IRONMAN 70.3 Ohio - July 28, 2019 - Katie's Race Report

This was Zach’s “A” race, and I made a late decision to add it to my schedule in hopes of an early 2020 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship qualification to Taupo, New Zealand. I knew the Ohio course didn’t play to my strengths (flat bike course…ugh), but if nothing else, at the end of the day, I’d be gunning for an overall 70.3 PR. I had high hopes of finally going sub-5 hours. Our ability to both race would have been IMPOSSIBLE without the help of my parents, Zach’s mom and stepdad, and my mom’s cousin, Martha Sue. So, they all get a HUGE shout out for watching Hunter during our final workouts, and of course during race day!

Backing up a little…

Exactly one week before this race, Hunter escaped his enclosure and high-tailed on all-fours toward a room with unknown baby proofing. I chased after him full speed, and, in doing so, stepped on a plastic toy…HARD…and yelped in pain. It took mere minutes for the bruising to set in on my pinkie toe. I prayed it was not broken, and opted to ice, elevate, and go to bed.

Two days later, still mashed up and bruised, I did a 10K run. Given I was able to run without pain, I deemed my toe NOT broken, not fractured, and “just” bruised (but still hurting at times).

Alas, the race must go on.

GETTING THERE

We broke up the 9-hour drive to Ohio into two days. As we have learned in the past, if you’re driving with a baby, allow an extra 50% of travel time. We spent the first night in Clarion, PA.

The following night, our first in Ohio, Hunter came down with croup. Not exactly the ideal time to get sick. In the three nights leading up to the race, Hunter refused to sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time (which is unlike him), because he was congested, coughing, and couldn’t breathe well. The only place he’d sleep for an extended time was on my chest - which he has literally refused to do since he was 4 months old. I guess sickness brings back the want to sleep in the comfort of mama’s arms. Although I had started the weaning process before this race, I was still breastfeeding before bedtime and in the middle of the night. Even before he came down with croup, I still wasn’t exactly getting much quality sleep since Hunter usually needed a 3:00 a.m. snack.

Needless to say, Hunter’s taper was not going well, and we were unsure whether he should DNS the IRONKIDS Diaper Dash, or push through. During the days - when he was mostly vertical/upright - he was less congested, and his usual pleasant self. We opted to let him race.

SATURDAY'S DIAPER DASH

Preparing to "dash" in Selby Stadium.

We’ve never really had a reason to watch any of the IRONKIDS races…until now. Hunter started crawling right after 70.3 St. George, so he missed his opportunity to “race” there. We weren’t sure exactly what to expect for the Diaper Dash, but the bottom line was: it was pretty adorable. 

Note: if you're crawling, bibs make more sense going on the BACK.

Each baby had a “handler” (parent) beside them, and one at the finish line. I stood at the finish with one of Hunter’s favorite toys, while Zach shooed him along. The IRONKIDS volunteers were blowing bubbles and rolling colored balls to lure the babies. It had the opposite effect on Hunter, who sat there chewing on a ball - happily content to stay put - while I was basically screaming his name at the finish line. Not that we’re competitive or anything, but Hunter was DFL in the Diaper Dash. Hey - it’s gotta be someone, right?! 

Nothing beats a tasty finisher's medal!

RACE MORNING

Mom came to the hotel room at 4 a.m. (God bless her...) to keep watch on Hunter while he continued to sleep, and Zach and I began our race morning.

This was by far the most stressful beginning to a race I’ve ever experienced! Because it was a two transition race, Zach and I parked near the finish line, set up T2, and then walked to the shuttle buses that would take us to T1/swim start. The shuttles were held up in traffic while entering the park, meaning even though we left the downtown shuttle stop at 6:00 AM for a 15 minute drive, we did not arrive outside transition until 6:40. Transition officially closed at 6:45. Talk about a mad dash…sheesh!

Setting up T2 on the football field of Selby Stadium.

T0 (because apparently there IS a thing when the bus is late…)

I dashed off the shuttle bus and into transition at 6:41. Never before has T0 been an event, but today, it most certainly was. I had 4 minutes to add all my nutrition, lay out my items, and grab the bike pump from Zach (halfway across transition) to blow up my tires. In my hurried frenzy, I messed up how much Skratch I put in my Speedfil; I added too much and wasn’t able to mix it. I took a sip out of the straw and nearly choked on a mouthful of unmixed Skratch. Well, nothing I could do now, but hope it got sloshed around enough to mix and dilute a bit when I started riding. Halfway through adding air to the second tire, a race official went by and said “Transition is closed!” Well, I can’t race without air. And, I am most certainly racing, so I finished what I was doing and boogied out of transition. 

SWIM (36:51)

The water was over 80º, so I knew my goal time of 32:30 (with a wetsuit) was a no-go. I wasn’t sure what I could pull off. The rolling start was pretty tame, and it took me several buoys before settling into both place and pace.

We had a bit of cross and head-current on some sections, plus I could just feel my legs sinking in my speedsuit. I hoped I was imagining things, but as I exited the water and glanced at my watch, a 36+ was definitely NOT what I was hoping for.

T1

I only found out after the race that there were timing mat issues and it looked like I was in T1 for 5+ minutes, which was really deducted time from my bike. Now, y’all know I take pride in speedy transitions, so that was definitely not correct. I emailed the IRONMAN timing company afterwards and they corrected both my T1 and bike times based off my Garmin.

BIKE (2:32:41)

Seeing my swim time, I knew I was going to have to THROW DOWN on the bike course if I wanted any chance of going sub-5. Also being 0.18 (that’s hundredths-of-a-second, folks!) off the podium at IM 70.3 CT meant I was hungry for a top 5 AG result.

I spent a lot of time passing people the first 15 miles, and only had a few uber bikers fly by me. I averaged 24+ mph the first 20 miles, presumably thanks to a little tailwind. I knew the likelihood of hitting headwind going southbound was high, so it’s a good thing I wore my “big girl” tri shorts, ‘cause I was ready to give the wind hell. Sure enough, that head/cross wind hit as I made the turn south. My hamstrings screamed for mercy, burning as I kept cranking away in aero. Miles 20-40 were the only section of the course Zach and I did not preview beforehand. I can’t say many of those miles were a surprise, except maybe some soybean fields instead of more rows of corn. Yeehaw! 

This photo doesn't do it justice, but this is very similar to the farm equipment coming down the road towards me, and it was TALL/LARGE!

At one point, there was a piece of farm equipment coming towards me on the other side of the road. I swear that tractor thing was so high off the ground it could’ve been used as a monster truck!  Around mile 30 I looked around me, only to discover I was almost alone. There was no one within sight behind me, and the riders ahead were pulling away. I hoped dearly that the next turn was coming soon so I could get away from the miles of cornfields, relentless sun and wind, and get to the rolling end of the course as quickly as possible. All I wanted were hills…

After riding the last mile on a bike path, the course spit us out into the main thoroughfare around Selby Stadium. The dismount line approached quicker than I expected (also, there was no volunteer there flagging, so I literally had to look on the pavement for the line). As such, my right foot wasn’t out of my shoe yet, so I did a really hard/quick yank just before the line. Doing so gave me a WICKED Charlie horse in my right calf, but there was no time to deal with that…my feet were off the bike and I was running into T2.

I had a huge 10 minute PR on the bike.

T2

The beauty of transition being in a stadium is all I had to do was look for the 40 yard line - which was where my run gear was waiting for me. 

RUN (1:53:35)

I exited T2 with 3:14 as my current race time. A 1:46 run was going to be really hard to come by, but I’d be damned if I didn’t try.

After a few miles, I could tell my legs didn’t have what they needed to go sub-5 hours. The heat was rising, and the sun was beating down. I figured I needed both calories and hydration. I slammed a bit of Coke at each of the next few aid stations in an effort to boost my blood sugar. It didn’t seem to help, but I figured it was worth a shot.

My pace slowed. I was just plain exhausted. I’m sure the sleep-deprived nights leading up to the race - with Hunter being sick - surely did not help. Starting on the second loop, I allowed myself to walk the aid stations to get whatever hydration, nutrition, and ice I needed. As soon as I reached the end of the aid station, it was back to running and creeping my way closer to that finish line. Frequent checks of the watch had me playing the numbers game in my head 'Worst case scenario, if I do 10 minutes/mile, I will still end up PRing. If I can hold a 9 min/mile, I’ll definitely be sub-5:10.' ….and on and on I went with every possible scenario that would still allow for a PR. 

FINISH (5:07:44)

As I neared the last corner into Selby Stadium, I saw our cheer squad on the sidelines cheering me in! I smiled, waved, and entered the stadium to run the last 200m to the finish on the track. 

A wave to the cheering squad, and grateful the stadium is in sight!

Though not the “best case scenario” sub-5:00 race, I did still get an overall 70.3 PR by 7 minutes…almost 11 months after having Hunter. That counts for something, right?

I was 7th in my AG (Though I wanted to be top 5, at least I wasn’t 6th again!!...I was only 3 seconds behind 6th place - very close!), and the 70.3 Worlds slots only rolled to 2nd and 3rd. Oh well. I still was proud of my new 70.3 PR!

EVERYONE raced at IRONMAN 70.3 Ohio! A first for our family!