Carrie's Oliver race report

Carrie Oliver Race Report:

Since I was lazy and never wrote a race report on the Eugene Marathon last month I figured the Oliver ½ IM would be my report redemption!

As our family life currently revolves around 2 little boys with both parents training for triathlon, many summer weekends are spent traveling to races. So we again packed up the truck with gear, bikes, tools, snacks, new toys, books and many hours of DVD’s. Kyle and I often joke how our road trips used to be spontaneous and never included a Happy Meal. Anyway….

Race morning was great. Got up early to eat and walked down the block to catch a ride with Kevin and Mike (thanks guys!!). We arrived at transition in plenty of time and organizers had everything running smoothly with body marking and picking up timing chips. I’m not one to chat and mingle before races so I put on the headphones and tried to make all the nervous energy and sizing each other up, drift away. Headed to the washroom right away so I didn’t miss my wave start and went over my gear…again. Mike mentioned he goes over his checklist many times as well so I feel better about my obsession with lists.

Started down to the beach to warm up as I was in wave #2. A guy ran by me into the water asking “Has the first wave gone yet?” Ahhh….yeah. They’re at the first buoy. He yelled a word I can’t repeat and took off. Made me laugh. Had a nice little warm up and then tried to seed myself appropriately. I tend to underestimate my swim and start towards the back and then find myself trying to swim around slower swimmers. This time I was feeling bold (I know, such a rebel) and started toward the mid-front of the pack. Gun went off and I sprinted for about 400 meters until I could see people dying off around me. I wanted to get out with a faster group and try to hold on instead of playing catch-up. It worked and I settled in with the same group of girls for most of the swim. I was comfortable and could hold that pace easily. Came out at my goal time and then ran to T1. This was really another portion of the run course…seriously…the longest run to a T1!

Off on the bike! I really enjoyed this bike course. The back roads took us past vineyards and through rolling hills. The little rollers and inclines were my favorite part. I was able to spin up them staying seated and passed a handful of people on each hill. Riders then returned the favor by passing me on the downhill’s since I get freaked out going over 60km an hour. Oh well. Kevin and Doug passed me (their wave started after mine) and they looked great. I think Kevin was having a conversation with someone and Doug was smiling way too much to be racing!

I wanted to hold back on the bike so I could test my run. I’ve worked hard this year at running and was looking forward to seeing how it would translate off the bike. At 60 km I was feeling great with no gut issues, plenty of nutrition and then at 65km a little ache in my right hip started to show up. Hmmm…this hasn’t happened before. The ache turned into pain and by 75km I was able to pedal about 10 strokes and then have to coast a few seconds so the pain would dull. All I was thinking about was “can run through this”? Made it to T2 and jumped off my bike…ouch! Limping to rack my bike I knew that if I tried to run I would either not finish the run or hurt myself more. Since IMC is my goal this year I decided to opt out and take my first DNF. Humbled but also, I believe, smart. Kyle and the boys were just outside T2 so I went to talk to him and he confirmed that I’d made the right decision – which eased the guilt a bit.

We walked over to the finish to watch everyone run in and talked about the things you can’t control in a race. I popped some painkillers, grabbed a shower and we decided to head back to Calgary a few hours early. My race didn’t end the way I wanted but I left Oliver with a renewed respect for the sport, a great training ride under my belt and 2 sleeping kids in the backseat. Beautiful.