Ironman 70.3: Galveston

The Ironman Texas 70.3 in Galveston has been on my calendar for almost a year.  I had booked my hotel room months ago.  My usual method of bike shipment wasn't going to pan out for this race because my bike wouldn't have made it back to Phoenix in time for me to send it on to Ironman Texas in 2 weeks from now.  So I put off thinking about transportation until the last minute, expecting that I would just make the drive.

As the race got closer and I started to think about it, 18 hours each way in a car by myself did not sound like much fun.  I thought about begging my mom to fly down and drive with me, but my sister had her baby and needed some extra help so my mom was staying with her.  I ended up purchasing the Hen House from Ruster Sports to pack my bike and bought a plane ticket.

On Friday evening April 17th my husband and I were having a conversation about the trip.  You do realize that you're going to have 3 suitcases plus your carry on bag to schlep through the airport by yourself, right?  Well, yes, I did know this but I didn't actually think about this fact.  Crap.  Suddenly I'm imagining myself hauling my Hen House, plus my suitcase, and my carry on bag and wondering how much those wheeled carts cost and crap, I can't take them on the escalator or the Sky Train anyway.  Maybe you should ask someone to go with you, he suggested.

Immediately I thought of my friend HHV.  She would be perfect.  So on Saturday morning April 18 (our flight left on Friday April 24...) I messaged 3 friends, KJ, HHV and SE.  Any chance you're up for an all expense paid trip to the beach... next weekend??  Within a couple of hours HHV responded back-  she was in!  After about 10 minutes of texting back and forth excitedly she asked, where are we going?  Talk about the ultimate Sherpa!  How many people are going to commit without even knowing where we were headed!

So I cashed in some of my gazzilion points sitting in my Southwest bank and bought another ticket.  Suddenly my weekend in Galveston got a whole lot more fun!

Wednesday prior to leaving I met with the owner of Two Wheel Jones, my local bike shop.  He had built my bike when I first got it and he spent 2 hours (!) walking me through how to disassemble it, pack it safely and then reassemble it on the flip side.  In the age of digital-everything, I will ALWAYS support my local bike shop because you cannot buy good customer service online.  (Plus virtual group rides don't sound like much fun.)

We have arrived in Houston!

 After a smooth flight with no delays, we arrived in Houston and quickly got to work.  Well, actually that's not entirely true.  We couldn't check into our hotel for another 5 hours so we ate lunch, went through race registration, bought CO2 (can't fly with them!), drove the bike course, and THEN checked into the hotel and set about rebuilding my gem.

Before... during... and after!  Rebuiding Hope.

Thanks to the detailed instruction from the master at Two Wheel Jones, we had her up and running in about 20 minutes.  HHV neglected to tell me (until after) that she hadn't run since January, but she happily joined me for a 30 minute shake out run before dinner.  We ran along the gulf boardwalk and enjoyed the crashing of the waves.

HHV is one of those people when you meet her, you feel like you've known her forever.  I actually only met her last May at Ironman Texas but we instantly got on like peas and carrots.  She totally gets my sense of humor AND laughed at all my movie quotes (cause there is literally a movie line that fits EVERY situation!).  I was so glad she flew to Texas with me cause I'd have been bored out of my mind by myself.

My sister from another mister.

On Saturday it was raining cats and dogs.  A massive thunderstorm brought rain, lightening, and power outages all morning.  We got tired of sitting in the hotel waiting for it to pass so we drove to Starbucks and chatted the morning away while sipping versions of highly caffeinated beverages.  Eventually, the lightening stopped, and even though it was still raining I decided I better get my butt on my bike for a test ride before it got any later.  HHV drove me out a few miles onto the course where the road widens and there's a nice shoulder.  I hopped on and rode for 15 minutes, just long enough to make sure everything was in working order and get completely soaked.  HHV leap-frogged me in the car and picked me up.  Naturally the minute we pulled into transition to drop my bike off the skies cleared and the sun came out.

Bike check in.  I seriously had the sweetest spot in transition!  

After bike check in, I threw on my ROKA sim shorts for a quick swim in the gulf.  I hate getting into my wetsuit prior to race day because it doesn't dry out quick enough.  Sim shorts are perfect because you get the buoyancy of a wetsuit with the freedom of a swim suit.  Whenever I'm instructed to do a practice open water swim in my wetsuit I grab the sim shorts.  The water was rough because of the storm and winds, and I was having a blast in the waves.  My 20 minute swim was half warm up sprints, half playing in the surf.  Afterwards we hit up our new favorite restaurant for our pre-race dinner and headed to bed early.

Dinner on the pier overlooking my swim spot.

Race morning!  I manged to choke down my entire breakfast before I had a chance to get nervous.  Due to the parking situation, we decided to get to transition early and then just chill in the car with any extra time we had-- I didn't want to end up parking a ways away and walking.  It worked out perfectly.  As I was pumping my bike tires in transition the announcement was made that the swim would be NON- wetsuit as the water was too warm.  This was my reaction to the news...

Yay!  Non-wetsuit!!

I got everything situated on my bike and we had about 30 minutes to nap in the car before walking to the swim start.  Since everyone was expecting a wetsuit legal swim very few people thought to bring a speed suit.  I only saw about 4 other people with speed suits on.  Add another point to my swim advantage!  HHV snapped this photo of me....

At the swim start. 

... and instantly we both burst out laughing because it was totally a fake smile.  At this point, nerves had set in and I was getting anxious for the day.  Once again, she made me laugh and took my mind off of the pain I was about to endure.  She gave me a big hug and sent me off to line up in the swim corral.

I love swimming.  I love open water swimming.  I love flying by people when I swim.  It was so much fun.  I was catching the wave ahead of mine by the first buoy and continued to pick people off the remainder of the swim.  I exited the water in 32 minutes and 18 seconds, 3rd in my age group.  Dodging people in the swim was only mildly annoying, though given the chance I'd gladly start in an earlier wave to avoid this.

After a quick transition I was onto the bike.  I have to admit, I have never had this much fun on a bike before!  The course is flat and fast.  Very fast.  The first couple of miles are a bunch of turns getting out onto the highway, but once there you bike out 25 miles and turn around and come back.  Weather was perfect, overcast and no winds to speak of.  It started raining on me when I got about 10 miles out from the turn around and continued raining on the way back.  So many people were sitting up out of their aero bars, but honestly, the road conditions were perfect and even with the rain I've never ridden a safer course.  I was hauling the whole way.

For the first time, my coach had given me very specific power numbers to hit on the bike.  We wanted to test my fitness and find out what I can plan to execute at Ironman in 3 weeks (I'm still very new to power so this is a work in progress).  It was awesome to ride at that level and see just how much I CAN push the bike.  And I had so much fun doing it!  I was like a freight train!  I seriously was flying past people like they were standing still.  I counted less than a half dozen men (and NO women) that passed me the entire 56 miles.  I was smiling and laughing and having the best time riding my bike.  My total bike time?  2:24-- 13 minutes faster than any previous half Ironman, and 2nd off the bike in my age group!

Coming back into transition the sun was intermittently peeking out and it was heating up.  Thankfully I love the heat and when the breeze hit me just the right way I actually was a bit chilly.  Coming off the bike I could feel the effort in my legs immediately.  What we wanted to see was could I run my pace for 13 miles?  Or would I fade?

This must have been loop 1- I was still smiling!

The run course was 3 loops.  3 very crowded loops.  With 1 U-turn per mile.  And a football field long gravel pit each loop.  Football field long gravel pit with mud puddles.  And even though it was extremely flat, I could feel every single slight pitch upwards.  I dialed in my pace and I ran.  HHV was cheering for me on course, and passing on text message instructions from my coach.  It was so awesome to have her there and I looked forward to seeing her every loop.  When I passed her the last time I shouted "see you at the finish!!"

I ran a 1:47:55, about 2 minutes slower than Oceanside but after a significantly harder (effort wise) bike ride.  I was thrilled and happy to cross the line in 4:48:14.  HHV walked me around a little as my asthma threatened to flare up and got me into the food tent.  Once we were finally able to remove my gear from transition we went back to the hotel to pack up.  In 60 minutes we:  disassembled Hope and packed her in the Hen House for travel, took turns showering and packing our luggage, loaded our rental car, and drove back to the venue for the awards ceremony.

4th place, 35-39 age group!

I took home the 4th place age group award (again!)!  I am hoping to move up to top 3 for IM Texas in a few weeks but was thrilled with this considering where I'm at in training and the competition that showed up in Galveston.  Top 3 girls in my age group ran a 1:30 half marathon...  my half PR (for running race, not post 56 mile bike ride) is 1:35 so I really can't beat myself up about losing to that kind of effort!

We hit the road pretty quickly after awards because we had a flight to catch out of Houston.  I'd like to say I slept like a baby but I couldn't get comfortable on the flight --everything hurt... and I didn't sleep well that night once we got home either.  But all is well and good and now I'm down to 12 days to Ironman Texas.

Best. Sherpa. Ever!!

Huge thank you to HHV for agreeing to go with me on such short notice.  I could not think of anyone I'd rather have had with me in Galveston!  Thank you Chris from Dimond Bikes/ Ruster Sports for being available and for letting me borrow a couple of tools and your hat for the podium.  I'll see you in the Woodlands!  Thanks Larry and the team at Two Wheel Jones for everything you do to keep my gem up and running.  You are much appreciated.

Next stop:  The Woodlands!!

Thank you Dimond Bikes for making the BEST bike on the market!!!