A Different Kind of Race: Who Are You Racing For? "No Joke" and Lessons Learned

Angels Race Sprint Triathlon April 13, 2013
300m swim, 25k bike, 5k run

This race is special to the Virginia Triathlon Series. It was started to honor a teenage girl, Brittany Groover, from Lynchburg, VA who died in November of 2002 in a freak car accident at school when a school bus hit her when she was driving and leaving the parking lot of the school. This was the race's 11th year and while a range of highly talented triathletes to first timers come race, everyone honors their angel in this race by marking their arm with someone they have lost. When you jump in the pool before the start of the race, the race crew asks you "Who is your angel?". Mine was my husband Rob's mother who passed away when I was pregnant with our second child, Arie. He has a very large Dutch name and was named after Rob's mother Johanna and Rob's dad Jan from the Netherlands. We named him Arie-Jan Johannes (Johannes being the male version of Johanna) and Rob's dad's name is Jan and Rob's name is Robert-Jan. Rob's mom hated the name Johanna! She went by her nickname Joke, pronounced "Yo-ka". So I can only imagine what people thought with the name "Joke" down my arm but I have to tell you it was no joke!

I always say I always learn something at every race. This race was definitely a lesson in fueling. I came into this race with a goal time of 1:19-1:20 but ended up with a time of 1:21 after a rough and longer than expected run. I did however loose an unbelievable 13 1/2 minutes off of my time from last year! Last year I was sick and the weather was rainy and freezing cold but that is still a gigantic gain! I did take 1st in my age group and 5th overall but had I not fizzled out on the run I would have had a better outcome. 

Bike in Transition Area

Transition Area

The evening before the race I did something quite different and to commemorate the Angels race I had Angel Hair pasta and Angel food cake. Yes, I am aware I am a goofball!

Angel Hair Pasta

Angel Food Cake - YUMMMM

I wasn't really hungry that morning so I didn't eat much. I did have my normal cup of coffee because you REALLY don't want to see me without coffee (I don't want to see me either ha ha). I mixed up some Accelerade in water but I just wasn't thirsty and couldn't drink it. I figured it was a sprint and I would be fine. The swim was fine and during the bike I realized how tired my legs were still from racing the previous weekend. 

Running out of T1 to mount

Coming into T2 after dismount

The bike was pretty tough for me and I spent alot of it in pain and just not feeling like I was moving forward. It had rolling hills with long and shorter steep sections. Although I had tested my iphone to make sure it would read my cadence, speed, and distance prior to the race, it was not working during the race so I had no idea what my speed, cadence, or mileage was. This was the first time racing without data before my nose and I was worried my cadence might be too low or I wasn't pushing hard enough. After seeing the results I saw I was third on the bike for women with an average speed of 19.6 mph. I was pretty happy with that considering how hilly and tough I thought the course was. I was 8 minutes faster on the bike than last year! 

Running shortly after T2

I felt great coming out on the run! My legs felt awesome! I clocked 7:32 in my first mile but I really fizzled out and had a feeling like I just couldn't do it! I didn't even care anymore. I just wanted to walk. I kept stopping to walk and just didn't have the mental toughness or "umph" to carry through. I realized I should have had a gel after pushing myself that hard on the bike. Each mile just got slower due to the walking and I had quite a disastrous 5K time. At about 2 1/2 miles in there is a really steep and long hill and I ran through the first half of the hill having thought I took a left and that was it - but NO - there was still another block of steep climbing to do. I was really ready to just fall apart. I was a mess. I had a hard time pulling it together in the last half mile to make it to the finish. I did it, but two minutes slower than expected and planned. I was pretty bummed about my performance but learned an important lesson in fueling.

It was at this race last year that I started to see the pattern in people at the podium and the connection between really talented age group triathletes. I started to connect the dots and realize the number of amazing female triathletes who all had the same coach Jim McGehee with One-on-One Endurance. This race is the one that really pushed me to finally contact Jim McGehee and I started with him in May last year. Look at the improvement from last year to this year with such a talented coach showing me the way! 

It took a LONG time for the awards ceremony to begin. At this race they wait for the LAST person to come in. Now the last person may not be the slowest because we all started at different times but at this race the last person is always awarded the first prize, which just happened to be 2 entries into next year's race. The woman who won had lost 100 pounds since last year!

Last one in is a winner here!

Well, somebody kind-of forgot to put the award medals in their car that morning so awards ended up being a calling out of names instead of people coming to a podium. I was the only goober who ran to the announcer for a quick pic! 1st place age group!

What a goober! Anything for a blog photo!!

Roanoke, Virginia really represented at the race and walked away with overall wins for the men and women and many age group awards! Scott Moir won third overall for the men. Here he is at his big moment when they announced his name:

Scott Moir before the race

Ellen Sortore took 2nd overall for the women:

Ellen pre-race

And check out this motley looking crew from Roanoke post-race:

Ellen Sortore, Scott Moir, Me, Mark Taylor, Mark Long, Tripp Godsey

Scott Moir, Mark Taylor, Me, Ellen Sortore, Mark Long, Steve Burtis

Mark Taylor and Andres Marte-Grau won their age group while Mark Long and Steve Burtis took 2nd in their age group. Tripp Godsey was just a couple of seconds  away from taking third in his age group! There is always a reminder that seconds count in a sprint triathlon!

Andres Marte-Grau who won his age group!

Me and Andre's wife Jasmin

I saw tons of friends as well!

Me with Sandra Kuehn - Love this girl!!!!! She took 4th as an Athena! Nice job Sandra!

Scott Vail showed up as a surprise to do the run portion of a relay!

Me with Scott's sister Ann Dalton

Me with Philip Settle - He is one FAST runner and had had a TOUGH race the day before!
He is amazing to come out and race this after what he had done the day before!!

Me with Tripp Godsey - we share the same totally awesome coach!

After the race I had lunch with my family in Lynchburg and we went to the Apocalypse Ale House, a craft brewery in Forest, VA, on the way home. What fun and a great way to end the day!