Tupper Lake Tinman Sprint, June 29, 2013

I decided about a month ago to sign up for the sprint at the Tupper Lake Tinman. I've had some shin splint issues, but they seem to be improving, and I've been able to get more running done. Coming just a week after the big Spinervals Lake Placid training camp, I knew I'd have to make this past week an easier training week. Did two open water swims in Mirror Lake, one five mile run on the treadmill on a rainy morning, and one 18 mile ride on the tri bike during the week. I took a rest day on Friday, and really felt good all day, physically and mentally. For once, I felt confident about the swim, and didn't make myself practically psychotic worrying about it all day. Slept ok Friday night. I don't expect to get a good night's sleep the night before a race, but this night we were having sump pump issues because of all the rain we've had. My husband had to get up twice in the night to check the basement. On race morning, we were up at 4:30 and were on the road by 5:15 a.m. for Tupper Lake. It was cloudy and threatening rain, but pretty mild temperatures, around 60 degrees.
Tupper Lake is a little over an hour's drive away, through some really beautiful and remote country. We were there before 6:30, parked close, but then ended up having to walk a long way around the barriers to get through the race venue. Everywhere around the race venue was wet and muddy. I picked up my race packet, timing chip, and found my bike rack spot. (When I picked up my t-shirt, the woman asked me what size it said on my race bag. I told her, "small." She said, "Well, we have large and extra large. Which would you like?" Really? Why is it so hard to order enough of the size people choose when they register? Sorry for the rant, but I have many large-sized race shirts. It happens a lot.) Racked my bike, got my transition area set up, found my friend Sandy, did a quick warm-up run, and put my wetsuit on for a quick swim. We were told the water temperature was 72 degrees. It felt a bit cooler than that, but was perfect. Sandy and I went to stand in the sprint start carrel. There weren't many people there, which we should have noticed. Some guy came over and told us they decided to start us in the water, so we hustled down there. Someone was giving us instructions over the loudspeaker, when we suddenly heard someone near us say, "five seconds," and then the gun went off! I had one earplug out to hear the instructions--which were still going on!--so I quickly stuffed the plug in my ear and started swimming. Two minutes later, I realized that I never started my watch, damnit! I had a very good swim for me, just steady, sighted often. Had to adjust my course a couple of times, and I swim so slowly that I was with the breast- and sidestrokers. I kept thinking, "How can I be so slow that I can't lose these people?" I had to stay alert to not get kicked by the breaststroker, and a backstroker could not swim in a straight line, and kept swimming across my path. Both of those things slowed me down. In retrospect, I think I would risk a little sprint, and get out ahead of them early in the swim. I did the swim in 25:09, which is just about right for me for 6/10 mile. When I breathed and sighted, I could see the kayakers near me, so I was convinced I was last. When I got out of the water, I turned quickly and was shocked to see so many white caps of the sprinters still in the water! I ended up 73rd out of 96 on the swim. Lots of room for improvement, but I swam steadily and in control, so I was very happy.
When I got out of the water, I started my watch, then quickly hit the lap button to advance it to T1. It's kind of a long run to the bike racks. I did a quick, but not rushed, transition. It started raining on the swim, so I decided not to wear my sunglasses, thinking I wouldn't be able to see if the lenses were wet. We had to run our bikes over two timing mats, then run them across the road before we could mount. My T1 was 2:29, not too bad. I started to hammer immediately, just felt really good. Glad to be out of the water, glad to be on the bike, which is my strong leg, when I suddenly realized I never put air in my tires! I immediately reminded myself that I had pumped them up before my ride three days before (I know, I was grasping at straws), and since the roads were wet, it was better that I was running them a little low. Nothing I could do about it at that point, I just needed to not dwell on something I could not control at that moment. I felt a touch cool going out on the bike, but warmed up very quickly. The bike course was perfect for me; lots of long rollers at the beginning, then a nice climb partway up Mt. Arab before the turnaround. I passed everyone I came to, except two guys at about mile five. We played tag a little on the ups and downs, but then I passed them for good when the road went seriously up, and I never saw them again. It was an out and back course, so I could see that I would get a chance to recover on the mountain descent, and that there would be a good last descent back into town, so I really pushed the ride out. My HR dropped on the way back, just as I hoped. On the downhills on the way back, I was wishing I had worn my sunglasses, just to keep the rain from bouncing off my eyeballs (at least, that's the way it felt). The rain stopped right before I finished the bike. The course was 18.75 miles, and my time was 56:57. I averaged around 19.8 mph and had the 16th fastest bike time (link to data). That moved me up a bit in the standings! Did a quicker transition--1:28--and as I was headed out, the girl racked next to me was coming in on the bike. She said, "Hot damn, you're fast on the bike!" Gave me a nice mental boost to start the run. The first mile for the run was flat, but a lot of it was over wet, muddy grass. The second mile was uphill, mile three is a slight down, four and five were a more gradual climb, then the last 1.6 miles were down. I just tried to run as steady as I could. A couple of Team Placid Planet teammates, Billy Whitney and Darci LaFave, were at the race, and rode out along the bike course, cheering people on. I saw them three or four times, and it was just great to have that encouragement along the way. I did the run in 57:54, so I averaged 8:32 miles (data). That's a little slow for me for a 10K-ish run, but I don't have a lot of miles in and no speedwork, so I'm happy with it. I had the 31st fastest run, and finished 30th overall out of 96 (results). I was 2 out of 9 in my age group, and the 6th out of 43 women. I was just thrilled when I finished! I felt strong and in control the entire race. I drank almost a full bottle of Heed on the bike, had a gel and a small handheld bottle of Heed on the run. I also took water at every aid station, drinking about half and dumping the rest on my head. It just felt like everything had gone perfectly (other than the couple of things that didn't :)). If you've read this far, thank you for sticking with me. I wrote much of this to just record my thoughts for future races, and I'm just so excited this race went so well. My friend, Sandy, finished third in our age group, so we both got certificates at the awards. Sandy's daughter, Erin, did the half in preparation for Mont Tremblant next month. We stayed to see her finish. She broke five hours, 4:59:09, I believe, for 2nd place. Absolutely awesome race for her!