I’d never raced in Windsor but apparently, the legacy of the PelicanFest Sprint Triathlon is the swim, an open water course in Windsor Lake, known for being cold. It definitely was cold (63 degrees!) on Saturday and definitely wet suit worthy.
I used to stay out of the water before the race and not warm up, mainly because I’d end up standing around in my dripping wet suit for up to 45 minutes before my heat. Once the race starts, they close the transition area no matter when your heat starts. So you better have your wet suit, goggles, cap, earplugs, etc. when you leave because you can’t go back in until after the swim. But I’ve learned that doing a few laps really helps as does standing in the water while you wait, instead of up on the beach. I have mild asthma and getting that first shock of cold out of the way early really helps me be calmer later. One surprise was the tall seaweed you had to swim through to get to the swim exit. Wasn’t expecting to have grass in my mouth!
The bike ride was beautiful and the run was a scenic course that ran around the lake. I found myself pacing behind this woman in a blue jersey almost the whole race and got one of my best times. Thanks, Susan!
I’m really enjoying these sprint triathlons as a fun change of pace from my regular training. 10 weeks out until the big race – the Boulder 70.3 on August 5th!
My finish time was 9:17 (swim), 47:29 (bike) and 35:14 (run) for a total time of 1:38:03. My new goal is to look into getting a coach and get some professional assistance improving my running and biking times. I’ve read a ton about best practices and things other athletes do to improve but I’m at a point where I need to know how to customize that information for me and my unique goals. I suspect there are even little changes I can make that will help. Will let you know how that goes!
I don’t even know where to begin. This race was epic for me for several reasons. It was my first Olympic distance triathlon, it was the first one I’ve done out of state, and it was one where I’d get to watch Olympic athletes from around the world compete in the last qualifier for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
(4:45am – setting up my transition area)
(waiting for the horn)
When I found out that the San Diego Triathlon included two bike laps that climbed La Jolla Mesa Dr. (south side of Soledad Mountain), I was worried that I hadn’t been doing enough hill training. So Dave and I set out on Sat morning from Longmont and rode up Lefthand Canyon to Jamestown, a tiny mountain town that has one of the most scenic routes in Colorado. It is 8.5 miles from the start of LeftHand Canyon Dr., which doesn’t sound like much except the entire distance is uphill.
I had three goals for this ride. To get hill training, practice refueling while on the bike, and continue to get used to my new pedals (Look Keo 2 Max – in white). Eating and drinking while on a road bike is WAY different than on a mountain bike, mainly because of the weight of the bike. Since a mountain bike is so much heavier, it is more stable and easier to control with one hand (while the other hand is getting water, handling a Clif Bar, etc). But road bikes are so darn light (especially carbon) that it feels like nobody is at the wheel when I let go of one side. It sounds like this should be easy but it’s not!
Overall, it’s really hard to complain when you are surrounded by such stunning scenery that you forget about how much work you are doing. One more reason I love living in Colorado. I also did a bit of research and discovered that La Jolla Mesa Drive has a 2 mile elevation gain of about 650 feet, which is much less than the 1370 feet gain of Old Stage Road so now I’m not so worried!
The swim was 750 meters, an easy distance for me since I used to swim the mile in college. When you register for a race, they typically ask for your estimated swim time so they can slot you in a heat. I am always super conservative because I figure I would rather have to deal with slower swimmers than get in the way of a faster swimmer. But what has happened (several times now) is that I end up in a heat that 1) starts almost an hour after the official race start and 2) includes swimmers who are much slower than me and I have to navigate around and try to pass. I was on the tail of the guy in front of me every time he got to the pool wall and a polite swimmer would have let me pass. But he kept pushing off anyway so I had to slow way down and do breast stroke so I didn’t get kicked in the face. Next time, I’m going to be more accurate with my swim time so I can get in a faster heat.
It was a cool morning and I was worried about staying warm after the swim so I wore two layers for the bike (over my tri suit) and planned to strip one off during the transition to the run. The bike leg was 200K (12.5 miles) and it was the worst course I’ve ever been on. The path winded around downtown Golden, which crossed lots of main roads, had a lot of hairpin turns, and was pretty much the local bike/walk path. Lots of pedestrians, walkers, and really narrow two-lane trails with very little room to pass. And lots of dogs! I would rather crash my bike than hit an innocent dog or person which means I spent most of the bike course going very slow. It didn’t even feel like a race. But it was a beautiful day so I figured I’d just have a good time and look at it like a good workout.
Overall, it was a fun race and I met some great people and one incredibly inspiring woman. Patty Townsend is in her 60’s and has been running triathlons for 10 years! Holy smokes I want to be her! She agreed to let me interview her for my blog so look for an interview in a later post.
I’ve been in the start-up space for over 15 years and have helped launch at least six tech companies, half of which have been acquired for, or are now worth, well over $100M. One thing they had in common is they were all products or services focused on the web space, like online advertising, internet performance, network storage, and digital asset management. These are products companies need when success is all about scaling. Scaling awareness, speed, performance, or data storage. Companies need these things when their customers have scaling needs of their own. Consumers want to search faster, process more data, do more creative things with the content they find, create more content, and publish and share with more people.
I’m a bit late building out my race schedule for the summer but I finally sat down this weekend with my calendar and favorite racing sites (
I'm Holly, co-founder of TapInfluence, a cloud-based influencer marketing platform for brands and bloggers. I'm a blogger, triathlete, mother to a teen, and call Boulder, Colorado home.
