LJ's Kelowna ITU Report - 3rd, I got Finlay'd

Thanks to my devoted homestay, I have more pictures in my race report than ever before seen at The Slog... for DC Rainmaker fans, this amounts to the number of shots Ray includes of product packaging.

I ventured to beautiful British Columbia, Canada for my first international race, the ITU Continental Cup in Kelowna--also Canadian Nationals. Leading up to the race I was stoked to see Paula Findlay's name in the start list as she is among the top women in the world in ITU racing. It's good to race the greats as they can pull you up to their level faster. Plus, I wanted to use the term Finlay'd in my race report.

For my homestay in Kelowna, I matched with a couple, Susanne and Frank. They made me feel like part of their family and I did my best to fulfill Susanne's wishes of making myself at home in their house. Both of them attended the race on Sunday to cheer on me and the Puerto Rican Rios twins who stayed with Susanne's sister, Denise. Next time I'm in Kelowna I will take them up on their offers to go sailing, blueberry picking and wine-tasting.

Immediately before the race starts, each athlete is announced in order of ranking and picks a spot on the pontoon or, in this case, a starting mat thing on the banks of Lake Okanagan:

I was ranked 22nd in the field of ~30 women, however, I was a few minutes late to the race briefing and got booted to the back of the line. I knew I wouldn't get a spot next to the higher ranked athletes anyway, but in a small field such as this, it wasn't a big deal.

As we waited for the starter, the dramatic ITU music played. I flashed back to last year when I was broken and would longingly watch the ITU action unfold on my computer, wishing to be a part of it. "Here I am," I thought, and without further ado, we were off.
I merged with the pack on the other end of the field before we hit the first turn buoy and was dragged into the trenches. After the first turn I got around a few women, but it feels like everyone was on top of one another.

The Kelowna swim course is two loops, where you pop out of the water at the half-way point and run around a buoy on the beach. At the start of loop two I was flanked by compatriot Amanda Felder and one of the Rios sisters and we had a civil thing going, until more people came along to drown us.

I thought I was positioned well in the water and felt good heading into transition... not a time to chill:
The bike was nothinggg like the Life Time Fitness races where I feel like laying down when I get off the bike. The 6 loop bike course in Kelowna included a hill, but our front pack of 9 didn't do anything too wild and we stayed away from the rest of the field.
T2 trying to hurry the hell up:
Paula had a gap right away and I ran up to Annie Warner and Sarah-Anne Brault (the race winner). Annie didn't stay with us too long, but lurked behind the whole race. Brault pulled away from me before we reached the halfway point of our first loop (4 loops on the run course). I FELT like I was moving fast and thought, TODAY I WILL RUN 36 and get under that 37 minute barrier. I just pressed forward as much as I could.

Ow. Ow... OW In the last 90 seconds I felt a tug in part of my quad. I had a vision of hobbling over the bridge before the finish line and potentially losing my podium spot, but then summoned all my zen energy and channeled it into the freaking muscle.

I finished third behind Brault and Findlay. I saw my run split, 35:40, and was so happy and proud for running hard.

Onto the awards ceremony...our homestays, Susanne and Denise, with Militza and Melissa Rios in front. My dad asked: and who is that on the right? (I roll my eyes): that's me.

Awards ceremony with the dolphins
I'm ready to smuggle my newly acquired plantlife and apples back to the USA
Egged on by the crowd, I made use of the champagne
The men's podium was not safe either, not even the CNT (Canadian national treasure, Simon Whitfield)
All six of us squeezed on the podium for more pictures. Good thing we're triathletes.
That evening Susanne fixed me a bowl with her blueberry pie and ice cream for the car ride to the airport for my red eye (love those)... and there you have it.

Rookie Pro Season Take Two: Lauren's First "RACE" Report.

Last weekend Purse and I raced the Vineman 70.3. She'll report later on her end, but from my perspective, I am happy to report that I survived the race, foot intact, and more importantly, LEARNED WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO ACTUALLY RACE!

I love the Vineman course..the bike course, that is. In years past, Matt has watched me repeatedly self-destruct on the hot and hilly run course so I wasn't so psyched about that...and I'm not one to rave about swim courses.

I was a bit worried going into this race as I'm still recovering from my foot issues and haven't done mad amounts of running. Both the god of all podiatrists in the Bay Area and Paulo gave me the go ahead, so I trusted that if Paulo said I could race, that I'd be trained enough to not die out there on the course.

For those dedicated blog readers, you'll know that I haven't nailed the whole mental thing yet, so I decided to use this race as an opportunity to work on mental stuff...such as staying positive and "in the moment" rather than exhuding my typical negativity.

Anyway, the gun went off, the fast swimmers went off, and apparently I did not go off, as after 200 yds of swimming I Iooked up to see a speck of dust on the water which was the first two packs. I did manage to stick with a pack of girls for most of the swim and got out of the water in a time significantly faster than my wetsuit swim time from my previous Vineman attempts. This is progress.


Leading (the third pack) out of the water.

The bike was a good time. I kept a girl I know to be a killer strong cyclist in sight for awhile until she dropped me on a downhill. (Who gets dropped on a downhill?). After surviving an exploding vanilla powergel episode, I focused on keeping up with my nutrition. Amazing what calories can do for you in a race. Around mile 30 I started passing people and this is where the fun began. For the first time in my triathlon career I was RACING. I wasn't just slogging along the course hoping not to embarass myself. I was focused on executing my strategy of riding hard.


TEAM PATAKY in action...matt practicing not being chill.

I came off the bike in 7th-ish place and prepared for the sufferfest that is the Vineman run. I took Paulo's pre-race advice to heart and just tried to focus on performing my best at each moment and each mile. I forgot about all of my issues and pushed it and tried to stay in the race. Unfortunately, I was passed by 2 girls around mile 9ish and then another 2 girls with less than a mile to go, but I did what I could with what I had on that day and am happy with the results. I finished in around 4:35 and change and had a faster run split here with heat, hills, and minimal training, than I did at Oceanside, with perfect conditions and lots of training. MORE progress.


I really don't know what to say about my form here.


RACING as opposed to "participating in a race" is a good feeling and I plan to use the motivation I got from RACING last weekend to fuel the big IMC training block that looms.

PS: I want to thank my nutrition sponsor, Lindsey Jerdonek, for providing me home cooked meals the entire week prior to Vineman, as well as race day. She went so far as to purchase a mobile GRIDDLE for our race day breakfast, which she promptly installed at 3:30 AM in the bathroom of the Holiday Inn Express Windsor.


The famous bathroom griddle.


Post race "shock therapy" with Purse and Tracy. They promised the shock therapy would prevent soreness. Why am I still sore on WEDNESDAY?



Ronin did not get Paulo's memo declaring July 18th a "chill day."


Lindsey's post-race "nest" in the back of our car.

Columbia Triathlon Race Report

Pre-race:

I recruited my dad to drive in from Cleveland and shuttle my carless self to the race, a 45 minute drive from my DC apt.  He arrived late Friday night so I could attend the mandatory Saturday pro mtg/hair appt with my Hungarian hairdresser, Teunde, who works in Columbia, MD.

Dad got a taste of DC nightlife by sleeping on the living room futon with the cage's front window open. On Saturday morning, he recounted the sirens and helicopter flying overhead that kept him awake for a portion of the night. My roommate, Angie, who produces/writes for the ABC news affiliate, happened to work the evening shift and informed us that 2 police officers were shot 5 blocks from the apt. Saturday night, Dad awoke to the normal bars letting out brouhaha. Angie and I call these "sounds of the neighborhood". shrill screams... barking from the crazed back alley dog we named Cujo... sirens from the fire station located a 1/2 block from our place... all are sounds of the neighborhood. And yes, we typically say the phrase in unison.

The race:

This was my first pro race and it felt strange to be AMONG people who are pictured in the triathlon media.  While racing, I wasn't focused and thought to myself as I was passed, "oh that's ..." Margie Shapiro, Amanda Lovato, Chrissie Wellington and Uli Bromme--the women who went by me after the swim. This is the WRONG attitude to have when racing!!! I think back to when I raced age group last year, or really 1 month ago, and I definitely raced for the win (or BLOOD, haha, often times blood--my legs are a bruised-up mess). I'm glad I got this star-gazing episode out of my system because IT IS TIME TO GET SERIOUS!

Swim (non-wetsuit) –  I swam 20:20 and finished a minute back of the first 3 women-- a definite improvement in swim performance over last yr.  Compared with the women's 18-24 AG wave, the start was crowded and fast as the men and women began together.  I lost touch with the group in front of me a few minutes in and swam on my own for most of it.  I need to turn up the intensity t0 stay in the draft!

Bike…  I biked 1:17 (20th fastest of all women).  My time looks like something happened, butttt it didn't.

Run - I exited T2 trailing Chrissie and bridged up to her a mile or so into the run.  We came through the second mile together and I wanted to tell her how cool it was that I was running beside her.  This mindset is NOT conducive for racing well.  She dropped me... bla.  I trucked along through the middle miles and got my shit together once I exited the neighborhood a mile from the finish.   I heard a woman right behind me (Jacqui Gordon--another pro Paulo coaches).  I didn’t want to be passed and moved the rest of the way to the finish.  I need to run like that THE WHOLE TIME.

Dad did not take any stills of me racing, but captured a couple paparazzo shots. I'm shown post-finish with Jacqui and second place finisher Andrew Yoder (who has eaten, showered and napped in the time between his finish and mine).

On the way back to DC, Dad and I stopped at Trader Joe’s to grab a few items. He (who was paying) jumped in line pretty soon after we arrived--PRESSURE: ON. I felt like I was on one of those grocery store shopping spree shows, frantically looking for almond butter (and grabbing as much as my arms could carry).

Anyway, it was nice to have him in town to watch me race.  Superfriends Ryan and Caroline also woke up early to cheer me on.  :)  Thanks guys!

10k Race Report, Moving, MEN

On Saturday I ran an open 10k in 37:11. I'm quite happy with my time and more importantly, the effort, and shaved 43 seconds off my PR from December. The race was an out and back on a portion of the Capital Crescent Trail, a hiker-biker trail which connects Bethesda to Georgetown. The race was organized by the Georgetown Running Company, the running team I socialize with... I don't really train with them--when I do the group runs, it's usually right after I swim, and since the women are faster than me to begin with, a heart-attack sets in after a few minutes. I typically drop back and run on my own until we rejoin for breakfast.

Back to the race--I took it out hard. I checked my watch at 13:40 just to see where I was time-wise and knew that my pace was too labored at that point. Aided by a false flat--DOWNHILL--for the first 5k, I reached the turnaround in 17:40. When I saw the time I thought, "Wow, that's wrong. This course is short." It wasn't, so I set myself up for a nice mental toughness exercise for the last half. The men who I ran with on the way out finished 45-60 seconds ahead of me, to give you some perspective of the hill grade & my sufferfest. Excluding the masses of non-racers taking in Saturday's nice weather & shouting encouraging words, I was pretty much on my own for the return trip. I finished first and about 5 sec in front of the second woman. In the final minutes I had a inkling that I was 1) dying and 2) getting caught by the woman I saw near the turn-around, so I stuck with it as best I could to the finish. I want to be under 37 minutes and will give it another shot next month. Results for the race are available at: http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=75529&orgID=234639&pubID=2

I don't have any pics from the race, but I DO have a shot of me with my roommate, Angie, looking out of the back entrance to our new apt, or as we lovingly call it, the cage. Following the 10k, I moved into an English basement in the U-street corridor, hence the safety bars on all windows/doors. My dad came into town to help and gets the photo credit for the following action shot.

This is my fourth dwelling since the start of the year and am relieved to be settled. I didn't have access to a TV in my Feb. sublet and convinced Angie of the obvious improvements to life without basic cable.

To fill the TV void and in a matter of self-improvement, I'm playing the piano daily. Angie has a keyboard (with weighted keys!) and several times since our move, she or I have played while the other has bfast/dinner. It's wonderful listening to Angie play and since she blocks out the occasional "son of a b****" that slips out when I mess up, she enjoys my playing, too. I established a daily goal of practicing at least 10 min and plan to learn/memorize La Valse d'Amelie (from the movie, Amelie) by Easter. In April, I'm heading to the West coast for 9-days to watch LAHP race Oceanside 70.3, attend Timex camp and spend the Easter weekend with LAHP and Matt where I will perform in the inaugural "Getting the Work Done" piano recital. She and I will play a duet--something non-chopsticks.

IMPORTANT: Today, LAHP shared with me a short article titled, The 6 Men You Shouldn't Date. Ladies, file this away in your memory bank and include a hard copy in your edition of the dating bible (He's Just Not That Into You). Through education, salvation CAN be yours.