Well I joined Real Women Tri this year to learn more about biking so that I could do a 70.3 triathlon... who would have guessed there are so many different types of events on a bike!! Gravel races, road races, mountain bike races, criteriums, triathlons and now time trials. (Sarah Mac will be putting on a clinic on cyclocross races soon, so another type of race to learn!!Watch for that!!)
Time trials are very similar to the bike racing portion of the triathlon. So if you are thinking of doing a triathlon or two, this is a good competition to do. I would suggest that the Ada Time Trials are the perfect place to learn. The organizers are laid back and excellent teachers. There are many athletes at all levels from the bike with baskets and regular pedals to those killer Tour De France guys with pointy space age helmets and solid (no spokes) noisy wheels!
Ada TT are every Monday night with registration starting at 5:30 and the racing starting at 6:30. You register and it is smart to let them know that you are new to time trialing, as they let you go out at the beginning. They give you a number and a time you will start. You warm up a bit and then go to the starting line. At the starting line you line up by number. Last week I was #2 so I was the 2nd racer to go. Tonight I was 14. (Fast racers go later, as they do not take as long and the race people do not have to wait for them as they are speedy!!)
The clock starts and the first racer lines up. At 30 seconds the 1st racer goes. Then the next biker wheels to the line. At the line you get race ready by clipping in and getting your pedals where you like. You should be in a medium gear. The time keeper gives you the 5,4,3,2,1 and go. There is a person holding you up as you are clipped in and at go, they give you a nice push. You are off and pedaling! This TT is 15 miles and is relatively flat. You pedal down Grand River Drive for 7.5 miles and you pedal back. Easy as pie!!!! Not!! You try to go at top speed the whole way. Of course fast people pass you on your left. The only rule is you cannot draft, (similar to triathlons). When you get to the turn around you look for cars and cross the road and begin the journey back. At the finish line you yell out your number to the timer and they will adjust your time for the staggered start. (Your actual time will be a 5th graders story problem....excellent opportunities for family math!!)
Why do it?
1) The Ada Time Trials are every Monday (except Memorial Monday) throughout the summer. You pay one fee $25.00 (which is to join the Rapid Wheelman) and you get to race every Monday. So it is reasonable!
2) You get to see your improvement. The organizers keep all of your statistics on their website and you get to see how good you are getting. I hear there is even a prize at the end of the summer for most improved biker! And they do graphs on your improvements etc. Very Cool!
3) Each week you get points. Yes EVERYONE gets points. The slowest person (with baskets and regular pedals) who finishes with the slowest time gets 5 points. The next slowest (who removed their baskets from the previous week ;) gets 10 points, and the next slowest gets 15 etc all the way up to the fastest biker. So if you come out and give it a shot you get points. You could accumulate points while those very fast Tour de France people sit at home.... Hey you could pass them by if you pedal and they do not show!! Points collect through out the season. Prizes are given at the end of the season.
4) You can meet new biking people and support other PINK who are out there riding. You can see the speed of the pink when Sarah RAH! zooms by, and Angie with her very cool space age aero helmet zips past, and Sarah Mac in her Pink Skin Suit pushes with an awesome time to the finish!! It is great fun.
5) You can get training miles in and have fun at the same time.
6) AND A VERY COOL THING: If you are planning to be in the GRTri (June 9th), this time trial course is on the GRTri route. So you can practice for the triathlon and race at the same time!! A Great Deal!!
Plan to get there early as the traffic in Ada is very slow. The website is: http://www.rapidwheelmen.com/time-trials.html
I really hope that many of you come out and try this! I would love to see you all there! If I can do it, you all can certainly do it even better!
Go Pink!
Respectfully Submitted:
Gail
Monday, May 13, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Queens Day Crit
What a victory for PINK today at the Queens Day Criterium. It was massive PINK everywhere!
Cat 4 Ladies were very well represented:
Sara Merritt
Sarah (Mac) McIntrye
Donna Borgman
Heather Frank
Shellie Raisanen
Gail Ranville
Cheryl Havens was signed up but could not make it today... She was sorely missed!
Cat 4 ladies went off at 10:00 for an approximately 30 minute race. There were 19 in the field vieing and competing for prize money 6 places deep. Pink had one seasoned veteran, Sara Merritt, while the rest of us were entirely new to the sport of criteriuming (a new sport and a new word as well!) Yes luckily some of us had made it to the clinic the day before, but for the most part we were New Critters and learning as we went. The 8 corner course was a doozy, but we all got lots of experience and started to feel comfortable approaching the curves, getting the inner pedal up and leaning into it. We all survived marvelously well without a crash or incident to remark on. Sara Merritt finished in the lead pack, but just out of the money. We all were behind her, but no pink finished last. We all loved it and I dare say we are hooked!
Cat 1, 2, 3 ladies all raced together at 11:10. This field featured 12 competitive athletes with money going to the to the top 10 finishers. We had 6 competent, awesome, strong pink girls at the line including:
Jane VanHof (lovingly referred to as biker Jane)
Sarah Williams (familiar to many as Rah! not sure the exclamation point is attached but it should be)
Lori Hotchkin (known as the focused fighter on wheels... not really but she could be)
Heather Kubiak
Tammy Moran
Laura Korienek
This race was strategic with several in the field noting how many RWT women had entered the race!! With 6 riders we were in the majority and were called to take the lead. (After the race Lori confirmed she felt that the town had put on a great event and she wanted the Cat 1,2,3 women's race to show all of the spectators an exciting event, so she made a concerted effort to attack and pull and add excitement. If I may say so myself, it was a great race!!) The RWT team got out and pulled and lead much of the time. Jane, Sarah and Lori pulled many of the laps. Lori was out there in the lead to win a prem as she dug down and attacked to hit the line first winning a mid-race prize. Nice job Lori! It was an exciting race and Pink had many money winners with Biker Jane on the podium winning not only money, but half of a wooden shoe trophy as well. Everyone did well and represented our Real Woman Team with awesome poise, composure, and strength.
WE WERE FIERCE! (Thanks Brandy....)
The afternoon was spent reviewing the races, discussing strategy for the next crit and watching the Men race on. It should be noted that there were several Junior Real Women represented. Both Ellie and Kierson also won a wooden shoe! I hope that the excitement of Maddie, Kierson and Ellie's race (is that right????) will be captured by them in a separate blog. We love reading their re-caps!
Cat 4 Ladies were very well represented:
Sara Merritt
Sarah (Mac) McIntrye
Donna Borgman
Heather Frank
Shellie Raisanen
Gail Ranville
Cheryl Havens was signed up but could not make it today... She was sorely missed!
Cat 4 ladies went off at 10:00 for an approximately 30 minute race. There were 19 in the field vieing and competing for prize money 6 places deep. Pink had one seasoned veteran, Sara Merritt, while the rest of us were entirely new to the sport of criteriuming (a new sport and a new word as well!) Yes luckily some of us had made it to the clinic the day before, but for the most part we were New Critters and learning as we went. The 8 corner course was a doozy, but we all got lots of experience and started to feel comfortable approaching the curves, getting the inner pedal up and leaning into it. We all survived marvelously well without a crash or incident to remark on. Sara Merritt finished in the lead pack, but just out of the money. We all were behind her, but no pink finished last. We all loved it and I dare say we are hooked!
Cat 1, 2, 3 ladies all raced together at 11:10. This field featured 12 competitive athletes with money going to the to the top 10 finishers. We had 6 competent, awesome, strong pink girls at the line including:
Jane VanHof (lovingly referred to as biker Jane)
Sarah Williams (familiar to many as Rah! not sure the exclamation point is attached but it should be)
Lori Hotchkin (known as the focused fighter on wheels... not really but she could be)
Heather Kubiak
Tammy Moran
Laura Korienek
This race was strategic with several in the field noting how many RWT women had entered the race!! With 6 riders we were in the majority and were called to take the lead. (After the race Lori confirmed she felt that the town had put on a great event and she wanted the Cat 1,2,3 women's race to show all of the spectators an exciting event, so she made a concerted effort to attack and pull and add excitement. If I may say so myself, it was a great race!!) The RWT team got out and pulled and lead much of the time. Jane, Sarah and Lori pulled many of the laps. Lori was out there in the lead to win a prem as she dug down and attacked to hit the line first winning a mid-race prize. Nice job Lori! It was an exciting race and Pink had many money winners with Biker Jane on the podium winning not only money, but half of a wooden shoe trophy as well. Everyone did well and represented our Real Woman Team with awesome poise, composure, and strength.
WE WERE FIERCE! (Thanks Brandy....)
The afternoon was spent reviewing the races, discussing strategy for the next crit and watching the Men race on. It should be noted that there were several Junior Real Women represented. Both Ellie and Kierson also won a wooden shoe! I hope that the excitement of Maddie, Kierson and Ellie's race (is that right????) will be captured by them in a separate blog. We love reading their re-caps!
Saturday Kent ISD Crit Clinic and races
Disclaimer.... I am a novice, beginner.... and you read this blog at your own risk....
Several RWT have suggested the Saturday Kent ISD Criterium Clinic and Races, and this past Saturday was the first of the series that I could make. It was the 3rd of 4 and I thought it was fabulous, so I am blogging to encourage anyone who is the slightest bit interested in EVER doing a Criterium race to get out to the last clinic next Saturday.
Why GO?
1) It is free! You only have to pay the $10.00 day license that the Biking Federation of Biking People collect. (I am not sure who they are, but they collect it and I paid it....There must be a reason...)
2) It was extremely helpful, even getting set up. We all got a number and were taught how to pin it on under our arm pit and sideways....you really need to make friends to get the thing on right....which is good. Donna Borgman and Danielle Nye were there and we all helped each other. Who would have guessed that you don't use the pin holes and you use about 8 pins... but this is just one helpful tip that you learn.
3) They had a 12-15 minute shpeel on all of the nuances of the criterium race. You could ask questions and all questions were answered. The talk included easy stuff, like how to start... as well as technical stuff, like "holding your line" which is following the person closely in front of you and not swerving around causing mass pandemonium, crashes and death. (I especially found this helpful.) On this note, they did also cover crashes: if you do end up in a crash, you take the shortest route to the pit area and the pit people help you and you get a free lap. In the pit you get to sop the blood off of you and get back in where you left off, without being far behind. (I thought this was nice, but hoped to never have to be sopping off any blood.)
4) After learning the details with the kind speech, we all went to the line and they counted off a start 4,3,2,1 go. We all went. There were 3 guys who were from a blue team who rode around with us (14 of us, guys and girls who were at the clinic.) The blue guys answered questions we had while we were criteriumming away....like how to follow, how to take a curve, when to sprint, how to put your inner foot up while taking a curve etc.They were great! We did 3 laps around the course. Nothing like hands on training.... and did I mention free...
5) Lastly why you should do it... You got a water bottle and a coupon for BW3.
I know that you fellow triathletes are out there swimming, biking and running... but you should not miss this opportunity. (I ran my 8 miles before the clinic and ended up with a nice 8 miles on the bike at the clinic!) Fit it in if you can.
Several RWT have suggested the Saturday Kent ISD Criterium Clinic and Races, and this past Saturday was the first of the series that I could make. It was the 3rd of 4 and I thought it was fabulous, so I am blogging to encourage anyone who is the slightest bit interested in EVER doing a Criterium race to get out to the last clinic next Saturday.
Why GO?
1) It is free! You only have to pay the $10.00 day license that the Biking Federation of Biking People collect. (I am not sure who they are, but they collect it and I paid it....There must be a reason...)
2) It was extremely helpful, even getting set up. We all got a number and were taught how to pin it on under our arm pit and sideways....you really need to make friends to get the thing on right....which is good. Donna Borgman and Danielle Nye were there and we all helped each other. Who would have guessed that you don't use the pin holes and you use about 8 pins... but this is just one helpful tip that you learn.
3) They had a 12-15 minute shpeel on all of the nuances of the criterium race. You could ask questions and all questions were answered. The talk included easy stuff, like how to start... as well as technical stuff, like "holding your line" which is following the person closely in front of you and not swerving around causing mass pandemonium, crashes and death. (I especially found this helpful.) On this note, they did also cover crashes: if you do end up in a crash, you take the shortest route to the pit area and the pit people help you and you get a free lap. In the pit you get to sop the blood off of you and get back in where you left off, without being far behind. (I thought this was nice, but hoped to never have to be sopping off any blood.)
4) After learning the details with the kind speech, we all went to the line and they counted off a start 4,3,2,1 go. We all went. There were 3 guys who were from a blue team who rode around with us (14 of us, guys and girls who were at the clinic.) The blue guys answered questions we had while we were criteriumming away....like how to follow, how to take a curve, when to sprint, how to put your inner foot up while taking a curve etc.They were great! We did 3 laps around the course. Nothing like hands on training.... and did I mention free...
5) Lastly why you should do it... You got a water bottle and a coupon for BW3.
I know that you fellow triathletes are out there swimming, biking and running... but you should not miss this opportunity. (I ran my 8 miles before the clinic and ended up with a nice 8 miles on the bike at the clinic!) Fit it in if you can.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Yankee Springs Time Trial- Women 11-14/Middle School
Today was the first race of the MMBA series. When I arrived at Yankee Springs it was pretty early in the morning. For most of the day I sat around watching the races. Quickly the time came around for me to race. I did a short little preride before I lined up. When I got to the start I mingled with some of the people in my age group. The line quickly urged forward. When I got closer to the start I got really nervous, because I was worried my little sister would pass me. The person in charge told me to go and I took off pedaling as fast as I could. Early on there were many people I passed. Every once in a while, my dad would give me helpful pointers on which part of the trail to pick. The climbs were difficult followed by technical down hills. Multiple times I found myself struggling on turns and bumps. Right before the matted hill Jack caught up to me. After the top of the matted hill he passed me, but I stayed behind him. After a few miles I passed him again. I knew it was getting close to the finish when I started to climb Ol' Piney. At that point, my legs were so tired I could barely feel them. I got into the last section and worked as hard as I could. Shortly after I sprinted out of the woods and onto the final stretch.
I was so happy because of everyone cheering me on. After I finished, I was out of breath and tired. I waited around for my sister to finish and then went to see the results. I got 2nd!! I was so happy with my time too. I beat my last year's time by over 20 minutes! When I stood up on the podium, I felt like I couldn't stop smiling:-)
Ellie K.
I was so happy because of everyone cheering me on. After I finished, I was out of breath and tired. I waited around for my sister to finish and then went to see the results. I got 2nd!! I was so happy with my time too. I beat my last year's time by over 20 minutes! When I stood up on the podium, I felt like I couldn't stop smiling:-)
Ellie K.
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| Ellie 2nd & Kiersen 4th |
Mountaineer Pi Run
Race Report (Pi 5K)
Yesterday my mom, Ellie and I went to Byron Center for the Mountaineer Pi 5Krun. When we got there it was cold but the sun was coming up. We were a little
late because all of the other people from my school were already there. My sister
and I headed in the building to get our numbers. When we got out all of the
other “Trail Dawgs” were warming up but we caught most of them. Then we
stretched and headed to the start line. My
cousin and I lined up close to the front but not directly in front. When he
blew the horn we sprinted down the hill and around the first corner. We caught
a lot of people in the first long stretch. Our strategies were to stride down
the down hills and hammer it up the up hills. When we turned into the
subdivision my cousin was starting to get ahead of me and it seems like every
time I caught her she would leave me. We turned onto a different street that
had runners going both ways. When we caught two girls from my school and passed
them. One of them wouldn’t give up easy and caught us. The three of us were
together until we turned at the two mile mark. I was staying with the girl
pretty well but we dropped my cousin about half way through that stretch. When we
turned on to the second to last road we picked up the pace. I stuck with the
girl through the downhill but she dropped me on our way back up. A little bit
after she left my cousin caught me. On our way up the very last hill where the
finish line was I could tell my cousin was hurting. We sprinted up the last
hill and I got her by two seconds. The other girl ended up beating me by
nineteen seconds. I ended up getting first place in my age group, so did my
mom. .
 |
 My time was 27:55, which was faster than I ran at Gazelle Girl last weekend. In the end we all got FREE PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kiersen K. |
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Lowell 50, Gravel road race: 28 mile and 50 mile course (April 6 and Oct 26, 2013)
Go PINK!
Many of you asked how the Lowell 50 went…. here is a recap. Hope it is not too wordy… but it would be a great fall race for many pink to do when we are all in GREAT shape! (This is the race that PINK dominated the overall podium last fall with biker Jane, and sisters Lori and Kathy…and they are on the podium on the home page of the race still!!!) ~ Fall race is October 26th btw.
WELL Angie and I DID IT!! Angie has an injury and I had written to the race director and we had permission to drop to the 28 mile race if she was still hurting. Angie had said that she was feeling ok but the weather was iffy… so we had not made up our minds on which race we would do this morning. I got there and we had to go to our age group folder and sign a waiver. I got pretty excited to find only one other girl in my folder!! WOW I thought…. all I have to do is get out there, do it and wa la I am on the podium… Unless of course 2 other 50 plus ladies showed up for late registration which would knock me off the podium…. unless I pedaled up a storm of course. So while I was waiting for Angie and her husband Joe to get there and I looked in her age group book 40-50 …. WOW Low. Behold. she was the only one in the book! It would take 3 late registrants in that age group to knock her off the podium! I called her on her cell and said "We are SOOOO doing the 50 mile race!!!! There were all sorts of girls in the 28 mile race. Hey hardware is hardware!!
The weather report was snow and rain last night and possibly into this morning. But we really lucked out with a kinda cold 42ish day but no precipitation. The WIND was another thing. It was BEASTLY! At times we literally almost got blown over. There were a bunch of hills in the 1st half but when we were out in the farm land flats for the second half, the wind whipped us like we were kites! Luckily Angie is a very tough cookie (who I started referring to as Iron Angie) and she stayed with me. We picked up another guy (named George ). He drafted for us for many miles. I tried to pull but could not keep the pace. At times we were only going 7-11 mph with the stinking wind.
Well with 5 miles to go, Geo dropped us, and then I fell off Angie's pace and then more hills started. I know that a 50 mile course will measure a bit longer than 50 miles, but when 51 showed up on my computer and plus a few more hills …. I was not smiling. Then I figured well I really don't have much choice but to press on. I mean I could not exactly hop off the bike and say "hey I only signed up for a 50 miler" I guess I should have thought WOW, extra miles and all for one low price! (But no, I was not saying that!) I could see Angie in the distance and that kept me going. And all I could say was ditto when mile 52 rolled around! Needless to say the hills and the wind kept coming. (I pictured getting my permanent magic marker out when I got home and marking up the water bottles they had given us… changing the Lowell 50 to a Lowell 52 with my marker…) I am not sure if the race ended at 52 or 53 but it ended. And I was happy when I saw at least one other biker behind me!
We both made the podium for our age group… and Masters for that matter! Merry VanderLinnen from Flying Rino beat both Angie and I.
We did the ride in about 3:52. With the wind this one was one tough mama…. but no snow and no rain. That was good. A special thanks to Danielle, who was out there cheering us on and taking photos. She was supporting her husband who was in the race as well. And last but not least Joe O'Brien (Angie's husband who calls himself Man of Real Women Tri) was sooooo supportive. Thanks Joe!
Overall, a good pink day! See you all out there in Oct...
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
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?
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).
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.
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
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.........
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
And my last post.........this just in from my Training log (my Monday is your Sunday)...here is tomorrows workout.........
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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).
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