Buzzards Bay Triathlon: Surviving the Swim

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.

Musselman 70.3: Beautiful Finger Lakes Racing

Lake Seneca is a beautiful race venue

 When I was in the throes of training for my 70.3 followed by the NYC marathon last year, I declared, “maybe next year I’ll just race shorter distances.”  Well, of course I finished the NYC marathon and then declared, “I need to find something else to train for!” 

I decided I was ready to try a new 70.3 course, and having gained more confidence, I was willing to try some hills rather than the flat courses I had done to date.  I had been following the Musselman 70.3 race reviews since Ironman took it over and decided it looked like a beautiful location and the right kind of course with rolling hills on the bike and some run elevation.  It also appealed to us since we could make a vacation out of it and visit Niagara Falls.

 

The Finger Lakes region lives up to the beautiful pictures I had seen, and the lakes provide for wonderful swimming, boating, and dining spots.  After the AirBnB I had reserved right on Lake Seneca near the race course cancelled on me, I was forced to find a new house 25 minutes away in Canandaigua, which also featured a beautiful lake and town. Barb came to help dog sit Nala and on Saturday, she took a wind surfing lesson while we did a warmup swim in the very clear, 70-degree lake.

 

I found some fellow Ambassadors

The race venue is right along Seneca Lake. They have you park at the Seneca State Park and walk down the path along the water for about a mile.  The first time we did it to check in on Friday, it was a beautiful and pleasant walk.  But having do this multiple times throughout the weekend was not ideal as you want to rest your legs, and it was too much for Nala.  Furthermore, on race morning, there was a traffic jam getting into the park, so you need to allow for extra time for a race that has an early transition closing of 6:15am.  If you can find lodging within easier walking distance to the venue, that is ideal.  I also hope the race organizers will take the feedback that the Ironman Village logistics were unnecessarily complicated requiring even more walking and going through merchandise tent with your bike and dog to get to most events. The other disappointing thing was that the race organizers experienced timing issues, and my and about 200 other athletes did not get an official swim and T1 time, and we were placed into a special category for our overall rankings. Thankfully, my watch captured my times pretty accurately.

 

Here’s my race report:

 

SWIM:  55:34. I had gotten one open water swim practice done in which I swam the 1.2 mile distance non-stop in my Martha’s Vineyard waters, and I was surprised how slow I was.  I wasn’t quite sure if it was the current, not being used to my wetsuit or what, but my goal was simply to be faster than my 1-hour rehearsal swim.  For race day, I decided to go with my sleeveless wetsuit thinking maybe I would have better arm mobility. The water temp dropped 4 degrees to a chilly 66 degrees that felt cold at first, but I got over it.  I accomplished my goal and was at least a minute faster than last year’s 70.3 but a minute slower than my first 70.3.  I did accomplish something remarkable – I swam exactly 2100 yards, so my sighting was spot on!

 

T1:  9:33. No errors and pretty much on par with my T1 times since I usually take the time to put my socks on and it’s a large transition area.

 

BIKE: 3:26:24. I’m declaring this the best bike course of all my triathlons so far.  The scenes were beautiful, the roads with the exception of a few spots that were well marked were in great shape, and best of all, there were very few cars.  And we had Amish people cheering us on to boot!  I enjoyed the rolling the hills.  After last month’s Poconos race and my Martha’s Vineyard rides, the hills were no big deal!  I executed the bike as I hoped with an average pace of 16.29 mph.

 

T2:  6:03.  I opted for a porta potty stop so my T2 time reflects that, but I still cut my T2 time in half compared to my first 70.3 and was faster than last year’s 70.3.

 

Chariots of Fire Joy!

RUN: 2:24:02.  I had my best run that I’ve had since Atlantic City (when I did 2:14:18). Considering the hills and the heat, I’m pleased with my time.  I saw Mike twice on the course, and the second time was when he was within yards of the finish line, so I got to hear his name called.  One of the highlights – during my first loop after I had conquered the hills, I was coming back down through town and there were church bells ringing out the theme from the “Chariots of Fire”.   In that moment, the run felt effortless and joyous.  While it didn’t feel effortless when I had to conquer the hills a second time, I carried that joy right through with me to the finish line!

 

My watch recorded an overall time of 7:01:34 which is within 2 seconds of the times I’ve recorded above between my watch and my official times that were recorded.  My stretch goal was to break 7 hours, as I did in my very first 70.3, but considering the hills and heat, I’m very pleased with my race performance.  Despite the race logistics challenges, I highly recommend this race – and that you add time on to explore the area.

Nala was once again part of the Ironman Support crew!

Overall beat my predicted times!

Niagara Falls provided a great side trip

Barb enjoyed wind surfing

Enjoying the view and local wine

Family Tri’ing in the Poconos

When I started triathlons 11 years ago it was part of some New Years’ Resolutions to engage my creative side by writing about my triathlon ventures and staying connected to family, and that hasn’t changed! As I looked for 2022 races, and with historical June races like the Philadelphia Triathlon and the Stamford Triathlon no longer in existence, I saw the Philly Tri Club was making the Kinetic Multisports Poconos Triathlon a focus race.  I recalled a fun stop at Lake Wallenpaupack years ago so this equidistant location seemed like the perfect venue for us to meet my parents and Barb for a triathlon weekend.  Mike and I planned to do the Olympic on Saturday, and Barb planned for the Sprint on Saturday.

We made two mistakes before the weekend even began.  I discovered that I had left my Torpedo water bottle for easy aero fueling at our home on Martha’s Vineyard.  Fortunately, our local CT tri shop, Pacific Cycling and Triathlon had one in stock!  We made the mistake of checking routes during non-peak travel times so we thought the route that goes across the Tappan Zee Bridge by our favorite NY bagel place would take the same as the Northern route over Bear Mountain, but our bagel detour ended up costing us about an hour in traffic.  

 

I had found a house right on the lake with a dock, and upon arriving we discovered we could
even see and kayak to the swim course from the house.  Upon arrival, we hurried over to check in, review the transitions, and check out the bike course, a 29-mile course, which is 3 miles longer than a typical Olympic race.  Oh my – the hills on the bike course were daunting.  There was a nice downhill for the first half, but the second half featured a 2-mile climb followed by more rolling hills.

 

We headed back for our traditional triathlon eve pasta dinner and another hour of race preparations.  Things moved at pre-race triathlon warped speed and before we knew it, it was past our intended bedtime.

We headed out the next morning around 5:45am.  Unlike so many races, parking was easy and close in the high school parking lot.  We had plenty of time to secure a good transition spot and meet up with our Philly Tri Club for a picture.  

 

SWIM:  45:41 - After the long course athletes went off on the swim course, it was our turn.  The water was a comfortable 70 degrees and having not swum in a wetsuit for some time, I tried to stay calm and slowly ease into the swim.  Normally I’m good at sighting but for some reason, I was having trouble following the right buoys of this rectangular, double loop course.  On 3 occasions kayaks were directing me to get back on course, including one time when I was pointed to the wrong buoy.  I thought for sure I must have swum extra, but my watch indicated I swam right around .9 miles, but I know I wasted a lot of time since my pace was recorded as 3:03/100 yards.

Of course swimming!

 

T1:  7:31 - The somewhat long transition up the hill on rocks didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.  After “being mad at the swim course”, I was just happy to get out of the water. And then, I couldn’t get my wet suit over the chip. I wasn’t thinking straight and should have just taken it off!

 

BIKE:  1:53:43 - The bike was Mike’s lowpoint and my highpoint.  As he was exiting the high school, he hit a bump that sent him to the ground and caused a flat tire.  Or maybe the tire was a little flat to begin with given he had had trouble with the valve.  The good news for him was that the race mechanics were right there and helped fix it.  So on he went with a bloody elbow and bruised hip.

 

As for me, I knew I wanted to make up time on the downhills so I stayed aero as much as possible and flew as fast as 40 miles mph down the hills.  I was so glad we had driven the course the night before so I was ready for a couple of sharp turns into hills, and I was mentally ready for the 2 mile climb.  As I saw many people give up and walk their bike up the hill, I was determined to stay on the bike.  And, I did!  The remaining rolling hills weren’t really rolling so I continued the quest to climb them all.  In the end, I could tell my legs were tired but I gained huge bike confidence on this course.  In fact, averaging 15.3mph, I had the second fastest bike time in my age group and it proved to be my best event this time.

 

Killer 2 mile climb!

T2: 1:36 - Non-eventful and fast!

 

RUN:  1:11:35 - Normally the run is my best event, but not this time.  Between legs that were toast and a slightly hilly, trail course with just about every surface – pavement – grass – dirt – bark mulch – sinking mulch – mud – stones – uneven pavement – there would be no run PRs today and a slow 11:31 pace.  The best part of the course was the high school running track where I waved to Mom and Dad as I made my second loop, and gladly finished.

 

This was certainly my longest Olympic, finishing at 4:00:08 – yes, wish I had been paying attention to the total time to break 4 hours.  I used this race as one of my race rehearsals for our upcoming half Ironman, and I’m glad to have worked out some kinks and get my race brain back on.  But most of all, I was happy to see some of my Philly Tri friends and spend time with family in a beautiful lake setting.  Oh yeah, and remember Nala, from last year – the foster dog.  Proving she can be a good traveler and companion during triathlons, she’s now a permanent member of the family!

Nala competed in the kayak-swim event!

TriDot Ambassador Camp at the Ironman World Championships

My heart is full, and my triathlon brain is enlightened after spending the last four days at TriDot’s 2nd Ambassador Camp in St. George, UT, and the first since we first all met in February 2020.  Like the last time, one of the best aspects was meeting our TriDot ambassador, coach and staff members in person.  Since the last ambassador camp, I’ve met some my fellow ambassadors in person at races and through meet ups when we found ourselves in the same location so this time, I formed deeper connections and met new friends too.  We had amazing speakers who inspired us each day:

Day 1: “Triathlon is a little sport with a big heart.” – Bob Babbitt

 

After long and complex travel to arrive at the beautiful Red Mountain Resort in St. George, more than 70 TriDot Ambassadors were treated to an opening talk by Bob Babbitt, co-founder of Competitor magazine and the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which has helped over 26,000 individuals with physical challenges to get access to sports since 1994.  Bob shared his stories from racing in the 3^rd ever Ironman in 1980, and in five more events during the early days of the Ironman, which was founded in 1978 by John and Judy Collins.  He recounted his own stories that have been told through different perspectives of those early days athletes before Ironman was a known brand and when it was a local, niche event that ultimately became famous as ABC’s “World Wide of Sports” happened to be in town for a cliff diving event in 1980.  From there many California athletes got wind of the event and showed up the following years, including Julie Moss, who was famously captured in 1982 as she struggled and crawled to the finish line, and Kathleen McCartney passed her to win the women’s title.  But it was Julie who became famous and made the event a household name as callers flooded into ABC wanting to know more about her and if she had actually survived the event.

 

Bob Babbitt gave the opening talk

Bob also shared stories how in the 1980s, Dave Scott became the reigning men’s champion with wins in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1987, and Mark Allen was determined to have his own title.  It took seven attempts for Mark to win the championship in 1989 and then go on to win five more.  Bob co-founded Competitor magazine with Lois Schwartz in 1987, and a 1989 cover photo showcased Lois’ famous photo of Mark and Dave running side by side with the headline IRONWAR, when the race was still undecided with less than two miles to go. The stories of these early days make for a good book, captured in “Iron War, Dave Scott, Mark Allen & the Greatest Race Ever Run” by Matt Fitzgerald.  

 

Like many big-hearted entrepreneurs, Bob has found a passion and purpose in the Foundation he co-founded.  He relayed stories of the kinds of athletes the Foundation has helped, with a focus on Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah from Ghana, who first just asked for a bike so that he could raise awareness for the needs of the disabled, having lost his leg.  The Foundation ultimately made Emmanuel famous as he met with Kofi Annan from the UN and President George W. Bush, allowing him to return to Ghana and convince the President to initiate legislation to help the disabled and show his country that disabled people can be just as able as those without a disability.  His story is highlighted in a documentary, Emmanuel’s Gift, narrated by Oprah Winfrey. 

 

The collection of Bob’s stories reminded us how we ended up St. George, UT for the 2021 annual Ironman World Championship.  However, this was the first time in the race’s history that it was not being held in Hawaii due to the Covid cancellations that transpired in 2020 and 2021.

 

Day 2: “Treat yourself as an individual, don’t just copy what other athletes do with regards to hydration.” - Andy Blow

 

On day 2, we got to experience a portion of the Ironman bike course up Snow Canyon.  It was an epic ride with over 4,100 feet of elevation that athletes experience on tired legs as they hit mile 100 approaching the top – that is after they have already experienced nearly 5,000 feet of elevation.  The red rock vistas made for stunning background with the desert foreground.

Riding up Snow Canyon!

In the afternoon we heard from Jan Sibbersen, a former Pro triathlete from Germany who holds the world record for the Kona swim, a feat he accomplished in 2018 at the age of 43 – after he actually had retired and was racing as an age group athlete.  Jan was an investment banker who decided to go pro in 2001.  Upon retiring, it was fitting that he founded the wetsuit company Sailfish.

We also nourished our brains with talks by Andy Blow, a former British pro who founded Precision Hydration, and Dr. Krista Austin, a PhD in Movement Science, who helps pros and amateurs optimize their performance with nutrition and training and racing fueling plans.  They say nutrition is the 4^th discipline and these talks further educated us on it.  Most helpful, many of us opted to do a sweat test and receive a personalized plan for our electrolyte needs.  Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to work out and sweat to do a sweat test.  It can be done while sitting with electrodes in your arms.  The sweat test measures the amount of sodium your body releases, which is genetic and does not change much over time or based on other environmental factors.  Your sweat rate does change with environmental factors.  It’s a fascinating area of science that Andy was fueled (pun intended) to pursue based on his academic background in Sports and Exercise Science and his experience having struggled in hot weather races as a pro triathlete.  This topic is so interesting that I will dedicate a future full blog post to it.

 

Day 3: “Dreams don’t happen at the speed of Twitter.” – Mark Allen

 

Friday began at 6:00am with my functional movement screening with B.J. Leeper.  BJ holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science who specializes in comprehensive movement testing and injury testing among athletes.  BJ is exploring methods to allow athletes to self-screen themselves so that they can pinpoint weakness areas and understand how to correct them.  I was in a group of three and it was interesting to see how we each had different weakness areas.

 

After breakfast we set out for our second day of cycling, this time going up Red Hills Parkway and Skyline Drive.  After elevation of more than 3,100 feet, I then opted for another ride up Snow Canyon.  It was definitely harder on tired legs, but my legs were nowhere near as tired as the athletes would face the next day.

 

In the afternoon, we headed to a local community pool for a swim session – and waited for our “surprise” with anticipation.  Finally, our camp director, John Mayfield, introduced Mark Allen!  Mark talked about the determination that is required to succeed in our sport.  He also encouraged us to get off of our trainers and mix up the environments we train in. He, along with Jan Sibbersen, stayed on the pool deck throughout our swim session to give athletes pointers.

Mark Allen was our surprise guest!

We concluded our day with Jeff Boher, founder and CEO of TriDot, giving us a preview of new features to come.  Jeff’s new goals are to “make training as fun as racing” – but we are sworn to secrecy on what that means:-)

That evening after dinner I had the pleasure of sitting down and engaging with Tom Watson as we recorded a short interview for one of his upcoming podcasts in which I talk about how structured training has helped take me to new levels – stay tuned!

 

Day 4:  “Let’s bring them home!!!” – Mike Reilly

 

Saturday began with a 4am alarm – and I wasn’t even racing! The TriDot Ambassadors piled into vans, and we headed over to Sandy Hollow to work the T1 swim transition for the Ironman World Championship. Our jobs included directing men and women athletes to the right tent, helping them as requested with their gear, and watching for signs of medical distress. The water was 64 degrees – very cold, even with a wetsuit. We did have some athletes suffer from hypothermia coming out of the water and some of our volunteers assisted at the medical tent to help warm them up. One woman took an hour to warm up – but she went on to have a great

race and finish with a great time.

Pro Men in T1

One of the great perks of this volunteer stint was that we had an up-close view of the Pros swim transition. We also got to cheer on all of the athletes as they made their way in their age groups to the water. It was interesting to observe the ways different age groups reacted to our enthusiastic cheering – ages less than 30 and over 50 were generally more engaging, while those competitive 30 – 49 groups were focused in their own world.

The TriDot Volunteer Crew

After the last athletes were out of the water, we helped to break down the changing tents and then headed back to the resort for our own transition and refueling, which was quick as we learned that some of our TriDot athletes were on the bike course approaching the resort. We cheered them on as they ascended towards Snow Canyon.

 

Almost empty!

Some of us loaded up in John Mayfield’s van in hopes of catching the men’s pro finish. As we tried to make our way downtown, we were stopped and rerouted multiple times with detours. We then had our own race fueling issues – we only had 1 mile left on our tank of gas!  John stopped and fueled at our own “aid station” and then proceeded to race down and drop us off at the finish line just before Kristian Blummenfelt arrived with a time of 7:49:18, followed 5 minutes later by Lionel Sanders and Braden Currie, who were just 16 seconds apart.  It was an amazing finish by Lionel who caught and passed Brad just before the finish line to take second place.  Daniela Ryf who had held the women’s lead by 10 minutes for most of the run course, captured her fifth championship title and arrived to the cheers of the crowd followed by Kat Matthews and then Anne Haug.

 

Many of us stayed in the finish line area the rest of the day to welcome home our fellow TriDotters and athletes, all of whom we had sent off that morning.  The course is open for 17 hours after the last person enters the water, although you technically have to finish within 17 hours and meet intermediate cut offs to not receive a Did Not Finish (DNF). At midnight, with one hour to go, Kristian and Daniela were at the finish line to give the last wave of finishers their medals. Mike Reilly, the famous voice of Ironman, came out onto the red carpet and hosted the greatest party in Ironman – enthusiastically revving up the crowd and welcoming home the last finishers with his famous, “YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!"

 

Epilogue:

 

I awoke in a fog on Sunday morning after not a lot of sleep. I decided a recovery swim was in order after my extended day and before my long trip home. The texts on our camp What’s App group flooded in. We all were so grateful to the TriDot staff for hosting an amazing experience, and for the memories we made engaging with each other and giving back to sport we love through our volunteering and spectating.

 

As Bob Babbitt said, “triathlon is a little sport with a big heart”.  Every once in a while you will find unsupportive people in the sport, or see a group get torn apart by politics. At TriDot we are so lucky to have a group of staff, coaches, ambassadors, and athletes who truly support one another. #WeAreTriDot!!!