June was a busy month for my training and racing! First, I participated in a little sprint known as the DC Tri. I wanted to do this race because it was where this whole crazy triathlon thing began for me just one year ago. Because I'm in the midst of IM training, which is so totally different in every way from a sprint, my only goal was to have a blast. And I definitely did that.Everything else was just icing on the cake.
I did a long ride on Saturday before going to pick up my packet and rack my bike in transition by the Lincoln memorial -- IM means I don't get to skip out my long weekend workouts for any reason -- and then headed to bed for my early morning wakeup call.
The beauty of living so close to the start is that I didn’t have to get up until 4:30am — even though transition opened at 4. Because the sprint started at 7am, an hour after the olympic, I didn’t have to stress about setting up, getting my chip and getting body marked in a short period of time. So I had my pre-race PB&banana toast, drove over to Foggy Bottom and walked the few blocks down to the Lincoln and transition. After I set everything up, I wandered down to the river to watch the Olympic athletes take off on their swim.
Swim — 11:51
The swim this year was a time-trial start, which means eight or so athletes went off the dock at once, followed by the next group at 10 second intervals. We still were seeded into waves, but there was just a continuous stream of people into the water rather than a 3-minute or so gap. My wave (18-24) was the smallest, as usual, and we went off behind all several groups of older men and women. I spent a lot of time swimming over people in the waves ahead of me, but in general I liked the time-trial start because I think it resulted in less crowding overall.
Bike — 36:10
This is quickly becoming my strongest — and favorite — leg. The course was fun but somewhat slow because there were a lot of hairpin turns — talk about dangerous and a massive pileup waiting to happen. There was one at the end of Constitution, another at the top of Whitehurst Freeway (which involved going over a manmade ramp in the median) and one on Rock Creek Parkway. There also were a number of sharp turns and tons of potholes. So, in summary, the course itself was a mess and required a lot of slowing down and watching out for the people around you. In general, though, it's a really fun course to ride.
Run — 31:44
So the run generally has been my strength, and in a sprint I don’t have to really worry so much about pacing. I can just go. I felt pretty strong off the bike and knew I could hold a really good pace for the 4.5-ish miles of the course. The run course, like the bike, had a lot of mean out-and-backs with 180 degree turnarounds. These ankle-twisting, momentum-killing legs were really hard, especially since it was a lot of running in a straight line and then turning around and running the same thing back. The good part about this kind of course is you can see everyone around you, gauge where you are and wave to the people you know. I knew about all these little legs except for the last one — a quarter mile from the finish — where someone was yelling “Right turn ahead!” and all I could think was “What right turn? The finish is right there!” Sigh. I did get a lot of cheers for HC, including our awesome water stop crew, and saw a lot of people I knew, which was fun.
Finish: 1:23:09 (1st AG/3rd women/21st overall)
At the finish, I saw Francesca, took advantage of the massage tent and then returned to transition to gather my bike and gear before heading back over for the awards ceremony. Anna got third for her AG in the Olympic race, which qualified her for 5150 nationals in Des Moines later this year. And in the sprint — Mike was on the podium for the men, while Francesca got second and I came in third. High Cloud, represent! It was a fun day for racing in DC.
A week later, I did the total opposite of a sprint tri -- I rode 200 miles on my bike. In one day. High Cloud also came out strong for Total 200, a double century ride from DC to the southern tip of Maryland and back. The ride is split into eight legs of more or less 25 miles with rest stops and lunch at the halfway point. The 200K option, which a lot of people chose to do instead, splits off about 55 miles or so in and cuts the over to the back half of the route.
I've broken this ride down section by section on my personal blog, but I'll say here that I felt really great for a little more than 2/3 of the day. I was feeling strong, riding pretty fast and executing my nutrition plan like I wanted. When we reached the halfway point for lunch at 107 miles, I absolutely could have gotten off the bike to run, no problem. Mile 140 was where I started to hurt, and the next 62 miles were just about mental toughness and physical survival. The course was more challenging on the way back -- more hills, and of course getting darker -- and I was beyond thrilled to return to the start/finish in Anacostia park. 202.4 miles in 10:57 makes for a very long but successful day.
I signed up for this double century back in March thinking it would be great training for IM. Sure, it’s almost double the 112 miles I’ll be riding on Sept. 11, but once I complete 200, anything less will be easy, right? At the end of the day, I could honestly say that this was a huge victory in mental toughness. I don’t think there is anything that could prepare me better for IM. Being out there alone in the hardest parts of the day, hurting, wanting to quit and having to work through it on my own got me ready for the darkest moments I know I’ll have in September. You can’t race for 12 hours without at some point wondering why the hell you’re still putting your body through all this pain. If I didn’t get anything else out of Total 200, it wouldn’t matter. This was the ultimate reward.
All in all, I’m glad I did this. I’m not sure I’d do it again, but it was just what I needed. A huge shoutout to the volunteers, who were absolutely fabulous for the entire day. The finishers’ medal was great — a piece of a bike cassette — the support was fantastic and the overall organization well-executed. Thanks, all!
