Bike Diva

Sunday, May 23 was the date of the latest Multirace Publix Family Fitness Weekend event. Singer Island could be done as either a sprint triathlon, or a sprint duathlon. I did the duathlon option which was a 1.75 mile run - 15.5 mile bike - 1.75 mile run distance. The race started from the Singer Island Ocean Mall on Riveria Beach, Florida.

The Wind is Your Friend

It was a beautiful, although a bit windy, day. Glad I wasn't doing the triathlon - the ocean looked a bit choppy. I heard one of the race officials say the water temperature was barely wet suit legal. Seemed a bit too warm to want to bother with a wet suit, but maybe in dicey wind/wave conditions a wet suit would give you an advantage. I don't know, I stick to racing on land, and leave the water works to the tri heads.

I try to ride in my aerobars on the tri bike as much as possible, but there were a couple of times when my deep dish carbon wheels caught a bit of a cross wind and made me feel like the human sailboat on wheels - AAAAAHHHH!!!!!! So yes, I was riding the cow horns more than I should have, but at least I was out there doing it. Brakes are good, brakes are fun, brakes are your friend.

On Your Mark Athletes

My friend Matt Goforth, and his wife Julie, are the owners of the On Your Mark bike shop located at 819 North Federal Highway in Lake Park - not too far from the race site. Besides the bike shop, OYM also has a social bike riding club. Some of the club members do a few races each year. On Your Mark had three athletes competing at Singer Island on Sunday:

1. Chris Diaz - triathlon - 3rd place men 25-29
2. Charlie Lockerson - duathlon - 2nd place men 50-54
3. Lynn Smythe - duathlon - 2nd place women 45-49

Way to go On Your Mark!!!

Bike Diva's Race Results

Turtle power rules! I managed to get 2nd place in my age group at the race - YEAH! I did okay on the first run, and I was the fastest in my age group on the bike, but then it all went to hell-in-a-handbag on the second run. I just can't freaking run after getting off the bike, feel like my legs weigh ten tons each. And yes, I do quite a few brick workouts, so I should be able to run after getting off the bike. Last week I started working with a personal trainer two times per week. I will be working on upper body strength and my core. I hope to lose some more weight, which should eventually help me get faster during the run.

Here are my official race results;

• Run 1 : 16:20 - pace = 9:20
• Transition 1: 1:13
• Bike: 50:02 - pace = 18.59 MPH
• Transition 2: 1:20
• Run 2: 21:13 - pace = 12:07
• Total time = 1:30:08

Pros and Cons

Things I liked about the Singer Island race:

1. Having Publix as the main event sponsor. Lots of great food and drink to choose from at the end of the race. I have a squirelly stomach and can't eat too much food before and after an intense race. But it is nice to have the option of having food and drink available. Also nice for the spectators to have something to snack on while they are waiting for their husband/wives, boyfriends/girlfriends, moms/dads to finish the race. I head straight for the fresh fruit table. I can handle some orange slices and a few grapes after a race. Wish they would add some watermelon to the fresh fruit table - HINT - HINT!

2. Good course setup - spectator friendly. My friend Charlie's wife came out to cheer us on and take a few photos. My friend Chris's mom was out there too. And our coach, Matt Goforth, was there to shout out encouragement to his athletes as we raced by. Pretty cool.

3. I love the new event t-shirts we get in our goody bags! I never wore the cotton tees we used to get, gave some of them to my daughter, I'm just not a cotton t-shirt kind of person. But the new technical tees, made out of the Coolmax type of fabric are awesome. I always bring a change of clothes with me to all my races and longer training workouts, now I've got lots of great shirts to choose from.

A few of my pet peeves:

1. Lack of space at the awards ceremony. Is there a way to block off more space for the awards ceremony? There is always a huge mess of bodies waiting to get their awards. Always a bit difficult to squeeze through the crowd and collect your award when you hear your name being called. It's not just the Singer Island race, having enough room at the awards ceremony is a problem I've seen at almost all the races.

2. Where there any official race photographers at this event? I know there wasn't an official photographer at the awards ceremony. I don't know about the rest of the athletes, but I like to get a picture of myself up on the podium. Even at 46 years old and on turtle speed, I actually have a few companies that sponsor me with equipment and nutritional products. I keep them updated on my races, awards, etc.... Always nice to have photos to send them. I also don't remember seeing official photographers out on the course. I had a couple of friends taking photos at this race, so I ended up with a few shots of myself out on the course, but I usually spring for the digital download race photo package at many of my races.

3. I was talking to one of the Multirace guys at the end of the race. He said he liked my write up of the Tri Miami race (Run Diva Competes in First Olympic Distance Duathlon), and wanted to know if I'd be writing about Singer Island. I said, if I do, I will definitely be mentioning the lack of toilet paper in the port-a-potties. He was shocked and said they put multiple rolls in each port-a-potty. My theory was maybe homeless peeps got in them overnight and helped themselves to all the free toilet paper!?! There wasn't any paper in any of the port-a-lets in the morning. There wasn't even evidence of having run out of paper - you usually see the empty cardboard tubes - very strange.

I had to go pee before the start of the awards ceremony - there was a partial magazine in the stall - guess you were supposed to tear out a page to wipe your butt? I went for the drip dry method - TMI? Tough, it's my blog, I write what I want - deal with it! I usually try and bring kleenix with me to the races - this is not the first race I've participated in where there hasn't been any paper. So the lack of paper doesn't really bother me - just goes with the territory. Ah, the glamorous life of the multisport athlete - HA-HA!

 

Above: Mr. Bike Diva VS road; road wins = banged and bruised body and one cracked carbon fiber road bike frame. Photos by Robert Smythe.

Mr. Bike Diva Crashed Out

My husband Rob, was signed up to do the Singer Island duathlon. Unfortunately, he crashed on his road bike on Saturday morning during what was supposed to be an easy Team in Training team ride. He is the coach for the Palm Beach cycle team that is training to do El Tour de Tucson in November. Here is a link to our Tucson fundraising page: pages.teamintraining.org/pb/tucson10/lsmythe. Each team member has pledged to raise a minimum of $3,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Saturday was only the 2nd training ride of the season. We were supposed to do some sprint intervals. For some reason he decided to start riding in a strange gear combo. Trying to sprint from dead stop in his highest gear. Chain was crossed, chain fell off when he stood up to stomp on the pedals so he endoed and fell on the handlebars. He got pretty banged up and cracked his carbon fiber road bike frame. I have to contact Multirace.com to see if they can transfer his entry fee to another race - I'm thinking the July 4th sprint duathlon at Tradewinds Park would work for him.

Singer Island Race Conclusions

I really enjoyed the Singer Island race. It's one of the only options for doing a duathlon in Palm Beach county. Since it was a local race, many of my friends ended up doing it. The race was capped at 500 participants and sold out! The race course was originally going to include the Blue Heron bridge, but due to road construction the course had to be altered. I'm kind of glad, although I have done a few races on Key Biscayne, which involve going over the William Powell bridge, I really wasn't looking forward to biking AND running over Blue Heron. I would have never made it over the bridge on the run portion unless they added a tow rope or something.

Parking was a bit limited. I got there just before 6 AM, and got one of the last parking spots at the mall. I'm sure there were other places to park near the race start, but who wants to be stressed out looking for a parking space right before a race. While we were waiting for the awards ceremony to start, I got a chance to watch part of the kids duathlon. That was awesome seeing all ages and abilities of boys and girls out there racing. My kids were home sleeping, a bit too early for them. :)

Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Bike Diva