Tuesday, July 29, 2008

FAFB 4th Annual Clear Lake Triathlon

As last week came to a close I began to get pretty excited for this race. I turned down a day of water skiing, tubing, sun, and great food at my office’s staff party at Priest Lake to do this race, so that shows you how much I like this one. Usually this race starts at 10 a.m. but this year they decided to start it at 8 instead. I am used to getting up really early for work so an early day on Saturday wasn’t going to be a big deal at all. We had family from Alaska to entertain on Friday night so that put a pinch on the night before being quiet and restful. Michael and I putted around the lake Friday night at about 9 p.m. then got all cleaned up and ready for bed.


Jen is on the left, then me, Michael in the middle with Cherese on the Right.

The morning came and I was up like a flash. I have no idea where it came from but somehow ever since college as soon as I hear the 5:10 a.m. KISS 98.1 broadcast on my alarm clock, I spring out of bed and go along my groggy way. I ate my Franz whole grain white toast with Western Family peanut butter and Dole banana slices, brushed my teeth with my Sonicare toothbrush (because no toothbrush electric or manual can compare to its cleaning ability) and began my ritual of packing and preparing. Michael was going to drop our guests off at his parents’ house so I took the bikes and my gear bag and he got there a bit after me.


Shortly after the start. Michael's at the top of the pic, and I'm doing my best to keep it close.

Cherese and I schmoozed a bit while getting our stuff out of the cars and when Michael got to the race start the transition set-up started. We were packed in the transition area pretty tightly. I was between two Gregs and Michael got a ton of space because the two people to his left didn’t show… sure, let the guy who is not only a shoe-in to win but will tear everyone’s legs out from under them have the most space in transition… sounds fair to me ;-) Cherese brought extra swim caps with an American Flag and FAFB on the side so Michael and I could fly our colors on the swim too. The three of us wore matching tri suits all from this year’s Nationals team. It was fun to hear all the whispers among the athletes. “Did you know he is actually on the Air force Triathlon Team?” “yeah, I think he is actually a professional” “That guy always wins this race, I think he went to the Olympics once” (that last one was from a previous year when Michael wore on the of suits from the Worlds competition).



Third out of the water, with Cherese right in front of me. You can still see her wake.

After finalizing everything I headed to the water to get a little wet and wait for the pre-race meeting to end. I knew that I was going to have a pretty good swim compared to previous years since that has been improving well but I was worried about my bike and run so I was just anxious to get started and see how things would play out. When the gun went off I started out like a fiend and almost instantly felt like I was going to either cramp up or throw up. I decided that I was going to try to sustain this effort. Mostly this thought came about because Dr. Ken Collins told me I need to push harder in open water swimming because my times were not reflecting my abilities. So, I adopted the “I’ll show you push hard” line of thinking and pushed my guts out. This continued to the turn around, a medium sized pontoon boat, at which time I changed my mind and thought that I would rather not be on the verge of vomit as this can sometimes hurt swim efficiency. My swim went well enough that I was able to see Michael the whole time and Cherese was only about 15-30 seconds ahead of me. I tell you, this woman is AMAZING! She swam maybe a handful of times, rode her bike a few times less, and run sparingly since Ironman Coeur d’Alene… LAST YEAR! And she rocked every part of this race!



I'm about to enter "the gravel zone." It didn't bother Michael, but nobody else liked it.

If you read my Tiger Tri post you will understand this next part better. You know those pins at chuck-e-cheese’s with all the small balls that kids like so much… imagine those balls are little bits of gravel. That is what our transition area was in!! I got through T1 like I was walking through broken glass, it was terrible! My wetsuit came off well though. Michael told me after Tiger that I had to pretend I was going to tear my wetsuit off like I hated it. Ever see SpiderMan 3 with the black Spider man? Like that! So I did, and it worked, good advice I think. I otherwise needed improvement with getting my gear on squeezing between two mountain bikes and associated gear.



After tearing that Orca Apex off, I'm ready to hit the road and see what I can do.

As I exited transition I could see Cherese about 100M ahead of me. I powered up the small hill and began my two mile long pounce on the only female ahead of me. When I finally caught up to her we exchanged greetings and smiles, that’s something Cherese is wonderful at, cheering with honest encouragement, not just to be courteous. The rest of the ride went well also. I passed the one team that was ahead of me but got passed by one male about 5 miles in and another male just before the finish. I biked pretty hard and was wondering if my running legs could catch up in time.

Pictures normally don't do a good job of showing how steep a hill is. It's steeper than it looks and it looks steep! If it bogs a hill runner like Michael, then imagine how tough it is for the rest of us. I think I'm smiling because I'm almost at the top!

T2 was much better. I had barriers on my feet this time so I was a lot faster and the mountain bikes that were in the way before were still out on the course so I had plenty of room to rack my bike. It turned out that my biking legs didn’t beat my running legs to transition after all and they were there and ready for when I needed to put them on. I felt really good running, which was a relief after several weeks of trying to recover and then trying to race the run at Tiger and failing miserably. I passed one of the males who beat me to T2 and got passed by a team runner in the process. I was actually running time out of the second place male as he was much closer after the turn around then when he started running. By the time I got to the turn around Michael was already finished… I like to think about where he is when I’m on the course, it provides a good distraction. Later we hijacked his training journal and discovered that he not only smashed the course record, but it was his sixth of the year and tenth win!


Oh, we've got sequential numbers. The mathlete sure likes that sort of thing. He's not aware (yet) that I gave him bunny ears. It's a good shot of our matching uniforms.

I am a complete ditz when it comes to trying to get my splits accurately so that’s why there are no times here for viewing pleasure. All I can say is that I finished with a time that was almost 3 minutes faster than last year and I am encouraged because I improve more each year. Yes, I did take the first place female slot with Cherese McCoy just 4 minutes behind me. Again, I am amazed and a little worried about her talents. I truly believe that if this woman were to dedicate any time to training she would be one of the fastest females in the area! What a natural! There were a lot of friends at this race as well. Most of the Master’s team that we have been swimming with was there. Jen showed off her Tri-Fusion uniform for the second time… she is a great source of energy and will be missed terribly while on her deployment!



Jen is always full of energy (as far as we know) and good for a smile.

Michael’s mom came to the race and she was armed with her digital camera so there will be pictures soon. Michael and I do not own a camera, we use disposable, so that is why I never have pictures on my blog… and I’m not a picture pirate either. Rest assured though, one day there will be photo documentation of my exploits.

5 comments:

Michael W. Bergquist said...

You did absolutely awesome. I'm not sure how you go hard and smile at the same time. It's incredible that even a bad race, which this certainly was not, is a big improvement over the previous year. You're getting hard to shake in the swim. Eventually, you're going to need someone faster than I am to train with. I love you Amanda.

M-Dot said...

AHHH. You two are so great togeher!
Amanda you are one to talk about amazing athletes. You time improvements are astronomical this year! You are tearing the courses up woman!
Love the post great read! Jay and I are so happy to know you two and we feel like you two are the most genuine and nicest people to be around.
Keep up the hard work it's paying off well. Congrats on your finish and swim. I can't imagine being fast enough to keep up with Michael in the swim. Way to go!

Talk to you soon.

Michelle and Jay

Steve said...

Nice work. Way to continue to improve at each race. You are continuing to get faster and faster. Keep up the hard work and everyone better watch out.

jessithompson said...

Cograts on a great race! By the way, I think you are one of those people that cheer with genuine encouragement. I love racing with you... you push me. Way to go!!!

Kelli Rydeen and Family said...

Congratulations Amanda. You two are a powerhouse couple...unstoppable. I know that if my husband ever started to do triathlons we would certainly be right up there with you and Michael, but alas he has insisted that he will stick to his 8 oz curl workouts only! ;-)

Thank you for your kind thoughts that you sent my way.

Kelli