World Sprint Triathlon Championship New Zealand

Oct. 16
I'm sitting in the Grand Rapids Airport; the beginning of a really long 24 hours.  I'm headed to the ITU World Sprint Triathlon Championship in Auckland, New Zealand.  There will be over 3,000 athletes representing countries from all over the world. It is the site of the ParaTriathlon (I think I need to look that one up), Aquathon, Olympic, and Sprint Championship for age groupers (me), juniors, and the Elites. The Elite level includes two of the people from the USA that participated in the Olympics in London this summer.

I got here by qualifying at last year's US Sprint National Championship in Burlington, Vermont.  It was a really hard race for me; it didn't start until noon so I didn't have enough food units in my system and there was a gigantic hill 100 yards out of the transition.  Still, I finished well enough that I qualified for Worlds

The Sprint distance consists of a 0.5 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.2 mile run.  All told it takes me about 85 minutes to finish one.  Though I do well in tri's at the local and regional level, I'm a solid middle of the pack finisher at the national level which means I'll be thrilled to finish the race, in part because I pulled a calf muscle a little over a week ago.  I've been seeing the massage and chiropractors at one of our team sponsors - Lakeshore Chiropractic.  They've done their darnedest to get me race ready.

It is really hard to stay motivated for such a late season race.  My teammates - Wendy- my perpetual swim buddy  (and Marianne who really got me started swimming and another buddy Gabrielle also kept me swimming) and Kendra (who's done the late season rides, runs and open water swims) - have really helped keep me motivated.

Sunday I was out running in my Real Women Trisuit in Millenium Park in between downpours.  I saw a couple women walking and I said, "I know I look really stupid still training but I have one last tri to do."  They laughed.  I got a dose of riding and running in the rain doing my last brick.  Good practice for New Zealand because rain is always in the forecast this time of year.

My biggest fear is freezing to death.  The water temperature is 57 degrees.  I tried swimming in Georgetown Lake on Saturday and lasted a minute.  Ok, it was only 40 degrees outside and I'm pretty sure the water was colder than 57.  ITU rules prohibit you from wearing anything other than the race uniform - no jacket allowed.  With an air temperature the same as the water temperature, well, I'm just worried.  Teammate Jane G  loaned me her neoprene swim cap so I can try to stay warmer.  My coach, Kattie Carpenter-Rosa assures me that adrenaline will keep me warm.  I am a walking hyopthermia case so I'm just worried.

It's a huge honor to represent Team USA.  Here's me in my race uniform.  I'll post how to track the race later (it is Monday Oct. 22).

San Francisco
5 hour layover and no way to go walking because the ticket counter is closed until closer to boarding time.  Who knew?

Just saw a Facebook post from Auckland.  That caused my stomach to do a few backflips. I saw the pontoon-starting block dives for the Elite athletes and had a heart attack.  Thankfully someone posted that the Age Groupers (those 5 year groups of athletes) have an open water start which I had read earlier in the week.  The Aquathon swimmers had their pre-race swim today; they reported the water temperature is up to 60.8 degrees.  Since it is their Spring, it’ll only get warmer.  It was 57 when I last checked.  I was even more relieved when one of the swimmers posted that it wasn’t that bad – just cold hands and feet.  I’m feeling better already!

I saw my first TEAM USA person.  This woman got on the plane after me in Denver.  I saw her TEAM USA jacket and I pointed at my Real Women Tri shirt and at her and said “Me too!!” She smiled.  Once I board in San Francisco for the 12 hour flight, my guess is the entire plane will be teammates.

I got started in Tri’s 3 years ago.  Heather K. was doing the Grand Haven Duathlon and persuaded me to try the Sprint Distance.  Upon signing up various friends reported that it is hard to a Great Lakes swim; if it is too choppy they cancel the swim and you get to run twice as far (which I hadn’t trained for).  Of course everything less than “too choppy” can still be mighty unpleasant.  I survived the swim without throwing up (it didn’t occur to me that I have a bit of motion sickness and swimming in the ebbing tide was going to cause the same sort of reaction – which it did).  I remember standing at the start at looking at the finish to the swim and thinking, “Wow, that is a really, really long swim.”  I hadn’t been swimming that much and it had almost all been pool swimming.  Lesson #1 – figure out if you can swim in the waterbody.  Some of the Lake Michigan swims are protected, while others aren’t.  Once I’d signed up they mentioned you had to run 0.5 miles on the Grand Haven pier to get to the transition area.  You could either leave another pair of running shoes on the dock or run barefoot.  I had least had the good sense to take the insoles out of some old shoes so I could slip my sandy wet feet into them easier.  Lesson #2 – read those transition maps (if they’re posted  before you sign up) so you know what you’ll have to be able to do running-wise.  I was pretty worried about slowing down before the transition from the bike to the run so I slowed down way too soon.  Lesson #3 – bike or walk before the race at least the stretch coming in to the transition area so you know where to slow down.  No matter what you still have to err on slowing down too early or you’ll have a nasty crash (and probably be disqualified). The run ended on a hill which I wasn’t expecting.  Lesson #4 – see lesson #3 and apply it here – look at the last stretch coming into the finish line.  I’m “sprinting” up this hill and I can see the age on the woman’s calf in front of me and SHE’S IN MY AGE GROUP, so I sprinted even faster.  I almost puked before crossing the finish line.  It was a great motivator (I passed her), and it allowed me to know what happens when you push yourself to the edge.  After all of that I was hooked!!  

NEW ZEALAND
Better sleeping through drugs.  Yep, take one sleepy drug, combine it with a tired woman, and you 8 hours of fitful - but still 8 hours of sleep.  Bike and luggage arrived - yeah!  Tis always a worry.  Met a couple people from Team USA.   One of the women - I've seen 3 times in the last 2 years because we seem to always be on the same plane.  She is an elite athlete in the US, here she's just an Age Grouper like me.  Also met a couple - she's in my age group for the Sprint, and her husband.  Her husband has done a bunch of World's but his cancer returned so he's just watching.  Also met a woman who's doing the Olympic Distance.  I'm going to try and catch up with her for the swim and the bike.  Met a paratriathlete from Morocco.  He was helping us install our free NZ Simm cards in our phones, but alas, none of our phones seemed to work.  Got checked into my hotel and then off to registration in the cold, pouring rain and it only got worse from there.  Had brought my wetsuit to swim.  The location was TBA so I went to the Team USA headquarters and discovered they decided to move the swim to 1 and have the bike at 11.  Huge bummer.....so back to my hotel to unpack my bike.  Then I discovered that my helpful mechanic and loosened the brake, taken the headset off, and completely removed the cassette.  Shoot me!  I don't have those tools or skills to put it together.........so I carried my bike over to the Team USA mechanics who were happy as clams to fix it up.  I thought I'd have to leave it so I didn't bring a helmet.  It is illegal to ride in NZ without a helmet so I walked back to the hotel.  Time for a quick nap before the parade of nations.

Opening Ceremonies
Met up with some of the gang I'd met earlier which is amazing given there are 3000+ age groupers here.  Team USA is huge but so is New Zealand, Australia and Canada.  We lust over Team-Canada's gear and some of the past Team USA gear.  Apparently Team USA is retro this year - yep, think polyster track suits. I'm glad I didn't buy one.

The picture taking of Team USA was exciting. So many athletes.  The Parade of Nations was anti-climatic.  A fair number of people brought families so that was the biggest contingency of people.  I took pictures on my phone but that didn't work. They gave us free NZ simm cards but apparently the other simm card is the one that stores pictures. Oh well.  I'll get the Team USA picture later.

No training done yesterday except walking 6 miles back and forth.  Everyone is talking about the cold, wind, and rain.  Going out this morning for a run with Team USA on the course and later - the dreaded open water swim practice.

Team USA

Here I am just before opening ceremonies

Oct. 18 - Friday

It is weird to wake up at 5 am and find out it is Michigan's 3 pm!  Did the team USA run this morning.  Nice flat course!  Just finished the bike course.  I met a Michigan person on the bike ride- Pam Freeman.  Too funny to meet someone from Michigan.  Seriously scary course given the 25-40 mph winds.  3 hills, one of which I said "you've gotta be kidding".  It was the steepest hill I'd ever ridden a bike up but it was fine.  Later today I should be able to find the group bike shot - this time I'm right in front in my RWT jersey!  

It is sunny than rainy than sunny again which makes dressing correctly a bit of a challenge.  Wind speeds are at 35 mph which is seriously scary as a little person on a bike.  I'm relieved to have ridden the course but it is hard to imagine doing it in the wind. Some of the hills going downhill will be "exciting"....as in ya don't want to be crashing.  Keep your fingers crossed because at the moment, race day weather forecast is a bit warmer and less windy.  

THE SWIM

I did it!  I survived the swim!!!!  My very first open water in salty water with huge waves.  Things I learned today include you can survive a huge chop (see my post above about barely surviving Lake Michigan swimming).  My new buddies report that when you get to the big choppy part, swim really fast - save your energy to get out of there as quickly as you can.  Everyone is buying neoprene caps to go under their cap.  The water was back to 57 and it was doable.  It takes about 3-5 minutes to fully get the coldness on your skin.  They said you MUST get your forehead used to the cold or you'll have your entire system shut down when you couple it with adrenaline.  It was seriously the longest swim in my life.  We swam at 1 so I'm hoping there will be little to no chop at 7:30 am on race day.  For me that is on Monday but back in the states you'll see the results on Sunday.

Looks like you'll be able to see race results here: http://www.triathlon.org/results/

I'm not sure how quickly they update them.

SATURDAY

Got a nice little ride in with a local (that was by accident).  Turns out he's quite good - winning a lot of time trials.   Just back from watching some of the elite women do their laps.  NZ woman is out in front, and then a pack with Sarah Groff at the back and then another pack with american Jogenson in it.

The race briefing was an eye opening experience.

Race weather forecast is 57 water and 59 air temp with 25-30 mph winds, and rain.  Won't that be exciting.

1.  Compression calf sleeves are ok, but the socks are not (no clue why).

2.  You can put gloves on in the ride but you have to ride the entire ride with them (you can't tuck them into your uniform part way through the ride).

3.  If you put your jacket on, you can't tie it around your waist.

4.  You have less than 30 seconds to jump in the water before they start you swimming (no warm up at all).

5.  Previously they said only clear jackets and now they're saying a team jacket (it must say USA).  I just bought the most expensive jacket of my life - the last clear jacket in Auckland.  I had my name on the list and only because I was there did I get the jacket.

There are athletes everywhere and everyone is super friendly and cheering each other on.  Tons of paratriathlon athletes.  US and England always have the largest contingency of delegates.  One of the women from the US (in my age group) is the world champion from last year which is exciting.

7 of are athletes still don't have their luggage. Yep, no wetsuit or bikes.  They're freaked out.    They think stuff will arrive today.

Coach Kris for team USA really focuses on

1.  relax-  you can do this. 

2.  leave it all out there at the finish line - no happy faces at the end....run until you puke

3.  do not crash.  3 months to recover from a broken collarbone........in NZ........is not desirable.  Do NOT take those curves fast.  Scoot back on the bike seat on the huge hills and feather those brakes or they'll overheat and you'll get a flat (and crash).

They gave a pep talk where I actually felt like we were someone special.  Most everyone here is pretty nonchalant about being here but the USAT guy said remember there are people who train just as hard as you and would do anything to be where you are.  That's a sobering comment.  

Other tips they had:

1.  if it is cold - body, plastic bag, and then race suit

2.  put clear tape over your vents on your bike helmet until you warm up (then you can peel the tape back).

Things that are hard to get used to

1.  Walking on the left instead of the right when walking down the sidewalk

2.  Looking the correct direction to see incoming cars

3.  This one I didn't have to do - swimming counterclockwise and flip turning the "other" way

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SUNDAY

24 hours until race day!  WHoohoo.  Weather forecast is steady rain and 35-40 mph.......but thankfully I don't think I'll have.  The folks doing the Olympic distance will get that horrible weather.  I think I'll only have 15-20 mph winds and maybe light rain.  

Coach Chris (and Coach Kattie) said go do a shake-out run around race time.....so I'm headed out momentarily to do just that.  Not much else on the agenda for today other than bike check in later today.  With 3000 age groupers they end up checking you in BY COUNTRY which is sort of freaky but will at least reduce some of the congestion.  We have to rack our bikes today by the handlebars so they don't blow over during the night (did I mention it was windy here).  Race day we get to put them on the seatpost.  I'm anxious to see the transition - it seems like it has to be huge to accommodate that many people.  In fact, we have different run in to transition carpet colors.  There are twice as many Olympic distance athletes as Sprint Distance.  Should be fun.  

The demographics on Team USA seem heavily skewed to the over 40 crowd, in part because they can take vacation and have the money to travel. 

Run done.  I'm officially giving up jaywalking at least in NZ.  I had a narrow miss this morning.  Drivers are VERY nice here.  Kiwi - the official charity of the event - is not a fruit.  It is an endangered bird.  The most common food seems to be indian, chinese, or japanese.  Some of the racers groaned to find out the standard beverage (gatorade or heed) won't be at the aid situations.  Instead it'll be a brand I'm not familiar with at all. 

There are racers everywhere.  People are always out running or biking in whatever the weather is.  A lot of Team Canada is staying in my hotel.  We all chat each other up about the weather, if we've been to World's before, if we're going to London (next year's event - and yes, I'm going).  Rumor has it they may go to San Diego the following year.

Saw a little of the Elite men's race.  Crazy that it is the same people that raced in the Olympics. They just got sprinkles of rain.  The junior men - just coming in from the swim - were getting dumped on.

I got my bike all checked in and my uniform checked over as well.  There will huge lines of people up unitl 9 pm.  They check you in by country but I think they were behind as of the first hour of check in.  Body marking is the old fashioned way - with markers; it is so much fun to get temporary tattoos at nationals !  I managed to get all the stickers - 3 helmet, 1 bike, and 1 bag on the right places without them sticking too much to each other.  There are 3000 bikes in the transition area.  It'll be "exciting" to find it in the morning.  Forecast is looking a bit better for the race.  Water is stuck at 57 degrees.  Mostly we're all worried about the wind and the potential for rain.

And my last post.........this just in from my Training log (my Monday is your Sunday)...here is tomorrows workout.........

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Hello Carol Griffin, Your Workouts for Monday, October 22 #1:  World Sprint Championship 6:55 am Type: Race

That totally made it real!!!!!!!!!!!!

RACE DAY MONDAY OCT. 22

Whoo hoo - race day finally arrived  Up at 3:30 to cook scrambled eggs, sushi rice, and soy sauce (much less intestinal distress with this kind of breakfast).  Last night I went to the Chinese restaurant next door and ordered up some rice to go.  He looked at me blankly.  Apparently it was a Japanese Noodle house.  Luckily the Chinese restaurant.  Walked down to transition at 4:45 am which was way to early.  Walked back home, sat in my hotel room another 30 minutes and did it all over again.

It had rained last night so my side of the bike racks had giant puddles of water.  Met lots of interesting Americans (my age group was all racked together).  The world champ from the USA had gotten food poisoning here and looked pretty bad.  Plenty of time to get everything set up and then headed out to wait indoors in the big building that had our bag drop.  Hung out with the yellow-cap gang (my age group).  They had 5 waves always on deck and they want off over 3 minutes.  I worried about getting thrashed by the next wave of guys following us.  Lots of swell in the water.  Jumped in and we were off!  It didn't feel as cold as it did the other day.  It is a lot of work swimming in the ocean.  I'd definitely add some Lake Michigan swimming to my workouts just to get better at it (I imagine being a stronger swimmer wouldn't hurt either).  My goals was just stay on course and finish the swim (that's a pretty low bar).  I was 55/63 in my age group - pretty much what I expected (ok, I secretly thought I'd wake up and magically be able to do the "catch" correctly, but no go.

The transition is easily 1/4 mile run.  It is incredible to try and run past 3000 bikes; both ways.

The bike course had a lot of hills and they didn't get any easier.  The wind was probably only 15-20 so that was a lot better.  Only a few sprinkles of rain so we didn't have to be so panicked about crashing on the course.  The bike I ended up 39/63 - I was hoping for better here but  I have to do more hills in my life, both up and down.  I know I'm too tentative on the downs.   I ate 1.5 gels (that'll become important in a bit).

Same bloody 1/4 mile run in transition and 1/4 mile run back out of transition.

Off to the run.  Once I started I remembered that I had 1 empty and 0.5 full gel wrapper in my pant leg.  I got rid of one in a trash can by the water; of course it was the empty one.  By now I can feel the other half of the gel oozing down my leg.,  No gentle reader, it was not a chocolate gu - thank goodness.  I was towards the end and the coach was handing out flags, but some American said "Go catch that Australian" so I sprinted and by golly I passed her.  That was very exciting.  I ended up 37/63 which is better than I expected.  My injured calf was just fine; ended up with a hamstring strain at some point on the run but it wasn't too bad.  The course had a billion corners and some brick and railroad tracks which made it lesss than ideal for a run.

The fun part about this graph is the sprint at the end!!  I seem to instinctively be able to keep the same Heart Race but the pace changes throughout the race.  The 158 heart rate at the end is the throwing up heart rate.  My friend Will actually did puke at the grandstands.

Overall I was 49/63 (I predicted I'd be in the bottom 20%).  I'd have to lop 5 minutes off the 1:37 total time to have ended up at the 50% mark (if I learned how to swim better I'd instantly have moved up a bunch of places).

The freakiest part is having people call you by name.  "Go Griffin.,"   Lots of "Go USA" chants as well.  Everyone I've met walks up and hugs you and asks about your race which is fun.  In another hour, team USA meets in a pub for some festivities and then off to the age group awards and finally dinner at 9:30 (which seems crazy to me).