Tawas Festival of Races Triathlon Race Report

I'm I raced in my first Olympic race in over a year this past weekend. I woke up early and was on the road for my estimated 1:20 minute ride to Tawas. Before hopping on the freeway I stopped and grabbed my normal coffee to go with my poptart for my pre-race drive meal. I arrived at the race site at 5:55am and relaxed in the truck until shortly after 6am when packet pickup opened up. I grabbed my packet and then proceeded to grab my bike and transition area gear and got my stuff setup. During setup of my transition area I get marked and found chip pickup. They weren't in their normal spots by packet pickup, there was a short hunt!

Finally got my stuff in order and found a racing buddy that had been training for the 1/2 iron distance race. He suffered a setback during the week leading up to and had to back down to the sprint race. He claimed he would be swimming with only one arm. Speaking of swimming. It was announced earlier in the week that the water temperature in lake Huron was 65 degrees. Very doable with a wetsuit. Well, over night the wind shifted and so did the water temperature! It was a balmy 56 degrees! At the time I didn't let it bother me, I'm thinking I have a wetsuit, no worries! I chit chat with my buddy for a while and we talk about goals for the race. This was his 2nd sprint this year and he had a few Oly's mixed in there too. I also found some of my Tri team members before the race. The guy on the far left was in the 1/2 iron distance! 😎

We watch the 1/2 iron guys and gals go out and the RD is making sure everyone has dipped their face in the water to "acclimate" to the water. It still hadn't clicked that the water was truly cold! Olympic racers enter the water (thats me) and I realize how cold it is! I'm thinking ok, I'll warm up once we get going. "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" was what I told myself when the air horn went off! Aside from the water being excessively cold once we got going I felt like I swam well. Sighting was decent and I just got into a groove right away. I think you have to under those conditions. Take your mind off the cold and get the job done! I was out of the water in 32:22 good for 14th over all and 1st in my AG. An Olympic swim PR!

T1 was another long transition. Almost a 1/4 mile run from the water to transition. I get out of the water and I'm running but I can't feel my feet! I'm thinking ok, not sure how I'm running as I can't feel anything but I'll just roll with it! lol I make my way to T1 and out in a long 5:06.

I exit T1 and mount and clip onto the bike without any problems. The bike course was described as a fast and flat out and back course. They forgot to mention some small rollers in the mix and forgot to tell the wind to be calm. The first 2-3 miles it feels like I'm barely moving. I sneak a peek at my watch and it has me at 17 mph! Well, that verified how things felt! I decided to "roll" with it and hope that it was because I was going up hill and into the wind. I had no idea if that was the actual case about the wind. I was hoping though! Also during this time I can't feel my feet. I thought life was restored to them while in transition but looking back I'm not so sure. My feet do have a tendency to go numb on the bike. Good news was I could still move and wiggle my toes and that seemed to help. It wasn't long and I was passed the sprint turn around. and things finally seemed to get better. Still had a nasty wind to contend with but it felt like I was moving again. I make it to the Olympic turn around and thats when my hopes come true! The wind was on my back! It's time to turn on the after burners! I cruised back to T2 for a bike time of 1:12:56. 10th overall and 1st in my AG, also, a PR on in a 40k :D

T2 was a bit quicker but it took a little while to run with my bike to rack it. Transition was longer than any I've had the privilege to encounter! T2 time was 1:39. Not bad for hobbling with a bike for half a block!

The run has been elusive to me all season. I haven't been able to get just a run in most of the season and when I do it "feels" horrible. Things just feel hard and I haven't enjoyed it most of the summer. Something clicked in the past 2-3 weeks. Probably because the weather has been decently cooler when I have made it out to run and I've unofficially felt that I needed to feel better about the run and focus on it a little more than biking. That being said, the 10k run went about as well as I could have hoped! I felt strong for the majority of the run. At the 4 mile mark I could feel my leg muscles starting to scream at me and try to cramp. I just kept going. I had knew at the turnaround I had someone coming on strong and had to keep moving to keep my place. The gap was rather big, but I didn't want to give this guy a glimmer of hope after being caught in the final stretch of my last tri! It worked! I held him off! I finished my run in 49:01. Not quite a Oly 10k PR but it was close! :D

Here I am near the finish shoot.

Overall time was 2:41:02! A huge Olympic PR by about 17 minutes! Good for 7th overall and 1st in my AG. It was a great race even in what felt like ice water. I'm looking forward to coming back next year, potentially for the 1/2 iron distance. My buddy is really looking for a training buddy ;)