posted by Lee@Tri*Inspired*Life on Race Report

It certainly has been a long time since my last post.  After Raleigh 70.3, I did not have any races set in my schedule.  I had my next race in mind, but I just wanted to find out where my motivation was after that race.  The race I had in mind was a sprint distance called Smile Train.  It is the first triathlon I ever raced back in 2009.  I have never repeated this race and have wanted to for quite a while.  However, I wanted to really RACE it.

My training turned to a focus on speed overall.  With the run, my sessions were tempo and speed intervals; for the swim, I was doing shorter sets, also working on speed.  As far as the bike, I continued to ride with the Tri Life group, which has always helped me push my speed.  Overall, I was feeling good and I was generally happy with where I was.  After some solid training sessions, I registered for the race one week before race day.

As the week prior to race day, I apparently got a touch of a cold.  I had some sinus drainage and essentially lost my voice for a couple of days.  I had a couple of nights’ sleep that was poor, but I never really felt bad due to the “cold”.  I felt a bit fatigued on a couple of days, but I thought that was more due to the sleep issue.  I honestly thought it was more that I sounded bad, but the “cold” did not hit me hard enough to bring me down.

Sunday morning, June 28, was race day.  I (initially) felt ready to go.  After a series of hot days, the morning was very beautiful and a great day to race!

The swim was a 250 meter pool swim.  Start times were based off the times that each participant submitted at the registration.  I submitted an aggressive time, but when I registered, I had completed a couple of solid sprint swim sessions and feeling confident.  I was able to get in some warm-up sets, which was important for me with the swim…especially with the desire to want to go all out from the first stroke.

I pushed hard.  I felt like I was giving all I had.  Most of my transitions under the rope (we had to swim under the rope at each wall to change lanes) were not as quick and smooth as I would have liked.  I got passed by a couple of people, which is not too unusual in this environment.  I gave what I had.

Time for the 12 mile bike.  I was really planning to push super hard since this is typically my strongest leg.  I had high expectations for myself.  Well, I definitely pushed myself hard, but was not able to get the speed I was was expecting or capable of.  It was here that I really realized that my energy level was struggling big time.  The course is a rolling course and even though I was not wearing the heart rate strap for my Garmin, I knew it was high.

As the run started, I tried to just focus on the idea I had a 5K to run.  I originally had high expectations for the run as well, so I dug in with hopes that my training would push me through.

I had forgotten that this was a tough 5K course.  For a race that a lot of folks choose as their first (as I did in 2009), it is certainly not a easy run.  Basically your are either running uphill or downhill.  There is pretty much NO flat.

I crossed the finish line at a total time of 1:12:52.  I was disappointed in what I was able to put out there.  Even though I thought I was OK with this cold, my body definitely had a different story to tell.  This was the first race that I have run where I was not 100%.  I felt like I gave 110%, but only had about 80% to give.  After I finished, my body continued to send me more of a message as I coughed for about 20 minutes straight.  UGH!!!  At least my coughing fit was not during the race!!

Results:

1:12:52 (2009 time: 1:33:04)

Age Group Placement: 4 out of 26

Gender Placement: 21 out of 127

Tags: racing