That was almost unbearably cold!

When I decided to race the Littlefoot Tri- CO's season opener (cute name huh? reminds me of that little cartoon dinosaur I loved as a kid) in Morrison this past weekend, it didn't really cross my mind that the water in May in CO might be a tad chilly. It dawned on me last week when we got our umpteenth snow of the season that the temperature in the lake might just be a bit cold. I remained optimistic, even though the reported reading at Soda Lake was 53 degrees. I vaguely remember the water at IMAZ last year being about 10 degrees warmer and feeling freezing, to the point where I did get brain freeze... But this race's swim was much, much shorter, so I was sure that with my great new blueseventy Helix wetsuit making its debut, along with two swimcaps, I'd be OK for the short 700m swim. Well, I was about to find out...
Wednesday morning, 4 days before the race

The race was my first sprint triathlon in about 4 years (and my first of this year) and judging by how much the duathlons of this distance hurt, I knew I was in for another session in the pain cave. The weather over the weekend had finally warmed up to reasonable May temps and although I did bring hat, gloves and extra down jacket, I did not need them. I got in a good 20min warmup jog, which I used to run some of the course, and got a nice enough sweat going to shed some layers. Before I knew it we were 'summoned' (or so it felt to me) to the swim start, which offered a true ITU style run-in start, something I have never even practiced, let alone done in a race. After I had just regained the sensation in my extremities from a short 3min 'warmup' swim, the race was about to get underway for the Elites. I glanced back at Brandon, who was ready to capture everything on camera, and before I knew it, our two row 20 athlete wave ran into the freezing unknown.

I purposely had lined up towards the back since I am not an aggressive swimmer and didn't want to get pummeled by those who are, but I was later told that my stride almost looked backwards, headed into the lake. I told myself to take it easy and just survive the swim, and I barely did... About a minute into the race, I was just getting in a position to put my head down and go, I somehow swallowed a nice gulp (imagine that!) of Soda lake and could not breathe. I tried taking two breaths and was unable to get any air in. My heart seemed to skip a beat in surprise and shock, and I immediately did a few breast strokes and finally got myself under control. I guess you could classify this as hyperventilation, a first for me. After that experience I took it even easier, not knowing if my body would revolt against the water again. When I finally got close to shore I couldn't feel my feet and was pondering how to run on "stumps" into T1. Luckily, my feet somehow still worked and I huffed it into transition where I once again had big trouble getting the suit off, mainly because I might have been a tad hypothermic. I was the second female out of the water and the 4th or 5th out of T1...
Swim about to be done, looks much warmer than it was!

The bike was pretty winding and even technical to me with many 180 turns and several ups and downs with some nice turns. I never found myself getting into a real rhythm as I was either battling some cramps, or getting in and out of aero to navigate the course. I finally felt a bit better towards the end of the bike, looking forward to a strong run after having passed back all but two of the women.
@ least the grass is really green from all the moisture we've been getting!

With feet still numb I started my run, careful not to trip over my own feet as I couldn't feel them. I quickly passed another girl and started my quest to catch up to the leader. I cut my deficit down to 40 seconds over the course of the run, from a minute 45 at T2, but it wasn't enough to catch the winner, who had a great race. I snagged 2nd place by over a minute and a half, running the day's fastest time by a minute. Overall, I am content with the outcome, especially given the day's conditions and my personal cramping issues that had me almost quitting at the beginning of the bike. Luckily, my mantra of 'never give up' held tough and I recovered. Thank you Riptide, for putting on the race and offering a 'refreshing' start to everyone's season :)
Sprints hurt- ouch!

Now onto another short sprint this weekend and then back to more familiar territory with the season's first 1/2 IM coming up in just a few short weeks. Hopefully this speed work will have an effect on the longer distances for me this year. I do have some goals for those I'd like to meet! Summer seems to be just around the corner! (even if spring never really arrived here in CO)