Milkman Triathlon

When I was little, I wanted to be the first female to play for the Seattle Mariners. At recess if I wasn’t running laps or doing pull-ups so I could beat all the boys at the presidential fitness challenge I was playing football or kickball with them. I’ve always wanted to hang and beat the boys.

Milkman is a little sprint triathlon in southern New Mexico and I had my sights set on this race in Dexter next. With some of my “big goals” accomplished already this season my coach instructed me to “just have fun” at Milkman. I didn’t really know how to take these directions as fun for me is usually through suffering as I try and accomplish some measureable microsecond of improvement. Clueless on what “just have fun” meant I started setting up my transition area. The lady next to me started visiting with me. This never happens, in part because I am painfully shy around strangers. In my head I gave myself a quick pep talk “ok Sierra, talk back, be friendly, make friends”… I gave the gal some pointers on how to improve her transitions and such, and to my surprise she would end up visiting with me the rest of the day. I made a friend!

So the gun went off and it was a pretty simple straight out, straight back swim. I had started in the second wave and exited towards the front of the first wave. As I exited the water, the announcer said “here comes Sierra Smith the first lady out of the water from the second wave, I guess big things come in small packages!” … I almost started laughing.

With the girls behind me, I set out to see how many boys I could beat. I started catching a lot more guys than I thought, it was starting to feel like recess all over again, this was FUN! I had another smooth transition and passed several more guys in the run. Finishing in 1:06. I called my coach after the race. The first thing she asked was “did you have fun?!” And it was just like the time when I was 10, and placed 3^rd behind two boys in a elementary field day race. I blurted out “I almost beat all the boys! Yes, I had fun!” … and I continued to enjoy myself. I visited with other race participants and then cheered an 87 year old man with two teeth into the finish. Also, milk jug trophies were handed out by cow patterned volunteers at the award ceremony. It was a unique day, sharing the love of triathlon and chocolate milk with the local community. Did I mention the part where this was fun?

Better late than never – Memphis in May Triathlon

Two weeks after racing in St. Petersburg I headed to Memphis, for the Memphis in May Triathlon. Specifically I would be participating in the Amateur Challenge, which consisted of racing a Sprint triathlon on Saturday and an Olympic on Sunday. Once both race times were added up, prize money would be given out to the top 15 finishers. The epic standby adventure following my trip to Florida left me on the sidelines with “jet plague”, I think I contracted a little bit of every illness known to man on that 24hr journey back to ABQ. This left training leading up to Memphis much to be desired, I was well tapered to say the least. Thankfully I had a smooth standby flight to Memphis and was able to set up and settle in without any issues. The race was located about 45 minutes outside of Memphis in a little town of Millington. The rain started as soon as I arrived. With the race a few days out I hoped that it would let up but started to prepare mentally for the possibility that it would be a long wet weekend.

Saturday – The Sprint

Friday night the storms picked up and the streets started to flood. Race morning the lightning had stopped but the rain continued to pour down. It only took moments until I was soaked to the bone, my transition spot was totally flooded and the race director said that he wasn’t going to delay the start of the race. Not wanting to risk getting blisters before the race even started, I skipped my run warm-up and decided to put on my wetsuit early to try and stay warm. An old friend gave me the advice to “be fearless” a few days prior. So as I waited for my turn in the time trial start, I prepared to be smart but fearless in my race execution. The swim went as per usual but it was the bike that I knew would be sketchy. The roads had flooded in many spots and everything else was slick, I road more cautious than usual, coming out of areo in turns and through the big puddles focusing my efforts in maximizing every straightaway. With it being a time trial start I had no idea where the other ladies were in the race so I kept telling myself over and over “its you against the clock, be smart, be fearless”. Coming into T2 someone had racked their bike in my spot, having never had this happen to me before I fumbled a bit to try and figure out what to do but managed none the less. I knew with a more conservative bike I had to hammer the run, so I set a pace hard and held on. Results for day one came in and I was in 4^th overall and 1^st for my age group with 45 seconds separating 2^nd from 7^th. I raced a new personal record by 3 minutes. 1:03:10. Sunday, was going to be a game of who could recover the quickest, so I quickly packed up and went back to the hotel to rest and prepare for day 2.

Sunday – The Olympic

Thankfully the rain had stopped, the roads had dried out and it was going to be a much more comfortable overcast day. I felt surprisingly good but I had no idea how my body was really going to respond after yesterday’s efforts. So I prepared for the worst and set my sites on best effort, considering circumstances. The swim went great, I felt awesome and I was passing people hand over foot. Onto the bike, I was quickly surprised by a change in course. Apparently the bike leg had been re-routed from that which was posted on the website. The course I had pre-viewed was not even remotely close to the actual race. Trying not to panic I muttered under my breath “be fearless, it’s you against the clock” and set my sight on the boys ahead of me. I sometimes joke that I’m an old lady on the course crushing the hopes and dreams of boys. There were two 20yr old boys ahead of me, wiry and new to the sport. I passed by them and they clearly didn’t like that a GIRL had passed them, so they sped up, passed me, but then ran out of energy and slowed down. I hit the breaks dropped out of the draft zone and then made a pass again. This happened 3 times before I yelled at them! Frustrated I screamed “Dude! I’m trying to win this thing, don’t get me a penalty!” The kid gave me a thumbs up, I hammed past him and his buddy and thankfully never saw them again. I knew the other ladies were strong on the bike, so I tried my best to give the bike all I had but it would cost me on the run. My legs were cooked and the run was super hilly. I was making ground on the girls ahead of me but it wouldn’t be enough to catch them. I finished 6^th overall and 1^st for my age group, in another PR of 2:11:02.

After two days or racing, still only 45 seconds separated 2^nd from 6^th for the Amateur Challenge. It had all boiled down to execution, a little fumble here and little bumble there and I had finished in 6^th. In the days leading up to the race I did a little investigating on the other ladies in the race. It turns out I was going up against some of the best and most seasoned amateur women in the country. I came away from the weekend, learning I am more capable than I had anticipated in racing events back to back and had a better measure of where I was in my development as an athlete in relation to the competition… also, I was $150 less broke.