok, I lied. While the race was fun, I can only dedicate it to one person.  And that is.....

Joe Tally.  After years of trying, he finally beat me in a race.  Congrats Joe, you're the GOAT.  And next time, it's on 😂😂

Next up - Cassadagaman Half Ironman September 4th!  Where the hills are alive (and I hear there's music)

Summer Sizzler 2021: No Diggity

The theme of this blog seems to be a little lopsided, not gonna lie.  Apparently in 2021 I'm good for talking about racing....training...and racing.  Sigh.  Such is life.  I have so many things I want to chat about and I'm pretty fabulous at creating post ideas in my head during runs and then not following through with them - anyone relate to the lack of follow through in 2021?  Just me?  Good.  K.  Thanks.

Since we last left our intrepid hero (still me, in case you forgot) five weeks ago, I managed to get a lovely tooth infection, get ridiculously sick from the antibiotics, lose two weeks of training, and ten pounds to boot.  Hey look ma, I hit race weight!  Seriously, the rest of July sucked.  And coming into August, I have on tap a formula one tri (this post) an Olympic (this upcoming weekend) and two half ironman's in a five week span.  So - thank goodness that mess is behind me!  

Going into Summer sizzler this past Saturday, I was of the mind that "its gonna be what its gonna be", which was probably smart. Greg and I signed up for this race for a few reasons - first of all, encouragement of bad decision making (thanks Marcus), a free race weekend (we could totally race in Buffalo then host a family picnic at our house 4 hours later, right?) and a cool format - F1 - which was a 400m swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run, 400m swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run.  How fun!  We cashed in, did a few run swims to play, and prepped our ungodly 3am wake up time for Saturday morning,

Race morning is usually pretty straightforward - Greg and I have been racing for sixteen years, so we each have our own chores and can go from alarm to out the door in 30 minutes.  This time, post shower, I was prepping breakfast when Greg stumbled on one of my favorite memes and made mention of the "diggity scale":

Because its totally normal for 3am, I grabbed my phone and danced around to "No Diggity" with my coffee, while debating the concept of diggity with the huz - since Backstreet equates "No Diggity" with "No Doubt" - we decided that diggity was NOT in fact a good thing.  Urban dictionary confirmed this, thank god. Waking up at 3am?  A fair amount of diggity.  Waking up to race?  No diggity!  (I like the way we work it).

With that philosophy in place, we were set for whatever the day brought, and out the door by 3:30.  The drive to Buffalo was pretty uneventful, and we got to the race site about 5:15.  First up on tap - checking in.  We were informed the tri had turned into a du because of the amount of algae in the water.  New format - 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run.  Lame.  While the run is my forte, we were both looking forward to the F1 format and a swim after a run.  But, you roll with it.  Diggity scale - a fair amount of diggity.

Transition set up was pretty simple bow that it was a du - run stuff on, bike stuff prepped, no sweat.  We set up quickly and went off to find a bathroom.  There were no port a potties, but a bathhouse that apparently had bathrooms 1/4 a mile away.  It was locked.  So was the second bathroom.  WTF.  Now, I'm not high maintenance, but pre race...I need to potty.  FAIL.  I ended up using some bushes (thankfully avoided the poison ivy, but got killed by bugs) and the bathroom person didn't show up to unlock them until 30 minutes pre race.  Diggity scale - an OVERWHELMING surplus of diggity!

Despite the diggitiness of the morning, I was strangely calm.  My goal for the day was a 1:55 (or anything under 2 hours) - I figured an hour for the bike, 50 minutes for the runs, and then a minute or so for each transition.  I caught up with some buddies of mine, peed when the bathrooms opened, did a quick warm up jog, and headed off to the start.  If mini mussel taught me anything, its that seeding is important.  The start was a time trial - 2 athletes every 5 seconds.  I lined up way in the back of the F1 starters - Ill be darned if I was going to race for the podium and the woman behind me started later.  So, Ill start at the back of the race!  Done.

Run #1: 13:11 (7:06/mi)

My race instructions for the run were to take the first two at tempo pace.  What's tempo pace?  I don't know.  I get notoriously nervous whenever a pace shows up in my race plan that seems scary, so I didn't ask.  And did the ever adult "la la la i cant hear you" when my coach tried to tell me.  (Why does this man deal with me.  I don't know).  I decided to go out at comfortably hard pace.  I began passing women right away, keeping myself in check, reminding myself to do my own race (thanks Silver Serpent!).  Passed a few women and hit mile 1 in 7:08.  Whoops.  Probably too fast (I now know tempo is 7:30.  Note that I never hit tempo during this race).  Even if my watch said I was zoomin, I felt good, so I continued the same pace.  On the way back, I increased my cadence, grabbed some water and trotted into T2 with a mile 2 time of 7:04.  And now it was time to bike!  Diggity scale of first run - no diggity!

Bike #1: 28:21 (20.9 mph)

The bike and run course were both easy for dummies like me - go out, turnaround, and head back.  There were some sketchy coned areas the first and last mile but the rest was open, pretty flat road.  I headed out for bike 1 with the idea to see how many women were still ahead of me, and keep it in check.  My goal power was 180-190 and at the turnaround I was at 185 and averaging just under 21. Saw Greg about 2 minutes behind me lookin strong! Sweet.  I counted 4 women ahead of me, and passed them all on the way back.  Did I miss one?  Maybe.  Ill check it out on the run.  Came back to transition feelin good and put on my run stuff for run 2!  Lets do it! Diggity Scale - Hardly any diggity (those cones with the thru traffic both ways made for slight diggity)

Run #2: 13:18 (7:08/mi)

As I headed out for the second run, I reminded myself to keep it in check, and hit the same RPE of comfy hard for run 2.  I saw Marcus running it in strong already almost done with run 2 (he is so speedy!) already in the lead by several minutes.  His lead biker yelled out at me - you're first female!  Wait - what?  I'm what??  In. the. Lead.  OMG.  I took a deep breath and reminded myself AGAIN I still had 1.5 miles and a bike AND a run to go - but - I've never been in the lead before!  OMG.   Took mile 1 in 7:08, and mile 2 in....7:08.  I'm consistent as hell and still...running too fast.  But my body felt good!  Saw Greg on the way back in and he goes OMG you're in first!  I grinned and said...I KNOW! I totally forgot to check out the women behind me and set the goal for bike #2 to do just that.  Diggity Scale - STILL NO DIGGITY

Bike #2: 28:38 (20.7 mph)

Goal of second bike - keep in check first 5 miles.  Check out competition.  Push harder second five miles if needed.  Check.  On the way out, I counted men.  There was Marcus, still killin it in 1st, then I saw three dudes behind him.  Wait...I'm in fourth place overall???  OMG.  (Note, this was a small race - there were only 60 people - but still!).  At the turnaround, I dialed it up a bit, and saw second place woman about a minute behind, and third place about two minutes.  Lets dance, baby.  I hit the gas and my second five miles averaged 21.3 - for an overall bike average of 20.7, NP 184 - spot on target. Diggity level - nope.  Still none.

Run #3: 13:29 (7:05/mi)

On my way out of T5, I was passed by my one and only person during the race - a dude averaging 6:20 pace - I wisely let him go.  Goal here was to keep my lead and hit the gas in the last mile with all I had.  Mile 1- 7:11.  On the way back in I saw my lead was up to about 2 minutes.  Whatever.  I'm goin'!  Saw Greg with a half mile to go and I got super emotional as he gave me a high five and the biggest grin...and I hit the gas.  Mile 2 in 6:57, for a total finish time of 1:41:03, first overall woman, 6th overall finisher, and a good 15 minutes ahead of my goal!

DIGGITY LEVEL - LESS THAN NO DIGGITY.  ALL THINGS ANTI DIGGITY

No doubt, baby.

Post Race I hung out with Marcus, watched the rest of my friends finish, and we collected our awards,  There was a DIY podium and no awards ceremony, which is about par for the course for me - I've never hit the overall podium where there was a ceremony and podium (seriously, people, 0/5 - there is a fair amount of diggity here!).  Even though I wasn't gonna get the cool full podium, Marcus and I posed as the champs - the whole thing was surreal for me and I refused to believe it until they posted the results - yep, I won by 3 minutes.  Holy hell.  I like the way I worked it.  No diggity, baby. 

We so gangsta.  

What's next?  Well, I don't know!  From my standpoint, the race was perfectly executed and I couldn't have asked for more - I finished 6th behind three super fast men and the fact that I freaking WON a race is still surreal to me five days later!  Next race is the Roc tri at Durand on Saturday, August 21 - there is, in fact, a podium and awards ceremony, so no worries.  I have no designs to do well 😂 (Hey Mike, can you cancel that podium??)

Mini Mussel 2021- The Most Wonderful Thing About Tiggers

 And look at that, we have another race to report on!  Woah.  Is life  almost...normal again?  Whatever that is?  I suppose I'll leave that theoretical up for grabs, but either way, the 4th race of the season - Mini Musselman - went off full force last weekend, and of course, we have stories to tell!

Around Western NY, Musselman is really an iconic race.  It's been around since 2004 or 2005, and I popped my Half Iron distance cherry in 2008 at the race.  It's well known for its quirkiness, humor, excellent local support, and swag.  I've done the half iron distance quite a few times - 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014 and in 2019 with a giant PR - and the mini mussel - which is a sprint - twice - once in 2011 as part of double mussel and once in 2018.

The mini mussel is an in between distance - half mile swim, 18.2 mile bike and 3.1 mile run.  Ironman brand took over the half iron distance in 2020, and since I planned on doing Tremblant that year, I signed up for the mini with Greg.  

2020 happened...blah blah blah.  Here we were in 2021.  After Eagleman, I sort of forgot about this race, and to be really honest with you, went through a rough patch in terms of training.  I had conquered the bike with a crazy good result, but my run was sucking ass and I just wasn't having fun at all.  I failed a bunch of run workouts and got really grumpy with myself about everything - was it high expectations?  Lack of self confidence?  What?

I took some time to figure it out.  Bless my coach, who has the patience of the saint - he sat with me while I processed it and offered nothing but support, wisdom, bad jokes, and whatever I needed at the time.  With his help, I was able to suss it out - it was partially physical (as I adapted to aero, it was a new position that worked some under used muscles - namely my neck and glutes - that had to be strengthened).  As I got used to aero, these muscles developed and made the run easier.  It was partially mental - while I have always wanted to do well at the sport, the new world of overall podiums and World's qualifiers led me to a weird spot of placing way too much stress on myself to perform, and subsequently, wussing out and buckling under the pressure (note this was my self inflicted pressure). Lastly, the group I played with back in 2019 just wasn't the same - we are still close but everyone is in a much different spot due to pandemic, life, and injury - while it was the norm two years ago to go play at triathlon all the time....its a different period.  I spent way too much time thinking about the good ole days and looking backward, not forward.

Well, if naming the problem is a good first step, I was full speed ahead.  On my week of play I did just that - I played with some old friends, new friends, and enjoyed the hell out of every workout I did.  I went into mini mussel with no race plan at all - as a prep, I dyed my hair purple the night before, laid out my race kit, no plans to win, PR (who could at this weird distance) or do antything other than PLAY!

As life would have it, 2021 happens to be my year when shit falls apart before the race (I should stop there- I have four more tris left this year so maybe bad luck comes in 3's and I'm good to go now!) We had another family emergency that left us without child care for the race, but by the  grace of awesome friends and neighbors, we were able to go ahead - I am a lucky person to have such wonderful people in my life!!

Pre Race

Race morning dawned early at the ungodly hour of 3am - seriously - who makes a sprint start at 6:30??  Greg and I ventured out to Geneva, an hour trip, to check in and get ready to rock.  When we got there the venue was set up for the big race the next day - which means 300 bikes were racked in a transition set for 3000.  Yay for long transitions!  We scoped out the lay of the land and determined bike in/out and run in/out, set up shop, then connected with the Banter (who wasn't racing, but deigned to be our awesome photographer and sherpa), the Outlaw (who apparently has um, matured, in the past month and is unrecognizable - and now goes by Fred....or  Bob) and all of the RATs.  Once again, I got a ton of "You must be Rae Glaser!" welcomes, which makes me wonder what the hell people say about me that I'm so notorious feel like a superstar!

Pre race, Greg jumped in the water and tore a massive hole in his wetsuit right at the crotch (insert a "That's what she said" joke).  I forwent the swim warm up as we didn't have much time and lined up at the start, where athletes were let off 3 at a time, every 5 seconds.  I caught up with Kate, a fellow RAT who dusted me at Silver Serpent, and made a few jokes about pulling her on the bike if she pulled me on the run (I know - so weird to even say).  Before I knew it, we were off!

Swim: 13:23 1:40/100m

The swim was a pretty standard triangle shape - the nice thing about IM events is they definitely give you enough buoys to site off of!  For the half mile swim we had 7 buoys.  The water was murky and kind of gross but nothing crazy - at least it was nice and calm.  I swam most of the swim alone, and sighted pretty well save for the last turn coming in which veered off to the left.  I felt really comfortable and probably didn't push it enough, but given the way I set up my first race of the season with an over swim, I felt good about it.  I exited out and began the .3 mile to transition, and heard out of the crowd "You're third!" which was a nice boost - now I knew who I was chasing!

I headed into a really quiet transition and quickly donned my gear (yes, I put my helmet on the right way).  I had a moment of confusion as I debated which side to run out to bike out -- I am so not used to being in the front, so was a little disoriented.  I made a quick choice, went with it, and was off to bike!

Bike: 53:23 20.2/mph

I settled
into the bike pretty quickly, easily averaging 20-21 without much effort at all.  I passed local legend Curt Eggers a few miles in (don't worry, he passed me back at mile 16). The first half of the course seemed pretty easy - I had a little niggle in my left glute that concerned me for my run but I kept reminding myself to stay in the moment I was in and not worry about the run yet.  I put out little effort, reminding myself to save it for the run, but also kept the pace right where I wanted it.  As I remembered, the back half of the course was easier than the front half, and I figured I could average about 21 for the bike.  I was wrong.  We made a turn at mile 8, and had a nice descent (yes I rode in aero!) before a right turn along the lake to head back.  And then the headwinds hit.  Nothing scary, but going 18 with effort and thinking WTF.  This sucks. Well, the back half wasn't as easy this time!  Nothing crazy to write - I adjusted my cadence as necessary, paid little attention to power, went by feel, and finished out the ride.  As I came into T2, I took my shoes off and prepped to flying dismount, then second guessed myself at the last minute and regular dismounted.  Of course, my coach was watching - foiled by an audience!  He yelled out - you're 3rd girl! (This made sense, as I never saw another woman on the bike) and 2nd place is 30 seconds ahead!  Sweet.  LETS GO RUN!

Run: 22:48 7:17/mi

So, uh, here's where my true confessions come in.  I rarely blog about transitions because...I'm rather good at them.  HAH.  Famous last words.  I ran by bike in (thank goodness I've learned to take my shoes off on the bike as running barefoot is so much better!) and ran to rack my bike.  Wrong rack.  Crap.  I ran to the next row, and stared like an idiot looking for my run shoes.  WTF!  Where are they??  Finally a kind volunteer walked over and asked my number.  I looked at him like a total idiot then finally at my wristband.  He pointed out my spot (the NEXT rack over) and I ran my bike in, grabbed my run shoes, and exited T2 - with a time of 1:52.  WTF.  This was a rookie mistake.  And....it would cost me.  

But now was NOT the time to worry about that.  As I ran out of T2, I was smiling and determined to enjoy the run.  I saw my coach talking to Curt and he snapped a pic of me, rocking my run grin.  I then remembered I was a SERIOUS triathlete and dropped the grin, calling out something sassy to him.  I then immediately giggled and put my happy face back on.  I was determined not to look at my watch and run by feel - mile 1 felt effortless and I guessed about an 8:00 pace.  I looked down and 7:28!  Woot!  I thought about my neighbor Kelly and her well wishes before the race - to "run like a bouncing tigger!" Oh man.  And here we go!  

"The most wonderful thing about tiggers...is tiggers are wonderful things! 

 Their tops are made out of rubber!  Their bottoms are made out of springs!"

And you know the rest.  This song followed me for the rest of the race - and aside from the fact that its about 45 seconds long, it was a bouncy (uh trouncy, flouncy, pouncy) melody!  Heading into the turn around I saw Kate about a half mile ahead of me (not catchable) and Mary Eggers about 2 minutes ahead of me (well, maybe?)  when I hit the trek back, I made the rookie? mistake of looking behind me and saw two women about 15 seconds behind me.  Uh, no  I hit the gas.  Mile 2 - 7:21.  Yeah baby.  I was starting to feel it now - the hurt locker, the race, the adrenaline!

The wonderful thing about tiggers

is tiggers are wonderful chaps

they're loaded with vim and vigor!

Lets go!!  Mile 2.5, mile 3....I was almost to Mary and had no idea where the women behind me were but I was taking no chances! (Mile 3 - 7:05).  I passed the Banter/Coach and the Outlaw/Fred/Bob - one yelled out encouragement, the other something snappy and sarcastic (I'll let you decide which) and I gave it all I had!  I just missed passing Mary but held off the 3! women behind me who crossed less than 10 seconds after I did!  What a RACE!!  What a RUN!  I was ready to throw up, and also sp darned happy I was skipping.

Post Race

If we leave our hero here, its such a great ending.  Epic race to the finish - overall 3rd woman behind Mary and Kate is not a bad place to be in!  WOOT!

Uh....except that damned rolling start.  Apparently Mary had a bike penalty, which moved me up to second place.  Then...I found out all 3 women behind me started the swim after me, which moved me down to 5th.  Easy come easy go.  It was a crazy crazy race, and I would have loved to fight it out head to head.  Either way, there was less than 40 seconds between 2nd place and 5th - which - you guessed it - was my transition debacle! I can't believe such a silly mistake cost me, but it did.  I also have to laugh because overall, I was really pleased with this race and wouldn't have changed much - I probably could have biked harder, but I was so happy with my run split, and can't ruminate on my silly transition mistake.

Either way, Ironman places to five out.  Uh....in age groups.  Oddly enough, this race forewent overall placement and only did AG awards - which was weird, but par for the course with my podium luck, am I right?? I came in 2nd in my AG, losing out to first by 6 seconds - (learn to transition, Rae!) - and accepted my award with perfect professionalism and SERIOUS FACE.

Overall, a big success at Musselman - I have things to work on going into my next race, of course - which is either Summer Sizzler or Findley Lake - not sure - but I finally found my way back to smiling and playing triathlon, which is the whole point!

The day after the race, I recovered wisely by helping my buddy do his first century ride ever - I got in 82 miles with him (and he epically finished and went over to a 112 mile ride!) and it was four hours of fun. I  then came home and put on a party for nine 8 year old's.  Just another day in the life, right? :)  

Next up - some race in August.  TBD.  Time to prep for a few hilly half ironman's, including World's (OMG) and mainly - have a hell of a lot of fun along the way!

Level 8 IS GREAT!

We've been on the countdown here.  First it was seven...then seven and a half....then seven and three quarters....then it was a STRONG level seven and now its...LEVEL 8!!  ROb has officially levelled up!

....and I've finally given up on the fact that this kid refuses to stop growing.  It doesn't mean I have to like it, mind you.  But its happening.  And as time marches on, this kid gets cooler and cooler.  This year has been another big one of so many changes - loosing teeth, travelling to playdates solo via bike, a school year that was decidedly abnormal, and tons of fun, quirks, and craziness!  Every year is such a wild ride, and its so awesome to be right in the passenger seat, watching this kid navigate life (he reminds me he's halfway to really driving a car now.  Excuse me while I go have a breakdown.

Alright, I'm back!

 As always, it's a time for this mama to not only look back on the last year, but also to take a trip down memory lane to when Rob was born...One...Two...Three...Four.......five....six......seven...

And here we are, at the GREAT 8!

Size: 57 pounds, 51 inches tall. Right on par for where you should be.  I'm not surprised - you are active as all get out and love riding your bike, swimming and running (I wonder where you get that from??) and you east ALL the things .  Not just fun things like lemon cake and chocolate ice cream, which are your faces, but, like, 6 apples a day dude.  You love apples, bananas, berries, broccoli and all the healthy things too!  You can house up to 4 pieces of pizza and have such a healthy appetite!

Likes: Still a cars fan, but now you love to build them instead.  You LOVE Legos, and can build the 600 piece sets with ease.  You also love your bike (and can ride a half mile away to play with Callen too!)  Swimming, playing laser tag, Roblox, Minecraft, and Mario Kart.  You are an expert at building parkour courses and obstacle racing, and also love to play tag and Uno.  You loved your ninja warrior course and summer soccer, too!

You love your video games and really got into Minecraft this year, and the most recent obsession is Mario Kart and Smash Bros...you have a Mario costume you dress up in and go to town on your Nintendo Switch!

You still love dance parties and can really bust a move, and you're getting into strategic gaming - whether it be in real life or on the X box.  Watching your mind put moves together is just amazing, buddy - I love the way your process and the awesome conclusions you come to!

Dislikes: Bedtime and bugs.  Who likes bedtime?? (Well, Mom does but...uh...) and you hae all things bugs, especially bees.  You've changed your mind about some of last years dislikes - you are getting pretty good at drawing, and you love school now, which is AWESOME.  It's not always perfect, but your 2nd grade teacher, Miss O' Hara, was a godsend, and even though we had some bumpy times, you actually didn't want summer vacation to start!  Success.  You also might be coming around on that Biz thing....while you still remind us about the good ole days Pre Biz, you've found she's a pretty good Marco Polo player, joke cracker, ROBLOX builder, and partner in crime.  Mommy needs more Tylenol for that last one!

Sleep: You still struggle from time to time with night terrors and loud sounds, and kick like a damned donkey while sleeping diagonal when we share a bed, but you sleep through the night about 90% of the time - sweet!  You are still an early bird, and most of the time love snuggling with Mom while she sips her coffee at 530am.  I won't lie, buddy, that might just be the best part of my day - snuggling a half asleep ro-bear with my first cup of coffee in the early dawn.  Life is good. 

Eating: You still eat all the things!! You are pretty adventurous when it comes to eating and will try anything once.  You love spicy food, veggies, fruit, and all kinds of ethnic food, even TOFU!  It's pretty cool to watch,  You've gotten into cooking and love helping make dinner, whether is Taco Tuesday, Fry-day, or admittedly, when we nix cooking dinner and order your favorite pizza - bacon, ground beef and pepperoni.  YUM.

Milestones/Firsts: First Ninja Warrior class - kind of like a Tae Kwon Do meets Tough Mudder - and you LOVED IT! Earned STAR STUDENT of the month at Klem North - this was so cool to see!  You love school and have a good group of buddies, and its amazing to see a school give a damn for once - go KN STARS!  First time heading to a playdate on your own - you can ride solo down the road, which is awesome to see.  And this year you also learned to write computer code for Roblox, which is super impressive to mommy!  You still love science and math, and we cracked open the Harry Potter series for nighttime reading, which you also love.  We also started to play a new game - Wacky questions - which started out innocently enough with "What 3 things would you bring to a deserted island"?  Answer - food, water and you (Mommy) cause you'd get us off. Aww, bud.  Its cool to know you think that.  This game continues every night and is sometimes innocuous (fave holiday - Thanksgiving cause everyone's thankful) to "Mommy, if Daddy wasn't a thing, who would you marry?" (Yeah, I dodged that one!  LOL).  True to form, you are a deep thinker, dude, and I love you so much, my lil peanut! You keep learning more Spanish bit by bit and also have picked up on a new language...profanity.  Uhhh....can I blame Daddy?  No?  You're right.  I blame Mr. Senor - Matt, the school called and wants to know what you really call "Minecraft....".....

Best Moment: Probably watching you run off the steps of the bus the day you got star student.  I am ALWAYS so damned proud of you buddy, but that day you were absolutely exploding with excitement and it was infectious.  The good moments are easy, but those moments when you still run to me crying, or are scared, or Mommy's hug fixes it - are so precious to me, buddy.  I know I don't have a ton of time left where I can still "fix everything", so I take it when I can get it.  All the snuggles..  All the hugs.  All the, Mommy watch me's.....Love you buddy.  So so much. 

Looking Forward To: Soccer shots, swimming lessons, camping, and all the summer fun!  Also looking forward to the fall - you cant decide if you want to race this year, go out for lacrosse, do Karate, or take coding classes....but I'm right here for all of it.  All the jokes, the dance parties, Among Us games, Bike rides, Mommy and Rob runs....all of it.  Every singe day I am so darned grateful to be your Mommy, and it's been the most amazing ride I could have ever asked for.  I love you, dude!!

Eagleman 70.3: Two Outta Three Ain't Bad

Well, like most things, the good stuff is worth waiting for.

Not necessarily with respect to my race reports, just to be clear.  But in general, its a good phrase to live by.

Uh....or something.  As it usually goes, veni, vidi....maybe vici...then I went on to other things!  But after events I hoped to bloggy post but lamely social media'd instead....you all reminded me....I have a RESPONSIBILITY to you all.  I'm sorry.   You're right.  I'm dubious I can fit it all in to one post.  But I'm gonna try. I'm sorry in advance for your pain. 

When we last left our intrepid heroine (that's me, keep up) she learned the rookie mistake of not racing her own race.  Check.  I went through a few days of open water freak out - swimming in Lake Ontario in the mid fifty degree water - to convince myself that I could swim in open water without panicking.  Dumbass.  I can.  I just went out way the hell too fast.  Check.  It wasn't on my agenda to win Eagleman, so I'll just swim my own race and call it a day.  That's one hell of a race strategy.  My coach loved it. (Insert Sarcasm).

I travelled down to Cambridge, MD pre race Friday with my buddy Marcus, who I've known for over a decade, but sadly, spend little 1:1 time with.  Pity.  He's funny, a good road tripper, dubious but enthusiastic singer (like me) and has the same penchant for four letter words on the road.  We somehow spent 8 hours non stop chattering (most people think this guy is quiet - I digress!) and covered everything from life to work to kids to training and all the spots in between.  One of the big conversations was obviously around the race - I hadn't spent a ton of time looking at timing goals, so we worked on our race goals - after last weeks swim, I was conservative and guesstimated a 40 minute swim, 2:50 bike, and 1:45-1:50 run, and 5 minutes for transitions, leading to a 5:20-5:30 finish.  I secretly hoped to go a little faster on the bike, as I had *finally* nailed riding in aero, but had only been riding in it for abut 3 weeks (I KNOW, people, I KNOW) , so who knows.  I won't reveal Marcus's goals but the big one was to qualify for the 70.3 World Championship in St. George, Utah.  Holy goals.  He asked me if I was gonna go if I got a slot and I laughed it off.  Dream big but be realistic, people, am I right?

We got in late Friday night (Thank you Pennsylvania road work and traffic, you suck) and got up early Saturday for some course recon, packet pick up, testing out the open water and in general, pre race prep.  I was nervous as hell until a personal life bomb landed in my lap at 8am that I could do nothing about, which took away all my pre race nerves and in general killed my mojo for the race.  Annoying to vague post it, but important in the context of my mindset for the race (Note - I am working through said life hot mess and am resolving it, but being 500 miles away tabled the resolution until post race.  Good for race nerves killer, bad for eating, focusing, or, in general, giving a crap about triathlon).  Thank goodness for Marcus - he was an awesome friend and supporter - both in terms of life and fellow kick in the pants triathlete.

Enough of that.  We got our race numbers (new Ironman protocol for packet pick up made it so that we were rack buddies - this was awesome for me, at least - poor Marcus....and we added our stickers and brought our bikes to transition nice and early.  Apparently, neither of of knows how to apply stickers according to instructions, so we messed up the stem sticker.  The nice volunteer checking us in helped us fix it and the other two stickers were spot on - I joked with him that "Two Outta Three Ain't Bad" and he joked back, Well, Meatloaf thought so! (Little did I know that was a foreshadow!)

With business done, Marcus and I hopped a quick swim in the choppy choptank, grabbed an early dinner, then headed back to the hotel.  I'll admit I was a total killjoy the day before the race and Marcus was awesome, amping me up and being a great friend.  He's a true Iron-man and earned himself a little nickname along the way to boot (LOL).

Race morning dawned early, humid, but not too hot.  As it always is, the word on the street was all abuzz about the water temp, which came through at 75 degrees - wetsuit legal!  We amazingly found a parking spot, set up shop and took care of race morning business.  We joked around with our rackmates, and before we knew it, it was time to line up for our time trial start - which featured 3 athletes every five seconds!  COVID protocols banned a pre race warm up, which was fine by me, and when the gun sounded at 6:45 we were....hangin out on the beach.  Time to do the thing!

Swim: 37:30 (1:46/yd)

After last weeks hot mess of a swim at Silver Serpent, I was a admittedly a little nervous about this one.  The water looked choppy, the 2100 yd swim looked...long...hmmm.  Welp, lets do the thing! I lined up and before I knew it the volunteer gave me a GO and I dove into the drink.  The first hundred meters or so were all about acclimation and the water was definitely on the choppier side, but I found my rhythm and felt pretty good after about five minutes.  I swam from buoy to buoy without much fanfare (there were 15 total so sighting was easy peasy) and had a few encounters with some aggressive dudes who tried to swim over me and even copped a feel (WTF dude) but I maintained my open water calmness and escaped anything crazy, until about 1200 meters in when I felt a sharp pain and some throbbing on my cheek.  I brushed my face, confused, then it dawned on me that I got stung by a jellyfish!  Little sucker.  My face felt kind of sore and annoying but otherwise ok, and I feel like i earned my badass badge.  After approximately a zillion years (ok, less than 40 minutes) I saw the ramp to exit the swim and was off with a swim time that was spot on for my best goal - now it was time to run to transition and play on the bike!!

Bike: 2:38:56 (21.2 mph)

Mounting my bike out of T1 (where, yes, my helmet was on correctly this time, thank you!) I was grinning like a little kid, off to play on my bike.  I settled in pretty quickly - the first five miles or so were full of crazy turns and while i was instructed to look at my power only, I'm human and was eyeing my average pace.  My super secret goal was to average over 20 mph and it sounded ridiculous, but shoot for he stars, right??  The headwind coming out was a little gross but not too bad, and once we hit open road, I settled in and was averaging 20-21 with little effort.  I was passing people left and right and kind of giggled to myself thinking - WHO AM I?- but loving every second.  I took in Gatorade every two miles,  water every mile, stretched out into aero, and enjoyed the ride.  I hammed it up for the cameras, flashing thumbs up, shaka signs, and even a random I love you that was probably meant to be something else, but hey, what can I say.  I did love it.  I was IN LOVE.  Mile 30 and I was averaging 20.8 and I got the crazy wild idea that I might even hit 21 average.  I set the goal to be 2:40 for my bike split, which OMG who am I??  And rode the last 26 miles with that grin still all over my face.  I joked with racers I passed - got passed by Marcus at mile 50 (who got a flat at mile 2, poor dude) and aside from the zoomy disc wheelie guys that passed by me with ease, I never got passed by a woman on the bike.  Ever.  Woah.  Is Rae....a cyclist???  I dunno, but it was sure a blast!!  On the way in I got stuck behind two cars that had no idea what they were doing, which was about the most annoying thing ever, but I sat up, drank, and coasted into T2 with my sub 2:40 bike split, good for a 10 minute PR on the distance at the bike....and it was time to dance!!

Run: 1:54:06 (8:41/mi)

I zoomed out of T2 with so many dangerous thoughts.  Transitions were long due to the bid transition, distance from the water, and having to run around the outside of the whole thing to rack my bike, but going into the run, the race clock was at 3:21.  While I knew I didnt have a half marathon PR in me, I was thinking I could probably do a 1:48ish and come in at 5:10, which would have been a huge PR for me.  I sailed through mile 1 in 7:44....then totally hit a wall.  If you look back to my bike drop of and the title of this post and do a little basic math....the swim was good...the bike, epic.....well, 2 outta 3 ain't bad did not bode well for the run.  It was hot.  There was no shade.  and the way the course was mapped out gave us about 3 feet across for lanes during miles 3-10 of the run, which sucked if you got behind someone.  People were tired.  The layout of the course also featured about 15 easy turns and some pretty gross gravel and potholes in spots.  I was not impressed.  And I'm sorry to say I let the heat and my grumpiness get to me.  My neck hurt from riding in aero (Apparently, going from zero to 56 in three weeks might not be smart).  My glutes were on fire.  I just wasn;t happy.  The first loop I managed to average about an 825-8:30 split, and then the second loop...I walked.  A lot.  First through the aid stations but then the Ironman walk/run thing.  I stopped and let a super hot racer have some of my handheld (she was so grateful).  I played games with I will run until x....and then gave up.  I saw my awesome cousin who drove an hour to cheer me on and that made me happy....until I didn't see her approximately 5 seconds later.  Whomp.  I tried to take in some sugar, but it didn't terribly help.  

With 3.1 miles to go, I settled in on a sub 5:15.  I was at 4:48 for time and this was totally doable.  Yeah, no it wasn't.  I just didn't have it.  I settled in on a sub 5:19 (my old PR) and for the last mile, summoned every give a hit I had to run it in somewhat strongly, for an overall time of 5:17:44, a 90 second ish PR and a completely WTF smile on my face.  

Post race, I caught up with Marcus, who made up for his bike woes with a smokin 1:29 half marathon (Damn, he couldn't have carried me??) and an overall finish of 4:52.  He placed 10th in his AG and I came in 9th in mine, both of us in the top 10% overall for our gender.  Not too shabby for that shitty run and his crazy bike!!  We debated staying for awards but were told Marcus would find out via email and could accept a World's slot that way, so we packed it up and started the 8 hour journey home.  OOOF.

Once we finally made it home, three things happened.

The family crisis was resolved - quickly at first, then thoroughly within 48 hours. Whew.

Marcus got a slot for Worlds and is headed to St. George on September 18th!  WOOT!

And....I'll be with him.  Somehow, I managed to snag a spot as well....which was TOTALLY unplanned and I am still shaking my head in disbelief!  Thank goodness I have the best husband ever, who told me to GO FOR IT!  So I did.  UTAH HERE I COME BABY!

Stay tuned as we tap into WTF is wrong with Rae's run and how do we fix it....and for Mini Mussel on July 10th, next up on the racing docket!