Kerrville Weekend

Jeff and I borrowed the coach from Adrian for Kerrville weekend, it worked out perfectly. This picture is from Longhorn last year, I can't believe it, but we didn't take a single picture of our campsite or the park this weekend, which is really sad because the park is beautiful! The pictures of the park below are just some I found on the internet.We got to Kerrville about 1:00 pm on Friday, we got the coach set up and walked down to the river, we couldn't believe how beautiful it was! Lots of water, flowers blooming, and butterflies flying around. We let Connor and Katie play in the water for a few minutes, then we headed in to town. We had to eat, grocery shop, and do packet pick up. As we drove into town we passed a place called Grape Juice and I noticed it was a wine bar and cafe- what a cute name! Then I saw they had painted in their window "Swim, Bike, Run, DRINK" I LOVE that kind of stuff, it reminded me of Cozumel where almost every business had signs and specials for the triathletes, it made me happy and gave me a great feeling about the weekend.Jeff and I went to packet pick up and it felt just like Austin since we saw so many people we knew! Kristen, Katherine and I decided we wanted to check out the swim ramps and transition hill we had heard about. The ramp was super steep and I wasn't sure I could climb up it out of the water, I hoped they'd have a lot of volunteers to help us out! And that transition hill!! It dwarfed the transition hill at Decker, all I could say was "never mind about trying to have a faster T1, oh well"A small portion of the cheering section that got me up that big transition hill on Sunday!
A little more of Sunday's awesome cheering section!

We spent the rest of Friday chillin' at the coach, Shayla came by and had dinner with us. Jeff worked on my bike, Spinnaker's been having some issues with shifting which has never happened before. Jeff had been working for awhile so I asked "is everything ok?" He replied "No, it's not! Your rear derailleur is about shot." I didn't say anything, Jeff just tuned up my bike a couple weeks ago and said I'd need a new derailleur soon. Shayla asked "will it get her through the race?" Jeff said "I hope so" YIKES! He worked on it some more, I did a test ride and it seemed fine. The rest of Friday evening was more relaxing, the dogs played by the river and we watched a movie, I don't even remember what movie.

Saturday we got up at the civilized hour of 7:30 and went out to spectate the bike and run of the sprint race. I hadn't checked out the sprint course at all, I assumed they'd have a 1 loop bike, but we saw Kristen ride by as we drove in and after we got to our spot I saw Andrea Fisher ride by. I was sure Kristen wasn't ahead of Andrea Fisher so I asked a volunteer how many loops they had to do. She replied, "either 2 or 3, we're not sure" Then she asked if I had friends racing and if I was racing tomorrow, then she gave me a "downtown dollar" (actually $5). I had seen something about them in our race packet so I was excited, she saw how excited I was and handed me another one. I wasn't exactly sure how they worked, but if I had realized at the time that she had essentially just handed me $10 I would have been even more excited!

We had accidentally found the perfect spot on the bike course, we got to see everyone go by 3 times, the course was 2 loops, but they went by our spot 3 times to get to T2 after the second loop.
Emmie having a great ride!
Me cowbelling
Kristen flying around the corner!
Scat in T2 resting after his awesome ride
Kelly running
Emmie hugging Linda after her finish

Most of the Tri Zoners had a great race, we had a lot of fun spectating and I got to meet Amy from Houston, she'll be in Cozumel with us doing her first Ironman, so I was excited to get to know her a little. I got a recon report from Kristen about the trail portion of the run, it didn't sound too bad.

We headed back to the coach so I could pack my gear bags and get everything ready, I hadn't done any race prep yet, so I had plenty to do. First I took Spinnaker out for a quick spin, and her gears were acting up again- UGH!! Jeff worked on the bike while I did a quick run and packed my bags. I did another quick spin and everything seemed fine, but I was still a little concerned.

Shayla came over and we decided to eat lunch in town. Jeff saw that our Downtown Dollars were accepted at Grape Juice so we went there. They had another window painted that said "Eating Antelope Makes You Faster!" As we were sitting down Julie and Richard walked in, a few minutes later Emmie walked in. She was waiting for Kristen, Katherine, Linda & Laura, but waited with us. They all ended up sitting behind us. Halfway through our lunch Ron & Roger walked in too- talk about Triathlete Central! Julie and I were enticed by the claim that "antelope makes you faster" so we both ordered antelope burgers and they were delicious! Jeff had quail tacos that were also really good. I'm getting hungry just thinking about that food, if Kerrville wasn't 2 hours away, I'd go there tonight for dinner!

We dropped off my bike and my run gear bag and went back to the coach to nap and be lazy the rest of the day.

I had never really been to Kerrville before this weekend and I was really impressed with what a cute, cool little town it is. and I was super impressed by how nice and welcoming everyone was, they seemed genuinely excited to have the race in their town. I think that really helped make the awesome atmosphere of the race weekend. I can't wait to go back, we may even go back before the race next year.

The Austin Triathlon

Photo by Tom Marek

This was my 4th Austin Tri, it's one of my favorite races. I was extra excited about this race because I've had kind of a tough year with injuries and illnesses, so this was my first healthy race of the season! My pre-race routine was pretty normal. When I dropped my bike off at transition on Sunday, it was crazy windy, and since it's been so dry, the transition area was a dust bowl! I could barely breathe and I knew my just cleaned bike was going to be covered in dirt by morning. I hoped the wind would die down, but I knew based on the forecast that it probably wouldn't.

Sandra got to my house at 4:50 (on time!), we picked Julie W. up on the way, got a good parking spot, and got to transition before it got crowded. E-beth body marked me, I said Hi to Tom, Carolyn, Andrew, Sarah, and Big Adam as I went into transition. Then it was the typical hanging out with other Tri Zoners waiting for the start. I decided to try First Endurance Pre-Race before this race, I've used it in training before and decided this was a good race to try it since it wasn't too long. I mixed 1 full scoop of pre-race into a very dilute bottle of Ultragen and started drinking it about 6:40. A little after 7 I walked down to the start, said hi to Ron & Roger and a few other Tri Zoners, and got ready to start, I wasn't feeling a rush from the Pre-Race, but I didn't think too much about it. As we waited for the wave in front of us to get in the water and start, the girl standing beside me laughed and said "I'm excited too!" I looked at her and realized I had been snapping my fingers, clapping my hands and jumping up and down, maybe the Pre-Race was working!

I got in the water and the temperature felt perfect. I decided I'd start a little to the left to avoid some of the traffic, but I realized lots of people were hanging on the dock, I assumed they were slower swimmers, so I didn't want to start near them. I started to push my way through the crowd to the right just as the announcer yelled "10..9.."crap! I do NOT like where I'm at! I kept trying to move to the right until he got to "4" then I got ready to swim. Somehow I ended up in a great position, very little contact, no one starting slow in front of me, it worked out! I started off fast and felt a little out of breath, but then I remembered we didn't get to do warm up swims, so that feeling was normal, I just had to get through it, after a couple minutes I felt great! Every time I sighted I was in perfect position, I felt strong and happy! I passed a lot of guys in the 2 waves before me, but I knew I was swimming about my normal pace, so I wondered if a lot of guys were doing their first Olympic tri, and were a little slower swimmers. I really enjoyed the swim and continued to feel strong and happy. After the final turn buoy I just had to swim back to shore. I didn't really feel like I should be finished already, but I got to the swim exit and got pulled out of the water, really PULLED out, I didn't have to use my legs to get out of the water at all! Swim time: 33:59, a minute and a half slower than last year, but not bad considering last year was wetsuit legal this year was not.

I was a little nervous about the bike this year, with 20 mph winds I knew it would be challenging for me. I got out on the course and up the Congress hill the first time, not too bad (but that was with tailwind) I made the first U turn and started down the hill, not nearly as fast as last year, but not scary with the wind gusts, so I was happy. I got to the false flat section to the Capital and tried to stay in a harder gear but quickly realized that was not going to happen, I could only push so hard against the wind. I hit the second U turn and got to fly down Congress to Ceasar Chavez, I knew I'd have cross wind on that section, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. I was actually feeling really good about this ride in the crazy wind! I started to see people I knew on loop 2, that's part of why I love a loop course. There were lots of spectators out too, I looked for people I knew and heard my name quite a few times, but rarely saw who was cheering for me, except for Jeff on Cesar Chavez. My butt on the bike, I guess I was too fast for Jeff to get a picture from the front :)

There were a couple spots where the wind gusts really picked up, but I handled it fine. There were definitely some people weaving & getting blown around by the wind. I had fun and encouraged people as I passed them and said hi to people when they passed me. My average speed was edging up overall, but that headwindy section on Congress slowed me down each lap. On the third lap, I couldn't believe I was on the last lap already, I kind of wished the race was a little longer. I pushed hard through the headwindy section and started to get a cramp in my foot, it slowed me down a little as I tried to stretch and reposition my foot so it didn't turn into a "searing pain have to stop" kind of cramp. It eased up, but never completely went away. I also started to feel a slight twinge of hunger, I was only a couple miles from the finish and I had drank all my Infinit, oh well. I didn't realize it at the time, but after the race, I remembered that Pre-Race makes me hungrier (I think it increases my metabolism). I didn't account for that when I planned my race nutrition. I loved the bike course this year and I was really afraid I wouldn't with the windy conditions. I was really happy with my ride even though it was about 5 minutes slower than last year (when there was almost no wind). Bike time was 1:36.

In T2 I looked at my swimming watch which I hadn't stopped, I thought it said 2:11, so I figured if I ran the same pace as last year, I could PR (obviously that doesn't make any sense, I knew I swam a minute slower and biked 5 minutes slower, I didn't think about it then, but I'm pretty sure the watch actually said 2:17 or maybe 2:19). I saw Jess and Peylin come in as I left transition.

I got out on the run course and realized I was Hungry! I decided not to wear my Fuel belt with Infinit, but I forgot about the Pre-Race hunger thing. I got a cup of PureSport as I left transition. I usually do ok with PureSport as long as I'm careful not to drink too much and walk a little after I drink it. My legs felt pretty tired from pushing so hard on the bike, but I was having so much fun that I didn't care. As always there were tons of spectators cheering on the course including lots of Tri Zoners. Red cheered us up the only hill on the course, Tri Zones Central was near the team tent, and Jeff was on 1st st.
Blowing Tom a kiss at Tri Zones Central, right after letting all the kids soak me with the water guns! Photo by Tom Marek.

I also saw Julie W., Jess, Peylin, & Katie on the course lots of times. I played tag with Katie over and over. I walked and drank PureSport at every aid station, while Katie passed me, and I'd pass her after I started running again. I had so much fun talking with the Tri Zoners and the other athletes on the course. As I ran up the 1st bridge the second time, the guy beside me said "what a beautiful day" and I said "it really is! Aren't we lucky to be able to do this!" and he said "we really, really are" So true! I ran by Jeff and through Tri Zones Central for the last time and across the finish line! Run time was 1:08, total time was 3:28, about 8 minutes slower than last year, but with the Wind on the bike and the no wetsuit swim, I'm happy with that.How can you not love this race, what a beautiful course and look at all that crowd support!

I haven't raced as much this year as I have the last 3 or 4 years. And the 2 races I did were not quite as much fun as usual (I had a painful Achilles injury at Lonestar, and bronchitis/sinus infection at Couples). I'm so happy I did this race since it was everything I love about triathlon! I think I was smiling every minute of the race, even though Alysha said she caught me not smiling on the run, but only for half a second :)Peylin and I at the finish

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 3!

Day 3 was a cold morning, about 40 degrees. Ingrid was excited, but a little nervous. The start line was in the middle of nowhere! Literally, we drove down a country road and the only way we knew where to stop was this start banner in the middle of the road!
Ingrid looked great at the start and the scenery was gorgeous! Unfortunately, it seemed like a few of the other athletes were really feeling the last 2 days. In the first few miles we saw most of the athletes and cheered for everyone, but quickly they spread out and we started to only see those close to Ingrid.

The plan was to stop, get out of the van and cheer, support, hand off drinks, etc. every mile and then to wait long enough that we passed Ingrid (and usually rolled down the window to cheer) shortly after the 1/2 mile, so we'd pretty much see her every half mile. This meant we had to estimate her pace, which changed based on uphills, downhills, etc. So it was a little challenging at times. Didn't help that we were stopping on miles and the van odometer read in kilometers. Jeff used my Garmin to mark the miles, which worked for awhile.
Ingrid had an awesome first 13 miles!
Running with Ingrid just for a minute to see how she was feeling and what she needed.

Between miles 15 & 20 there was a little country store, it was the only business on the entire 52 mile route, so of course all the crew and many athletes took advantage of it. Unfortunately the 2 little old ladies working there were NOT prepared (in their defense, I'm guessing they normally see about 10 customers a day, and they had more than 30 of us, all in a hurry, in about 2 hours, I'm sure they were very overwhelmed). Jeff and Ramona went into the store while I ran back to let Ingrid know where we were and that we hadn't abandoned her to run up a big hill alone (which meant I ran up the big hill with her). We got to the store and Ingrid continued on, while I went inside, on my way in Jeff said "don't even bother!" We had just over 4 minutes til we had to take off to catch Ingrid at the next half mile, so I didn't have time to ask him what happened. I ran in, found the blue gatorade Ingrid wanted and got in line, there was just one couple in front of me, so I had plenty of time.

The couple in front of me was ordering breakfast, but they were talking in slow motion t..w..o...e..g.g..s...s.c..r.a..m..b.l..e.d, and the lady behind the counter was writing in even slower motion so they had to repeat what they said at least twice, and they each ordered about 7 different things! This was taking FOREVER! They were about halfway through their order when Ramona got in line behind me, obviously we decided to pay together to save time, we had less than 2 minutes til we needed to go catch Ingrid now! Finally it was our turn! The lady had to find a price sheet and look up the price of Ramona's brownie, then she asked if she wanted her muffin warmed up..."yes..actually no, we don't have time for that" then she walked to the back to get the other lady to scan our gatorade, she scanned the gatorade in super slow motion, it didn't take, she scanned it again, and again, and finally it took, but we had 2 bottles of gatorade, so she had to go through that process again. At this point Ramona and I were quietly freaking out, looking at each other with wider and wider eyes. We had definitely missed the half mile time and we'd be lucky not to miss the mile stop! "your total is $6.97" Ramona handed her a 10 and I said, "you can just give us the $3 don't worry about the pennies" The lady stopped counting out our change, gave me a not so nice look and said "PATIENCE!" wow!! If you know me at all, you know I have no patience in the best of circumstances, but I held my tongue and waited while she counted out $3 and 3 pennies. We ran outside, jumped in the van and took off. Of course, Jeff said "I told you..." apparently he had a coffee incident and told one of the ladies "so I guess if you wait your turn in line here, you don't get helped?" Yikes! We caught Ingrid just before the mile mark and a little later we were sharing Ramona's brownie and Jeff said "I'd like to be mad at those little old ladies, but they really know how to make a brownie!"

Around mile 23 was the only rest stop of the race. A friend of the race director owns a cabin on the course, so every year he and his family set up a rest stop. They had watermelon, trail mix, M&Ms, drinks, etc and they were super nice. Ingrid was in a hurry to get to the 1st marathon point, so she didn't stop, but I got some watermelon and stuff for later. Aside from the athlete's crews, they were the only spectators on the course.

Ingrid had a great first marathon and looked and felt strong. Everyone had said the second marathon was harder than the first, but according to the elevation profile, the second marathon had a lot of downhill and not much uphill, but in reality the second marathon included climbing up mountains! and it was mostly on dirt/gravel road.
Ingrid climbing up the mountain

We had lots of things to keep Ingrid from getting bored or discouraged.
tic marks on the van for each mile completed (which became a little difficult after we doubled back on the course and our mileage was off!)
the Ultraman Spirit Stick, not as fancy as the Ironman Cozumel Spirit Stick, but considering what we had to work with, I think we did ok :) Ingrid was excited to see a Spirit Stick, even if it was an actual stick decorated with junk from the van and stuff we found in the woods!
There was a BIG hill coming up, so Ramona made me dosey doe and sing "she'll be comin' round the mountain" WAY out of my comfort zone! But I'll do anything for Ingrid, and she loved it so it was ok (and how is it that Jeff got a picture of that, but couldn't get a good shot of Ingrid running up the big mountains??). Having to dosey doe at the post race awards banquet in front of everyone was a little less ok...but I'm over it now and the picture is pretty funny, so I guess maybe even that was worth it.
The "Coach Tracy Live Easy" look. Ingrid loved the Coach Tracy look so much that she asked to wear the hat & boa for the finish!
the second marathon was beautiful, but it was tough!
lots of hills and some really long steep mountains! Jeff tried to get pictures of Ingrid on the longest steepest hills, but it never really worked.
Ingrid got to pass quite a few other athletes on the run.
I was supposed to be Ingrid's pacer, originally I told her I could run up to 15 miles with her, but I got really sick just before Ultraman and I wasn't sure I could do more than 6 or 8. Ingrid was very careful about only letting me run when she really needed me, which meant I ran mostly uphills! Near the end, Ingrid let me run some downhills too :) She really didn't need me to pace her much at all, I have no idea how far I ran, but definitely less than 6 miles. I think she really only needed me when she was "almost done" around mile 40 but still had 12 miles to run. We (the crew) felt it too, "only 12 miles to go!" but then I'd think, 12 miles is still a long way to run! We got closer to the finish and the gravel turned to pavement and we got pretty steady downhills for the last few miles (that's when I got to run a few downhills too). We were all so excited! About a mile before the finish, the crews split from the athletes, we parked, got Ingrid's finish stuff ready and met her outside the finish chute. At Ultraman, the crew runs across the finish line with the athlete! Pretty cool considering I didn't actually do the race!
Ramona, Ingrid, me, and Jeff crossing the Ultraman finish line! Congratulations Ingrid! You even made Ultraman look easy!
Ultraman Ingrid enjoying her post race coconut cream pie!

Crewing for Ingrid's Ultraman was a very cool experience. It was a lot of work (in and out of the car a few hundred times, testing the limits of my triathlon math, hardly any sleep, trying to anticipate Ingrid's needs, etc), but it was so, so much fun! I don't know how she did it, but Ingrid stayed happy and positive pretty much the entire race. I expected to have some really low moments, I expected to see Ingrid get upset, or even angry, but none of that happened. Instead, she constantly reminded us how lucky we were to be together in such a beautiful place, she thanked us for doing a great job (even when we messed up), and she even encouraged other athletes and thanked other crews. I guess all of that is what makes Ingrid Ultra Awesome! Thanks for such an amazing experience Ingrid!

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 2

Day 2- 171 miles on the bike for Ingrid!

Check in was at 5:30 and the start was at 6:00, the crews took off before the athletes to keep the narrow road as clear as possible for the first 10-15 miles. So we drove out to the main road and found a spot where lots of other crews were waiting for their athletes. We hung out and talked with other crews about how their athletes were feeling. I think that gave us all confidence about Ingrid's race, some athletes were feeling good, but quite a few seemed to be having some issues (mostly stomach issues), so we felt lucky that Ingrid had gotten through day 1 so well. When she rode by, she had already passed 3 or 4 people and was close to a couple more, she seemed happy and excited! Yay!!

It was a cool morning, but I had talked her out of wearing her cycling jacket (I know, ME saying she wouldn't be cold??), I was worried that was a mistake, but she said she wasn't cold at all! Whew!!
Ingrid rode by orchards and vineyards, and we stopped and jumped out of the car to cheer her on every 6 miles. This part of the course was mostly flat, Ingrid looked great, and we were having fun! We saw other Ultraman athletes and crews along the way, which was fun and reassuring, since we didn't really see any of them on day 1.

The first really tough part of day 2 was The Wall, it was a mountain, with switchbacks going up and at the end was a very steep section! We knew Ingrid could do it since she had pre ridden it, but we knew it would be tough and even after The Wall, she had to keep going mostly uphill for about 10 miles! The Wall was on narrow roads so it was another "No Feed Zone" so we had to drive to the end and couldn't stop to cheer Ingrid up. But announcer Steve King was on The Wall announcing and encouraging the athletes up the steep climb. We stopped a couple of miles past The Wall and saw a family out spectating, they were some of the only spectators the entire race, so everyone was really happy to see them!
This is actually on Richter Pass from day 1, but The Wall was this steep or more so!

White Lake
Past The Wall, but still climbing. Astronaut Alvin Drew gave a pre-race presentation and the Q&A after quickly went to "how do you go to the bathroom in space?" We all found it funny and a little weird, so we made a sign for Ingrid on the front it said "Astro Al says shoot for the stars" and on the back it said "and pee in your pants!" Ingrid laughed when she saw the sign and later told us that she loved it.

By this time, we had been in the car for a long time, my triathlon math skills were starting to get blurry, and we all started to get a little silly. I heard "woof woof" from the back seat. I turned and saw this:
and Ramona with the Pringle still hanging from her tongue said "look I'm a dog!" Of course I laughed and laughed!
Then Jeff had one too. "I'm a duck! Quack!" Sadly, I don't have a silly Pringle trick.

I think this was about the time Ingrid passed Fausto. Fausto was a very strong looking athlete from Florida who owns a bootcamp business. He looked fast and from the time we met him we assumed he'd be impossible to beat.

At our next stop we got everything set up, when Ingrid pulled up she seemed stressed and in a HURRY! She exchanged camelbaks, grabbed some gels, took a 5 hr energy, and maybe a pb&j and took off in way under a minute! Just after Jeff pushed her off Tour de France style, Fausto rolled by and said "WOW, she's GOOD!!" His crew was right in front of us, so we saw his stop, change of clothes, drink, leg massage... interesting contrast!

Since Ingrid seemed so stressed and rushed, we were a little worried. Has she had too much 5hr energy and/or pre-race?, Is she just in "race mode" after passing Fausto?, Should we remind her she has to run a DOUBLE marathon tomorrow?...We didn't know what was going on or what to say to try to bring her stress level down (or really if we even needed to bring her stress level down). pretty bridge along the course

A stop or 2 later Ingrid yelled "how far to Princeton and how long til the cut off?" WHAT?? Why is she thinking about the cut off, when she's SO far ahead and doing so well, and there isn't an official cut off in Princeton anyway! The race director had suggested that if you got to Princeton much after 3pm, you might want to cut the course and not do the last 45ish mile out & back section, since it could take up to 3 hours, and there was no point in going all the way out there if you were going to miss the real cut off at 6pm. For whatever reason (I blame pre-race) Ingrid had that unofficial cut off in her head big time! I pulled out the map and figured it out. At our next stop, I told her "less than 30 miles and almost 3 hours to Princeton" Seriously, I'm pretty sure even I could make that "cut off". Turns out she had done her triathlon math a little off and really thought she was cutting it close (it makes perfect sense in her race report, but when she explained it to me after the finish I was 100% confused!). So THAT'S why she seemed stressed earlier.pretty views along the Similkameen River near Bromely Rock park

We got to our next real stop in Princeton and Ingrid was back to normal- fast, efficient and relaxed, thank goodness!!
She seemed to LOVE the out & back to Lake Allison, she was flying and we were so happy for her!
Jeff and I on the out & back to Lake Allison

Ingrid FINISHING day 2!!! The announcer said she had moved up quite a few places in the standings after such a great ride! And during the run on day 3, he said she stayed in her aerobars more than any other athlete he saw!

Ingrid was super happy at the finish again and wanted to hang out and talk with everyone, she also had to wait a really long time for her massage. Since the day 3 start is near Princeton, everyone stayed in hotel rooms in Princeton provided by the race. Jeff and I went to check in while Ingrid and Ramona hung out at the finish line. Dinner was also provided by the race, we carefully planned and brought our own food since we assumed the post race dinner would be pasta, and who wants to eat something new (especially from an unknown restaurant) the night before a DOUBLE marathon!! As it turned out we all (even Ingrid!) ate the pasta dinner provided by the race (I don't normally eat much wheat, but spaghetti looked & sounded SO good!).

I think it was almost 8 by the time we got to the hotel and got the van unpacked. Jeff and I had to run to the store to pick up water, ice, etc, and look for a finish line treat for Ingrid. I saw an individual sized coconut cream pie in the deli/refrigerated section (Ingrid had told the race organizers that if she could have any dessert at the finish it would be coconut cream pie- PERFECT!). We stopped and got root beer floats on the way back to the hotel, I was in serious need of a sugar rush, I knew I still had at least an hour's worth of stuff to get done, and I was EXHAUSTED! Jeff looked more tired than I think I've ever seen him too. After getting all the necessary stuff done, Ramona and I decorated the van with blue painter's tape (thanks Coach Cindy!), we were both super tired and could barely think enough to spell Irongrid! I also uploaded a few pictures and updated facebook for the fans at home, since we hadn't had cell service most of the day. Again, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, but so HAPPY! Ingrid had pretty much the perfect ride, and was feeling good about the DOUBLE marathon tomorrow!

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 1

An Ultraman is a 3 day ultra endurance event. Day 1 the athletes swim 6.2 miles, and bike 90 miles. Day 2 is 170 miles on the bike, and Day 3 is a 52.4 mile run. Way back before our first half irons in 2008, Ingrid found out about Ultraman and thought she might want to do it someday. At the time none of us realized that Ultraman is completely different than any of the triathlons we were used to. Ultraman doesn't have aid stations and lots of volunteers to support the athletes, instead each athlete brings a crew to support them. Ingrid asked her mom, Ramona and Jeff and I to crew for her.

There was tons of planning and preparing, which for the most part worked out well, of course there were a few things that changed and some things we couldn't figure out until we were thre, but all the pre planning definitely made it easier. Ingrid is very detail oriented (come on, she's an engineer!) and I can be pretty detail oriented too. Ingrid had everything planned out and printed in a race plan, and I had further clarified many of the little details (down to 1/8 of an inch thick layer of peanut butter on the pb&j sandwiches :) ), so there wasn't much guesswork.

Day 1Swim start, nothing like the triathlons we're used to! Only 29 athletes and other than athlete's crews, not much of a crowd.They did have an announcer, Steve King, who was at the start and finish each day and at a few points on the course. He did an awesome job, his British accent didn't hurt either, made us feel like Phil & Paul were announcing at Ultraman!
Ingrid and Ramona pre-race

I was excited and nervous for Ingrid's swim, I knew she could do it, but I also knew this would be her longest swim ever! Jeff and I didn't really need to do anything for the swim, Ramona was kayaking and we just had to go to transition and set up her stuff before she finished swimming. Swim start

We drove to a few points on the road where we could see the swimmers across the lake (really we could only see the kayakers, they were really far away), and watched for Ramona's yellow and white kayak and red shirt. Ingrid was doing great! We got to transition and even though there were only 29 athletes, there were way more than 30 cars parked, so we had to park pretty far from the transition area, no big deal, we had plenty of time. We got her transition are set up and watched some of the other athletes finish the swim. Joni Moore of Salado TX wore Jack & Adams gear all weekend and made us feel right at home!

We borrowed binoculars from another crew and watched Ingrid swim strongly around the last buoy (there were only 2 buoys on the entire 6.2 mile course!). I was so excited for her!! I had watched other crews practically carry their athletes out of the water and into the transition area, so I grabbed a towel and expected to really help Ingrid into transition. She finished and gave me a great big hug, then ran over to her mom getting out of the kayak and gave her a big hug too! She was super happy and didn't seem tired at all! She even said "I think I prefer swimming 10K to running 10K!" Most of the athletes took their time in transition, at least 10-15 minutes, but Ingrid was ready to GO! She hurried through transition and didn't really need anything from me. She took off on the bike looking great!
Ingrid finishing her longest swim ever!

We planned to leapfrog Ingrid every 10K, even though we knew she probably wouldn't need anything at most of the stops, we stopped to see her, cheer for her, and give her anything she might unexpectedly need. We had a lot of fun, even though, really, we were just driving a little way and stopping and waiting over and over. We didn't see any other athletes or crews, everyone got really spread out on the swim. But we did see lots of other riders out on the course, most of them training for Ironman Canada. It got a little stressful when Ingrid would fly by and yell out something, it was hard to hear, but between the 3 of us, we usually got it figured out.

On Ritcher Pass (the longest climb of day 1), Ingrid passed us and yelled out "how long to the top of the climb?" I wasn't expecting that question (I'm not sure why not, who doesn't want to know how far to the end of climb??), but I had just been looking at the elevation maps, so I yelled back "just under 5 miles" Ingrid gave me a dirty look as she rode by- uh oh! We got back in the car and I confirmed with Jeff and Ramona, yep, looks like at least 4 if not 5 miles to the top of the climb...about a mile later we were descending! Sometimes elevation profiles make me want to scream! Ingrid had driven that part of the route the day before, so I'm sure she knew it was no where near 5 miles to the top when she asked me, hence the dirty look!Ingrid climbing Ritcher Pass, before asking me how far to the top
The view from Ritcher Pass

With about 20 miles to go, an official (there were only 2 for the entire event) stopped at our car and told us "you need to encourage her and get her moving or she may not make the cut off time" I said ok. But then I told Jeff, she has 20 miles to go and almost 3 hours until the cut off, she doesn't need to hurry at all! When Ingrid rode by she seemed upset and yelled about having to speed up or she'd miss the cut off, so I yelled after her "don't listen to him! You only have to go 7 mph to make it!!" There was lots of talk in the car about "how dare he stress Ingrid out unnecessarily!" and finally we decided maybe he'd looked at his watch wrong or something and we should give him a break, we didn't want to bring any bad karma our way.

Ingrid finished looking happy and strong! I had expected her to be really tired and want to go home right after finishing each day, but that wasn't the case at all. She was happy and wanted to chat with everyone at the finish, it was super cool to see her feeling so good at the finish! I felt bad when I finally suggested we needed to get going since we still had to eat dinner and get ready for day 2. We got back to the house and I realized I was EXHAUSTED! Why?? I hadn't done anything all day except get in and out of the car about 30 times (and used my triathlon math skills to their fullest)! I wasn't dehydrated, but I realized I had barely eaten anything all day- oops, that was a stupid mistake! So I made sure to pack more quick and easy to eat food in the crew food cooler for day 2. About 10pm I knew that I wouldn't be getting much sleep, I still had to finish some of Ingrid's day 2 food, pack my stuff for the overnight in Princeton, and make a poster or 2 to entertain Ingrid for the LONG day 2 ride. I think I got to bed about 11 and I'm pretty sure I was asleep before my head hit the pillow!