Race Recap: Wallis Sands Sprint Triathlon

Last Sunday I raced in the Wallis Sands Sprint Tri in Rye, NH. I finished 3rd in my age group, and it was my happiest race yet, so a great way to end the season! Here's the recap:

I always get nervous about races, usually the night before when I'm trying to sleep. Sometimes, it hits me in the morning when my alarm goes off and every single part of me except my heart tries to stay in bed. But I was more nervous about this race because of the ocean swim - I'm not a fan of salt water, so I've made a point of avoiding ocean swims. This was only my second since I started racing in 2012.

So, in an effort to distract myself from freaking out, I had a very busy Saturday. I went to a spin class at Flywheel - my first, and I meant to take it easy but... oops. I might have turned the resistance up at least one over everything the instructor said. I guess I'm a little competitive.
Then, my husband wanted to play a round of golf, so we played 9 holes at our local course. (Laugh if you want, but golf is as athletic as you make it). By the time I got home, I only had about an hour to pack up my stuff before heading to bed.

The most painful part of triathlons for me is waking up so early - and I try to remember that when my brain is flooded with pain-thoughts during the swim, bike, and run later. My alarm went off at 4:45, we got out the door by 5:30. (My husband is so supportive of my racing - he comes to every race and sometimes gets up earlier than me to ride his bike there! What a stud.) The forecast called for sunny, warm weather - perfect. Except as we got up to the NH border, it started pouring.

It's not a big deal to race in rain. It's cooler, which is nice for the run. I'm not a fan of a rainy bike leg, because I worry about handling on wet roads and being able to see potholes. And I'm not a huge fan that all my gear gets soaking wet in transition. But my real concern was that the ocean might be choppy. The race was delayed a few minutes to allow some of the worst weather to pass, and after that it was fortunately pretty calm. Cold. But calm.

The swim went really well - I actually enjoyed it, and I felt strong.
I had a pretty good transition, although I have to work on getting out of my wetsuit faster.

The bike leg was great - super flat, mostly perfect roads. I had a few moments that were like riding on the back of a unicorn, and a few that felt like the unicorns were trampling me on their way to the unicorn block party, but that's normal. The only issue I had on the bike was that there were so many people drafting! In the worst cases, people were riding two or three abreast.
There's breaking the rules, and then there's being a rude weirdo and blocking me from setting a PR. Don't be a rude weirdo. Also, follow the rules man. It's not that hard. Erg.

I pushed so hard on the bike that my second transition wasn't great - I should have done a flying dismount but I felt too tired, and then I was sort of confused after racking my bike and wasn't as clean as I could have been.

The run was fantastic. I felt so great the whole time, and I came really close to a PR. I'm not a fast runner and I have been fighting a hamstring injury for almost a year now, but I've been working hard to improve this season and it's nice to see that paying off. No photos of the run leg, because I look like a crazy person when I run. And I get to choose what photos show up here, so tough luck.

Final result, 3rd in my age group, 16th overall woman.

1/3 mile Swim pace 1:46/meter
T1: 1:45
14.5 mile Bike pace: 21:27/mile
T2: 1:13
3.2 mile Run pace: 7:52/mile

I don't worry about total time because I think my pace and how I feel during the race is more beneficial to tracking my improvement. For the most part, I felt super-happy during this race. Can't beat that result!

The race was really well run, and Vinyard Vines was one of the sponsors so the swim caps had wales on them. Super cute.

What can I say? Will race for swim caps with wales.

Just how much is a female athlete worth?

If you are unsure as to whether gender inequality still exists, I assure you it does. Here are some sports-related examples:

Prize winnings: At the 2013 US Open, Inbee Park won the women's title and $585,000. Justin Rose won the men's title, and a prize of $1.4 million.

Salaries: Based on the 2013 CBA, athletes in the WNBA have salaries ranging from a minimum of $37,950 to a max of $107,000 depending on years of service. The maximum a WNBA team can spend on player salaries is $913,000. Based on the NBA's 2011 CBA, male athletes earn minimum salaries between $473,604 and $1.35 million based on service years, and teams are capped at over $58 million for 2012-2013. Note that $1.35 million is a minimum salary in the NBA.

Publicity and Endorsements: According to research at the University of Minnesota Tucker Center, "women's sports receive only 4% of all sport media coverage...". It follows that with less publicity, female athletes also receive fewer and less lucrative endorsements. Additionally, in this area particularly, female athletes who prove themselves as top performers are also judged on their physical appearance. Women must be both successful and hot (I'll allow that sometimes success isn't necessary, but that won't add much in a positive way to this post).

I understand why some people make the argument that female athletes are paid less because no one watches women's sports. But I believe that at the very least, those people are short-sighted. They must not see the endless circle: low pay because low publicity, low publicity because no one watches, no one watches because fewer endorsements, fewer endorsements because low publicity... and round we go.

Categorizing this as a "women's issue" carries both social and economic risks. First, there's the problem that if girls aren't engaged in certain areas - a popular example is STEM fields, but I'll argue that all fields are important including athletics - they end up being underrepresented as women and that hurts everyone. And with child obesity on the rise, active & healthy girls are both happier citizens and cheaper for tax payers (that one's for the cynics out there), both in childhood and adulthood.

Finally, consider this:
In the US, the median salary for women in full-time jobs in 2012 was $37,391. Women make up approximately 50% of the US population, and according to the Tucker Institute, 40% of all sports participants are female. Even if you assume a very small number of women participating in sports are also full-time salary earners, that's a lot of women and a lot of revenue to be tossing away.

The issue of gender inequality is nothing new, and I won't pretend that I've said anything outrageously inventive or that I have said it better than many of the athletes and brands that I love have already done. But let's keep the discussion going. For my part, I've been watching a lot of LPGA on the Golf Channel lately, and I promise you it is at least as interesting to me as the PGA. Take that for what you will.

Pacing Fail

Ah, the beginning of a run. The wind in your hair, light on your feet, easy-breathing... rainbows and ponies. Yay.

But then you enter the 3rd minute of your run. DOOM. Just kidding, I usually get about 10 minutes in before Doom visits.

Sometimes Doom sends his friendlier cousin, Impending Doom (This is when you suddenly know, deep down, that pain is coming. Eventually. You just don't know when. And your mind has nothing to do but think about that).

Don't worry. Doom will overstay his welcome and be incredibly rude and annoying, but eventually you'll finish your workout and take a nap and all will be good again.

The worst part is when Bliss shows up. Bliss is an a-hole. Bliss makes you run a 7:30 pace through rainbows and ponies when you very well know you don't run anywhere near a 7:30 pace. Then this happens:

SURPRISE!! 

Sometimes pacing is so hard.  

Social Sports

Last May, I quit my job. (Yep, I'm crazy, but let's talk about that later.) For the past few years I have been working toward my graduate degree in management in the evenings while working full time. Now that I'm unemployed, I'm studying full-time and looking to join the athletic apparel/footwear industry in an operations role after I graduate in March 2015.

Why athletic apparel/footwear? Because I'm an athlete and an end user, and because I find that athletic-industry companies are full of intense, competitive, positive, go-getters and I want to be around those people. 

In the meantime, now that I have a lot more time on my hands than money, I've been able to get involved in a lot of cool things. And, because social media provides a benefit to organizations they would otherwise have to pay a lot of money for, a lot of the cool things I get to do are free. Here are two organizations that show just how important building community through social media has become in the sports & fitness industry:

November Project (NP) started out as a pact between two guys to get together and sweat three days a week during Boston's awful demoralizing winters. But since those two guys fit the intense, go-getter types I mentioned above, NP blew up and is now a giant, crazy, free group workout full of sweaty, yelling, hugging strangers in 17 cities around the country. I'm an introvert, and large group activities are not really my thing - yet I wake up before 6am to go run up the stairs in Harvard Stadium with a lot of very, very friendly people every week. Actually, I look forward to it. Obviously, they put something in the Kool-Aid.

Pact is a smartphone app that tracks your workouts and eating habits. That might not sound appealing, even if it's free - but Pact actually pays you to workout and eat healthy. You set the number of workouts you will complete each week, or the amount of fruit and veggies you'll consume,  and set dollar stakes for failing to meet your pact. If you fail to complete your pact for the week, you pay the stakes you set. If you succeed, you get paid, effectively by others in the community that failed. Getting paid to workout - it's almost like going pro.

These are just two examples of "social sports" that I participate in and admire. There are tons of other great things out there. Let me know what you love!

When I grow up, I want to be average!

A long time ago on one particularly angsty day in my teens, when my mom tried get me to start thinking about my future by getting out of bed, I declared that all I wanted to be when I grew up was average. My poor mom. I was such a delight to be around.

The thing is, I did turn out to be pretty darn average. Most of us are. But that's not a bad thing - it means we have a lot in common. We can connect, encourage, and commiserate with each other. And we can achieve greatness in our own ways.

For me, accepting my average-ness allows me the freedom to improve. I can always climb a little higher, push a little harder, or try again. No one sets a personal record every day. No one is totally kicking a** at everything. Isn't that a relief?!

This is my commitment to continued improvement. Show up, or shut up.