One more this year. BLT went well, as did Kirkland, so my last race was the Black Diamond Tri down in Enumclaw. This one is an Olympic distance race which is twice the distances of the sprint races that are common in town, or roughly a 1/4 Ironman distance (~1mile swim, 25mile bike, 6mile run). Fortunately the weather looked good so I have yet to do a race in inclement conditions.
The day kicked off with a troubling start. Enumclaw is about an hour south of here so I was to pick up my buddy Mike at a Park and Ride near my house at 6:30 so we could carpool down. I'd left my TT bike in the back of my truck since Kirkland last week so it was ready to go. At 6:20, I threw my race bag into the truck, put the key in the ignition and...click. That's it. No startie. So I call Mike, ask him how many bikes can fit on the hitch-rack on his Wrangler (4), and that he should head up to my place. He gets here in a few minutes and we discover that he's got a lock on his rack that only allows one bike in there (his), and no key. Not good. Panic creeping in. We try rolling my truck half way up the driveway, then starting it as it rolls down into the garage. Not suprisingly, this is a stupid plan and doesn't work. I tell Mike to pull his bike off his rack so I can try stuffing both of our bikes into my Audi, and have him run to the store for jumper cables. After some innovative positioning, I manage to get the bikes in there, and tell him I'll meet him back at the park and ride. Disaster averted.
It's good we were in the Audi because I was motivated at that point to get down there and it scoots a bit better than the truck does. It's a really pretty drive down to Enumclaw, headed straight for Rainer on a crystal clear fall morning. Unfortunately it's a cold one. My car read 38 degrees, and we spotted some frost on the low-lying trees. Yikes.
We get down to the race in plenty of time. Fortunately, some of Mike's friends had gone down two days prior to pick up race packets. This race was a simultaneous Half Marathon, Sprint Tri, Olympic Tri, and Olympic Duathlon, and packet pick up was a bottleneck, with a huge line we thankfully didn't have to stand in. So we bundled up and goofed off until closer to race time. I was happy that I brought a stocking cap and full-fingered gloves.
Finally, we get in the water and it is co-oh-oh-old. Much cooler than Lake Washington. Once you were in it it was tolerable, but definitely chilly. The race starts and I focus on swimming smooth and "drafting". Just like on the bike, it's way easier to let someone break the water for you, plus it's legal. Basically you just find the bubbles coming from someone's feet and keep them close to your head. But it's hard because people don't swim that straight, and neither do I so it's easy to lose them. It's a two-loop course (sprint was one loop), and really I'm comfortable for most of the swim. I didn't consider giving up and drowning once, which is nice. About 3/4 of the way through though, I did see a guy manage to get backwards on the course...I think he went all the way around a turn bouy, but I sight and see this head facing me going "what the hell?!?" as he realizes he's backwards. In the last 200y or so, there was a shady part that was *much* cooler, and that sucked. But I made it through without too much trauma.
The longer bike was great. The course was a little wacky (several out-and-back sections) but fairly flat and fast, with some rollers that served as good opportunites to stand and stretch the legs out for a bit. The great thing about being an average-at-best swimmer and a faster rider is you get to pass lots of people, and I certainly did that. At about 6 or 7 miles in my muscles finally turned on and I felt great. I would have loved another 10 or 20 miles on the bike. I opted not to wear arm warmers or anything on the bike and it paid off. The temp had risen signifcantly and I was fine after two minutes on the bike. The bike leg went by in what seemed like an instant. I really enjoyed it.
Before I knew it, I was back for the run and the fun was over. I felt better coming out of T2 than I did at Kirkland but it didn't last long. If I thought the bike was wacky, the run was even wackier. Much of it was on trails that had lots of rocks sticking up and that really made me nervous, it was a double out and back course where you crossed other runners twice. And there were just enough rolling hills to make you hurt. The first two miles of the run were tough, then I felt great for two miles and then the jig was up. My leg injury and resulting lack of mid-season running training really showed and the last two miles were nothing but self-talk, and not all of it friendly. The course only had a mile marker (that I saw) at mile 1, so I was guessing where I was from my time. At one point I thought I had one mile or less to go, only to discover it was a mile and half. The last mile and a half was a fairly nice loop around the lake, but at that point the clock was ticking and I did not want to miss breaking 2:30 and that's what kept me going, but I was at my rope's end. But it's amazing how fast all of that melts a way when you cross the line and you're done.
So it was a good season. As Deb astutely pointed out, just six months ago I didn't think I'd even *have* a tri season so I feel fortunate to have three races under my belt. And I walked away from this one knowing the swim & bike of a 1/2 IM won't be much of a problem for me, it's just that damn half marathon at the end. But I've got between now and June to decide that's not so bad either.
For my first Olympic I can't complain. I did better than double my sprint time, but just barely if you factor in for the transitions and flatish-bike course. Next time I'll push a little harder on the bike (I don't think that would have made much of a diff in the run), and see how that goes. It was great to see some other people who I've met through racing and training out there having good races too.
Time for a little bit of a training break...
BIKE RUN OVERALL
OVERALL DIV SWIM TRAN BIKE TRAN PL AFTER RUN
NAME AGE SEX TIME PLACE TIME PLACE TIME TIME PLACE TIME BIKE TIME PLACE CITY & STATE
35. Shawn Burke 31 M 2:28:02 5 0:28:07 83 2:54 1:07:51 22 1:29 31 0:47:41 49 Kirkland, WA