Havasu Race Reports

"Some quotes from Yann and Kathy"--uh-oh! this reporter approached me like 1 minute after I finished...my brain was probably only half working (blood in legs, not brain!)

sweet article

I'll go ahead and be the first to discuss my race disaster (kinda--its all relative).

Swim: turns out i was turned around and talking to everyone when the air horn when off...oops. the girl that was suspiciously my exact height and build got off before me and ultimately stayed three to five yards a head of me the whole time. After I rounded the second buoy, I remembered how much the sun in my eyes as I swam up the channel really pissed me off. this year i did manage to find myself waaaay on the wrong side of the channel. sh*t. i got back on track and tried to identify our boys as i swam by =) at the turnaround (thank god no more sun), i realized some girl was drafting off of me. this was very irrtating, and I tried to rub her off on some of the men's collegiate wave swimmers as we swam by, but she was persistent. she kept touching my feet. what the hell? fine, draft, dont touch me though.

T1: DISASATER! First I ran down the wrong row (of course), then I attempted to stuff my foot into my stupid road shoes (my trishoes are somewhere in Colorado/wyoming/montana...?) and got a huge cramp in my calf since i was attemtping to make it fast by leaving the them buckled up. Grrr. This is where obscenities began. "SH*T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The guy in the next row over looked up at me from the ground...crazy girl. Got my shoes on, attempted to put my helmet on, and the whole plastic fitted piece ripped off the thing! "F*CK!!!!!" Then that happened a second time. When T1 was over, I was in a sufficiently foul mood.

Bike: So, the wind hit pretty fast, and that was really irritating. My brake pads were also rubbing my tire...how did i not notice that earlier? So, I attempted to push them out while not falling behind. I hate getting passed and it happens all the time, so I was trying to keep as much space possible between me and whoever could be coming up, specifically wyatt. the neighborhood was not bad since there was no wind and i saw yann tearing out of it just about as i was headed in, wow. greg passed me, suter, passed me saying "RRRRRRRRRanger Watttsssonnn", cathy passed me, tim passed me, and maybe someone else. I saw cameron and andy wyatt coming up on me at the turnaround at the top of the neighborhood, so i sprinted so wyatt didnt beat me out of the neighborhood. He didnt...not even close =) Back on the main road the wind continued to piss me off and make me feel ineffective and useless. I was thankful for the gauntlet and its windcover, thats how crazy i was. The way back was easy, and I actually started thinking that I like this sport again...(not to worry, it didnt last long). I noticed that my whole front wheel was loose and debated about whether to stop and tighten it, but then opted for a chance of a horrific crash rather than lose my downhill momentum.

T2: Relatively smooth...i dont really recall anything.

Run: Well, that little sprint through the sand was lovely wasn't it? Back in a foul mood. Who's freaking idea was this? Awful awful awful. I got passed about mile two by a boulder girl...I saw her coming when i was up on the bridge, and felt pretty helpless. By mile four I was hating my life and triathlon again. Another boulder girl passed me. The heat, the freaking sand again, and finally...finish.

Wow, I added ten minutes from last year, that sucks. But aside from all my pessimism, it was so incredibly great to see our whole team out there. You guys all looked great, and that was a HARD race. Muchos muchos kudos to all those who competed in their first olympic this last weekend because IT WAS ROUGH! Pat yourself on the back, it only gets better from here.

Way to represent everyone!!!

It's going to suck having to go to future races and competing alone...

dont worry kyle.. I added like 26 min from last year. Wind sucked and when did sand become part of run course?? LOL good job though everyone

I have to say that this race was one of the most challenging races I have ever experiences(a 56K Cross country ski race is pretty up there)

Granted that most of you know that swim was absolute BULL, without a wet suit I couldn't take the cold and the wind and had to swim back to shore...apart from the huge ashamed feeling and a damaged pride, I knew that I could not do the rest of the race. So, I talked to whoever and he told me to jump in when I saw the tricat girls come it from the swim...which is what I did, I ran into T1 a bit after Jessie...

I told myself that I would pour my heart and soul into the next hours and try my hardest to preform my best. Although I was def. passed by other racers and many of the team, see all the tricats out there coming up from behind and then seeing come back the other direction, with encouragement really kept me going so THANX!!!

It sucks cause I can't really say I completed a full Oly. Tri, but having Havasu as a sort of initiation into them makes the future ones not seem so bad.

Congrats to everyone on their preformence and all the newbs FINISHing!!!!! YEAH

Everyone should go see the awesome photos posted on myracepics. And teh design their website allows you to copy the images onto your computer.

Make sure to look at the lost and found photos. The photographer took photos as we exited the swim and started to strip off our wetsuits. The looks on everyone's faces are amazingly funny. Also. a lot of great finish line photos are hidden in there (Tractor did you do a cartwheel on the finish?!)

That was an awesome race. Once the swim began I knew I was in for a very challenging race. Had no idea what it was like to swim through waves and have them crashing on my face as I tried to breath. Having done this kind of a swim, I realized I need to work on sighting a LOT more. Several times I had to stop interrupt my stroke in order to sight and I even took my goggles off once to get my bearings. But i really felt like I accomplished something after I made it out of the water.

Once I was on the bike, I was ready to kill it...but...as we all know, that wasn't going to happen going straight into the wind. Like everyone else, I struggled to cut through the wind going about 9-12 mph. The gauntlet was intense. Definitely almost got blown off my bike once, and I had to use the brakes on some of the steeper down hill parts (I value living over saving a few seconds).

Came into T2 and was ready to chase. A little while into the run I started cramping in both quads but was determined to not let it slow me down. I focused on leaning forward and just getting it over with. I was feeling strong for about 4-4.5 miles. After that I was just holding on and battling increasingly strong cramping in the quads. Once I made it back through the damn sand, I hit the grass and made a final push to the finish line. Oh, and it was definitely inspiring to see all those tricats on the run!

All in all I would say that race was the most difficult thing I've ever done. It was challenging both mentally and physically, and I feel as though it was awesome preparation for Nationals (especially in terms of building confidence). I'm ready to put down the hammer over the next few weeks and do it big in Alabama!

first olympic! it was challenging but pretty fun :) the swim was tough and i probably swam an extra 200 yds because the last lovely green buoy decided to grow a motor and move half way across the lake!! enough was said about the wind and the bike but i was really fast on the way back! beat CU girls and ASU girls but some of them caught me on the run :( oh and i ran out the wrong end during T2 but no big whoop!

Hardest, longest race I've ever finished.

It only takes a few minutes after a race is over and I start thinking how much fun it was. Definitely something twisted in that process.

As I went through the swim this year I couldn't help but remember the incredibly hard time I had a year ago with the swim, basically exhausting myself, having to float on my back and rest, and then resuming. This year I felt a lot more in control of my pace, and I paced myself much more steadily, without having to take rest breaks -- in fact I found the swim to be fun. Now I look at the time: 3 minutes slower this year, ach! Not what I expected. Can I blame the wind, or the hard to see buoys? I don't know.

The bike was tough. That wind was brutal, and we certainly did not have that last year. The lousy pavement did not help, either. The gauntlet was overhyped; the real challenge was drilling into that driving wind. My back got very sore and tired as I tried to get as far down into the drops as I could. When I saw Chris Green taking pics, he said "disgusting" to me as I rode by; later told me that was slang for "good job," although at the time I took him literally, felt paranoid and looked for poorly-aimed snot-rocket tracks on my arms. :-) Of course I was slower than last year, no suprise: 6 minutes. Is that a lot? It sounds like a lot to me.

I was surprised how hard the run then felt. Maybe I pushed the bike too hard? Again I recalled last year's run, of which the first mile was so painful, and this year felt by comparison much better, although I hated the sand as much as everyone else. Also I really felt the wind pushing me back while running. But I felt in control of my pace much better than last year: when I could tell that I couldn't keep my pace up, I could slow down a touch while still running, and then after a little rest I could speed up again. Yeah, great -- but I was 3.5 min. slower than last year. The sand at the end felt like a cruel joke, and then I was irked when at the end I couldn't tell what the finish line was. I was expecting an arch with FINISH in big letters, and the actual finish line struck me as rather subdued; subtle, even. I was almost across the line when I realized, "hey, THIS is the finish line! Oh no!" So I didn't sprint the last little bit and some clown from CU passes me in the last 2 feet. Frustration!! Argh!

So why did I think the race was fun? I don't know, endorphins I guess, but I felt a real sense of accomplishment after getting through the whole 51.5 km. I did it! Maybe that sounds lame but it still counts for a lot to me. And my fellow Tricats were there: you did it too! and you and you and you! We did it!! All in all my complaining doesn't really compare with that warm happy we-did-it feeling. I was also happy that I managed to stay under 3 hours. So don't take my kvetching too seriously. And everybody get ready for Tuscaloosa.

Great job everyone!!! I'm extremely proud of your performances--every one of you.

It was a tough day on a tough course, and all of you still had good races. It's tough to compare times, even on the same course as the year before, so don't beat yoiurselves up over that.

Congrats to all!

Next up..Nationals or SaruaroMan. Maybe we should have a special prize for those doing both???