Race Report: Iron Girl Rocky Gap

Warning: These are always long, so buckle up or move on! ;)

My New Years resolution was 12 races in 12 months (ideally one per month) this race marks my 12th race and I have completed at least one EVERY month this year.  I think I'll aim for 15 so that I can get a bib for every month! :)  And this has been the most fun (and longest lasting) resolution ever for me!


Since IG Columbia I feel like I haven't done much.  I took a few days of recovery (as I had a work trip planned) and did some easy workouts the week after the race.  I taught a few extra cycle classes, but didn't get outside on the bike.  I know I know! In this gorgeous weather?! I just didn't have time.  I did a few easy runs with my dog and my camel back, but nothing more than 3-4 miles.  I figured this was my last race of the season & I don't know why, but I assumed it was flat!  I should know from going to school at WVU and teaching snowboarding at Wisp, that western MD is anything but flat.  I don't even know why I thought that.  But regardless, my  mindset was just..."get through it, push it & see what happens".  I didn't wear a watch at IG Columbia and I don't know if that was good or bad.  I had a somewhat crappy feeling race.  IG Rocky Gap was to be entirely different.  Dawn Szarek posted that her coach told her, "It's short, make it hurt!" or something along those lines at some point before this race.  So I adopted that as my game plan.

Pre-Race
Decided to camp because I was going up alone (I had planned on bringing my dog, but then realized I had nowhere for him to go while I raced) and let's be honest, $25/night when you have a comfy camp bed like mine is worth it!  I went to packet pick up, racked my bike & set up camp.  Reheated my pre-made dinner of chicken breast, brussel sprouts and potatoes on my propane grill & had dinner.  I was having some issues getting my first started & was hungry.  I eventually got my fire started, roasted some marshmallows (yes I am 6 years old), made s'mores and listened to the WVU Oklahoma game via my car radio.  All the while hoping & praying my battery wouldn't go dead.  HOLY torrential downpours that night!!  It seems I bring the rain.  It rained like that my last night camping in Placid too.  So much for the weather channel saying 0% chance of rain.  So pretty crappy rest that night.  Anyway, I woke at 5am.  Set my water pot to boil on my grill & got dressed.  Had my normal oatmeal, cinnamon & blueberry breakfast as I drove over to the race site.  Set up transition, hit the bathroom & then home aka MMTC tent.  It's so nice to have a place to gather, it helps my nerves to chat & talk about non-race related stuff in the morning.

Swim 18:12

Swim was wetsuit legal, so OF COURSE I wore my favorite "floaty suit". I'm fine swimming without a wetsuit, but I just feel so much faster & stronger with it.  I decided to change my "start line" position strategy this time.  I'm fine with being bumped & pushed so with the added "protection" of my "floaty suit" I lined up in the middle of the pack towards the back.  Just happened to be an open spot of water right there!  It did get a little crazy at the start, but I just kept my eyes up & tried to dodge the feet.  I also decided to use my swim practice drill for critical pace in this race.  I swam as hard as I needed so that I HAD to breathe every 2 strokes.  Which meant, at every buoy I changed the side I was breathing on, sometimes I switched it up early.  But all along kept that pace.  I also tried to increase my stroke cadence.  Doug Saar told me I swim like an old lady out for a Sunday swim, so I'd been working on this.  I managed to draft several times.  I found some feet & a good pace & stayed there, until they went to sight & breast stroked & I nearly swam over them (Thank you Anne Johnson for teaching me how to sight like an alligator!).  I swam a few bits alone too and just felt great in the water.  The only funny/strange thing that happened was being hammered in the back of the head by someones forearm.  I'm not sure how this would even happen, but it was about 100m from the finish buoys & man did she clock me hard!  She didn't hit me anywhere else, so I'm wondering what the heck her swim stroke looked like.  I looked down at my watch & may have muttered an expletive as I saw my time, I was SHOCKED!

T1 2:53
I really need to work on running through transition.  I take my time, clearly a little too much.  Nothing exciting here, just got my stuff on & off we went.  My sunglasses were all fogged up however, which made it a little hard to see.

Bike 56:16 17.1mph

This is where I usually make up some ground for my swimming (and then those folks pass me on the run again).  This was a tough course.  My legs burned the ENTIRE time.  Partly because I knew the hills were steep and because I kept a good gear on during the downhills to gain as much momentum as I could.  I was hitting over 30mph on a few of them & it felt great!!  The turn around was terrible as I'm sure everyone will say.   It's SUPER tight, people stop in the middle, on the side, everywhere.  So if you can actually corner and stay on your bike, you're likely to run into them & wreck anyway.  I just kept thinking, "It's short, make it hurt.  So what if your legs give out on the run, it's only 2.5miles, get over it."  I would have liked to be a little faster on the course, but I'm happy with my time and the way my legs felt.  There were literally no flat sections on this ride, so the only time to gain speed was downhill.

T2 2:05
A little shorter, but still not great.  I forgot to unvelcro my shoes coming in to the finish.  I usually go through transition barefoot, it's easier than trying to walk with road shoes & clips.  So that slowed me down.  As I started to head to the run out, I saw an MMTC jersey & a very blonde ponytail.  "Could that be Mary P?! My luck could only be so good!"

Run 22:17 8:55/mi

YES!!!! It was Mary P & I was sooo happy!  I ran a few steps with her to say hello & she said something like, "You're moving....you could place!" I immediately laughed and said, "No way! But I'm feeling good so I'll see you in a bit!"  My legs always feel great right off the bike, I have NO idea why!  But that first hill was a challenge.  I took 10 walking steps about half way up & was like, "F this, get your ass in gear.  You can be sore tomorrow or you can walk & end your season with a crappy time."  (Btw I screwed up my watch somewhere along the way, so I had no idea where I was. Nor would I have known where I needed to be to actually place.)  I pushed up the hills knowing that I got to run like a maniac back down them to the finish.  The run felt good.  <---- Did I just type that?!  It was a challenge, but I used a drill I teach in my cycle class:  Say out loud, "Can I complete a sentence?" If you did it without a breath, you're not working hard enough!  So I just kept pushing and waiting.....waiting for everyone in my age group to pass me.  I typically get passed on the run, it's just what happens.  But no one.  I didn't pass anyone in my AG (this never happens anyway) and there was only one questionable person that passed me.  I couldn't tell if she had a 34 or a 39 because it was almost gone.  Anyway, ran down those hills & pushed it through the finish!! I saw the clock time & realized I was WAY under 2 hours & was sooo excited!

The only "negative" about this race.  Having gotten some of my hair stuck in my wetsuit velcro.  I could tell something was pulling my hair during the swim, but I couldn't fix it.  Needless to say, there's a hairy little monster on my wetsuit & a huge chunk of hair fell out of my braid in the shower.  I don't have a trophy but I do have a bald spot to remind me of a great day! :)

First let me say, MMTC is amazing!!!  If you were wearing a jersey, I tried my best to say something to you.  Sometimes it may have sounded like a grunt, a wheeze or a dying cat, but I tried! And for all of you who gave shout outs, it was amazing!!  A girl from Pittsburgh Tri Club said after the race, "Your club is fierce!" and I agree!!!

I'm not sure what happened here, but the stars aligned and the tri gods smiled at me for this race.  Maybe I picked the perfect race and had the right plan, I have no idea.  All I know is I felt great, I raced hard, but confident and surpassed even my own goals.  I game in 6th in my AG, when Lynne read that to me off the board, I ran to Mary P & almost tackled her! I'm not sure if she understood what I had said, but you would have thought I won the lottery.  I didn't get a trophy (although 2:29 seconds would have gotten me one & you can bet I'll be gunning for it next year, although who knows who shows up next year) and I didn't do anything different than run my own race, but I don't care.  It was a great race, surrounded by great MMTC friends in a gorgeous location.  I pissed & moaned about having to go "all the way" out there for this race, but you can bet I'll be back next year.

New Years Resolution Update! 12 races & more to come!!

12 races in 12 months or one race per month.  Well I've hit the #12 mark, but I still want to continue with a bib a month, so we've got 3 more to go! :)  This has been the most fun reslolution I've ever attempted.  It's also the only one that I still remember in September!  Might have to do something like this again next year.

Here's what I've done so far & what is up next!

2013 Race Schedule

1. January 12, 2013 Frosty Fingers 5K Gunpowder Falls State Park
2. February 9, 2013 BRRC Valentines 10K Loch Raven Reservoir
3. March 9, 2013 Whitehall 15K
4. April 22, 2013 Metric Mulligan Half Marathon 8.15miles
5. April 28, 2013 Nike Women's Half Marathon, Washington, DC
6. May 11, 2013 Kinetic Half-Iron Triathlon, Lake Anna, VA
7. May 25, 2013 Military Appreciation 5K Myrtle Beach, SC
8. June 15, 2013 Baltimore 10 miler Baltimore, MD
9. June 23, 2013 - Philly TriRock Olympic Triathlon, Philadelphia, PA
10. July 14, 2013 - Utica Boilermaker 15K
11. August 18, 2013 - Iron Girl Columbia Triathlon, Columbia, MD
12. September 8, 2013 - Iron Girl Rocky Gap Triathlon, Flintstone, MD

Upcoming races....
October 26, 2013 - Ready Set Sniff 5K with Jethro
November 9, 2013 - Color Run Myrtle Beach 5K, (My 7yr old niece's first race!!)
December?



One more to come for December!!!