KONA 2012...A Perfect Day!...well almost!!

In good spirits at mile 10!

2012 was an exciting Kona for me as I was the youngster in my new 45-49 age group and my preparation had been solid and injury free.  I also had extra incentive to go for the win with my fundraising for a local charity, Athletes in Tandem, for which many donors pledged to double their donation if I took the age group world championship title!

Race morning started with a minor hiccup as I went to top off the air in my tires.  My valve stem had somehow spontaneously closed down in my deep dish 808 carbon rim, so there was no way to either air up my rear tire or let any air out of it!  The mechanic suggested I ride it as is (about 90psi) or risk catastrophe if I start trying to mess with the valve down in the rim.  My only problem with that was I would have no way to repair the tire if I flatted with my Pit Stop flat repair…so I was just hoping I didn’t flat!!  My whole attitude changed for the better when I ran into one of the race announcers, Bill Gilsenan, who congratulated me for winning a year of free coaching from MarkAllenOnline from a Facebook contest!  I was so ecstatic, I forgot all about the tire : ).

On to the race…as usual, I lined up in the thick of things…right along the pier and as close to the front as I could manage.  The start was unusually calm because they never sounded the cannon for the age group race as they did for the pros (just Mike Reilly was yelling “GO GO GO!!) and I think people were a little confused for a moment.  That was a nice change!  The swim felt great!  I had a good pace to the turnaround boat and then decided to just settle in for an easy cruise home behind another swimmer.  I just started swimming like a crab so I didn’t hit his feet and enjoyed the ride home.  I figured I could save some of that energy for later!  Got out around 1:07…second slowest swim ever in Kona, but figured it was the same for everyone due to currents (which it was).

Now for my favorite leg…the bike!  I hopped on and took it fairly easy the first 10 miles, then settled in once hitting the Queen K for the long haul to Hawi.  The first 30 or so miles were smoking fast with a great tailwind, but that didn’t last too long.  I was expecting a fast bike this year as all weather forecasts had predicted mild conditions for the day, although I thrive best in the toughest conditions and was hoping for high winds!  Lucky for me, we happened to have one of the toughest wind and heat race conditions in many years.  The winds weren’t particularly strong or scary, but the direction they were in sure took it out of all of the athletes!  Huge numbers of them decided to draft as a result which was so disappointing to see at the World Championships!  Where is the respect?!  There was also a grand total of maybe 10 minutes of cloud cover, so cold water at the aid stations on my head was my savior!  I passed a lot of women on the bike, but with about 10 miles to go, I saw a woman in my age group pass by me.  I decided to use her for added motivation which was perfect as I was getting a little bored riding all alone in the final miles of headwinds.  I pulled into transition with a 5:32 bike split…about 22 minutes slower than my last two Kona’s.  Looking back at my power data, I rode really strong and put out the maximum number of watts I figured I could sustain for a 112 mile ride (199W NP) so I was quite pleased with that, especially with a HR of only 140bpm (lowest ever!...go MAO!).

By the end of the bike I was actually sick of riding and ready to start the marathon…can you believe that???  However, when I got off the bike, I must have looked like an old lady as I hobbled around transition and got passed by what felt like a dozen athletes!  As I rolled out of transition, I still felt slow, but was pleased to find I was running a lot faster than I thought (based on my Garmin), and felt pretty decent after about a mile or so.  At the out-and-back on Alii Drive, I spotted the winner of my age group the past two years ahead of me a good 1-2 miles, so I knew that I was probably in 3^rd off the bike.  She didn’t look so good though as she was leaning to one side already at mile 6!  I then saw the gal in 2^nd who was only a couple minutes ahead, and she was looking a bit weary too, which gave me a little boost since I was truly having a blast and feeling pretty good at that point!  At mile 10 I passed my husband, daughter and brother who told me I was closing the gap to 1^st and they were so excited, which made me excited too!  The rest of the marathon got a bit tougher (as it always does!), but I was able to focus on making it aid station to aid station and keep a positive attitude.  By the time mile 21 came around, I had passed 1^st place and closed the gap to 2^nd place to 20 seconds!  I was excited, but was really hurting at this point and Gabriella was able to start pulling away from me in the final 4 miles.  Now I had another potential problem…getting run down by Ann Smith who is a great runner (she outran me by 8 minutes in a half earlier this year!) and was not far behind me.  I struggled up the final climb up Pay-n-Save hill and figured she would be on my heels by that time (which she was!), so I gave it everything I had on the steep downhill and with less than a half mile to go, I spotted her maybe 20 yards behind me….YIKES!  I kept pushing my hardest all the way to the line and could only relax in the last 10 feet to hear Mike Reilly announce my name.  Ann finished a mere 11 seconds later!  Whew!!  It was a hard fought 2^nd place, only a mere 50 seconds behind the winner, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome!

All in all, it was a perfect day in the lava fields!  I kept that positive attitude, respected the race, thanked every volunteer that I interacted with and was truly grateful to be able to compete in such a special place!!

St. Croix 70.3

I designated 2012 as my year to focus on a great performance in Kona, as I am a newbie in the 45-49 age group and it will be the 10^th anniversary of my one and only 1^st place age group finish on the big island.  But first things first…qualify!  St. Croix 70.3 was my first shot at it, and also the first tri of the season.  Although my training had been going well leading up to the race, I had quite a disconcerting setback weeks 2 and 3 pre-race.  After a 1-week-long business/pleasure trip to Costa Rica where I did not touch a bicycle and did zero swimming workouts, I returned home with a nasty cold that completely debilitated me.  The result was systemic antibiotics and no swim, bike or run for another 5 days.  As you can imagine, nearly 2 weeks off the bike and out of the water was a bit disconcerting immediately prior to my “A” qualifier race for Kona.  In an effort to make up for the deficit, I signed up for the Koppenberg bike race followed by the Horsetooth TT a mere 8 and 5 days prior to race day.  So much for the taper!  I felt like I needed those efforts at least from a mental standpoint to get back into race shape.  I had good experiences in both races and renewed my confidence in having a solid race at St. Croix.

St. Croix 70.3 is one of the toughest 70.3 triathlons on the planet, as it is characterized by very steep climbs (i.e. “The Beast” which is a relentless 1 mile climb that includes inclines as much as 23%!), fierce headwinds, and high humidity and brutal Caribbean heat!  It’s my favorite kind of race!  Little did we know…we would be tackled with additional challenges of heavy rains, flooded out streets, and mud and gravel all over the technically challenging roads. 

The day started out nice with a nice 3-mile ride to the start with my hubby Dean and our roommate and fellow MAO athlete, Ian.  Not long after our arrival to the start, the rain started.  We got our transition gear set up and jumped in the water to head to the start on the little island off shore.  It was a brutal and cold 1 hour until the start of my wave, so I hovered in the warm bathroom most of the time until just before the start.  We were the very last wave and a pretty large group of all women 45 and up with a small start area, but everyone was pretty cordial and the contact was minimal.  I mostly swam solo the whole way and felt quite good throughout the swim.  When I arrived in transition, a few bikes had left ahead of me, but I was happy with my position.  I headed out of transition with my shoes attached to my pedals and ended up running through some soft mud, so was ecstatic that I didn’t have my shoes on yet as I know the cleats would be totally non-functional had I packed them with mud.  The bike was incredibly wet, rainy, and technical, so there were lots of minor casualties on the roads (i.e. lots of people with road rash and tons of flats!).  I pushed pretty hard on the bike and felt comfortable despite the brutal and wet conditions and ended up first off the bike for all master women.  It was my first experience putting running socks and shoes on over feet covered in mud!  I could only laugh as I tried to wipe my feet on the grass while putting on my socks in transition.

I got rolling on the run and felt pretty decent.  I pushed hard as I knew the competition wouldn’t be too far behind.  My first glimpse of them was at mile 6…the turnaround for loop 2 of the run.  I spotted a gal in my age group only 3 minutes behind me and was pretty worried that I would be caught by the end of the 13.1 miles.  My mantra was push as hard a possible on the downhills and stay out of site (and out of mind) for the girls chasing behind.  It was deceivingly hot despite the cloud cover and I spotted a girl ahead seize up with a leg cramp.  I decided to stop and give her some of my salt tabs as I had plenty and I thought a good deed might provide that little extra karma I needed!  In the final few miles I was so positive I would be caught (I was caught in this same race in 2008 with only 200 meters to go and lost my Kona slot), that I was pulling myself inside out to stay ahead.  Every woman I saw behind me I assumed was in my age group and I did everything in my power to stay ahead.  In the end it turns out I had a 3 minute lead on 2^nd place and I was able to cross the finish line in 1^st place, securing my spot to Kona this October.  Whew!  I can’t remember ever working so hard at the end of a race!  Well worth it on yet another fun and challenging day in St. Croix!