Spring Fever Olympic Distance Triathlon 2011 - TN

Daphne post race - Spring Fever Triathlon 2011

Well, I ended up starting my triathlon season a little later than I had intended. The Paris Mtn. International distance triathlon set for a few weeks ago in April was cancelled due to bad weather. So I spent the last week or so scrambling to find a comparable race in the area. I really felt like I needed a race to "get back in the triathlon swing of things," especially before my Half Ironman on May 15th. 


I was excited to find the Spring Fever Olympic Distance triathlon this past weekend in Tennessee. I figured it would be a great race to put all the elements together before my big event in a few weeks. I signed up for the race and then realized I better find out how cold the water is, since I have a A-Fib that is effected by extreme temps and I have a sleeveless wetsuit. When I found out that last week the water was only 58 degrees, I started contacting some of my triathlon buddies to see who might have a long sleeve westuit that I could borrow. A friend of mine put me in touch with someone who works for CTS and they had a small BRAND NEW Ironman Phantom Aquasphere sleeved wetsuit that I could borrow. This wetsuit totally rocked! It was made of some incredible fabric and I was blown away at how great it felt in the water. I would highly recommend this suit if you are looking to purchase one anytime in the near future. 

Yes, this is the water we swam in...
and those are cups floating
 amongst the sludge or whatever it is...
 During the 1500 meter swim I was convinced
 I was getting ecoli, fortunately no signs of it yet!

Swim: I got in the freezin' water with my amazing wetsuit and put my face in the water and wowsers it was shockingly cold! I started the swim with the under 40 gals and we made our way across the murky lake through a cove and around to the other side of the lake. It was hard to figure out where to go, the buoys were really balloons and some girls were going inside the buoys and some were staying outside of them. I tried to draft off of two girls for a bit but they didn't seem to be going the pace that I wanted to go so I went past them. Prior to the swim, all the TN girls were talking about this one swimmer girl that was "gonna be the fastest one out of the water..." I was tickled when I spotted her and past by her on the swim too. So I kept a nice steady pace throughout the swim. I felt really good, got in a nice rhythm and just kept at it. I ended up getting to the shore first, and since I was the first female to come out of the water, I didn't have any other girls to see where I was supposed to go. So I stood up on some rocks (later to find out that in between the rocks was a small path that you were supposed to run through to get out of the water, but I didn't see it when I was coming out of the swim), and it was all I could do to keep my balance. They were sooo slippery and my feet were aching badly from stepping on them trying to get out. Finally, I reached the shore and started trying to get this wetsuit off as I was running. That didn't work out too well so I got to my spot in transition and had a tough time getting out of the suit. Then I stood there for a bit (I think a bit stunned from the cold water and my feet were throbbing from the slippery rocks) and tried to get things in order to get on the bike. I swear that transition was the longest one I probably have ever had. 


BIKE: So I climb on the bike and I hear this guy yelling to the girl getting on the bike beside me, that she is in first place. I was thinking, yea not for long chicka! So I blazed past her on the bike and never saw her again. I actually only saw one person ahead of me on the bike and that was my fellow Asheville Tri Club member Frank Melvin. I had him in my sight for the first 4 or so miles of the bike. Then we got to a spot where we made a right turn but after that right turn there was an arrow on the road going straight and then another one on the road in red going to the LEFT. I was trying to recall from the race meeting if they said what color arrows we were supposed to take... but I couldn't remember them mentioning this. So I saw that Frank went straight thru the green arrow. After a few minutes, I didn't see him anymore and I didn't see anything on the road and I just had a really weird feeling that this wasn't the right way. So following my intuition, I turned my bike around and went back to the girl that was standing on the one corner. I yelled to her, "Which way does the Olympic route go? Straight or LEFT? She said, LEFT on Butternut, buttercup" (or whatever the name of the road was). So sure enough I had made a wrong turn. I felt bad for Frank, who was long gone by that point... So I got on the "Butternut" road and high tailed it outta there. It was non-stop hills (my Garmin at end of race said 1700' elevation change), which I typically prefer and like.. but I am finding them difficult on my new tri bike. I actually let out a laugh going up one steep one... it felt like I was pulling a car up the hill on the back of my bike. The downhills were FAST and FUN but they really weren't noticeable until the last few miles of the race. I never felt like I could get in a rhythm or groove on the bike and the front of my quads were killing me!


Run: I got back into transition, not sure if I was still first female in the race, with my wrong turn but as I started running I didn't see any girls pass me on the 2 loop course. I saw 2 girls come in not far behind me after the bike leg. One of the girls looked like a strong runner and I was right about that. So the first mile, as with any triathlon, I was just trying to get my legs under me to cooperate. They really weren't that shot and my quads were actually thanking me for using different muscles during the run. I started passing guys on the run and kept picking up the pace I was going along. I really wish that they would have had mile markers on the run (and the bike) for that matter... I had no idea how I was doing with pacing with my Timex watch and no markers. I was just winging it and going by effort. I got in a good run rhythm... just felt like I could keep that pace for a long time. I noticed as I did different turns and loops during the run that the "runner girl" was gaining on me. I was holding her off but her pace was definitely quicker than mine. Coming into the last 1/4 mile, I could hear her huffing and puffing and panting behind me, I was thinking to myself that I definitely wasn't making myself hurt like that... so she went past me and I hung on her heels for a bit but she kept picking it up. She ended up coming in :10 in front of me for 1st place. I took 2nd place and was pleased with that results for my 1st triathlon race of this year and with my kinks and mishaps. I feel a lot better going into the Knoxville Half IM in a couple weeks. I feel ready for it now and was glad to have had this experience as a tune up race


Just wanted to give a special thanks to Hearn's Cycling Shop (our great bike sponsor), I realized I had a 23 cassette on my tri bike on Saturday before the race and so I took my bike in and a 25 cassette and they got me hooked up for the race. Also, wanted to thank Tracey with CTS for lending me the awesome Ironman Aquasphere Phantom wetsuit, it really was absolutely amazing in the water. 


Stay tuned for more race reports from the rest of the team!