Monica's exact words to me 30 seconds before I caught and passed her with about 800 meters to go.

Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series/Age Group Triathlon event

Time:  2:18:34 (Official Olympic Course PR for me)
Swim - 25:14
T1-1:36
Bike - 1:08:03 (24.8 miles)
T2-1:05
Run - 42:28 (10k)
5th Overall Woman

So here I am, in the finishers tent trying to see how I placed at the race.  I can't read the freaking sheet.  It's like they've used size 4 font (you know, that itty bitty print they have on drug bottles that they don't want you to read?), and no one told me I'd have to bring my darn reading glasses to the finish area.  I'm sure you'll notice that not once I will use age as an excuse in this report (except here).  I have to beg someone to tell me what my final time was and place.  Then I dragged my photo-Ho-friend, Andrea to come over and make her count how many woman were in front of my name.  At least four to five we determine, but I'll have to wait and see the final results on line myself.

I arrived in D.C. Saturday afternoon, about 3 hours later than planned due to the log-jammed interstate corridor we fondly call I-95.  What should have taken an hour ended up taking two hours, then another 20 minutes just trying to find a parking spot at the host hotel.  From there we have to go through the ITU meeting (like they couldn't tell us this stuff in an e-mail?), pick up our bags, and then head over to the transition area next to the Potomac River to rack the bikes.

At this point of the day the wind was steadily blowing at least 20 mph, and the waves, current, and the huge amount of debris in the water was a bit disconcerting.  But as my friend Sherry used to sing to me "Debi's World, Debi's World, party time, everything's excellent!"....I figured things would be great in the morning.  And I was right.....didn't you all know that I'm always right?

The race starts at the lovely hour of 6 AM where we get to see the sunrise over the Washington Monument, and the river dredger clean up all the debris that has collected within the curves of the neat pontoon platform that the Pros will use to dive off for their start, and from where we would get to jump into the river.  Water is pretty calm for the Potomac, there is a lot less debris - just a few sticks floating by slowly, and very little wind. 

The swim course goes up river, under the Memorial Bridge (how often do you get to swim under such a huge bridge?), a few hundred meters further upstream, then you cut to the left and head out to the middle of the river, turn left and then start to head back down to where you exit the water.

Here was the only downer of the whole event.  We were not allowed any time to warm up in the water before the races began.  We had three minutes.  No more or less, and before you know it we're off in the big brown stream swimming like spawning salmon upriver (only not as gracefully).  It doesn't take too long before we start to catch up the the waves of men in front of us.  And if there was a strong current I truly didn't feel it on this day (either for or against).  I just thought it was fun, and kind of cool to be swimming there.  But then again, I'm kind of weird in that way.

Before I know it we've reached the rear of the pontoon, and climbing up that nice soft, cushioned, clean platform  No rocks, muck, sand, etc.  Heaven, in my opinion is when you get a swim exit you aren't either dancing around trying not to slice up your feet, or tread through sand or muck.  I start sprinting down the platform, rudely shoving aside those other athletes who feel compelled to WALK out, and zip the suit down, goggles/caps ripped off as one, and away I go.  Did no one mention to those guys that it was a race?

Get into T1, quickly get my crap on....and off we go with the heart hammering in my throat.  I feel awesome.

The Bike:  This is two lap affair with most of the headwind and hills in the first 5 miles.  Of course this is also where the most potholes, manhole covers, and huge pavement cracks occur.  But no matter what, it's pretty cool to have the streets of Washington DC to ride as fast as you possibly can all to ourselves.  Not sure if the pace per mile was a PR for me, but it was awfully darn close, and it took about the first lap or so to pass several of the women who beat me on the swim. I only had a couple of guys pass me on the bike (most were from the Sprint Tri that started shortly after our wave went into the water).  Greg (a client) was one of them.....he rides by me saying 'I thought you were faster than this!'  I of course gave chase to him and passed him back, and then we would trade off at least one more time before he finally pulled ahead of me for good.  I knew I wouldn't catch him on the run as he's been really getting fast (and his confidence level is up there!).  Not that I wouldn't try though.

The Run: 

This was going to be a true test.  I've done no speed work in the past 5 weeks, and only a total of 3 speed workouts all year for my run.  Everything I was going to do today was going to be driven from my bike fitness and my core strength.  I've been doing CrossFit for almost five months now (2x a week only), and this truly has helped to clear up injuries that have been nagging me in the past, but also has gotten my core much more powerful.  If you can do 117 box jumps in 20 minutes (not to mention all the pull ups and clean/jerk squats with it), then you should be able to run fast!

Back to the course.  My first premise about this 10k was that it was going to be a flat run.  I knew we weren't going up around Captital Hill, so I just assumed that it was going to be a piece of cake.  Those dreams were quickly shattered by the 1 mile mark, where we took our first right hand turn up a hill.  Well, at least we'd get to come back down the hill.  It is at this point of the race where you get a chance to see who your competition is and where they are at in relation to your position, and we would get to do it three more times.

This first leg of the journey was rather short so I didn't get to see all the women in front of me.  But I did see Monica Robbers.  Monica and I go way back, back far enough that I can still remember how we used to compete against each other in running races.  Each of us probably had equal victories within our friendly rivalry, and I find it's really great that now we get to re-live those moments in the Multi-sport arena.  The good news for Monica is that she's like 15 years younger than me....so she's still improving every year.

At this point of the race Monica is probably a good 3 minutes in front of me.  I know that she's just coming back from an injury (well, now that I think of it, so am I), so I know that I have a small chance to catch her by the end of the race if I can make her believe that I'm not hurting everytime we see each other.  And that's what racing really is all about - the mind games you have to play.  Why do you think Natascha Badmann always smiles?  From the first few hundred meters of the run up until the third mile my back was tight, my shoulders hurt (damn aero pads decided they wanted to gravitate south on me of all days - carbon aerobars suck in my opinion), and I just wasn't really relaxed during this phase of the run.

I also had a couple other women who were trying to bear down on me as well.  I give them no thought as I know that if you start worrying about what is behind you, you've lost.  I just regain my focus and breath (saying 'Sat' on the inhalation, and 'Nam' on the exhalation) - anything to get oxygen to the core so that I can really relax and use my hips.  I also smile at them.

We take the next turn, and get a small climb, then we go down into a tunnel, which as you guessed it means we get to climb out of the tunnel before we hit that second turn around.  I can't tell if I'm getting closer to Monica, but i am getting closer to Greg at this point (or was it on the last leg?).  I see him not using his arms, and yell out to him to start swinging his elbows.  He gets back into the groove on this and he picks up ground (his words to me post race).  For some reason my brain does not stop when I race.  I am forever trying to coach someone when I am in a race. 

I'm not sure if the girls are getting closer to me, but again I smile, and start my mantra again (breath in and out, and keep moving the damn arms).  We come back onto Constitution, go one block, and make our last 'little' leg out.  For some reason I thought that this was our shorter leg, but in truth it was probably our longest of the course with a couple of hills thrown in as well to spice it up a bit.  I am getting closer to Monica, but it's at this stage where I'm starting to doubt if it will be possible.  She's staying strong, and I don't think I'll have enough territory.  Either way, I say something to her (or did I?) as she passes by me on her return trip. 

It's at this point where I actually start to connect with my body.  I start to think about using the power in my hips, my legs feel good, and my cadence is really quick.  I see a young guy in front of me shaking out his arms.  They are tired because he's been running with his hands low (this is actually like carrying extra weight in your hands), and I had been watching him for the past couple of miles.  I pull up alongside him and tell him to pick his hands up 'HERE'...and swing from your elbows.  Good.  He does this and before you know it he takes off.  I'm like 'DUDE' (in my head) I just helped you....no way am I going to let you beat me now.  I regain the ground I lost to him, only to have to lecture him NOT to look down (you start to look down, you slow down), he jerks his head up again, and takes off again.  I'm actually smiling at this because as he does it I also notice that I've picked up the pace significantly. 

We turn right onto Constitution again.  We only have less than a mile now to the finish line, and one last 'V' turn on the course where we take a sharp left at an acute angle onto Pennsylvania Avenue (Capital Building is on our right, behind us).  I see that I've closed on on Monica quite a bit, and that I've lost the young guy (he must have dropped his arms or his head at some point).  Monica makes that 'V' turn, sees me, and yells to me "Debi, you're killing me!"  I can't remember if I said anything to her, but I do remember thinking that I was going to come up behind her, take a deep breath, and then surge past her like she was standing still.  I knew I had it in me, and I knew it would hurt.  I can honestly tell you that the last time I did this was in a race was 10 years ago.  It's that confidence you have in yourself that says that you will survive it, and that it will hurt SOOOO good to do it. 

And I did it.  I fell in behind her like a bike, drafted for a few seconds, gathered my will and breath, and went for it.  Hips were being used, and arms were swinging.  We only had about 600 meters to go to the finish line, but I was going to kill this last bit of the run course.  Because there is nothing like coming across the finish line of a course set up for an ITU race.  Sort of like crossing the finish line of the Olympics (Jumbotron on the right, all the bells and whistles), even greater than the Boston Marathon finish line.

Phew.  Just reliving how strong I felt is a huge high.  How often do we ever get to feel like that, and how often do we ever truly push ourselves to the limits?  And why has it taken me so long to do it again?

Screw the comfort zone.....this was way more fun!

Debi 'who will try to savor each and every race that she has left in her to the fullest' Bernardes

PS.  One of the women who was closest to me on the third leg out told me that she almost had me until I took off, and then wanted to make sure I wasn't 60 (the 50 on my leg looked almost like a '6')

Debi Bernardes
www.ucandoitcoach.us
www.debibernardes.blogspot.com

Debi Bernardes

USAT Level 2 Coach

USAC Level 3 Coach

8385 Tomahawk Drive

King George, VA 22485

(540) 775-4952