Triple-T Race Report; Crazy Weekend at the Craziest Race Ever

Triple-T, what a crazy weekend, what a crazy week. 

This is a long post so if you don't want to read it all just know that the triple T can be summed up by saying that it's a bunch of crazy triathletes riding their bikes and running around in the hilly and hot woods of Appalachia Ohio for three days.  

So we left on Thursday at noon.  Ross picked me up with the minnie van and we loaded up and hit the road.  About an hour into the drive (approximately 5 miles into Indiana) I realized I had forgotten my wetsuit.  Ross and I thought about whether or not Monkey could fed ex the wetsuit overnight to me but then made the call that it was probably just better to turn around and go get it.  If the water had been warmer I would have just gotten over it and gone wetsuitless.  Unfortunately the water was said to be 56 degrees, not warm enough for me to get in without a wetsuit, at least I thought so at the time.   So Ross drove back for me, I treated him to a coffee at Starbucks next to our houses and we hit the road again.  This marks the beginning of Ross being “understanding and patient” with me for the entire weekend.  I’m forgetful.  He’s understanding and doesn’t take this stuff to seriously so it was a good combo for the weekend. 

As we were driving we got word that there was space in a cabin for us.  Ross had responded to a post on Slowtwitch by some guy names John who had room in a cabin in a cabin.  We spoke to John briefly on the phone and we were set! Cabin 20 here we come.   This was BIG, we had planned on staying at the Marriot in town, about 20-25 mins from the race site.  Being able to stay in a cabin meant that we were a mile from the transition areas and we wouldn’t have to leave the park the entire weekend.  When we got to cabin 20 at 11:30 we were greeted by our first cabin mate, Spencer.  Spencer helps us unload our stuff (first sign that he’s awesome) and then we learn that Spencer had quit his job in commercial real estate in Boston to move to Boulder to train and potentially become a big triathlete.  Then I learn that he won his age group a bunch of times in the past at this race.  I immediately think “Oh crap, this is not the cabin for me”.  When John and Kate arrive we quickly learn that John has actually won this race for the past two years.  Then I learn that Kate is one of five athletes coached my Miranda Carfrae, the defending Ironman world champion and top female triathlete in the world.  I turned to Ross and said “we are definitely in the wrong cabin”.  Boy would I be proven wrong.  I will admit, before this weekend I had a bad impression of racers who are at that level.  I thought that they looked at me like I am an idiot and they don’t want anything to do with me.  Boy was I wrong.  Our cabin would soon fill up, as Buddy arrived from New York City and Mike rolled in from Buffalo. Every single person was awesome.  They had all the weekend before so they were able to give me lots of tips on the course, nutrition, gearing, clothing, recovering, and anything else you could think of.  Really, really cool group.  They made this weekend and this course so much fun. 

On Friday morning we did a short 20 minute ride just to make sure the bikes were ok and also get my legs warmed up.  I checked out the swim site, the entrance of the run and also got to get a feel for some of the hills. 

Race one started at 5:00, it was just a super sprint so I wasn’t to worried.  After talking to John, I decided not to wear my wetsuit.  I would only be in the water for 5 minutes, not worth the time it would take me to get the suit on and off.  The swim went fine, it was freezing though.  The water temp was 56 or 58, either way it was cold.  The bike was short, we just went up this major climb and then turned around and came back down. I realized after the turn that I somehow had a flat tire in the back.  I just rode down slowly to transition, not worth fixing it considering the ride was less than 2 miles down to transition.  I headed out for the quick mile run and then was done.  We hung out at the race site and ate some pasta and then headed back up to the cabin where we chowed down on pasta and hit the hay.  

Saturday morning came faster than I thought it would.  The race started at 7:30 so at 7 we headed down to the transition area and got ourselves down to the lake entrance.  I managed to get in and get wet so it wouldn’t be a huge shock to my system when I got in.  I took the swim easy since I knew I had a big weekend ahead of me.  The course (the same for the whole weekend) was two laps where you have to get out of the water and go between some cones before starting the second lap.   My swim time for the race was 25.27, just about what I would expect for the distance.  This time also includes a 200 yard run between the lake exit and the transition area.  Looking at that time I do think I have improved in my swimming since last season.  I wasn’t really pushing myself in the water and I am pretty much at the same pace as last season.   I headed out on the bike and said “hello hills”.  This look was fool of hills and turns.  Similar to the Ironman Wisconsin course, it had a lot of downhills that went into a turn, followed my a climb.  This biggest difference between riding this course and Madison is that these hills are not rolling.  They are longer, steeper climbs.  I made sure to get two hours of nutrition in. The bike took me 1:49, not typical for me but with these climbs I wasn’t pushing myself past zone 2 heart rate and I just kept saying “you have a whole weekend ahead of you after this, don’t push to hard”.   Back to transition and out again, I headed out to the run course.  The run course was the same all weekend.   A 6.6 mile out and back course.  The out consisted of climbing and the back was the downhill.  It was the hilliest run I’ve ever experienced.  This course was mentally hard for me.  I was doubting my run abilities since I was completing week 2 of being able to run after the broken toe.  I had been given the advice by Spencer and Mike to walk the uphill and run the downhill.  When given the advice I had asked “What do I do on the flats?”  The response I got was “there are no flats”.  Yup, just up and down.  I finished the run and all I could think was “holy crap, I have to do that three more times this weekend”.  And so begins the mental challenge associated with this weekend.  With a normal race I get to finish one leg (the swim, or the bike, or the run) and you don’t have to think about it anymore.  Well, with this race I would finish one leg and just think “Ok, remember you have to do that again”.  After completing the race I drank my chocolate milk, sat in the creek and got a nice ice bath, ate a pb&j from the finisher tent and headed up to the cabin to eat some more and then take a nap.  Ross was super awesome and went and got the van so we wouldn’t have to ride up to the cabin.  The ride up to the cabin is about a mile and a half long and is a nice steep climb.  It was nice not to have to ride up it.  Ross was pretty cool and ended up doing this the entire weekend.  I can’t thank him enough for it.  The nap was the best part of the afternoon.  I woke up and before I knew it we were heading back down to the start to get ready for race number 3.  

Race number 3 was interesting.  The order was flipped around, bike, swim then run.  The bike was an out and back course.  There were a couple of climbs, but mostly one epic climb that took me 15 minutes.  We also had a cross wind right before the turn around which we had to fight right before the long climb up.  I was afraid of cramping on the swim so I made sure to take lots of salt during the last miles into T1.  As I was coming into transition I ran into Kate who wasn’t wearing a wetsuit.  I asked her how the swim was and she told me it was awesome and told me to just wear her speed suit.  She pulled it off her and I put it on and I was out of the transition area running down to the lake.  I was so thankful I hadn’t put my wetsuit on.  My body temperature was pretty high and the lake felt awesome.  I did my swim in a decent time, no cramping at all, and then managed not to do a lot of kicking so I could save my legs for the run.   I came into T2 and before I knew it I was out on the run.  I got my legs to start running and went in with the same attitude as before, walk up the hills and run down.  It was hard.  My stomach wasn’t agreeing with me and my legs were just hurting.   This would end up being the hardest run of the weekend.  Mentally I was worried about my stomach.  I managed to stop at 3 porto potties.  Not good considering it’s only a 6.6 mile run.  I got into transition and immediately drank chocolate milk and signed up for a message.  The message helped me tremendously.  Ross was awesome and went and got the van.  At that point my stomach was not in a good place.  I was worried because I knew I needed to eat a lot at dinner to be able to get through the half the next day.  When I got back to the cabin I emailed my coach immediately.  She told me it was the Gatorade and I needed to switch it out.  Kate had infinite so I went with that.  I know you aren’t supposed to switch your nutrition up, but at that point nothing could be worse than what I was doing.  Infinite would either help me, or give me the same results.  It was worth taking a chance. Plus, infinite was the nutrition provided by the course so if I lost a bottle I could just go with the stuff provided on the course.  

I struggled to go to bed on Saturday.  Having such a bad run on Saturday night, all I could think about while laying in bed was how I didn’t know how I would get through 2 laps on the run course.  I was terrified.  That course was such a mental challenge.  There was nothing but hills and woods.  No distractions, no one cheering you on, nothing.  I managed to get about 3.5 hours of sleep that night.  

The morning came and my stomach was still not in a great place.  I figured that there was nothing I could do at that point.  We started the half and it was almost like I was in slow motion.  I went out for the swim and I didn’t even run for the beach start.  The swim felt good.  That’s the one thing about this weekend, I know I’ve got the swim down.  My arms weren’t even sore from this weekend.  I know I wasn’t pushing myself on the swim but still, it’s a good confidence boost to know that I could do an IM swim tomorrow if I had to.  The bike course was two loops.  There were some tough climbs on this course (all bike courses were different).   One specifically was known as Quadzilla.  It was a giant climb with four switch backs.  I got a flat during the 2^nd loop (2^nd time this weekend).  I also had a bike issue, I wasn’t able to shift into the big ring in the front crank.  It stunk because there were some decent downhills that turned into flats where I would have liked to attack but I wasn’t able to catch a gear till I was down to 15 mph.  I didn’t freak out over any of this stuff.  At this point there was always something worse that could happen.  I hit T2 and realized it was 12:35.  HOLY COW, I had been on the bike for 4 + hours.   Longest 56 miles of my life. I hit the run course and on my way out I saw a sign that said “2^nd loop run cut off 1:45”.  I was so drained that I had trouble starting to run. It was at least 88-90 degrees at that point and I was hot and tired.    Lynn, a girl from Vision Quest and fellow racer who would always say hi and cheer me on when we passed each other on the course happened to be running by on her way out for her 2^nd loop.  She told me to just start running, no matter how slow and how bad it felt and that my legs would adjust.  “Just do it girl, you know it will hurt at first but just get those legs moving”. I took her advice and just started moving.  I had a decent first two miles.  I was moving along.  Then it hit me, oh my goodness, I won’t make the cut off.  I started to tear up but then held it in.  I ran through in my head how I would explain to my family and friends that I didn’t finish the Triple T because I missed a run cut off.  I have never been pulled off a course before in my life.  In fact I’ve never DNF’d a course.  I just told myself to get to the turnaround for the 2^nd loop as soon as possible.  Maybe they wouldn’t’ pull me off.  And even if they did, I would still do it anyway.  I didn’t care; I was doing the whole thing no matter what.  When I got to the turnaround a race official just said “keep up the good work, you’re gonna finish this, you got it”.  I didn’t say anything about it being past 1:45, so I just kept running.  I found out later that the 1:45 cut off was a mistake and that it was supposed to be written down as 2:45.  The 2^nd lap was hard, running down hill hurt just as much as running up.  I just broke everything down.  I would tell myself, Ok, run for 3 minutes then walk for 1.  For me, this is how I managed to get through it, just breaking it down into intervals that were more manageable.  I crossed the finish line and immediately got my chocolate milk and got in line for a message.  Kate had had a really rough race (3 flats, major nutrition malfunctions, a bee sting, falls on the bike and the run).  Ross came down with the van and when we got back to the cabin we got her into a cold shower.  I packed up super quick, showered, got a cabin 20 photo and then loaded the car.  

On the way out we decided to stop in to the awards ceremony to say some final goodbyes to Kate and John and also grab some pizza.  John had won the race (for a 3^rd time) so he was getting his award.  When we walked up they were just putting out the final race results.  As a pleasant surprise I managed to come in first in my division (Athena).  Ironically I was the only Athena to finish the race.  I was a little disappointed to find out that my fellow competitors hadn’t finished.  I had raced the slowest races in my life (yes this is true) and I won first place simply cause I survived.  Btw, in case your wondering, to qualify for the Athena division all you have to do is weigh at least 150 lbs.  I’m a little confused why more women don’t compete in this division.  150 lbs really isn’t heavy.  So I collected my 1^st place plaque, gave John and Kate another hug and then hit the road. 

I just want to say that Cabin 20 was incredible.  Without them this weekend would have been completely different.  They treated me and Ross like we were old college buddies. They shared their food, their sports nutrition, race experience, and were just our friends even though they barely knew us.  I was particularly thankful because they hung around for me to finish my race.  Some of em were down hours before me and they still hung around.  Pretty freakin awesome if you ask me.     

I also want to say that HFP racing did an incredible job running this event.  Hands down, it was organized and ran smoothly.  Thanks!

Some people have claimed that this race is harder than Ironman.  During the race I thought to myself that it might be harder than Ironman.  I don't think it is necessarily harder or easier, it's very different.  For me, I was mentally prepared for Ironman Wisconsin.  I had followed a plan that was specific to Ironman.  I had read lots of race reports, talked to tons of people, rode the course multiple times.  There was no mystery for me about the course and when things would happen.  I knew the marathon would be hard but manageable. Triple-T was hard because I didn't mentally prepare myself enough for this race.  I had signed up for it but was looking at it as a training weekend.  I hadn't talked to anyone who had done it before, I had read one race report from it, and all I knew was that is was a hilly course but just hadn't realized just how hilly it was.  For me, Triple T was harder than Ironman but simply for the mental reasons.  I can honestly say that I let fear get the best of me.  I showed up on Thursday without any confidence.  When I went to the start line at IM MOO 2010 I knew I had done everything to prepare for that race.  Showing up at Triple T, I couldn't say that to myself.  I knew I wasn't at peak performance for this race because Ironman Wisconsin is my A race.  I wasn't specifically training for this weekend.  I also didn't have the "I will rock this course" attitude.  I knew my run was shaky and that It would be hard since I hadn't been running a lot due to my broken toe.   I let me fear and lack of confidence get the best of me.  In the end, the race is manageable.  Yes, the run is the hardest  run course I've ever seen, but it's manageable.  Yes, the climbs on the bike are relentless, but it's manageable.  The weekend is a lot of fun, next year I will tell you that this was an easy race and that Ironman was harder.  I went ahead and booked rooms for Triple-T 2012.  I know next year when I train, every run will include hills.  The kind of runs where you go to 7% include for at least 8 minutes.  I  know that next year I will show up blasting Jay-Z and ready to rock that run course.