Hello again world. It's me Annika Ruth. It's about time for a race report! Oceanside 70.3, the unofficial official kickoff to the triathlon series was this past weekend. My Mom, Dad, and Grandpa better known as Pops Pops, all raced. Despite their pre race moans, groans, and gripes they are such babies! it was a spectacular event.
Oceanside 70.3 is considered to be a "classic" half ironman by my family. It was the first big goal my Mom and Dad set in triathlon. That was not only BA (before Annika ). It was before they even met. Oceanside was a favorite race of Pop Pops as he would visit my now deceased Great Grandparents in Carlsbad and do the race every year.
Since my parents and I are moving to this summer this most likely will be the last time they call Oceanside (aka Ralph's) their home town race. Speaking of classic, huge thank you to Marit Chrislock-Lauterbach for letting me use these classic photos.
This was a special day for my Mom. It was her first triathlon since fall of 2010. It was pretty amazing seeing everyone in transition before the race started. Some of her former co workers were volunteering in the med tent too so it was like a big reunion. My Dad commented to my Mom the only person who knew more people was Annika. What can I say? I am one of the most celebrated individuals in the multi sport community. When it was time to start the swim my Mom was more excited than nervous. She felt really good on the swim but she noticed she was fighting the current not to float away from the buoy line. She also did some veering around others from the many waves of swimmers before her.When my Mom exited the swim she looked at her watch and thought "Say it ain't so. A 40 minute swim wasn't really what she was hoping for. She shrugged and with a little sarcasm she thought "well this is no place I haven't been before" and enjoyed the ample space in T1 as many of the other bikes were already gone.
Of course I inspired all of her theme songs. For the swim she channeled , Baby Beluga by Raffi. If you don't know it you really should learn it.It's a great theme song.
After donning the most awesome arm warmers ever ($3 Target tall socks with the feet cut off) She rolled out onto her bike and had a second thought. She realized she actaully was in a place she had never been before after the swim. That placed was feeling rested. In past she struggled to catch her breath and felt totally spent after the swim portion. Maybe swim fitness is different than swim speed.
On the bike she didn't have big goals. Numero uno was to ride safe. The roads were wet. Let's face it, it would be a hard job to take care of me if you were casted or bandaged up. My Mom chose to not use her disk and to make "Mom turns" (coming out of the aero bars and going slower than usual around corners). My Mom pretty much rides three weekends a month and holidays. That's it. For what ever reason ok because it is fun she chose to do most of her riding on her mountain bike. Actually, her single speed mountain bike because it is really, really darn fun. It's so much fun it is practically against the law. Up until January my Mom had this sick, anemic feeling in her quads when she climbed, then it just magically went away after several single speed smash fests that is. Anyway, after considering prior years bike splits she thought she would be happy with a bike split of 3 hours or less. Whatever her bike split was she figured barring mechanical failure, it would be the split she deserved and she would not trade anything to ride faster on race day.
Despite being a bit blustery and wet she really enjoyed the bike ride and felt awesome. In fact she felt rested. On the bike she took it all of her calories via diluted liquid. It worked great minus the 2 minutes spent peeing in T2. With respect to the little time she spent riding the time trail bike over the past year my Mom was afraid to reach in her Bento box for gels or to play with her bike computer. She left it on max speed and current speed the entire ride. She was pretty delighted to note according to the time on her wrist watch by mile 40 she was holding a 20 mph pace.Later she learned that she biked a 2:47. 2 minutes faster than the last time she raced this course.
Her theme song was of course chosen by me "Keep on the sunny side" It's such a great song. Although when my Dad came flying by she thought of the line in "The Wheels on The Bus" where the song sings "The driver of the bus says move on back" because he was flying. He had to 2 leeches stuck to his rear wheel who really should have moved on back. All in all though the drafting wasn't atrocious because the course has a few rollers and a couple of climbs to keep things decent.
Towards the end of the bike my Mom could see Pop Pops ahead. He had a yellow jacket and was easy to spot. She caught up and they entered T2 together. My Mom tried to make quick work of T2 but her shoes stuck to her wet feet and she finally sat down to put them on. Then she bolted....straight to the porta potty. All liquid nutrition talking, but hey a porta potty stop vs a crash at 25 mph while opening a Cliff bar in the rain. Pick your poison. So after the loooooongest pee break imaginable she dashed onto the run course to catch up to Pop Pops.
The run course was great, but a little confusing. There were a few turn arounds simply to get the miles and get from street to pier level and my Mom found it a bit disorienting and was a little bit nervous she would miss a turn and end up running extra miles. Then all the post partum Mom's would say..."I think doing a 1/2 Ironman 6 months post partum is a bad idea, look what happened to Jen" Perspectives Mom's might be dissuaded thinking that it caused her brain to go to mush. Crisis averted. Good thing.
On the run course my Mom saw her friends Julie and Amy who were injured and couldn't race. She felt really lucky to be in good health and be racing. My Mom looked at her Garmin watch and saw she was running a low 7 min/mile 1/2 mile into the course. She felt great minus strange calf/ankle cramping but wisely dialed back and focused on running sub 8. She saw Pop Pops on an out and back and realized to her surprise that she had beat him out of T2. Apparently she didn't have the longest pit stop. She was hoping they could run together becuase Pop Pos is good at intervals....and good at chasing people down.
3.52 miles in to the run she saw a little girl not much older than me jumping in a jumparoo. It made her miss me and she quickened her pace so she could see me sooner. She thought about our 5k's we raced together. At that point she knew the wheels would not fall off the bus because that is not how the song goes. She saw my Dad. He yelled that he was dying and said she was catching up. Some might look at his splits and say he paid for his bike on the run. However, that is not true. He just didn't train for the run :)
She smiled and yelled "I'm not. I feel great " We all know she was thinking INSERT EVIL LAUGH "I'm coming to get you" She started to do some math.
The mind of a racer works in interesting ways but at mile 8 she thought. 8 min/mile x10 miles = 80 minutes. Plus 8min/miles x 3 =24 minutes. Don't forget the 0.1 miles at the end for a total of a 1h45min ish . Hmm, I like that. Then she looked at her watch and realized if she maintained this pace it would be an all time 1/2 Ironman PR. I really like that. However with 5K to go she started to have to work to keep the pace. 2.5 miles out the pace fell to 8:20's. She tried to find somebody to pace off. It seemed despite all the people none were picking up the pace to the finish line. She had to really fight to keep the pace up. Darn, she was hoping to get fancy with 5 K to go.
It wasn't until the final 1/4 of a mile my Mom felt she was headed to the finish and certain she didn't miss a turn. Finally she entered the finish chute. She saw a lady in front of her and noted the calf said 34. Wait a minute. It said 36. Another one of her many goals was to finish in the top 10 AG at an "Ironman" event face it Ironman event have a deeper field than non IM events. In a final kick to the finish she passed the competitor. Guess what? It sealed the deal. The official results and photo finish say my Mom finished in the top 10. Athlete Tracker listed my Mom as 11 th place because the two athletes had the same finishing time. In that event the rank by alpha numeric but the official results are correct.
Hands down this was a good day for my Mom. Make no excuses. This wasn't a good day for being 6 months post partum. It was a good day period.That run was the fastest my Mom has ever run split my Mom has ever in a 1/2 ironman. She had an 8 minute course improvement and was only 1 minute off her all time PR which was at Vineman and has way less running in transitions. Go ahead! Blame the baby! I'll take the credit for sure.
1 comment:
It was so great seeing you out there looking strong! Way to represent the mamas! :) Miss you around Mercy missy :)
Post a Comment