White Lake International Triathlon

I had White Lake on my race calendar last year, but after a very slow start to my swimming career, I decided that I needed to have a few more triathlons under my belt before jumping to an olympic/international distance so soon...so fast forward one year and here I am!!!  I knew I was ready for this race and although 1500m open water scared me, I knew I could do it...I mean I just swam 750m with the gators in Charleston.  I couldn't wait to dip my toes in the crystal clear waters of White Lake:)

We got to White Lake late Thursday afternoon and set up camp at Camp Clearwater...Trey couldn't wait to take the kayak out and I couldn't wait to see the sandy bottom and swim in the clear lake!  My practice swim went great - I was so comfortable and had no issues at all.  My only issue was where in the heck is the sandy bottom and clear water.  I can feel a sandy bottom, but I see greenish brown murky water and smell oil...ugh!  Well, it was late in the afternoon & boats had been out all day, race morning will be different, right???

We had a relaxing evening and took a long walk around the campground and pretty much wondered where in the world are we?  We were basically in a RV subdivision where some people had been there so long the wheels of their camper were embedded in the dirt...and after talking to a few residents, I realize I sound like I am from New York...ha!ha!

Friday morning came and we waited for our HUB teammates to arrive.  Trey was racing the half ironman distance, so we would be racing together.  Once everyone got there we went over to packet picket and for a short practice swim.  Again, everything went good!  YAY...I knew I was ready to rock out 1500m tomorrow morning.  My LONGEST open water swim!!

Race morning came early as always...

Dave, Trey, Me, Joanna, Jimmy (Not sure where Ivor is)

Beautiful morning

The half ironman distance started at 7:00, but the international distance didn't start until 8:30 and my wave didn't go off until 8:40.  Although I was excited to get to watch Trey finish his swim...that is a long time to wait and I knew the temps were just going to start rising, along with race nerves!  It was actually very comfortable temp wise that morning, a little chill in the air.  BUT according to the weather I knew that would change soon.  I saw Trey finish his swim...he had a solid swim but all he told me was that the sun was going to be in my eyes on the way coming in and sighting was going to be hard...kudos to him for not letting me know that I was about to swim out to lake chop that was going to crash over my head.  He was a worried man as he headed out on the bike.

Well, it was getting closer to my wave start time...just time enough to get in the wetsuit and jump in the water one last time.  I was just assuming that crystal clear water must be when we swim out a bit.
I had my partner in crime with me, Joanna, my "sure I will do an international distance triathlon with you, that sounds like a fun idea" friend.  We were in the same wave...we made the decision to try our best to swim this together, thankfully this race had sighting buoys leading up to the triangular ones for the turn.  Our plan was to break the swim down in buoys, assess the situation and keep swimming.

Ironically enough this is pretty much what we looked like out at the 2nd buoy...ha!ha!

We had no idea what we were about to encounter!  We stayed back and let most of the wave go before heading out...probably within 100m we already ran into someone backstroking and then got caught up with everyone.  At first I was thinking-look at us catching up with everyone.  We made it to the first buoy, we were both good but in a huge crowd but continued on.  I remember thinking first of all there is NO clear water, this stuff is green & it smells...what in the world have I gotten myself into.  By the time we reached the the triangle buoy and made the turn we noticed there was a pretty good current & looked a bit wavy!  Here's where the fun really began..it seemed like it took forever to make it to the next sighting buoy...we seriously had a conversation in the water..."what are we going to do?? (ha!ha!)  Joanna had a man leech on to her and I thought she was about to fist punch him if he didn't get off of her.  We made it to the next triangular buoy and knew we were on the homestretch but had no idea how we were going to get there.  The lake was so choppy it felt like ocean waves.  Our next sighting was suppose to be one of those orange squiggly things - where the heck is that thing??  We FINALLY got away from that man and made our way to the pier...I was thinking we may have missed lunch, it felt like we had been out there for hours!!  We made it up the ladder, made sure both of us were okay and made the 300yd run to transition.  I thought to myself that I could have gone the rest of my life without doing that...ha!ha!

Holy Moly - I DID IT!!! & did not enjoy one second of it!

Joanna beat me out of transition and when she came by my rack I remember telling her I really don't want to ride this bike now.  That dang water beat me up!!  But I got myself together and headed out on the bike.

I ROCKED the first 10 miles of this bike, feeling fabulous averaging 21mph and then boom - I hit the wind and it literally stopped me in my tracks...I just pedaled along and watched my efforts get me nowhere.  This bike course had no scenery whatsoever and one road that we were on had divets in the road pretty much every few pedal strokes...Needless to say I was ready for this bike ride to be over.  All in all it ended up going pretty good.  The bike was 28 miles.

Now on to the run..

The run course was awful...out in the blazing sun, running on the shoulder of a highway.  It was an out/back course, so people were running back as you were running forward and you only had the shoulder of the road to get around anyone.  I actually felt good on the run...just hot and ready to see that finish line!!

I'm not sure why this race is advertised as being so great...I can honestly say that there was not one part of it that I really enjoyed.  I'm giddy over that fact that I survived my 2nd open water swim race under difficult conditions, that just gives me more confidence for races to come!  I had a few choice words when this one was over as did everyone else that we talked to after the race.  Trey ended up having a solid half ironman race, but agrees with me about the course!

It is really strange for us both to be racing.  Sunday was our 23rd wedding anniversary - what a way to celebrate!!!!

Team HUB Whitley - 23 years!!

What doesn't kill makes you stronger...I know making it out of that choppy lake sure made my confidence stronger.

YAY - those waves didn't know who they were messing with!

At the end of the day I actually had a good race...finished 5th in my age group out of 9 women.
7th in the swim
3rd on bike
3rd on run

I don't have another race on my calendar until Lake Logan in August.

As always - thanks for your cheers!!

TryCharleston Sprint - Will I be gator bait???

TryCharleston Sprint was my first open water swim triathlon and to make things even more interesting the swim took place in a lake where a few alligators call home!!  BUT I was not suppose to worry about this because they were not going to bother me and on race morning SetUp Events goes out and does a "gator sweep" and shoos them away...OKAY - then no problem...what????  And also, a week before the race I find out that they have increased the sprint swim to 750m (not 500m).  I realize this is only 250m more but it sent me into a minor panicky moment.

We headed to Charleston on Thursday looking forward to a fun filled weekend of camping and racing.  There were a lot of HUB teammates racing so I knew I would have tons of support and it was going to be so much fun!  Trey sat this one out since it was going to be my first open water swim, in fact, he was going to try to jump in and just swim it right beside me.  There were only around 70 people signed up for the sprint so I was hoping we would all start together.

On Friday morning...Jen, Dave & I went for a short run & ride.

This race is a point-to-point which I have never done before and not sure I am a huge fan to it.  Setting up one transition area can get a little confusing to me, much less two.  We went to packet pickup and found out that the sprint does in fact go off in waves and I was in the last wave...well Trey is not a girl so the plan of him swimming was not going to happen.  BUT Jorgia, who was doing the swim leg on the HUB Super Sherpas relay team, said that she would swim right beside me.  She is a much better swimmer than me...they were the only relay team signed up so we knew she was going to be a winner and if she comforted me and got me out of that water I knew I would be a "winner" as well.  Looking back she took on a huge responsibility..ha!ha!  Trey set up his bike shop at the camper and worked on everyone's bikes making sure they were race ready.  We had to turn our bikes in that afternoon. I was getting a bit nervous about this swim and kept walking to the lake to see if the buoys were out yet so I could visualize exactly how far I had to swim out.  It was probably a blessing they didn't put them out that night - I probably would have lost sleep over it!

Race morning alarm was early - 4:00a.m.  I woke up before the alarm around 3:50 so went ahead and got up.  Had to get to both transition areas, one being across the highway outside the park, body marked and pick up timing chip...whew - I'm already tired!  Once everything was set up I went back to the camper to eat breakfast & relax a bit before the race started.  The international distance started at 7:00 and the sprint started at 7:30, my wave went off at 7:40.  We made our way down to the start line and the race director announced that we could get in the water for a warm up practice swim.  I knew I HAD to do this.  I looked out to the first buoy and convinced myself that it wasn't far.  With Jorgia by my side we got in the lake for a practice swim...I just kept waiting for a panic attack and oh my goodness I was as calm as I could be!  YAY - I knew I was going to be okay.  At 7:40 the horn for our start finally blew and we waited in the back for about 15 seconds before starting the swim.  I breathe to the right, Jorgia to the left (or actually both sides) - with every breath I could see her white goggles - what a comfort, I glanced back a few times just to see and YAY - we were not last!!  I had thought about stopping at the first buoy but I felt good so I just kept going.  It seemed to me like it took forever to get back to land once we made it around the second buoy and headed in.

ALL SMILES:)

Practice swim and trying to take it all in!

See those yellow buoys WAY OUT THERE!

I'm almost to land!

When my feet hit that land - I knew I was a WINNER for the day, and I was still in one piece - NO gator bites!

There were no wetsuit strippers at the race so getting the wetsuit off was most entertaining and tiring. Poor Trey wanted to jump over the transition net and do it for me.  I told him I was going to take my time - I'm alive...LOL!

2:38 minutes later and I'm out of the wetsuit and heading out on the bike.

I felt great on the bike...my goal was to go all out or close to it - I tend to always hold back a little because I always have the run on my mind.  The bike was 13 miles, totally flat and pretty much and out and back - and the turnaround was literally a U-turn in the middle of the road.  I got some more practice riding aero and was able to average 20 mph - that is my fastest bike and I am more than happy with it.

Finishing up the bike to the second transition area and I had to think and try to remember where my rack was...that was 5:30 this morning when I set it up!

Found it!

The transition to the run was much faster...

3.1 miles to go!!

I felt great on the run...I didn't push myself too hard since I knew I had a race coming up this weekend.  This Charleston race for me was to conquer the open water swim!  I had looked at the participants list before the race and there were only 2 people in my age group so unless some more people signed up the morning of I was still going to place in my age group.  I just took a moment and got a little giddy with my self knowing that I had accomplished what I set out to do!  I saw Dave out on the run course as he was headed in, we hit a high (well actually low) five and I knew he was having a great race.  Then I saw another Hubber out on the course, Gregory from the relay team, I knew he would catch me on the run so we decided to run in together and put an end to my AWESOME day!!

Blurry pic but it shows how happy I am that I DID it:)

Gosh, that was FUN!!

1st place Age Group - you race who is there;)

Coach Rose Wilson - the coach that constantly tells me she believes in me - I finally listened:)

After the race Trey realized that he may have been more nervous than me (I'm not really sure that is possible)  He was one relieved husband supporter when he saw me cross that finish line.  We will be racing together next weekend so it will be much easier for him.

Race/camping is awesome.  We ended the afternoon/night with chilling, grilling, and toasting all the HUB racers...It was the PERFECT ending to my day!

Thank you Jorgia Parker!!!!

Swim - 18:08 (which included the short run to transition)
T1 - 2:38
Bike - 39:12 (20.2 mph)
T2 - 1:10
Run - 24:58 (8:05/mi)

Finished overall 5th/23 women

Next up:  White Lake Olympic (basically just do this race twice)

As always - thanks so much for your cheers!!