Sooke Sprint – Race Report

So Sooke happened.
I think from this point forward, I will call it “the race that just kinda was.”

By that last sentence, you may guess that I'm feeling a little indifferent about the race. I would definitely not say it was a great race, but it wasn't really bad either. It just kind of happened. To the point where last night, having dinner, I didn't even feel like I had raced earlier in the day. It is a bit of a blur at this point.

So a quick recap before the details fade farther from my mind....

I actually felt like I got in a pretty good warm up (something that, admittedly, I don’t always do). It was still probably not quite long enough, but I actually felt "warmed up" which was nice.

As I met my parents on the edge of the lake to give them my backpack and get into my wetsuit I got really nervous and anxious (perhaps too much of a "hurry up and wait" feeling?) and couldn't seem to shake it.

The swim was a deep water start in two waves – men first, woman and relays second. You had to jump off a pontoon into the lake and tread water until the air horn blast. I was a bit nervous about the deep water start just because it was something new, but it really was rather uneventful. The whole swim was rather uneventful in fact. Also, while the deep water start was different, I actually found it was a lot less rough then some of the previous races I've been in, so that was nice.

Throughout the swim, I felt like I had a decent rhythm and definitely thought I was on track for a good time, however I forgot to start my watch, so really had no idea where I was at – time wise – the whole race (when I did finally look at my times after the race, my swim was actually a bit slow).

Transition was good. Calm, relaxed, but fairly speedy. This race had two transition areas, so you had to put your wetsuit and swim gear into a gear bag so it could be transported back to the finish line at the end of the day. It was a little weird, but nothing that really made any huge difference to my transition overall. As usual, I felt like transitions were one of the strongest parts of my day.

I had a good mount onto the bike and felt like I settled into a good cadence right off the bat. I was maintaining my pace fairly well and was tackling the hills (both up and down) well enough. This is an extremely hilly and tough bike course, so I didn’t want to kill myself on the first hill when I knew there would be plenty more to come. I was spinning well (or so I thought) when around 5-6k into the bike a group of about 4 or 5 girls just blew past me. I felt like I was standing still. That said, a couple of them looked like they were really struggling with the climbs, and since I felt like I was spinning them pretty well, I thought I would probably be able to reel them back in. Unfortunately, they were just too quick on the descents and I lost them. The climbs after the turn around were even uglier and harder than on the way out, but I didn't feel like I was moving too slowly. Overall, the bike wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. In the theme of the day, it just was.

T2 was good. I had a solid dismount, was in my runners quick enough and heading out on the run for the 5k out and back course. Most of the first half of the run was downhill, so I thought that would be good for me and that it might help to sort of get my legs moving and the blood flowing. Unfortunately that didn't really happen. I just kind of chugged along for the whole run, got a major side stitch about 2k in, but it was gone by about 3k... It was weird though, I just didn't feel motivated at all. I knew I could be going faster, but I had absolutely no desire to push.

There were two girls close to me - they had both entered T2 before me, and I had gone out before them - one quickly passed me, and then the other overtook me about the 2.5k mark and I just kind of let her go. After that, there were no other women around, and so I think by knowing that no one was really chasing me, I just kind of maintained my position. I had absolutely no fire. (I think I need to have Kirsten chasing me down on the run – she definitely lights a fire under my ass).

When I crossed the finish line I still had no idea how fast/slow I was, as the clock was showing the Half Iron time and, as I said earlier, I forgot to start my watch. I knew I had run slow, but had no idea it was sooo slow (story of my life really). In all seriousness, it may have been the slowest 5k I have run in about 3 years - yikes!

Anyway, my conclusions about Sooke... I was slightly disappointed in myself for not pushing to my limits, but at the same time, I still felt like it was an okay race, just not a "leave it all out there" race. My age group was tough (I finished 9/21 in my age group, but still managed to be 14th female overall).

So yeah, in short: good warm up, decent swim, good transitions, hard but okay bike, capped off with a hard (in terrain, but not effort), lacklustre run.

Kelowna is up next. I’m actually pretty excited for it and also hoping that I get a bit of my spark back before then.


Oh, and after reading my race report, this is the video Kelly sent me for inspiration :)