Being in my 11th year of triathlons and having done every triathlon distance, I’ve been thinking maybe I should change the name of this blog to Swim, Bike, Run, Thrive. This confidence that I’ve gained over the years also led to my ingoing thought about this race: “it’s just a sprint”. Mother Nature has a way of reminding you to never say that!
We heard great things about this race, held at Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA. Being a 9am start, it also meant all of our Martha’s Vineyard fellow triathletes could take the 5:30am ferry and arrive in time. Mike and I opted to stay over the night before so we went and checked out the venue and picked up our packets. The night before, the water was choppy, nothing too crazy, but here is how race day went down…
We arrive around 7:40am, around the same time all of our friends are arriving. The wind is whipping westward and wow, there are real waves. I give my friends Tony and Theresa some pointers about navigating the transition area as this is only their second duathlon, the last one having been 9 years ago. We’ve been biking and running together all summer so I’m excited to see them engage in the sport. We make our way to the beach and I see my friend Stefanie with a concerned look on her face. She tried a practice swim and was pummeled by the waves. The waves are relentless, coming one after another, and it must be low tide because it’s on one hand too shallow to dive into them, but on the other hand, they are pretty powerful. My race goal becomes to just survive the swim.
At the swim start, the race director tells us that if we can’t breathe to our left, we’ll be learning that day! Thankfully I’m a natural left side breather. While I practice bilateral breathing in the pool, in open water I usually default back to my left side for comfort. Stefanie, Shelly, and I are in the next to the last wave, so we watch how others do. In addition to the waves, we have to account for a down current, which should help us in this point-to-point swim, and we have to get out far enough past the buoys so the waves don’t break on us and we don’t get pulled into shore. We watch as the first swimmers learn these lessons the hard way – many angle too close to the buoy only to be swept past it before able to make the left hand turn. At one point the jet ski comes in to help a swimmer, and we see some swimmers come back to shore.
The race director, a former pro, gives the next victims some advice – swim straight out and go past the red buoy before trying to round it; do not angle in; do the hard work first and the rest will be easy. Well, we’re not too sure about the rest being easy but before we know it, it’s go time. We send Shelly first since she has the most experience with crazy swim conditions; I go next, and then Stefanie. I’m a little hesitant and hear Stefanie’s encouraging “Go Cathy” as she runs past me. It is not easy going through each wave but I do it, and thankfully see I will make it past the first buoy. Once swimming, there are some pretty large swells, and I can’t really see the next buoy but I just keep calm and keep at it until eventually I see it, and at my current trajectory and accounting for the waves pulling me in, I know I need to swim further back out so I pull hard to do that, and I’m relieved to get past it. Once I’m on shore, I see an official take the chip of the guy who exited before me, telling him he had not rounded the buoy and was therefore disqualified. Phew – glad I read the currents and made the effort! I’m surprised to see my time isn’t too bad (12:39, 2:22 min/100m).
T1 requires a quarter mile run. I put on shoes for easier running that I left in the designated area. It takes me forever to get my wetsuit off and so my transition is abnormally long (7:32).
Once on the bike I’m surprised that I’m not feeling better to push it more but perhaps the swim tired me out. I do feel good passing a lot of people – the advantage of being in a later wave and a slower swimmer. The wind is pretty strong and seems to always be either a side or a head wind and no tail wind. It reminds me of the winds I faced at Ironman Maryland but that was for 112 miles! The ride is scenic amongst vineyards and ocean views so the 13+ miles are over before I know it (46:47, 17.9mph).
My T2 (1:55) is much faster than my T1. On the run I continue to pass people although there are certainly people passing me too. I start out with under 9 min miles but can’t hold that pace. The wind is gusty but the ocean views are enticing. I just try and enjoy the run, encourage people along the way, and finish to find my friends welcoming me in (29:20, 9:27 min/mi run for a 1:38:15 finish).
Later I hear that they did offer triathletes the option to switch to the duathlon if they were uncomfortable with the swim. I’m glad I didn’t hear that as I probably would have switched. I actually relished the challenge of one of the hardest triathlon swims I’ve done. Perhaps I should change this blog to Swim, Bike, Run, Thrive.
