Julie McNamara-Dahl
Federal Escape Olympic Triathlon
Race Report
7/29/06
Goals:
I decided not to obsess about my time goals for this event. My primary goal was to improve my performance over the Cascades Edge Olympic Tri, which I finished in 3:17. I wanted to focus on keeping my head down in the swim, putting more into the bike leg and then focusing on pace vs. HR during the run, and running sub-10 minute miles.
Pre-race:
The night before the race I managed to go to bed and fall asleep at 8pm! I think I was still tired from my business trip to Orlando the week before and it worked in my favor to allow me to get a full night’s sleep prior to the race. I had intended to get up at 4am, but slept in an extra 30 minutes. Breakfast was an egg mixed with egg beaters and a whole wheat English muffin plus coffee with cream. On the drive to the race I had a tall non-fat latte and a chocolate biscotti.
We arrived at the park at 6:20, and the pre-race briefing was scheduled for 7:15, this was cutting it closer than I liked and I scolded myself for the extra 30 minutes of hitting the snooze button. After setting up in the transition area I managed about a six minute warm-up run. I switched my orthotics into my bike shoes and saw Jill who recommended that I get in the water because the water was “different” than in other lakes. I wasn’t sure how that could be true, but hustled into my wetsuit and got into the water for a few strokes of swimming. Sure enough this lake was DARK. I had on my orange goggles and it gave everything a golden sheen. Just knowing that visibility would be virtually zero was helpful and kept me from freaking out when the race started.
During the first lap of the swim I felt pretty strong. I actually passed a few people and felt like I was able to stay on the “inside lane” close to the buoys. I had a lot of contact with other people in the beginning. I got an elbow in the nose from one woman, but really just didn’t let the contact bother me. On the second lap I’m sure I slowed down. I didn’t feel quite as strong but about half way through someone swam right beside me at an identical pace. I should’ve tried to draft off of her, but I haven’t practiced that so we swam side by side for a long time. When I got out of the water my husband said I was 37 minutes – yippee – that was better than 38+ in my last Olympic.
As I ran into the transition zone I took a wrong turn but luckily Jill and her son were there to tell me to run the right way. I was a bit discouraged to see nearly all the bikes gone, but somehow this race I didn’t worry as much about being near the end of the pack as last time. I didn’t have quite as much dizziness as last race so I started out biking with a bit more speed than last race. Incredibly I did not have my bike computer on my bike! My husband had loaded my bike, so I didn’t notice until we got to the park. I would have to rely totally on perceived exertion to motivate me to keep pushing.
The first loop (of 4) of the bike route seemed to go on forever. Each successive loop, however, seemed to go by more quickly. It was great to be cheered on each time I passed the park. I didn’t pass anyone until the last two loops but I was passed A LOT. For the men, I just looked at their thighs and didn’t let it bother me. The women, I had a harder time with but since most of them looked totally buff I didn’t let it bother me except to think will I ever be that strong? When I passed people the last two laps they were all women, and because our age was on our left calf I know that virtually all of them were my age or older. Oh well. I reminded myself to compare myself with all the women who weren’t out there on the course!
The bike course was relatively flat with just a few small hills. Those small hills, however, sure seemed big. I drank one bottle of Gatorade during the ride, drinking only once per loop. On the 2nd and 3rd loops I took a big bite of a Power Bar. I think that extra nutrition helped. I had only 2 scary car encounters since they did a great job of keeping most cars off the course. In one instance a car nearly turned left in front of me. The stupid driver was on his cell phone. Luckily he saw me in time and didn’t turn. I was already starting to brake. Just as I was wondering what that did to my HR a car coming toward me crossed the center line and probably came a good 4 feet into my lane before swerving back. I couldn’t tell if that joker was on a cell phone too, trying to scare me or just a sloppy driver. Anyway, that was my excitement for the ride.
On the final bike loop I missed the turn in! Thankfully a volunteer said “4th loop” and pointed. By then it was too late and I had to pull a quick u-turn. Transition was quick and I was off running across that bumpy grassy start that included a tiny but steep hill. After the first couple of minutes I looked at my Garmin and was surprised to see my pace was less than 10 minutes. 
Yeah! Also, relatively quickly I started to feel really good on the run. I mean, really good. For the first full loop I felt so strong and relaxed and cool under the overcast skies. I could easily keep my pace under 10 minutes except on the hills when I intentionally slowed to keep my HR from going to high. In fact, when I saw my mom she said I was looking good despite the sweat and I said “what sweat?”!
On the second loop after about a mile I started to feel the cumulative effects of the race. At that point I told myself it was about how mentally strong I was and forced myself to keep at a sub 10 minutes pace whenever it was flat or downhill. This got harder and harder to do as the final miles progressed. My mental chant was “push it, push it”. As we turned into the park and got on the gravel trail, I ran at sprint pace. When we had to turn uphill to the finish line I was struggling but determined to push as hard as I could until the end. When I crossed the line I bent over to catch my breath and a volunteer asked if I was okay. Oh yes, very okay, but very spent. Later, when I checked my Garmin I see that my HR maxed at 201 at that point! No wonder I might not have looked so good.
I’m amazed to see that my HR averaged 178 on the first bike lap, 172 on the second, then 169 and 170. On the run it averaged 173 for the first lap and 179 on the second lap. My splits on the lap were fairly even for the bike at 21:09, 20:26, 20:35 and 22:04. Some of the differences were due to inconsistency in when I hit the lap button. My running laps were 27:50 and 27:55, but I hit the stop button maybe almost a minute after I finished, so I think I had a quicker second lap than the first. I wasn’t sure about my total time since I couldn’t find my waterproof watch to wear for the whole race. While I was eating pancakes and sausage, my mom stood in line to get my total time: 2:59:13. She was so excited for me and I teared up knowing that I had met my “secret goal” of less than 3 hours. I know this course was easier than Cascades Edge so I shouldn’t compare, but it was still so sweet to think that I had a sub-3 hour Olympic!
