Icebreaker Sprint Triathlon-American Fork, Utah- Race Report

The Icebreaker sprint triathlon was yesterday. It went ok. Definitely the first race of the season for most ;) Friday my friend Kim and I drove to American Fork and picked up our packets...wish we would have remembered to ask them to do our body marking as well that day instead of waiting in line the next morning for it. Oh well. 

Saturday morning Ben and I left home about 8ish. We got there about 845ish. The race was supposed to start about 10am. Definitely a later starting race but because its so early in the year it would be way to cold to do it earlier. Parking wasn't bad at all. Met up with Kim and got our transition area set up. I keep forgetting to take a pick of my transition area. It seems to work really well. I put my helmet and sunglasses on my bike handlebars, I lay a towel or a mat down to put all my stuff on i.e. running shoes, nutrition, a towel etc. 

Kim and I chilling in the transition area before the race.

At about 915 there was a "pre-race" meeting. Probably the longest pre-race meeting I've ever been too. They told us on the bike course there was an area with a ton of pot holes and gravel (that they had tried to clean up earlier) Joy! Then they just kept talking I kid you not. I guess when you registered for the race you could have them say your name with a little something you wanted them to say so we had to wait for them to go through all of those. Don't get me wrong its great but I think there is a time and place for that and I don't feel like its at the pre-race meeting. 

Kim, Ben (who was an amazing support and spectator and photographer) and I headed to the pool. It was an indoor pool with a revolving door. Yup you read that right a revolving door that was the only way in and the only way out. It turned out to be quite an issue unfortunately. To help space out the swim so it wasn't a madhouse they had us line up according to swim time. (Don't worry they keep track of when you start so its not the same for everyone.) I'm so mad at myself for this part. I pretty much went to the end of the line and I really wish I hadn't. I'm not an amazing swimmer but I'm a good swimmer. It got crazy in the pool. You were supposed to do 6 lengths each in a different lane. People were walking, they were swimming on top of each other, running in to each other and just stopping at the wall. Thats all fine and dandy but have some courtesy for the other racers and try to get out of the way. Whatever. Its fine. I wish I would have gone closer to the front of the line because I swam the 6 lengths (300 meters) with no problem and the athletes more towards the front of the line it went so much smoother. All well. I learned. 

I just realized that this may be coming across as a really negative race report and I don't mean to do that at all. My hope is to maybe help others prepare for a triathlon and knowing what to expect os they don't run in to the same challenges. As well as to help me remember for future races my thoughts and feelings on the race. 

Can you see me.?I'm swimming towards the bottom right corner of the pic, green cap on, right arm out, head up. 

Ok so hopped out of the pool, went through the revolving door (disaster!) and ran across the parking lot and some grass to the transition area for transition 1. It was still pretty chilly and I was just wearing my tri suit so I put on capris and a jacket, ate a few chews put the rest in my pocket, helmet on and ran out of the transition area. It was going really well. Little hill and then what?! Oh no! Oh no no no. Huge humongous ridiculous why is it on the route hill! It was a hell hill. I kid you not. I wish it was a joke and we turned before the hill but no it wasn't a joke. They wanted us to go up the hill. I made it up about half way and my gears were being weird so I hopped off and ran my bike up the rest of the way. I was not the only way who made this decision. The asphalt pot hole road wasn't too bad but then there was this crazy downhill portion which was great to make up time lost on the hell hill but it was in the middle/alongside a pretty busy road and I kept panicking because of my crash last year and I kept braking every once in a while. The bike consisted of 2 loops. Yup you guessed it had to do the hell hill AGAIN! Son of a *&$%@ ! Also I was freezing on the bike! There was wind and luckily I had brought gloves but my tri suit was still a little wet and there were areas of my body that hurt because it was so cold. Ok finished the bike, portion, dropped my bike off and started the run. 

I'm the one in the front on the bike in pink!

I started running/walking/jogging. Heres a little something something for y'all to tri... bike 12 miles and then immediately hop off and start running. Do your legs feel like bricks? Weird feeling huh? I defiantly need to practice my transition from bike to run more often and hopefully get my legs used to it. Remember hell hill? Oh yes they made sure it was included on the run portion as well. Just one loop though. They are such sweethearts. I walked/jogged the majority of the run. I would say definitely my weakest area. It doesn't help that its the last portion of the triathlon either. I started warming up pretty much immediately on the run though which was nice. Oh and somehow between my tri suit and capris they weren't working well together and my capris came down around my knees! Wish I wouldn't have worn them but then I don't know if I would have been too cold?! I finished this baby strong though and sprinted through the finish line with Ben and Kim cheering me on. Ben handed me an orange slice immediately which was fantastic. Cleaned up all our stuff, took a pic and headed home to relax and decide which tri I'm signning up for next! :) I love triathlons. I think I'm going to stick to sprints for now though while I still have a ways to progress. I'm really hoping to see some progression in my overall time this season. I think the next one Kim and I will be doing is in May. Its the Women of Steel triathlon and its in Syracuse, Utah this year. 

Me sprinting to the finish.

Our medals with Vanilla Ice

Kim and I! 

My little certificate you can download online. I registered in the Athena category which means I weigh over 165 pounds. I looked at the overall times though of everyone and I was about average. There are so many factors that go into triathlon time though. How far away the transition area is away from the swim, if you are required to wear a wetsuit or not etc. Kim's time was 1:59! She was just a tad faster than me.

A few goals I'm going to work on this season. Running! Transitioning from biking to running. I am going to learn how to use Ben's serious road bike which I think will help improve my time. I love my bike and its a hybrid bike but I think for races I should probably use a road bike. And continuing to improve on my swimming technique. 

I would love to get my indoor swim tri time to 1:30 and my open water swim triathlon time to about 2 hours. You swim longer when its an open water swim and obviously its a bit more of a challenge.