I am seriously out of practice writing on my blog so I apologize for this one, my friends. I am not sure if this will be interesting or flow well. But, I would like to put into words my experience in St George, Utah this past weekend so I can reflect on everything that went well for me and also the things from which I can learn so my next event can go even more smoothly. In a nutshell, I feel like my first race back since September 2017 went really well and there is absolutely nothing I can even think of which would have made it any more happier a day for me on course. I knocked some cobwebs off all of my gear (and my body) and found out that it all still functions pretty darn well. Training went well for this event but I still had some doubts about how my efforts would all piece together for a full 70.3 miles. I knew that running 13.1 miles on this hilly and hot course after the swim and bike would be challenging even in the best of circumstances. I was nervous as to how my body was going to feel on the run. There had been a few set backs in training which had worried me. I had worked through them. I thought I was ready. I hoped I was ready. I had a game plan for the run I was pretty confident would get me to the finish line safely albeit maybe not as quickly as I wanted deep in my heart. It was the mental aspect of the race game which I was not feeling self-confident about after such a long time away from the sport. Handling the curveballs and unpredictability of the day. Anything could happen out there. It was time to test the water so to speak. I only had control over myself and how I wanted to execute my race. I had to let everything else go.
The Swim
Nothing earthshattering or unexpected happened in transition leading into the race start so I am skipping right to my swim start. My bike was ready to go. I put all of my nutrition on it and checked my gearing and my tire inflation. I found a quiet spot to sit and reflected on my race plan, ate a snack, drank water, did a warm up, went to the bathroom. Uneventful and I like it that way. Any worries I chose to put out of my mind.
I took a few moments for quiet thoughts and positive affirmations to calm myself down prerace and got myself ready for the race start. I left the start chute with a smile on my face and eager anticipation in my heart. I think that might have been the happiest moment of my day- that feeling of excitement again and knowing that no matter what the day brought me, I was a winner for just being back out there swimming, cycling and running. My persistence and hard work had paid off. I was at the start line.
I swam on course for the majority of my 1.2 miles even though I had not been in the open water since ITU Worlds in Rotterdam in 2017. I was not even sure if I remembered how to sight the buoys on course. So, that was a huge bonus, and I was smiling ear to ear when I got out of that water. Relief, laughter, excitement….I felt all the good emotions running up to the wetsuit strippers only to find that I forgot to strip my wetsuit down to my waist in my giddiness. Note to self- coming out of the water it saves time if I get that wetsuit unzipped and down as I am running toward transition. Oh well, my volunteer friends got me out of that suit very quickly and I doubt I lost much time on that. Better luck next time with that. My friend Annie and I swam the entire course together and came out of the swim together. Huge bonus!!
Transition 1
Pretty uneventful here. Wetsuit came off with a little help from my friends, I grabbed it and ran to get my bike bag from the rack and bolted over to the changing area. I sat myself down next to Annie and we both scrambled to get our helmets on and stuff our wetsuits into our change bags. I decided quickly, no arm warmers, no jacket, no socks – it was warm enough without them. I just grabbed my cycling shoes and starting running barefoot out of the changing area and to my bike yelling behind me, “Love you, Annie!! See you on the bike!”. It was a long transition (length of the space) and my bike was up towards the front near the Bike Out arch. Running in my bare feet was a little painful without carpeting but it was definitely faster than trying to run in my cycling shoes and tearing up my cleats. I just suffered the 60 seconds, threw my shoes on my feet when I got to my rack, grabbed my bike, ran it out of transition and hopped on it. It was not my most graceful mount. I think I had to try twice, in fact. LOL. Eventually I got on that saddle and started pedaling away! I heard my friend Angie in the crowd cheering and as I was cruising out of Sand Hollow I also heard my friend Lars call my name. It was so nice to have support on the course and to hear familiar voices.
Bike
Alright so pretty much everyone who knows me knows that I love my bike and I love cycling more than any other part of triathlon. It is my favorite. I am always smiling and happy on my bike and this day was no exception. Even with 3600 feet of elevation gain, I knew it was going to be the best part of my day. My goal? Follow my power plan to have the strongest bike split I could for this course while holding back enough that I would be ready for a safe run without feeling overly fatigued. This is always important for a good race but even more so now that I have had pelvic reconstruction. Running is especially stressful on my body and I have to be extremely smart about how I race so that I am able to stay active in this sport. I hit my power numbers right on target and I felt strong the entire 56 mile ride. Training on Zwift this winter prepared me well for the endurance and climbing power needed for a course like St George. It went exactly as planned. On reflection, I now know that I can push a higher wattage and still be alright on the run. My pacing was perfect for my goals of the day. I was comfortable and confident in my bike handling in race conditions. This was the only potential concern I had about my bike leg. Safety on the course due to road conditions and other riders. It’s been a long and cold winter in Colorado and I was only outside to train on my race bike once before St George. Obviously, not ideal, but this often happens to athletes in Colorado with early season races. It all came back to me easily.
Transition 2
I always have mixed feelings getting off my bike at T2 because on one hand I am very relieved to have gotten through the bike course safely, but on the other hand, I really love being on my bike and I am always sad to see my time riding come to an end. It’s not that I don’t like running. I really do! But, as I have gotten older, it has taken a greater toll on by body and I have obviously been limited by my ability to run due to injuries in the past. In all honesty, I can easily psyche myself out on the run. But, this was not the race to allow myself to do that and I was determined to go out of T2 feeling confident and smart about my ability to face this 13.1 miles of hills. It’s a tough one. My run strategy per conversation with my coach was to focus on run:walk intervals of 5 min:1 min to start during the first 3 miles of the course since it is uphill. This was not so much due to lack of training or conditioning but more about seeing how my body responded to a hard run off the bike after my surgery. This was my first race of this length and intensity post operation so we both wanted to be conservative and see how my body responded to the stress. Ironman Louisville is my main focus for the season so everything is a build up right now. What works for me now, what my body can handle, how well I can pace the bike so I can maximize my run efforts without injury- St George was meant as a training day to refine and build on what I had learned about myself in training and how I could apply this to a longer and more intense race day. It was definitely a challenge. I wanted to lay it all out there on the run course but I knew that there was a big risk in that for me. During my walk intervals, as other athletes would pass me, I just wanted to start running again! But, I was patient and kept to my intervals. In most cases, I could make up the time after resetting my form and running a little bit harder during the run intervals. And then, there were the people who were yelling from the sidelines, “Run up that hill!!” at which point I just tried to stick to my race strategy even though I felt a little bit like a slacker for walking uphill on my intervals. But, this was between me and my coach. We had a plan to keep me safe and it really worked well for me.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, the hardest choice is to stick to the plan which you know is the smartest for you and for future goals. Emotion can over rule rationality if you let it. I almost fell into that trap a few times on Saturday during the race. In the end though, I crossed that finish line feeling strong, confident and proud of the effort I put out there on the St George 70.3 course. It was a great day and I felt proud of myself. My emotions did come tumbling out later in the day. Whether it was the release of stress from weeks of worry about whether or not I could get it done, exhaustion from the culmination of the race and days or preparation leading into it or just plain relief at having finished, I am not completely sure. But, I do know that I feel a huge amount of gratitude for the chance to once again be doing what I love so much. Next up? The epic Triple Bypass bike ride here in Colorado this summer.
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