Lake Stevens 70.3 Race Report

My race kit for the season.  The bright colors make it easy to be spotted among the other racers.  

Me and Kristen before the race with Lake Stevens in the background, she is the best cheerleader ever!  She battled out the cold and rain and cheered me on!  Thank you, Kristen! 

Yesterday, July 15, I raced the Lake Stevens 70.3 triathlon.  It was probably the hardest I have ever raced and I am feeling the effects today, but I am happy with how hard I pushed myself.  I finished 10th in my division, here's my race report..

The race started out in the swim (obviously).  The coolest thing about Lake Stevens is that there was a cable under the water that you could follow so you would not have to sight the floating buoys!  How cool is that!  I was pretty excited about it, so I followed the cable as if it were a swim lane and ran into the first buoy head on.  Oops! Hoping no one saw me, I learned my lesson and sighted the cable from there on out from about four feet to the side.  The swim was a wave start, so there were not hundreds of people fighting for the lead pack.  I was in wave 6 and did not see anyone in my age group the entire swim.  Turns out I finished 5th in the swim, so that would be why no one was around..  I had a good swim, finishing the 1.2 miles in 31:11.

The bike was very challenging.  There was over 3000 feet of elevation gain and over 15 sharp turns all within 56 miles.  Did I say it was a challenging course?  The weather turned nasty during the ride as well.  The outside temperature was in the 50's, it rained and was windy, which does not do me good as I get cold easily.  Needless to say, my hands turned white and numb, and my body was shivering before I was even half way though the bike.  It was so cold!  I guess there were quite a few crashes because of the slippery roads and the numerous turns, I did not see any though.  I raced on the bike by following my heart rate, so I could not go much faster than I did but still managed to average over 18 mph.  With being so cold and having to keep my heart rate down, I was pretty happy with my bike slit finishing 56 miles in 3:04:11.

The run was also hilly!  What's with this course?  It was a two loop course which was nice as it kept the racers condensed.  I saw some friends of mine racing and got passed by some pro's, which is always cool and humbling.  (How do they run so fast?!)  I of course tried to keep up with the pro's for about 3 seconds, but immediately thought better of it and ran off my heart rate again.  I was surprised at how well I did running!  I finished the half marathon in 1:50.57, giving me 10th in my division.  I am happy with that final ranking.  


The goal for this race was not to win, but rather to race to my heart rate and to use it as a strong training day. I met that goal yesterday and was happy enough with my time.  The course was much more challenging that I had realized and the weather was very cold.  


Below are my race stats for each event for those interested.  I'll explain later why my name is Sarah when I race... 

BIB:	269
Division:	F30-34
Age:	31
State:	WA
Country:	USA
Profession:	Teacher

Swim:	31:11
Bike:	3:04:11
Run:	1:50:57
Overall:	5:30:23

CONGRATULATIONS, SARAH, ON YOUR FINISH!

Swim DetailsDivision Rank: 5

Split Name	Distance	Split Time	Race Time	Pace
Total	1.2 mi	31:11	31:11	1:36/100m

Bike DetailsDivision Rank: 8

Split Name	Distance	Split Time	Race Time	Pace
Total	56 mi	3:04:11	3:37:43	18.24 mi/h

Run DetailsDivision Rank: 10

Split Name	Distance	Split Time	Race Time	Pace
6.4 mi	6.4 mi	53:49	4:33:15	8:24/mi
13.1 mi	6.7 mi	57:08	5:30:23	8:31/mi
Total	13.1 mi	1:50:57	5:30:23	8:28/mi

Transition

T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE	2:21
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN	1:43

What kinds of races do you like to do?

Have you done a triathlon before?  Which one?  

Grading Racing

My first Ironman in Kentucky.  Can you tell I am excited?!

When I was in 5^th grade my grades were finally good enough to be on honor role.  I could not wait for my report card to come in the mail so my parents could open the letter and see what I had accomplished.  Yes, I was finally doing well in school!  I may make it after all!  Up until this point, I am sure my parents were worried that I would struggle through life as a professional dodge ball player.  It seemed things may change though, I had finally arrived!  Honor role, here I come! 

A few days passed after receiving my report card in the mail, and nothing was said at school about me making honor role.  This was weird; usually something was posted or announced.  I mean, nothing short of a miracle had happened and I felt like I deserved some credit in front of my peers.   I was supposed to be on honor role!  I mustered up the courage to talk to my teacher, who was also the school principle, and asked him when honor role was going to be announced. The answer I received was devastating.  “We are not doing honor role because it is not fair to those students who do not make it on.”  WHAT?!  Are you kidding me?  No honor role?  What school does that?  Obviously, mine did.  I felt like there was a conspiracy against me to test how far you could push my mental stability before I cried.  (I rarely cried as a child, and still struggle with mustering up tears)  It worked, I almost cried.  I felt the tears welling up in my eyes but pushed them back.  The only response that my teacher gave me when he saw how hurt I was, was that I did a good job and that maybe the next semester honor role would be reinstated and I would make it then.  I was not as confident as he was.  Needless to say, my parents were very proud of me regardless and after they picked their jaws up off the floor when they received my miraculous grades, I am sure we went out for ice cream to celebrate.  That is how we did things in the Shadle household.  Celebrations = Ice Cream!

Now I am an adult and have forgiven my elementary school for not recognizing my outstanding achievement of all A’s and B’s.  I have not, however, forgotten the importance of good grades, but in the a different way than many of you would think.  Some things seem to follow us into adulthood no matter how hard we try to outrun them, my fear being bad grades.    

As far as triathlons are concerned, I think of my races in terms of letter grades.  “A” being the most important, “B” being the second most important and so it goes..  The more important the race is, the more focused and ready you go into it and will usually have higher aspirations for yourself concerning your finishing time and placement among the other athletes.  Well, this next week I have an A- race coming up.  Lake Stevens 70.5, meaning it is a half ironman.  My “A” race for the year is Ironman Wisconsin on September 9.  (more on that later)  I have been focusing on my training for Ironman Wisconsin for almost a year when I hired a coach, Chris Bagg, to help me after my disaster last year at Couer D’Alene Ironman, read about it here.


I am still working towards getting good grades, only now I do it on a race course!  I always was competitive; hence my parents concern of me wanting to be a professional dodge ball player, only now I want to be a professional triathlete.  Guess they were not too far off!  Wish me luck next Sunday, July 15, when I race Lake Stevens 70.5!  I have studied, trained, and prepared for the race.  That is more than I can say about school growing up, but you live and learn..  The competition will be stiff, but I am up to the challenge and hope that I feel healthy and well on race day so I can race my hardest and not get a bad grade on an A- race.  

Race day!  Getting ready to swim Troika.  

Preparation is key.  Working on my bike before a half ironman. 

Do you have any nightmare stories from your childhood about grades? 

What are your “A” races this year?