WOO HOO! I have a few pictures. YAY
Let us start on Friday. I think this was when it truly hit me that I was doing a 70.3 on Sunday. My stomach was in knots, eating was difficult, and my mom had flown into Denver to watch me do a triathlon for the first time. That night I had dreams about triathlon ...errr...nightmares. About forgetting my wetsuit, and pumping up my tires, and having nothing in transition. It kept waking me up.
Saturday we had beautiful brunch at the hotel my mom stayed at on Friday and Saturday night - then headed up to Boulder for packet pick-up. The ONE SHIRT I was SUPER EXCITED about getting (the one where they put everyone's name in the ironman symbol and 70.3) they left off all the names of the people who were signed up for the whole tri series. :( I was super bummed out - but apparently they are remaking them to include us! This bummed me out a LOT because I had been looking forward to this shirt since signing up for an Ironman Foundation 70.3.
I picked up my packet and started feeling more nervous. We headed over to Fleet Feet so my friend Adam could pick up his wetsuit that was being repaired and then got lunch, which I had to force down. We had dinner later that night at the same great Italian place I had gone to the year before before my last half ironman after which, I headed home and tried hard to sleep but struggled. I had finally started feeling relaxed after having been able to comfortably eat a big dinner and listen to the mini storm pour down next to my window, but sleep was still tough.
I had an alarm set for 3:30 but got up multiple times throughout the night - ultimately waking myself up at 3:10. I got ready and felt anxious and tired, but calm. I had to remind myself to just be happy so I put on Beyoncé and sort of bopped around while getting ready to take the edge off. It was kind of a blast...
I picked up my mom and we headed to Boulder, only to wait in a HUGE line of slow-moving cars. I finally got into the lot and had to trek a little way to transition. MAN were we crammed in there. I had maybe 8 inches of space for myself. It's funny though - the more adept you get at tri the less space you actually need in transition.
Before really having transition set up I started out on my warm up run and bike. The run felt great - I felt strong and fast. I would love to do a 10k one of these days. I really think I'm getting back to where I was. On the bike I had shoddily taped down my EnduroBites and they fell off as I was going up a hill. Unfortunately this caused 2 casualties to slip out onto the road. I stopped to pick up the ones still in the bag (2) but left the 2 all ready on the road just laying there. I was pretty upset because that was 200 cal of my nutrition plan gone. I did bring extra Gu and had not truly counted my gatorade in nutrition intake, but I was bummed because I was really excited to eat these damn things.
I got in a decent warm-up in each of the three sports and as I was leaving the transition area to put on my wetsuit for a swim warm-up, I looked down to find next to nothing. My bike had the shoes on it. All liquid and nutrition right on it. Watch attached to the handlebars. Helmet in the aero bars with glasses in the helmet (along with my 2 remaining EnduroBites so I could throw them in my back pocket). All together, a self-sufficient entity. Next to the tire sat my running shoes, with socks on top, with race belt on top, with hat on top, with a gu on top (order in which I wanted to deal with everything). So just my bike, and a tiny pile on my running shoes. That's all. REALLY? Yep.
My option for the swim warm up was to jump in a tiny roped off area and join the spinning wheel of death...or as normal people would call it, a ton of people circle swimming in a tiny little area. So I did and it wasn't as violent as I anticipated, but I only got in 3/4 of a loop before they were singing the National Anthem and it was uncool to keep swimming.
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| pre-race, drinking my gatorade as usual |
I joined my mom on the beach and I didn't feel like standing in my corral too soon. I knew just standing there silently would just make me anxious and I probably didn't go off until a half hour after the pros started so it was a good call. I finally did join my group with more than enough "standing there" time. I actually like that all though we sort of went off in a wave they only let us into the water one-by-one so I went off with about 10-15 people and not....100.
The water in the reservoir was very warm this time around, unlike my last 3 races where getting out into the res has been very cold. It was very convenient that the buoys were spaced every 100 m - SUPER easy to sight and nice to track your progress in a relatable way.
I now understand why they are doing the start based on projected finish time of the swim leg....and it is crap for me but I guess that is was being a slow-but-confident swimmer gets you. What I mean is, so because I'm slow I get stuck with people who are slow because they freak out and start backstroking/breaststroking/treading water. *sigh* It's awful. You'll be swimming along and BOOM - foot to the face. That happened at least twice on this course. Some violent breaststrokers walloped me in the face. AWESOME. One hit my lip so hard and it made me so frustrated I felt like crying on the swim....but I didn't. There is no crying in triathlon. Not until the end of the race.
So somehow I managed to deal with these people. I understand it would be even more frustrating for someone swimming 10 minutes faster than I do, so I guess that's what I get for being confident, strong, and slow. I've really just got to work on that to get around these people. New motivating force.
As I spotted the last turn buoy I thought of my friend Will who always said "there is no reason to not just go all out on the swim." I think I was around 1200m at that point so I knew I wouldn't burn out, and I picked it up. In my head I kept thinking "pull-flick, pull-flick, pull-breathe. pull-flick, pull-flick, pull-breathe" except for the occasional "pull-sight-breathe." I focused on scooping the water underneath me with a considerable amount of force. I felt like one of those taffy-pulling machines you see on boardwalks or at carnivals. The water was salt water taffy and my arms were little metal hooks constantly revolving, stretching, pulling.
Eventually, of course, I started sighting the swim finish arch. I saw lots of people standing around me but of course I waited as I always do to hit the sand with my fingers. When I pushed out of the water and started running I looked down to "45:36," which made me pretty happy to see. I ultimately crossed the timing mat a few seconds later. That said, it was consistent with last year and the time I wanted to see out of the water. Lately my 100m fast repeats have been around 2:10s but I'm not too upset about 2:22s in open water for an extended period of time. I'll work on the newly found speed translating to long distance. (For those of you working in yards: 2:10 ~ 1:58s, 2:22s ~ 2:10s).
In T1 I was happy to find there were still bikes from girls in my age group sitting around to be picked up. YAY I WASN'T THE SLOWEST SWIMMER!! My mom also had a pretty funny sign ready for me that made me laugh. Smiling because of funny signs can totally pick-up the mood of your race and it did for me. I felt less serious and remembered that... HEY, THIS IS FUN. I LIKE DOING ALL THESE EVENTS. I stuffed the EnduroBars in my pocket and off I went. I had a pretty smooth start though had trouble getting my right foot in the shoe. I ultimately pulled it off and put my foot in again and everything was better.
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| hauling out of T1 |
We came up to one major descent and I thought of a funny article about being in a relationship with a triathlete in which the more intense husband says to his wife "That's it. I'm taking off your brakes. You don't need them." It was congested and people were sitting up on their TT bikes on a HUGE downhill. I thought "this is the whole POINT of a TT bike" so I geared out, tucked in, and swung out left. There was another guy about 50 ft up doing the same thing. Knees to top tube, I stormed down the hill passing probably 20-30 people holding on their brakes. HECK YES. It was definitely a rush and a little scary but a ton of fun.
As I came up on the 15 mile mark around 50 min I was pretty happy with myself. I hadn't gone out too hard and the climbing and descents had evened out. I knew hitting 30 around 1:45 would be saweeeet so I just tried to keep a consistent pace down Ute Highway - a nice fast flat with a big old shoulder that I love riding. I even looked down counting my cadence, which was a solid 90 rpm. Go me! Mind you - I don't have speed on my bike right now so everything is perceived exertion and math. I knew I wanted each increment of 5 miles to be consistently under 20 min, and I knew I wanted to hit 35 around 2 hours.
My other big goal was just eating consistently and a lot. I focused on downing 100 cal every 35 min plus being consistent in drinking my gatorade. Funny the EnduroBars I was so excited about weren't very good hot and squished up - so I was glad to only have to eat two. The chocolate Gus later ended up being much more of a treat. Other than that every time I sat up I knew it was time to pull some water from my auxiliary water bottle and CHUG CHUG CHUG.
Out into the back half of the course, things slowed down - more hills, slower riding, but again I strived for consistency. I came up on 30 at 1:42 and thought "yes, 35 at 2hr is IN THE BAG." Well, it sort of was. I hit 35 after some false flats at 2 hrs and a few seconds change. I was probably at an average of 17.39. At least at that point the 4 gnarly hills were over and it was smooth sailing in. After that mile marker we had 5 miles of beautiful course and I thought "hmm wonder if I can do these 5 miles in 15 minutes." With only 21 miles left I took the gamble and picked it up a bit. Riding through the 40 mile marker at 2:14 and change I was pretty impressed with myself. I knew at this point I would be smashing my time goal of 3:15 because I only had 16 miles left and it was not going to take an hour. I knew the course ahead and it was a gentle 16 miles.
We came up to a bottle exchange and there were people dangling chomps and bananas. Remember the 200 calories I had dropped, I said aloud "Ooo BANANA!" I swung in to the exchange which I usually just pass right by and said "BANANA ME!" One of the volunteers thought it was pretty funny and I successfully gnabbed a banana that I got pretty excited about. Finally clear of the exchanged, I got back into aero and sat there eating my banana. I felt like a happy monkey who had successfully managed to get the best treat EVER.
Soon thereafter I passed a 50 year-old woman and she said "WOW. I wish I tried these when I was 23!" And I said "try 20!" and we talked briefly about how tri is getting more popular at colleges and then I sped off.
Coming in, I was beginning to wonder if I would even break 3 hours on the bike. I was having some pretty fast riding through mile 50 - but the trek up diagonal highway was harder than I anticipated. The last time I did it, I had fresh legs and was holding on to wheels ahead of me. It was still a good bike ride because as I came down Jay road around 3:08 I knew the ride ahead would not take me 7 mins. I pulled into transition with a time of 3:11 and was pretty darn proud of myself. My hydration and nutrition had been spectacular and my running legs felt good. YAY PACING.
That said, around the second aid station after mile 1, I thought "hm, maybe my hydration was a little too spectacular." However, the porto-potty at that aid station was being moseyed into by another lady who didn't look too serious about hurrying in and out and I wasn't about to wait around to find out. I resolved I could hold it to the next stop. After mile 2 they had 2 potties! HOORAY! Both were vacant so I jumped in one for a quick pit stop. That made me feel so much better! I jumped out and grabbed an icy sponge from a volunteer and kept running. Honestly, I felt pretty good. I saw Adam after mile 3 with the rest of my tri club. "Perform?" He said "No but I want a high five!" His hands were full, so I bonked him on the forehead. After the fact, I wondered if I could get docked for assaulting a volunteer, even if he was my friend. Oops.
I plodded through mile 4, meeting a guy who said "Are you a recent grad of Northwestern?" I said "Yep, not this year, but last year." His response was "Oh man, I'm class of '78," to which I said "GO CATS!" and continued on. But then mile 5 got harder. :/ I started walking for a bit. Mile 6-7 I worked on running consistently except through the aid stations. Some people thought it was demoralizing to run past the finish line, but I knew these people were quick. I had spent the whole race telling myself to run my own race - not run after others in my age group. I had goals I wanted to meet....so I did. I came through the first lap in about 71 minutes - with walking aid stations, hills, trail, and a potty break, I wasn't too upset about that.
Mile 8-9 was THE WORST. Oh man. There are two big old hills in the first two miles of the loop and the first time they kind of sucked but this time they REALLY sucked. I was Walkers McGee just walking my little heart out. I had a gel in my pocket, but I was saving it (for whatever reason) so I took a PB chocolate bonk breaker off the aid station at mile 7 and that was..digesting. It made my stomach feel weird and sort of sloshy when I ran. I wish I had just taken my damn gel. By mile 9 I got some more water and ice at the same stop I had taken a bathroom break. I started talking to an older woman next to me. It was her first half ironman. I told her "well, if it is any consolation - it gets easier when you do your second one." She was still smiling and I was proud of her. With this, I think my bonk breaker digested and I started feeling better and running again.
Then I met Jacqueline who became my race buddy for the end of the race. I passed her and she said "Good pace, girl, I'm going to try to stick with you but it won't last long." We talked about how it was both of our second half ironmans and we were both doing much better than last year. We passed the Rocky Mountain Tri Club aid station and Adam yelled "LESS TALKING MORE RUNNING!" to which I said "Adam. I am keeping my HR down so I can actually finish this thing!" Which he thought was fair, and gave me some words of encouragement. I started walking and grabbed some water and ice again. Jacqueline didn't want to stop running if she didn't have to so I lost her for a bit. But my consistent pace was faster than hers when I was actually running so I caught her a bit down the road. It went on like this for a while. I'd catch her, we'd talk, I'd pass her, then I'd start walking up a hill/through an aid station, she'd pass...I'd catch her...etc. We rounded the last aid station, which I walked and she started walking but she was right with me. We ran in about a half mile together and realized we lived blocks away from each other in Glendale. Funny stuff. Ultimately, I did end up passing her at the very tail end - but her run time was actually 2 min faster over all!
I felt pretty good coming in but very tired. I pushed myself to just keep a decent pace and run it on in. Honestly, my legs were shot and I was sunburnt but happy. Everything, except the swim, had been so much faster than last year and I did exactly what I came to do. I was feeling super dizzy and lightheaded and needed food and recuperation, but all in all it was a great day and I couldn't have asked for a better race!
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| Yay for being donezo. Look at my hyper-extending knees! haha |
Looking forward I think I can take the bike a touch harder. I think my run will get better solely with doing more half marathons and getting my paces back to where they used to be. Plus, this was all on a sandy trail in little shade so I'm not too disappointed at all. I think I could do a 2:20 or maybe even a 2:15 half though if my running were just a little better. I am VERY glad I got in my long run last weekend and suffered a lot through some hard runs this year. It made this not seem like too big of a deal. My swimming now just needs some coaching, which I'm going to seek out. If I can pick it up, I can sit in a better start group and encounter fewer obstacles. Honestly, without the kicks to the face, I might've even cracked 45 min yesterday. I'm very proud of my nutrition and hydration plan and I'm definitely going to keep that up.
In the end, it was a great day and a great learning experience. Now to sign up for next year's. ;)
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