Mooseman race report

I think I need to preface this by saying that just one year ago, Mooseman was the first tri in an abysmal season for me. It started a chain of setting new personal worsts in all distances and made me seriously consider forgetting about racing entirely. I showed up to the start line about 2 weeks after running pain-free for the first time in 3 months, completely under-trained and heavier than I'd ever raced a triathlon in my entire racing career. Needless to say, things did not go well. This is just another step in my long road to redemption...


The first local tri of the season has come and gone, and although I didn't necessarily hit all of my "on paper" goals, I almost couldn't be happier with how the race went. I came up north on Friday to help set up the Fast Splits tent over at the race expo. This also gave me the opportunity to pick up my race packet on Friday night so I wouldn't have to deal with it on Saturday. After that I met my parents for dinner at the Italian Farmhouse in Plymouth to carbo-load. This is one of my two favorite Italian restaurants, but given that since November I have eaten pasta a total of four times, only before races, and many of those occasions have arisen out-of-state, I haven't had the opportunity to enjoy it much lately. Of all of the delicious things I've given up in my seemingly endless quest for race weight, I haven't really missed pasta so much. But it was still nice to enjoy a nice meal at a good restaurant and since it was not St. Croix, not be charged $35 for it.

I slept pretty well on Friday night but got up fairly early on Saturday so I could make it over to watch the Olympic race. I got there not long after the race started and got to see the leaders come out of the water, along with everyone else of course. It was a chilly morning, but crystal clear and windless. The water, was of course freezing, but everything else seemed perfect for racing. I watched some of my friends finish but then had to leave to meet up with a lot of other QT2 athletes for more carbo-loading at a late breakfast. It was mostly heaping plates of pancakes for everyone, along with various extra ones with toast, eggs and home fries. I am a big fan of pancakes and of course have only had those about 4 or 5 times in the past 7 months, but my friend Leslie had it right when we were spectating at the race that morning and eating bagels and granola bars and she said, "you know, carbo-loading is really fun for about the first 100 grams..." Yep, then it kind of becomes a chore and you start to feel like you might just be about 20 pounds heavier than you were the day before when you were still eating vegetables, and had negated 6 weeks of weight loss efforts with a couple of very-un-Atkins-friendly meals.

Of course, that is not the case and if you didn't fuel up, you wouldn't be able to perform at your best. But it's still kind of funny how for the 36 hours before the race all of the dietary rules you'd been following are suddenly completely reversed. "Don't eat that broccoli, it's bad for you!.... today..."

After being sufficiently stuffed I headed back to my parents house on Squam, conveniently located about 30 minutes from Wellington State Park, where Mooseman is. Nothing left to do really but relax and try to get in a few more carbs to my over-stuffed belly. Another great thing about weight loss is that the more you lose, the fewer grams of carbs you are forced to stuff down your throat before the race! My bags were packed, numbers applied, bike prepped, bag of pretzels open, water flowing, feet up. My friend and teammate Kevin was staying at the house for the race on Sunday, as well as another friend Trent who had a good race on Saturday. We had our pasta and chicken, and Kevin will probably forever give me a hard time about forgetting to heat up the sauce, but at least the eating was finally done! In bed nice and early and ready for the day ahead...

I had my alarm set for the sort of random time of 4:12am. I knew I had to eat 3 hours before the race, which meant 4:20am based on my wave start time. Everything was done and ready to go so there wasn't much for me to do. I rolled over at almost exactly 4 and decided that was close enough. Just before I got up I had heard the trees rustling outside my windows and hoped that we weren't in for a windy day. I donned my QT2 uniform and headed downstairs for breakfast. Luckily here on the mainland they do not measure apple sauce servings my thirds of cups and I could just eat the whole jar. Yep, still sick of eating, but you just have to get it down. The banana wasn't much easier, but the protein shake was gone in a couple of swift, painless gulps. I didn't waste much time and hit the road at 4:30. I am a big fan of having good parking spaces at these races, especially when there really doesn't seem to be any reason to stick around at home any longer. It has nothing to do with being there to set up early, it has to do with knowing at the end of the race I will be very glad to know that my car is just around the corner instead of a mile down the road. Plus, this time of year if you arrive at 5am it's already broad daylight, so it doesn't seem nearly as early as it is.

I got my great parking space and was far from the first person to arrive even though I got there pretty much right when the park technically opened. I got all of my stuff set up pretty quick and was able to enjoy the use of the still-clean porta-potties without having to wait in line for 20 minutes. More than once. I drank a fair amount of water because for some reason whenever it is time to race my mouth dries up. Waiting for the race to start is my least favorite part of the day. I start thinking about how nice it was to just come and spectate the day before and I start to think about how nice it would be to go back to bed. Luckily, once we finally line up at the start, I'm usually ready to go.

The wind seemed to have picked up which made me a bit nervous. The water looked rougher than I had ever seen it for Mooseman. We're not talking Timberman-rough, which always seems to be more like the ocean on a stormy day for some reason, but certainly not the smooth, glassy, calm surface I've gotten used to there. It looked like it was going to be a rough swim on the way out, but hopefully not so bad on the way back. It also looked like it was going to make the bike tougher.

I donned my wetsuit and headed down to the beach with my teammates and age-group-mates Michelle and Chrissie. Although I must adamantly state here that I am still 29! The woman who did my body-marking asked my age, and I said, "today, or..." she replied, "at the end of the year." I had her write the stupid 30, and she said she was sorry and there were a lot of people already that morning who were like, "Don't make me say it!" I told her it wasn't her fault I was born in 1979 and it surely wasn't her fault that USAT started with this stupid rule. But anyway...

Michelle and Chrissie forced me to get into the 60-degree water for a little warm-up swim, which I have to thank them for because I think it helped me get used to it quicker and I definitely wouldn't have gotten in there on my own. We were, as usual, the last swim wave. At least in this case that means 6th and only 20 minutes after the first wave went off, so not too terrible. Before I knew it, we were off.

THE SWIM
Historically, for whatever reason, Mooseman has been the site of all of my best half ironman swims. To be fair, the only halfs I've done have been this one, Timberman and Clearwater, and the other ones have only come soon after an Ironman and not a lot of swim training in between, so who knows the real reason. I think starting the swim in a pack of mostly women (there were some men in relays) usually makes the start a bit less chaotic. It might not be quite as "You go, girl!" as a Danskin race, but I have yet to come close to the brutality experienced in mass starts surrounded by men. I headed for that first buoy as hard as I could to start and spent very little time bumping into anyone. As usual on this course I had no trouble sighting and found myself right on the buoy line while the vast majority of my competitors seemed wide-right. This made the opportunity to draft non-existent, but at least ensured that I swam the least possible distance. I settled into a comfortably hard rhythm and felt pretty good. The only problem seemed to be that the further from shore we got, the colder the water seemed to be. This only made me want to swim faster. We hit the first turn and headed into the roughest water of the day. This was where I really noticed the wind-chop. It is also where I and my red-swim-capped wave-mates caught up to the sea of slower-swimming pink caps who had started four minutes ahead of us. I had to do some maneuvering around there for a good stretch before I hit the second turn to head back to shore and was able to find some open water once again and swim with the current. I had a harder time staying in line with the buoys this time, but I was still feeling good and swam hard for that swim exit arch. Lately I've tried to avoid looking at my watch in the water because I don't want to get annoyed with a slow swim time before I even get out of the water, so I was a bit surprised to see my watch read 32:27, slightly slower than even last year and slower than my goal time, but I chose not to be bothered by it. Nothing I can do about it now. I also coincidentally came out of the water right on the heels of my teammate Michelle. Someday we will have to learn how to work together on the swim so maybe we can both be out faster!

T2 was somewhat comical for me. I had forgotten to take note of how to get to my bike rack from the swim exit and wound up running into a dead-end, aka: big tree right in the middle of transition between me and my bike. I picked another wrong row but eventually got to my bike, albeit through a slightly more round-about route than might have been necessary. To top off this oversight, I also had quite a time getting my wetsuit off and bike shoes on without falling on my face. For some reason standing upright was proving to be more difficult than anticipated and I actually leaned on the bike next to mine in order to complete the change. Luckily that person still wasn't there to get their bike before I was finished using it and could finally set off for my ride.

THE BIKE
Ah, the bike. Pretty much the only reason I ever might get a decent placing in one of these races, so I have to maximize my efforts here. I had raced this course 6 times before if you count the four Moosemans and the two Granite Ledges which no longer occurs but was on the same course. I also had trained on the course just a week ago with some of my QT2 teammates, so I knew what I was in for. Luckily this year they had repaved a lot of it so it wasn't nearly as rough as it usually is. There are certainly still some tough sections, but it was a whole lot better than it used to be. I was given a heart rate cap not to exceed by my coach and I'll admit that right out of the gate it was tough to stay under it. Not that I really had to slow down a lot, I just had to calm myself down and stop trying to push so hard right out of the gate. This can be especially hard with the first hills on the course where everyone seems hell-bent on charging up them like Lance Armstrong taking the Alpe d'Huez on his way to victory in the Tour, but Lance didn't have to run after he finished the stage. I just stayed in my saddle and got myself to the top, figuring I'd pass those guys later and never see them again. And I was right.

It was perfectly sunny but definitely windy out there. Not incredibly windy, but windy enough that it was certainly going to affect the splits a bit. I concentrated on staying aero and trying to push whenever I could as long as my heart rate didn't get out of control. It seems to me that the first half of this course has a lot more tough hills than the second half, so it was hard to keep the heart rate down and go fast for a while. My bike computer also was giving me a hard time since the magnet on my race wheels only seemed to register about half of the time, and when it did, it usually told me I was going 8mph when I was in a flat and passing people, so I had to try and ignore it and maybe figure out my pace based on the mile signs I'd pass and the running time on my watch. But I don't tend to chase pace goals, since those are so conditions based and can make you crazy if you aren't hitting them, even if it's not your fault, so I continued on keeping my heart rate in check and going by feel. My quads seemed to be kind of tight and in all honesty I didn't feel that great. I didn't necessarily feel bad, just not great. Due to the timing of the race I didn't really get to do a full taper, so that may have had something to do with it. Who knows?

What I do know is that eventually when the course flattened out a bit I was able to really start pushing it and making my way through the field. I love plowing through the field on the first loop and having a whole lot more open space on the second one. It's nice not to have to maneuver around people. I drank my sports drink, only regurgitated a tiny bit of my half a Powerbar and took down some gels, but mostly I just rode and wondered how I might be doing. The wind seemed to be a headwind 90% of the time, although I'm not sure it affected the splits an incredible amount. I made it through the first loop according to the race site in 1:18, which was a little slow based on my goal of going 2:33-2:36 (the goal given to me by my coach, as I have never picked specific goals like that for myself) but I felt like I had held back enough that I might just be able to push it a little harder the second time around. My heart rate didn't seem to get as high and I was able to push it a bit more on the hills.

There were a lot less people to pass at this point, which was fine with me. I made sure to push the flats and try and use the momentum on the downhills to get up the next hills. It consistently amazes me how often people waste opportunities for almost free speed. I was behind on drinking but hoped it wouldn't be a bit issue since it wasn't really a hot day. This was a first for Mooseman: it was neither really hot nor really cold, just a genuine, comfortably warm day. The rest of the miles went by really fast and I tried to push as hard as I could right to the end in order to come close to my goal. For the first time quite possibly ever I actually negative split a bike ride and just barely eked out my bike goal with a 2:35:58, averaging 21.5mph, fastest women's bike split of the day (unless you count Karen Smyers who did the aqua bike, but she didn't have to run!) and setting my new non-Clearwater half ironman bike PR, because we all know that Clearwater shouldn't count when it comes to bike PRs. I haven't set a PR in anything in a few years, so that felt good. It was also a whole lot better than my 2:46 last year in my dejected state.

T2 was a whole lot better than T1, although it's a lot harder to find where your bike goes when there are none already there in the rack. At least I was in the right row this time and recognized my wetsuit balled up on the ground. I opted to go sockless in a half for the first time ever. I've done it up to Olympic and been fine, and ran without socks the other day in my race shoes for about 3 miles and it seemed fine, and I figured I really had nothing to lose, so I tried it. And it got me a 1:01 T2. Visor and number belt and off I went.

THE RUN
Oh, the run. My nemesis. Well, not always, but lately for sure. It seems to be hit or miss lately, and I was hoping for a hit today. I was afraid that I might feel a little rough from the hard biking, but it only seemed to take 2 minutes or so before I felt pretty good. Once again I was trying to keep my heart rate in check and remember that after that first mile split there were still 12.1 more to go. I was told to head out at a 7:25 pace and no faster. Well, how about a 7:07? It's a pace that hopefully sooner or later I'll be able to hold for the whole race (I've done it before) but not just yet, so I dialed it way back and tried to just stay comfortable and pay attention to my form. I didn't spend much of my run in St. Croix passing people, so it was nice to actually get to do it this time. I had a tough time running up the first long hill just past mile 2, and I don't know what happened after that, but that was the last time I really felt bad. I had this strange feeling. Could it have been confidence? I wasn't sure, I hadn't felt it in a very long time. But I actually felt like I could hold it together for the entire run.

After the first turn-around at about 3.2 miles I started looking for Michelle and Chrissie. Although I can bike faster than them, they can both run a lot faster than I can, so I would know that my run was finally improving if I was actually able to hold them off. It took me a long time to see them coming back the other way, so I knew that at least for the first loop I was safe! I hit the turn around in a little over 48 minutes and just hoped I'd be able to keep it up for the second one. It was kind of funny coming through that area as there seemed to be several groups of people who were cheering for me and knew my name and half the time I really couldn't tell who it was. It's also funny because I remember the first couple of years I raced when I didn't know anybody and if I heard anyone shout, "Go, Molly!" I could be 99% certain that it had come from my mom or my dad. It's so much nicer to know people now, and I'm sorry if I didn't acknowledge you!

I don't know what it was on the second loop, but I really do think I felt better. Usually somewhere around this point I can feel my legs starting to give out from under me, but at that point all I was really aware of was that although my sockless test-run had proven to be successful after 3 miles, it only took about 3.2 miles before I could feel the blisters forming on my heels. It wasn't painful enough to really deter me in any way, it just made me very aware that my post-race shower was going to include searing pain emanating from that area as soon as the hot water touched it. (oh boy was I right about that!) On my way back out I saw that I still had a good chunk of time on Michelle and Chrissie who were both still looking very strong, as usual. I had also already seen many of the top QT2 men come flying by and leading the race. I was still running at a comfortably hard pace and trying to hold my run form. My form was still probably horrible, but at least I felt good. I was amazed to still be feeling so good, and it was great to see all of the QT2 athletes looking so strong. I don't think anyone on the team had a bad race, and there were a ton of us racing.

This was kind of a unique experience for me because as the miles ticked by I wasn't becoming increasingly anxious for the race to be over. I mean, even on a good day I usually hit a point somewhere that my brain finally says, "Ok, it's been fun, but this hurts and I'd like it to be over now." Nope, I felt like I could've run all day. I hope that feeling doesn't go away because in about 7 weeks I'm going to have to! At the last turn I had my last Michelle and Chrissie time-check and it looked like I was actually going to hold them off. Again, this was only important to me to know that my run was improving, not because I wanted to "beat" my teammates! I just want to be able to do as well as I can, whatever that means on any given day. Anyway, I hit mile 12 and still felt good and might have even picked up the pace a bit. Or at least it kind of felt like it, who really knows at that point. I turned to run down towards the water and the cruel section of beach-run before the long finish chute. I crossed the line in 4:52:44 with a 1:40:55 run split. Not exactly my 4:44/1:32 from 2006, but definitely a whole lot better than my 5:39/2:17 of 2008!

It was so nice to finish and feel good, not just physically, but mentally. Aside from my less-than-efficient T1, I really don't know what I could've done to have a better day. I suppose I could be annoyed with the fact that my run split is still way too slow compared to my bike split, but I can finally see and appreciate that it is getting better and will eventually get faster. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. Michelle and Chrissie came in not long after I did, and of course most of the guys were already done and there to greet us. I later found out that I had come in 5th female overall and second in my age group... once again missing out on first due to that stupid age-up rule.

There wasn't much time to celebrate though, as almost everyone on the team who is doing Lake Placid, of which there are a lot of us, had to go out and run for another 45 minutes! While we were talking about our races, Kevin pointed out that the heels of my shoes were soaked with blood. No wonder I usually put on socks in T2. Luckily Trent loaned me a pair of socks for that extra run, otherwise there probably wouldn't be any skin left at all on my feet. The guys headed off first and I started out with Chrissie and Michelle, who promptly took off at a much faster pace. For me, it was just about surviving. Remember when I said before I felt like I could've run forever? Well, apparently I was wrong. The elation of the race had worn off and I felt worse than I quite possibly ever had on a run. Of course on this idiotic display of hard-core Ironman training I was bound to run into a few people I knew who could point out my stupidity. I'm just blindly following my training program, I've learned there's no use questioning it, I just do it because it's worked so far. Besides, my own sadistic coach was out doing the same thing.

The minutes ticked off incredibly slowly, pretty much the same pace my legs were moving at. Not even fast enough to beat the Turtle on level 1 of the old Nintendo Power-Pad track and field game. The further I went, the worse it felt. My blisters were the least of my worries. Within the final 10 minutes it really started to get to me, my mouth was completely dried out and I realized I hadn't had to pee since 7:00 that morning and I was thinking about drinking the whole lake when I got back. Out of nowhere I suddenly felt like I might start crying and I still can't figure out why. I can't even really describe it. Nothing was particularly painful, it just felt awful. Somehow I made it back to the park and mercifully the watch ticked off the 45th minute and I was able to stop. I leaned my hands on my knees and felt my legs shaking, but I had to stand upright as I ran into my teammate Chris who had come in third place and we talked about our races. Chrissie was waiting for Michelle to return, who we somehow lost as she ran up ahead and got further out than we did before it was time to turn around. Several minutes later she came back and apparently bonked and walked into a grocery store and had to ask a stranger to buy her a muffin so she could make it back. Yep, we are all completely insane. But at least we were done.

After that it was time to get some much-needed calories. It suddenly felt awfully cold so the ice cream was definitely out of the question, but after that horrendous run the Pepsi I drank was just about the best thing I'd ever tasted.

The QT2 team took home quite a few awards and I actually got to be one of them. I went all last year without taking home a maple syrup award. I hadn't been shut out of the awards since my very first Endorfun race in 2002 and it was nice to get another one! I really can't thank my coach, Jesse, enough for bringing me back to life. It's also incredibly nice to show up to races and actually feel ready for them. It was a good day. But it wasn't over yet...

Nope, upon my return home I had enough time to drink a bunch of water, finally pee for the first time all day (don't get dehydrated like that, bad idea) down a quick granola bar and head out for a 2-hour easy ride. At that point, 4:30, it really looked like it was going to rain, but thankfully it held out and made the ride a lot less painful than it might have otherwise been. And believe me, as crazy as doing another 2-hour ride sounds, compared to the run, it was a piece of cake. I hardly even noticed it. However, I was incredibly ready to lie down when it was over!

So there it is, another successful race. It's nice to finally be able to report more good than bad. Next up for me this coming weekend is the Ashland Lions olympic tri in Massachusetts. This was a last-minute addition to the schedule by my coach. I've only ever done 3 olympic distance races, I think. I am not a fan of the shorter stuff. I did win the last one I did, but I only had to beat like 14 other women. I'm pretty sure my teammate Cait will be racing this one though, so the pressure is definitely off for the win. Unless I learn how to run 5:30's in the next 5 days. Should be fun though.

Edited to add: I almost forgot about the highlight of the day. After the race my friend Leslie was talking to Karen Smyers, who coached her for a while. I walked up and she said, "Do you know Molly?" I had actually met her once about 4 years ago at a random tri clinic, but of course she didn't remember that. But she did say, "Well, I know OF you. I heard you're officially back." Ok, so not only does Karen Smyers know who I am, but she knows about how I was injured all last year? Are you kidding me? This was more than enough to make me not feel bad that apparently I was not memorable enough when I did that clinic in 2005 and managed to get a flat tire in an indoor spin class. I still regret not taking her up on her offer to let me ride her bike, but since she is probably at least 7 inches shorter than I am, it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway.