Race Day!

I woke up at 3:45 AM (the absolute worst part of racing triathlon), ate my usual English muffin, PB and chocolate milk. My race-day nerves were definitely present, but I found it easier to eat than I normally do. John and I made sure we had all of our stuff, and then Lars drove us down to the transition area. I got into transition a little before 5. Courtney was already there, so we chatted a bit. She gave me a piece of mylar to put under my tri suit to help keep me warm on the bike, which I was eternally grateful for. 

It was 47 degrees, and cloudy. I’ve never come into transition with flannel PJ pants, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, puffy jacket and beanie in my 24 years of doing this crazy sport! But at least it wasn’t windy. Because of the clouds, I knew I’d be chilly coming out of the water, and I needed to be prepared. So, I layed out my vest, arm warmers, wool socks and the gardening gloves. I then filled my front bottle with water, double checked my run gear, took off all of those clothes, grabbed my wetsuit, swim cap and goggles, and headed off to locate Lars. 

I walked toward the lake, and quickly found Lars.  I put on the bottom part of my wetsuit, chatted a bit, kissed him goodbye, and walked toward the swim staging area. I lined up in the 33-35 min swim finish time (which is normal for me), and waited to be walked on the beach by the volunteers. When I got to the beach, I saw Lars again taking photos, which immediately calmed my nerves and made me focus. Lake CdA is absolutely gorgeous (not far behind Lake Taupo), and I was really looking forward to getting the race underway!

Swim 🏊🏻‍♀️

The lake was glass! Absolutely perfect conditions. We swam counter-clockwise, which makes things a tad more difficult for me because when I race, I breathe to the right. But the massive orange and yellow buoys (think giant Doritos) are set about 300m apart, and are easy to see. I stayed straight, followed lots of feet (and drafted off of some), and had no issues. I took it out a little easy, getting my breath under control, and then after the turn, I picked it up on the way home. 

I was out of the water in 36 min, which is a tad slow for me. But after the race, when I looked at the data, I figured out that the swim was about 100m long, so my time was really 34 min, which is solid. 5th in my AG. 

I had the top half of my wetsuit off by the time I got to the strippers, and they quickly got the rest off. I ran to my bike, and then took the time to dry myself off a bit because I didn’t want to be shivering. I put on the vest, arm warmers, plastic gardening gloves and my wool socks. I took about 3 more minutes to get out of transition than normal, but I didn’t care- I wanted to make sure I was as warm as possible.

Bike 🚴🏼‍♀️

Before I describe my ride, I have to say that the gardening gloves were the smartest decision I could’ve made!! Thank you, Martin! Since they were plastic, they stopped ALL of the wind and the little grippy things on the fingers and palms made it easy to grab my bars. My hands were NEVER cold, which is super important for me because if my hands get cold, it’s all over. I don’t recover. 

OK- about the course. It’s hilly. Relentlessly hilly. I know it well because I’ve done the full IM twice. The first 15 miles are relatively flat and fast, with just one nice hill to warm you up. Things get serious when we make a left turn onto Highway 95, which runs on the other side of the lake. There’s a lot of up, and not equal amounts down- more false flats than descents. I enjoy climbing a lot, and that’s pretty much all I do on my training rides, but those false flats just kill me. I did my best not to let them get into my head, and I pushed them as hard as I could. My arm warmers covered my watch, so I didn’t know my pace, etc. Thinking back on it, that was good thing. I rode by feel and listened to my body (instead of listening to the data). My sport is waaaaay too data-driven, but that’s a story for another day. Time: 3:18.  I would’ve liked the split to be no slower than 3:15, but I was still 10th in my AG. 

I felt good heading back into transition, mainly because I was happy that I didn’t have to do the loop again (like we do in the full). My only problem: I couldn’t feel my feet. 😆 I really wished I’d brought my toe warmers to put over my cycling shoes. Oh well- note to self. I unclipped, and realized it was going to be very hard to stand and run back to rack the bike. So I walked. I didn’t want to fall over, or worse, sprain an ankle. I got to my spot, racked the bike, took off all of the clothing, put on the run gear, and headed out. Again, it took me longer than usual because: (1) I couldn’t feel my feet, and (2) I had all of that shit to take off.

Run 🏃🏼‍♀️

I literally couldn’t feel my feet for almost the first 3 miles. I waffled back in forth in my head: do I walk to avoid falling and hurting myself, or do I run and get the blood flow back to my feet sooner? I chose the latter. I really like this course because it winds through a nice park (where you can see your friends and family 4 times), by the lake, and through a gorgeous neighborhood. It only has 470 feet of gain, so pretty flat. The temp was probably 60 by then, so perfect running weather. 

Because of the cooler weather, I didn’t take in all of my bike nutrition, so I was hoping that wasn’t going to come back and bite me in the ass. I had my best 7-8 miles off the bike in a long time. At about mile 2, I had to stop and stretch my calf because my right foot was hurting, and I was afraid the tendon was going to give me trouble if I didn’t.  Other than that, the legs felt strong; very little fatigue. I took the gels I brought with me (since Gatorade Endurance is no longer on the course, I needed calories and electrolytes). At the 10 mile mark, I was 10 minutes behind the pace I did when I ran Colfax in May. Ideally, I wanted that to be only 5 min slower, but I was still happy. The legs started to get super tight shortly thereafter, so I slowed the pace and even walked some.  

When I got to mile 12, a wave of happiness came over me because I knew I’d had a good run, and generally put together a solid race. I made the left turn onto Sherman, and I could see the finish line in the distance! It’s all downhill, which was a relief. John, Martin, Tamara and Lars were hanging out on the left side of the road, about half way to the finish. They had the Cupcake Cartel flag with them, so they were easy to spot. I ran over, gave them all high 5s, and enjoyed the last little bit into the finish. 

Final time- 6:48. Sure, I wanted to be faster, but at 53, I’ve come to the realization that I’m not going to PR every race. I also have a much deeper appreciation for any Ironman finish line. There are so many things that could go wrong over 6 hours, so making it to that red carpet is a gift. I will never take it for granted. 

Next up is an Olympic-distance race in Boulder on July 19, and then USA Triathlon’s Age Group Nationals on August 9 and 10 (I qualified for that in Chicago last year). I’m really looking forward to Nationals! It’s such a great atmosphere, and I haven’t been since we moved to Colorado because I’ve been focused solely on long-course racing. Time to wake up my fast-twitch muscles!! LFG!!! 💪🏼