Race Report – Pittsburgh Triathlon, Sunday, July 20, 2008

Format: Olympic Distance

This past weekend my husband and I drove the kids to the sweet, steel city for the event. Well that, and to visit my in-laws. We stayed with his father in Allison Park, PA which is about 4miles north of the city. This was my first Olympic distance race, and despite my initial nervousness over the distances, I was pretty excited. Early in the season, my hope was to place in the top 10 women overall, and maybe place in my age group. After I realized I had some ground to cover in the open water, I showed up race day looking to alter my plan. Coach & I decided that I need to not get worked up in the swim, try to set the fastest women’s bike time, and then see how long I can hold on in the run.

We went to the expo early on Saturday to get the packet and to have the bike inspected. I guess after last year’s super long lines (I’m told), this year’s inspection was voluntary. I was the first customer, but after waiting 45 min for the mechanic to show up late, my personal mechanic decided that the inspection was unnecessary. I think he was a little insulted that I even wanted to do the inspection, but I figured if it’s offered, why not? He humored me, but 45 minutes later, he took the bike off the stand, rode it around Heinz Field parking lot a few times, declaring it sound. We wandered around the course area a bit, but there wasn’t much to see yet, and with the heat increasing, we took the kids to the Etna Pool.

Race morning came very early, 4am early. We arrived by 5:30 and still quite dark. The first thing I heard after exiting our car was a race staffer declaring that wetsuits were not allowed. I was really surprised, considering the volume of water in the Allegheny River – I just didn’t think it would warm up that much (82). Also, since my last race (Jackie Kallal) with a wetsuit, I had major room for improvement. I’ve spent several practice swims in the Y pool and Cunningham Falls making friends with my suit. In addition, I decided that the way I viewed the wetsuit was entirely wrong. Hank shared with me that he valued the peace of mind his provided, the tighter the better. I referred to mine as a beast. Its closeness was nearly claustrophobic. I began to think more positively about it – a helper & a protector. Between the practice and shift in attitude, I was ready to don the suit. Once the announcement was made, I was frustrated, but figured it was less to deal with in transition. I put her back in the car, “Sorry babe, you are gonna have to sit this one out.”

I was greeted by very pleasant volunteers dressed in, of course, black and gold. They body marked me and guided me by flashlight to my designated spot. Set up was fairly straight forward and I headed out to catch up with my husband and son. By 6am the sun was up and the set up unfolded before our eyes. Throughout the entire event, I was really impressed by the level of detail Piranha Sports produced. After a few brief words we were corralled to the entrance ramp to the water.

Swim: I was the third, but not last wave. (The adventure race started after the women/relays. I knew if I was caught by a kayak, I was not doing to good.) I entered fairly quickly and with the recommended belly flop. I swam out to what appeared to be the start area. Within in minutes we were off and all was good. With my new & improved sighting skills (thanks to former Q.Roo racer, now my hubby’s teammate), I kept my eyes on the Roberto Clemente Bridge until I could sight the first buoy. Feeling good in my freestyle, I just moved right along, upstream. The only glitch I ran into were people who passed the turn around veering off course into oncoming swimmers. I kept sighting frequently, got to the bouy and didn’t even have to stop my freestyle – I slid right around. Now, it was a straight shot to the end, downstream. After I’d pass a buoy, I’d have trouble sighting the next one temporarily – only it was getting harder. That’s when I realized it was raining. The wind was kicking the chop straight up, so to sight you really had to pull your head up.* Still, I was in amazement at the ease (not speed) at which I was swimming. I had the same comfort level as I do in the pool. Swimming through the pylons under the Fort Duquesne Bridge was interesting. The current is weird and then there’s the loud creaking sound of the cars driving overhead. I made the second turn around, swam up to the ramp, beaming. It wasn’t fast, but it felt good. Goal #1 met.

Bike: I didn’t know it at the time, but I was 9min down on the leader coming out of the water. Transition was rather smooth, don’t recall any problems. I head out on the wet, brick paved streets, ready to fly on the HOV lanes. Turns out, I was a little too eager as I fishtailed a bit coming out of the turn. The city roads were slick and now was not the time to be reckless. I gave each turn my attention and as I entered the HOV lane, the roads were drying. The course is set up as 2 loops, 6miles uphill and 6miles down. The uphill wasn’t super tough – you could still stamp out a nice rhythm. Only a few miles into it, I noticed an unfriendly site – about 6 riders with flats and it got worse as I went along. Since the road was recently resurfaced and other parts under construction, there was considerable debris. Once through the turn around, in the Park N Ride, I was eager to fly. And it was so much fun! I found Coach & son standing on the concrete land dividers cheering me on. Heading back into the city, the roads there were still wet, so I was careful to settle down through the turns. I was not going to make the same mistake in that first turn. About 50meters in advance of the turn stood Coach yelling for me to be careful. I knew if he made it a point to be there, some crashes must have occurred – about 6. Now, I had the pleasure of riding even harder since I knew the course. Going up was the same, going down, even more fun. I arrived back at the transition chicane, 2 girls in front, who flew out of their shoes gracefully and ran up the ramp. I gotta learn me some of that! I unclipped my shoes and clunked up the ramp into transition.

Run: Ok, this transition wasn’t so smooth. I wasn’t able to practice walking in from the “bike in” lane to my station since they had it barricaded in the am. So now arriving there, I thought I knew where to go, but really I didn’t. I was only one row off, laughing at myself as I tried to shove my bike under the rack to where it belonged rather than go the long way around. Fortunately, no other bikes were nearby so I was able to do so. I decided on socks as there has been a rubbing spot on my sneaker. In all the events with 5K’s I can deal with it, but I wasn’t sure I could in a 10K. I tried to put them on, but my toes were all cramped up. After much difficulty I eventually got them on. What I didn’t know here was that I had made up about 5min on the bike and was in 6th place overall. I just was heading out to do the run that finishes the race. After my legs decided they would accept the task at hand, I tried to push a little harder. This was met by side stitches and a completely unexpected sharp pain in my shoulder/neck region. (*I think this may have either been from pulling up to hard while sighting or by gripping too tightly on the aerobars). Okay, no push today, just finish. I was doing okay until I got passed by 2 women. I tried to go again, but no such luck. I ended up getting passed by 4 more women. Even if I knew my standing, I don’t think I could’ve changed anything. I was pretty beat. I was disappointed with my run time, I normally run a full 2 min/mile faster, but sometimes you only got so much. Fortunately, the run was mostly shady & completely flat on an old rail trail. Interestingly, some of the city’s riverfront homeless gave us runners a shout out. Oh but it’s over and I was so glad. It was getting hot, quickly.

We didn’t stick around long. We were all melting and I didn’t think I placed anywhere. We got my son out of the Water Steps, which are really cool, and headed back home. Later, on the car ride back to MD, I got a call from a friend congratulating me on my 2nd place – shocker. I couldn’t wait to get home to see my results for myself. I did set the fastest women’s bike time, Goal #2 met. Goal #3 was not met as apathy took over at about mile 3. However, do you recall my original goals? Well, if you extract the 2 relay results from the overall women’s top 10 (I know relays are people too), then I would be #10. And, I did place 2nd in my age group. Bonus! I’m tickled.