Stephanie - Heartland Tri, 1st OLY
Heartland Triathlon – 1st Olympic, longest OWS.
I signed up for this race so I’d get in a respectable OWS. .93 is hard to come by around here as most of the ‘longer’ races are international-ish and they measure .5 or.6-ish. So even though it’s a 2.5 to 3 hour drive, I’d heard good things about it. It was lovely. 10th anniversary, pretty town, nice people, well organized, 1100 participants (huge for them) mostly sprinters.
Packet pick-up wasn’t until 3:00 Saturday and I made myself wait until noon to start driving. I had a bagel for breakfast, and took a ucan shake with me for the road. Then I got a cheese burger (naughty) and iced tea. Packet pickup was easy, and the goody bag was outstanding…long sleeve shirt, blanket, socks, gloves, goggles, sunglasses. holy crap! All sorts of small things too like eyeglass holders etc. And a baby sharpie with directions on self-marking. Uh oh.
Then I got stoufers mac n cheese for the microwave at the hotel. And a coupla fig newtons. And a coupla beers (naughty). Went to sleep at 7:30. Never turned on the TV. Woke up at 4:00. Stretching, coffee, multiple trips to the toilet (very very very nervous about swim). Marked myself on one arm…looked good in the mirror…oops, had to get creative turning that 3 around. FINALLY left for race at 5:45. Sipping NUUN as I had the last couple of days at work, ate a UCAN serving on the way. Small bottle with another 2 servings in it for transitions.
Found parking, walked bike over…had the usual territorial dance with chicks on the bike rack. The bossy ones, the ones who look like they’ve packed for a weekend away, and mostly the cool ones who want to chat and share war stories. A few of us headed over to timing chip pickup and stood in line together. I now have a friend called “V”, who has invited me to her place for bike rides and runs. She lives in one of those areas in Florida where everyone goes to cycle. Her twins are off to college so she’s got time on her hands. She runs at my pre-injury pace, so maybe one day we can do some running together also.
Off to the water to stare out at the first buoy and be happy that my bowels are completely empty. More chatting in the water. Triathlon people are the best.
There were many waves(11 or 14?), 3 minutes apart, I was in the second wave. Headed out to the first buoy. I had all sorts of plans to stay in the back, off to the right….and completely forgot. SO when our gun went off I was in the 2nd row of a huge crowd!… I swam to the first buoy in the middle of everyone, and while it took me a while to warm up, voila! No biggie. No drama at the turn, no drama to the second one, found a couple of people swimming nicely side to side with just enough room for me to draft! Then they split up, and I got behind a totally wild leg spread knee bent FLAIL KICKER. Very dangerous and tough to swim around. Net net, I only had to elbow and kick a couple of people the whole way. Kept my cool and swam fast when I had to get around someone, but basically coasted. Could I have gone faster? Sure, but considering I thought I might drown, this was a piece of cake. There was a long wading section to the grassy embankment and another rather long hike UP a slippery slope to the timing mat (ever watch the wildebeasts trying to get up the embankment and not fall back into the jaws of the Nile Crocs?). I feel bad for the people in the later waves, that had to be a mud-slide later. Thankfully, no large reptiles.
Anyway, carried my shoes to the mount line (longest ever) and clipped them in sandal style and took off. Half a mile later I could reach down and pull my heels in. I did my first century in the same area in February so the orange groves and little lakes were familiar. I had doused myself thoroughly with sunscreen (opting out of my new cooling shirt) and had a serving of UCAN before I took off. Tried to drink water every 10 or 15 minutes. Could have gone faster but I was worried about the run. And it was getting hot. Eventually 91degrees of humid Florida sunshine. I had a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade endurance. I don’t like the stuff but I needed to see if I could get used to it on the fly and it was fine. At the 12 mile mark I pointed to my volunteer and got an ice cold bottle of water cleanly, YAY! Drank some, some on head, some down the back, gulped some more, more on the arms…used it all. Finished the last 12 miles and headed into transition. Legs felt OK, less wobbly than after the swim..hmmm… anyway, couldn’t decide if I wanted socks or not, couldn’t decide if I wanted the cooling shirt (stupid move, left the shirt in the bag), forgot my race belt and number, had to go back…stupid move #2 ( 6+ minutes!!! Gawd, I could have had a NAP, learned a language), it is now 1000 degrees kelvin in the sun and I’m doing my run walk thing. It’s hot. Really hot. The run is 2 5ks with several (4 I think) spokes around a center…plenty of icy cold water at each aide station at the center. Out and back, 1 water on head, 1 water down shirt, drink 1 water x 8. Pain – I always have some right foot pain off the bike. Always. Have worked with the fitter, changed pedals, cleat positions and shoes…this is as good as it’s going to get. Went away after a couple miles. Hip pain for 3 miles, went away…(VERY full bladder, no place to relieve it. None. I Snuck behind a bank building and pee’d mostly on the ground and some down my leg and into my shoe) knee and hamstring pain at 4 miles (put a NUUN in a cup and ate/drank it), knee pain was gone by 5, (half a hammer gel/ick at 5 should have had a ucan flask with me (stupid move #3)), so gimped in with hamstring pain, but nothing serious.
Got an ice-cold wet towel that felt like heaven. Cooling tents with misters and chairs!! Honestly I love Sebring. 1100 racers and I was one of the last ones. I knew this would happen but I wanted to get it done. I did. 3:57 ish. Fuel: 2 1/2 servings of UCAN, 1 large bottle with 2 scoops of Gatorade endurance, half a gel, 1 nuun. If I’d eaten all the UCAN I wouldn’t have needed that half a gel. They had HEED on the course and I cannot stomach that stuff. Ditto with bananas.
Met some nice people, saw my new friend just ahead of me and was able to say “hey” at midpoint of each “spoke”. Saw someone with an EN kit on, still don’t know who he was. Was friendly (didn’t bite)
Things I would do differently. 1. Wear the cooling shirt 2. Eat the UCAN 3. Use the potty in t2 4. Wear two piece tri-outfit so I don’t pee in my favorite running shoes! And worry less. And not drink beer the night before. Probably.
Comments
I love your attitude; I had a smile on my face reading your report.
I'm glad Al! Life is amusing.
Thanks, I love to read race reports, so I feel a lot of pressure writing them. I love this sport, glad you enjoyed it!
I do find it odd that every year there are several complaints about the lack of bathrooms and they never do anything about it. I think part of the reason is that it the number of athletes has doubled every year until this year where they had to cap it. So they are definitely having some logistical issues.
You should be happy with your swim considering a fresh water, non wetsuit swim is usually a little bit more difficult. Plus, that return portion of the swim where the olympic racers merged with the sprinters was pure chaos. Sounds like your well on your way to finishing IMFL.
Hopefully we will see you out there next year.
Thanks Mario! Who do you train with here in Miami? I have a good friend in my neighborhood to train with but she's leaving in 2 weeks to do some traveling in the Northeast on her way to IM Lake Placid. Self-motivation isn't my strong suit!
Yes there are a couple of things that Sebring could do differently...bathrooms would be REALLY good. But I should have found a portathingamajig.
Hee hee hee Doug! Thanks!