Coeur d'Alene Triathlon Race Recap

I did my first race in 2 years - CdA Sprint last Saturday. It was so much fun - I have missed racing. If you read "Well Hello There" blog, you know that I had a hip flexor injury that had limited my ability to run these past couple years which also impacted my ability to race. So I am really happy and excited to be racing again!😀

But before I get to the race day recap let me update you on something that happened 2 weekends ago - it has direct bearing on my CdA race and also my big race IM 70.3 in September.

Two weeks ago I was out doing a 9 mile run and about 8.5 miles in my achilles started aching. I thought "oh no, this isn't good" but did I stop??  Of course not! SIGH! Some lessons are never learned. I only had another 1/2 mile to go so I finished out the run with an aching achilles. When I got home I iced it and rested the rest of the day. It was feeling fine by the end of the day so the next day (Sunday) I did my planned workout, which was a 50 mile bike ride with a 10 mile climb up to Hyalite. The ride started out just fine, no sign of anything wrong with my achilles - I was feeling confident and happy to be out on my bike. About half way up Hyalite (~15 miles into my ride), I started to "feel" my achilles - it didn't hurt but I was noticing it. I thought "maybe I should turn around and call it for the day".... Did I do that??? Of course not! SIGH!!! By the time I finished my ride my achilles was really aching and I was so mad at myself. I limped around the house the rest of the day.

So this past week has been full of uncertainty. I talked to my coach and told him if the achilles doesn't get better by race day I won't race. I don't want this to impact my "Big" race in September. I took a couple days off - completely off... no walking, no running, no biking, no swimming... I just sat on the couch and read a book. It started feeling better. On Wednesday I went for a short/easy walk and of course, I also ran for a couple minutes - the achilles did not like the running so I stopped and finished out the walk. It continued to feel better all week and I was hoping I would be able to race on Saturday. On Friday (1 day before the race) I went for an 8 mile bike ride just to loosen the legs and make sure everything on my bike was working right. Following that I went for a 20 minute easy walk. During the walk I decided to test out the achilles and ran about a minute and it started to ache.... 😟  So SAD!! I had been telling myself all week that if it hurt at all I would not race.  I finished the walk and my achilles bothered me the rest of the day. Every time I walked on it, it ached. I kept telling myself "do not race"... I was so uncertain all day. I didn't tell Pat what was going on my head that day.  I needed to figure this out myself and decide for myself what I should do.

I went to bed that night with a sore achilles and had made up my mind to start the race in the morning and see how the achilles felt throughout each event (swim, bike, run). When I got up in the morning, it wasn't hurting to walk on it! YAY!!! Maybe today would be ok!!! 😄

So now with that background - here's the actual race recap.

Ready To Go

 

Swim (600 Yards) 14:28

This race has assigned heats. All men started at 8:00 AM, Women under 40 started at 8:05 AM, and women over 40 started at 8:10 AM. I am telling you this because it becomes significant later in the race... i.e. I started 10 minutes after the men and 5 minutes after the younger women.
When the gun sounded for my heat, I was right toward the front edge of the women. I have NEVER started at the front of the pack for a swim - I usually start toward the back. Being in the back means I get to stay out of the "fray" and find my own line without too much jostling (so I avoid getting kicked and having people swim on top of me).  I have always just been more comfortable with that - but that also means that I am usually one of the last swimmers out of the water. I don't know what made me line up in the front this day... It wasn't really a conscious decision. When I looked around and realized what I had done, I just kind of said "ok" to myself. 

10-9-8-...3-2-1 BANG! We were off.  It was crazy! Arms, legs and bodies all around me (in front, beside, behind, and on top). Every time I looked up to sight on the buoy and to try to find a clear spot to swim (i.e. get out of the fray) there was nowhere to go but straight. I could have stopped and let people pass but it's a race - that wasn't going to happen.  One lady and I kept bumping into each other - she finally got mad, stopped and yelled "Get out of the way!"  HAHA I just chuckled to myself and thought "lady, have you never done a triathlon?  If you don't like the bumping, either find your own empty space, OR swim over me".  I just kept swimming - she disappeared - not sure what happened with her. But the whole swim was like that. Women bumping and kicking me the whole way. I did my fair share of that also - there was one instance where one lady kept swimming up onto my legs - after a couple times of that I had had enough and kicked so hard she had no choice but to move to a different spot.
I finished the swim 2nd in my age group!!! WOW!!!!! 😀😀😀

Transition 1 1:46

I exited the water, ran up the stairs from the beach and then to my bike in transition. I quickly got out of my wetsuit, put on my helmet, shoes and sunglasses, and then ran my bike out of transition. 

Bike (14.7 miles) 51:52

This bike course starts out uphill, flattens out for a couple blocks, then goes uphill/downhill, then uphill/downhill again before the turnaround and returns back to transition. I have been doing lots of hill workouts the past few weeks (I talked about that in this HILLS blog) and I did not have any problems with the hills in this course. They actually felt pretty easy! YAY!! Hill workouts are working. Remember I mentioned that the men, and women under 40 started 10 and 5 minutes before me... I was passing everybody (just a little exaggeration 😀) during my bike ride. I passed men who had started 10 minutes before me and younger women who had started 5 minutes before me. It was so much fun and a great confidence booster. And big YAY - my achilles did not bother me when I went up the hills. FInished the bike and felt awesome!

Transition 2 2:21

This transition was SOOOO SLOW. I racked my bike, took off my helmet, and then sat down on the grass. I needed to put on a calf compression sleeve to protect/support my achilles during the run.  Try to put on compression over sweaty skin... it does not work! I had powder in the compression sleeve which did help a little bit to slide it onto my wet skin but it still took a long time to do this. I only took the time to put the sleeve on the injured calf so it felt kind of weird ot have compression on one leg and not the other.  I finally got the compression on, quickly slipped into my socks and shoes, grabbed my cap and number belt and ran out of transition.  

Run (3.1 miles) 33:16

My heart was racing when I started my run. I worked so hard on the bike, and transition did not go smoothly so I was keyed up. After about a minute of running, my heart still hadn't settled, I could feel it pounding and I decided I should walk to try and calm myself down. I walked for about 1 minute, felt my heartrate settle and then started to run again.  I kept running and paying attention to my achilles but there was no pain, no achiness and no indication that it was going to bother me. So I just kept running. Got to the turnaround, felt ok - but my legs were getting tired. I walked one more time around mile 2.5 - legs just needed a break - for about 30 seconds and then finished out the run. Achilles was just fine! So Happy about that.

Run Start

Finish 1:43:45

I finished 2nd in my age group.

Coeur d'Alene Sprint Finish 2024