nathan's tri

Only a few hours post race and shockingly, I'm already writing my race report. I wish it were due to a fantastic race high, but it's more so I can stop my complaining and move on. While my times (minus my run) were decent, I just didn't have it out there today. I mentioned to someone earlier that I know on paper it looks good, but to be honest - I'd rather finish dead last and FEEL like I had a GREAT day.

I've mentioned in a few posts lately that I just haven't felt well. Seems like every 2 weeks for the past 6 weeks Shane & I both ended up feeling sick. Congestion, fatigue, and mad allergy like symptoms. When it hit me again this week I started to get a little worried. My sinuses were swollen, my chest hurt, my head was pounding. I worried about getting another asthma flare up and having it put a huge damper on my health like it did this same time a few years ago when I DNF'd Soma. I put myself on the couch most of Thursday & Friday and drank airborne like it was going out of style. I also started a round of steroids to clear up the inflammation.

And then I had a little epiphany trying to figure out what was going on. About 6 weeks ago I bought a new brand of laundry detergent. I was in a hurry one day, saw it on the shelf and remembered liking the smell of it from our rental house in CDA. About every 2 weeks since then I've done a HUGE round of laundry after we've returned home from long weekends out of town. Hmm, could it really be coincidence? Either way - I've spent the better part of the last 2 days doing laundry with my good old TIDE.

Truth be told after feeling like I have been, and also being on the steroids I shouldn't have raced, but I wanted to. I hadn't pushed myself hard since before IMCDA and I wanted a little tuneup race before Soma. That, and I wanted to race my new bike!

I did wake up feeling ok. Not congested, but not crazy peppy. The steroids had me a little jittery and HOT, but that's normal. My swim seemed to go pretty well, I only saw a few female caps in front of me, and they didn't seem too far ahead. Felt great until I looked at my 27min time… Oh well, swims in this lake are always all over the place! (looking at the results it was def a slow swim! The fastest female swim time was 23:01)

On the bike I was excited to push. My legs were kinda burning the entire first loop trying to get around a big group of ITU racers. Oh wait, I forgot this wasn't SUPPOSED to be an ITU draft legal race.

And here's my little soapbox that I'm going to go on for just a bit here before I move on and stop my complaining. Anyone who has raced in Tempe knows the course is tight. It's a gazillion turns and just too many people. At some point, unless you are first or last you are going to end up in a period where you are in a drafting situation. I was there, several times actually today. Most of it was around some turns, but there were a few straight aways where I got incredibly frustrated because I would come up behind someone, pull out to pass and get back over - only to be re-passed and cut off. I went along with this for about the first 6 miles, but then it was just too dangerous. I don't know these riders and some of them were certainly not the most skilled cyclists. Being on my new bike and not being that comfortable myself I made the decision to drop back, let them go on in their little peloton and I would ride FAIR.

I'd be lieing if I said I didn't thank the draft marshals that finally got up to the pack around mile 22. Unfortunately it doesn't appear any penalties were given out, but at least I know I did the right thing and that group only got off the bike about :30 in front of me. I ended up having the last half+ with open space on my bike and did not get passed. My bike time was 1:08:xx -

oh, and I DO rock at T-2 transitions :-) I totally have that going for me!

Ok, off my soapbox.

The run was just not in me today. I've had (finally) a couple of decent runs in the past 2 weeks, but holy mother it was hot out there and compounded by my bad attitude from the drafting on the bike and the steroids increasing my body temperature I sucked. And (sorry coach!), I actually took a :30-:40 walk break on the second loop when I got a side stitch so bad I couldn't get ride of. My run time was 53:xx - not something I'm too happy with, but I also know that a couple years ago, I would have been ecstatic with that! Apparently I've (finally) found my little competitive side!

Total time 2:32 - 4th AG, 11 OA.

I know the time isn't anything to be bummed about, again it's more of how I felt. Just didn't feel like I was having a great day out there! Looking forward to the next 4 weeks to fine tune before SOMA, after some birthday celebrations this weekend in Mexico!

P.S. My first SOMA race from 2005 was 6:05…. I'm sure hoping I can do a little bit better :-)