Pacific Crest Triathlon

On Sunday, June 24 I completed my 2nd Olympic Distance Triathlon of the season(1 mile Swim, 25.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) in Sunriver Oregon. Nice thing about central Oregon is the chance of rain is almost zero; however the benefits are negated by the extreme drop in temperature at night. It was around 35 degrees when we arrived at Wikiup reservoir! I was excited to swim in a non radioactive, non Portland area body of water. No "Poo Lake" (Blue Lake) or "Vansewer Lake" (Vancouver Lake). Despite the clean reservoir water, I knew the swim was going to be interesting when fellow athletes expressed concern about my sleeveless wetsuit. ..
It was announced the water was 62 degrees and I was one of the few athletes wearing a farmer john wetsuit (full body sans the arms). I think the outside temperature maybe warmed up to 55 degrees by the time we were to start the swim (thank god!) During the last third of the swim my arms and feet were majorly chilled!







When I got out of the water to pull my wetsuit off to get ready for the bike my arms/hands were frozen and could barely move my fingers (note to self, wear full body wetsuit with arms if ever do this event again).


After fumbling and grunting for a few minutes I was finally on the bike.





The bike course was mostly a rolling downhill. As a result of being frozen from the swim and my equilibrium being off (symptom of borderline hypothermia), I almost crashed when I went to get on my aerobars. At this point I knew safety was more important then gaining 1 mph on the bike. Other effects from the mild hypothermia included my heart rate registering lower (150 - 155 bpm) while my RPE being the same as the Blue Lake tri I did two weeks prior (with my HR around 160) and not being able to drink my bottle of accelerade on the ride. My hands could barely grab the bottle. When I was able to finally grab the bottle , my mouth and throat were so cold I couldn't tolerate more then baby sips. After about 15 miles into the bike I finally started to warm up! Due to road construction there were a ton of cars on the road. The peak of the frustration for myself and other cyclists involved was when some stupid camper blocked the course by hanging over in the bike lane while being positioned on the road in a fashion preventing us from going around. I didn't have to say anything (disparaging words and hand signals from the fellow cyclists were flying liberally ;-) During the end of the bike I was freaked out from not drinking my accelerade and feared bonking (muscles shutting down) on the run.

Before the run I did a cliff espresso 2x shot and off I went through the lovely 6 mile paved trail stretch through Sun River Resort. I was told by a bystander I had nice running form! This is something I have diligently been working on for the last three years; I naturally run a little bit like Phoebe from friends (legs flail out to the side) but have been working on keeping my feet straight and utilizing some of the techniques out of the Chi running book. Not long after I passed a little girl who stuck her hand out for me to tag; I felt like a rock star. The run is both the most daunting (after swimming and biking first) and most rewarding part of a tri. Being cheered on and supported by spectators gives the extra motivation needed to survive the last 2 miles of the run. This is the point when you think to yourself you may not be able to take another step. On the run HR around 168-170. Pushed 172 to 175ish last two miles.

The race was a blast! There were 800 of us, including the duathletes. I was happy with my results and I cannot wait to go back and do the race next year!

Overall Time 245:07:00
Overall Women 42/186 23%
Age Group 8/39 21%
Swim 26/39 67%
Bike 7/39 18%
Run 9/39 23%

Bike MPH 20:49 Run MPM 8:20

More Photos http://www.finishshots.com/racerresults3.php?raceid=473&bibnumber=164