Rich’s First Tri -Black Diamond Oly Tri

Pre-race nutrition! The kids were awesome. We bought cow bells and duck quackers. Thankfully i also had a few layers of clothing because it was a rather chilly start to the day. I was thankful that it was Rich entering the water! :)

Early morning at the lake

 From: Richard Lander
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 9:49 PM
To: Small Business Reports Team
Subject: Oly Tri Report -- Black Diamond

I did the Olympic Tri at Black Diamond yesterday. Although most folks post of the longer distances, I’m taking the opportunity to post on my first Tri.

I had originally registered for the Sprint, but became disillusioned by how short the non-swim distances were, so decided to face up to the 1500M swim, even though I’ve only ever swum ~ half that distance before. I also knew that swim leg would eventually end, at which point I would move on to my standby sports of running and cycling ;) So, I upgrade to Olympic. Olympic was also to be my goal for next year, so why wait.

Finishers: 303

Males: 179
Females: 124

*Swim* 1500M

Group start for swim

It was clear from about 3M in that I was in real trouble. I had no experience with a group start, and no amount of pool and lake swimming can prepare you for that. I’ve had plenty of advice on this, but I think you kind of have to experience the mayhem to understand what it is all about. After 200M of more experienced guys passing over me, and me taking on lots of water, I found myself in calmer water. After another 200M, I realized that my usual 3 strokes/breath approach wasn’t working. I switched to 2 strokes/breath and was able to get a groove, to the point of being able to return to 3 strokes/breath. Other than some pretty bad sighting (or non-sighting) mistakes, the rest of the swim was pretty non-descript. I had no trouble with the distance and the water temp was actually quite pleasant (with my Blue Seventy on). The last 400M were finished with power, so I felt good about that. Next time will be a whole different story. Still, 1500M blows through my longest swim, so I’m quite pleased with that.

I have been taking “Swim for a Tri” at Samena over the last 2-3 months and that helped immensely. I would have had no business doing even a Sprint w/o that time put in the pool.

Place: 140^th

Time: 30m

Watching the swim/throwing rocks in the lake

*Bike* 40KM

Rich heading out of transition onto the bike course

This is where the fun started. Passed a ton of folks. My left calf cramped up nicely at about half-way, but a lot of rubbing (while on the bike) and growling at it did the trick. I rode at high cadence (for me), for average speed of 32 KM/H. I was able to pass folks and avoid being passed provided that I stayed above 30 KM/H. When I hit 35 and 40KM/H, I was able to pick up anybody that I ran into. I was also able to pass folks on most of the hills. The caveat is that these folks probably didn’t do well on the swim either. If I’d done better on the swim, the field that I was passing probably would have provided much more challenge. I’ll hopefully get to see that next year. The 2 or 3 women, however, that passed me (from the following swim wave) flew by. Wow!

One interesting aspect was passing. I took me two passings of the same person to sometimes get past them for good. I also found that I would slowly come up behind other folks. I would be at the point where I was about to be drafting, but didn’t really want to jump up my speed to pass. So, I had to choose between dropping back or passing. I would always pass, but by going into the uncomfortable zone until the person was well behind. These cyclists tended to be better than me, and a couple did eventually catch up with me much later. I would say, however, that it pays to be gutsy. Sometimes the gutsy riders w/nothing left in their legs win out over better cyclists who keep to a steadier pace.

This was all on my 8 year old “Jake the Snake” cyclocross bike. Sure is fun to pass folks on TT/Tri bikes ;) Next year, I’ll have a different bike too, but probably just a nice road bike. I’m sure my time will drop, as a result. I also will do some bike training, beyond my daily 8KM commute to work.

Place: 80^th

Time: 74m

*Run* 10km

Rich looking strong on the run!

I’m a runner, so this part was easy and familiar. I haven’t really trained since last year’s Seattle Half, so shame on me for that. It took me at ~1KM to find my legs. Once I did that, I started picking up folks. There was one woman who started with me, and I just kept my eye on her. Unfortunately, she continued to get farther away, but it kept me running at a good pace and picking up the same folks she was passing. I eventually lost sight of her, but I was in a strong rhythm by then. The course wasn’t that great. We had to run over a very rocky (grapefruit size) road meant for tractors. Oh well. I started to lose steam in the last KM (this is clearly a mental thing), and was passed by two guys (one 57), but was able to finish strong. If I had trained for the run, I could have probably taken another 4 or 5mins off of my time w/o trouble.

Place: 72^nd

Time: 48:38

*Overall*

I finished in 2:38 in 76^th place, 9^th in my AG. I’m thrilled with that. Tons of areas for improvement throughout, and a whole winter to feel good about it and think about next season. I think that I’ll stick with Olympic next season, however I want to pick up a Sprint and a Duathlon. I’m also booked for the Seattle Half again this November, but want to do some more of those, as a Half IM is my final goal, sometime later.

 

OVERALL RESULTS FOR SINGLES

                                                                    BIKE                    RUN   OVERALL

                                   OVERALL    DIV     SWIM          TRAN    BIKE            TRAN  PL AFTER  RUN

     NAME                 AGE SEX    TIME    PLACE    TIME   PLACE  TIME    TIME    PLACE   TIME    BIKE    TIME   PLACE  CITY & STATE

1. Michael Gordon        31  M    2:05:38     1    0:23:22    15  1:40   1:02:21      3   1:20     2     0:36:54    1   Walla Walla, WA        

76. Richard Lander        33  M    2:37:59     9    0:30:00   140  3:14   1:13:58     80   2:08   101     0:48:38    72  Bellevue, WA           

 

Congratulating Pappa. Miles enjoying a free sample.

*Take-Aways*

Being new to this sport, I took away some learnings:

- Bring flip-flops to stand on if your Tri is in September. Leave them for your family to pick up from the shore after you’ve gone.

- Remember to take off your Road-ID bracelet, or else it will end up in the bottom of the lake.

- Make sure to bring energy bars that you like. I brought Cliff bars (which I really dislike, and knew this), and couldn’t eat them, when I needed one. Dumb move.

- Be prepared for some minor nausea at the end when all you’ve got left in your stomach is enduro-aid and the remnants of GU. If you don’t train with this stuff (like  me), it is a little odd. I was glad I took it, however. Still not planning on training with it, however.

- Be prepared to be sore, pretty much everywhere.

- Be prepared for the car ride home to be pretty uncomfortable, even after stretching. Lying flat at home in bed and closing your eyes is the trick.

- Don’t stand anywhere near the front of a group swim if you’ve never done it before, unless you are suicidal.

- Transition time is huge. I could have picked up 4 more places by just shaving off 1m, which would have been easy.

- Leave it all on the course. This I did.

- I’m hooked ;)

Leaving the event

After the race, we went to the famous Black Diamond Bakery for a hearty lunch. This is the home of  killer cinnamon rolls, breads and other delightful baked goods!

So proud of Rich!

Thank You Doreen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39641695@N04/3939263871/

Doreen (my mother-in-law) has a gift with the camera.

my first triathlon! F33!

on the weekend, i did my first triathlon and it was a ton of fun. i’m looking forward to some more next year! this was a super sprint triathlon  with a 400 yard swim, 9 mile bike ride and 1.5 mile run.

my time was 51:17. I was the 2nd female finisher, 11th overall (out of 300 females and males) and 1st for my age category! it was a nice and small first triathlon so i’m doubting this will occur again but it was a great first experience! MINUS THE RAIN!

 

jumping into my first open water race. that is my arm at the top middle of the screen. i’m wearing a black wetsuit. i was worried about a group swim. it was as expected. traffic, feet, going wide, buoy. thankfully my wave (14-34 year old women) was really small which made for a first swim race experience. i was the third women out of the water for my wave. two 14 year old girls made it out of the water ahead of me. but, like them, i was able to catch the men’s wave that left four minutes before us. that was fun.

i’m in this shot somewhere. cottage lake.

Half-way through TI. Wetsuit off. Gearing up for the bike. Notice all of my gear is in garbage bags to keep it dry.

Can you see me at the back of this photo? I have a bright yellow rain cap on my bike helmet. The rain is really picking up as i’m running my bike to the road. I had borrowed a road bike for the race and was a little nervous about the rain factor. it was a short little loop that you did twice. i love riding my bike. i quickly got comfortable and rode rainy-day fast.

finishing loop 1 of 2. screaming back at my fans!

Carrying my bike back into the transition

Finishing the run. short but sweet. People started congratulating me on the run so i have some feeling that i’ve had a good race.

The lady is holding out a medal and i was going to keep running apparently! breaks on! the clocks is off because they have to adjust for the swim waves that left before mine.

at the end, i felt great. one big lesson learned though was to go get changed right away and then come back to cheer for friends. i got really cold but the moment was too fun.

Post race! Yeah! Three friends also did the triathlon that day. It was awesome to be out there doing it together!

 

with some of the wet fans!

Miles and i at  the awards ceremony. I got an extra award for being first in my age group (30-34).  It added to the high of the day. I’m hooked.

Rich has his first triathlon next weekend – Black Diamond Triathlon!  He’s doing a full sprint, 1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike ride, 2.8 mile run.

School in August!

Does this guy look ready for preschool or what?

This morning, Mina was up, room jobs done, dressed, hair done and wearing her backpack by 6:45AM. We need to leave the house by 8:15. She was a tad excited! Miles picked up on her positive energy which made for a great first day. Today, Mina began full day 1st grade and Miles entered AM preschool. They brought lavender for their teachers. Both are at the same school and in separate buildings, but in classrooms directly opposite one another!

M&M both had a blast. Miles followed in the path of big sister, loving snack (chewy dinosaur things not found at home) and recess. He also really liked looking for the mouse hiding under colour boxes, a frog who sits crisscross applesauce, and jumping over a candle stick. On our walk home, i discovered that he thought/hoped that preschool might be like swim camp and end after Friday. It is hard to explain to a three year old when school will end.

Mina was rather excited to have a full-day at school (big step for Mamma) including TWO recesses, lunch and the fact that she now gets to go out with her whole class for end-of-day dismissal. She loves her new teacher and this year’s smaller class. According to Mina, the lunch room was REALLY loud. So loud that i should come see it. She also noticed that she was the only kid with metal and cloth lunch containers. Second recess was really fun. She made a new friend and they chased the boys. She learned a new song with a new music teacher. I picked up one tired looking little girl who was happy to come home, eat the rest of her lunch and play lego with Miles and myself.

It was a sunny first day of school in August. A milestone day for me. I wore the yarn and paper jewelry that Mina had made for me for today.  I wore sunglasses just in case i started to cry. While Miles spent his morning at preschool, i got out for a long ride on my bike. They grow so quickly…

Egg collection

The kids can now start track egg collection on their chore chart!

The one on the far left was a double yoker!

Mina with her first blue green egg!

More cute summer photos

Our summer has mainly involved biking, swimming, working on the house and the KCLS summer programs.

   

Mina’s first time biking to Crossroads farmer’s market. It was a hot day! Oh my. She cooled down with a ice cone. Miles helped bring home the raspberries.

  

The flock keeps growing. Wow, these are like real chickens. We got the chicks on March 21st. First egg, today, August 15th.

Biking, Biking. We have enjoyed several events and even a bike camp through the Cascade Bike Club. An awesome local bike club!

 

This was a booth/photo stop at CycleFest. The idea was to show people all the biking options around town– you can bike to the police station, to a play, a ball or wherever your heart desires! Mina dressed us with delight.

Ryan Leech was there doing tricks. Miles wants to be this guy now.

They rode in a kid’s bike parade.

We’ve been swimming a bunch at the swim club as well as down at the lake. Rich and i even had a swim date so that we could swim across together. I’m trying to get used to open water swims.

 

At the swim club

We biked to the blueberry farms! Fun and yum!

Rich has really been spending the summer working on the kitchen. Goodbye wall, ceiling, old lights and floor. Here’s a mid-way photograph.

The garden has been somewhat neglected but still doing some magic. We had a nice little strawberry season and then great blueberries. I think that the weather has somewhat confused our tomatoes though. Really hot and then almost fall-like. Mmmmm.