Pittsford Triathlon Race report

I got to do another race! The Pittsford triathlon was this past Sunday and it is one of my favorite races to compete in. For a few reasons. In 2004 this race was born and just by sheer luck, I won overall for the men and women and I have the course record. (which I haven't been able to break ;-). That year Mike Dunn, Tom Dutton and I had an epic battle on the bike. Those kinds of things are the memories I treasure.

This race consists of a 300 yard pool swim, 15 mile bike and 3.5 mile run. The pool start is always fun, there are more people there than went to my high school swim meets! It's a time trial start and everyone starts 20 seconds apart. I was #2.

But let me backtrack. I need to tell you how I ended up riding Curt's Zipp Disc. Yes, the holy grail..... his most prized possession. In our wedding vows I swear I had to say "In sickness and in health.... and I will never touch the disc wheel... as long as we both shall live."

Saturday Curt did the Fly by Night Duathlon, a very cool race put on by Musselman genius Jeff Henderson. It's a duathlon on the Watkins Glenn race track. Every man's childhood dream.

So at 1:30pm Curt departed Camp Egg and was on his way. After a drop off with Grand Dad I went to work for four hours. As I came home I walked into the garage to get my bike ready. Something was missing. My rear race wheel.

I looked through Curt's 9,000 race wheels. Not there. I looked where I left it, because strangely I thought that's where it would be!!!!!!

Then I realized what happened.

Of those nine thousand wheels that Curt Eggers owns.... seems he left for the Fly By Night Duathlon..... with my rear Bontrager wheel. Without asking. Without warning. He knew what he was doing. Exactly what he was doing.

A simple "Hey mar..... none of my Zipps or Spinergys will seem to do the trick... I am going to use the Bontrager."

Really, that would have been sufficient. Nope. None of that.

I called him. I texted him. Nothing. Hmmmm. Isn't that interesting.

Then the light bulb went on. And I smiled. Because where can I hit Curt Eggers where it hurts? Where can I make steam come form both of his ears simultaneously? What is the one thing Curt Eggers will never let me touch, carry, pack or even breathe on???????

Yes I did. I really did it. I put my grimy hands on the Zip Disc. The one thing Curt would throw Luc and I both to the flames for. I picked it up, spun it and heard the noise.

Disclaimer........ Curt would likely not throw Luc to the flames over his disc wheel.....

And then I put it on my bike. Switched to friction shifting. And guess what....... smooth as butter.

So I sent him a text that read........ CHECKMATE. THE ZIPP 909 IS ON MY BIKE. Which prompted the emergency broadcasting signal to sound... and oh yes the National Guard might be on their way next. But funny..... I couldn't seem to find the phone now. I might have slid it into my car. And even funnier.... as I looked in the direction of Watkins Glenn I saw this great big explosion...... like some one's head just blew up.

When we did speak Curt said 'What are you doing home? I thought you worked till midnight?"

And he did admit he thought he would just slide it back into place without me ever knowing.

Have I yet mentioned that a simple "Hey I am borrowing the wheel..." would suffice?

Believe it or not it gets even better.

So I went to sleep, and around midnight I hear the garage open. I hear nothing next. Curiously I went to the door and opened it. To which I was witness to the strangest sight. Imagine this.... 51 year old man standing in the garage holding the Bontrager wheel. It looked like he was trying to use an imaginary hula hoop with his body, but he was holding whe wheel in front of him, making giant circles with it.

Was this some new hex he was placing on my wheel? He looked at me. Said something about there being a downpour at the race.... I slowly closed the door and went back to bed, shaking my head.

When 4:30am came I was excited to race. I went to the garage and the disc sat proudly on my bike. My Bontrager was next to it, I picked it up and WHOA..... it weighed about 5 pounds. THERE WAS WATER IN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I walked upstairs and held it over my husband in bed.

"I got half of it out.... it will be fine." He said to me. Now realize if he never took the wheel this would not have happened. I just smiled, said nothing and left.

Disc was mine.

This year's race was pretty packed. One of the things I adore about this little race is the amount of new people it attracts... and the quality of athletes is pretty high. The one and only Carl Johnston was there.... cranky self and all!

I got to start as #2 up with some high school swimmers. During the swim 2 of them passed me... but I got out of transition first. And this is where the fun began.

I raced completely.... completely alone. No one in sight. It was balls out, dig deep.... alone.

I had my powermeter and used that as my competition. It was the strangest fun! I loved the sound of the disc but I missed having targets, racing people. Holy cow it was lonely!

I came into transition without being caught (now remember this start takes over an hour to finish so I knew there were fast men and women behind me), and headed out onto the run.

ALONE.

I brought my Garmin so I would have something to race against but I just held it in my hand. My run felt really good. It was my second hard run of the week, and I tell you..... when you are on your third Ironman in 18 months getting your legs to turn over isn't so easy. It would be with a good 2 hour warm up!!!!!

I knew Andrew Kaltenback would be hunting me down. At the last turn of the run, with less than 1/2 mile to go I saw him. As I passed an aid station I instructed the kids to feed the man behind me chocolate milk and a donut. Even with that he stormed by me and I tried to hang with him. I don't run a 5:22 mile however :-)

Andrew got to break the tape and I came in just behind him. It was nice to have finally seen someone out there!

It was really nice to be out there, to be racing 4 miles form home, to put in a good effort and to be able to take the win. I was happy to be 7th overall with the men! But what was really awesome was the amount of new athletes intermixed with some seasoned veterans like Carl Johnston, Mike Dunn, Tom Dutton, Peter Dorner, Alan Hatch.... the gang!

The best part of it all too..... was riding that disc!

Now I don't know if I have mentioned it or not, but last week we decided I would skip the Mooseman 1/2 Ironman this coming weekend. With all my traveling I am a little tired. Coach T said he'd prefer to put ina big focus for Ironman Lake Placid, and since that's my goal I agreed.

It's laser lock focus time. I have 2 more short races coming up and those will do for some speed.

There's a goal I have a little over a month away and the work I have put in is beginning to show. I am feeling good and feeling ready to put in a big few weeks here!

Thanks for reading!