What a day! What a race! Settle in, this is going to be a long and picture-heavy post Want more pictures? Like Girl with the Red Hair on Facebook and check out the album I posted there!

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Eric took Sunday off from work (he works weekends) so he could come with me to Kelowna for the triathlon and be the official “blog photographer” or blog-opher as he likes to call it – so all the photos below are courtesy of Eric! We got to Kelowna around 3:00 PM on Saturday and I met up with my friend Jamie, who was also doing the sprint distance (her first triathlon and second race ever!), she showed me the course and we went to the pre-race briefing together.

The three of us (me, Jamie, Eric) then went to Boston Pizza for some pre-race carb-loading.

Eric and I stayed with my aunt while there. When we got to her place we stayed up visiting a little later than we should have so lights didn’t go out until about 10:00 PM. Before going to bed I laid out all my race stuff. I can’t believe how much stuff you need for a triathlon!

In the pile (going left to right): sweatshirt and sweats to wear race morning, swimsuit, sports bra and goggles, tank top, shorts, socks and bike helmet, two towels, deodorant, body glide, headband, swim cap, hairbrush and running hat. Whew!

4:30 AM came bright and early and we picked up Jamie at 5:30 before heading to the start. We were at the transition area by 6:00 AM to set up our stuff and get body marked. Our wave started at 7:20 AM.

I got lots of comments on my 333 number!

A lot of people told me to practice my transitions before hand but I never did get around to it. Everything turned out fine. For an outfit I decided to wear my bathing suit with a sports bra underneath and then I pulled on some shorts and a tank top after the swim. It worked perfectly with zero chafing!

Finally it was time to head down to the swim start. I was starting to get pretty nervous at this point.

Jamie and I did a little warm-up swim and before we knew it it was our turn!

SWIM – 750 m, 16:13

I was surprised about how nervous I was. I am a very strong swimmer and I used to be a lifeguard/swim instructor but something about the deep, dark lake and all the people made me anxious. I was swimming fine but I could literally feel a tightness in my chest during it.

We did a triangle route that involved going around three yellow buoys. It took until the second buoy for the tightness in my chest to go away and for me to calm down. I just kept thinking “omg, I can’t wait for this to be over.” It was a very long 16 minutes.

I did front crawl with a bit of breaststroke thrown in. If I felt that freaked out and I consider myself a strong swimmer I can 100% see why “weak” swimmers have issues with the swim leg of triathlons. There is just something about having all these people swimming around you (over you, under you, into you) and the black lake that is scary.

TRANSITION 1 (swim to bike) – 3:33

My first transition went well. I took a cup of gatorade from the aid station as soon as I got out of the water so I walked/ran to my transition area while drinking it. Once I got there I dried my legs/feet and pulled my shorts on, then pulled my tank top on and finally put my shoes and socks on. Helmet went on last and then I was off.

Eric hung back to get pictures of Jamie coming out of the water so didn’t get my bike start, but here’s a good one of Jamie at her bike start!

BIKE – 20 km (Garmin said 12.29 miles) in 44:35, 16.9 mph pace

The bike was a 10K loop that we did twice. There was one big climb at the beginning (and then the middle) but I would say overall it was a mostly downhill course. The 16.9 mph pace I averaged is really fast for me! I was feeling really out-of-breath and anxious when the bike started but managed to calm down about halfway through the first loop. I was all smiles the rest of the race!

And once you got to the top of that first big climb at mile 1 and again at mile 7 the view was incredible – made it totally worth it!

Considering biking was my least favourite sport to train for I was surprised how strong I felt during this leg. I even passed several people – and a few people who had clip-in pedals and were on much nicer bikes than mine. I guess that just goes to show that it’s not the bike that counts, it’s the rider!

TRANSITION 2 (bike to run) – 2:30 (unofficial)

For some reason my T2 time isn’t included in the official results so I calculated that myself by subtracting all my other times from my final time

T2 was quick. Dropped my bike off, threw on my hat, chugged some water, grabbed a GU and I was off. It felt faster than 2:30!

RUN – 5 KM in 28:30, 9:07 pace

I was done by this point. My legs were so heavy and tired. I was shocked to look down at my Garmin and see an 8:30 pace flashing back at me 0.5 miles into the run because I certainly was not feeling it. I’m not sure what it is about running after biking but even though you feel like crap, your legs are ready to boogie!

The run flew by. At the beginning I was like “OMG, I cannot run for 30 minutes” but this run went by really quickly and before I knew it I was heading for the finish line! We ran along the lake and it was very pretty and scenic.

FINAL TIME – 1:34:20!!!!!!

I don’t know why, but I was expecting this race to take me close to two hours, so my goal was to break 2 hours. Clearly I blew that goal out of the water!

Jamie did awesome too!

Final Thoughts on my First Triathlon:

This was a really, really fun race. Doing three different sports made the 1.5 hours I was racing fly by; I would say this race went by faster than any other one I’ve done. The swim was a mental challenge, but overall it was not nearly as scary or difficult as I thought it was going to be. I was more worked up over this than I needed to be.

Are there more in my future? Heck yes! I already have an entry that I had to defer for the one in Kamloops next May and I may look into doing the Olympic distance next summer!

If you have the chance to try a triathlon, do it. I really enjoyed this race and had so much fun!

A.K.A. to hell and back or the most brutal race I’ve ever done or up the mountain we go.

Here are the race stats in a nutshell. Just looking at this elevation profile makes me shudder:

And how I felt about the race (one of many live tweets that happened during the race. See them all here):

 

OK, I think that sums it up, that’s your race report!

……..just kidding, of course. I guess we’ll start with the night before.

I have been training for this race with a group of friends for the last 3-4 months so we all headed down to Kelowna (a little over a 2-hour drive) on Saturday and had a hotel room for the night before the race. We went out for a yummy dinner and walked along the beautiful Kelowna waterfront, hitting the sack around 10:00 PM that night.

Because the 25K we were doing was the shortest race in an ultra series that also included 50K and 50-miles (about 80K) our race didn’t start until 11:00 AM. The start times were staggered so all racers would finish closer together.

This meant we got to sleep in until around 8:00 AM and have a leisurely breakfast. Since I knew I wouldn’t be running for a few more hours I filled up on a bigger breakfast than normal. I was very happy for this huge breakfast later on.

My friend Tara surprised us all with matching shirts so we took some pictures in them before the race started!

Originally I was going to wear the outfit I was in above, but with the 11:00 AM start time and the sun pounding down I decided to change at the last minute. I’m so glad I did! I wore my Lululemon run swiftly tank top and my Nike tempo shorts.

 
We got to the start about an hour early to pick up our race packages and get situated. I soon realized something had happened to my camelbak and all the water had leaked out. Just what you want to find out when you’re about to run up a mountain at 11:00 AM and its already 20 C (about 70 F) out and only going to get hotter.

We tried to patch it using packing tape and waterproof bandages (blurry picture below), unfortunately it still leaked so I had to turn it upside down in my pack and suck really hard (twss) to get water out.

 
It was around this point that blog reader Susan (Hi Susan!) came over to say ‘hi’ to me! I saw Susan several more times on the course and she did awesome!!

Time to start!

Looking at the huge mountain we were about to climb…

And before we knew it, away we went! It started out with a bit of a jaunt on the paved road before entering the trails.

Mile 1 – 13:07

Mile 2 – 13:24
 
Once we hit the trails it was up, up, up!

Mile 3 – 22:23

I ended up refilling my water bottle at this creek on the way back! Don’t worry, the race director had told us beforehand that this water was OK to drink.

We also took this goofy photo at the cross-roads pretending we didn’t know what way to go because my friends husband (who was doing the 50K) was worried we were going to get lost That picture also gives you an idea of the terrain – we were in a very wooded area at this point!

Mile 4 – 19:42 –> the 1st aid station

This was where the trail racing mentality was way different. After all the climbing we did to get to the first aid station we stood around for a good 3-5 minutes refilling our waters and stuffing our faces with orange slices and chips. Oh the chips! Every race should have delicious salty chips at the aid station!

I actually really, really enjoyed the first 4ish miles of this course. It was on a beautiful single track trail that was straight through the woods. It was after this first aid station that I started to hate the road as the next 4 miles were straight UPHILL on a double-track, logging road with no shade.

Mile 5 – 23:28

Mile 6 – 15:40

I felt worse at mile 6 then I did at mile 20 of my marathon. The uphill was not ending and there was no-one else around me at this point, I was trying to run as much as possible but it was so hard and my back was killing me from all the climbing.

I tweeted this picture and got lots of tweets back encouraging me and cheering me on and that really helped me power through.

Mile 7 – 18:46

Mile 8 – 18:01

A full mile after we should have been at the aid station we finally reached it! I spent about 10 minutes at this aid station resting, drinking and eating before heading back down the hills. I refilled my camelbak but about 5 minutes after leaving the aid station it had leaked all over me so I was soaking wet. That was lovely.

Mile 9 – 20:36 –> aid station

You would think going downhill would be easier – but it wasn’t. My knees were aching and the front of my quads were screaming at me.

Mile 10 – 11:14

Shortly after this mile a lady named Suzanne came up behind me and we ran together for the next 2.5 miles. It was nice to have someone to talk to and take my mind off the pain in my legs. She also took stopped to take this picture – that would never happen at a road race I bet!

Mile 11 – 14:29

Mile 12 – 12:38

Back to the 1st aid station again! At this point one of my friends had caught up with me and since my camelbak was leaking everywhere she gave me one of her spare water bottles to use. I was so grateful for that bottle!

Mile 13 – 15:06

Mile 14 – 13:08

Dare I say I was actually enjoying this part of the run? We were back in the pretty woods and shaded. However, there was one big stretch that was almost straight downhill and very technical. It was kind of scary trying to pick your way down with tired legs.

Mile 15 – 16:09

The above picture was taken at the beginning of the race. I was not that excited to be back on the paved road. It was absolutely torturous after running in the trails for the last 14 miles. The bottoms of my feet were so beat up after stepping on so many rocks that every single step on the pavement hurt.

It was also around this point I got lost. The trail was not that well marked and just had little orange flags everywhere. I knew that we had to get off the paved road and back onto the trail at some point so I was watching hard for the little orange flag. I saw one that I thought might be it and started to wonder off the road at the wrong spot. There was NO-ONE around me to ask. I was so frustrated at this point. Finally some people came along and told me that it was further up ahead.

Mile 16 – 15:08

I honestly thought the finish would NEVER come. Then I heard my friends cheering for me and booted it down the hill.

Mile 16 – 16.65 – 13:42

Final Garmin Stats

16.65 miles – 4:32:30 – 16:32 average pace

I have never been so happy to finish a race. All my friends were there waiting for me and my friend Jamie came to see me at the end. I actually felt a little delirious and out-of-it. I peeled off my socks and shoes and went and sat down in the lake. I didn’t even have the energy to wade into the lake, I just plopped down on the edge and let the cold water wash over my legs. Finally after relaxing for a bit and laying around I devoured a veggie burger and salad.

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Final Thoughts: This race was really hard. It was well-organized and they had yummy food available for the racers afterwards but I would never do it again because the course was so hard. At the beginning of the race the race director said he was hoping the 25K would be a good intro for ultra-running and that people would come back and do the 50K next year but if anything this race made me hate the idea of doing an ultra. I did not enjoy the course or the terrain at all and found it really grueling and frustrating. I love trail running but I prefer rolling hills and single-track trails. The straight up and straight back down again was not fun for my mind or my body.

After the race I said this was harder than my marathon. In hindsight, I don’t think it was harder physically as I’m not nearly as sore after doing this race as I was after my marathon but I think it was mentally harder. I actually seriously considered quitting for awhile and I’ve never done that before, not even during my marathon.

OK, I will wrap this huge post up here. To everyone who was tweeting at me yesterday: Thank you. Thank you so much. You helped me more than you know!

This weekend I drove to Kelowna to run my third race of the Dirty Feet Series. I love this race series if you can’t tell Read about my first two races with them here and here!

I was especially excited for this race because the plan was to run it with my friend Jamie from high school. Jamie just started running a little over a month ago and this was her first race ever!

Jamie and me at our graduation dance, circa 2006:

This past weekend after the race!

We got to the race about 1.5 hours early on Sunday because we had to pick up our packages still. So we sipped on some coffee and spent some time walking around in the pretty trails.

I spy a chipmunk!

Being the clutz I am I managed to spill coffee all over my brand new $50 lululemon shirt! Argh.

We got to see the 21k’ers and the 10k’ers take off!

Yet, despite being 1.5 hours early we still managed to almost miss our own race start. We’d gone to the porta-potties to use the washroom one more time and as we were coming back up we heard her say, “OK, we’ll start in about 10 seconds!” we both looked at each other like ohhhhh crap. And then we were off!

It was a super hilly course! I told Jamie to set the pace and I would run behind her. Since there were so many hills and steep inclines I told her to just run at her own pace and take it easy, walking when she needed to.

Mile 1 – 14:00

I seriously could not get over how gorgeous these trails were. Probably the prettiest trails I’ve ever ran on!

And there were A LOT of hills. Up, up, up we go!

We even hit some pretty major mud at one point!

Mile 2 – 16:34

We hit some really gorgeous views between Miles 2 and 3. We were keeping up a pretty good walk/run routine by now – walking the big hills and jogging on the flats and downhills. Jamie was doing incredibly well considering she just started running and had mostly only trained on flat terrain!

Kind of sad to see all the burnt trees from the wildfires that raged through Kelowna!

We were at the back of the pack and for a lot of the time it was just me and Jamie with no-one else around. Thank god for the VERY well-marked course!

Mile 3 – 15:04

When we saw the finish line I yelled at Jamie to GO GO GO and she sprinted through to the end!I’m so proud of her. She did amazing for her first race!

Miles 3 – 3.25 – 11:23

Final Garmin Stats

3.25 miles – 48:27 – 14:55 pace

We grabbed some food and water and hung around for about 20 minutes after the race but our stomach’s were screaming for more than just the snacks that were at the race finish so we booked it into town for brunch at IHOP. Now, I’d never ate at IHOP before, but I imagine it’s similar to what “heaven” would be like

Seriously, I was OBSESSED with the huge menu and all the healthy choices! I ended up with a spinach and mushroom egg-white omelette, with hollandaise on the side and chocolate chip pancakes. OH YUM!

I had a seriously fun day hanging out with Jamie and running the race with her. I hope she feels super proud of her big accomplishment. Running 5K, especially for the first time, is hard and doing it on the trails is even harder. She did amazing! I had way more fun running with her and supporting her through her first race than I ever do running alone.

Do you prefer to run with people or by yourself?