Santa Stampede 2013 Race Report

I did this race series last year.  In fact, last year, the 10k was my first race since breaking my heel.  I had been running for maybe 2 months, but never fast and never that far.  So I was excited but apprehensive.  And I was going to be happy with whatever time I finished with.

Fast forward to 2013, which friends have nicknamed "the year of PRs" for me.  And honestly, it has been one PR after another this year.  Really, freaking cool.

I sat down with my race result spreadsheet (yes, I am a nerd) and went through my paces at that distance.  Last year I ran the 10k in 1:04:37 (10:26 pace).  I did a trail 12k in October at a 10:09 pace, and that included hills and uneven footing.  So... if I did this 10k at the 10:09 pace, that would put me around a 1:01:30 (give or take).  Why not round down to sub-60 (9:40 pace) and make it a goal?  I'm pretty sure I've never ran that fast in even a 5k before.  Sure!  No problem!

Temps were in the 20's when we got there at 8:30 AM.  I was smart and wore sweat pants AND ski pants over my running outfit (capris and socks) and I also wore a hoodie and jacket/scarf (over my t-shirt).  I was toasty warm.  Yay!  (related funny: no one recognized me with all my layers)  I saw Will off for the 5k and went inside the lodge to warm up - I found some friends there, so it was nice to hang out with them during the 5k.  After 15 minutes, I went outside to cheer on Will and some other people from my tri club.  While I was waiting, some poor girl (HS cross country?) turned the corner and started puking.  Couldn't even move out of the way.  Her coach or someone finally helped her to the side and to the finish.  I felt her pain, it is uphill to the finish and it hurts.

Once Will finished, I needed to strip down to my run clothes and do a 20 minute warmup.  I always mis-judge the time and never get my full warm up in (sorry Michelle!).  I did get in 15 minutes and included some strides.  I got to the race start with minutes to spare and made a last minute decision to ditch my arm sleeves.  I was pretty cold at the start of my warmup (I think it was low-30 temps by this point?) but by the end I was pretty warm.  I knew that with pushing my pace, I'd only get warmer and I'd end up rolling the sleeves down.  Better to just get rid of them.  And running cold always gives me more motivation to run faster.

sporting my Colfax Ambassador gear and my
festive elf socks

The race plan was to start out semi-conservative for the first mile, keep my pace around 10:00 and HR around 160.  Then start pushing and after 2 miles, ignore my watch and just run fast.

And that's pretty much what I did.  I ran and found a few people I wanted to chase.  I was trying to stay in control for the first mile but I probably did a bad job.  I just wanted to RUN.

Miles 2-4 were basically "lets see how fast I can run but still breathe".  There were two girls (also in elf socks) with their moms and we kept leapfrogging each other.  They eventually got in front of me but were running at my target pace, so I just used them as pacers.  It turns out it was their first 10k and they were shooting for a 11:00 pace.  Oh, and a podium in their age group.  They provided a nice little distraction for me, which was much appreciated it.

after winning 1st and 2nd in their age group

This year they changed the course a bit, and had us do an out and back on a side trail.  Most of the run was in one direction on the Platte trail, which was great.  You had room to move and could (mostly) avoid the patches of packed snow and ice .  But on this side trail, traffic was in both directions, AND there was packed snow on both sides of the trail so you had no where to go.  To make it even more crowded, they put a water aid station (to service both sides of the trail), which was a terrible decision.  You had people walking through the aid station and other people trying to run past, all very crowded with patches of ice/snow and no room to move.  I think we had ~1 or 1.5 miles of this crap.  Not cool.

Once we finally got to the main trail again, we had 2 miles left and I decided it was really go time.  I left my 9-year old pacers and just focused on running and not dying.  The not dying part is hard because the last 2 miles are a gradual uphill and as a bonus, we had a headwind.  Yay!

I don't remember too much about those last two miles except just trying to run fast enough to hit my goal and not die.  With about a mile or so left, I came across one of my friends (who is speedy) and I passed her.  I was expecting her to pick it up and hang on, but she never did.

this is apparently what I look like when I'm dying

Then more running, trying not to die, running, running faster.  Finally I hit the hill up into Hudson Gardens (who was hosting the race) and I knew I only had 0.25 mi left, mostly uphill.  I saw Will in about the same spot I saw him, he asked me to smile and I was borederline-pukey and all I could manage was to shake my hand "no".  I couldn't even shake my head.  ha!  Then up to the finish (don't die had been replaced by don't puke) and I was happy to see the race clock was under 1:00, meaning I had hit my goal.

game face

Right after the line, some volunteers were cutting the timing chip off my shoe and I was having a pretty lively internal debate about puking there on the spot or if I should find a bush to puke in or if I should try and walk it off.  Lucky for everyone, I really hate puking, so I just walked it off.   And used my inhaler about 20 times because I really couldn't breathe.  But yay - PR!

Time: 59:25, 9:35/mile pace
Place: 33/56 age group, 298/509 overall

Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2013 Race Report - The Run

Pre-Race
Swim
Bike

The run was definitely the thing I was most apprehensive about, mainly because IMTX was such a suffer-fest.  Then there was my broken heel last year.  And my longest training run this year was 14.5 miles.  I honestly had no idea how the marathon would go but I was doing my best to be open about running as much as possible.  But I will admit, the run was the scariest thing for me.

As I was coming in on the bike, I was actually thinking "I love swimming and biking the Ironman distance.  Too bad I can't just do those and be done."  Technically I could, but I was wishing there was still a way to get a medal and not DNF by doing that.

When I put on my running shoes, I noticed that my left foot was a bit sore from the "swim incident" and I just kind-of laughed about it.  I put my stuff on, headed out the tent and out onto the run course.  It never ceases to amaze me just how good running feels after riding 100+ miles.  And also: just the fact that I can run any distance at all after riding that far is sheer craziness. 

Just going to go and run a little marathon.  NBD.

The Plan:

• Goal HR is 140-145
• Run continuous for as long as possible (stopping at the aid station for a MAX of 0.05 miles to eat/drink)
• As running becomes more challenging, switch to run/walk intervals. I’m thinking 5 min run / 1 min walk is good. If this becomes hard, reduce run interval further. Minimum is 1 min run / 1 min walking. There will be no long stretches of walking during this Ironman.
• Keep a 5 hour marathon goal in mind and be prepared to really, really hurt from miles 15-24 to earn it. This is a 11:30 min/mile pace.
• Be mentally tough
• Focus on the Chi Running practices during the run for a distraction and a form check. Switch techniques every mile to help keep mind sharp. (I wrote ~5 things on my hand as a reminder)
• Be flexible about nutrition if what I’m doing isn’t working. If there is stomach cramping, change to coke immediately and ditch the chews.

I exited the run out chute, which was filled with cheering people, and ran through downtown CDA.  It is impossible to not be pumped at this point.  You're "nearly" done and crowds of people are cheering for you.  I was running a pretty good clip and feeling really, really good.  Like crazy good.  I could feel my left foot for a few miles, but it was still like "oh, yeah, that happened" and then after a while I forgot about it.

 

The run was 2 "loops", each consisting of an out and back. 

 

remember, this is only one "loop".  That hill sure was fun...

The run course is nearly identical to the bike course, with the exception of a few different turns through some neighborhoods.  I loved the neighborhood sections and the people who lived in them.  Their whole neighborhood was shut down so we could shuffle through it - a huge inconvenience.  They could either be crabby or throw block parties.  I'm so glad they through parties, it was awesome.  There was one L on the run route (I can't remember exactly where), but there was a guy on each entrance into the L with a microphone.  He'd yell out your name and say something funny and the yards were littered with people drinking, listening to loud music, and having a great time.  I really looked forward to those sections.

 

Michelle really wanted me to run continuously, for as long as I could.  I compromised and ran for 1 mile then took a mini  walk break for 0.05 mi where I'd drink and eat some chews.  I had 1 packets of Honey Stinger Chews (one regular and one caffienated) and was really trying to eat 2-3 per break. I was twisting through the neighborhoods and saw Michelle somewhere around aid station 2 (maybe?) and she ran with me for a bit.  I laughed because we were running down a hill (there was no flat ground) and she was wearing flip flops.  Just a funny mental image, my bad ass coach, running downhill next to me in flip flops.  She urged me to keep running and I told her I'd do my best.  I popped out of the neighborhood section and onto Lakeshore Drive, which is a big long gradual downhill for a bit.  I was still running.  Amazing.  They had us on the bike trail, which was slanted towards the lake a bit, which was annoying, so I tried to run on a worn dirt path next to the trail when possible.  The miles (!!) ticked on and I felt pretty good.  I was running around a 10:30 pace (and sometimes much faster) with a fairly easy HR and I was in a happy zone.

 

Around mile 5 you could see I-90 looming overhead and around the curve was the Big Hill.  Michelle told me to not even bother trying to run up the dumb thing and wanted me to power walk it.  Ok, I can do that!  And in all honestly, 90% of the people were walking that thing.  I got to the top, ran down the other side to the turn-around.  I remember hitting the timing mat at 6.6 miles and seeing my time and being really happy.  I even commented to a random volunteer that I could even hear my friends across the country cheering at their computers as they saw this split.  6.6 miles in, with an 11:00 pace.  Holy crap, I was actually going to do this!  I walked back up the little hill and then ran all the way down.

 

The way back to town was a slight uphill, which wasn't all that nice.  I think it was more hard mentally because the road just kept going on and you could see a slight uphill.  And it was a bit hot, but ice down my sleeves was doing the trick.  I was still running and feeling good.  Craziness.   

Could I look any happier?  And could this run be any prettier?

Then, finally, around mile 11 I wasn't feeling all that hot.  I was having some nutrition issues.  Either I had too much caffeine, too much sugar, or not enough sugar.  I felt a bit dizzy and buzzy and a bit pukey.  Not great, but not awful and I was still moving foward.  I tried to do a 5:1 run walk but that wasn't so great, so I went way down to a 1:1 run-walk interval.  Not great, but hey, I was running just as much as I was walking.  Still better than IMTX.  This went on through town.  I tried to put on a brave face for my fans, but they knew I wasn't quite right.  I hit special needs, and CDA does this RIGHT.  I came through and they had a guy on a speaker yelling my bib number.  I didn't even have to signal that I wanted my bag, there was a volunteer greeting me with all of my stuff laid out in her arms.  Awesome!  I ditched my caffeine chews, which I thought was the likely suspect for my issues because I had a LOT of caffeine, grabbed my non-caffeine chews and headed out.  On the way out, Michelle ran with me a bit more, quizzing me on my status.  I told her I was down to 1:1 intervals and she asked me to try and do 2:1 intervals because the fastest way through the run was to actually run.  I nodded and went back to work.

 



So that's what I did.  Down through the fun neighborhoods with my 2:1 intervals, taking baby sips of coke at each aid station and maybe having 1 chew every 1 or 2 miles.  I'm really proud with how I caught this issue.  Nothing goes perfect in an Ironman.  The key is being observant to those issues and troubleshooting them quickly.  I was feeling a bit rough until mile ~14 or 15 and then I was back to feeling mostly like myself again.  Legs felt good, feet felt good, HR was cooperating, stomach was decent.  Success.

Around mile 15 at the aid station entrance I saw a familiar jersey and realized it was my friend Ryan.  I poked him on the back and said "hey, I'm not supposed to find you!".  He's a strong runner and I knew he was having issues.  He had a person mis-direct him at special needs, causing him to miss it.  He was getting blisters and needed his body glide that was in his special needs bag.  And he was having a massive pity party.  We walked through the aid station and I gave him Michelle's pep talk about how you get through the marathon faster by actually running it and told him I was doing 2:1 intervals.  He was game and went with me.

This actually turned into one of my favorite parts of the race.  Ryan's my bud and he was in a tough spot.  I was happy to help him out (I think he would have walked a ton if I didn't find him).  And keeping tabs on him kept me distracted.  We helped eachother, and it was awesome.  We got to the hill and walked up it.  He whined about how fast I walked.  I laughed.  We got to the top and ran down the entire downhill to the turn around.

Then the second-best thing happened.  There was a guy with a ton of glow necklaces, handing them out to people.  I was a sad panda - I didn't want the glow necklace.  He asked what loop we were on and we said "second".  Then he said that the necklaces were for the first loopers and we wouldn't need them.  I hit the timing mat  at the turn around and did a HUGE happy dance.  NO GLOW NECKLACE FOR ME!  Seriously.  So happy.

We walked up the little hill and then ran the entire downhill section.  I had two watches on my wrist now - my Garmin for HR and pace and my digital watch for overall time.  I was trying to guess when our finish time was (we were both shooting for around 14 hrs) and at that point, it was looking like we'd finish around 14:10. 

By that point (after going down the big hill) Michelle and her friend Sonja were driving on the run course, yelling at us to run more.  "Run! Quit looking at your watch! You're smiling too much, run more!".  It was pretty comical, we were sticking with our 2:1 intervals and doing a good job running, and it never failed that they'd drive by during our walk break.  It was really annoying, but really very cool.  I saw some of their Kompetitive Edge teammates on the course and asked them if they had seen M&S.  They replied back with a "yeah, and they yelled at us".  At least they were yelling at multiple people.

With 3 miles left, I gave both of us a pep talk and tried to run more.  Which didn't really happen as it was uphill.  Ryan kept telling me I could leave him but I wasn't about to do that.  And at that point, things started to hurt and I'm not sure I could have left him.  With 2 miles left, I thought I was close to 14 hrs even and started shrinking my walk intervals and expanding my run intervals.  Not much, just 30 sec on either side.  Then we got to the 1 mile point and I really tried to run as much as possible.  I just couldn't run up the dumb hills, but for the flats, I ran.  That was the rule for that last bit: if its not up a hill, you're running.


together and running and smiling

We made the left turn to the finish and went through a parking lot.  Sherpa Jose greeted us and ran with us a bit.  I tossed him my water bottle because I didn't want it in my finish photo.  Then I guess we were running a bit too fast for him as he stopped and hung back.  We made the left hand turn onto Sherman Ave and we could see the lights of the finish. 

As far as finish lines go, I think IMTX was better.  It seemed longer, but that may be because it was narrow for a long ways.  They kept Sherman Ave the full width until the block of the finish line.  The streets were lined with people, but with the width, it didn't seem as impressive.  I dunno.

I tossed my chews onto the street (bad, I know).  I had them in my side pockets and they looked lumpy and not flattering.  I looked at my watch and saw the 14 hr mark pass and I decided to run but soak it all in.  Then Ryan and I ran to the finish together.  Really, really perfect.  Except for the part where I dropped my sunglasses in the chute and had to stop to get them.  Oops.  It was ok though, as it gave Ryan a chance to go through the finish line by himself.  I think he was expecting us to cross together, but I feel its important as a first timer to get your finish line photo by yourself.

As for how I was feeling, I'll let the photos do the work.  I really, really tried to soak it all in.  I even heard Mike Reilly call my name this time, which made me smile so so big.  Looking at the photos, I didn't realize I could smile that big. 


This photo is why I keep going back to do Ironman. 
I can't think of any other place but the finish chute
that makes me feel like this.





I saw Ryan cross and then I decided to do an imprompu jump for my finish.  I didn't practice anything and I really didn't trust my legs to be steady for a landing if I did anything crazy.  So I did a semi-lame jump that wasn't very photogenic.  But it was how I was feeling at the time, so I'll own it.

 

Apparently I didn't think to look up.  I guess I was more worried about landing.

Ryan was at the finish with his handler and I had mine.  I was a bit wobbly, which made me happy.  That means I pushed myself.  None of this "I'm fine" crap at the end like IMTX.  Nope, wobbles were good.

Our helpers were really nice.  They got our finisher gear for us (I tried the shirt on to ensure it fit) and they walked us to the finisher photo area and held our stuff.  Then I saw Will across the way and said "there's my person" and headed over to see him.


He looks concerned but really, we were just chatting.  I love this photo of us. 
My friends on facebook turned it into a hilarious caption contest.



See, just chilling, no biggie.

Stats:

First half (13.3 miles): 2:33:34, 11:32 pace.  This by the way, would be a PR for a half marathon for a 70.3.  WOW.
Second half (12.9 miles): 2:42:20, 12:35 pace.  I have done 70.3s with run splits slower than this.  Wow again
Total run time: 5:15:54, 12:03 pace.
Age Group: 62 / 112
Overall: 1413 / 2318

Total finish time: 14:03:28, 62/112 in my age group, 1413/2318 overall.  This is the highest I have placed in a WTC race.  And I had a PR of 1:53:xx from IMTX.  WOW.  And a daylight finish.

I really can't explain how it feels to finally have an Ironman time that I'm proud of.  No excuses of "oh it was hot and I had to walk a ton".  Nope.  I had my plan and I executed it nearly perfectly.  There really is very little I would change about my day at CDA.  It was about as perfect as it could have been.

I can't wait to do another and try to go sub-14.  I know I can do it.  Boulder 2014 anyone?

Oh, and this happened:

Turns out I broke my toe after the first loop of the swim.  We were sitting on the grass talking and all of I sudden I remembered that I did something to my foot and was curious about what I did.  Good thing I was sitting on the grass, because I would have fallen out of my chair.

I really barely felt it.  I'm glad I had a high pain tolerance - can you imagine if I didn't?  I texted Michelle a photo of my toe that night and I got the highest compliment - "you're a bad ass". 

Yes, yes I am.

Ironman St George 70.3 Race Report

aka - that wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  And it was FUN.

(and good grief this is a long one.  Its like I haven't raced in 2 years or something!)

Thursday
So, we left Denver at 6 AM on Thursday for what should have been a 9.5 hour drive at 6 AM on roads that looked like this:

Taken in Silverthorne, wishing we had skis instead of bikes.  Will winter ever end?

Let me just say that this was the slowest road trip ever.  From having to deal with crappy ice-covered roads until Vail Pass (seriously, WTF CDOT?  Do you put the plows away after May 1st?) and having three very hydrated triathletes in the car who needed to stop and pee every two hours, we were s.l.o.w.  slow.  I will also say that this was a gorgeous drive, so it wasn't all that bad.  But it was nearly 11 hrs of slow.  Damn.

We rolled into St G at 5 PM and decided to head straight to race check-in and get our stuff.  We happened upon the pro introductions. This race was the US Pro Championships and most of the big names were out there.  We literally walked right past Crowie and the Wurtles and Leanda Cave and countless other pros.  Way cool.


Pretty much all of the pros said the course was "brutal".  Awesome! :/

And on the way out, I managed to get this photo of me and my new boyfriend.  I am certain that he got 3rd overall because of this moment.  Or maybe I PR'd the swim because he touched me? 


Me and Andy Potts!

I rented a condo for myself and 4 other Denver-based triathletes and it worked out great.  Plenty of room for our bikes and gear, a decent kitchen and a huge countertop, and a patio with a grill.  Perfect!

Thurs night, one of my condo-mates was invited to a Training Peaks - WTC VIP party and she asked me to be her plus one.  I think the event was more fun for her than it was for me, as she got to meet some of her Newton teammates face to face for the first time.  I didn't really know anyone and just talked to random people and ate free food.  I did get to meet Fireman Rob, who really isn't all that big in person, and who was also super nice.  I also got to meet some guy from Sugarland (Thad Beaty), which other people were really impressed with, but I had no idea who he was.  To me, he was just some guy that people were fawning over.  To his credit, he seemed really nice and down to earth.  I also got to talk to Crowie, but I didn't get a photo.  Considering I got a photo with him last summer, I'm ok with that.  Also: they were serving the largest and most amazing shrimp ever.  Maybe that's why I didn't talk to too many people, I smelled of an 11 hr car ride and was stuffing myself with shrimp.  It was a late night - we didn't leave until 10:15 and I got to bed at 11 PM.  Pre-race prep fail.

Friday
The day before the race is always crazy busy with so many things to do.  I tried to plan it so we had some time mid-day to sit and chill.  We did ok with this and I didn't feel like I spent too much time on my feet.

My coach and her best friend had a "team" breakfast at 8:30, so myself and 2 condo-mates headed over to meet the crew.  I had a tasty omlette with potatoes.  Mmmmm

Then it was back to the Race Expo to pick up a friend's bike.  And then a trip to the grocery store for lunch/dinner supplies.  And then back to the condo.  By that point it was already 11 AM.  Damn, that took a while.

Ryan and I took a quick 30 min spin on our bikes to make sure everything survived the road trip.  And then he had a quick run while I tried out these things:

I know they are expensive and should have loved them, but they were weird.  It felt like a boa constrictor was eating my legs.  And they squished the hell out of my right foot and now (5 days later) my metatarsals hurt.  They felt fine during the race and right after, but they're a tiny bit achy.  And that makes me cranky.

Around 2 PM we loaded up and went to Sand Hollow Reservoir to drop off our bikes and to get a swim in.  Bike drop off was pretty simple.  Just rack your bike, let some air out of the tires so they don't pop in the heat and then wish your bike a good sleep.

Then we headed over to the lake to get in a 15 min swim.  I haven't done an open water wetsuit swim in 2 years.  The water was ~60 degrees and clear.  And beautiful.  Seriously.  We swam out to this baby rock and climbed onto it then dove back in and swam back to shore.

 

Who actually looks good in these things?

After that, we were running short on time and booked it back to town for the 4 PM athlete meeting.  We got there at 4:15 and missed the meeting.  Oh well.  We hung out and got some free stuff and then went off to drive the bike and run course.  My coach had already driven the run course and said it was "no joke".  Yay (?).

We drove the run course first because it started from the race expo. Hills and lots of them.  At mile ~2, you go up this 8% grade for ~1/3 of a mile.  Driving up that thing, I was just laughing hilariously.  People expect me to run up that?  HA!  So yeah, my expectations of doing much running were set pretty low.

We didn't drive the full bike course, just the part from where it crosses over the highway and into Snow Canyon.  The canyon was the big climb, so we felt if we saw that, we'd have a good idea of what we were up against.  Again, I have to say, this is the most beautiful course.  Wow.

petrified sand dunes in Snow Canyon State Park

We drove through and looked it over.  Ryan and I both agreed that it wasn't easy but it was definitely do-able.  Actually, the canyon profile looked similar to Palmer Lake with stair-stepping uphills.  There was a steep part at the top, but in all honesty, it didn't look any steeper than the steep bit in Palmer Lake and maybe twice as long.  For once, I was looking at a hard bike course and I wasn't petrified.

blurry, but you get the idea.  See that flat green-ish bit up on the right?  We were riding our bikes to the top of that.

After that, we went back to the condo and made dinner and got all of our race crap put together.  I was a dummy and didn't think to make sure I had enough Liquid Shot for the race.  I barely had enough.  :shakes head: 

Race Day!
I planned on waking up at 4 AM (ugh) but my condo-mates were up earlier so I got up at 3:45 (double ugh).  We had to check our run gear in at T2 and then hop a bus to Sand Hollow by 5:30, so that made everything much earlier than normal.  We got a sweet parking spot a block away from the finish pavilion, dropped our run gear, and hopped on the bus.  Which was free.  (I'm looking right at you Boise, charging racers $8 to ride the bus to the swim start).

We got to Transition and I was feeling ok.  Not really nervous or anxious, just neutral and ready to get the show on the road.  I immediately got in line to air up my tires - it was ridiculously long and took probably 15 minutes.  Then I got to work getting everything set up just so, talking to my rack-mates, and talking to some other friends.  With 15 min left before transition closing I hit the port-o-can line.  They had a bazillion out there and each line was only 4 people deep, which meant very little waiting.  They closed transition down and I somehow found my club-mates and we all hung out.  I was in an earlier wave with Daria, and we were the first ones of our group to swim.

Random sidenote: it was so awesome to race with friends.  We had 7 people from my club and I knew probably 5 more other racers.  I saw friends (mostly passing me) the whole race, which was great.

Daria and I made our way down to the swim start.  I had taken a hit of my inhaler and some Liquid Shot with Pre-Race and was READY to roll.

Swim
They had a deep water start, which meant you swam out a few hundred (?) yards and hung out at the start buoys.  Everyone in my wave was super cool, no jostling or aggression.  I was maybe 2 rows back, which is unusual because I like being in the front normally. The horn went off and away we went.  Nearly immediately I found some good feet and did my best to stay with them.  The water was so clear that it was really easy to just follow bubbles.  I managed to hang onto those feet for the first leg of the swim.  We rounded the buoy and I lost the feet.  I just focused on swimming close to the buoys and staying stretched out and relaxed.  The back stretch seemed to take forever, so I'd play games.  Switch to breathing on my left, take ~10 fast strokes and then cruise for a bit, switch to my right and repeat.  It seemed to make things move a bit faster. I was moving through earlier waves and encountered quite a few people swimming backstroke.  Ugh.  I made the final turn buoy and almost immediately found feet and focused on just following them.  This was the first time in a race that I did a good job in finding feet.  I looked at their kick and decided that given their pace and form, they should be decent swimmers and hoped that they were swimming straight.  I think I looked up maybe once that whole way back.  About half way through the final stretch of the swim the fast guys started coming through on the left side, hugging the buoys.  It reminded me of the water pipeline with the sea turtles in Finding Nemo.  I put myself as close as I could to them and tried to stay with them.  I got dropped a bunch but I think the net effect was helpful.  I just channeled my Inner Dory and just kept swimming.  I swam until my hands touched and stood up and went up the boat ramp into transition.

I felt that my pace was pretty comfortable.  I wasn't working super hard but I wasn't exactly cruising.  This felt like my IM pace.  I think.

I saw 0:44 on the clock and I had to idea what that meant for swim time.  It felt solid but it also felt like a 40 min swim.  I tried to do the math on the bike but my brain just wouldn't compute.

Swim time: 36:52
Swim Pace: 1:53
Swim Rank: 18/118 AG, 656/2685 OA

Holy shit, a swim PR by ~3.5 minutes.  And this was the first time I was in the top 10% in my age group for a 70.3 distance race.  I guess I need to find feet and keep my head down more often.  My coach commented to me about my swim times and how I should be getting better times.  This time, my time reflected my ability.  Go me!

T1
Something about not having raced in a wetsuit for 2 years made for a really crappy time getting my wetsuit off.  I couldn't find the zipper cord.  And then I got it unzipped but I couldn't get the damn thing off my upper body.  I actually had to have a stripper peel the whole thing off me from shoulder to feet.  I don't know if my hands were cold or if I was out of practice, but I know I can do better.

not a swamp-monster photo but it still isn't flattering.

I got to my bike and was happy to see there was only 1 bike missing from the rack.  It felt like I was taking my time, putting on gloves and my helmet, making sure I got nutrition in my pockets.  La la la, I'm racing but taking forever.

T1 time: 3:19

A near-2 min PR for my 70.3 distance T1.  I guess I wasn't that slow after all.
Bike
I got on the bike and started rolling along.  Here was my plan:

• Spin up the hills to save legs for Snow Canyon and the run.
• Push the downhills
• Medium pace (145 HR and cadence of 85-90) for the flats or shallow hills.
• Nutrition: on bike - 40 oz of EFS (400 cal), 1.5 bottles of Liquid Shot (600 cals), 2 packs of Honey Stinger Chews (400 cals), 1 SunRype Fruit Source Bar (120 cals), and some salt stick pills.  Idea was to drink EFS for the first hour or two and dilute it with water at each aid station so it was mostly water by the time I hit the mile 40 aid station.  Supplement with Liquid Shot for add'l calories and take in chews as I felt I needed to.  After Snow Canyon, start gobbling up calories for the long 10 mile downhill to allow time to digest prior to the run.

My stomach felt a little iffy right off the bike, probably because I had swallowed some lake water.  I gave it 5 minutes before drinking and it felt much better.  The air temp was fairly cold and I had my DeSoto Cool wings on (I wore them under my wetsuit) and I was actually pretty damn cold.  Those sleeves work. 

At about 4 miles in, there was a nasty little climb.  Not cool.  I must have pushed it a bit too hard going up because my right adductor decided to get cranky on me.  (This used to happen on hilly or hard effort 2-3 years ago.  It hasn't happened in over a year.  I was not a happy camper that it decided to act up).  It was also on this hill that Daria passed me on her sweet new Specialized Shiv.

Things weren't that exciting.  We were on chipseal for a good long time and I felt slow.  I didn't know if I had a flat tire or a brake rub or what.  But it felt SLOW compared to what I was used to doing.  In talking to others after the race, I think my legs were just cold from the swim and it took a while to get them warm and moving.


somehow, I managed to have my helmet on straight in all of my photos this time!

The bike was pretty uneventful.  I rode, I talked to people as I passed them up the hills, I enjoyed the scenery, I took in calories per my plan.  I hit the harder calories (chews and Liquid Shot) when I felt like I had some good downhills ahead of me.  This didn't work all that well because I didn't really know the early part of course and somehow managed to have some climbs with a belly full of chews.  It was only slightly uncomfortable and really not that big of a deal. 

Ryan passed me right around mile 35, most everyone else passed me much earlier.  It was also at mile 35 that I decided to really get in some calories to prep for Snow Canyon.  I jammed my front Liquid Shot into the velcro holder thingy too well earlier on and it was now stuck.  That meant I got to practice reaching around to my rear cage and getting my back-up container and then putting it back in.  I'm actually glad I had the back-up and it was a good thing to identify for CDA.


Merlin likes to fly

At mile 40 I stopped to pee, get my front Liquid Shot unstuck, stretch my adductor, re-filled my 40-oz bottle (it was 75% water at that point), took a few hits of my inhaler (preventative) and soaked my sleeves with water.  I also made the aid station workers admire the sparkly clear coat on my bike.  Because I'm a dork.

Then was the test - Snow Canyon.  Which was actually my favorite part of the course.  For starters, it is BEAUTIFUL.  The canyon was ~4 miles long and had ~800 feet of climbing.  Merlin (my new Alchemy bike, in its triathlon debut) felt super light and nimble.  I just rode up the canyon, giving myself gentle pep talks on the steeper parts.  The stair stepping helped, because it gave me a chance to spin my legs out a bit on the flatter bits.  The other cool thing about this part of the course if that you can see the road all the way through the canyon, with cyclists winding their way to the top.  It was a bit intimidating but also really cool.


This part of the ride was going to hurt but at least the scenery was beautiful

I wasn't quite to the hard part and there were people having issues.  Having to stand and pedal or worse, having to get off and walk.  I was concerned about the really steep push at the top but I just told myself to try it.  Just try it and see what happens.  My HR was in the 170's but I told myself to hold on and keep moving forward.  In my head, I kept thinking about the Boulder Epic Century ride from last September and how that, right now, Snow Canyon was not the hardest thing I had ever done.  I just kept focused and pedaled my way up the hill.  And I actually passed people.  That never happens.  It was awesome.  Merlin kicks ass. 

I got to the top of the canyon and got ready for some fun.  I had conquered the hard part of the race and felt awesome.  I was having fun and was riding along with a huge grin on my face.  So happy.

Per my plan, I got to work stuffing my face with calories.  I also decided to take 2 salt pills, as a preventative measure for the run.  I'm happy I did the pills first, because when  I took out my 2nd bag of chews from my bento box, I lost my container of pills.  Lame.  I got down a few handfulls of chews and a few gulps of Liquid Shot, chased that with some water and I got ready to fly.

My front brakes got gunked up with Liquid Shot from when I got my front container unstuck.  I acutally had to unscrew the lid, which resulted in some goop leaking onto the front of my bike.  I tapped the brakes for the first time and my front one make this awful squealing noise.  Tried it again, same noise.  Ok, I'm using my back brake only for the end of the ride. 

From this point on, I just focused on staying tucked and flying.  The road was smooth and had wide sweeping turns.  I took one downhill in aero at 44 mph and later hit 44 mph on my hoods.

Then we had one nasty little weird out and back (with a detour on a bike path with several 90 degree turns) and a return uphill.  I wasn't very happy with that last, tiny uphill (maybe 120 ft in a half mile), mainly because I was on cruise mode.  And also because I had a full stomach and it didn't feel that great going uphill with all those calories bouncing around.

After that bit, it was all smooth sailing to T2, where there were crowds of people cheering for us.

Bike time: 3:37:49  (6 min off my PR from Galveston... which was flat)
Bike Pace: 15.43 mph
Bike Rank: 70 /115 AG, 1584/2685 OA

T2
Got my bike racked pretty easily, gloves/helmet off, shoes on.  Grabbed my race belt, hat, and handheld bottle and put those on as I headed out of transition.

T2 time: 3:38

Run
So let me just say that I had ZERO expectations going into the run, given the hills and the heat.  And I also didn't really have expectations for the race as a whole, other than "survive". 

My plan was to run/walk based on HR intervals.  I set my Garmin to beep when I hit a HR of 165 (high limit) and 135 (low limit) and would run until I hit the high limit and walk until I hit the low.  For nutrition, I had 400 cals of Liquid Shot and a full scoop of Pre-Race, mixed with water.  The idea was to take a good sized sip at every aid station.  I still had on my Cool Wings and discovered that I could cram ice down the sleeves to stay cool.  Way, way awesome and I will be wearing these things for every warm race from now on.

So the run starts with you going out the chute, up a small hill, around a roundabout, and onto Diagonal which is a gradual long hill.  Right out of the chute, I came across Fireman Rob.  Since I felt like we were buddies (I talked to him for a whole 30 seconds 2 nights prior), I decided to joke around with him.  With two transitions, we had to keep all of our run gear in our red run bags.  I jogged past Rob and joked "I'm sure all that gear didn't fit into one red bag!"  That got a big laugh out of him and he commented that it took many red bags to store his fireman get-up.

So yeah, the run.  I don't think I ever hit a HR of 165.  I'd get to 158 or 160 and start to walk.  But, I think I only hit a low HR of 135 once, and that was during an aid station.  Typically I'd start running again when I saw 148 or so on the Garmin for my HR.  I just plugged along doing that run/walk up hills, chatting with people and making friends.

This was a really strange run course because so many people were walking.  The aid stations were pretty laid back, people taking their time to get things, acting like it was a buffet.  Very few people (by the time I went through) were hustling.  We were just trying to get it done.

I made the turn from Bluffs to Red Hills Blvd and I heard "Erin, is that you?"  It was the wife of the guy I was supposed to relay with in Boise last year.  I stopped, made jokes, and posed for pictures.  During a race.  (yes, I know.  :facepalm:  also see: low expectations).  Then I started to make my way up the 8% grade, running and walking per my plan.

I don't remember that first uphill being awful.  I was pretty fresh off the bike, feeling cool thanks to the ice in my sleeves, and generally happy.  I got to the top of the hill at mile 3 and I cruised the downhill parts.  When I was running, I was running around a mid- to lower- 9 minute pace.  When I was walking, I was sticking around a 15 min pace.  Pretty good.

The course took you up a big hill for almost 3 miles then you had a saddle and up to the top at 4.5 miles, then a dowhill for a bit, then through a park with rollers, then more downhill to a turn around, where you got to do the course in reverse.  Yay (?)

First time through the park, feeling good, singing to myself

I saw Michelle (my coach) on a uphill portion maybe around mile 4.  I told her I was ok and I killed the bike and wished her luck. I also saw all of my club-mates on the opposite side of the road (ahead of me) and we high fived eachother.

I'd say I was pretty happy for the first half of the race.  After my broken heel last year, I was just happy to be out there.  Anytime I didn't feel like running, I'd remind myself that last year I couldn't run, and then I'd get going.  And the ice in my sleeves were brilliant.  I wasn't hot.  I just sang a dumb little song in my head, like a kid: "I've got ice in my sleeves, I'm not hot, everyone else looks hot, this is awesome".  I'm a dork.  But at least I'm a happy dork.

After going back through the park again (mile 8?) my stomach got hungry, and I said uh-oh.  I was supposed to drink from my hand held every mile but I put too much Pre-Race in it and it tasted disgusting (bitter) so I was only taking baby-sips, if that.  I took a few bites of my SunRype Fruit Source bar (still in my tri shorts pocket from the bike) to take care of the hunger pains and started hitting the Coke at the next aid station.  The next few miles weren't pretty - the damage was done in terms of calorie deficit.  Dummy.  I got to the top of the hill, still doing my run/walk thing, but I was only running until I hit a HR of ~155 or so and I was letting my HR drop into the low 140's before I started to run again.  I forgot how to properly drink water and decided to inhale it.  I can breathe while swimming - surrounded with water - and be fine.  Apparently I can't drink while running.  So that kicked off my asthma.  Super.  And let me tell you, running downhill with an asthma attack going on sucks.

You get to the top of the last hill and say to yourself, "sweet, its 3 miles to the finish and its all downhill".  Only the race director is evil and put this mean little out and back up and down leg into the end of the run.  That part really sucked.  And there was a photographer there to document how happy we all were.  

focused

Once I finished that point, I had about 2 miles left.  I had no idea where I was on the clock and I flipped my Garmin display to show time of day.  I saw that I had the potential to PR if I ran the whole way back.  Holy crap.  Unfortunately, due to my asthma and idiotic lack of nutrition, and also developing blisters, I just couldn't make myself run downhill those 2 miles.  Boo.  I managed to run 0.2 to 0.3 miles then walk 0.1 mile, repeat.  Until the last bit, where I'm pretty sure I ran at least the last 1/2 mile.  It helped that the crowds got denser and I could hear the finish line by that point.

I went down the hill, back around the roundabout, and I could see the finish - and it was all downhill.  Finally.

I had the chute pretty much to myself, which was really fun.  In the past, I was so focused, I just zoomed down the chute, not really taking things in.  This time, I was still running, but I was also high fiving kids and absorbing the atmosphere.

I heard them say my name and my town.  Then I crossed the finish line.  And then I was done.  Awesome.

If you look closely, you can see the ice that's still in my sleeves :)

Run Time: 2:45:29  (5 min faster than my worst 70.3 run split, only 8 min slower than my best)
Run Pace: 12:37 min/mile
Run Rank: 78/115 AG, 1639/2685 OA

Overall Time: 7:06:52, 78th in my AG.  This was 8 min slower than my PR (Galveston) and my highest placement to date.

Closing Thoughts
My race experience in St George was beyond expectations and fantastic.  It was one of those truly perfect days.  The entire town is genuinely proud to host this race - they're so friendly and helpful.  The couse is BEAUTIFUL.  It is hard, but not impossible.  I'm so glad I followed our tri-club head lemming and took the leap.  Other races wouldn't have been as hard and I certainly would have had a huge PR, but I wouldn't have learned anything either.

This race was a huge confidence boost for IMCDA.  I know that my training is solid, based on my bike performance.  This makes me really excited to put my head down and get to work for the final stretch to CDA.

Race Report - Firethorne Sprint Triathlon

AKA yet another race that I didn't really train for

AAKA my last local race in Houston

AAAKA the race in which I won a shiny!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pre-Race
This one was close to my house - so I got to sleep in a bit (5:30).  Rolled out to the race, ate my usual 1/2 of a protein bar and a diet coke.  Racking was open by row and for once, I was the closest rack to the bike in/out.  Yay!  I hate hate hate running in cycling shoes.  The racks were a mess, most people put their bikes facing the exit and then put their bags in the space where opposite bikes were supposed to go.  Sloppy racking is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.  Ran into a few friends and debated the merit of wetsuit use for a 500 m race. C (who is amazing and wins overall masters for every race she's entered this year) said that the water felt warmer than officials claimed and was going sans suit.  I went over and got my chip then decided investigate the water temperature situation.  I waded in knee deep and confirmed that yes, the water was warmer than the 73 degrees that officials were claiming - it felt more like 75 or 76.  There was none of that shock you get when you hit cold water.  And since this was only a 500 m swim, a wetsuit really wasn't worth the hassle, even with the wetsuit strippers.

Transition closed at 7:15, so I wandered over to the lake and ran into my swim coach and his relay team.  Hung with them for a while, ran into some other swim team friends.  My wave didn't start until 8:03 and the race started late, so I had time to kill.

Swim
I've swam in this lake 2x before, once in a wetsuit and once w/out.  Its a real simple counter clockwise rectangle course.  We wade in and I notice that there weren't all that many people in my wave - maybe 30-40 people.  I wanted to see how hard I could go but not completely redline.  The gun went off and it was a pretty smooth start - no jostling or crowding.  I did have one girl hang with me for the first 3 buoys but I had a feeling she would get tired and drop off, while I just got stronger.  Sure enough, just before the turn buoy, she cratered and I kept cruisng along, focusing on my kick.  For me, a strong kick = fast swim.  Its easy to forget your kick in distance swimming, so my job was to stay focused.  Coming into the finish, there weren't all that many people to swim through or much scrambling.  Getting out of the water, though, was very awkward, as the pond base was slimy clay and they only had a 4x8 ft piece of plywood for the "ramp" out.  I ended up losing my balance trying to stand and had to bend down and grab 2 fist-fulls of nasty clay.  I think I still have clay under my nails a day later.

T1
Pretty basic.  Kept a good job to my bike (heard a go Boise! [my Boise tri kit]) and saw that most of the bikes were on the rack.  I didn't really see anyone in front of me or near me in the swim, so I had a feelilng I was close to the front, if not at the front of the pack.  Pretty clean T1, although I fumbled more than I would have liked with my socks.  I may want to consider ditching the socks in the future.

Bike
The bike course took us north up FM14XX past I-10 and then an out and back east/west along Hwy 90, then back south.  We had a pretty good wind from the south, so immediately, I was zipping along easily at 20+ mph.  Which is nice in terms of getting your bike flow and HR down, but sucky because you know its going to hurt coming back.  The course wasn't awesome, mainly because we didn't have a dedicated lane to ride in - it was mostly shoulder.  And all of Hwy 90 was chip seal with some pretty decent pits.  Once I got on Hwy 90, I wanted to stay slightly uncomfortable, in terms of speed and pacing.  I wanted to stay in Zone 3-4 and get some decent speed, staying around 18 mph.  When it came time to pass someone, I'd drop a gear and get up to 19.5 mph, stay there for 1-2 miles, until my legs started to feel fatigued, then drop back a gear to 18 mph.  I repeated this ~5 times over the 16 miles and I think the speed boosts helped to keep me sharp and focused.  No one in my AG passed me on the whole bike and at the turn, I really didn't see anyone close behind me.  This added to my motivation to keep pushing and see just how hard I could go.

T2
It was pretty crowded coming into the bike in, so that was interesting.  Pretty smooth for the rest of the transition, except my sunglasses somehow got tangled up in my helmet.  I stayed on target though, only putting on my shoes, and carrying my garmin, visor, and drink out with me onto the run.

Run
Run is always my weakness and to make it worse, it was hot out.  I hate hate hate running in the heat and have a hard time really pushing.  My goal today was to PR for the run - meaning I needed to be under a 10:00/mile pace for the first 2 miles, not walk at all, and kick it into gear for the final mile.  I decided to race in my Newtons, hoping that they'd give me an edget.  A bit risky, since I've never run "fast" in them, but I've been doing all my short (up to 7 mile) runs and bricks in them, and have been feeling pretty speedy in them.

The run first took you on a crushed granite loop around the lake then onto sidewalks and city streets, then more granite, then streets to the finish.  Around a 1/2 mile I got passed by 3 people in my AG.  They were flying, not much I could do.  I needed to stay on target with my pace and just push, no matter how uncomfortable I got.

For the first mile, I was around 9:45/mile (at least when I looked at my watch).  I was running faster than I'd wanted to and was torn.  Do I keep going since it feels ok and hope I don't crash or do I make myself slow down.  I don't know if I made a conscious decision on what to do - I think I pretty much played it by ear.  I do think I slowed down a bit for mile 2, I did see 10:xx/mile a few times.  Once I got to the last mile, I focused on light feet, short strides, and speed.  It was hot, my lungs weren't happy, but I was going to PR on the run.  To add motivation, no one else had passed me, and at the turn around, I didn't see anyone in my AG who were even close.  This put be at best in 4th place (assuming I was first out of the water).  I was not going to allow myself to crash and burn - I was going to hold my position or do my best possible to keep it.  I don't know what my pace was in the last 1/2 mile, but I suspect it was somewhere in the high 8:xx/mile area.  I'm certain my finish line pictures will be funny - I was fighting a side cramp and breathing hard.  But I finished STRONG and held my position.  Mission accomplished.

Results
500 m swim, 16 mi bike, 3 mi run
Swim: 9:34.5; 1:55/100 meter pace (PR for tri suit)
T1: 1:46.1
Bike: 53:27.8; 18.0 mph
T2: 1:18
Run: 28:05.1; 9:22/mile pace (PR!!!)
Overall: 1:34:12

Rankings
Swim: 2/21, 145/541 (I think my overall rank is a bit low due to the number of wetsuits in the race)
Bike: 4/21, 300/541
Run: 9/21, 347/541
Overall: 5/21, 245/541

Other Analysis
I did some number crunching, and I was 2nd going into the run by more than 1 minute.  It really shows how strong my swim leg is, since I was actually 4th in my AG on the bike.

Nutrition-wise, I think I over did it a bit.  I had 2 scoops of Infinit and 2/3 of a Hammer Gel.  I ended up with side stitches on the run.  Nothing terrible, but still, they're never fun.  I think if I didn't have that last gulp of gel, I could have avoided the side stitches.

I did this race last year and was hoping to compare 2009 to 2010.  They changed the bike course a bit (and added 1 mile) and changed the run (although I don't think they changed it substantially).  In 2009, I used a wetsuit and had a PR on the swim but was 45 seconds slower in T1 than 2010.  This year, I was actually a net 15 seconds faster on the swim, even without the wetsuit.  So, not wearing the wetsuit was actually the right decision.  Also, my 2009 finish time was 1:35:45, vs 1:34:15 in 2010.  The course was 1 mile LONGER and I finished 1:30 FASTER this year.  Go me!

And the best part.... awards were 5 deep.  Meaning I got a SHINY!!

Every emotional for me - this was my last local race in Houston.  Very amazing that I not only PR'd but got HARDWARE.