For some reason (because I have so many photos?!) I have been putting off this post . . . but I need to get it done, so here we go . . .
Last year Ben and I had talked about "upping" our triathlon game - meaning, moving up to the next level. Which meant an Olympic-distance tri versus the sprints we had been doing for the past few years. Ben obviously went crazy and signed up for a half-Ironman, but I kept within my limits and signed up for an Olympic-distance triathlon, haha.
The Olympic-distance tri is about double the distances of the sprint - except the swim is actually more than double. The sprints seem to vary in their distances, but are usually around a 300-750 meter swim, a 15-ish mile bike ride, and a 5k run. The Olympic-distance triathlons seem a bit more standard and are the following: a 1500 meter swim (close to a mile, especially when taking into account all the non-straight lines you swim in open-water ha), a 30-mile bike ride, and a 10k (6.2 miles) run.
We signed up for the Lake to Lake Triathlon held in Loveland, Colorado - for mainly the reason of our good friends (and neighbors) who help run it with their family. Our friends, Alex and Molly Shockley, help Peggy Shockley (Alex's mom) put on the triathlon. She's been doing it since 2001. This was to be her last year running it and so we decided what better (and last!) time for us to do it with the Shockley family as a huge part of it.
Ben and I signed up early and began our training. Ben's training was really training for the half-Ironman and then stepping back for this, ha. Mine included the longest bike-rides I had ever ridden (I was doing one 35-mile ride a week, plus one shorter one) and swimming in open-water. Yuck! Actually, Taviwach (the local pond) wasn't horrible and I felt pretty comfortable with it.
As Emmy prepared for her lifeguard test and training, Ben took her swimming at the rec's pool. Emmy, who hadn't swam in years, did great and was motivated to sign up for the sprint triathlon. So we signed her up, too! Her training was definitely sub-par, but she did a few bikes rides and a few open-water swims with us at Taviwach. (Emmy was always awfully un-happy getting up early to go swimming . . . but she was also pretty happy at the end. Funny how that happens . . .)
Anyways, this is already so long and I haven't even begun race day, ha! Loveland is north of Denver and my best-friend, who moved from here a few years ago, lives in Johnstown - about 15 minutes from Loveland. So we stayed with Sarah (Bugarin) and her family the evening before the race. It was delightful and I just love them so - especially Sarah. :) We walked around their beautiful neighborhood and I truly ached for a beautiful neighborhood (love my house, but not our 'hood).
We then got up bright and early on Saturday, June 22nd. We got ourselves ready and out the door and to the race venue. From there we were setting up our bikes and transitions, etc. Debbie, Ben's sister, was staying with her parents in Littleton for a few weeks and she made the early-morning drive up to Loveland and was there to see all of us compete. It was so fun to have her there! She hung out with Lucy and so it was good for them both to have each other.
We were all set-up and dressed (getting on wetsuits is No Joke) and then it was game-on.
Ben began at 7:04; I started at 7:12; Emmy started at 7:42. Or close to that.
Ben: He, of course, rocked it. It's a bit tougher competition than a sprint (you weed out a lot of athletes who can't or won't train for the longer distances), but a bit easier than the half-Ironman. Ben ended up placing 55th overall (out of 220 competitors), 43rd overall male (out of 133), and 5th overall in his age-group (out of 12). Pretty impressive! I spend some free-time at work and came up with the following in his age group: 9th in swimming, 4th in biking, and 5th in the run. His times in the overall male category were the following (remember, out of 133): 82nd in swimming, 38th in biking, and 41st in the run. Pretty great! His overall time was 2:54:40. Splits: swimming 35:30 (includes the 1/4 mile distance between the shore and the transition area), 1:261:14 on the bike, and 48:41 on the run. He met all of his goals, which I don't remember what they were. But he met them, yay!
Me: I almost quit twice in the water. I don't know what happened. Panic attack? Even though I didn't feel nervous at all about the open-water - I mean, I always have nerves beginning any racing event, and this was no different. I can't even really explain it - but I felt flushed and a sense of impending doom. That literally is the best way to describe it. I felt it twice. It was awful and that thought of not finishing was more awful. But I don't know . . . I prayed and just kept swimming hoping it would go away. And it did. But then it came back. But then it left again and I was pretty good for the rest of the swim. I still am nervous about doing an open-water swim again because I think my body will remember that sense of impending doom and I am just nervous of it happening again. Sigh. So I was glad to have done it and get out of the water. I was a bit bummed of my swim time - not my actual swim time, it was decent for me (43 or so minutes). But I took my sweet time to get to the transition area, which was about 1/4 mile away. And that few-extra minutes just makes me mad, ha. But now I know . . . I LOVED the bike ride, which is shocking because biking is so hard for me. But I felt so strong and absolutely loved the course. I passed a lot of other riders and that felt pretty, ummm, awesome. There were some great climbs and amazing and fun descents. I would ride it again just for fun! The run was kind of long and it was just hot for me . . . I hate running later than 8am in the summer and by the time I was running, it was almost 10 and just sunny and hot. But I kept up a decent pace and had a decent run.
I ended up placing 150th overall (out of 220), 47th overall female (out of 87), and 8th overall in my age group (out of 10). Not amazing but okay. In my age group I was the 9th swimmer (not last!!!), 8th biker, and 5th runner. Overall for females I was 77th (out of 87) in the swim, 42nd in the bike, and 26th in the run. Anyways, my overall time was 3:35:59. I was wanting under 4 hours and so I was super happy with my results! My splits were 46:22 on the swim, 1:48:36 on the bike, and 55:25 on the run.
Emmy had a good race and was happy - which was the best result of all! She ended up getting last in her age group, but for not really training at her full-capacity I was just glad she did it and felt good about her performance. :) She felt really strong with her bike ride and was happy about that. She went faster than she'd ever gone before in a training ride and so that was exciting. (Emmy's distances were exactly half of what Ben and I did - a 750 meter swim, 15-mile bike ride, and a 5k run.) Emmy got 8th out of 8 in her age division. :) She was 185th out of 277 in overall sprint athletes, and 91st out of 162 in the female athletes. Her splits were: swimming 22:22 (112th in the female category - so out of 162), biking 58:21 (107th), and running 29:47 (63rd). Not bad at all for her minimal training and it being her first full sprint triathlon. I was just happy that she was happy!
Alrighty, now on to pictures . . .
