Chinook Half (calgary) June 16th
Raced the Chinook half yesterday, was a bit of a disappointing day but I suppose there is always something to be learned from a race, so I am going with that.
Was up at 5 am to eat, get dressed, drive to race start. I wanted to be in transition right at 7:00 to give myself lots of time to get ready and get in the water since I did not have a race rehearsal swim in the open water (a mistake I will not repeat). Water was 15'C or 59'F, not too bad but took some adjustment. Swim was a two loop course of 2 km. This race was fairly small, maybe 100 people doing the long course, so had no problem finding a spot and I felt pretty good on the first loop. Came out of the water to round the buoy for the second lap and felt my calves crap a bit, sort of thought that was ood, but just kept going. really tried to focus on keeping up a harder pace than I usually do in races, had minimal sighting issues, But the leg cramps were getting worse, never experienced that in a race before. Came out of the water and forgot to scoop water into my suit for ease of removal- wetsuit strippers had a heck of a time getting the suit off and my hamstrings totally seized up while they were yanking on my suit. I hobbled into transition, saw 48:00 on the watch and my heart sank, I was really gunning for 42:__. Oh well... tried to ignore the cramping legs, get into my socks, shoes, helmet, belt and glasses, and armwarmers at the last minute since I realized I was freezing! Headed out to the highway, legs felt like LEAD, and really weak, but kept power in 160 ish range, took it a bit easier on the downhills the first half hour until I started to feel a bit recovered. Bike course was an out and back out to the Mountains just outside Calgary, spectacular scenery and great biking venue.
30 minutes in began to dial into my 170 HIM power range, this course was really hilly, I had a lot of fun passing people on both the ups and the downs. Ride was very uneventful until just before the turn around point, a guy was pleading for a C02 cartridge (his second flat) so I pulled over to give hime one of mine. At this point I realized I'd have to make a port-a-potty stop on the bike (first time that had ever happened!) and my power meter also stopped working for whatever reason... I was really frustrated by this for quite awhile until I realized it was just distracting me from riding my race, so I focused on HR and how my legs felt. Came off the bike in 3:11:51, for 96 kms, was pretty pleased with that given the 2 stops and disfunctional PM.
Got through transition pretty quickly, the sun had finally come out and I was feeling pretty decent. I have been healing from Plantar Fasciitis so my longest run pre-race was 7 kms. I am enroute to IMC in August, so from the beginning my plan always was to pull out at the halfway mark if I felt like the foot could not handle it.The run course was 2 loops I did run 2 min, walk 30 sec for the first 8 kms, was feeling pretty good until 7 kms when the foot started to protest a little, then got louder as I progressed. I think I walked in the majority of the last 2 kms, and decided that I could walk the second loop, but really, it was not worth it and figured I'd just stop at the half mark. I was coming into the chute and suddenly got all choked up... here I was about to confront my first DNF. I KNOW it was the smart choice, but I felt like I was quitting, and I am not a quitter. Of course the announcer is trying to get you all fired up- who WALKS through the spectator area after all, and I was just trying to sneak off because I'm now blubbering and can't even talk. I managed to tell a volunteer 'I just need to stop' and that I was okay, and the guy pulled me over to take my timing chip. Having that timing chip taken from me almost made me want to grab it back, I felt so awful at this point. I spoke quickly with the race director to explain why I pulled out, got all my finishers gear(which at first I did not want to touch!!) and went off to a quiet patch of grass to cry and feel sorry for myself. Went and got some food, packed up my stuff and made my way back home.
This morning I woke up feeling much better- I can walk, the foot is a little sore but it feels the same way it does after I push it just a little. I know if I had kept going it would have been sacrificing my training time for IMC. Just the hardest choice EVER!! So, not the race I envisioned when I signed up back in January, but I got to test out my biking, realize I have to buckle down on the swim , and that I made it 10.5 kms on the run. It was not a wasted race, now I can refocus on IMC- 9 weeks to go!! I will wear the finishers t-shirt with pride, I worked hard for the portion of the race I could do, and for once it's a pretty nice shirt ;-). Not my finest day of racing, but it will help me become a better triathlete- at the very least I will probably never drop out of a race if I can help it again, this tastes too bad!! Now to figure out what went wrong with my PM...
Comments
b/t/y - way to show your sportsmanship during the race - Chrissie would've been proud..
I had my PM die half way through a race 2 yrs ago. Now before every big race, I change the batteries and I make sure my computer is fully charged and I have also cleared the memory/history from my computer.
Oh - and BTW - if you're still considering prolo, I'm a believer after 2 rounds!