Toyota US Open Olympic Triathlon Race Report

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I can't believe this report is so huge! I really should have done one of my mini movie slide show for all the pictures. Oh well, OK here it is a long one, but there are pictures like a children's book to keep you entertained :-) This was my first large triathlon event over 1000+ athletes. It was extremely exciting but also a little intimidating. The athletes competing well they looked like hard core triathletes, but I was there to give it all I had, have fun and get “cozy” with the OLY distance.

Greg Bennett (1) after winning the mens Toyota Cup

The top pro ladies for this Toyota Triathlon Series

Becky Lavelle winning the womens Toyota Cup

Friday evening Shane and I had a nice dinner with most of Team Strive and their families. It was a great send off! It helped me relax and just enjoy the evening instead of worrying how plain worn out I had been feeling the entire week. Even though a huge glass of vino would have been nice too :-(

One of the many tables at the Strive pre race dinner party

On Saturday we, being Shane, my best friend Rita, and her husband, Vince left around 7ish to Dallas after our taquito and Starbucks run. It was great to have their company on the trip! We got to the Hilton Anatole to make the noon mandatory briefing. It was the usual talk of some of the USAT rules. There was also discussion about the point to point transition. I was a little confused on how it would work, as far as setting it up and do we go back to get our T1 stuff later. By the time the briefing was over, I understood. I sat behind one of the elite amateur athletes that qualified to chase the Toyota Cup. She kept running her fingers through her Dad’s hair. It got to a disturbing point. I am sure it was her Dad since she called him Dad and not like Daaaddddy…. kinda thing. It was just annoying. Anywho, I digress. We headed over to the expo for packet pick up and grabbed some freebies. They slapped on a cool athlete bracelet on my wrist. It was just groovy I always thought those were just for Ironman. I got to meet Sarah Haskins, who was really sweet and wished me luck on the race.

Filling out one of many papers you fill out to get a sample...

Can you look any bigger standing next to a pro triathlete?!

After the expo we tried to check in but our rooms were not ready since they upgraded us to the executive level. Suaweet! I ran into Greg & Laura Bennett when I was buying an orange juice to get my parking validated (cheapo). I really didn't want to interrupt them while they were buying their lunch so I just stared at them instead. HAHAHA! We headed out to Joe Pool Lake to check in my bike at T1. I took a short ride around the bike course inside the park, made sure all the gears were good and left SOW on the little chain ring since there was a climb right out of transition. They already had the swim course marked and there were people swimming it so I thought I would put the swimsuit & wetsuit on to get a short swim in. I struggled in the hot car to put my swimsuit on and got to the lake entrance where I was told you had to register for the 1.5 hour swim clinic to get to swim before 5PM. UGH! I made the executive decision to scrap it. The water looked clean and I was not going to sweat it. Even though looking at my swim time now I should have been sweating profusely.

Getting a ride in on the course before racking

Our suhaweet room

Bathroom shot for my homie

We headed back to the hotel, (Marcy you get bonus points if the same song jumped in your head) and headed up to the executive lounge to watch some football while enjoying the drinks (I had H2O) and hors' dourves. We celebrated my birthday since Rita and I barely get see each other much lately. She gave me a great hoodie that says, Triathlon the pain is temporary but the pride is forever. I love it! She even wrapped it with running shoe laces and GU packets. How appropriate! The sweet bartender saw it was my birthday and brought out some chocolate covered strawberries with a candle. Awww, then she made Shane and I pose for this obscene photo below. LOL! Went to be bed around 10PM sleeping pretty well till some gamers were in the hallway after 2AM. The hotel was also hosting a Gaming Competition, and I guess they don't have early wake up calls in the gaming world.

Showing our gaming thumbs to fit in at the bar

Sweet bartender lady at the executive lounge bar hooked me up for my birthday

The obscene photo she told Shane & I to pose for

Sporting my new hoodie

We were shuttled from the hotel over to American Airlines Center which was T2. I found my assigned spot on the rack and it was an end cap just like T1. I laid out my stuff and thought the pros running shoes looked so cool. I mean they wear running shoes just like you and I, same brands and colors.... It is what they can do with them once they put them on that is amazing!

Pro's running shoes

Viv's running shoes...

We were then shuttled over to Joe Pool Lake. Tiggs, you will not believe who was on my bus....The same dude from the TI workshop, the one who hogged the lane coach. I can't believe I have run into this guy in two different tri's on opposite ends of Texas.

Greg Bennett in T1 pre race

Andy Potts in T1 pre race

Waiting on swim start with Vince & Rita

How I feel before going into a swim

It was a cool windy morning and the forecast called for wind gust up to 20mph an hour, but sunny and hot later in the morning. Watched the pros take off for the swim then the elites and then age groupers. It was 4 ag'ers every 10 sec into the water. Gave out my hugs and kisses and was off to the line.

Swim: 1500meters/0.93miles 43:16 (2:53/100M)
The time was slower than my usual swims, not by much but slower. There was other factors that I really never had to deal with before. There was a lot of people in the water and the 40+ male waves came in right behind my wave and they were swimming all over me. As sexy as that may sound it isn't. I got kicked in the face, punched in the head, my leg grabbed onto like a scene out of Jaws. I got kicked so hard once my goggles slipped off and I had to take a second to see straight. By the time the turn around came, I had to pee really bad. I have had this discussion with some people. I can NOT pee and swim at the same time. I tried to swim slower (yes, you can swim slower than 2:53/100) and concentrate to let it out and NADA! In the other open water swims it is usually a water start and I can let it out before starting one last time. Ugh! It was bad, like all I could think about was peeing. On the way back we all started swimming right when it should have been straight in. Course support was yelling on a megaphone swim left then straight ahead! I was already on the far left side of the buoy so this put me right where I needed to be except I did not account for the slew of men heading right into me.
Lesson Learned: toughen up in the water, don't be afraid of people and stop to let them pass. Get right in there when called for and go for it. Learn to pee while swimming.

I am somewhere in there getting beat up

To give you a better visual of the swim

T1: 4:49
This is terrible! Yea, it was a long hike and you would think from my time that I sat down and drank a latte. I didn't... I actually waddled my way to T1. I was a bit dizzy and felt like I was washed in one of those industrial washing machines. I took off my wetsuit packed everything into the T1 bag to prepare it for volunteer pick up then looked down and I had forgot my cute Zoot towel I had laid my stuff on. I had to untie the garbage bag with my shaky hands, tie it back up and head out running on my tap shoes.
Lesson Learned: point to point transitions are not as fun as they seem.

Don't I look like I was washed and hung out to dry?

Bike: 40K/24.8miles 1:40:53 (14.6mph)
It is slower then where I wanted to be. I was aiming for 15mph and praying for 16mph. The first half of the course was challenging for flat landers. It had hills, and serious downhill curves. I saw 2 crashes before we even left the park. People were taking that downhill almost velodrome style curve at a fast rate and flying off the course into trees and eachother. I saw three ambulances carrying people outta there. I still had my own reasons for not speeding up...I still had to pee. I thought it would pass in the heat like my body would just absorb it back or sumfin'?! There was really nowhere to stop and take care of it either. Once we left the park I remembered the peeing on the bike conversation between other Strive teammates. I slowed down and focused but again NADA! I can not multi task pee. It was painful how bad I had to go. I couldn't get into aero position because that made it worst then my stuff was hurting from sitting up on the saddle. I pulled over but these were main streets not like country roads. I stopped close to the right curb since at this point the bikes were allowed 2 lanes of the road, stayed clipped in with the left and shifted over to the side of the bike. Even then it took me what felt like 2 minutes to concentrate. I could not believe what I was doing, I had lost all decency and femininity that my Mami taught me... There I was just letting out what felt like the slowest stream of pee ever. I poured Gatorade on my legs to rinse while staying hunched over to look sick. People would pass me and be saying words of encouragement, hang in there girl, you can do it....HAHAHAHA! Poor SOW got a golden shower. Ahhhh, relief after what felt like forever I was good to go. I took the next hills with such confidence. I was not going to let them get me like they did at TX Man. There would be no tears just shifting on the hills just right. We went through two different towns before we made our way into Dallas. In one of the towns it was true barrio. For the first time on the course I got a, "andale pues" even had a kiss blown at me with the ever obligatory, mamacita. LOL! For the last 6 miles, as we started getting closer to downtown it flattened out and it is probably where I had the most fun.
Lesson Learned: Get some more hill work in with training on the bike not in SPIN class. I really need to feel more confident with them. Learn to multi task pee.

T2: 2:28
This should have been a super smooth transition, except for some jackhole decided to move my number and my running stuff to another rack. I went straight to my rack right next to #551 and there was nothing there except a bike. I began the mad search as did 2 volunteers. One of the volunteers found me in the 900's rack. You will get yours one day jackhole, karma is a......

Run: 10K/6.2miles 1:20:03(12:55) run turn time 46:02
I remember getting cowbell from Rita. I heard later that they took the cowbell away from her for showing preference to certain triathletes. LOL! I did not see any water on the run out probably because I was still preoccupied thinking about my unplanned move in T2. I was dying of thirst. I had gone through all my fluids, and then some on the bike. The first mile was brutal in the heat. It was 10:4oish when I started the run so it was HOT. I was feeling sluggish and dehydrated. The Katy trail was a slight incline all the way up to the turn around. There was walking involved, but at the turn around I started feeling hydrated and alive so I began trying to undo what all that walking had done to my pace. Seeing the turn around split time I noticed I cut 6 minutes on the way back. I would have liked to have held that pace the entire run.
Lesson Learned: Even though I need work on all my 3 disciplines I would like to focus on my running after a tough ride, and running in general. I will make that my goal before next tri season.

Total Time: 3:51.27

The best feeling in the world...finishing!

Overall, I am pleased with my performance. It did not antagonize me even with some of the obstacles I faced. I am feeling more "cozy" with the OLY distance. Of course I feel like I should and will improve, but it is no longer a scary distance for me. When I did my first tri back in March of this year the sprint distance seemed so challenging and long. Then the OLY became that distance. Now, my new scary distance is to replaced with the IM70.3 and continue to strive for improvement on these shorter courses.

Cheers, to an educating tri season!

Thank you to my, family, frineds, coach, and blog peeps who always show so much support.