IRONMAN 70.3 Syracuse - June 18, 2017 - Katie's Race Report

PRE-RACE

There's not much to say here other than I did my typical race course recon - swim the swim, drive the bike, and bike the run.

Worthy of noting: I had THE BEST pizza I've had in a long, long time for my pre-race dinner. Thank you, Apizza Regionale!

The mushroom pizza that fueled my race....yummmm!

RACE DAY

I started in one of the later waves, so I had a chance to chill out, take my time getting into my wetsuit, and do all the normal pre-start nutrition/hydration stuff.

Sipping on my pre-start gel with 15 minutes to go!

SWIM

I wanted to claim my spot next to the inflatable dinosaur (no, really....!), so I got to the front of the wave, and was the first one to dive right in and position myself next to the lovely green creature. Sometimes it's the little, silly things that are what it's about.

For the first time in several years, I got to start a race shoulder-to-shoulder with a teammate! I had the good fortune to have Natalie beside me. Before the gun, she informed me she was going to follow my bubbles.

Leading the ladies to the start line.

I felt strong, my stroke felt efficient, and I was certain I was going to PR. The thing about triathlons, though, is that there are also natural elements that must be accounted for. I always pay careful attention to weather/currents/winds, and when I took a breath, I could see I had the current at my back, helping push me along. 

Things changed after I made the turn at the midway point. What had been a tail current on the way out turned into diagonal chop on the way back. I focused on EVF and hard pulling to get to shore as fast as possible.

I exited the water in my second fastest 70.3 swim time. 

T1

Perhaps one of the most evil T1s I’ve experienced: we had to run uphill - in grass, nonetheless - before getting on pavement and mounting our bikes. No bueno. My legs were truly feeling the burn...

BIKE

Despite previewing the bike course the day before, it was deceptively difficult. Although the elevation was similar to that of St. George, the distribution of climbs throughout the course were less advantageous/more challenging, as most of them did not get a "running start" from a prior downhill.

This was by far the most challenging 70.3 bike course I've raced. I think it wouldn’t have been so bad if there weren’t head and cross winds for 90% of the 56 miles. The only evident tailwind I had was during the first 2 miles of the bike.

Anyone who has raced Syracuse knows that there are lots of fun hills and surprises in the first 15 miles. Nothing like a massive downhill, followed by a 90º turn to lose any and all momentum, and then a rather steep uphill. This is one of the reasons I preview the course beforehand - I knew the turn was coming, and shifted accordingly into the small ring without missing a beat. No messing with grinding out the climb in the wrong gear - I powered through while others were shifting and audibly groaning.

I suspected I was in a good place when I was leapfrogging with a Kona Qualifier between miles 10-15. She was behind me until around 10 miles in. We started trading places before I used my new downhill technique (compliments of teammate, Tom S. - thanks Tom!!!) where I gained so much momentum from lowering and tucking that I picked off over 20 people in that one descent. I didn't see my KQ friend until 10 miles later when she passed me.

The rest of the ride was pretty tame. I kept tabs on which way the grass was blowing in the breeze in an effort to judge whether I had tail, head, or cross winds, and managed my effort and race tactics accordingly.

T2

I premiered my flying dismount in this race....pretty gracefully, I might add. ;-) I will most certainly be continuing to utilize flying dismounts in every race henceforth. Super easy for anyone with a dance background, flexibility, and balance.

RUN

Let me sum this one up in one word: brutal. I wish I could say differently, but the 13.1 miles became about survival as temps pushed my mental and physical boundaries.

Going...

....going....

....gone....on a 13.1 mile run.

Temps were in the low 90ºs, but a "feels like" approaching 100º. While running in the sun, I felt my skin singeing. Thank goodness for the ice machines on the course!

They already had the ice machines in place the day before the race.

Accurate depiction of how I felt starting my 2nd loop.

At the end of my first lap, I saw Zach who was spectating alongside teammate Olivia's boyfriend, Matt. 

I like to yell one-liners at Zach while I race, so he knows what's going on with my race/how I'm doing. The following video sums it up pretty well:

In case you didn't catch that, I'm yelling "It's hot as BALLS!!!" to which you can hear Matt in disbelief chuckling "Did she just say it's hot as balls?!"

The only motivation I had to keep running those last 6 miles was knowing that the faster I ran, the sooner I got to jump in the lake and cool off.

For 6 miles I kept envisioning the moment I got to jump into the cool lake. My secondary motivation was to cartwheel across the finish line. This was something I promised a friend I would do if I felt well enough/like I wasn't going to land on my head out of pure fatigue.

Before the race, I told Zach to make sure he filmed the finish, in case I was able to pull it off.

I'd say I had decent cartwheel form for having just self-propelled 70.3 miles in temps flirting with triple digits! The video cuts out early, but the announcer asked why I didn't do a back handspring. Ha.

FINAL THOUGHTS

1. Listen to your teammates. When they tell you not to race a course, there's a reason.

2. Hanging with KQers feels pretty good.

3. I seem to be stuck with 6th place AG finishes a lot these past 2 seasons.