Race Recap

Ironman 70.3 Racine....complete!

I could not be more happy or excited about how Sunday went.  I had a great, relaxing week prior to the race.  I was a little nervous about being on vacation for 5 days leading up to the race, but I ended up getting lots of sleep, having little in the way of regular chores to keep up with, and got in two really good lake/wetsuit swims, which really boosted my confidence going into Sunday.

I was extremely rushed at the athlete check-in and expo, and actually missed the pre-race meeting.  I wanted to get my bike worked on a little before the race, but also missed that.  Luckily, there were volunteers on hand in transition on race morning, so I was able to air up both tires prior to the race.  I dropped my bike in transition, walked through the transition area, counting bike racks and walking my route for the run in/bike out/run out, etc.  Then I went to the lake.  There were kids swimming in it everywhere!  I walked in up to my knees and immediately wanted to chase all the kids out.  It was so cold!  62 degrees!  I had originally planned to swim a little after dropping my bike, but I was tired and hungry and really just wanted to shower, eat, and start getting my head around race day.

I picked up my necessary fuel (bagels, Uncrustables, gatorade, bananas, and pizza and breadsticks for Saturday evening meal), headed to my hotel, and settled in.

My alarm went off at 4:00am Sunday.  Getting out of my room and to the start area went smoothly.  I even found on street parking very close to transition/finish!  I got my transition area set up, went through body marking, and hit the port-o-lets.  I had plenty of time and never felt rushed.  Transition closed at 6:30 for the race start at 7:00.  The swim was a point-to-point, ending on the beach by transition, so athletes had to walk the mile up the beach to the swim start.

The pro waves went off at 7:00 and then there was a wave pretty much every 4 minutes after that.  My wave, number 11, went off at 7:37.  Prior to that, I tried to just visualize my race: transition, swim, being calm, reviewed when I wanted to eat, how much and when to drink, etc.  There was a practice area marked off in the water near the swim start.  I went in, floated around, put my face in and floated and breathed, then did about 10 minutes of very light swimming, just trying to acclimate to the cold water.  They announced that the water temp was 61.4 degrees on race morning!  It was cold.  My hands and feet were very cold paddling around in the practice area.

I saw Eric just before my wave went off!  I was really happy to see him.  I wasn't sure if he would be at the start or at the finish of the swim (turns out, I saw him at both places!).  I tried to position myself near the back of my wave, not wanting to get caught up in going out too fast.  This ended up being a bit of a rookie mistake, because I got caught behind some really weak swimmers.  Not that I am, by any means, the strongest of swimmers, but I really got hung up in traffic.  It was a mass of bodies.  I couldn't see any clear path, every time I put my face down to swim, I ran into someone or a body part, and I was being touched on all sides.  I never got pushed down or run over.  I felt a little wave of panic from being very uncomfortable, but I tried to keep breathing and moving forward.  Once the course turned to swim perpendicular to the shore, the traffic really cleared out and I was able to find some open water.  I got into a rhythm and never let up, other than a few times when I had to maneuver around other swimmers.  It was a little crazy...I'd be swimming along, turn to breath and all of a sudden there would be a body right next to me!  I did try to swim behind someone, but found it to be more distracting than it felt helpful, so I went back to what felt comfortable to me.  I remembered some good advice from a very experienced triathlete friend, and swam until my hands and knees were in the sand as I approached the beach.  I swam past people already walking and fighting the water!  I felt fresh and when I looked at my watch, I was thrilled with my time!  Official swim time: 43:06 for the 1.2 miles.

T1 took 5:28.  It went very smooth, no problems finding my bike.  And I was very thankful for the kiddie pools of water to rinse the caked sand off my feet from running up the beach!

Again, a piece of valuable advice from my friend gave me an advantage out of the gate on the bike.  The hill out of transition is enormous, so I was set up in a low gear.  Thank goodness!  I cruised right up and was on my way.  My goal was to finish in 3:30 or under.  The roads out of Racine were in horrible condition, and there was a lot of bike traffic.  I ended up nailing a huge pothole and lost some air in my rear tire.  I had no choice but to continue with it low and hope it didn't go flat.  I felt on target with my nutrition goals on the bike.  I ate my PB&J when I wanted, and finished 2 full bottles of fluid (one water and one Nuun, and about half a gatorade--I also put down about half a bottle of water in transition).  I opted out of my gel because it was so warm on my bike frame that it just wasn't appealing to me when I had planned to take it.  The bike course was nice, not too challenging and lots of downhill.  The rough roads took a toll though.  I really felt beat up by the end, and the rough roads made it feel like the pedals were pulling my questionable knee.  I started to lose focus by the end, and just really wanted to be off.  I was definitely counting down the miles with about 10 to go.  The last 4 miles were into the wind and my knee felt totally destroyed.  I had no power left in it, and I started to focus on how much it was hurting, which let in other doubts: I was hungry, getting tired, it was starting to get hot, I still had 13.1 miles to run!  Also seeing the number of people on the run course already as I was almost back to transition made me feel like I was doing very poorly despite being ahead on both my time goals so far.  I finished the 56 mile bike in 3:20:32.

T2 took 3:50.  I even ended up changing my top for a looser fitting tank instead of the compression top I had been wearing, and swapped out watches for my GPS watch.

The hill out of transition onto the run course seemed very unnecessary on the first loop, and cruel on the second.  The run course was a double loop.  I wanted to start off a nice even, slow pace and then just maintain a comfortable pace for the entire run.  I ended up doing 8:08 my first mile and 8:05 my second.  My legs were a little rubbery still, but luckily NO knee pain on the run!  I could have kissed every single person who had a hose set up in their front yard spraying runners as they went by....it was hot and the run course did have much shade.  When I could see the lake, I kept telling myself that I was going in again after I finished (I didn't, but I did really want to!!  I would have killed for that cold water at that point).  I started to really hurt around mile 9, and my pace dropped off, but I maintained just below 10:00/mile.  I finally needed to use the bathroom, and did take a very fast bathroom break between miles 9-10.  Cups of ice at the aid stations were my savior.  I grabbed one through each aid station, carried as much as I could in my hands and sucked on it while I ran.  I was starving on the run, and ate two orange slices in one of the later miles...at the same aid station I used the bathroom.  I ended up finishing the 13.1 miles in 2:01:04, my only missed time goal of the day (I wanted 2:00 or better), but all in all, I was thrilled with that!  I didn't have to take any walk breaks, and felt like a beast pushing it up that brutal hill on loop 2 past all the walkers.  Not that there is anything at all wrong with a walk break, I just had it set in my head that I wanted to push myself if I could and the day went my way pretty much all day.

My total time (I had the goal of 6:30:00 or better) was 6:14:00!!!  Beat my goal by 16 whole minutes!

In the aftermath, I think I can improve by a small margin on the swim and I know I can run a stand alone half marathon a lot faster, but am stoked with 2:00 after a 56 mile bike.  I honestly feel now that the bike is my weakest leg.  I'm not sure if it is a strength issue, a technique issue, or an equipment issue, or a combination of all those?

I have no plans of signing up for a full Ironman in the near future, but would like to take it on someday.  I do, however, fully intend to do another half.  Running is still my passion, but triathlon has really found a place in my heart.

Thanks to everyone who supported me, sent me messages, encouraged me along the way.  I cannot express my gratitude for my husband and kids for their sacrifice over the past months and for being there on race day to support me.  There is a fantastic picture of me near the finish where I saw them all (the kids for the first time that day)...I have the biggest smile!  My husband's parents were there on race day, and took the kids several times during my training to help me out in getting workouts in.  And of course, my triathlete friends deserve huge props for putting up with my constant questions!