I am finally getting around to writing about this race. My
work schedule has been crazy and I honestly don’t like writing race reports
(especially for races that go badly). So two weeks later here is my recap of
the first race of the season…
This race is always a fun social gathering and a good
indicator of fitness levels, power data, blah, blah, blah. I headed down
Saturday with the lovely Erin Marouka and we checked into our fancy digs at the
Travel Lodge. That was followed up by a fun group dinner with Dusty Nabor,
Karin Langer, Tyler Olson, Erin Marouka and a gang of Wattie athletes. Again
the highlight of the Desert Tri is the fun group atmosphere!
The plan for this race was to gather some great data on the
bike and run. For the last few months I have been working hard on my LT watts
on the bike and my running has been better than ever. I was really excited to
see my improvements and geek out over my new higher numbers. The only hiccup in
this plan came earlier in the week when I started suffering from asthma issues.
A swim on Tuesday left me struggling to breath so I emailed Joanna and told her
something was up. My run Wednesday had me wheezing and sucking for air. Hmmm
this could be a problem. We chalked it up to the changes in weather due to the
storm coming through and I made sure I was diligent with my asthma
medicine. I would later learn we were
both worried about this being an issue on race day but neither of us wanted to
jinx it by talking about it.
Race morning went as planned and before we knew it Erin,
Karin and I were lined up at the swim start chatting as if we were at a local
coffee shop and not standing on the edge of a lake in ridiculous-looking
wetsuits! Karin is an amazing swimmer and I knew there was another former
collegiate swimmer in our wave. My hope was to try to get on their feet and
hang on as long as I could. The plan started off pretty well and I felt like I
had a good clean start. After a few minutes though my chest started getting
tight and I could actually hear myself wheezing as I tried to breath. Soon I
felt like I might be having a heart attack. I know this sounds dramatic but the
pain in my chest was actually freaking me out. I stopped swimming and started
treading water in place (as if this was my first time in the open water). I
tried to get my breathing under control and after probably 15 seconds I started
swimming but at a much slower effort. It was frustrating to see the pack had swum
away. I spent the rest of the swim fighting my way back. I guess the only
good news is that I ended up 3rd out of our age group (behind the 2
collegiate swimmers) but I was WAY behind them. The time I lost was pretty
significant, especially in an Olympic distance. (Yes Dusty you are right, the
swim does matter).
T1 was a blur and before I knew it I was on my bike and
sucking wind. It was such an awful feeling. I couldn’t get a deep breath so I
settled in for a very unpleasant ride. I kept hoping my breathing would improve
but it felt like it was getting worse. I couldn’t stay aero much because that
made the breathing tougher. The bike was rather uneventful except for the dude
who kept passing me on the right. I would inevitably re-pass him (legally) and
then he would pass me on the right again. I yelled at him but his nonsense
continued. He actually apologized after the race but interestingly enough
didn’t correct his behavior DURING the race. Whatever, I just wanted to be off
the bike. My watts ended up being exactly what I held in Vegas for the 70.3
World Championships. Another words, about 20 watts lower than I was expecting.
When I got into T2 the only bike I saw was Karin’s! I got excited
thinking there was a good chance we would be on the podium together, which was
part of our master plan devised the night before at dinner.
I took off running but of course couldn’t come close to the
pace I am used to holding for that distance. I am pretty sure people could hear
me coming from a mile away with my obnoxious heavy breathing and grunting. I was also wondering how far up Karin was as
I thought she was in the lead. The course is 2 loops and I didn’t see her until
the start of my 2nd loop. It turns out I was actually 4th
off the bike, not 2nd like I thought. I had already passed another
girl and caught up to Karin around mile 4. She kindly told me that there was 1
girl ahead of me and try to catch her. I ran those last 2 miles the best I
could while breathing through a straw. My pace was slower than my half marathon
pace (see a theme here?) and I lost by a whole minute.
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| Photo by Tyler Olson |
In the end Karin and I ended up on the podium together, but
selfishly I was still pissed. It sucks to not be able to perform the way you
know you are capable, especially when it’s due to something out of your
control. I was also bummed not to have accurate data to help determine some
other training/racing benchmarks.
The next few days I couldn’t do much because my breathing
was still so challenged and a lot of the muscles in my chest and back were
super sore from the deep breathing during the race. A trip to the asthma doctor
confirmed inflammation in my lungs but no infection. I am finally back to
feeling like I can breathe again but I am honestly so nervous about this
happening again. My confidence is definitely rocked going into Oceanside so I
need to work on that in the next 2 weeks. If any athletes with asthma have some
advice I would love to hear it!
On a positive note, I am really excited about the rest of
the season. I am back to racing Ironman distance, which is my preferred
distance and I am gunning for a trip back to the Big Island. I also have a host
of great sponsors who will be helping me on that journey. Thanks so much to Tribike
Transport, Athlete Octane, Rudy Project and Triathlon Lab. Hopefully there will
be many more podium finishes this year!
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| Podium with friends! |
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