Mont-Tremblant 70.3

“In the end, we regret only the chances we didn’t take.” – Lewis Carroll

Wow, where to begin. Leading up everything was okay, I mean as okay as moving – you know not just loading the truck and go, but storage spaces and then of course there’s the two dogs. Moving, which of course fell during the two biggest weeks of training before heading to MT. Oh right – yeah we moved back to Upstate NY to be closer to family and friends. It was very, very hard to leave the job, and the people I was working with, but it has been a great move to be closer to family and to be in CNY.

Now, back to the race. Heading up to MT and everything before the race was pretty smooth. Two things stand out – 1) the water was 63… and 2) nothing like waiting to the last minute to get my new ENVE (AMAZING!!!) wheels set up and swap out the brakes. There was some stress there and it resulted in taking the BMC down to the mechanics to make sure I would get a chance to run (ha! But for real).

The water was pretty chilly – but so nice when we actually got in – I love MT so much, it’s just so gorgeous. In fact, I just stayed in the water, looked around and just smiled. It was so relaxing to be there.

Now to the meat and potatoes – the Race!

Race AM went smooth – our Airbnb was 600m from transition (hello, AWESOME!), so I woke up 3 hours before, got some bfast in before I woke up too much and was majorly nauseous – hello nerves, but eventually we made our way down. I set up transition, hit the porta-john, and headed over to the swim start. The volunteers are amazing – the support was wonderful, starting with walking down to the swim start. They were lined up on both sides, hooting and hollering, cheering for us as we made our way to the beach. I took my time getting ready for the swim and made sure to get in the water to get a little warmed up but also to get used to the water before the swim. Then I said one last goodbye to Z and stood in line in the 29-32 time range.

Swim: 31:13 (1:37/100m) *PR

Leading into this race, I had a decent idea of where my swim fitness was, but really wanted to make a pr happen. I was definitely a little intimidated but I chose to roll with it. The M & F pros were off thanks to a beautiful version of ‘O, Canada’ and a jet flyover. MT has a rolling start, but there’s a slight delay that lets only 6 people into the water at a time. It was probably the smoothest race start ever. There wasn’t fighting etc. It was great.

I found some good feet and stayed with him until the second turn buoy. He was great – we were moving through the field which was pretty exciting to me. I felt good – the cold water didn’t bother me – except my feet. In fact, now I prefer a colder swim – there was no overheating thanks to my Roka wetsuit! I felt smooth and strong. I stayed focused and wanted to stay in the race – hoping that would lead to a great swim and kicking off a great day. After the second turn buoy, I found some new feet and some open water, before catching the feet of someone passing me. As I turned to breathe, I realized we were only 2 buoys away from the dock. This is also exactly when I started to get tired, but seeing how close we were – I kept pushing, reminding myself this was the moment I was searching for: being able to push my swims in races and know that I am a good swimmer.

Finally reached the dock and saw my time.. well these pictures describe my emotions pretty accurately.

 

 

Once out of the water, the wetsuit strippers were awesome, and I made my way down the long run to T1 and saw Z on the way, trying to tell him I had a big PR! Once at my bike, I noticed that there weren’t many out, which I took as promising, and it was time to have a fun on my bike!

Bike: 2:37:15 (21 mph) *PR, 3rd AG

Heading out of town is always super exciting and fortunately it wasn’t too crazy – a lot of men but not bad. I focused on my HR and trying to get calories in while reminding myself to be patient. The bike was where I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect of my fitness but I was looking forward to having a baseline. The MT ride is very up and down which I like – it was overcast too which was nice. My feet would never warm up on the bike ha but that’s okay.

The drafting wasn’t the worse I’ve witnessed and MT had officials on motorbikes but also on regular bikes in the race. While they talked to a few people, I didn’t see many in the penalty tents which was kind of disappointing. Also, men and those egos, it’s OKAY for a female to pass you. I passed all the men anyways on the run and thought about saying something but I decided to just keep my mouth shut and let my race do the talking.

 

Ultimately, I was VERY happy with my bike – it was a 45 second PR and while I think I could have been more aggressive, I wasn’t 100% sure. Lesson learned – however, one thing I am not quite happy with myself was the fact I didn’t think about what would be on the course and how hard it would be to try to refill my aero bottle with the powder I brought. I ended up eating, yes eating, most of the powder to try to make it get in. Well, as you can imagine, that wasn’t the best option, so I took an extra gel and took some extra salt to try to get the water out of my gut.

T2 was relatively uneventful – I had to remind myself to take OFF my helmet (my giro helmet is SO comfortable ha!) then headed out for the run.

Run: 1:36:46 (7:22/mi), 3rd AG

I saw Z heading out of T2 and tried to tell him I had a small PR on the bike and then repeated my mantra of being a runner and picking up my feet. I also repeated “brave like Gabe” and “you can do hard things.” Like so many, Gabe’s passing really struck a cord with me, even though she was someone I never met. I cried multiple times, for her, for her husband and family. They all have been so open about her diagnosis, I felt like I was a friend. So I reminded myself of Gabe and kept trucking on. I also thought about Simon at Camp in March – encouraging me to get after our 1000TT (and swimming fast) and biking up Mt Palomar and his comments. I remember how intimidated I was to swim with others in the pool (reminder: I didn’t grow up as a swimmer and I get nervous when people watch) and the fact I had never ridden anything like Mt Palomar. Those key sessions along with Gabe, and my GF Alex reminding me to be brave really pushed me on this run.

BUT remember that little mishap I was trying to avoid on the bike – yeah.. the fluid sat in my stomach. There was a fine line of pushing it but trying NOT to do the puke and rally. I kept getting salt in, coke and my Skratch filled handheld. I know I didn’t get enough fluid in – it felt hot, but I reminded myself of my mantras and was grateful it was a half and not a full. The women were supportive out on the course which was nice, I wish there was more of that across both genders – also again, MEN don’t worry if females run faster. It’s actually okay.

 

With 3 miles to go, I really tried to push it and get to the finish line. I was counting down the hills in my mind and repeating my mantras over and over again. I think I was even counting in my head. Anything to get me to 1k to go and finish those last two pesky hills. My quads were SHOT on those last hills – oh my word – I felt like I wasn’t moving but quickly increased my cadence at the top to finish. I love the finish in MT – you run through the village straight to the finish line – it’s electric.

When I saw my time – I knew I was under 5 hours which was in my mind a goal too. I had a big PR in the swim, a PR on the bike and a decent run – all while having a SMILE on my face and the most FUN I’ve had in a race in a very, very long time. I thought of a quote I love, “Blow your own damn mind.”

Overall: 4:52.06, 2nd AG, 24th Female, 9th AG Female

It wasn’t until after that I saw my time and where I was that I actually cried. It’s quite possibly the best race of my triathlon career – it’s on par with Ironman Louisville. It’s taken a long time to get to the point of racing for myself and letting go of other’s expectations and this one, this one was for me, which is just the icing on the cake.

 

After the race, I downed TWO ginger ales, a recovery shake and water. I was trying to get those fluids in ASAP.

Another major highlight of the day was getting my gear – I know, it doesn’t seem possible but I had the sweetest man help me. Not only did he help me down the ramp – again quads were toast – but we got chatting as we headed to my gear. He had traveled to Syracuse for the State fair on multiple occasions (ps I LOVE the fair haha) to show cattle with his grandfather. Then he was telling me he used to take his bike down and ride around the finger lakes and visit his friend at Cornell who was a blacksmith. WHAT A SMALL WORLD! He knew all the places I loved. It was so touching how nice he was and the chat we had together.

After grabbing the gear – we went back to the condo to pack up, clean up and move the car for the awards ceremony. I was still on cloud 9 and couldn’t comprehend my results.  I thought a lot about my intentions for 2019 and a big one was to live more – experience more and spend more time with family. Needless to say, I have and I’m so happy about that.

Eventually we made our way back to town – for pizza, which wasn’t the best BUT tasted SO GOOD in that moment and got some gelato – which didn’t touch the gelato we had in Italy but so it goes. Then we sat in the shade waiting for awards. It was so inspiring to see Rinny and Meredith in the first and third spots and both being Mom’s. Before I knew it, it was our AG and we headed up. I was the only one who needed help getting on the podium – I just laughed it off ha. When finished with awards, we waited to see if I would be able to get a slot.

At first worlds wasn’t on the radar (September is a VERY busy month) and we went to Nice last year, but there are SO many teammates headed to Nice and when would I ever get the chance again (see intentions above ha). Therefore, we waited, probably me with more excitement, slots rolled in other AG and some moved but not to my AG. I was getting nervous, but then it was announced we had two slots in the AG – I was so excited. The winner took hers and I jumped up and down and snagged mine. Everyone laughed around because I took mine and Z’s cc up on stage – mind had been declined a couple times and I did NOT want that to cause issues. Everything went smoothly and now we are headed back to Nice!

 

Overall, it wasn’t perfect, which when is it?!, but it was pretty damn good and so much fun. I’m so, so grateful for the support and love from friends and family. A big thanks to Coeur Sports, Skratch Labs, Drink Simple, ENVE (in LOVE with my new wheels – and yes I know I have to fix the decals), Roka and of course my favorite bike shop, Fast Splits!

Also: a trip would not be complete without

Lastly, customs on both sides had us laughing with comments. It was the best experience. Heading in to CA, he was joking with us about beer and being athletes and on the way back to the US, he was joking with us about Carbs. It was refreshing to see them as human beings and not super strict and uptight. It made me chuckle.