other things I do for fun

off season is officially underway, and I am preparing for my first ultra.

I did my last triathlon at SoMa -- the race I didn't think I'd ever go back to -- at the end of October. Yes, I finished! Finally!

It was a last minute thing. I had this unreasonable need to do something with all this unused fitness. Does it go to waste if I don't race? Probably not. Still, I felt I needed to have one more good race this year. I dragged Flaming Mo with me, because she's a good sport like that. And my spouse came along as our sherpa.

Ok, I'll write a race report already!

I had this realization when I arrived that I'd been there twice already but never raced it, so I had a strong familiarity with every aspect of it. I was eerily comfortable with the place.

I had opted to do the Quarterman at SoMa. Ostensibly this is an Olympic distance race with a few weird modifications (short swim). I like to think of it as Ironman Arizona 0.25, since it's almost exactly a quarter of the IMAZ course. The setup for the Quarterman does not favor the old lady: they close transition at 6:15, but the old lady Quarterman wave doesn't leave until 7:45. Yes, that meant I got to hang out outside of transition for an hour and a half. In a wetsuit. I was surprisingly cold.

I was totally ready to get into the water, being cold and antsy and chilly, and was surprised to find that getting into water was warmer than standing around waiting to get into the water. Huh.

Then, the fustercluck began...The relatively short swim was just a single anti-clockwise loop in Tempe Town Lake. Now, I have heard many a horror story about being banged around in an open water swim: goggles lost, noses punched, eyeballs battered, kicks and punches. Iron Jenny told me once that she has a mantra in the swim that it's not on purpose, and I have always believed that myself. Maybe my swimming has improved to the point of being a true mid-packer, and that would explain why I felt crowded in the swim. Nonetheless, I found myself being swum into, being jostled, pushed, swum over. Having never swum with the male wave, I can't speak for that experience, but the old lady wave was very nice about every misplaced arm and leg. I'd get jostled and come up for air to find myself facing another surprised swimmer. "are you ok?" "Oh sure, I'm fine".

And on we went.

Maybe us old lady swimmers are just not out for blood. In spite of the crowd, the clusters, the brief panic about my life in peril, the swim was...long. I pulled a long 27 minutes for the 1000m swim, and even for my slow swim pace this is slow. Ah well.

Transition 1 was slow, like 5 minutes. Yes I was painting my nails. I was not in it for money, I was in it for fun -- at the end of the day it's all I've got!

The bike is a flat course. I mean flat. And normally quite fast. The main things to know about the SoMa course is the number of 180 degree turns (there are several), and that it's crowded. Spouse broke it down this way:

The course is an 18 mile twisty turny loop affair (1 and a bit loops for the quarterman, 3 loops for the half)

There were some 1900 athletes on the course

That's an average of over 100 athletes per mile. Complaints of obvious drafting taking place during the race are, well, understandable. It was hard for me to not be in a group at any given time! On the plus side, I totally hauled and passed a gazillion people. On the minus, I got passed by a lot of fast people doing the half. Sigh.

The bike felt long. I arrived at transition thinking dammit, that was way longer than it should have been.

The bike course was supposed to be 27 miles. The map described in the pre-race meeting was alleged to be 27 miles. The same map was in the athlete's guide. Mo and I puzzled over it. How would almost two loops of a 56 mile course equal 27 miles? Later, in transition, we found out it wasn't 27 mile - unless you got there early. Seems that early people clocked a 27 mile course because they were directed through a shorter course. Us later people, however, clocked anywhere from 31 to 32 miles. Bike Time 1:43:27

Now, I don't object to doing extra miles -- I don't -- so long as everyone else on the course is also doing extra miles. And that's what bothers me about this course: there are no timing mats on the course, except at transition, and therefore no way to keep all the athletes honest.

Transition 2 was quicker -- about 3 and a half minutes. And then I was off for the run, a 6.55 mile exposed trip around Tempe Town Lake. Mostly the run was a loop - but there was a little dogleg out and back - with no timing mat - that seemed to last forever. Run time: 1:05.

And then, at last, I finished!! I really thought I'd be happy to be done - overjoyed to have the course behind me for good, demons and bad juju fought forever. But it wasn't to be. Mostly, I was happy to finally have a finisher's medal to show for 3 trips to Tempe, and that's all. I didn't even want the finisher's pizza. Total time: 3:24:30, and a solid mid-pack finish (26/55 in my AG), which I think of as an improvement for me for this distance.

I currently feel no special need to go back. I may be throwing a tantrum.

I may be mad at Tempe.

Before SoMa, I did the Duke City Half Marathon - and scored a PR of 2:05. this may be why I was a bit tired in the SoMa run. Last weekend I ran the Veteran's Day 11K race - and scored 3rd place in my age group (1:02?). Small races are awesome that way - all the fast people stay home!!

What's next? Bandera. I am ever so slightly freaking out about doing a 50K ultra run, but I'm gonna try it. Also, I'm fer sher going to Big Sur!

In the meantime, there's some sleeping that needs done. I need to get right on that...