Rev3 Half - Race Report

The Rev3 Half - Steph's 9/11/2011 Race Report

Here's a total brain dump of everything I can remember, while it's (relatively) fresh! I warn you now: these are not organized thoughts!

The Rev3 half (iron) triathlon was a completely new experience, unlike anything I've ever done before. This was my first half and the longest tri to date. When I wrote the Bartleys Tri series, I was 2-3 sprint triathlons deep. There seems to be some major transition area logistics when you increase to the half or full distance, but I haven't quite figured it all out yet.

So for those who asked, a half iron distance triathlon (not to be confused with a half Ironman -- Ironman is a brand) is 70.3 miles = 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. This was called the "half rev." I like the cool-ish Gu graphic!

via

Saturday

Saturday began with an easy 3-mile run with Shiva around Westlake in the morning. It was rainy!! This was a good opportunity to "practice" wearing a hat. After grabbing lunch with my family, we headed from Westlake to Sandusky, just in time for the mandatory pre-race meeting. We met up with Rick there, and got there in time for him to explain that the bike course had changed quite a bit. 

Here's a quick shot of the registration/expo area, which includes a bike mechanic, LOTS and LOTS of Muscle Milk, and some gear for purchase. Since we arrived kind of late, there wasn't much time to spend there because we had to check in our bikes to the transition area by 6pm, where they'd stay overnight.

I signed up online and paid on Tuesday, but my name wasn't on the roster. No big deal - they gave me my race packet on the spot. The woman who helped me just wrote down my name and age on a scrap sheet of paper, and then I registered in their timing system in the check-in tent. They take a picture of you so that they can put it on the jumbo-tron when you finish! I went through this just fine, but the guy registering me went through the fields so quickly I couldn't tell which event I was in. He got my address wrong too. Anyway, the whole process was pretty fast, considering all of the logistics.

Colored caps for each wave/event at check-in

I went for a quick 4-mile ride with Scoop before bike check-in and that was it! A run and a ride in the day before a long race - who does that?! ha. We also scoped out the swim course with Rick.

"Holy crap that's really far!" You could barely see the farthest buoy.

We caught a late dinner at Cooker (who knew these restaurants were still in business???) and went back to the hotel to get our race things together. Ben had lots of stuff, since the "full rev" involves such things as changing tents, transition bags, and special needs bags. I just had the regular transition setup, which was fortunately less stressful/new. Shiva was nice enough to teach me how to change a flat, just in case, using his bike.... and me giving him a pinched-tube flat in the process. (thanks)

Prepping my stuff!

Sunday Pre-race

Ugh. On race mornings, including marathons, I usually don't sleep well through the night. I usually wake up to the race day alarm with this horrible sense of... impending doom. We must've woken up around 5am or so to get Ben to his 7am start, stopping by Burger King on the way to pick up his breakfast sausage/egg/cheese Croissanwiches for breakfast and during the race.

"Shiva, what are you - my dad? Quit taking pictures of me!"

Ben got ready and took off for his start, and at the same time I realized that I'd left my goggles (and swim cap) at the hotel, in true Steph fashion! Long story short, I forgot that I'd put it in a different pocket of one of my bags -- again, in true Steph fashion. I was able to catch the pro and mass start for the full. The water looked SO GROSS! The athletes were able to wade in the muck all the way past the first buoy... that stuff looked thick. It was unbelievable to see the pros lap the mass start athletes before the 1.5 mile mark on a two-loop course.

If you step in the muck, you sink in at least a foot.

Sidenote: If you wondered how they treated this, there was a tastefully-done 9/11 memorial display of rows of flags set up on the beach behind the start area. Bib number 911 was placed here.

This was about the time we saw the first person wading through the muck and out of the water from the group of full rev swimmers. Melissa commented that it was fortunate this person was getting out of the water under their own power and it's completely true. The unfortunate part was that that person, who was very clearly wearing a heart rate monitor strap coming out of the lake, turned out to be Rick. With the situations that unfolded in Louisville and New York, to not feel 100% when you're swimming 2.4 miles could be fatal. While I know Rick will tell you he "quit, pure and simple," it takes more intelligent thinking and guts to make the decision to pull yourself out of the water when you're not feeling ok. I'm not sugar-coating this either -- some/many people (me included) don't have the common sense to call it a day when the time's not right. Rick, you're a good friend for sticking around for Ben. :)

My start was at 8:20am, over an hour after Ben's start. So many thoughts going through my head! I've never been to a beach start triathlon, nor one this large, and being a complete beginner I felt even more inadequate when I realized I was the only one without a wetsuit. Crap! I spent some of my nervous pre-race waiting time mentally shaking my fist at Ben, thinking, "Ugh! Why did I let Ben convince me I didn't need one?" The emcee was actually pretty entertaining, comparing sprint triathletes to a.d.d. 6-year-olds with the shortness of their event focus. Melissa H. even pointed out that he was choosing some good jams. Shiva was documenting and snapping photos, but I was way too scared/nervous to enjoy the pre-race excitement. I think I just stood there, half frozen, anxiously irritated that all of these people around me looked like they were having a good time while I was scared stupid. You could not have joked around with me at that point in time - I was not having it.

Swim

See the teal in the back? That's me SANS wetsuit!

My swim wave finally got going, and the water was COLD! ...at first. It was fine once we got moving, but I literally felt like such a dork for not having a wetsuit. Seriously. Erin Clark taught me to sight earlier this week, and also pointed out a few other form-related fixes that could help me be more efficient in the water. Somehow, almost all of this went out the window when I got into the water. Even though I waited & swam at the very back of my wave, the choppiness of the water and the fact that I couldn't see through it just threw me off. I'm pretty confident I can fix most of this with practice, so I know that the swim is a huge opportunity for improvement. I got swallowed up by not one, but two waves behind me, getting kicked and legs pulled down (intentionally - not cool) every time I would start to get into a rhythm. I even tried chanting "stroke, breathe, stroke, sight, stroke..." to try to get a consistent pattern going. After a while, I started realizing that I was still not sighting well at all... I was definitely swimming in zigzags, coming extremely close to some of the kayaks at times. I was trying to stay away from the main drag where there would be a lot of traffic, but I realized that didn't quite work out when I kept getting kicked and pulled. Ugh - pick on someone who isn't a drowning risk!!

Here's the map:

The first two buoys came and went much quicker than I expected! That was exciting. But then, as I rounded the last turn, I got excited that the end of the swim was coming near! Have you ever seen that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the knight is running toward the castle?

Do you see any forward progress? (nope. It's the same clip on a loop, if your'e reading this at work!) Yeah, it was like THAT. This only a lovely sample of some of the whacked out thoughts that go through my head while I'm racing. Monty Python. I even felt like I could hear the sound of those drums in that scene as I kept sighting and realizing that it was going to be another ten years before I reached the shore again. It took an eternity!! I was about 10-15 minutes behind most of the women in my age group already at this point; most of them took around 40-45 minutes, and I'm not sure if I was out any faster than 54 minutes. Ick.

Bike

The one positive about not having a wetsuit is that I didn't have to spend so much time taking it off during the transition. I spotted Shiva, who snapped a picture as I got out of the water. At the transition area, I decided to put on my super-padded bike shorts on top of my tri shorts to make the 56 miles as cushy as possible. It's definitely worth the extra 1 minute to put on those shorts for the amount of discomfort you could be experiencing! I also put on socks so I wouldn't blister and totally wreck my run.

I started the course on my bike and felt like there were 50+ year old guys just flying by me every few seconds. Crazy! When I run long or run hard, the last thing I want is something sweet. That stuff is just hard to choke down. Instead, I brought some Ritz Bitz and taped them to the tube of my bike, which I pulled off about 1 mile in. Only part I didn't foresee: I can't control my bike well one-handed. It was almost impossible to eat while I was riding, so the bag stayed tucked in my sportsbra/shirt the majority of the time. Rick's beef jerky idea would probably work so much better next time!

Heading out for 56 miles

Parts of the bike course were nice and smooth, while others were difficult. The chip and seal section slowed me down to about 15mph, and while the course was mostly flat, there were some not-so-enjoyable sections that were just windy or somewhat hilly. There was nothing so bad you had to get out of the saddle, which was fortunate. While I was riding, I could see the 70 and 80 mile bike markers, and every time I saw one, I felt nothing but sorry for Ben and the others doing the full...they would see this scenery not once, but twice.

Going back a few weeks, all of my bike miles in late August and September were ridden two weeks earlier during the Go Girl sprint tri at Eagle Creek in Indy... 10 miles. (Well, correction: I rode 4 as a "shake-out" with Scoop the day before. Does that even count as a shake-out?) I hate to keep saying this, but if I'd put in some quality bike miles, I feel like I could have gone faster... I wasn't completely flying by people, but I was able to make a few passes -- but definitely not enough passes to balance out all of the people who zoomed by me!

The bike miles went by pretty quickly, and I was really happy that my back and butt weren't killing me by the end (my back tightened up so severely that I almost couldn't walk after Go Girl). I feel like I fought some really bumpy roads and got buzzed by a few cars along the way, but I survived! Eating a honey stinger, a waffle (which was both scary and challenging with only one hand on the handlebars), and half of a bag of Ritz Bitz was challenging, and every time I rode one-handed and hit the tiniest bump, I braced to fly over the handlebars. On the bike aid stations, I went through a bottle of water and drank nearly all of the water in my Speedfil. Above all, it paid off to take the time to put on my real bike shorts, as opposed to tri shorts.

Honestly, this bike portion was a blur (hence the horrible lack of recall, unlike Ben's mile-by-mile playback). I remember telling a few people "good job" as I passed, or as they passed me. I know asked one guy where he got his Ohio State bike jersey and was really disappointed when he replied that it was a gift, still leaving it a mystery. I remember holding my pouch of honey stingers for what seemed like forever as I choked them down, hoping I wouldn't run out of gas. I also recall being so happy I actually had something left when finishing the 56 miles! My bike needs to be fitted, and Ben and I had made some arbitrary adjustments without testing them, so the ride was a gamble (like wearing new shoes for a marathon). Oh-- and most importantly, I remember being EXTREMELY thankful that I didn't get a flat. Sorry to disappoint, but no deep or profound thoughts really go through this head while I'm in motion!

Run

As I began the trip out of the transition area, I took a portajohn stop, only to realize that I'd forgotten to take off my super padded bike shorts. Decision time: I entertained the thought that I could potentially run the 13.1 miles in my diaper bike shorts, but ultimately decided that they'd have to go. I don't know what's exactly on the floor of a portajohn, but I that's where I took my bike shorts off, shoes on and everything. Blech. Since I wasn't about to run carrying my bike shorts, I had to run back to my transition area to drop the shorts off again. Those shorts are gonna go through the wash twice...

Leaving the transition area, Shiva caught up with me in time to show me his dry-erase board to let me know that Ben had passed the 60-mile marker, which was a relief.... so good. He was still somewhere out there.

On the run, I tucked two pouches of honey stingers in my back pockets and planned to  ration them the whole time. I also grabbed a Vanilla gu and some salt pills at two of the aid stations somewhere along the way when I got water. As I ran, I consciously thought about how a full would be so much more difficult because of nutritional needs during such a long event. I feel like I barely made it through with what I had, but would have had much more trouble had the run - or any of the events - been longer.

The beginning of the run was painful!!!! (Surprising? No.) If you know Cedar Point, you drive in on a long causeway... the same one we ran out on for our 13.1. It was difficult because this stretch was not only full-out sun, but you could also see the people who were finishing the 13.1 mile loop coming back in, having completed what you were about to experience. Obviously, quadrupling my longest bike ride in the last month just before this run didn't really help things in the fresh-legs department. It's shameless, but I relied on my running strength and running confidence to get through this... again, I felt like I could have been more prepared for this event with some more focused training that I should have done over the Summer (shoulda - coulda - woulda, right?).

The run course was mentally challenging, since it doubled back on itself a few times. See below -- those little "fingers" on the left side of the map are actually mini out-and-backs. The nice thing about the course, though, was that there were aid stations every mile, offering things like pretzels, gatorade, salt pills, Coke, and gels.

Just like in the bike, the only thing that got me through the run - weirdly enough - was all of the Ohio State apparel I was seeing everywhere. People in the race ahead of me were wearing OSU jerseys and singlets, and since I don't see much of that here in Indiana, it was strangely comforting and motivating. I spent a decent amount of time distracting myself by running from Ohio State jersey to Ohio State jersey.

The run started out slowly, and got better as I went. "I've run xx miles even on a bad day, so I can do this now," went through my head as I ran and willed the tired-legs feeling to eventually go away. It was cool to finally see other girls in my age group at this point, too. Again, I was secretly very glad that I didn't have to do a second lap. I talked myself into running c until mile 7, then walked through a few water stops after that. Besides that, I felt well enough to push on. Since this was my first half, I didn't want to push myself to the point of really uncomfortable --- the plan was to go in conservatively and not crash... you know, enjoy it.

At the last half of the race, I'd consumed so much sugary stuff that I felt like my teeth were rotting away with every mile... yet another weird anxiety & thought that plagued my mind during the run. In the later miles, I really felt that if I ran out of Honey Stingers, I'd run out of juice. It was getting pretty warm out too, with only a few minutes of cloud cover. Wasn't it supposed to be cloudy and cool today?? I used up so much water just to dump it over my head and cool off!

I chose to wear my Newton MV2 racing flats for this run. It resulted in an untied shoelace 2 miles in (not a fan of the Yankz  - they didn't fit right), but besides that, they felt super light and I didn't feel any injury pain for the entire duration of my run. Yay!

Finish

I ended up passing a girl in my age group about 400m before the finish, and I did like that the run course routed us back through a blue-painted handicap parking area so that it seemed like the terrain was changing or that we were actually starting to make the final approach. From a distance, the visual anticipation and glimpses of the finish line arch was enough motivation to get me to pick up the pace for the last mile. You wouldn't think it, but there were plenty of people walking in the last 1 mile or 2 miles of their race. Actually, most people walked a good number of miles during the run.

The other cool thing about the finish in Rev3 triathlons is that family members can run with you into the finish line for the last ~100 meters! While I didn't have any with me, it was nice to see the guy in front of me finish with his two little daughters. The race organizers also had volunteers posted near the finish line so that you could cross holding an American flag, if you wanted to.

This finish was like none I've seen. In most races, you try to power it to the finish because time matters. But in this - where you're racing over the course of hours and hours - a few minutes to stop, grab your family, grab a flag, or do whatever you need to to prep for your picture and finish, is not a big deal. Huge difference from regular road races/marathons. 

As I came toward the finish line, I spotted Rick and Shiva cheering. It worked out. It was good. It was finally over!!! It was over for my race, but still felt like there was some unfinished business until Ben crossed the line.

Post-Finish

All I wanted was an ice bath! (Is that weird? I've never even had one before!) I felt unbelievably fine when I was done, accepted my finisher shirt and medal, a Gatorade and a bottle of water, and kept on walking. It was good to be finished, but more than anything I was just starting to get impatient with being on the move!

Looking back, I definitely felt like I could have gone faster. I always do though, and I should probably quit racing when I feel like I couldn't have done any better. I guess that what keeps me signing up and competing in these things!

I waited around with Rick and Shiva to see Ben finish his bike ride and transition to the run, which took a little longer than we expected. Meanwhile, lots of full guys arriving back offered to sell us their bikes, looking worn down and swearing to us that they'd never do another full ever again. You could've gotten a pretty sweet deal on a tri bike that afternoon!

We finally spotted Ben, and all was good... sorta. He looked worse for the wear, no lie. His full race report is available here so I don't want to spoil any of it or be redundant. When he said he wanted to walk the whole marathon, I wanted to help so bad, but wasn't sure how without majorly breaking USAT rules and disqualifying him from the race.

Right as Ben was leaving to start his run, we saw Scoop, who was standing outside of the transition area. He had obviously had a pretty gnarly bike wreck at mile 60- which we found out later happened as he was going our a tight turn on a wet road. After that, he started feeling not-so-good, like nothing he ate or drank was kicking in. He had the medical team take look at him when the bike portion was over. They decided to give him an IV, and fortunately he felt better. Unfortunately, that was the end of his day.

Still feeling good, Rick drove us out to the town area where most of the run course was taking place so we could see Ben. I ended up running little segments with him (a cool-down?) during miles 7 and 9 when he was running 7-7:15 miles. We had to do a little of changing around with cars, but I kept Ben company on his second lap too, during miles 17 through ~23. I might've logged about 20+ run miles on the day - energy/miles I probably should have taken off the table and put into my own race. Ah well.

I made it back just in time to finish the last 100m with Ben:

holding hands

Holding hands across the finish

Yay! He did it, and all before it was completely dark!  So proud.

Evening

Surprisingly, after Ben finished, we both stayed conscious and went in search of food. I ate my weight in Chipotle and he had a CiCi's pizza. What a great end to a ridiculous(ly awesome?) day!

Results

9/13/2011: My results show me as DQ, or disqualified. If you remember my earlier comment, I think I was entered into the full event. For part of the race, I actually led! You'll see below that I dropped some sub- 4-minute-miles to win it, after riding ~33mph on the second loop of the bike.  :)
* I sent an email note a few days ago and am hoping this will get fixed soon. Since I've sat on the other side of the fence as the race timer, I wouldn't care if my time or place was wrong, but this appears to be the difference between finishing legitimately and not. While I'm sure mine's not the only error to iron out, I'll be a little disappointed if this effort was all for a big DQ.

9/15/2011: Results have been updated, so that's one big sigh of relief! I emailed back and forth with a very helpful individual at the timing company. My results are posted, placing my finish at 6 hours and 12 minutes and 10th of 15 in my age group.
Quick glance:

Final thoughts - because I like lists:

• I need to be more prepared for stuff like this (i.e., run, bike, and swim training)!
• A longer distance would require a more intense nutritional plan.
• I recommend the Rev3 tri half/full because it's flat compared to many others. Trade-off: it's mind-numbing mentally challenging. I've heard that Rev3 is more family-friendly and less structured/stringent than Ironman, so the laid-back atmosphere is nice.
• Unbelievable the types of people doing the full - they are so inspiring! Most of them aren't cut or built and you'd certainly not peg them as athletes if you passed them on the street. Which is even more awesome.
• Because of bullet #4, I'll eventually do a full myself - as long as I have the whole 17 hours to finish - and maybe 1 or 2 halves from now.
• Thanks to Rick, Melissa, and Shiva for being the best cheering squad-support crew ever. Scoop, it was great to see you, can't wait to see ya around Christmas!
• To everyone who followed us and cheered for us or thought about us throughout the day, thank you! You are the best!!

Psst - Ben finished the full rev, 140.6 miles! See Ben's race report here.

Psst - Want to see lots more race reports for Ironman, marathon, 5k, bike, and swim races? My other  blog is dedicated just to that: My Race, My Story

Rev 3 Cedar Point Full (iron distance triathlon) Race Report

Ten years ago in a class my senior year of high school I was tasked to set life goals.  I wasn’t sure of my “professional” future so I chose to concentrate on an area I was interested in; athletic achievement – mental and physical tests of my body’s limit.  At the time I was entering my final high school cross country season with high expectations and a hope to continue on at the collegiate level – which was accomplished though short lived.  My first goal was a stretch and I knew that age would be a limiting factor in how long I’d have to achieve it – the four-minute mile (at this point I believe I will remain 16 seconds too many).  The next two goals, I decided had to meet the physical demands and exclusivity of accomplishment without the limiting factor of age (since they are life goals), not to mention something I would be interested in doing.  My second goal was/is to summit Mt. Everest (I have stood at four 14,000ft summits, but that’s still not half way up Everest); my feelings towards this goal waiver to this day because I’m not as keen on mountaineering versus hiking. Time will tell. 

My final goal, and purpose of this lengthy intro, was to finish an Ironman.  While still not an accomplishment I scoff at (especially after having now completed it), I will say that this was in the days that the event was much less marketed and Ironman tattoos on your calf were rare (an ironman tattoo was one of only a few I would allow myself to get, though now not as much the case).  The irony of my ironman attempt is while my suffering was to be plenty; there aren’t many other days I could have picked that pale in comparison to so many others recounting the tragedy of ten years prior.  This would remain on my mind throughout the race.  The following is a recount of my day: 140.6 miles on 9/11/11:

Wake up at 5:15am. I’m sure others get up much earlier than this, but all I needed was contacts, clothes, water bottle prep and some breakfast.  We left the hotel by 5:55am and stopped by Burger King as they opened for a couple of sausage-egg-cheese croissantwiches. One of them was for now, the other for after the swim.  We checked in our bikes at the transition area the night before which saved a lot of hassle for the morning.  We arrived at Cedar Point at 6:15am and after some sorting of transition bags, nutrition bottles and putting on the wetsuit, I was ready to go! 

Heading to the start, half wet-suited.

This is a good point to mention some of the changes we would be coming across throughout the day.  First, the beach had such thick muck (calf deep) that they changed the swim from two loops where you get out of the water, run through a checkpoint, then go back in, to two loops where you stay in the water.  Not cool because I need every non-swimming opportunity I can get in the swim!  Second, due to a bridge not being finished in time, the bike route was changed THE DAY BEFORE.  I actually thought this would be for the better, but now having done it, I know better.  Lastly, the run route would be the one used last year and not the one proposed online.  So, ALL 3 course had been altered.  This pretty much wiped out any course preparation I would have gained from coming out to Sandusky in June to ride and run the courses.

Me and Rick 5min before the start.

Ok, so I head to the swim start and meet up with Rick Hullinger, trainer partner and fellow participant.  He hadn’t been feeling up for the event as noted by his quote the day before, “I would take just about any excuse not to do the race.”  Luck (or unluck) would be on his side about 15 minutes later when he would have to pull out of the swim due to feeling choked and not comfortable by his wetsuit.  That would end his day.  I will say that the only event that actually scares me is the swim; maybe because I’m not a swimmer, or more likely because of the drowning potential.

Swim start...

The pro start was 15 minutes prior to our start and there I witnessed the most promising news of the day… they walked out about 150 meters before starting to swim.  Actually a few of them would start to swim, then stand back up and walk because it was too shallow, yes!!  If you don’t know me, I’m not particularly jazzed about swimming, so this provided me with about .2 miles of wading out of 2.4 miles.   As the countdown begins for our start, I position myself towards the back to avoid as much craziness as possible.  And I would say between that and the 150 meters of wading out into the water, it proved successful.  While I never felt panicked like in past open water swim starts, I wouldn’t say I was in a groove until about a mile in.  But, from there on I was on a 4-stroke, breathe, 4-stroke, sight and breathe rhythm that I felt very comfortable with.  An entertaining part about the swim was wading around the turn-around buoy to start the second lap.  It’s not often in an open swim where you have about 2 minutes to take your goggles off, clean them, and chat with your fellow competitors.  Since the others around me are just as “gifted” in swimming as me, we reveled in the good fortunes of our moment.  The last 300 meters of the swim the lead wave in the half iron distance triathlon (which started 90 minutes after us) were quickly approaching and for fear of them swallowing me up, I “hammered” it home. 2.4 miles – 1:41:20

Wading through the swim turnaround!

Out of the water, finally!!

Going into this race, I already told myself I would take my time in transition, but I thought I’d be quicker.  I decided to wear Injinji socks to keep my toes from rubbing on the bike and run, however this proved to be a difficult task.  The previous night I put them on and rolled them down to the toes thinking on race day I would only have to put the toes in, and then roll them on.  So, I go to put one on in transition and end up with the heel on top of my foot… dang it!  50/50 chance and I blew it; that added about 2 minutes.  After changing and using the potty, I headed out to my bike, which wasn’t hard to spot there all by itself in the rack. Swim to bike transition – 11:48

As I head out on the bike my stomach isn’t feeling great, so I tuck the croissantwich in my bike jersey, just in case.  Now the bike is long, real long.  Lot’s of thinking time… too much.  I’ll spare every detail and just recap with random thoughts.  But, before that, I’ll give you my strategy going in… I had two options. One was to press my limit (20-21mph), without going over and see what I had left on the run – possibly bombing it.  Two was to go “comfortable” (18-19mph) and try to run fast. Keeping in mind, I’ve never done this race before…

0-6 miles: Wow, this road is bumpy. 21mph is feeling just like it should.  But, am I going downhill?

7-23 miles: Not too bad, average is good, I feel good.  Oh, there’s a random tractor/trailer taking up the whole road ahead of me going 15mph with bikes stacking up behind it… I go around on the left and the driver speeds up! WTF!

24-30 miles:  Up the first out-of seat-climb, my handle bars shift to the left, what?! Back story, I had the race mechanic work on my fork the day before because it wobbled.  Unfortunately he forgot to tighten the stem bolts and I took it straight to check-in so I didn’t realize either.  So, for the rest of the day I was off center in the aerobars, especially when climbing.  I wouldn’t say this slowed me down, but it wasn’t super comfortable and made me uneasy when turning.

How the bike should look...

How the bike DID look... (with loose stem bolts)

31-45 miles: On the first loop, getting passed by a few pros on their second loop.  I’m not too far off their pace?! Smooth road, rolling hills, average still around 20mph… seeing that 70 mile marker for the second loop was a little disheartening, next time by here I’ll only have 42 miles to go?!

46-56 miles: The most frustrating stretch of road I would get the pleasure of riding on twice in one day, newly chip and sealed, my pace drops to 18mph, but pressing more than the 20mph of before.  This stretch took too much out of me.  As we fellow riders passed each other, everyone would mumble to each other, “this road sucks, eh?”  This stretch on the second loop provided about 5 minutes of rain, which I actually appreciated.

57-112 miles:  I’ve included a large range of miles because after 60 miles it all blurs together.  My nutrition had been off due to a sour stomach and I was starting to get hungry.  I had found myself in scenario one and two for the bike; pressing, but only going 18mph.  At mile 70 I decided to stop and stretch out the legs and eat my croissantwich… good choice, I think I would have quit had I not done this.  During this stretch, I remember wondering to myself how much I could sell my bike for because I never wanted to do this again!  I had rode faster 80+ mile rides where I didn’t push as hard and didn’t have to run a marathon after!  The strangest part of the ride happened a hand full of times during the last 35 miles… I’m not sure if I had some sort of chemical imbalance or what, but I would think of Steph, wondering how she did in her race or that all I wanted was just to be sitting at home on the couch watching TV with her… and I would start to cry.  Not sobbing, but definitely tearing up.  This was followed by laughter because I couldn’t believe I was crying… was I going crazy?!  This happened a few times on the run as well when I anticipated seeing her at an upcoming mile marker.

Besides trying to decide whether to quit after the bike or run (and I must admit the entry fee played a roll in keeping me going), another serious contemplation as I approached transition was, “did I actually swim today?” I could only vaguely remember it, I felt like I had been on the bike all day.  112 miles – 6:09:36

Glad to be off that seat and on my feet!

This transition was even more laid back than the first, I decided I would start the run and see how it went.  Fortunately my support crew was there to cheer me up and urge me on.  I was tried joking with them to keep my spirits up, like,”wow, that sucked” and “I haven’t enjoyed a single minute of this race” (funny, huh?).  But seriously, I never thought the day would come that I would actually WANT to walk a marathon!  Steph was there with her finisher medal, which made me feel good about her race.  Rick told me there was no way he would let all of us drop out (meaning me) and Shiva was playing photographer (thanks!). Bike to run transition – 9:47

Changed and ready to "run"... a marathon!?

As I started the run, motivation of any time goals had dissipated, so I found my effort very hot and cold.  My first calculation was to multiply 17min/mi times 26.2 miles to get roughly 7 hours.  I had about 9 hours to finish before the cutoff, so I knew I could walk and still do it; a relief, but even less motivating to run fast.  I decided to walk through aid stations and run in between.  The first quarter of the race I found myself at 7:10min/mi when running, with about 30 seconds of walking for about 7:30 miles (3:16 marathon pace)!  While I knew this would be improbable to keep, I felt that the more time I banked, the slower I could walk if I needed, so on I went.  The second quarter of the run I kept up the pace, but my walks grew to about 60 seconds each time.  To be honest, my legs felt fine at this pace (actually worse at slower paces), but my back would tighten and make my breathing shallow… who’d thought that after 112 miles on the bike, my upper body would be hindering my run?  I came through halfway in 1:50 and in some form of cruel punishment, the turnaround was 50 meters from the finish line!

As I headed away from where I wanted to be, I pretty much packed it in and walked the next 2.5 miles.  My calf had showed signs of cramping up and the last thing I wanted was to become immobile, so better to walk it out.  Luckily, at about mile 16 Steph came out and joined me!  We walked the course and talked about each of our races and admired those around us… throwing in a mile jog every once in a while.  By this point I had formed a bit of a yo-yo group as I’ll call it.  When I was jogging I would pass them and when I was walking they’d pass me.  At this point my comfortable run pace was still about 8:00min/mi, so I felt bad about “flying” by people and would apologize to them when I was running; nothing is quite as demoralizing as trying to run and have someone blast by you!  Fortunately they understood and would see me again when I was walking.  This is the point when your chips are on the table, the game has been played and you look at those around you to see where you’ve measured up.  The first thing to come to mind is “don’t judge a book by its cover.”  I’m duking it out with a 61 year old, a not very athletic-looking woman, and a guy that looks like he should have been done two hours ago, yet we each give encouragement and joke with each other when we pass.  I have never been as humbled as I have in this experience.  *This is a good point to those who think they can’t do this event… I now believe that with the right state of mind, patience, and a consistent training regimen, MANY people could finish an iron distance triathlon.  A 2 hour swim, 8 hour bike, and 7 hour marathon would be a looong day, but still meet the cutoff and is not fast by any means… consider it?!  Anyway…

When Steph left me to drive to the finish at mile 22, I told her I would try to run half of the remaining miles to break 13 hours, but once I got going and I was actually headed in the direction of the finish I felt the end nearing and was able to bring it in at 8:00min/mi pace with a 7:15 last mile!  I asked Steph to join me at the finish and at first I didn’t think she was able to get back in time, but just before the final turn she appeared with a huge smile waving and bringing another tear to my eye.  Crossing the finish line was very surreal; no collapse, no sense of elation, it just hadn’t sunk in.  I’ll tell you when it did sink in… when I woke up the next morning.  It had sunk in plenty as I hobbled to breakfast! 26.2 miles – 4:31:57

140.6 miles – 12:44:29

The finish goodies...

I expect a few things in the coming days and weeks… first, the feeling in my legs.  Second, the achievement setting in and a sense of pride in the accomplishment; I think how I felt in the race and my slower than expected time leave me with just a shade of “unfinished” feeling that I’m sure will go away.  Third, I expect to find my interest to give it another go, which is currently on empty, to find itself creeping back up in my mind.  I will say, now that this life goal is accomplished, I only see myself trying again if I really put 100% focus in training for it to see how fast I can go.

I appreciate the support and well wishes I received from many people in this endeavor.  The iron distance triathlon still remains a pinnacle of achievement in endurance sports and I am proud to become a part of this group. 

Sunrise to sunset... done!

Psst - Steph finished the half rev, 70.3 miles! See Steph's race report here.

Psst - Want to see lots more race reports for Ironman, marathon, 5k, bike, and swim races? Steph's blog is dedicated just to that: My Race, My Story

Go Girl Tri: Race Report

Alright gang, you know I have a horrible memory for race reports, so I'm just going to capture some of my thoughts and lessons learned on this post.

First of all, it was totally fun to do this one with Mollie, this being her first tri ever. Hooray! Pat this chick on the back, she is now officially a triathlete! :) Amara came to be our cheering section (best cheering section ever) and also to do some recon to decide if she wants to do a tri in the future.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment, stolen shamelessly from Lesley's facebook album (thanks, L!)

Available now: Tickets to the GUN SHOW!! 

Pre-race fun

Lesley in the water, and possibly me somewhere in there kicking her by accident!

Out of the water.

The dismount line marked off to the right (the "Stop Here" sign).
Amara counted lots of first-timers going over their handlebars from braking so hard
when they realized what they were supposed to do. Yikes!

On the bike... getting ready to ride the EXACT same time as last year!

Cory took this photo -- it turned out great!!

Some post-race celebrating

Overall, weather was great, people were awesome, and good times had by all. I think we ate a little too much Chick-Fil-A after the race, 'case my stomach's still angry! My lower back is extremely angry at me for having done this, but what else is new? Today the water in Eagle Creek was nearly bath water warm. It was great!! And yet it was wetsuit-legal at 78 degrees.... I think I might've been sweating when I got out of the water, haha. If open water's always like this, I might swim more often!!

Results-wise, I was about 3 minutes slower in this race than I was last year. (?!?!?!) I'm about enjoying this race, but I might as well add this "discussion" in.


In 2010:

Swim: 12:48.3 (161)
Transition1: 01:33.3 ( 66)
Bike: 0:33:41.8 (17.8 mph/ 85)
Transition2: 01:36.2 (179)
Run: 0:21:10.3 (07:03.4/  7)
TOTAL:  1:10:50.0

In 2011:

Swim: 14:18.2 (254)
Transition1: 1:33.4 (100)
Bike: 0:33:47.1 (17.8 mph/ 96)
Transition2: 01:58.6 (258)
Run: 0:21:55.0 (07:18.3/ 11)
TOTAL:  1:13:32.3

I feel like I made a good, solid effort today so I'm really happy with my race. It's crazy how T1 and the bike were nearly identical!! But, now I know I'm obviously capable of going faster in the swim and run than I did this morning! It's like that "dang it!" moment that comes after the "oh yay!". Today's still an "oh yay!" day, and it was awesome to be racing on home turf again. I should at least jot down what I can do to make this a better one next time around.....

1. Basics: Get the sleep earlier, eat better the day before. I tossed and turned all last night, and skipped lunch yesterday because of my work schedule/traveling (ugh!). Bad ideas all around...
2. Hydration & Gel! If this was a longer race, I would have crashed. Actually, I started to crash halfway through the run, and all I would have needed was some energy gel to get through it. I also felt like I could/should have drank more water than I did. When I got going on the bike, I was starting to wish I'd had some nice cold water! :)
3. Swim the outside. I can't figure out why my swim was so much slower than last year! Two guesses: On Thursday I swam for the first time, and did something like 2+ miles in the pool, so I might just have been tired. Or... I swam close to the buoys this time, whereas last year I swam outside of the crowd. Maybe I lost some time in the traffic around each buoy. I was really disoriented going around buoy #3 and to the finish, confirmed by Leslie, who told me I almost DQ'ed myself by cutting off the buoy. Umm... what buoy? (point made.)
4. Run more. How in the heck did I pull of a 21-minute 5k last year? Ahhh! I lost almost a full minute here. I think I'm just slower 'cause I haven't been doing much (quality) running.
5. Bike racks/registration. Your bib number is assigned based on your reported swimming ability, so I was a high bib number being a slower-than-average swimmer. However... the transition area was a one-way zone for bikes, so having a higher bib number meant I had a longer distance to run with my bike. Notice my T2 time is much higher- I was doing nearly the whole thing with my bike in tow and in bike shoes!! I'd say that added about 15-20 seconds. Not sure what I can do about this one, it's mostly just unfortunate!

Other cool stuff I saw that I have to do in the future (more good tri tips)

1. Sit on a bucket. I realized that people bring 5-gallon plastic buckets to tris now not just so store massive amounts of tri stuff, but to SIT ON while they're transitioning--- Genius!!! Since your legs are wobbly from the swim, having a lil' seat like a bucket is such a good idea... Leslie also says it's a good way to mark off your territory in the transition/bike rack area.
   

   

   Lesley's bucket!

2. Mark your spot. At first I couldn't figure out why I was seeing weird chalk marks on the ground. Turns out, some people had brought chalk to mark their bike racks from the center area. As you're running by and tired from swimming, sometimes it's not always easy to remember your bib number or find your rack, so marking it with chalk is another genius idea!
   
   
3. A couple of girls brought fun balloons to spot their bikes quicker!

Good lessons all around... so the half next, I guess?