TriAptitude Coaching

Well, gang, I am finally back in Colorado after ten fabulous days on the beach in San Juan and Rincon, Puerto Rico. Now that I have my computer in front of me, I can get all of my race thoughts down in a report and share my day on the course at 2022 Ironman Puerto Rico 70.3. This was a fantastic event venue with beautiful scenery, a tremendous amount of support and friendly faces everywhere. After a three-year hiatus from Ironman racing in San Juan, the community was definitely ready to embrace the triathletes and support the day for everyone. My family and I flew in from Denver via Atlanta on Thursday and we arrived at the Caribe Hilton by 5:30pm. Although a little bit more expensive than other hotels in the area, the convenience of the Caribe Hilton was definitely worth it. A beautiful hotel on the water, with a fabulous pool and several restaurants from which to choose, it is located directly between the swim venue at the Condado Lagoon and the Parque del Tercer Milenio where check-in and registration is located. The walk to transition was about 5 minutes from our hotel which made everything very simple. Once settled in our room, I decided it was a beautiful evening for a post travel shake out run along the coast. I quickly checked out the bike path heading into Old San Juan and explored on foot for 30 minutes before dinner. Thursday night we had dinner at the hotel after we checked out the pool. It was fantastic to be on the beach after leaving Denver in a blizzard just hours earlier.

Friday morning, I woke up early to meet the local tri club at the swim start at Condado Lagoon for a practice swim. The walk to swim start was about 10 minutes from the hotel and took me through cobblestone streets and across the bridge under which we would be swimming on race day. The sun was rising over the water as I arrived at the lagoon, and I was eager to do my first open water swim in almost 8 months. This was also my first open water swim in tropical waters since Ironman 70.3 Costa Rica in 2017. So, I was breaking in my swim skin and my saltwater buoyancy again after many years. I felt remarkably comfortable on this practice swim following the general direction of the racecourse for 1000 meters before heading back to shore. The water temperature was 79 degrees F. With my practice swim done and my self-confidence boosted knowing that I was comfortable and ready for that portion of the race, I headed back to the hotel to grab some breakfast.

Covid restrictions and mask mandates were lifted about a week before we arrived in Puerto Rico so that definitely simplified our travel into San Juan. The race organizers did a great job of maintaining lower numbers for check in by assigning group times. My check in time was 11:15am on Friday so I combined picking up my race packet with grabbing my bike from Tri Bike Transport which was located just to the west of transition. I checked out my bike and all seemed to look well with the exception of some rust on my chain from the sea air during transport by ship from mainland US. So, I cleaned my chain and lubed it before the ride. I was relieved that my bike was in good order and had arrived safely after it’s transport from Denver to North Carolina to San Juan. The bike course itself was not safe to ride on before race day so I chose to explore the run course instead as my test ride. I rode through Old San Juan to make sure I was familiar with the gradients and the two large hills which we would face on both the out and back of the run. The run course has spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean and the historic forts along the northern coast as you head from transition west down into Old San Juan. Running past 16th century Spanish architecture on our way to reach the turnaround point at the entrance of the famous Fort San Felipe del Morro is definitely a highlight of this race. Practice ride was complete, and all seemed fine with my bike, cycling shoes, power meter, bike computer, etc.

I was ready to drop my bike back off at the hotel room with my gear and enjoy some down time by the pool with my kids. Connor and I headed down to the hotel beach to hang out while Matthew headed to the weight room at the fitness center to lift before he met us to swim. Tommy stayed back at the hotel room with Greg and planned to meet us in about 30 minutes. Just as Connor and I got settled on our lounge chairs, we received a phone call from Matthew from the gym telling us that the hotel EMT was with him after he crushed his finger with some weights. Looking at the photo he sent us, Connor and I quickly grabbed our stuff and rushed over to meet Matthew. My maternal instinct told me right away that we would be heading to the emergency room ASAP. No destination race/vacation is complete without a little extra excitement. Our EMT, Angel, was amazingly helpful and took great care of Matthew while also giving me directions to the nearest hospital for XRay and possible bandaging and stitches. Connor decided to come along for the ride and keep us company as we headed out. Five hours later, after an eventful experience with Dr. Alvarez and some sick little Puerto Rican friends in the waiting room, Matthew’s fingernail had been placed back in location, his finger splinted and the XRay showed no fracture. We were headed back to hotel with a quick stop at CVS pharmacy for antibiotics. We were all starving and tired. I was very grateful for the excellent care Matthew got at the hospital from the pediatric staff in the emergency room. Matthew was by far the oldest one sitting in the kiddie chairs in that wing. He was surrounded by babies and toddlers and looked like a giant 😉

Saturday morning, I did a quick prerace swim/bike/run before checking my bike into transition at 10am. My Cupcake teammate Renee Harvey and I were able to get a quick spin in together before bike check in and it was especially fun to meet her in person. Once I had all of my gear organized and my bike in transition, I just relaxed with the boys for the rest of the day. We hung out by the pool for a bit and then grabbed a late lunch back down in Old San Juan after exploring the fort a bit as a family. Bedtime was pretty early, and we just watched a movie in the hotel room that night. My alarm was set for 3am so I would have plenty of time to eat before I headed to transition at 4:30am.

Race morning always comes early. I awoke to my alarm at 3am and made my coffee and breakfast- cereal with milk and a waffle with peanut butter. I double checked that I had all of my race nutrition for the bike and run- two bottles of Infinit for the bike with three scoops of my custom blend in each and two soft flasks for the run with one scoop of my Infinit custom run blend in each. I also take SaltStick capsules every 30 minutes on the bike and every 20 minutes on the run to prevent cramping in extremely hot and humid conditions. Before the race start- about 15 minutes before I head out on the swim- I take 6 ProBar chews. These were tucked into my morning bag with my swim skin, my goggles and my swim cap. This particular race has a .5 mile run from the swim exit to transition. Last May at St George 70.3, I ruptured my plantar fascia on a similar swim to bike run on concrete, so I was very worried about running barefoot at any point in this race. I brought an extra pair of running shoes which I placed by the swim exit on race morning, knowing that although they might be hard to find and cost me some time putting them on coming out of the swim, the ability to run safely to T1 on the cobblestone and paved street would be well worth it. That was one of my best decisions of the day.

It started raining hard while in transition after I had placed my nutrition on my bike, set out my gear and pumped my tires to 90 psi. So, I quickly put all of my running gear into a plastic bag so that my socks and shoes would stay dry. I ride in my cycling shoes without socks, so I was not as worried about those since they already get wet coming out of the swim anyway. But wet socks and run shoes can cause some issues for me on the run and I wanted to prevent that if possible. Once everything was set out, I decided to get out of the rain and head back to the hotel for about 30 minutes before walking over to the swim start. It was very convenient since I had to walk right past the hotel on the way to the swim anyway.

The swim was a rolling start and I placed myself in the 31-35 minutes category. This was my best estimate given the fact that we were swimming without wetsuits. Turns out that this was perfect for me. The water was smooth even though there was wind and some rain. The lagoon itself is sheltered and it was a calm and uneventful swim for me. My breathing was calm, my strokes felt powerful and long, my sighting of the buoys were right on target. I found a few sets of feet behind which I drafted for periods of time before passing and the only real challenge for me was hitting some of the choppier water in the last 500 meters as we headed under the bridge from the lagoon and hit the more open water heading to the swim exit. The current pushes a bit harder here and can easily push you off course, but I made a point of sighting on the far orange buoy which was set up to help us counterbalance the current and before I knew it, I had reached the steps for the swim exit. I was pleased to see my watch read 33:46. I had a good swim, and I did not feel tired coming out of the water. I finished the swim in #1 place for W 50-54.

I ran immediately over to where I had placed my shoes and had to run in and out of spectators to grab them. I quickly placed them on my feet and took off running up the road to transition. I knew that I could pick up some time here since I had shoes on, so I used this to my benefit and picked up my pace to get to T1 as quickly as I could. Swim skin was pulled down to my waist and goggles and cap were in my hand. Arrived at my bike, swim skin and shoes came off, cycling shoes went on, helmet on and fastened, I grabbed my bike and I headed for the bike exit. The run to the mount line in my cycling shoes was a bit of a challenge and it was a little bit dangerous on the wet and slippery cobblestones. It was a long run and when I crossed the mount line to get on my bike, I jumped on as I normally do but my front tire hit a cobblestone and slipped. I recovered just to have my bike hit another cobblestone and both tires go out from under me, laying me down on my left side about 10 meters from the mount line. This was unfortunate but not a complete surprise given the wet and slick conditions there. I jumped up quickly and got right back on my bike, taking off slowly and making sure I got off that road before picking up any speed. Within a mile, I knew that my front brake was rubbing on my rim as it had been a bit dislodged during the fall. I tried to adjust a bit as I was riding but by mile four, I knew that I had to stop completely to fix it. So, I pulled over on the side of the course to adjust it as needed. That was mechanical issue number one for the bike- slight crash and brake issue. Once I was back on course, I easily got into a groove and started taking in my nutrition. It was raining pretty hard at this point and the road conditions were not very good, so I revised my race plan by decreasing my power output and effort just a bit to allow for a safer ride in wet and potentially dangerous conditions. The wind was picking up and I knew that these 56 miles were going to be a bit more challenging than the course profile would have one believe. It may look flat on paper but the potholes, bumpy road conditions and head winds definitely slowed us all down considerably. I knew that if I did not ride wisely, my legs would be trashed for the run. By mile 30, the sun had come out and it was getting HOTTER. There were several crashes on course where riders had slid out on wet roads, and I was surprised to see a huge number of athletes on the side of the road with flat tires. Nutrition bottles and CO2 cartridges were all over the road- the potholes and bumps caused many to lose vital nutrition and supplies off their bikes. In my case, I was able to hang on to all of my bottles, but I hit one bump while in aero position and my handlebars completely dropped down, almost causing me to lose my balance on the bike. Luckily, I was able to reposition on my handlebars and regain my composure while still riding. It seems that Tri Bike Transport did not rebuild my bike as carefully as they should have. This caused me concern about being in the aero position for the remainder of the race, but I did do so on smoother portions of the course. Not being able to stay aero definitely cost me some time on the bike. I made it back safely into T2 with a final bike split of 2:45 which was actually a little faster than Best Bike Split had predicted for me, but I could tell getting off the bike that my legs had worked hard in those head winds, and they were definitely fatigued. I came off the bike maintaining my position in #1 for my age group- although I did not know this due to the rolling start. My main goal for the day was to race well but to do so while making sure my foot was not overstressed- I did not want any setbacks with my foot for IMWC in St George on May 7.

For some reason, I could not get myself together in T2. I racked my bike, took my helmet off, tried to kick my cycling shoes off and they just wanted to stick to my feet. I finally got those off and sat down to put my socks and run shoes on, grabbed my visor and sunglasses, and finally started running out with my race belt in my hand and I could not for the life of me get that thing to clip on. It was a comedy of errors. I felt a little bit over heated and immediately took a salt pill as my head was feeling fuzzy. The additional sodium helped, and I felt more in control. Greg and Connor were at the run start and were yelling and waving, so I quickly ran over and gave a quick kiss and ran on knowing that I had 13.1 miles left in this race and some hilly roads to climb. I just had to keep the momentum going as it was getting much hotter and I was not feeling great at the start of the run. I ran through aid station one and grabbed a bag of ice and shoved it down my shirt, took a big swig of my Infinit and picked up my pace. After the first incline heading out onto the course, I started to find my groove and rhythm. I settled in and enjoyed a breeze when it hit me from the coastline. My run race plan was a 5 min run/1 min walk. I ended up sticking closer to 5 min run/30 sec walk with an additional walk through the aid stations as needed. This helped me keep my mile pacing on target for the first 9-10 miles with one much slower mile heading back on the final hill coming up and out from the fort. I hung out at that aid station a bit longer than I normally would have to get some ice from the volunteers as I felt like I was starting to overheat a bit. The last few miles of the run were pretty uneventful. I just cruised and kept talking myself up to the finish so that I kept my momentum going. “Keep running, Court, move legs move, you’ve got this. Way to go, one mile left.” We had one more hill to climb as we headed into the finish area- then a cruise down and around transition to a hard left and wait- oh there’s another little hill before you hit the finisher’s chute. I was happy to get there! I felt going down the chute that this had been a much stronger race than anticipated for me and I was excited to see how I had done. My splits were on target and although I wish my run had been about 5 minutes faster, I was so grateful and happy that I did not have any pain in my foot while racing. Crossing that finish line, I was very pleased. Sadly, I found out later that I was passed on the run by a speedy Brazilian female in my age group who had a great run split. My kudos to her for a great race and catching me during the run to take the #1 spot. Honestly though, I would not have done anything differently than I did. And, with the exception of not having mechanicals on the bike, I am not sure I could have made up enough time to grab that #1 spot back. It was a solid day for me and one which came together far better than I could have anticipated given a major injury last year which took me out of racing for 10 months. My final race time was 5:29 and my #2 spot for W50-54 qualified me for Ironman 70.3 World Championships in October 2022. Best news of the day is that my foot felt strong and held up the entire race and I had no issues with it following the day! I played that run safe and it paid off for me for future events.