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| The Vineyard Tri is a great group of friends & Island visitors |
As our favorite near end-of-the-season race on Martha’s Vineyard approached, I looked at my TriDot training plan for my 70.3 and saw the weekend called for a “race rehearsal” which included a 3 hour plus bike and a 40 min run. Perfect, I could use the MV half iron distance Aquabike – a real race – as part of my training plan by moving my hour swim the day before to race day, and then just doing my own run. We once again planned our house party weekend and welcomed our friends Diane and Eric to our Martha’s Vineyard home.
My goal for this race was to use a harder course (typically choppy ocean swim and hillier bike course) to prove I could make the cut off times for the Half Ironman Atlantic City (HIMAC) bay swim and flat bike course, and feel good running off the bike. This would mean I would also need to do much better than my last half iron distance Aquabike on this course in 2014, when the swim took me 1h13 (3 min past the 1h10 HIMAC cutoff, albeit in very tough swim conditions) and the bike took me 4h15, with a 3 minute transition resulted in a total time of 5h31 (1 min past the 5h30 HIMAC cutoff for the first 2 events). And, I remember getting off my bike totally exhausted and thinking there was no way I could run even a short distance let alone a half marathon. The title of my blog post,
GULPS and FIRSTS, conveys my overwhelmed state with the distance at that time.
The Martha’s Vineyard Triathlon has traditionally taken place on Sunday but was switched to Saturday this year. We all hoped this would bring us good luck. Every year on Saturday we do a warm up swim in Inkwell Beach calm waters only to the next day face a very different turbulent Atlantic Ocean. This year, we passed on the pre-race day warm up swim as the chilly air and choppy waters were not drawing us in. Here’s how the race went:
SWIM: Wahoo – we have relatively calm waters on Saturday morning for our 7am start. Surveying the course, fortunately the longest part of the swim is with the current. We go off in two’s, so Mike and I start together but I soon find myself completely alone with not many swimmers in sight. As I round the first buoy I aim farther to the left of the next buoy to account for the current, but it does not pull me as expected so I probably get a little extra swim in. As I make my way to the far distant buoy in the longest part of the course, a kayaker approaches me and is pointing towards the buoy as if I was going off course (I don’t think I am) and he keeps staying very close to me. I feel like I must be the last swimmer. Then another kayaker starts following me. I make my way to the finish convinced I must be last but look at my watch and I’m incredulous to see I did the swim in 40 min, and as I’m running off to transition I hear more cheers for the later swimmers. The race Gods seem to be on our side because by late morning the surf whips itself into a tizzy again.
T1: As I’m in T1, I hear “last swimmer out of the water”. There are a few of us in T1, but most people have exited. I struggle to get my socks on – I usually don’t wear socks for shorter races, but I will need them for the run when I do HIMAC so I do it as practice. And, unlike the last time I did the Half Aquabike, I remember to reapply sunscreen (a mistake that caused me to take a break and buy some the last time in the middle of this race). It may be unnecessary given the cloudy conditions but the weather can change quickly on MV, and this is practice for the real thing. My transition is more than 4 minutes – slower than normal for me - but I have more preparations for the long course.
BIKE: My friends Peter and Linda are cheering me on at the transition exit as I mount my bike. It’s great riding on my home course -- the ride I do most Sundays as a group ride. I have had a couple of practice runs on my tri bike. The traffic going through Vineyard Haven is a little tough and slows me down slightly. A couple of people pass me and then I’m on Lamberts Cove Road and hear someone constantly shifting behind me so I keep up the pace not to be passed again. I’m speedy on the downhills and flats, slow on the uphills. HIMAC will be flat so I’ve practiced more on the flats as people tell me it’s not as easy as you think to constantly be pedaling without rolling hills.
Suddenly, a fawn jumps across the road in front of me, fortunately just out of distance from what could have been an ugly collision. I’m amazed how fast the miles click by – 10 miles, 20 miles…. I pass Eric and then Mike going the opposite way on State Road since they have already looped around the Aquinnah cliffs. I catch up to a male with strong looking legs (“Mr. Legs”) and fly by him on my tri bike – yippee! He catches me again on an uphill. As I approach the Aquinnah cliffs, I overtake him again and knowing the course, quickly take the turn onto Moshup trail, whizzing by the police officer monitoring the intersection. I know I can go fast on this stretch so I go all out. I stop briefly at the aid station to refill my torpedo hydration system. There is no sign of Mr. Legs.
I keep pushing on and encounter a woman on a road bike who is looking pretty tired at around mile 40. I keep up my strength and pass her. I forgot my Garmin watch so I’m relying on a basic Timex Ironman watch and my own calculation of speed with every 10 mile marker. I think I’m averaging over 15 mph, which is what I need to do. I’m done with all of the Up Island hills and on the flat part of the course now so I know if I can keep up my speed, I’ll meet my goal. I turn to enter the Katama part of the course. I’m on the lookout for cars at intersections since there are no police officers here, and narrowly avoid a collision with one speeding car.
Last push on Beach Road and oh my, the wind resistance! It feels like this last bit is taking me forever. I pass a very slow male rider who I think must be part of the Sprint course. I finish with a 3h37 bike, a 15.4 mph pace.
RESULTS: I met my goals, beating myself from 4 years ago with a time of 4h23 (1h8 faster!!) and feeling confident going into HIMAC. And, I got a 3
rdplace medal to boot for the female Aquabike category, although there were only 3 of us. As my swim coach used to say – I still beat everyone who didn’t start the race that day! Diane had a goal to break 6 hours and had the race of her life with a personal best of 5h18!! Eric completed his first 70.3 with a time of 5h46. Mike had one of his better times of 5h49. Based on GPS calculations, the swim course was about 500 yards short of 1.2 miles, and the bike course was about .75 miles short of the 56 miles. But even factoring that in, we can all be very happy with our times.
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| Diane is in a league of her own! |
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| Podium finishes are fun - even when you are 3/3! |
That night we do a post race BBQ. My friend Peter who cheered me on at the bike start informs me that was him behind me on the bike course. It turns out he was the “the sweeper” who was following the last person on the course. I laugh, telling him how he made me go faster since I didn’t want anyone else passing me. He informs that me Mr. Legs made it but struggled the last half of the course. That was me last time, but not this time. Properly training with TriDot and a new tri bike have made all the difference 4 years later. #gettingbetterwithage
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| Showing off our Bad Martha's tattoos! |
