USAT Age Group National Championships
June 30, 2007
Olympic Distance (0.9 mile swim/25 mile bike/6.1 mile run)
11th in AG, Qualified for 2007 USAT Age Group Worlds
Swim: 25:31
T1: 1:37
Bike: 1:20:56
T2: 1:10
Run: 49:55
Total: 2:39:07
Hi! Want to hear about the Age Group Nationals? To get to that race you have to place 1st or top 10% in your age group in a USAT sanctioned race (or top 33% in a regional qualifying meet) in the previous year. Then you have to travel to where the annual championship race is being held. Since it was just outside the Portland, OR area this year, this was not a problem once I had qualified in ‘06 (I had qualified in ’05 for the ’06 championship in Kansas City, but the humidity in July was not appealing nor was the fuss to get there).
Road trip…got in to Hillsboro/Forest Grove area on Thursday to rainy, cool weather (oh no, not again!). Drove out to Hagg Lake, hung around to watch the awards ceremony of the Aqualathon that had just finished (or is it Aquathon?), a run/swim/run race. Between rain showers, I got on my bike and
rode the 11 mile loop around the lake – a reconnaissance mission to familiarize myself with the course. And I counted 11 hills, 3 of them steep ones (anything that reduces me to under 10 mph is a challenging hill and these were 6-7 mph’ers, and some were long). But what goes up, has to come down and sure enough, those down hills were there, usually with a hairpin turn at the bottom. Unlike in the car when I drove the route, braking on the bike was not necessary. In fact, during the race when the roads were dry (2 days later) and when caution is thrown to the wind, I got my max speeds up to 39.5 mph. Wheeeeeeee!!!
Hi! Want to hear about the Age Group Nationals? To get to that race you have to place 1st or top 10% in your age group in a USAT sanctioned race (or top 33% in a regional qualifying meet) in the previous year. Then you have to travel to where the annual championship race is being held. Since it was just outside the Portland, OR area this year, this was not a problem once I had qualified in ‘06 (I had qualified in ’05 for the ’06 championship in Kansas City, but the humidity in July was not appealing nor was the fuss to get there).
Road trip…got in to Hillsboro/Forest Grove area on Thursday to rainy, cool weather (oh no, not again!). Drove out to Hagg Lake, hung around to watch the awards ceremony of the Aqualathon that had just finished (or is it Aquathon?), a run/swim/run race. Between rain showers, I got on my bike and
rode the 11 mile loop around the lake – a reconnaissance mission to familiarize myself with the course. And I counted 11 hills, 3 of them steep ones (anything that reduces me to under 10 mph is a challenging hill and these were 6-7 mph’ers, and some were long). But what goes up, has to come down and sure enough, those down hills were there, usually with a hairpin turn at the bottom. Unlike in the car when I drove the route, braking on the bike was not necessary. In fact, during the race when the roads were dry (2 days later) and when caution is thrown to the wind, I got my max speeds up to 39.5 mph. Wheeeeeeee!!!Sandy L. hams it up after qualifing for 2008 Worlds in the Aquathon (or is it Aqualathon?)
Back to the Best Western. Nothing going on there, despite all the people in town for this race, so I headed down the street to McMenamins for a beer and dinner. Interesting old historic hotel with bars, restaurants, odd art and painted doors and plumbing pipes painted with gargoyles and such in a sort of Dead Head/Tolkien kind of way. You had to have been there. It was interesting but I just felt lonely and out of place. Nothing else to do, so I went back to the hotel to bed (don’t you hate going to bed when it’s still light out on a rainy summer evening? Depressing.).
Back to the Best Western. Nothing going on there, despite all the people in town for this race, so I headed down the street to McMenamins for a beer and dinner. Interesting old historic hotel with bars, restaurants, odd art and painted doors and plumbing pipes painted with gargoyles and such in a sort of Dead Head/Tolkien kind of way. You had to have been there. It was interesting but I just felt lonely and out of place. Nothing else to do, so I went back to the hotel to bed (don’t you hate going to bed when it’s still light out on a rainy summer evening? Depressing.).
Next day was packet pick up day. For packet pick up, that would be the Fairgrounds in Hillsboro, 10 miles in the opposite direction from the race site of Hagg Lake, which was 15 miles in the other direction from my hotel. With nothing better to do, I arrived at packet pick up 3 hours early. Tick Tock Tick Tock. OK, it paid off – I was up front when the line opened, got my packet quickly (race numbers, color coded swim cap, etc.) and was out the door heading for the race site to rack my bike. I thought this would be an advantageous strategy - remember how it is good to be an early bird and get that good transition spot? So I drive the 25 miles out to the lake. Oh, I’m early AGAIN. Must wait until transition opens. OK, open now…but look. In a big important race like this, there are numbered stickers along the racks; there is to be no choosing a spot. That is just as well. At least I don’t have to make any decisions. The bike goes in place and that’s that. By now I have run into Dave and Francie several times. They came up in their RV from California for this race. They are the ones I run into at every turn and turn out to be good company. Dave pegs me early as a “Type A” since I show up early to everything, but he is the same (early to everything).
Let’s see now what? Oh yes, a stop at the hotel for a shower then back to the Fairgrounds for the pasta dinner I paid for. I thought it would be fun and social. But maybe since I was one of the earliest people arriving for that too, no one else had really shown up yet (except Dave and Francie and a couple other old geezers). Speaking of old geezers, since this was an “AGE Group” Nationals meet, it did seem to draw lots of “mature” racers. And actually, I should be more respectful since there were many men and women in their 70’s to race this Olympic distance and looking pretty damn good doing it. Sure, lots of them were pretty weather-beaten and leathery looking from years of outdoor athletics, but they were lean and strong and pretty fast and moving forward and having fun. A 60 year old woman beat my overall time. Many of the 60-something geezers, I mean men, I chatted with have numerous Ironman races behind them and lots of experience with these National events, so it was interesting to get a glimpse into this world. I suppose the older racers have more time and money than a lot of the younger ones. If you are interested in looking over results and the general size of the various age groups, here’s a link: Overall by Gender Age Group Results
Anyway, race morning came. Who can sleep anyway, so I just get up early, like 4:30 and head out that 15 miles to the lake. Again, I’m one of the earliest birds (but look! It’s Dave and Francie’s RV already there, so I park next to them). I set up my transition area and go back to the car for a snooze under my blanket (yes, the same blanket I had at Cascade’s Edge). Despite the 2 previous days being rainy and cool, this a.m. is dawning clear and bright and the sun is quickly warming the air. A perfect day for a race!
After my nap, I do my usual routine of checking transition area, checking all the in/out points (“swim in”, “bike out”, “mount/dismount area”, bike in”, “run out”, “finish”). I check for landmarks from various angles (with 1500 bikes racked and 25 rows x 3 columes of racks, you want to be able to find your own transtion spot without hesitation when blood flow to the brain is reduced). Easy enough if you just pay attention and think ahead. But Dave is one rack away from me and brings an 8 foot tall smiley-flower face thing to every race, so I figure I’ll site off of that goofy thing and I did.
Did my jog, got the wetsuit on and headed for the water. The sun was just over the hill, in a straight line to where our out-and-back swim was. The buoys were invisible when you got to water level with the sun glare, but it was easy enough to site off of something up on the hillside. No problems. Everyone had to fret about it, but I figure it was pre-race jitters - you have to worry about something.
The swim went well (0.9 miles), my T1 felt fine (and I later discovered it was THE fastest T1 in my age group, so you might just think of me as the “2007 T1 Age Group National Champion”. I came into T1 and there was Bridget D. sitting (SITTING!) during her transition (but who knows, she might have had glass in her foot or something, but sitting is a no-no for a serious T1 and Bridget is the one who won my Age Group, beating me by 17 minutes). I was in and out of T1 and she was still sitting. But within 2 minutes she blasted past me on the bike ride and the natural order of things was restored.
The swim went well (0.9 miles), my T1 felt fine (and I later discovered it was THE fastest T1 in my age group, so you might just think of me as the “2007 T1 Age Group National Champion”. I came into T1 and there was Bridget D. sitting (SITTING!) during her transition (but who knows, she might have had glass in her foot or something, but sitting is a no-no for a serious T1 and Bridget is the one who won my Age Group, beating me by 17 minutes). I was in and out of T1 and she was still sitting. But within 2 minutes she blasted past me on the bike ride and the natural order of things was restored.
Check her out, the“2007 T1 Age Group National Champion”.
The bike ride was very pretty and the air smelled good (sweet and piney, I heard some reports of deer and coyote too). I worked hard on the bike. I got passed by some of my AG, but also passed a few (along with lots of older AG’ers). The hills were hard and slow, crawling-slow, but it slowed everyone down so it didn’t feel like I was falling behind. Well, except on the second lap of the lake. Since they sent the oldest age groups out first, then paused 30 minutes after my group (females 50-54) before sending out the 30-34 male hotshots, we had a nice first loop with sparse bike traffic. By the second loop, however, those young bucks (and does) were streaming out of the transition area like angry hornets (and they sounded that way too, with those disk wheels that hum), and joining us on the road. I continued to pass people whilst getting passed myself. And the young fast ones can blast up those hills quite impressively. There was a hill near the end of each loop that was lined with spectators who cheered everyone on. It’s amazing how that really buoys you up and the hill doesn’t seem nearly so hard.
The bike ride was very pretty and the air smelled good (sweet and piney, I heard some reports of deer and coyote too). I worked hard on the bike. I got passed by some of my AG, but also passed a few (along with lots of older AG’ers). The hills were hard and slow, crawling-slow, but it slowed everyone down so it didn’t feel like I was falling behind. Well, except on the second lap of the lake. Since they sent the oldest age groups out first, then paused 30 minutes after my group (females 50-54) before sending out the 30-34 male hotshots, we had a nice first loop with sparse bike traffic. By the second loop, however, those young bucks (and does) were streaming out of the transition area like angry hornets (and they sounded that way too, with those disk wheels that hum), and joining us on the road. I continued to pass people whilst getting passed myself. And the young fast ones can blast up those hills quite impressively. There was a hill near the end of each loop that was lined with spectators who cheered everyone on. It’s amazing how that really buoys you up and the hill doesn’t seem nearly so hard.
The bike leg came to a close, T2 came and went and I was off for the run (4 hills each way on that). Did I mention that the bike had 22 hills? The run did not feel fast at all, though I was able to relax and pick up speed on those downhills. The uphills must have been hard for everyone since I managed to pass many women near my age. I reeled in a bunch of old ladies and some in my AG (Nancy A., a local who is a strong runner, reeled me in very early in the run and 
went on to beat me by over 3 minutes). Well, I was feeling pretty good with how I seemed to be doing, despite the difficulty of those hills (oh, and some sciatic pain and a thigh pain that made me a little cautious lest I pull something). I was nearing the finish where there were a few turns at the end so you couldn’t really see too far up ahead of you. Too late I saw another woman who looked to be about my age. I was closing in on her but much too late saw that she was indeed in my age group. Had the race been just 25 yards longer I could have taken her, but “could’ve/would’ve” didn’t happen and she beat me by 3 seconds. That’s the thing about racing – I’m sure I “could’ve” made up 3 seconds somewhere in the race to finish in front of her, but without knowing ahead of time how close it would be, I didn’t. I can’t/don’t go all out for the whole race. Focus lags, fatigue sets you back or there are stretches 
where you don’t have the immediate motivation to push like I would have if I had foreseen the close finish. Well, this put me in my place (remember my 3 second advantage to take 3rd at Cascade’s Edge?), since this 3 seconds was the difference between 10th and 11th place. 10th place was a podium finish here at Nationals with the top ten (in each AG) getting on stage, getting the commerative beer stein, photos taken and an automatic slot in next years AG Nationals. 3 SECONDS! ARGGH! The good news is that 11th place is much better than I expected to do (based on last years times and comparing my USAT ranking with others). I also had some better splits compared to an Olympic race I did at Black Diamond last Sept. (and this was much hillier) so I count that as progress and improvement.
went on to beat me by over 3 minutes). Well, I was feeling pretty good with how I seemed to be doing, despite the difficulty of those hills (oh, and some sciatic pain and a thigh pain that made me a little cautious lest I pull something). I was nearing the finish where there were a few turns at the end so you couldn’t really see too far up ahead of you. Too late I saw another woman who looked to be about my age. I was closing in on her but much too late saw that she was indeed in my age group. Had the race been just 25 yards longer I could have taken her, but “could’ve/would’ve” didn’t happen and she beat me by 3 seconds. That’s the thing about racing – I’m sure I “could’ve” made up 3 seconds somewhere in the race to finish in front of her, but without knowing ahead of time how close it would be, I didn’t. I can’t/don’t go all out for the whole race. Focus lags, fatigue sets you back or there are stretches 
where you don’t have the immediate motivation to push like I would have if I had foreseen the close finish. Well, this put me in my place (remember my 3 second advantage to take 3rd at Cascade’s Edge?), since this 3 seconds was the difference between 10th and 11th place. 10th place was a podium finish here at Nationals with the top ten (in each AG) getting on stage, getting the commerative beer stein, photos taken and an automatic slot in next years AG Nationals. 3 SECONDS! ARGGH! The good news is that 11th place is much better than I expected to do (based on last years times and comparing my USAT ranking with others). I also had some better splits compared to an Olympic race I did at Black Diamond last Sept. (and this was much hillier) so I count that as progress and improvement. Hanging around after the race is always fun and with people from all over the country, there was no shortage of people to talk to and compare race details with. I had already checked out of my motel that a.m. (not having had the foresight to think I might want a nap and shower even though I planned to return to Seattle that night). But, back to the fairgrounds one last time and I found a public shower there. And once again, I had about 2 hours to kill before the awards ceremony (they posted no results right after the race, you had to come to the awards ceremony at 5 p.m. to find out how you did). I saw some familiar faces from the NW racing scene there and hung out awhile. Finally, it was time so I hit the road back to Seattle. Despite running the downhills rather hard, I had no problems with sore legs the next day or two. That’s progress too.
If this link is still good, it will take you to a site where you can see a 2.5 minute video sample that will give you a flavor of race day, which is very cool.
If this link is still good, it will take you to a site where you can see a 2.5 minute video sample that will give you a flavor of race day, which is very cool.
Just scroll down on the page to find the video screen: http://www.endurancefilms.com/Home/ProductnbspDetails/tabid/914/ProductID/83/Default.aspx
Here are a few more photos and some results (my age group) from the race:
Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total Time
1 Bridget Dawson 50 Portland OR 24:46 2:32 1:11:46 1:18 42:37 2:22:57
2 Nancy Smith 51 New Britain PA 23:42 2:57 1:11:45 1:16 45:07 2:24:46
3 Donna Smyers 50 Adamant VT 26:19 1:54 1:09:26 1:25 48:16 2:27:18
4 Kimberlee Rouse 52 San Diego CA 28:14 3:19 1:12:32 1:34 43:18 2:28:54
5 Ann Seifert 50 Helena MT 24:11 2:11 1:14:30 1:14 47:24 2:29:28
6 Claire Mccarty 51 Malibu CA 24:02 2:23 1:17:42 1:33 47:28 2:33:06
7 Susan Griffin Kaklik 52 Castle Rock CO 23:19 1:48 1:18:55 1:27 48:01 2:33:29
8 Terry Latham 52 Albuquerque NM 22:28 2:10 1:17:41 1:33 51:06 2:34:58
9 Nancy Abraham 51 Steilacoom WA 25:28 2:21 1:20:47 1:18 45:59 2:35:51
10 Deborah Cipriano 50 FranklinLks NJ 22:16 2:01 1:16:46 1:31 56:31 2:39:04
11 Karen Buttram 50 Seattle WA 25:31 1:37 1:20:56 1:10 49:55 2:39:07
Here are a few more photos and some results (my age group) from the race:
Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total Time
1 Bridget Dawson 50 Portland OR 24:46 2:32 1:11:46 1:18 42:37 2:22:57
2 Nancy Smith 51 New Britain PA 23:42 2:57 1:11:45 1:16 45:07 2:24:46
3 Donna Smyers 50 Adamant VT 26:19 1:54 1:09:26 1:25 48:16 2:27:18
4 Kimberlee Rouse 52 San Diego CA 28:14 3:19 1:12:32 1:34 43:18 2:28:54
5 Ann Seifert 50 Helena MT 24:11 2:11 1:14:30 1:14 47:24 2:29:28
6 Claire Mccarty 51 Malibu CA 24:02 2:23 1:17:42 1:33 47:28 2:33:06
7 Susan Griffin Kaklik 52 Castle Rock CO 23:19 1:48 1:18:55 1:27 48:01 2:33:29
8 Terry Latham 52 Albuquerque NM 22:28 2:10 1:17:41 1:33 51:06 2:34:58
9 Nancy Abraham 51 Steilacoom WA 25:28 2:21 1:20:47 1:18 45:59 2:35:51
10 Deborah Cipriano 50 FranklinLks NJ 22:16 2:01 1:16:46 1:31 56:31 2:39:04
11 Karen Buttram 50 Seattle WA 25:31 1:37 1:20:56 1:10 49:55 2:39:07
1 comment:
Hi Karen!
Thanks for stopping by and saying hi, and for writing such kind words about me on your blog!
I remember you well. :) I admire you too and can only hope to have more luck fending you off next time...
Jessi
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