St. Anthony's Triathlon 2012

I was in Florida last year for the St. Anthony's triathlon, but my focus was on pacing my alcohol consumption rather than pacing my speed on the swim, bike and run. A bunch of my friends and my boyfriend's family race each season and it was a lot of fun being at the event, so I decided to compete this year.

I had a great race (an Olympic PR) and the trip ended up being a blast despite taking a really bad crash on the bike just a couple days before coming back home.

Days Leading Up To The Race
The day before the race, we headed down to the expo to pick up packets, drop off our bikes and get in a pre-race workout. I spent a little over an hour going through the motions of the swim, bike and run, but the best part of all was the fact that I got to see dolphins right up on the shore where we were swimming!

After getting everything setup for the race we headed to the beach codo to settle in, but wouldn't you know it, the AC was broken and it was hot as all get out! We made the most of it and just soaked up the salt filled air through the open windows. Dinner was fabulous, as always when the Nowell-Uptain family is in the kitchen, and the company was even better! And the night would not have been complete without Spencer putting one of my race number tattoos on backward... silly goose! We got to bed at a descent hour, but I had trouble sleeping through the night with the heat.

Race Morning
Being tired made me kinda lackadaisical as we were setting up the transition area and I found myself not even feeling nervous for the race. My wave was the last age group wave to off that morning (there were two waves after me, but they were only for the Team in Training Novice athletes), so I think it was actually a blessing in disguise that I was not nervous.

I got to see all my friends go off that morning, but I was most excited about being there to support Alisia as she got ready to race in her first ever Olympic distance race! I watched as she got into the water and headed out to the reading water start for the swim. As they sounded the start horn I was yelling for her even though I knew she couldn't hear. I figured that my cheers would at least send good vibes for the 15000 meters that lay ahead of her.

Open Water Swim
The race was wetsuit legal, meaning that the water was below 78 degrees, but it was like 77.6 or something like that, so I decided to forego the wetsuit and just stick to the speed suit. They changed the swim portion of the race this year and we had a treading water start rather than the traditional beach run start. I was kinda bummed because I had let Spencer beat the hell out of me the day before practicing what it would feel like to run in a crowd of people and fight for a good position in the water... I was ready to battle through the cluster of women and use it to my advantage to get in front.

My wave was pretty big considering that it was all women (and girls) 15-29, but I still positioned myself at the front of the treading water start along the buoy line and tried to stay next to the two girls that I knew were collegiate swimmers. My plan was to try and follow their feet as long as possible and make the most of my energy in the start of the swim.

They fired the start horn and we were off! Surprisingly, the women in this race were very nice and I didn't have any problems with the typical scratching and kicking that always happens among the women. The first straightaway of the swim ran alongside the beach and I felt fantastic, but as we turned left to head out into deeper water the swells started to get really big. Now, I am a real shortie (Snookie size, as Blake would call me), so my arm span is not very long and with each wave that came, my upper body was getting caught up in the water keeping me from being able to get a lot of pull with each stroke.

The movement of the ocean and the taste of the salt water started to make me feel really nauseated, but I just stayed head down and tried move forward as quickly as possible. My coach and I had talked the night before and discussed how important it was to use the swim to my advantage and get as much distance on the field as possible, so I just kept thinking back to that for motivation.

At the completion of the swim I looked down and my watch only to see a disappointing time and even caught myself saying 'that can't be right' lol.

T1
Getting out of the water felt really good and I was excited to get on the bike and ride the flat course. I pulled my speed suit off and transitioned into my bike gear.

As I ran out of transition, I noticed that I no longer had a timing chip on my ankle, but I didn't stop to try and figure out what happened to it. I was kinda bummed that I wouldn't have official splits, but just said to myself 'it is what it is, just keep going'


Bike

On the bike I pushed with my feet out of my shoes until I was past the cobblestones... the last thing I wanted was to crash the first 400 meters into the bike ride. After the cobblestones, I worked my way into my shoes and started to pick up the pace. The entire bike ride I was swapping back and forth with a collegiate athlete who was encouraging me the entire time. It was exactly what I needed to keep a good average. I was sitting right around 20.5 mph as we reached the 20 mile marker and I was stoked that I had a really good shot of setting a PR on the bike. 

The last couple of miles were the toughest... the wind had picked up and it was directly in my face, but I was determined to keep an average above 20. I came up on Alisia a few miles before the completion of the bike and we exchanged quick words of encouragement to keep each other going. I would have stayed a few moments longer to see how she was doing, but I was fixated on my dang bike speed and didn't want to see my hard work slip away.

I was watching my average slowly drop, from 20.5 to 20.4 to 20.3 and then plummet to 20.1 as I had to slow to get ready for transition and pull my feet out of my shoes. After getting my feet out of the shoes I tried to push the pace across the cobblestones and stayed fixated on my watch determined to stay above 20, but it freaking hurt riding that fast across that surface.

T2

I successfully stayed above 20 (20.1 to be exact) for the ride and felt really excited about setting a new PR on the Olympic distance bike. The excitement faded (but just a little) when I remembered that I didn't have my timing chip on anymore and the PR wouldn't be officially recorded. As I came into transition my rack was really empty and I had a lot of space to transition into my running stuff. As I bent down to put my shoes on I saw my timing chip sitting right next to my speed suit! It must have gotten ripped off when I was tearing my suit off in T1. I put it on so that I would at least have an official finish time.

Run

As I started to run out to the run course it crossed my mind that maybe the chip wasn't actually mine, but at that point it was too late I couldn't take it off. The first mile of the run hurt the most, but I got into a rhythm and tried to remain steady.

It was really hot by this point in the race, sometime around noon, and I could feel my body starting to shut down from overheating. I knew it was super important to regulate my body temperature if I had any chance of running across the finish line. With each water stop that I passed, I was dumping more water onto my body than I was actually drinking, but it was doing the trick to
keep me cooled down.

The first person I recognized on the course was my boyfriend, Spencer, and I could tell that the heat was getting to him. Nonetheless, we exchanged words of encouragement and cheered each other on. Along the entire course, there were spectators and volunteers to keep me motivated and as I headed into the turnaround I saw Daddy Mox who cracked a few jokes and made me smile. I also saw Alisia, just a few minuetes behind me, and being that she is a stronger runner than me I knew she was coming fast. She looked strong and was moving with what looked to be great ease and I started to think 'if I don't pick up the pace she will definitely pass me!'


Finish

My legs felt lik poo, but somehow I managed to hold it together until the finish. As I came up on the last stretch of the run I heard the cheers from all my friends in Moxie, which helped me to push out the last bit of energy that I had in my legs. My stomach was cramping and I started to feel like I might vomit, but in some sick way I actually really enjoyed the feeling. I crossed the finish line at 2:43, a new PR by 5 minutes, and place 16th in my age group! Spencer was at the finish line to celebrate with me and it put a huge smile on my face to see him cheering me on as I crossed the line.

Awards And Thanks

Spencer placed 4th in his age group, so we all huddled around the awards tent to see him receive his recognition. It was a great time seeing all the phenomenal athletes accept awards for all their hard work.

I want to say a special thanks to Moxie Multisport and all the sponsors who make it possible for me to race! Thank you, Wattie Ink, Austin Body Worker, K-Swiss, Clif, Swiftwick, Kinesys, Jack and Adams and Lukes Locker! Without your support, we would most defiantly not look as fly as we do on the race course! 

More to come on the nasty crash that very quickly brought me down from the high that I got after such a great race...