Ironman 70.3 Raleigh - June 5, 2016

An 8:00 a.m. flight out of JFK Thursday morning seemed like a good idea - until our alarms went off at 3:30 a.m. The flight was short and smooth, and we landed in Raleigh a quick 2-hours later. We picked up our rental car which was promptly named Apollo ZERO (because it looked like a spaceship and had zero power!), and then made our way to the hotel for an early check-in.

Post-lunch and a short siesta, we drove an hour south to Pinehurst, NC, to visit my cousin, Abbe, and her family. Mind you, I had not seen her in 21 years! (long distance + life got in the way) We had a wonderful visit with her, and also enjoyed meeting her husband Michael, and all three of their cute kiddos!

Friday was spent taking care of race-related items: driving the bike course, swimming in Jordan Lake, race packet pick-up, and race briefing. Additionally, all of our teammates arrived and Zach and I moved to the McMansion....er....I mean, AirBNB team house.

Friday night team dinner in the McMansion!

I spent Saturday morning working out: short/easy run, followed by a short team ride. The rest of the day involved checking in bikes, getting race gear ready, and trying to remind myself to stay off my feet and SIT DOWN! Zach, Natalie, and I also drove the run course before dinner (they weren't kidding - barely any shade!).

The Tomahawk is racked & ready!

Hanging out at the port-a-potties is what the "cool kids" do when waiting for their teammates to check their bikes.

Natalie and I scoped-out T2 because Raleigh created abnormal logistics: 2 different transition areas.

RACE DAY - It's gonna be a hot & humid one!

PRE-START

1. Natalie and I saw Meredith Kessler walking to the swim start, and, like fan girls, we yelled, "Good luck Meredith!" She turned around, smiled, waved, and wished us the same.

2. While in the port-a-potty line, ants started biting my feet. Ouch! Luckily they weren't fire ants, but still painful!

3. I've never started in the very last AG swim wave, so it was a whole new experience for me. I spent most of my wait time hanging with Zach and teammates, while one-by-one they slowly disappeared, until I was the last one to start racing.

Team B is ready to rock it!

Warm-up swim is done!

SWIM

I never heard an official water temperature announcement, but when I asked two other racers, they said it was 82-84º. With 20 minutes until my start, I put on my speedsuit, waded into the designated “warm up” area, and splashed around a little bit. I’m not sure where they took the water temp from, but it felt colder than when I did my practice swim in the lake on Friday, when it was 79º.

Nonetheless, it was warm, and I was looking forward to a freshwater race!

My game plan was to go all-out for the swim (really, for the whole race), and see what I could do.

My age group waded in rib-deep, and I positioned myself in the middle of the second row – which has worked well for me the last few races. It gives me a chance to find someone to draft off of, and I don’t get kicked around too much.

Per usual, after the start gun I got whacked a bit – nothing too bad – before the crowd thinned by the second buoy. I focused on keeping wide-track arms and making every stroke count.

Things were going great until I made the first turn.

The water became choppy, with decently-high swells, and the air reeked of boat exhaust. Goals changed, and I focused on trying to swim as straight as possible (to get out of what felt like a washing-machine-of-death ASAP), and trying not to swallow lake water.

I was sure when I rounded the last turn buoy to head towards shore that the chop would be less OR would push me to shore. Neither was the case.

I fought to swim straight and get to the shore as soon as possible. I feared for those that were weak swimmers, because that was absolutely brutal....

OK, so I swam a "wavy" triangle, but not too bad!

T1

Uneventful - just the way I like it. :-)

BIKE

I saw Zach at the bike mount line ringing those cowbells. ;-) My hamstrings were on fire for the first 2-3 miles, which was ominous given what happened to me in Puerto Rico.

I saw Natalie on the out-and back (she didn't see me), and then gave a shout-out to Lara when I passed her at mile 4.

The majority of the bike was uneventful, hot, and with limited shade. There were some really great, long stretches of road with a bit of tailwind and downhill where I could just hammer it out - and averaged high 20s/low 30s mph.

Like the swim, my game plan was to go “all out” and see what I could do. I’d say I met this goal – sometimes even making rash decisions about passing people at the potential cost of my legs. These “power up” moves are not something I would normally do as they can often drain the legs. However, since this was my “C” race, I was willing to engage in risky behaviors and deal with potential consequences. I’m happy to report that I didn’t blow out my legs and I have now learned that I can make power passes and not hurt. :-)

I was excited to see Stuart at mile 35 – trucking along at his first triathlon! – and then I saw Natalie around mile 40. She and I exchanged some profanities about how awful the swim was before I headed on my way.

Zach popped up again about 400m from the dismount line, yelling "Go Baby Girl!" still ringing the cowbells with gusto!

T2

I cut off a guy who momentarily hesitated about which row to go down....sorry dude!

Sunscreen I had left in T2 refused to spray. I also needed to pee. I skipped the sunscreen tent, bypassed the port-a-potties, and figured I could "deal" for the next ~2 hours (OR learn how to pee while running, and just expect to cross the finish line sunburned).

RUN

My legs felt decent. Time to see what I could do!

Most of the street was unprotected from the sun, and I felt it singeing my shoulders. I treated each aid station as an opportunity to keep my core temp down - water on my face and over my head, ice in my top and shorts, and sponges wherever I could shove them.

This is what happens when you skip sunscreen in T2 for fear those 20 seconds will matter in the end.

Two words to summarize the run: SCORCHING HOT! Kathrin said her watch registered 92º on the run course, but that doesn't account for humidity or the heat radiating off the asphalt.

Aid station 1 I saw Markus running towards me! We high-fived and I secretly envied that he was already 5 miles into his run.

I also saw Coach, Kathrin, and then on my way back to the center of town, I saw Stuart and Natalie running together, probably pep-talking each other.

My paces were slowly dropping as the heat continued to rise. When looping back through the city, I soaked in what I could of the crowd’s energy and smiled because….I was halfway to the finish and closer to being out of the heat.

Lap #2 was absolutely brutal and temptations of walking filled my head. I resisted, knowing that the faster I ran, the faster I'd be out of the heat and in permanent contact with ice. :-)

I high-fived every little kid on the course with his arm outstretched. I even gave a round of high-fives to a crowd at a bar who was cheering-on runners. The crowd support on the run in Raleigh was comparable to Puerto Rico – minus the blasting Spanish music and garden hoses.

Turns out my limiter was not my legs. My limiter was my respiration (oddly enough-maybe the humidity?), and my HR. I never look at my HR during races - I race off RPE and look at the data afterwards. Turns out 73% of my run was between Zone 4 and anaerobic. :-O

57% - Zone 4

10% - Zone 5A

3% - Zone 5B

3% - Anaerobic

My right foot - which had been giving me issues for the previous 3 weeks - decided to start aching on the uphill of mile 7, and continued through mile 10. It felt like I was running on a giant bruise under the arch of my foot. To distract from the pain, I focused on looking for teammates, staying cool, and moving forward.

But...the real thing that made me dig deeper and pick up the pace was seeing another AWA in my AG (who I bet would get 2nd, maybe 3rd), and closing in on her. I got on her heels, and when she walked the mile 11 aid station, I made my pass and hoped she didn't notice the age on my calf. Maybe I'll call that my "Stealth Bomber" move. ;-)

With 1 mile to go, I passed another AWA (who I predicted would be Top 5), and then reeeeeally picked it up (aka: only an 8:02/mi pace, which is all body had left). I had no idea what these ladies had left in their legs, and I sure wasn't about to risk a repeat finish of Puerto Rico 2014 - I swear that finish has scarred me for life!

On the zig-zag before the straightaway to the finish, I didn't see any AG girls close on my heels, but I still didn't let up. Headwind was gusting down the straightaway - it felt great - but the added resistance was not appreciated. In fact, it blew off my visor, and with 1/4 mile to the finish, I had to run back, grab it (survey for AGers closing-in), then run as fast as I could towards the finish.

There, under a tree, Zach sat comfortably in his lawn chair, ringing bells (he said the next day his arms were sore from all the ringing!). The video he took of me running towards the finish chute shows how freaking tired I am, although he said my form still looked "loose."

FINISH

I don't think I left anything on the course - which was the goal. I tend to be a little conservative with my racing (e.g. I often feel I could still run a few more miles at the end of a 70.3), and I am trying to step away from that. As a "C" race, I treated Raleigh as an experiment to see what happened when I went balls-to-the-wall during the swim, bike, and run.

When I saw my cumulative time at the run start, I had hopes of squeaking into the 5:20s. But, I guess the low 5:30s are acceptable given the brutal run (and swim!) conditions.

I staggered over to the med tent with Coach to get a bag of ice and a cold cloth. They also gave me some sort of sodium-spiked Gatorade. In my opinion, this race had tougher conditions than Puerto Rico 2016.

This sums it up! All-out effort...but still smiling!

TAKEAWAYS

***It's more enjoyable to race with teammates! It kept my mind distracted while racing in uncomfortable conditions.

***I can go harder on the bike leg than I have been in past races, and not wreck my legs for the run.

***Making myself eat in the heat requires pep-talking, but most definitely saved me from bonking. Compromising was necessary. In my head: You HAVE to eat, but if you don't want to finish the entire gel, you don't have to....it's better than not eating anything. You can throw the rest out at the next aid station.

*** A 52 minute lead-time at the start is too much difference for me to catch Coach on the run! (Haha) I tried!

*** 6th place AG at a state-side IRONMAN-branded 70.3 = not bad. I wanted Top 10, although the ultimate goal is always top 3. [Side note: The top 2 girls in my AG need to take their pro cards. They consistently win A LOT of races on the circuit - they just need to do it!]

*** Team B won the Division V Tri Club award for racking up the most points! Woohoo! Go team!

Ain't no negative split going on in that 13.1 run! :-P