Magrath "I swam the dam" Olympic Race Report

Last week was a busy week for me.  My team (Mercury Rising Triathlon) put on our annual PHAT camp in Penticton.  The weather was gorgeous -- really hot and wonderful.  Our group of campers had a blast and trained hard.  Me included!  :)

I left the camp early after our session on Thursday as I was racing on Saturday.  Thursday's session was transition practice.  We donned our wetsuits and ran to our bikes, biked about 200m, then ran for about 25m.  The coaches would critique us and then we would do it again.

The absolute best was the final transition practice -- we all swam out to this wooden platform and then we climbed up on it, jumped off (I chose cannonball style, and even yelled CANNONBALL when I jumped, lmao) swam back, stripped off our suits, biked and ran again.  So much fun.  Hahaha!  

One of my fellow teammates was hilarious -- he didn't want to wait to climb up the ladder of the platform, so he hoisted himself up!  LMAO -- I was laughing so hard -- it was so much fun to throw a bit of playtime in the midst of a workout.  :) :)

The drive home was brutal...I had car trouble which left me going up every pass at 40km/hour.  Behind all the semi trucks doing the same thing.  GAD!  I had my 4-way flashers on and chugged up every hill, praying that I would get up to the top.  lol -- When I made it to Castlegar I found an OK Tire and the owner took a look at my car.  He thought the car had bad gas -- water in the fuel.

He changed the fuel filter and off I went -- and again had to chug up every hill at 40km/hour.  Man, that stretched out a long drive to an even longer drive.

Anyways, I finally got home, and didn't really unpack anything as I was off to Magrath to do a pre-comp day.  The famous MOMMA came with me -- I found the reservoir with buoys set up and did a lap of the swim there, then tested out my NEW (to-me!) amazing bike, then a little run.

Enough blather -- onto the race report!!

First off -- let me say -- I won the race!!!! I was first overall female!!!!!  :D :D :D :D

My time was 2:19:38!!!!

Swim:  25:09
I was 6th overall out of the water -- overall, meaning men included too!  LMAO!!  How awesome is that?  Coach Sara had given me instructions to get in a really good warm up prior to the race.  I was curious as to how I would do at the race considering I was coming right out of a big training camp...

Before the race, I jogged every time I used the porta-potty.  And I got in a good 15-20 minute swim warm up too.  A real warm up this time -- not a swim piddly-diddly pretend warm up like I usually do.  Where I swim to a buoy and then float around and talk with people.  No, this time, I actually SWAM.  Hahahahaha!!

Swim was great!  I found some feet which was awesome because the field spread out very quickly as there were only 67 people racing the oly.

Bike:  1:07:04
Great bike ride -- my new bike handles SO differently than the cervelo.  I can never use my front race wheel when it is windy as the gusts blow me all over the road, but my Scott Plasma 3 TT is like a tank in the wind -- but a ROCKET TANK!!  It is SO stable and steady with my race wheels -- I was so excited about this discovery!

And it corners on its own!!!  At the camp, we rode up to Apex ski resort and on the descent (this was my first time up there) there are all these switchbacks with signs warning to slow down to 20km/hr or 30km/hr.  I was scared of these, so held my brakes and went really slowly around each one.

I have no problems going fast when the road is straight or sweeping, but those switchback things are scary.  Coach Sara hung back for me and told  me I was "riding like a beginner."  LMAO!  She gave me a bunch of advice to sharpen my bike skills.

I was thinking of this advice when I was nearing the completion of the bike portion and there was a 90 degree turn -- I leaned into the corner and the frigging bike just sprang into it!! I was so surprised at how easy and how differently it handled compared to the cervelo, my mouth dropped open.  Hahahaha!

I never realized how a different bike could fit you better and what that could translate to...Another thing I noticed on the Scott, is that I can stay in aero and grab the water bottles on my frame and drink them while going balls-out in a race.  No way could I do that on the cervelo.  I can't do that on the cervelo even if I am going slow.  I have to sit up and balance to remove a water bottle.

I was intimidated at first by my new bike, but after the race I was in LOVE with it.   I LOVE IT!!!!

The bike also has shorter cranks -- 165s instead of 172.5s.  I noticed this too -- I could spin up the little inclines much more easily, and my back didn't hurt at all coming off the bike to the run.  SO AWESOME.

It rained at this race too -- lol.

Run:  47:24
I want to run faster, but I'll take it!!  

The best part about the race is a t-shirt I received....along with the usual race t-shirt, which is awesome by the way, I discovered in my little baggy another shirt...this one said on the back:  I Won The Last Dam Tri.

LMAO.  The front of both shirts read:  I swam the Dam, Tri Like the End is Nigh.  Hahahaha -- Mormon community and a great sense of humour there!

I am wearing Coach Sara's hand me down tri top -- finding a white tri top is hard, and this one brought me luck!!