yew - bee - sea

Last weekend was the UBC tri. First of the season and also happened to be -1 degrees, so it hurt!! There was 4 races; short, sprint, olympic, and the duathlon.

I was a little choked that the week coming up to UBC, I caught a horrible cold/sinus infection. I made the best of it though, and took it as a training day.

I was really nervous for the swim. I've never done a pool swim before, and wasn't sure how it would be like swimming under the lane ropes every lane. It seemed a little confusing.

We headed across the day before, and I stayed with my cousin, Katie, who lives across the street from campus! Nathan, Julia, Danny, and I met up with G-Day to do a pre-ride of the bike course. Although my visit with Gav was cut a little short due to poor planning on my part, it was awesome to see him! Danny also gave my bike it's bi-annual cleaning. It's been a while since I saw it sparkling that white before!!

I had some super support pre-race; I met Mike Janes, a swimming/running friend of mine. (Sometimes, with a combination of me feeling really good and him having a hard training week, we are lane buddies!) He's a veteran at this race, and helped me check off my entire to-do check list. It was awesome having someone to show me where to go, what to do, and chat and hang out with!!

I had a great warm up; cutting it super close, I was about 20 minutes from my heat start. I wanted to watch Chris Miller's swim start and cheer him on before I did my race. Mark Schurch came up to me asking for an extra swim cap. No one else had one, so I ran back to my cousin's apartment about 3 blocks away, grabbed 2 swim caps, then headed back. My heart was pounding!

I ran to the pool deck, quickly undressed just to hear an official say "you're heat 1f? You just made it." I asked people what their predicted times were for the swim, and with a 24 minute goal, I quickly made my way to the front of the heat. I only stood there for a max of 60 seconds. I went second. The swim was fabulous! The swimming under the lane rope was a little awkward, but after about the 20th or so length, I got used to it! I swam 23:30!!

At -1 outside, I took my sweet time in "transition". There were two tents out of the pool; one for males, one for females. I took off my swimsuit, toweled off, put on my spandex. I kept telling myself to calm down because it's when I start rushing that I make a lot of silly mistakes. I then ran out of the tent and started my 400m run to the real transition. I kept my swim cap on my head for some extra warmth!!! I realized in transition that I forgot to put my race number with my stuff! Oops!

I felt really good starting out on the bike. The first lap was amazing - I felt strong, fast, and passed the girl who went first in our swim heat. After the first lap, I lost it... literally. I wasn't hurting, I wasn't sore... I just had no energy. I was disappointed that I was going so slow and couldn't push harder. It would be another story if I was in the pain box, or really pushing hard... but I had nothing to give. I wasn't expecting to be 100% with my cold, anyhow. Somewhere on the bike course, Nick Gottfried whizzed by me saying,
"Good work, Skinner!"
It was nice to see someone I knew, and give me some extra motivation!

Sidenote: I have some seriously amazing friends/training buddies!! I keep asking how I managed to score that...!? Lame, I know... but true!

After the 4th lap, I headed back to the transition. After thinking about my race number for 40km, I realized I would just take the number off my helmet and put it on my shirt. It worked. I switched over my orthotics and I was set to go!

Just running out of transition, I passed this group of people. In the corner of my eye, I see no other than Matt Corker. A friend I went to high school with... a very exceptional guy always challenging me to be better... at everything!
"Matt Corker!?!?!!", I yell as I run off course.
Him and other course directors are yelling at me,
"No, that way!! You're going the wrong way!" .... Oops!
Back on course about 50m away, I scream, "Matt, see what your handsome face does to me!?!?"

The 10Km hurt. It always sounds way easier when I'm NOT running it. Even now, I'm thinking "It can't be that bad... it's only 10km." Nope, I've got to remember that it hurts! I should start building into doing more brick workouts to get me used to that feeling.

It took about 6.5km until I could feel my feet again. If I hadn't run 10k before, I would be screwed. I kept saying to myself,
"You've done it before, you can do it again", over and over and over.

I saw Chris Miller riding his bike along the run course when I hit the 8km marker. Oh how I wanted to take his bike from him. He cheered for me as he rode by, I yelled out
"Hey, lemme borrow your bike. I swear, I just for 2km!!"
He laughed, but not the result I wanted. I wanted that bike so badly.

It felt good crossing that finish line and stopping. I keep forgetting the feeling of the 'racing high' you get every time at the finish of a race... it's what keeps me going, keeps me signing up, keeps me attending practices. Well, that and chocolate, of course!

It was great to talk to Matt Corker for a bit, without running at the same time! He's been at UBC for 3 years now, and I've been on the island for 2.... and this is the first time we've met up. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm petrified of Vancouver and the GVA, but I realize I definitely need to make a bigger effort to come across more and visit with friends.

Pictures aren't posted yet, but I'll post the important ones when they're online. You can check results here.

The picture production with my #1 boys is in the works... soon to be posted!! (Yes, MY #1 boys!)
Mike Janes - 1st short 20-24
Chris Miller - 1st sprint 25-29
Mark Schurch - 1st sprint 35-39 (Wait Mark, you're how old!?!?)
Nick Gottfried - 1st first olympic 25-29

Also, HUGE props to: Nathan 'Nate Dawg' Doering, Julia 'Goolia' Musial, Danny 'Stopwatch' Sessford, Heather 'Natural Talent' Hollman, Anna 'Secret Weapon' Dahonick, Hannah 'Stripping' K, Ali 'Superstar' Boyle, Katie 'Super Support' Skinner, Gavin 'Up for Anything' Day and Matt 'Always Smiling' Corker.

These people are so rad, so motivating, so inspirting.. not to mention they are also extremely good looking, it almost disguists me. Almost.

Keep fit and have fun,

J 'Shotgun' S