To say that I was anxious would probably be an understatement. In 2012, I dropped out because I was unable to adjust my expectations when mother nature dished out some horrendous conditions. I was completely fine, physically. But mentally I gave up in the swim. I honestly was shocked that I didn't drown that year. That no one drowned. And over the last 4 years, my mind has turned that epic day into a blockbuster movie reel. One in which the fish are six times larger than reality and the waves could easily swallow up Noah's ark.
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| Wind, in its greatest power, whirls. |
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| The swim takes place in the reservoir at Sand Hollow. |
On race day, I did not have my usual confidence jumping into the water and even though the water was relatively calm, I had to continuously remind myself that I was OK. That I could breathe. That I was going to make it through the swim. One girl in my age group took off so fast at the gun that no one could go with her. I settled into a rhythm with another girl and pretty much stayed with her off to my left until the final turn buoy. At that point I tried to pick up the pace a little and worked on safely dodging slower swimmers ahead of me. I was thrilled to see a sub-30 coming out of the water.
We had been following the weather for a couple of weeks as I'm sure everyone was. Rain and 50 degrees were predicted for race day, and that's pretty much exactly what we got. It was raining by the time I exited the water. Knowing how my body reacts in cold weather, I had packed my Smashfest Queen vest and arm warmers into my T1 bag. With wet skin it took me longer in transition to get my arm warmers on, but it was worth the extra minute to be comfortable during the bike ride.
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| All smiles at the start of the bike ride! |
The bike ride was everything you dream about. It was beautiful. And challenging. And fun. And totally awesome. I focused on holding my watts according to my race plan. With the rain making it difficult to see at times, and the wet roads, I was definitely not as aggressive on the bike as I would otherwise have been. The one thing my husband had said to me on Friday was that he didn't want me descending from Snow Canyon on wet roads. With Kona coming up in just 5 short months, I cannot afford to crash out and risk my only real goal for the year. As the miles went by I laughed to myself that, like it or not, I was going to be descending Snow Canyon in the rain. I really wasn't bothered by it at all. I was mentally prepared but it was just ironic.
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| Don't worry, I didn't stop mid race for this photo op! |
In fact, coming into this race, I prepared for the absolute worst possible weather conditions. In my scenario it was more of a repeat of 2012- wind, heat, and more wind. The cold and rain was much easier to deal with as I can just put more clothes on. I never felt chilled until the final descent and when you're flying downhill at 44 mph for 8+ miles, it doesn't matter that you have layers on, it's darn cold.
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| Running into T2. |
T2 was once again super long because with cold hands I had a hard time changing into my running shoes. I was super excited to be off the bike, not because I was happy to be off the bike but because I felt like no matter what happened now I would get to the finish line. I took off out of transition and saw my #bff about 2 blocks up just as you start the first 3 mile climb. She got this awesome pic of me as I'm shouting to her:
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| # whatthefuck #frozen |
Apparently I got a good laugh from all of the spectators in her vicinity as they heard me yell #whatthefuck?! #frozen! In reality, I was staying plenty warm working my way through 70.3 miles. They were standing for hours in the pouring rain, wind and cold. Thank you #bff for doing just that!!
There is basically no flat ground on the St. George run course. You're either running uphill, or coming down. The good news is that the first 3 miles are uphill, which means that the last 3 are downhill! In between it's a nice mix of climbing and descending to break up which muscles are being taxed. I actually really like hills. And I think this course favors strength over pure speed. With my experience on trails, I definitely fall into the "strong" category and felt like I was running strong the whole way through.
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| Running downhill toward the finish! |
I decided at the beginning of the run that I was not going to look at my Garmin. Coach had told me during our pre-race briefing that on this course, it's impossible to sustain a specific pace. (For example, at Oceanside the plan was to dial in a certain minute-per-mile pace and hold that throughout.) With the ups and downs, my pace would be all over the place. Rather than worry about it, I decided to just not look, and hold constant effort. When I hit 2 miles to go I glanced down and realized that I was going to be well under my goal of 5:30 for the day I was ecstatic!
The camera man caught me running into the finish line... you can see me with 1:17 to go on the highlight video below!
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| Happy camper! |
Even though I didn't land on the podium at Ironman St. George 70.3, I accomplished all of my other pre race goals:
*Survived (and thrived!) the swim (Swim time: 29:50)
*Held goal watts on the bike
*Finished the bike under 2:55 (Bike time: 2:54:04)
*Finished under 5:30 (Total time: 5:20:09)
And I crushed my goal for the run course finishing the run in 1:47:37!
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| Post race! |
After the race we relaxed and at dinner. On Sunday morning we slept in and went for a nice easy bike ride with the only goal of capturing some of the gorgeous scenery in Utah.
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| I had to bike up a 12% grade for this photo op. #totallyworthit |
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| Our bikes are enjoying the view. |
After our ride we had an hour to pack up and check out of the hotel. This was our starting point...
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| Help! A hurricane hit our hotel room! |
Up next:
Tempe International Tri (local olympic distance race for fun!)
Ironman Coeur d'Alene 70.3
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