Stevens Tri 2007: NincomPOOPED

I'd say this day was a slice of chaos pie (home-baked!) topped with tiny victory sprinkles.


First of all, to set yourself up for success, pack the night before rather than 15 minutes before you head out the door. I'm begging you. I DID think about packing the night before...but then I thought "Oh, I know where all my stuff is...it'll be fine." NO. No, it won't.

Here's what I forgot:

• floor pump
• extra CO2 cartridges
• extra nutrition
• SOCKS!

I train indoors on my bike without socks, so the big worry was whether the run would be doable. It was; I didn't feel any discomfort.

Here's how the event went down:

RUN: 7K -- 43:??

What?! The Web said 5K! Sonuva! You know, the extra mile just isn't my style. (Dibs on T-shirt rights!) Also, it was surpisingly hot out there...just as surprisingly, I wasn't giddy or nervous at all before this race. I'm usually so worked up I can't sleep the night before and I almost puke at the start line. Perhaps a little worry would have helped a little with the packing situation.

The WSMR courses always tend to be a little short (this one was only 4.0 miles) and if my calculations are correct, I managed to keep a sub-11:00-ish pace, which was my goal given my Pb legs, so I'm fine with it.

Bike: 35K -- 1:40:??

So why don't I know my exact splits? Because I haven't sat down to figure out how to do laps on my new hrm AND I put my front wheel on backwards (!) so the sensor was on the wrong side. (I TOLD you I was a nincompoop.) For the first 5K, I was riding blind, as it were. I had no idea how fast (or slow) I was going. It seemed pretty slow to me, so I actually GOT OFF MY BIKE to see if my tires were fully inflated.

This is huge. I never do this. At my last tri, I rode 12 miles on a mushy back tire and last summer, I rode most of a half-iron on a mushy front tire. Why? Because I'm so afraid that whatever problem exists will get worse if I try to "handle" it. So I just avoid it. But not this day. I actually did some investigating.

This is when I discovered the front tire was mushy and the wheel was on backwards. I used the only CO2 cartridge in my seatpack...fixed and fixed. And off I went, a little nervous about whether I might need more air later. (Pack the night before. The Night Before!)

Victory Sprinkles

I'm really okay with my bike split. I haven't been doing much riding lately, and I thought this would take me closer to two hours. The slopes out here are deceptive, but on parts that have taken me down below 10mph in the past, I was able to go 13-15mph!

AND THEN...late on the bike...I passed someone! Amazing!

Mostly, I am happy with being able to work hard and go fast (for me) so long and so late on the course. The last 6 miles are uphill and especially miserable (for me), but I kept grinding away.

Swim: 400m -- about 9 minutes

Blisters. Big ones. On the insides of both of my feet. I felt the skin flapping in the water. Never, ever run without socks again.

More victory sprinkles: when I got in the water, this guy was about 125m ahead of me. (At WSMR, the swim is in a 25m pool -- you go up and back in each of 8 lanes for a total of 400m.) I caught and PASSED him at 325m! Okay, he wasn't so much swimming as much as he was floating and waving his limbs. I really HAD to pass this guy.

Total time: 2:38:17

Hmmm...I wonder what would happen if I buckled down and got serious about this.

Next goal: set the tone with a respectable debut at the Cornman Tri in IOWA!