2010 Issaquah Triathlon

Sprint – 1/4 swim / 14 mile bike / 5k run

This is our first Triathlon every year and it’s something I always look forward to. The course isn’t great, but it still a lot of fun. Just like last year, Angela decided to join me for the Duathlon… sIMG_2246he does the same race as me, but she skips the swim. This year was a bit different… Seattle hasn’t seem much of the sun this year… in fact it’s been cold and rainy and the days leading up to the race flooded Sammamish State park… so this was the first time I raced in the mud… and a mud fest it was!!!

Pre Race:

We woke up and headed out to the park. I had two pop-tarts pre-race and sipped on some Gatorade. I forgot to take my Gu 30 min before the race and I think I really could have used the extra energy. We set everything up, waded through the mud and puddles, and managed to find the new JFT2 team tent. I went for a warm up run, then tried to swim… just couldn’t stay in the water. I have a sleeveless wetsuit and my arms were just frozen.. so didn’t get much of a warm up in.

SWIM: 7:38

Not a great swim.. mainly because I was just so cold. My arms were frozen. No problem with face/head.. just my arms and it made my arms feel sluggish. Time to FINALLY purchase a full wetsuit. I didn’t have any problems with traffic.. didn’t get kicked and didn’t kick anyone… but I also didn’t find anyone to draft off of. Came out of the water feeling fine except for being really cold

T1: 1:38

Ran through the mud, wetsuit off, shoes on, glasses on, helmet on, go. Just as I was heading to the TA out I felt my helmet come imageunclipped. I stopped and leaned my bike against the fence and to snap my helmet (and Angela was right there headed out on the Du, so she was cheering my on)… helmet fixed, but now people are yelling at me that I dropped something… yep… my mini-aero bottle straw was laying in the mud about 5 feet back. I decided to go ahead and run back and grab it.. straw retrieved (covered in mud), and finally out of T1… longer that I had hoped.

BIKE: 40:50 22.1 mph

I had a rather uneventful bike.. things went well but I never managed to get my power up. My legs just felt sluggish from the cold swim and I just couldn’t turn them over as fast as normal, I never felt tired.. just sluggish. I was only passed by one person on the bike (I think it was Chris and he flew by like I was standing still!) so things went okay out there, but overall I didn’t feel like I had a great performance, but I do love the new bike and it performed flawlessly for this race. Luckily I managed to avoid any flats… 5 out of the 7 people I raced with ended up with flats. Bummer day. Back into T2 and back into the mud.

T2: 1:01

Nothing noteworthy… by this point I knew I wasn’t having my best race and I still felt a little sluggish in T2… but shoes on and I put on my muddy running hat and off I went. IMG_2248

RUN: 19:41

Feet were completely numb but that’s nothing new and didn’t bother me. I really wasn’t sure where I was headed since the course was just rerouted an hour before the race… parts of the run were super muddy and very slick and my Zoot’s don’t have a lot of traction. I managed to stay upright and the legs felt good. Turned out to be one of the best runs of my life and I was close to 7 min miles (I am a SLOW runner!) I crossed the finish line feeling good… maybe too good. I didn’t really push myself enough on this race and I recovered very quickly. Overall I am happy.. had a good race.. not great, but the conditions weren’t great either. Finished 13th in my AG, last year I was 19th. I had a great day racing with Angela who took 4th place in her AG in the DU. I was great seeing all my JFT2 teammates. Next race is in 2 weeks, 5 Mile Lake.

Age Group: 13th place out of 114

Overall: 57th Place out of 837

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