Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon with Before + After Pics

This past Sunday, I completed the Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon near Bend, Oregon. It marks a major milestone in my journey that started as the smallest seedling of an idea (thanks to Kathy Dapcic) in December and grew into this 4 month epic. I've been crushing limits I had previously imposed on my body's abilities.  In the process, my self-awareness has been stretching its limbs towards that area of pure potential and possibility.

Stephanie, my constant support, with me at the finish

I finished the race in 3:23:03. About 20 minutes earlier than what I told my family and friends.  With the complicated race logisitcs, this meant no one was waiting for me at the finish. I had anticipated my race would be slower than my Wildflower race due to the longer cycling distance, elevation, and heat.  But some of these factors were cancelled out by focused training (1) Sometimes I can't see the forest through the trees but my swim HAS actually improved - I am no longer a rock but a tadpole (2) my biking has gotten a lot faster with a ton of time in the saddle, drills, time trials, and mountain bike racing. I have a wonderful and inspiring coach to thank for this all this growth.

SWIM

You could not ask for a more beautiful morning to swim at Wickiup reservoir. The day was already starting to warm up but this made the mountain lake feel refreshing. Wave starts were 3 minutes apart by co-ed age group. I was worried about starting with men - would I get pulled, punched, or swam over? It turns out that Oregonians are not only friendly drivers, but also friendly swimmers.  I focused on my breathing and was committed to sighting the buoys more frequently than in previous races. When I felt comfortable with my breathing, I repeated some drills we had done in practice. I knew something was different when I could still see large packs of swimmers in front of me (usually the lake is pretty empty when I get out of the water). I finished the swim in 37:50 -- more than 8 minutes faster than Wildflower.

BIKE

The 28 mile bike wound its way through national forest service roads back towards Sunriver Resort. It had beautiful views of Mt. Bachelor. There were some good climbs in the first half of the ride followed by some fun downhill sections in the latter half of the bike course. The most difficult part were the exposed flats. The sun was starting to roast us slowly and in the last three miles there was an annoying headwind. My official bike time was 1:36:13.

RUN

My run has improved immensely, but heat did put a damper on my happy feet.  I struggled from the get-go with a short climb out of the transition onto a black asphalt path. I felt a cramp coming on in my right lower hamstring for the first two miles.  At its worst, I completely focused all my positive energy to that one spot in my leg. As strange as it sounds the cramp went away.

There were trees along the path but the sun was directly overhead and providing very little shade. The run traversed through the Sunriver resort community, so we encountered 2-3 glorious spectators who had dragged long hoses out to the path for some sprinkler action. I encountered many walkers and I wanted to join them, but I just kept telling myself to "embrace the suck" and keep shuffling along.  I knew I was getting dehydrated when the lower back cramps started, but I could not stomach the gritty-nasty-ass electrolyte drink they were passing out. I allowed myself to walk through the aid stations to drink water and pour some of it over my head.  My saving grace were ice cubes at mile 4. I put some under my cap and down my tri top (I may have sucked on a couple of ice cubes out of my tri top as well). When I passed mile 5, I picked up my run. It felt like I was sprinting though my Garmin later showed me another reality. I passed through the finish flags and went straight under a cold shower they had set up in the finsher chute. My official run time was 1:03:55.

While I sucked down the most glorious Jamba Juice in the finisher's tent, I met a 13 year old who had also completed the tri (his name is Bradley and I think I will end up reading about him in the near distant future). You meet all shapes and sizes out on the course. You can never really tell what someone is capable of just by looking at them.  The human spirit is beautifully surprising.  I think this idea takes a deeper hold when you can surprise yourself.


WEIGHT UPDATE

I promised a photo update so here are the BEFORE photos with a side by side comparison of shots taken one week prior to Pacific Crest. It's just under a 4 month span.

Minus 13 lbs and counting.