Jennifer Mae Edwards: March 2013

Lavaman 2013

From “DQ” to “#2” and We Say “Oh YES” to an Ono Recovery Fishing Trip

We arrived on the Big Island for our fourth tri-camp and Lavaman retreat with mixed emotions. A year ago we had been joined by my entire family including my parents, my brother Kyle and his wife Katie. In the year that transpired, Katie had passed away and as the plane touched down we found ourselves unusually contemplative. Kyle would join us along with our friend Kaitlyn, but the family was different and Katie was gone. Lavaman hosts a 5K run on the Friday before the race. By sheer coincidence, it was held precisely on the six-month anniversary of Katie’s passing. Kyle and Kaitlyn ran the race in shirts honoring Katie.

*** Honoring Katie: The stencil is in Katie’s handwriting. ***

On a happier front, the six weeks prior to the race had been a flurry of decidedly NON-triathlon house buying activities. We made an offer on our dream house January 28^th, closed February 15^th and moved in on March 3^rd. Zoom! We were immersed in an entirely different kind of chaos that included completely repainting, re-flooring, furnishing and moving into the new house in addition to renting our old house. For the first time in several years I missed planned workouts and arrived at the race feeling much less prepared than usual. But, with a healthy dose of perspective firmly in place, I was mindful that these are good problems to have and vowed to simply enjoy my time and to do my best.

*** Training Cliff: Not exactly an ideal build for Lavaman. Or maybe a double-top-secret taper? ***

Lavaman!

We had a glorious week of swimming, biking, running and pupu-ing (Hawaiian appetizers!) with our first coaches Julie & Duncan, and our motley crew of like-minded tri geeks. Soon enough, the morning of Lavaman was upon us!

*** Pre-Lavaman Group Ride: Fun in the sun! ***

Swim: 29:16

After a minor meltdown over my (lack of) swimming progress over the winter, superhero Mark had swooped in to save the day. He enlisted the help of local tri-stud Erin E. and I’d spent ten weeks working with (the ridiculously patient) Erin at zero-dark-thirty on Friday mornings. He helped improve my stroke significantly and if 1,000 yard time trials were any indication, I was swimming faster than ever. Logic would dictate that my Lavaman swim time would be improved as well but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I got a good start and felt I swam well but still came out of the water almost three minutes slower than last year.

*** Out of the Water: Not thrilled with my time but perspective firmly in place! ***

I heard from a lot of other racers that it was a “slow swim”with the current working against us. While the results seem to validate their sentiments, it certainly would have helped if I’d swum a straight line! D’oh, d’oh, d’oh! I reminded myself that in the grand scheme of things all that mattered was that I do my best and headed up the beach to T-1.

*** Swimming Straight: It’s an art I haven’t mastered, apparently. Mark offered that perhaps I was trying to swim the outline of the Stanley Cup? Thanks Mark. Superhero status revoked, for now. ***

T-1: 2:24

T-1 was no drama mama. There were still a lot of bikes on the racks which gave me hope that I wasn’t DFL coming out of the water, but I was pretty sure the fasties were well in front of me.

Bike: 1:06:34 (22.4 MPH)

Here’s where it got (and stayed) interesting. Right off the bat I launched my water on a speed bump coming out of the Hilton. A helpful volunteer picked it up for me but I couldn’t bear the thought of the time lost (and potential crash caused) by turning around to retrieve it so I elected to push on without. Luckily, it was an overcast day and I didn’t feel thirsty until I approached the turnaround where I grabbed a bottle at the aid station.

*** Feeling Groovy: Pushing the targeted watts outbound and considering turning it up on the return! ***

I was able to Jennerate (ha!) the targeted 180 – 185 watts comfortably and felt pleased with the effort. I hadn’t been passed by a single woman but again, figured the fast gals were in front of me and guessed based on the swim time I was still sitting at around 15^th place.

Then, without warning coming out of the turnaround, the shizz hit the fan. As I got back up to speed on the turn, I came upon two cyclists who were camped out on the shoulder. My options were: 1 – run into them, 2 – stop suddenly and have someone run into me or 3 – pass them on their left and (slightly!!!!) cross the (one of FOUR!!!) white fog line. I passed safely and got back underway only to be swooped upon by a referee from behind who announced like an umpire: “You’re out!” Um… “Excuse me?” I asked. “You’re over the white line and disqualified!” and he zoomed off. WTF?

*** Scene of the Crime: I’d crossed a white fog line and been declared disqualified while maneuvering around a couple of camped out cyclists. Never mind that it was one of FOUR fog lines at that point and that I was avoiding a collision. Sigh. ***

Here’s where my mental toughness was tested. What I really wanted to do is pull over and cry. Crying, as we will see later, seemed to be my default reaction to any strong emotion on the day. What I did instead was push on at those targeted watts. Would they pull me off the course as I headed out onto the run? Would I be banned for life from any future triathlon? Oh geeze – stop with the drama I told myself. And remember, in the grand scheme of things what really matters is you do your best and the bike was my strength. So, I stayed strong (ish), pedaled on and headed back towards T-2.

T-2: 1:34

I arrived in T-2 a bit discombobulated. Half surprised there was no referee waiting with handcuffs, I found myself free to continue onto the run. Simple enough, you’d think. Take off left bike shoe, put on left run shoe. Take off right bike shoe, put (back!) on right bike shoe. Start to run. D’oh! Turn around. Take of right bike shoe AGAIN, put on right RUN shoe and yes, now I was off on the run!

Run: 50:41 (8:10 mm)

Other than the mental challenge of knowing I’d likely been disqualified, I felt good on the run. And there was a silver lining: For the first time at Lavaman I wasn’t passed by a parade of fleet footed women. In fact, I was only passed by a few other ladies and they didn’t appear to be in my age group. Figuring I was simply holding my position within the race and that I wouldn’t record an official finish anyway, I ran strong to the finish. I repeated the mantra to simply DO MY BEST!

*** Lavafield Run: Tricky footing along the coastline but FUN! ***

At the finish line I was cheered in by Kyle and Katilyn. Shortly thereafter (with a PR finish!) Mark joined us. I hadn’t said much other than I’d had a good race, not wanting to sour the atmosphere. The organizers had flyers posted all around the finish area where you could use your smartphone to look up your finish time. I scanned, plugged in my number and my result popped up: Second in my age group – what would be my highest finish ever. At that moment, I began to consider that it just might matter after all.

*** Lavaman Results: Second of a hundred finishers in my age group! It also appeared I’d had the fastest bike split and a not-quite-horrible swim. ***

We headed out to pick up our bikes and I still hadn’t said much, though the peeps were already encouraging me to challenge the ruling. I didn’t want everyone to have to wait for me to talk it over with a referee and it had been a long day already. I intended to just head back to home, but as I rolled out of transition I noticed it had a little strip of red duct tape tagged on my shifter, like a scarlet letter. Yep, IT MATTERED. I handed my bike off to Kyle and promised to just have a quick chat with a referee to validate the decision so we could get out of there.

Back at the finish line I rounded up a nice referee easily enough and explained the scenario with my lower lip trembling. He seemed interested and even drew out a diagram (while I cried, apologetically) of the course and what happened to make sure he understood. Mark, Kyle and Kaitlyn joined me while the referee called the most senior referee to talk it over. More tears. More waiting. Finally the referee came over and let me know that the ruling had been overturned, and I was no longer disqualified. He was rewarded with even MORE tears. Classy, I know.

*** Overturned! ***

What a relief! My finish would hold and I’d be back on the podium! Unfortunately, that meant more waiting for the ever-patient peeps, but they were glad to do so and soon enough I was collecting some hardware! Thanks again for hanging out Julie, Duncan, Mark, Kyle, Katilyn, Andy, Jenn, Gene, Stacey and our own paparazzi Cris!

*** Team Chillin': Post race beers help keep the peeps happy while we wait! ***

The awards included a mug, a custom Lavaman bracelet, a gift certificate to the local bike shop and the requisite lei!

*** Women’s 35 – 39 Age Group Winners! Yes, I cried. Go figure. ***

*** Julie and Jenn: Double Hardware! ***

Race Recovery Fishing Trip: We say “Oh Yes” to Ono!

After a long day at the races, we’ve begun to somewhat regularly reward ourselves with a nice relaxing day of fishing. This year we were invited by Julie and Duncan’s Kona neighbor, Ernie, to spend the day on his boat fishing off the Kona coast. Ernie proved to be an extremely gracious host who clearly revels in sharing his love of fishing with others. With that, first thing Monday morning we were on the water enjoying the sunshine with our feet up.