My First DNF: Pitch Pine Challenge Olympic Triathlon

This past Saturday I woke up at 4:20AM, packed all my gear in the Subaru, and headed out on a two hour long trek to White Lake State Park in Tamworth, NH.

Can you find all six floats?

A little side story before I get into the details of the race... The day before I was driving to pick up food for dinner. I was on a four lane road and as I was slowing for a red light I saw a gorgeous coyote. Its coat was fluffy and healthy. It trotted across the road and sat down on a hill overlooking the road.

At the same time I saw a woman pull over on the side of the road. I was a little concerned since the coyote was right there. She hopped out of the car and just walked over and picked up this not so small turtle who was on the white line craning his neck out attempting to cross the road. I love reading rescue stories like that, so seeing one in action was great. It made my night so I wanted to share!

Ok, back to the race! I was up at 4:20 to hit the road. I packed almost everything the night before and actually made a pretty good list of what I needed along with where each of those items were... Most items were listed as in the car, but my watch was charging on my desk, and my liquid nutrition was in the fridge. I am going to use this method from now on. Oftentimes I will pack and then second guess myself and have to rummage through my bags to make sure I have everything. This completely eliminated that uncertainty.

I got a few streets away when I realized I didn't actually go through my list to make sure I had everything, so I pulled over and ran through it once... only to realize I left my WATCH at home! No way was I doing a triathlon without my awesome triathlon watch so I turned around and headed back. I got about one house down from mine and saw ANOTHER beautiful, although petrified, coyote. He ended up running down our driveway so I felt really bad chasing him all the way there. Talk about the wildlife around my house! I usually only see turkeys. Anyway, ran in, grabbed watch and then I was actually on my way to the race.

I stopped at Dunkin Donuts and grabbed a wake-up wrap with ham and a coffee. By the time I was half way to the race I was hungry again so that wasn't quite enough pre-race food.

I made really good time and got to the race right at 7AM, when transition opened. Registration and getting my race packet and shirt was easy. I got my bike set up at my spot and ran back to the car to get the rest of my gear... when I got back to transition my bike was gone! I was completely confused. Who would steal a bike from a triathlon?? I wandered around for a minute and some guy was like "Hey, 39? You put your bike in spot 31 so I moved it for you." Oops! I had 31 on the brain since upon entering transition you are marked with your age and I am 31! Sorry actual 31!

So organized...

I got everything all set up. Look how pretty and organized that is. LOOK AT IT! One thing that I don't really get is that EVERYONE puts their shoes and gear on top of their towels... so I did too... didn't want to be that odd one... but when I get out of the water the first thing I need is my towel to dry my feet off and have something to sit on. So, why do most triathletes do it this way?

At this point I had quite a bit of time but I decided to get my wetsuit half way on. I was nervous about getting the wetsuit off so I used some Trislide for the first time on my ankles. The previous week when I went out for the first time ever for an open swim in my wetsuit it took me 10 minutes to wiggle out of that thing. I didn't want a 10 minute transition time!

So then there was some waiting, and more waiting... and finally the National Anthem which was amusing because we were all looking for the flag and I saw this woman sprinting across the beach and into the water. She jumped into a boat and held up a flag. The start of this race was a little disorganized and got off to a slightly late start. Not a problem though! Fifteen-ish minutes from the start I took a Huma Lemon gel and pulled my wetsuit all the way on. I made sure that it was pulled up as much as possible so I would not have trouble breathing like I did last time I wore it.

Eventually the men were led out into the water and shortly after it was the women's turn!

The Swim (1900 yd): 38:13 (2:01/100 yd)

We walked out a ways into the water and were just standing there when the director just yells "GO!" with no warning. Ok! We're off! Even though this was a fairly small race I was squished between swimmers over and over. I finally backed off because I didn't feel like getting kicked or punched.

On the way out I had a heck of a time wrapping my head around how far I had to swim. I didn't have much of a rhythm and I had to stop and take a breather once or twice. If you look back at the first picture in this post you can see the first orange float on the right. We started near shore over there and then there are three green floats, and two more orange. You can barely even see the middle green float which was the turn around.

On the way out I got slightly panicky thinking of how far I had to swim and how hard it seemed right from the start. Once I hit the half way I started to feel better. I found a rhythm! Five breaths and I'd sight. That is probably too much sighting but it gave me something to focus on. The way back flew by. Before I knew it I was out of the water trying to pull my wetsuit off.

I am really please with my swim. I was expecting something closer to a 2:30/100 yd pace. I was also happy that I felt good coming out of the water. Not exhausted or anything! I ran up to transition with a big smile on my face.. even while I was swearing at the rocky path we had to run on.

Transition: 4:03

Once I got to transition I set about trying to struggle out of my wetsuit. I asked a few people who were near me for tips and one guy just told me to sit down and he just pulled it off me! WOO! I got my own personal wetsuit stripper! That was amazing and probably saved me a few minutes in transition. I got into my cycling gear and I was off. I know 4:03 isn't a fantastic transition time but I'm happy with it.

The Bike (19.1 miles): 1:16:36 (15 mph)

My head looks crooked

I got through the swim, I was on the bike, and I felt like I was invincible! I took off determined to make this a fast bike leg. I kept looking down and seeing speeds between 15 and 20 mph. I felt really good. I slowed on a few flat spots to make sure I got water and Heed. I was going along yelling thank you's to every volunteer I saw out there and I was just having a great time.

I eventually started to wonder where this hill was that people mentioned and right before mile 9 I found it. That was not really fun. It wasn't particularly steep it just kept going. It did eventually end a little after 1.5 miles and the downhill was amazing! I only brushed the brakes once because I was unsure of a corner. My top speed was 37 mph! I picked my speed back up and headed out for lap number two of the bike course.

I got to mile 19 out of 26 and noticed that I was bouncing a bit. I'd never felt this before so I stopped to investigate. I had a flat. I felt horrible but I tried to jump into action as best as I could. I run up a little ways to a spot where I could put my bike down on the grass and I went about fixing the flat.

Of course it was the rear wheel went flat. Of course! I was a little frazzled and I attempted to take the tire and tube off the rim before moving the whole thing from my bike. Once I realized my mistake I took a step back and tried again. Wheel off? Check! Tire off? Check! New tube installed? Uh. No. Because the spare tube I had wasn't the right kind for my rims. The spare was a Schrader and my bike uses Presta. They are not interchangeable. The Scrader valve doesn't fit through the hole in my rim.

Ok, so just swapping to a new tube was out of the question. Only option was to find the leak. I blew a little air in there and ran my hand around the tube looking for the problem but had no luck. Listening for a leak was not happening because some guy with a huge lawn mower was cutting the grass at the school I had stopped at. I couldn't hear a thing.

At this point two ladies who were cheering for their friend came over to see if they could help. They quickly declared that they had no idea how to help me but it was at least nice to have company and they held my bike for me while I struggled. I ended up using the CO2 inflator to put a little more air in my tire and it seemed like it was holding. I took WAY too long to put the tube and tire back on my rim and then just as long to put the whole thing back on my bike and by the time that was done the tire was flat again.

I knew I was done. I couldn't limp 7 miles over a hill to the bike finish. I hadn't seen any course support vehicles in the 30 minutes I had been stuck so I was starting to wonder how I was going to get back. Luckily the nice ladies who came to help offered to drive me back to the race start in their van. They threw my bike in the back and off we went. Normally I would not accept a ride from strangers but they actually stayed with me the whole time I was trying to fix the flat and they were extremely bubbly, helpful people. I didn't feel unsafe at all.

They dropped me off by my car so I could just leave my bike there and I told them they were my heroes. We parted ways and I set off to turn in my timing chip. I did not intend to get mad when I turned in the chip but I was pretty upset that I saw no actual course support out there and had to rely on the kindness of total strangers to get me back. I talked to a few people who apologized and said they were pretty sure there were support cars out driving the course. They didn't even actually know.

The finish line I didn't get to run through

Post Race:

After I turned in my chip I ended up meeting a girl from NEMS, the local multisport club that I am a member of. We chatted for a little bit and exchanged info so that we could coordinate training sometime. I packed up my gear and found some showers that were 25 cents for 2 minutes. Three quarters later I didn't smell anymore and I was in nice comfy clothes. I headed out of the park in search of food.

Drowning my sorrows

I barely got out the park when I found Hobbs. It was a very nice restaurant and they didn't care that I was basically wearing my pajamas. I plopped down at the bar and had two beers (Bearcamp Brown and Silk Road Hefe) and the English Pea ravioli. It was a great way to chill out a little bit before starting the two hour drive back home. I ran into a few other triathletes that I recognized and congratulated them on their finish.

Even though I am sad that I wasn't able to finish the race overall I am pretty happy with how it was going up until the flat. My swim was fantastic. I found a rhythm and by the end of it I knew I'd have no trouble reaching 1.2 for a half IRONMAN swim distance. The bike was going really well too. I was happy, it was a beautiful day, and I was at a gorgeous lake in the mountains. I am choosing to focus on those things and I've already put the Pitch Pine Challenge on my 2017 must-do list!

Oof, this was quite the lengthy recap... and I didn't even finish the race! I'll be writing a book for the first Olympic triathlon that I actually complete!