Is there anyone out there?

"When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love
You'll understand what I mean when I say
There's no way we're gonna give up
And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams
Is there anyone out there 'cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe
Is there anyone out there 'cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe."

--Maroon 5, "Harder to Breathe."

On account of moving across the country and racing *ALL NEW COURSES* I thought I would begin writing race reports for my triathlete friends far away.

Yesterday (04/20/2014) I raced the Silicon Valley International Triathlon Olympic distance race.

The race was pretty tough from start to finish. It wasn't my fastest, it wasn't my best, but neither was it my worst nor most painful. The venue was beautiful Half Moon Bay, CA. For the record, it was a reservoir swim when I registered. This race is normally run in Morgan Hill, CA, with the swim in Uvas Reservoir.The drought in Northern California has caused a lot of triathlons to relocate venues. Swimming in Half Moon Bay, also known as THE PACIFIC OCEAN, was not exactly my plan. The water was only 56°!

I invested in a neoprene cap and booties the day before the race. I know the adage is "nothing new on race day," but after my experience in 57° water at the Marin County Triathlon in 2013, I knew I would be much happier with the extra neoprene. The booties were absolutely worth their weight in gold, although my feet were still frozen until about mile 4.5 of the run! The cap was really great too, because It covered my ears. But, it felt a little snug around the chin, and I felt a bit choked. Considering my tendency towards panic in open water, this was a fun little mental exercise. I will stretch it out before the next time I have to use it. Hopefully, that won't be very soon. :-)

A fog bank rolled in about five minutes before the race started. I'm not particularly good at sighting to begin with, and the fog made it very difficult to see the three large yellow buoys. Thankfully I had seen them from shore before the fog, so I had a reasonable idea of where they were. That isn't to say I wasn't a little bit off course at times... but that's hardly a surprise for me.

As for the act of swimming, I really only remember doing it a few times. I was trying hard to find the buoys, trying not to choke, and trying to forget how FREAKING COLD I WAS. When I was able to relax, I got in a few good pulls. Mostly, I was tight and short. That being said, I've had worse swims. The timing mat was right at the T1 area, and therefore my posted swim time includes a 400 m run from the water to T1. When I got out of the water, my Garmin said 34:30. In my dreamland, I will someday finish an Oly swim in 30 minutes.

T1 was kind of a joke as a result of my fingers being completely inoperable. I suffer from Raynaud's Syndrome, and my hands were mostly non-functional when I got out of the water. I couldn't grip my wetsuit pull, couldn't really get my socks on, and I gave up on the gloves I had planned to wear because I literally couldn't get my hands in them. Boo.

The bike course was very interesting: superflat for 10 miles, a giant climb for 2 miles, a twisty steep downhill, and then flat again to the finish. It was pretty. Oh yeah, I dropped a chain. I need to find better mechanic, apparently. I was glad to have my race bike (Cervelo P3), my race wheels (Zipp 808s), and my aerohelmet. I crushed pretty hard on the flats, climbed reasonably well, and was able to control my descent and gain some ground. I tried really hard to maintain a cadence and level of exertion that wouldn't completely ruin my legs for the run. No, my run would be ruined by a part of the body that is even more important than the legs. (Bike result: 4th in AG).

T2 was pretty quick. I changed my shoes, grabbed my racebelt, swapped visor for helmet, and took off (on numb feet!!)

On the run I had a decent plan (thank you, Coach Rob), to "work two miles, push two miles, and hurt 2.2 miles." I was planning on finishing a little painfully, but the hypoxia ruined everything. Well, I certainly finished painfully, but I didn't quite finish fast. My legs had the juice, but my lungs were not having it. This was my 40th triathlon, and it was the first time I've had to try to figure out transitions in different locations. The cold water caused my lungs to constrict, and by the time I got to the run I really needed my inhaler (yes, I have asthma!), I had left it at T1. Darn. My breathing was painful and labored, and I couldn't get a good, low-belly breath after the first mile. My pace fell off pretty significantly as a result. It will take a day or two more for my lungs to recover. My heart was a little crushed, too. I had the legs to lay down a solid 10k, but... oh, well. Next time!!

In the end, I plugged along and tried to enjoy the waves crashing in Half Moon Bay. "The swell" was pretty darn big, and there were lots of surfers out by the time I got to the run. Indeed, a thought flickered across my brain... "Why can't I be that guy? The one who sleeps in, rolls outta bed at 10, and grabs a surfboard?"

Sigh. It's because I'm *this girl* who loves getting up at 4 AM to swim in ice cold water and race triathlons. Wait, maybe not the ice cold water part.

It was a beautiful course, it turned out to be a beautiful day, and I got 8th in my age group.

Triathlon always gives me some new lesson. Per usual, this was another new lesson in humility, but nonetheless: a lesson.