So I fully understand this race write-up is extremely late, but I figured better late than never right? First off I must mention a few names because without them this race wouldn’t have been possible. Mostly Kevin and Pat from Tri-Spot. A week before the race, my rear race wheel went haywire and it was unusable for Muskoka. This was the first panic attack I had pre race. I contacted Kevin and he told me not to worry he will lend me a disc to use for the race. Phew problem #1 solved, now on to problem #2. I had no wheel to train on so I sent out a message to all Rochester triathletes in hope of finding a wheel I could train on for the next two to three weeks. Low and behold the nicest guy of them all, Travis, sends me a text message saying he has one I can borrow for the time being. This guy is a class act, and probably the most amusing person to watch at a race. Problem #2 solved, now onto the next. On the Monday before the race I had a scheduled 90 minute ride to carry-out. Unfortunately it rained that day, but I decided to brave the weather and go out for my planned ride. I took the corners slowly and rode within the weather conditions. As I was finishing up my ride, I was making the final turn into my apartment complex and BAM! to the ground I went. My back tire spun out and I found myself lying on the ground with road rash on my hip, knee, and lower leg. I laid there for a minute and thought “Really? A week away and I crash my bike?” I looked at my hip and knee and noticed it was swollen so I hobbled home, showered and laid a bag of Broccoli on it. I decided to play it smart and take the next day off because I could barely walk without it being in too much pain. On Wednesday I opted to swim and ride for an hour. I could barely push of the wall without my knee hurting, and luckily for me the riding was too bad. I knew at this point I couldn’t run, so I waited until Friday to see what I could do. I ran 4 miles on Friday and it was brutal. I hobbled four miles on the treadmill, got off and iced the heck out of my knee. I didn’t want to think about it anymore so I just said “Do what you can on Sunday.”
When I went to go pick up my wheel from Tri Spot, Pat told me my bike was a bit out of whack from the crash. He then worked on it for an hour before handing it over(Thanks again!). My mom, dad, Catie and myself left for Muskoka on Friday and if anyone has ever been in Canada, you know how much the traffic sucks over there. “Rush hour” is every hour up north, and to get anywhere it takes double the time it should. Finally around 6p.m. we arrived in Muskoka. After checking in at the hotel, and picking up my athlete packet it was off to dinner. Saturday consisted of rest, ice, and tons of food. I am pretty sure I ate everything in sight on Saturday from muffins, to bagels, to pasta. It was a glorious feast, and come Saturday night I was ready to race.
Luckily for me after starting pretty much every race this year in the last wave, Muskoka was kind to me and allowed for the young guns to head out with the male pro’s. Unfortunately I cannot hang with the big boys for the 1.2 mile swim, so I was alone for the entire swim. The swim course is a funky looking rectangle, with the swim ending right near the 18th hole on the golf course. My sighting was pretty on point until I was coming into the bay (finish area). I was swimming and spotting every sixth stroke and with my goggles starting to fog it became harder to see. As I was swimming into the finishing area, a kayaker told me to head over to my left. I thought I was doing pretty well, but she told me I was off course. I then spotted the lead female pro, which started six minutes back, so I got a draft from her and swam straight to the finish in a time of 33:45. For me that time isn’t too bad, but I was hoping for 32ish minutes. Once I exited the swim it was a 300 meter run literally uphill to the transition area. At this point my heart rate was through the roof so I decided to ease into the bike. I grabbed my shoes, bike, strapped on the helmet and set out for the 58.5 mile ride (yes, the course is 4km long).
The Ironamn Muskoka 70.3 bike course is like no other. It is constant climbing up and down for the entire 94km. This bike course will make a man (or woman) out of you if you haven’t put in the proper training. Seeing how the biggest hill near Wheatfield is about 1 mile long, the only way to hill train was to ride up and down that stupid hill for an hour straight. I became great friends with that Route 93 hill over the summer months, and I still struggled with this ride. Riding a disc wheel for the first time ever was quite exciting, though I as nervous on the downhill segments, because I was topping out at 55mph. It was wicked scary. The ride was steady and I felt pretty good throughout the whole thing. I knew the two kids in my age group who were the top contenders were not out of reach when it came to the bike, so I knew I had to ride hard in order to catch them. No surprise but they were out of the water before me by about two minutes so this ride was my chance to catch them. I passed a kid in my age group within the first few miles, and played the cat and mouse game with another kid for about 5 miles before I took the lead. I was in fourth place at about 60km into the bike. At this point Amanda Lovato passed me and she was cooking! Around 65km I saw a kid in my age group who was struggling on the climbs, so I decided to play it cool on the downhill, gain some energy and burn him on the next ascent. About 3km later I caught him and I was now riding in third. I believe at this point of the race I was unofficially 13th overall (other age groupers were riding faster than me, but technically “behind me”.) I had two more boys to catch but just didn’t have the legs to do so. By the 80km my knee was starting to get stiff and it was time to get off of the bike and stretch it out. The final 10km is brutal. There are some of the steepest climbs I have ever been on. I heard one competitor say one of the hills was a 21% grade! That’s crazy by any standards. Once I arrived back in T2 I was pissed at my overall time. 3:27:xx. (2:50 bike split) I needed to run a sub 1:30 on a hard course, with a bum knee, in order to beat my 2009 time. I was starting to punch the numbers and realize this was going to be a difficult task. I ran out of T2 in 36 seconds, right next to the 3rd overall female. I ran about the same pace as her for the first 4km and decided to pass her and try to keep her behind me for the entire run.
Going into this run my goal was to finish this race with nothing left in the tank. As I started to make up ground on those who passed me on the bike, I decided to shut my thoughts about my knee out and just go for it. I was running strong up the hills, and taking it safe on the down hills. I passed the three 25-29Agers who had passed me on the bike. As we were heading back into town I volunteer told me I was “flying to the finish”. Believe it or not I felt the same way. I was light on my feet and ticking away the kilometers one at a time. This lasted for about 6km and then I hit the wall HARD. Around `14km there was a person laying on the side of the course with a volunteer hovering over him. He did not look good at all, and seemed to have been done for the day. I noticed he was in my age group and felt horribly that he had to end his day prematurely. With that racer out of the race, I know knew I was in second place, but was unsure on how far back I was on the 1st place guy. Around 18km I meet up with the lead 25-29Ag and we ran together for the next 3km. Around mile 12 I hit a wall and hit it hard. The final mile is literally all up hill and I knew I was hurting and hurting bad. I decided to pop in a GU for the final mile and hope it would get me to the finish, and fast. Luckily the caffeine worked and I ran strong to a 4:56 finish. Good enough for a 27th overall and I was the 15th amateur. After the race my parents, Catie and I sat around in anticipation hoping a slot would fall my way. Unfortunately the first place 18-24 took the Vegas spot so I came home disappointed and let down as I did not accomplish my ultimate goal.
Now that my 2011 season is pretty much finished, it's time to relax, run a bit, ride a bit, and swim a bit, and eat a ton. My goal is to get back into the swing of things by mid-october because I have one goal and one goal and that is to FINALLY Qualify for Ironman 70.3 World Championships. I’ll be back next year and ready to finally earn that coveted spot!
A quick thanks to Tri-Spot, Brooks for their awesome running shoes, Kevin and Pat, Caite for putting up with my antics, and most of all my parents. They make everything possible, traveling costs, hotel, and most of all SUPPORT.
Cheers to a great 2011 season, time to get fat and start marathon training for BOSTON!
