It was another fun year racing in Frankenmuth. Tri for life along with 3Disciplines put on a great race (http://www.donatelifetriathlon.com/). This year there were more female pros that showed up! Gulp...haha. I
traveled to this race solo as Ross was helping with the Millennium
Triathlon for the weekend. I was able to meet up with Sam and Todd
Kennedy and their friend, Todd Buckingham...who is my friend now too! I stayed at the trusty Frankenmuth Motel...not bad for a motel might I add. I was safe and the place was clean. I was only 1 minute from the race! Sweet.
Anyway,
I went into the race unrested as I am committed to a solid training
block leading up to a couple later races I am hoping to peak for. I have
to admit I was pretty nervous as I haven't raced unrested in awhile. I
slept horribly the 3 nights before the race. Not exactly sure why, but
this didn't help my energy going into the race. I just tried to let go of what I could not control and trust God had a plan that he would give the energy when it was time. I
have to constantly remind myself of this when my mind starts advancing
to the future and focuses on things I have no control over. It's a constant battle.
Well, race morning came and I
woke up surprisingly not too sleepy or groggy after only sleeping a few
hours. I had my EBOOST shot to help give me a little boost an hour
before the race. This always helps with mental energy for me. Setting up
in transition before the race was really fun. Todd, Sam and the other
Todd were throwing out all kinds of funny encouragement to get me going.
They even gave me the prime bike rack spot. :) How nice is that! I needed every edge to go up against Jennifer Spieldenner!
I
headed for my swim warm up-it was wetsuit legal so I had my full-sleeve
XTERRA vendetta wetsuit. It made getting in the water super
comfortable. I got a good swim warm up in this time, which allowed me to
get nice and loose. I was calm and focused and ready to just lay out
there what I had!
While
the rest of the olympic and sprint distance races lined up on the cool
Ferry boat, the elite wave was called into the water to line up. The
horn blasted and I just went! I like to think that I have big gorilla
arms that just grab the water and help me get out as fast as I can. I
had a good start and was mostly by myself. A big pack of guys lead the
way and pulled away-I wasn't near their feet so no drafting for me! I
stuck to my line and did my best with taking any sort of efficient
tangents I could. I couldn't tell if any other swimmers were real close
by, but I knew Jen was either way ahead or right by me somewhere. I was
shocked when she came up on the side of me towards the last few hundred
meters--but I was encouraged she was by me because she is a strong
swimmer and I have never been by her before. We exited the water at
almost the same time-she ran up into transition a little ahead of me. As
I had my wetsuit down around my waist-I then realized I never zipped up
my race suit. Oops. I guess I would be showin a little back for this
race. ;) (maybe having my suit unzipped slowed me down! I wasn't as aerodynamic-ha ha). Oh but wait, I had my Rudy Project aero helmet on-so I was good to go.
I got out on the bike just ahead of Jen and she got around me on the
bike right away. I was prepared for this so I stayed calm, but knew if I wanted to stay in the game I had to have my big girl pants on and embrace the pain.
My goal was to ride aggressively. I had done a 20KTT earlier in the week
(it went extremely well, but tired me out) so I wasn't so sure how this
bike was going to feel. I just had to ride hard no matter what though.
It hurt-it was hard to keep pushing and to keep Jen in sight. I didn't
let her get away too badly, but by the end it was about 30". I found it
is so easy to loose focus and not keep the gas pedal on as strong. I am
still learning this.
Todd
Kennedy passed me on the bike around half way and gave some
encouragement. I was excited to have been in front of him for awhile at
least. He's been racing strong. I eventually surged past Todd again a little before the end and saw Jen running out as I was getting into T2.
I
settled in as best as I could on the run-knowing I was going to have to
have a really amazing run to catch Jen. I kept her in sight, but the
gap slowly grew over the 10K. I kept pushing as best as I could because I
wanted to be as close as I could. I had some real low points in the run
where I could feel my technique starting to fall apart. I would get a
hold of it for a bit and it seemed to happen again. The run was 2 laps
and as I was coming in towards transition for my second lap, someone
yelled "just 20 more yards and you are done!" Usually I can just ignore
that because I know it is hard to tell who is doing the sprint race and
who has to keep going, but I made a ugly face and mumbled, "ugh no!" Oh
man, I felt like I was rude (not that anyone heard me). haha. I was just
hurting at that point and wanted to point out I wasn't done I guess!
Well, I just lost juice towards the end! I put forth my best effort for the day, but I think I could feel some of the training from the week at the end.
On
a side note, on the run course we run through the little shops (fun)
and then by Bronners and there are all kinds of Christmas decorations.
Kinda fun and unique wouldn't you say? Oh and there were people playing
accordions for us. I liked that. Made me smile amongst my discomfort.
I
ended up 2nd by about 1:30. I was 3 minutes faster than last year on
this course-so that was great to see (although it can be hard to compare
exactly year to year). I was still encouraged. Jen raced well and I
know she wasn't rested either. Tri4Him teammate, Sam, was 4th. She's
been having issues with her hip and had to stop and walk at mile 5,
which was about where she slipped from 3rd to 4th. What a fighter
though. It's not easy racing when you aren't right physically-it can
make the mind feel heavy too!
Overall,
a great time. I had a lot of fun visiting with racers are race staff
after the race. This race and venue is really pretty special in my
books. Congrats to the other elite racers Kyla Chapman and Hannah Kasmierz.
Thank you Trevor
and Lon Coleman for your support and cheers before, during, and after
the race. You guys are great and sure make the racers feel special.
