So…..I’ve never done an Olympic triathlon. I've done an Ironman, and a couple of half Ironman triathlons, but never an Olympic. Last year, I had intended to sign up for the Giant Eagle Olympic Tri distance and somehow in the signup process I ended up signing up for the Olympic Duathlon distance! Lesson learned: read the fine print. DOH! On the bright side, I was the only one in my age group and thus the ultimate winner in my group! HA!
The Ross Trifit Challenge is a point to point triathlon and this year I signed up for the challenge distance, which is an Olympic triathlon. Beginning in Antrim Lake and ending with a dynamic finish in the beloved OSU “shoe,” this was a race I was looking forward to doing. With all the usual nerves and such I picked up my packet early in the week during an athlete briefing and studied all the athlete notes about getting my bike racked, and parking in the wee early hours of Sunday morning down by the shoe.
Saturday afternoon was bike drop off and it’s always a tad scary to leave Killer for the night. Ultimately I’m glad for bike drop off since it’s one less thing the next morning. I racked Killer and checked out the long distance we’d be running from the deck at Antrim up to the transition area where Killer would be waiting. Thank goodness for Sue Bell who offered to loan me her swim booties!
Saturday afternoon I had a wedding to attend and I ended up eating later than I usually do on the night before a race, but it was such a gift to see my dear friends marry and I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. Would have been nice to stay longer but I got home at a reasonable time and got my gear ready for the next morning. It would be an early one!
3:30am comes WAY too early. WAY. TO. EARLY. Somehow I got up and got myself down to the shoe where I found parking (I had been nervous about this earlier….don’t park much down by the shoe). Parked my car and put my stuff for T2 inside the stadium in my spot. I have NEVER been in the OSU stadium, let alone seen a football game there in all the 8 years I’ve lived in Columbus. It was super cool to be there. The transition area was literally ON THE FIELD. Yep, pretty neato!
Next came the shuttle bus trip to take us up to Antrim. Quick trip and within minutes we were there. I checked in on Killer (she was still there, phew!) and got my stuff all set up for transition. Picked up the timing chip and started to haul on the wetsuit. Temps in Antrim were about 74 degrees….wetsuit legal. Swimming in Antrim is prohibited throughout the year so I was curious what swimming in this event would be like. Sources had told me the water is pretty clear.
I lined up for the swim start in Corral B. Found some other tri peeps and met up with my friend Michelle who had brought a sweet little hot air balloon we intended to sent off in the air in memory of Jeff Glaze, who’s 5k race was being held that day and we couldn’t attend. Pretty cool. Thanks Michelle.
The challenge swim course was 2 loops and we were let in 4 at a time. The water was warm which I loved! The first loop was great and by the time I made the second loop the sprint folks were entering the water and it got a bit more congested. I finished just a hair over my goal time of 30 min and was out and running up to T1. Again, VERY thankful for the swim booties!
We had to pack up all our T1 stuff in a bag before leaving the area….it always adds time but since they carry our swim stuff down to the finish it’s necessary. T1 time wasn’t as short as I had hoped but soon I was on my way on the bike. The bike course was pretty easy I thought...a few mild hills initially but nothing crazy ridiculous. I love flying down High Street! I felt super crazy fast on this bike course which shocks me. I was averaging over 20 mph which again, shocked me. Out on the second loop for the challenge distance and then down High Street again and I made my way towards T2. My bike was sub 1:10 which felt great to me! We had to dismount and then take our cleats off to walk our bikes down to T2. Somehow in the mess of dismounting, my jelly legs tripped me up and I fell over and scraped my knee and hand. Not fun and kind of got a little bloody which stalled me in T2. I was frustrated but actually more worried about Killer than me! HA!
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| Just Tri cheer zone! |
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| Smiling finish selfie :) |
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| Just Tri = Awesome!!! |
Out on the run course and for the challenge tri it meant 2 loops. The Central Ohio Triathlon Club was out there at 2 different water stops and it was SOOOO great to have people cheering my name and pushing me along! The run course went around the stadium and through campus, around back to the stadium and past my Just Tri teammates (awesome cheer station y’all) and then around for the second loop. Getting a tad slower on the second loop didn’t make me happy but I kept gutting it out and was proud of myself for not walking. I pushed myself toward the finish and done! Everyone who crossed the finish had their image on the jumbotron….again, pretty cool. I was glad my fellow Just Tri supporter Laraine caught me running towards the finish line….she takes the best pictures!
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| Heading into the finish! |
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| Best finish picture ever! |
So my finish ended up around being around 2:40 which I was MORE than pleased with considering it was my first “official” Olympic triathlon. I was thinking and hoping for a sub 3 hour race and thankfully it happened. Even better than that, I placed 2nd in my age group which was icing on the cake. I’m super grateful for everyone who came out and cheered us on….I’m super lucky to be connected to such a great athletic community. Those kinds of moments where we get up super early on the weekend to cheer on each other is what makes this community work….seriously. Special thanks to David Garrity for the post race beer and conversation. AWESOME.
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| Me and Christy "Awesome Sauce" Feamster |
I’m proud of myself in this race mostly for my attitude, which as many of you know, is tough for me. I end up psyching myself up and getting super negative which ruins races and really sucks the joy out of this sport. I found myself cheering others on during the bike AND the run. I slapped the asses of my Just Tri teammates and acted silly during the cheer zone sections. I remember seeing so many “newbies” in this race and I really love cheering them on. I tried hard to both push myself and have fun in this race and it went well. So Ross Tri Challenge is in the books….for me, and so many others. Onward. Be Olympic. Be Brave.
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