Wasa Triathlon Recap

Well let’s just dive right into this one.

I got to the race site around 6:30am and it was cold. Very cold. And windy. I actually love cold racing conditions so I wasn’t too phased. I’m Canadian, so I should be used to cold temps, eh?

I was not prepared for how cold it would be before the race. About 45 minutes before the start I began to get really cold – like teeth chattering, body uncontrollably shivering cold. I quickly put my wetsuit on hoping it would warm me up.

Side note (aka sharing probably too much personal information) – Last August I had my body fat percentage measured at the University of Calgary. It was measured at 15% - pretty low for a female but average for an elite endurance athlete. I was pretty happy with this and had zero intention changing it. Since last August I have somehow managed (without any intentional effort) to lose 5lb. This doesn’t really seem like a lot but when you are super short and have a low body fat percentage it is kind of significant. Over the past couple of months I’ve noticed signs of the athlete triad. I’ve begun to take an active approach to try to stop it from escalating. This isn’t really relative to the race but I feel that there needs to be more of a discussion around these issues with female athletes. Ok – back to the race.

I got into the water to get in a good warm up. The water was fairly warm but super choppy with some white caps. I wasn’t particularly worried about this as back in the day I use to swim in Sylvan Lake when it was 16 degrees and choppy without a wetsuit (oh to be young and invincible). I finished up my swim warm up with about 10 minutes to spare before the start. Unfortunately, during this time spent standing on the beach I started to get extremely cold. I was shivering uncontrollably and starting to lose feeling in my hands and feet. Not a good way to start a race.

The Swim

The gun went off and I dove into the water. I attempted to get on some feet but was almost instantaneously taken up by the waves. Every time I went to sight the buoy I ended up getting punched in the face with waves and swallowing water. I swallowed a lot of lake water. I struggled to find a rhythm and get to the first buoy - the course was triangular shaped. By the time I got around the second buoy and started heading back towards the beach I was finally able to find a rhythm and feel strong. I tucked in behind two swimmers and cruised into the beach. Feeling more confident I quickly hustled out of the lake, ran around the buoy on shore and jumped back in – to only be hurled back by the waves. Once again, I began to (not on purpose) inhale copious amounts of lake water. I normally feel stronger during the second half of the swim portion of my races and tend to pull away from everyone. Not today. I tucked back behind the two swimmers (who I had been hoping to break away from) and just focused on swimming smoothly and not wasting too much energy fighting the waves. I decided to stay conservative, as I didn’t want to blow myself up for the rest of the race. I got to the beach and ran towards transition – ready to get out of that lake. Thankfully the run to transition was long as I struggled to find the zipper on my wetsuit with my frozen, numb hands. I managed to have a fairly clean transition and got onto my bike quickly.

The Bike

I was fairly cold but feeling pretty strong going into the bike. The course consisted of a short out and back on the highway towards Invermere and then a longer out and back towards Cranbrook. There was a ridiculously strong wind pushing us in the direction of Invermere. I was feeling strong up until the first turn around. I had no idea just how bad the wind was. Staying positive, I attempted to push the watts, knowing I could cruise back into transition with a tail wind. Unfortunately, swallowing ridiculous amounts of lake water is not that great for you. I started to burp and with every burp lake water began to come back out. My nutrition suffered as I struggled to drink from my bottle. I was freezing, regurgitating, and fighting tornado winds but was still managing to stay relatively calm. At about the 10km mark, Sharon passed me. Sharon is basically who I want to be when I get older – it is always so much fun racing people who not only inspire you, but are also so nice and supportive. A couple minutes later a super cute guy on a relay team biked by me and slowed up to give me some words of encouragement on how I could pass her back. What I wanted to do was thank him and say something nice back. What came out was some weird teradactyl noise. Catherine, this is why you are single. Sigh. Anywho, the super cute guy pulled away and I was once again on my own, battling the wind. I was beginning to struggle, but was still fairly positive. Last year I really struggled on the hills on the course. This year I managed to get through them fairly comfortably. Looks like my cycling is improving. Slowly, but we are going in the right direction. At about the 20km mark, another girl passed me. I managed to keep her in sight up until the turn around at 25km. Turning around and having a tail wind was amazing. I instantly started to feel better and slightly adjusted my game plane. Instead of recovering, I decided to push the pace a little and see if I could overtake the girl in second. I managed to keep her in sight up until 35ish km. After that I decided to ease up a bit so I could go into the run feeling strong. I was still burping up water, but made an effort to take in some of my bottle. Normally I drink an entire bottle but during this bike consumed about a third. Ugh, such a rookie mistake. About 500m from transition I took my feet out of my bike shoes and noticed that feeling had yet to return to my feet. They were completely numb. I had to look down just to make sure they were on top of my shoes. Besides having zero feeling in my feet, transition went fairly smoothly and I felt strong going into the run.

The Run

The first kilometer of the run was great. I felt strong and ready to attack. My feet were still frozen but my legs were feeling good. I was about a minute off of the second girl and ready to run her down. I had a guy in front of me running the perfect pace and my goal was to tuck behind and stick with him. Around 2km, everything went downhill very fast. I started to get horrible stomach pains and the burps returned. I also started to struggle to breathe. Every breath I took felt like no oxygen was actually entering my body. I started to hyperventilate and the only thing that made it better was slowing down my pace. I was miserable. I felt like I was hardly moving yet I couldn’t catch my breath. My legs were ready to run faster but my lungs and stomach were holding me back. Around 3km I was ready to throw in the towel. Just as I was about to stop running and DNF, Ian Jeffery ran past me in the opposite direction. He yelled at me to keep going and something along the lines of you got this and subconsciously my legs kept running. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t very fast but I kept running. I managed to get to the turn around (about 4km) and made the decision that I was going to finish, no matter how long it took me or how painful it was. At this point I noticed Jenny Rowe was about 500m behind me. The last time I raced Jenny in Invermere she overtook me 5km into the run and I almost killed myself to get ahead of her 500m from the finish line. I knew at this point there was no way I was going to be able to run down second but maybe I could hold off Jenny. I attempted to increase my cadence and focus on finishing one kilometer at a time. Around 6km I finally regained feeling in my feet. I managed to get to 8km before I started to really struggle to breathe again. At this point the song “500 miles” decided to get stuck in my head. Super random – but somehow it got me through the rest of the race and I managed to finish 3rd overall.

I came into this race feeling so strong and prepared. Having a crappy race and adding almost seven minutes to my time from last year sucked. As I crossed the finish line all I could think about was how I let down my coaches, teammates, and supporters. When so many people invest their time into you it sucks when your results don’t reflect your hard work and sacrifices. I know my biking and running are the strongest they have ever been and all I want is that to be reflected in a race. Self pity rant over.

Next up – Sporting Life 10km June 16. I’ve never actually completed a 10km running race without swimming and biking for over an hour beforehand so I’m pumped to see how fast I can go on fresh legs.

At the award ceremonies the race director was giving out some homemade CDs. It got me thinking about how much I used to love mixed tapes. So here is a list of what songs I would put on my mixtape – and yes I am aware I was born in the wrong decade.

God Only Knows - Beach Boys (greatest song ever)

Can’t Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley

Have You Ever Seen the Rain – Creedence Clearwater Revival

Down on the Corner - CCR

Bad Moon Rising - CCR

I am a Man of Constant Sorrow – O Brother, Where Art Thou

California Dreamin - Mamas and Papas

Country Road, Take me Home – John Denver

Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers

Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash

It Ain’t Me Babe - Bob Dylan

House of the Rising Sun – Animals

Nights of White Satin – Moody Blues