Jordanelle, Another Great TriUtah Event!

There are several races that often get buzzed about in the triathlon community for their popularity. Jordanelle is one of those races and I've always been interested in seeing what all the talk is about. Knowing it is a TriUtah event, the same organization that hosts other race favorites like Echo, I knew it would be well organized and executed.

A week and a half leading up to the race I was playing a softball game and pulled my left hip flexer. What I thought was a minor annoyance started rearing its ugly head all week as I attempted running, kickboxing, lifting, and even walking. My game plan was to be in denial about the problem in hopes it would just go away. I even played another softball game two days before the race where I was reminded that the problem still existed and now I would have to race with the consequences. Sadly, this was my first race of the season I was not excited about because of this little annoyance.

Saturday morning Sherri picked me up at 6:00 to head to our race venue. My game plan for the day was to try to go easy on myself and be ok with being painfully slow. As we hit the turn off for Jordanelle, there was a long line of cars backed up on the freeway because of construction. We ended up sitting in a line of cars with anxious racers for about 30 minutes. To add to the angst of many, you have to bike 3.5 miles in to the race venue because of lack of parking. Buses were provided for spectators, but racers had to bike to the packet pick up, then a little further to T1. As we headed on our bikes to packet pick up, we went down a pretty steep long hill. I saw where the turn off was for the bike course and luckily noted we would only be biking up a quarter of it.

With my Rock Out speakers in tow, I was sticking to my game plan of "just having fun" for the day as I provided everyone with a dance party waiting in line for registration. I couldn't help but forget about my injury and be excited to race.

When we arrived at transition the question from several people was "where is the water?" You couldn't even see a lake at T1. The water level was so low T1 was a little over a half mile jog from the swim. I grabbed my transition towel and running shoes and set another mini transition spot by the lake.

My swim was pretty non eventful. My wave didn't start until 9:55! The water was cold, but felt pretty good. I came out in 17 minutes...you know, to give all the racers a head start so I could chase them all down on the bike. I vow this will be my last year of lame swimming.

The bike course was a little longer than the typical sprint, 15 miles, and it was all uphill until the last 5 miles which were my favorite 5 miles of any race. We had the best downhill stretch of any race I've done! (St. George has a great one, but you usually have so slow a little for the cattle crossing and for the slow people blocking the road) I had no racers or traffic around me and I got up to 48mph on my bike! That's right, my bicycle, not some motorized wimp-mobile (Keena's term). My bike split was decent at 44 minutes. I tried to ease up on my bike a little knowing I had forgotten my salt pills and it was going to be a hot run.

My run didn't even start till after 11:00 and the sun was ruthless, with minimal shade. I gave myself permission to start slow and comfortable but looked down at my watch and saw an 8:30 pace (not too slow for me). I was pleasantly surprised but knew I couldn't maintain that and gradually slowed my pace to 8:45 then 9:00. By the time I hit mile two I felt cramping start in my quads and knew I was in trouble. By this time the run was weaving up and down a trail with little loops. It was really beautiful and I normally would enjoy this scenery. My legs went into full seizure and I started to really hurt. If you have never experienced muscle cramping/seizing it's horrible! The muscle tightens up like you're flexing it and does NOT release. I ran stiff legged the last mile or so. It's really awesome looking, it sort of looks like I drank Ex-Lax and I'm shuffling to the bathroom. Walking brings no relief, so I just work through the pain. I have experimented with various nutrition methods and I've learned I need about 4 salt tabs per hour in the heat, even on a short little sprint. Needless to say, I was passed by about 4 or 5 women in my age group during that run. Humbling, but kind of expected. My run time ended up being a little over 29 minutes. I ended up 6th in my age group, but had one of the fastest female bike splits of the day so that was cool.

I'm sure the post race food was delicious, but I felt too sick to eat after the race. After drinking a few bottles of water, I realized the day was only getting hotter and I needed to still walk back to transition to get my stuff, then bike all the way back to the car. Biking up the monster hill that gave me so much enjoyment earlier that day, with all of my gear on my back was now kicking my trash.

This was a hard race for me but I was so happy to experience it (well maybe not the run). TriUtah picks great locations for their races. I love the small town/country scenery and they give great t-shirts (you know, the kind you'll actually wear). It was fun to have a teammate there with me and know that we finished the race and didn't quit when it got hard.

Thank you to TriUtah for another great race and thank you to my sponsors! I love my Switch Eyewear Axo glasses. They worked well on my bike ride, even in my aero position. I will be heading back to 3B Yoga to repair the damage I have done to my body. Thank you to Kestrel for my bike, I think they sprinkle magic dust on their bikes allowing this very undertrained athlete to manage great bike splits, and to HEAD Swimming and Snorkeling for the amazing goggles and wetsuit. Thank you to BEARPAW for indulging me in my favorite guilty pleasure, gorgeous shoes. And a big thank you to T3, Flexr Sports, Velo Ink, and Coach Keena Training. I'm grateful to be associated with a team of girls that are fun, supportive, and great friends!