Onionman

lets start with last monday...

i was supposed to do the masters swim workout and then a track workout. but i could hardly walk up stairs. i got up for the swim but when after the 1200yd warm up the coach said, ok 4x500 i said hahahaha and said ok how about 1x500. so that is what I did with a 50 cool down tacked on the end.
the track workout got moved to tuesday and wasn't even on the track. i did it while running around seward park. i set my garmin to what i thought might get me to what I was supposed to do and i got pretty darn close, if the distance was actually what it was supposed to be. i did 4x400 with 400 rest between plus a mile at the end. the 400s were descending 1:45 to 1:35 and I actually sort of pulled it off this time, with the mile supposed to be 6:59 but that came in at 7:10. i was still pretty happy because it was windy as hell and who really knows how far I went for any of it. Wednesday was an hr easy on the trainer while I watched some bride wars and thursday was a 20 minute swim. since i totally wussed on the LUNA swim on Tuesday out in Lake Washington, I braved Beaver Lake with Leslie. It was actually quite pleasant and only once did I think about there being an earth quake with the earth under the lake opening up and sucking us down. i am so over dead bodies and sea creatures. i have moved on to earth quakes. duh.

early saturday we packed up the kids and headed to yakima. When we got there it was about 85 degrees and super sunny. We went for a 45 minute run and it was hot. and we didn't really know where we were going so we wound up being out for 50. Thankfully we took a water bottle but I went through the whole thing. Then we jumped on the bikes and rode for 30 minutes but actually wound up out for 34 but who's counting. Its so beautiful out there on all country roads and with the sun and all it was super nice. then we just relaxed the rest of the day. i soooo wanted to sit in the sun and soak it up but knew it wouldn't be the best idea. food choices for lunch (taco bell) and dinner (hot dogs and baked beans) were not ideal but since we are so bad about nutrition anyway it wasn't too disruptive. plus we made sure to have a really good dinner friday night anyway.

i got into bed around 9ish and i was ready and tired. i slept terrible and was wide awake at 3:30 but still had another hour. i fell back asleep and then was up with the alarm went off. we were on the road by 4:30 since my alarm is actually 10 minutes fast and the sun was already coming up. it was about 60 degrees and beautiful out.

so we drove the almost 3 hrs to walla walla. i had PB&J at 6am which is standard race morning breakfast for me. in walla walla we stopped at the albertsons for a potty break and so eric could get coffee at the starbucks there. good lord i was feeling sick at albertsons. every where I turned i saw something that was going to make me hurl. not sure what that was about but it did concern me. i couldn't get out of there quick enough and was happy to get back on the road.

we got to the race site and i picked up my registration. one thing the onionman is good for is the schwag. they gave us red fleece beenies and tshirts this year. last year they gave towels that I use every time I go swimming. hooray!

It was WINDY. i was fine with that although worried about how the wind would affect the swim. I knew everyone would be in the same boat and was just happy it was not raining like last year. eric wasn't racing but he put on his wetsuit and i sat in the car and watched him swim the course - two loops of a big triangle. he said the wind wasn't an issue so i was a little releived.

the pre-race meeting went long but i hurried down to the water and got in for a bit. i was supposed to do a 10 minute warm up - something I have never done for a triathlon and certainly never would have chosen on my own to do in the water. not sure if it was 10 minutes but i got out there and felt pretty good and was happy the water temp was nice. then i stood on the shore waiting for the race to start.

i usually line up way in the back, like backest back but everyone was so spread out left to right that i just kind of got up in there and we were off.

i haven't ever been in the mix of such an aggressive start so I was a little taken aback by all the people clawing on me. i got kicked in the head but kept my goggles so i was happy. it was pretty exciting and not once during the swim did any of my totally irrational fears of swimming cross my mind. i did wind up doing way more breast stroke than i had hoped because every time I would get kicked or grabbed it threw me off a little and i used it to recover. i haven't ever been in a race where I've had ppl on me the whole race. i was pretty stoked when i didn't get lapped and all in all the swim was pretty good. eric watched from the shore and one poor woman didn't realize it was a 2 lap course. she came all the way back to shore and was sent back out for lap 2. that would suuuuck.

swim time was 34:42 compared to 41:42 last year. top guys were finishing in about 21 which was the same as last year so the course must have been pretty much the same.

t1- in the past i didn't ever work very hard in the swim so i could jump right out of the water and book it to transition. but i was pretty beat coming out and we had to run uphill. i ran but it was slow. transition time was 2:29 compared to 4:53 las year (yikes! but i did put on arm warmers and a vest last year, too!)

instantly i caught about 5 people within the first mile or two and then i kept passing people, but only two in my age group. i got passed by an old dude on a fancy bike on the way out. i continued to pass a ton of people. the bike course is amazingly beautiful. all up hill but beautiful. the way back is all down hill and although I was in my big ring, pedalling the whole time and in my aero bars, i got passed by probably another 5 dudes. about 5 miles from the end two girls from the younger age group passed me but then I passed them back when it flattened out and we started up hill again. my quads were tight to start out with but felt ok after a while but my knees were aching. i think my aero position might be off. i meant to have two clif shots but one fell out somewhere so I had to ration the one I had. i had 1/2 at like 20 minutes in and then the other 1/2 at some point after that I can't remember. i drank most of my bottle of LUNA Sport Elecrtolyte Splash Pink Grapefruit, the best stuff ever.

nothing new on race day, right? ok, so yeah, i have worn my tri shorts to ride on the trainer and in a mtn bike race but hadn't worn them for an extended period of time and definitly not in aero position. i had a few issues but nothing seemed too horrible i hoped!

bike time was 1:19:36 compared to 1:26:04 last year. i moved up 30 spots overall after the bike. i thought I would do better than that but i imagine most of that time was made up on the uphill and i did feel pretty good the whole time.

t2 - 1:10 compared to 1:15. i dug around to find that missing clif shot and my pony tail holder (curses to the fantasy hair!!) next time i'll put it on my wrist and likely tape the clif shots to the bike.

oh the run. i was dying. i had to pee and it was about 8947235602 degrees out. i got a mile in when i hopped into the bushes. same thing happened last year but i held it then and i was super uncomfortable.

the run starts on a dirt trail but then changes to a paved bike path along a river or something.
i saw a giant snake, prolly 3-4 ft long cross in front of me. i am seeing snakes constantly this year. at about 3 miles I felt pretty good. i was just running along passing people. i did get passed by those two girls from the end of the bike and one other super speedy runner girl from the younger age group. i think i was passed by one guy but i passed more people, too but only one from my age group. i walked through the water stop at mile 4 and then through a giant shade patch later in mile 5. i knew the last mile was back on the dirt trail and had a lot of uphill. i remember walking those last year but i ran them all this time. and i passed another girl in my age group! almost to the end i started to run really hard and passed probably another 2 or 3 but i was running so hard that all i wanted to do was stop. the finish line was in sight and all i wanted to do was walk. it took everything to not stop before getting to it.

run time 51:27 compared to 55:01. i moved up another 20 spots overall after the run. really, that's not too far off my 10k pr of 49:44, but I think I could have run harder. i would not have passed on stopping in the bushes though.

total finish time: 2:49:25 compared to 3:08:56. my main goals of the race were to be under 3hrs, have a faster swim and hopfully not be slower anywhere else. i am quite happy with how things turned out. and i came in 3rd in my age group was a super pleasant surprise. top woman overall was about 30 minutes ahead of me.

another thing about the onionman is the awesome bbq after the race. since i had placed, which was shocking and exciting i changed into podium attire and we stuck around for a bit longer. i picked up my prize, a glass onionman mug and then we jumped into the car for the 3hrs back to yakima.

after a quick dinner we loaded the car with the rest of our stuff and the kids and were off for another 3hrs. the kids were asleep instantly and stayed asleep until maybe 30 minutes before we got home. when we got home they put on their pjs and jumped into bed. they had had a crazy day of Yakima sun and breathing fresh country air.

what a great day!!! today was a nice day of relaxing. it was beautiful out but i spent the whole day indoors, what was i thinking??? idaho is soon. i am pretty excited. i was kind of nervous about onionman because i had some goals but for the idaho race I really have no idea what to expect and really just want to go and have fun! i think i will!