Lake Sammamish Triathlon

...There is no greater feeling than the reward that comes from sticking to a  focused and motivated path of doing what you know you need to do...

*Big thanks to Kevin for the action shots for this post!

It won’t do it justice but I must do my best to describe my home stay for the this race.  Upon arriving I was greeted by a great triathlon suite nestled in beautiful trees.  Kevin and Anne treated me with overly generous hospitality. I was fixed a delicious meal of spaghetti and chicken, quartered in a spacious apartment with a queen size bed, cable TV, and the most peacefully quiet surroundings. 

Not only that, but both Kevin and Anne woke up at 5 am just to come see me race.  My two friends did a great job of running around the course taking action pictures, getting me what I needed, and cheering for me.  I really wanted to make them proud to be in my entourage.

Even though I was focused elsewhere, I was able to catch Kevin sprinting into a crowd of people, disappear, and then reappear atop a picnic table snapping a great running shot.  I think I even saw him hurdle a group of small children, that's just pure athleticism.  It reminded me of a hot blonde that is sneaky at picture taking.  I am almost ashamed of how nicely I was treated by Anne and Kevin.  I was especially ashamed when Anne had to ride back to the state park with me after I forgot my Promotion Wetsuit. J

Let me start the actual race report by saying this is a huge race!  I believe there were over 700 people signed up (row upon row upon row of bike racks), 35 of those people were in my age division.  Those are not that great of odds for the few hoping to place in the top 5, 10, 20, or even 100. 

The odds of placing in the top 5 at this race would be  0.714 percent, that’s less than 1 percent!  The odds are worse for those who have the desire not to just do well, but to win   This race is packed with super fast people, all with the triathlon driven greed to get all the awards and places that they can get for themselves. However, everything starts with believing, and that’s why I am here.

I slept in for this race, waking up at 4 am in a comfortable queen sized bed.  I was at the race by 5:15 am, out of the 700 people signed up I was the first to rack my bike, imagine that.  It was so dark when I arrived I had to move within 3 inches, and use my phone, to read the numbers on the assigned bike racks.

*A lonely, dark transition zone 

*Notice the change in tires

I went through the normal pre race routine, had a fairly good warm up, and awaited my swim start with my normal pre race violent shiver convulsions. By the first buoy I had made it to clear space past the swirling white water of turning arms and legs that is the swim start.  Close to the first buoy I started to settle into a comfortably hard pace.  At the second buoy I began to swim through the previous waves’ less accomplished swimmers.  I was doing by best to dodge the bodies and wound up slipping slightly off course.  I righted my course and made the swim exit in 3^rd. 

I had a great transition and left close to the lead in my wave.  I flew aboard the P3, crossed a dirt, tree root ridden gravel path, and found my way to the main portion of the bike course.  It was immediately full power forward, not 90 percent, not 95 percent, I am talking leg agonizing full effort pull.  I rode very hard the first portion of the bike.

Feedback came quickly; two waves had 3 and 6 minutes head start on me so I had a lot of people to chase.  From my perspective, I was in zoom mode, I was doing my best to ride hard, catch people and rid my wheel of them in a hurry.  I was having a great ride, but it wasn’t easy, it was full effort and full pain. 

Near mile 8 I decided to back down to 90 percent power because my pace was a red-hot, ticking leg-bomb.  At mile 9 I lost a spot, at mile 10 I lost another, both passing riders were riding super hard and fast tempo. I rode the remaining 4 miles of the bike course to the park.  I wasn’t able to catch all of the two previous wave athletes, but I did catch the majority, it was very rewarding.

The weather was fairly cool so my fingers were not working well as I struggled to clamp and slide my shoe’s lace locks in T2.  I settled for one tight shoe and one semi-loose shoe.  Immediately on the run I felt motivated to run hard.  The footstrike was there, the turnover was there, the attitude to really hurt people on the run was there.  I have never felt this way on the run.  This was my Jacksonville reward; I was backing down my lack of run-confidence with belief in my power within, the Power of One.

I ran hard, harder than I have ever run.  I was locked in a world of pain but was unwilling to waiver and slow down.  Each captured runner brought me motivation to keep going.  With a little over a mile to go I spotted a familiar figure in the distance ahead.  “Why is he familiar?”  It hit me; it was the kid that passed me at mile 9 on the bike.  I was running him down, something I would not have been doing 3 races ago! 

"Run 'Em Down!"

I had one long straight stretch, a sharp corner, and then a winding half-mile to the finish to catch him.  I ran the straight stretch hard and at the sharp corner I was 2 or 3 seconds off of him.  As I entered the 120-degree corner I used my right arm to wrap around a sign pole and use it to slingshot me through the apex of the corner.  It took a few more seconds but then I was on him.

This was the race and this was what I had worked for the last month.  My reward for the difficulty in making my no BS assessment (and hard acceptance) of my running, and a tough running camp was right here.  All I had to do was “man up” more than the guy running next to me, and run my guts out for the next half-mile.  This was one of those few opportunities to see what I was made of.

*Applying the BRAKES!

I am thrilled that I found my “Run Animal” at this race.  I was able to average 6:10 per mile running 19:08 for the 5k. I ran away from the guy that I caught, crossing the line in 4^th place overall.  All I wanted was to stop moving, breathe, and wait for the pain to stop.  All the hard work I had done had just paid off, it was extremely hard, but anything worth doing is always hard.  Those same things are always worth it in the end.  I am a happy camper today with my run improvement and 4^th place finish at this huge race.

*I'm psyched my run split out ranked my swim split!