by Clare LeGuyader
 

My journey to the DL race at Nationals started a few months ago when Esther cornered me in the locker room after a swim: “Has [Coach] Kim or Jason talked to you about Draft Legal for Nationals?” Me, blank face: “What are you talking about.”

After some gentle persuading by all three of those people, I verbally committed to the race, thinking that obviously this was just a safety net. After all, this is my first season competitively racing triathlons. I’ve been riding a bike less than a year, running when I have to, but swimming my whole life (in a previous life I was distance swimmer at The College of William and Mary). In fact, this season started out spectacularly at Bike Camp in Anza Borrego where I crashed on my first “long” ride (it was less than 35 miles).

My first encounter with the DL format was at Tritonman back in February: watching some killer athletes go head-to-head was really exciting. Basically, the difference between the Draft Legal format and the classic, time trial format of triathlons is that you can, and are encouraged to, draft on the bike. Strong swimmers, who can get out of the water in front and draft on the bike, are in a good position to do well.

To prepare for the slightly different race format, we did a bunch of women’s rides down to Fiesta where we worked on drafting, attacks, etc. to get me comfortable with riding close to others at race pace. I picked up my swimming a bit (intensity, frequency), which gave me confidence for a strong first leg. I remained consistent with run workouts, no more, no less. My biggest preparation was mental: experienced draft legal racers on the team kept coaching me on what to expect on the bike, which is what I was most concerned about. Get on a wheel, take short pulls, get to the turns in front of the pack.

Travel to Clemson, SC for Nationals weekend was pretty uneventful. Bill Jones packed up my bike, and showed me how to reassemble it when we got to our picturesque cabins in Clemson. We drove the bike course, swam in a 80 degree pool and jogged around our camp to loosen up for the racing ahead. Upon returning from the swim, I noticed that my back tire was completely flat. At first I was convinced it was the boys letting all the air out, but turns out I had a flat. An hour and three tubes later, I was all settled and took out Gilly (my bike) for a little ride before Jeff, Bill and I attended our Draft Legal debriefing meeting.

Friday morning (race morning) I was nervous. But more excited than anything. I had minimal expectations going in to the race, and only one main race strategy: get out of the water in the front pack, then hold on for dear life. You see, I was feeling realllly good in the water in the weeks leading up to this weekend, and spoiler: I am not a strong cyclist.

I watched the men’s race line-up and start. It was a gorgeous day: sunny, not humid, good temperature. I watched the whole swim, getting myself psyched for my start in a few hours. The lead men came out of the water, with Bill hot on the tails of the lead swimmer, and Jeff right behind him. Next time I saw those guys was at bike dismount, where Bill looked to be in a strong second, and Jeff nicely positioned in a chase pack a minute or so back. Dan helped me put on my number tattoos, and then it was time for me to get ready to race.

Transition was nicely organized so I didn’t need to worry about space, or getting a good position. I talked to Jeff just before heading down to the water. He encouraged: get out in front on the swim, then sprint the first few minutes on the bike. It sucks but you gotta do it. I got my wetsuit on (shout-out to whoever donated that wetsuit to the team, it’s done me well), loaded on the vaseline to try to avoid the inevitable neck chaffing I always get, then hopped in the water for a nice long swim warm up. The women were called to the start line, and I took my position somewhere on the outside (my heartrate is elevated thinking about this). On the airhorn I took a running dive in to the water, then put my head down and sprinted towards the first sighting buoy. By about 25m out, I had gotten some clean water, but kept up that speed until I was sure that I was separated from the main pack. At the first turn buoy (course was a rectangle), there was no one around, and for a moment I was concerned that I had done something wrong. But, I like leading the way, and definitely do not like people drafting off me, so I just kept it up at the pace, knowing that having a little extra time to get on my bike and get going would be helpful. Turns out I was first out of the water, with the next woman almost 30 seconds behind me. I guess you could say I was a little excited. It was really cool hearing my teammates and all the other spectators cheering as I ran my way up the hill towards T1.

I hadn’t planned for this good of positioning and didn’t know what to do when I got to transition. Do I wait for other people? Nah, I’m pretty slow, I better get moving. I got on my bike, started pedaling, and prepared for the first girls to catch me so I could latch on to their wheels. I was able to hold on to the first lead pack of 3 other girls for about half of the first lap. I got dropped on the uphills, then tried to get in to the chase packs, but that didn’t go so well either. I knew what was going to happen, but just physically couldn’t get my legs to move faster. I was so impressed with the way those girls rode. I ended up most of the bike on my own, without the benefit of drafting, which defeats the purpose of me racing DL, but you learn.

Benefit of not being a fast cyclist: I still had my legs for the run. After the first lap of the two-lap run course, I saw my number on the penalty box board. I had to serve a 15 second penalty for equipment placement in transition. Wups. Surprisingly, I passed a few girls on the run, so the penalty maybe only cost me one position. I finished 16th place and was able to recover well, having a good race the next day too!

One thing I promised myself when picking back up competitive racing was that I would always have fun. I have learned to love the process of training, in addition to racing, and I love learning a new sport. I had a really great time in Clemson this weekend watching my teammates race, and training this season in general. This weekend and season would not have been successful without the support of my family, non-triathlon friends, new friends/training-buddies, Coach Kim McDonald and our sponsors (thanks for the awesome stuff!). Thanks especially for the encouragement to do a draft legal race. I didn’t know what draft legal was 6 months ago, and am really proud of myself for finishing such a competitive race. I can’t wait to get back out on the road and in the water.

OH, and if anyone wants to provide me with a wetsuit that fits, I will gladly wear it. ;)