Pinebush Triathlon 2008: A "Funner " Takes It All In

This year, due to a still healing stress fracture of the left foot, I attended the Pinebush Tri as a spectator, not a participant. Being social, I went to cheer on a lot of my friends, team mates and training partners who were competing, and to visit with a bunch more who were were volunteering. But mostly I went to support and cheer for my friend Donna, and to document this, her very first outdoor triathlon. I would have done this any way, but I felt a little guilty because I'm the one who talked her into this and now I wasn't even participating.

How did she do? I'll get back to that later. (Hint - she made it)


Coach Lisa and Donna

For more pictures go here and here.

I noticed a few differences between me as "spectator" and and me as "competitor." First, I slept the entire night before the tri. Second, a lot easier and quicker getting out of the house in the morning when the only things on my "list" were car keys and camera, as opposed to - well, you know. Didn't have to leave the house until just before 7 am, either, positively slothful by tri standards.

Donna, on the other hand, was there at 6 AM, and consequently had the primo spot in the bike racks, and no wait at all for her trip to the women's room, no small thing when you're contending with coffee, nerves and a triathlon suit! She was first in line for her chip, too. Only bad thing about this is that she arrived 30 minutes before the chips did!


Donna's Primo Bike Spot - Note Purple Milk Crate!


Chips Ahoy!

While I waited for her to wait for her chip, I had plenty of time to walk around, take pictures, starting with a picture of her, and talk to the amazingly large number of people I knew. Here's what I learned: a triathlon is not comprised so much of swimming, biking and running as it is of the emotions and stories and triumphs of the people participating.

Tammie - I met Tammie and her husband Bob two years ago while I was training for my first Pinebush. Excellent athletes and very nice people, they would ride their bikes the 5 miles or so out to Voorheesville from downtown Albany, train with us, and then ride home. At their suggestion, I replaced my really uncomfortable bike seat with a much better one, and both me and my backside are thankful for that.

This year, neither Tammie nor Bob were competing: they were here to cheer for their son Robert, aged 12, who was doing his first tri. A year of so ago, Bob stopped growing. It took a while before they discovered he was allergic to gluten and were able to begin treating it. There are few things more painful for a parent than knowing your your child is sick and not knowing why. I know this first hand.

Now he was well and growing. He had started running in the fall - I think I was in the first 5K he did - and now he was ready to tackle the PB. Here's something else I can tell you - there is no one more anxious or intensely proud than the mother of a young athlete.

I stood next to her at the finish line of the swim: "How did he do?"

Tammie, beaming, "He finished in under 7 minutes, his first swim competiton! Who knew?"


The Swim - Start to Finish


The Swim - View from the Finish Line Looking Back

Later, in the parking lot of the Guilderland Y, after the race: "How did Robert do?"

Tammie, glowing, "1:16, for his first tri!"

She was incredibly happy and proud - ah, if I could only bottle that.

Dorie - I met Dorie two years ago, too, while I was in Coach Andrea's class and training for the tri. Although she competed, she was also helping Andrea with the class. She was good at it, too. Over the next two years, I rode and ran with Dorie, and sometimes with her husband, Paul. I remember the night she first got clipless pedals for her new road bike, and how proud she was that she made it all the way from the Downtube to her home in Albany without falling.

Been a rough couple of months for Dorie: a friend drowned this summer; she had been sick for a week; and most devastating of all, very recently, they had a serious fire at their house. They almost lost their dogs, their "children." (Note - Dorie says the dogs are doing fine and recovering nicely)

Obviously, she had not had the time or inclination to do much training and was not going to compete. Her friends encouraged her, and helped her out by cleaning up her gear and equipment. She decided to give it a go, to not worry about time or performance, and on Sunday morning, there she was. It was really good to see her.

How did she do? Here's a bit in her own words, from an email she sent to us after the race:

"My swim time was about the same as in 2006, but the difference was that I felt good at the end and ready to go. My mother has never seen me race and when I looked up at shore I got a quick glimpse of her waving. What a feeling after what we had all been through this week!"

and
"As I returned to the apartments it starts to rain. A nice, fine, cool rain. It felt wonderful, not like 2006 when it was so hot I couldn’t breathe. There are three people ahead of me walking. I catch up to them as we get to the bottom of the hill. There are no spectators on the hill. I yell to them that we are going to have to cheer ourselves up the hill and they all yell encouraging words to each other and all start running. We get ½ way up the hill and it is starting to really rain. My husband and my friends are huddled under a tree yelling there lungs out for me. At the top of the hill, my mother and another friend are under an umbrella yelling as I round the corner. I’m sprinting now and I see Will’s 5 year old twins and his wife, cheering me on. They are completed soaked.

I finish the race but forget to stop my watch. When I finally look at it, it says 1:29: 14. I didn’t think that I could do it in under 1:30 without really trying. I can’t wait to see the official times as I must have been in better condition than I thought. It was great to see you all. Donna, I’m sorry that I missed you. (I was standing on line for the ladies room- who told those other women where it was?)

I really needed this distraction. Thanks again."

So, Tom ,in answer to your question, "Why do we tri?" for Dorie, the answer might be, "As an affirmation of life!"

Donna - 5 years ago, Donna, a smoker at the time, decided to walk in the Corporate Challenge. We started out together, but then a funny thing happened - she started running. She would stop and catch her breath, and then she would run some more. Did that for the whole 3.5 miles. Two weeks later she entered the Freihoffers. A year later she could run a whole 5K without stopping and she did that a lot. Did the Lake Placid Half Marathon last June, too, in a very respectable time.

This year she had competed in 10 5K's before the end of April, and a 4 mile snow shoe race, and a trail race through the woods in the rain. And this doesn't count the training runs, or the Thursday night fun runs with the Albany Running Exchange.

Then I talked her into an indoor mini-tri. As expected, she destroyed me in the run part - no surprise there. But she also edged me out on the stationary bike - my strongest event! Hey - I kicked her butt in the water, though (but not by much) I told her she looked like Stevie Wonder when she swam, head swinging back and forth. So she took lessons and learned bi-lateral breathing.

Then I talked her into the Pinebush. So, she joined the Saturday morning tri-clionic at the Guilderland Y. And began going to the Wednesday night clinics at the Bethlehem Y.

Oh, and she also turned 50.

On Sunday, in her very first ever outdoor tri, she placed first in her age group! In typical unassuming humble Donna fashion though, we left the Y before the ceremonies to go back to the lake to get her stuff, because she was certain she hadn't won anything. It wasn't until Monday morning when she got a call from our friend Carol that she learned she had taken a first, and Carol brought her the ribbon and medal to prove it.


Tri = Swim, Bike Run - Swim Again?

I've got pictures documenting the performance of this remarkable woman (and of a lot of some other really neat people, too). Check them out here and here.

See you out there.

PS Ever wonder what happens to the DNF's?

Second Tri of 2008 Guilderland Y Indoor Tri 03/30/08

Nice event this morning. Lots of familiar faces, and it's nice to compete on my home "turf". Best of all, my buddy Kelly the Quick took a first overall for women, and her husband Craig took a first overall for men.

I had an 8:40 AM start time, which is very civil. For these indoor tri's, the trick to getting the later start time is to register later, but not so late that you get shut out. Turns out Kelly and Donna were in the second heat, which went off at 7:20 AM. Since the Y is only 10 minutes from my house, it was pretty easy to get over there early to cheer them on.

Kelly staked out lane 3 - she picked that lane because that's the lane she trains in on Thursday nites, and she felt comfortable there. Donna, who had just flown back yesterday from SC from her visit with the granddaughters, was over in lane 7. Because my wave didn't start until so much later, I got to watch and cheer for them in each event.

Super Steve was in the last wave, the one after mine, so he was in my cheering section for my swim, although I didn't get to cheer for him. I understand he did very well, 26 or 27 lengths in the pool, 7.5 on the bike and a very respectable 1.9 miles on the treadmill.

The good news about an indoor tri is that all the events take place in a confined area, so it is easy to see the competitors. The bad news is that, other than the swimming, there's not much to see, since neither the stationary bikes nor the treadmills go anyplace, and neither do the athletes using them. From a competitor's a point of view, though, this is an ideal situation, because you can hear your friends cheering you on during every minute of each event, and that's great.

The Score Card

Swimming: Not bad. I did the crawl stroke for the entire time, kicked off the walls much better than during the last event, minimized my "hang time", that is, the amount of time I grabbed the walls and rested. I covered 25.5 lengths, a full 25 yards farther than during my Febraury tri, and I met my goal. Of course, if I hadn't stood up once at the end of the pool, looking at my watch and adjusting my goggles (and being truthful - catching a short rest) and if I had been just a little quicker off the walls a few times, I could have covered 26 laps. Still - pretty good (Thanks, Coach!) 67 points; A-

Bike: Pretty good. I knew we were using spin bikes, so I looked up the bike settings last night from my last indoor race and memorized them. Knowing these let me set up the bike as soon as I got out of the water, which gave me a quicker transition to the bike, and meant that I had a minute more of rest time between events. I knew enough to pedal at high RPM's and low resistance, and I knew that I could get over 120 RPM's, the highest number on the bike computer and that the computer would still register the distance.

Two minor screw ups - I forgot to start my stopwatch at the beginning of the race, and tried to set it about 2 minutes in, with the help of the lead volunteer in the room. Good idea, except I straightened up to do this, I forgot about pedaling - not a good idea since the flywheel kept turning, and so did the pedals, which are fixed - no coasting on a spin bike. Consequently, my feet came out of the straps, and I had to slow down to try to slide them back in. Being a slow learner, this happened again before I finally got the stopwatch going - one of the volunteers helped me slide my foot back into the cage this time.

Other than that - a pretty good ride. 7.29 miles, over .8 miles better than in February. 76 points; A-.

The Run: A disaster. I made the assumption that since the February indoor tri had us all running on the track for the third event, we would be running on the track this time, too. That's the way I trained, transitioning from bike to track when I was practicing the bike, and running on the track, or outdoors when I was practicing for the run. Wrong! Last night Kelly let me know that this event was going to be held on the treadmills. And, no touching the rails during the entire event.

I hate the treadmill - I think it's a tyrant! When I run, I slow down or speed up a lot during a workout. Walk whenever I want to, too - no problem to vary the pace. Not the case on the treadmill. I have to hit the up or down arrows repeatedly to go from a run to a walk, or vice versa. And I inevitably grab the side rails or the front of the machine for balance during abrupt speed changes like run to walk, or during sprints.

This news freaked me out - I worried a lot about it last night, and didn't sleep too well. I was afraid if I tried to go too fast, I would lose my balance and fall, or grab the rails and get disqualified. I decided to be very conservative, and alternated between 4 mph walking and 4.6 mph jogging - 13 minute mile pace. And that's what I did.

Every now and then I tried to go faster or longer by getting into a zone and using the dis-associative technique that was described in the NY Times running column last week - staring at a distant object, counting my footfalls and synching my breathing up with them - but each time I did, I started to lose my balance. So I went back to the slower pace, and the results show this clearly. 1.1 miles; 40 points; D.

Lessons Learned: Ask questions about the events and the equipment. If I had done this, I would have trained on the accursed treadmill and done better for sure. After all, I am routinely running 12 minute miles or so during my training - I can do better!

On the positive side - I am very pleased with swimming and biking. I trained hard to improve, and I did.

Two minor notes: No body markings for this event - I felt cheated! And, we had to wear swim caps in the pool. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to try to pull one of those things over my head - like trying to put on a giant condom, but without the payoff.

The IPod Factor: Not a factor. The powers that be decided that since runners are no longer allowed to use IPods in road races (courtesy of the lawyers and their fears about liability lawsuits, we would not be allowed to use them either. Or more accurately, the people in waves 3-7 would not be allowed to use them, because it took them 2 waves to figure this out. This logic struck me as more than a little flawed, since it was not a road race, and there certainly was no danger of being hit by a car while inside the YMCA. Not to mention inconsistent in its application.


But, this seemed to be the only flaw in a very well organized and well run event. My applause and congratulations to Kerry and all the volunteers who put this event together and made it a great success.