Giant Eagle Tri 7/31/11 (Bike and Run)
Aug 28, 08:47 PM
Coming out of the water I was pretty tired, but overall I was feeling ok. I rinsed my feet off and went in to my transition area. I got my bike out, helmet on, put all my swim stuff (goggles and cap since it was too warm for wetsuits) in the bag before heading out. Getting on my bike my legs felt super weak. I was expecting that, but still surprised just how weak they felt. Before the end of the first mile I had been passed by a bunch of other people and was really wondering how I’d finish if this kept up.
By the time I got 4 miles in I felt horrible. I felt weak and broken. I knew all the time of below-plan training was catching up to me and I was just in it to finish. At the same time, I was trying to enjoy the scenery. Riding down S Old State, I passed some bike paths I had once thought would be fun to ride on. I got to Polaris Parkway and really tried to enjoy the fact that I was riding on a road that I would never consider riding normally because it’s so busy. I also got to see all the traffic that the race was causing as we crossed over the road! I kept drinking my water and gatorade and energy gel and I felt like my body was starting to feel a little better. I didn’t have a lot of strength, but I at least I didn’t feel like I wouldn’t be able to finish the race. As I turned onto 23, I wasn’t worrying about the race, I just was enjoying the ride. My first race I got to ride down highway 315. This wasn’t an interstate, but it was still a major road and I really got to see a different side of Columbus this way. I was pretty surprised that every light we passed had a cop at it. There had to be at least a couple dozen lights along the route! On every other side street there was a volunteer to keep traffic back as we crossed!
Right after I crossed over 270, about 8.5mi into the 20mi ride I started hearing a weird shooshing noise. It wasn’t very loud and didn’t seem to be affecting anything, but it was a bit annoying. I started looking around to find it and happened to look at my front wheel. I noticed that it looked like there wasn’t any space between one of the brake pads and the rim. As I reached down and rotated the brake assembly so the pad wasn’t touching, I felt the bike speed up a little. It took a moment to realize what an impact this had. I had ridden almost half of the race with one of my brakes actively slowing me down. How much of my agony was because I was really feeling that bad and how much was just because my brake was rubbing? Needless to say, making that change had an immediate impact on my speed and my attitude. I wasn’t just trying to finish a race that I was feeling miserable on, I wanted to reclaim some of what I had lost thanks to my mechanical problem. If you look at the speed graph for the race, you can see that from that point on I found the problem on, my average speed was about 4mph faster than before!
The rest of the ride was much more focused but I still got to enjoy the scenery. It was pretty cool to see all the different sides to Columbus as you go down 23. The part I thought was most interesting was through the Short North. This is the trendy, “artsy” area where all the young hipsters in the city want to live. Its got all kinds of trendy restaurants and shops and everything. It also has a ton of people who ride their bike without helmets. It was early on a Sunday morning and I saw a bunch of people riding on the same busy street I was without helmets. I won’t get on a soapbox, but seriously, that’s just kinda foolish.
Coming into downtown, we got to the turn off 23 onto Nationwide blvd. When I had driven this part the day before, I noticed that a large chunk of this section was brick. Thankfully, it was only about 1/4-1/2mi so it wouldn’t be too bad. Of course, riding in, I was surprised that it wasn’t nearly as bumpy as I expected. So that was a welcome relief. I made the last turn down the road next to the park we would be finishing in and got to the next transition area. This was another new thing for me since we get off the bike and someone takes it from us as we go into the next transition area.
i went into the transition tent, grabbed my bag off the rack and sat down next to the racks. After taking off my riding shoes and helmet, I put on my running shoes, closed up the bag and headed out. During the ride I had finished off all the water and gatorade I brought with me. That was basically 3 quarts of fluids. You’d think I’d be plenty hydrated, but I wasn’t. Instead I pretty much had compensated for the lack of fluids from before the race started. Pretty soon after I got on the course there was a water station. I grabbed a cup but since I still felt pretty good from the ride, I didn’t finish it. Not long after that I started to feel the effects of the heat and my dehydration creeping in. About .7mi in I started walking. I didn’t walk too far, but it felt like an eternity. I kept seeing people pass me so I started jogging again. Through another aid station and this time I drank a couple cups of water. More jogging until I had to walk again. All together, I walked 6 times for anywhere from a few feet to a little over .15mi. When I look back at that, I’m surprised because I felt like I walked most of the time, but even though I walked a bunch of times, I ran most of it and since the jogging was faster than walking, I covered a lot more ground that way.
Finally, coming around the last bit to the finish, I was so relieved. Coming into the finishing chute, I was just happy to have finished. I got my finishing medal, grabbed some water and sat down in the tent to recover. I ended up sitting there for about 30min or so drinking water, pouring water over my head and just trying to cool down. I decided to stick around a little longer because they were giving away a free tri bike and you had to be there to win it. So I got my stuff and waited for them to start drawing names. Amazingly, the first 5 or so people weren’t there. They called a number close to mine and I nearly had a heart attack until I realized it wasn’t me.
So finally I headed back to the car (which was just fine and locked, thankfully) to put away my stuff. It was a little weird being on my own at the finish. It was my first time doing a race where Kristy hadn’t been with me at the finish, but it was too hot for her to come and the twins would have been too much to keep track of down there. So finally I headed home. Overall a good race, not my best, but I was satisfied that I did a decent job overall.
My total time was 2:05:05. Swim: 16:52, Bike: 1:11:13, Run: 36:12.
When i was thinking about the results, I was disappointed I didn’t finish faster than my OU AIA time. Then I realized that the swim was 250m longer and the bike was 4mi longer. Suddenly my ability to set goals for my times was thrown out of place because my races weren’t all the same distance. Thankfully, though, this helps me when I look at other races I’ve done and I can start being more accurate with my completion times.
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That would have been so awesome for you to have won that tri bike!
I wish I could have been there, but thanks to Claire and Maureen, I got to see the swim! And being the swimmer that I am, I was able to track you through the last half of your swim by recognizing your stroke!
— Kristy · Aug 28, 09:53 PM · #