So it was with this optimism, relatively consistent training and promising weather forecast, that I drove into Santa Rosa this past weekend. As with many of my triathlon adventures, the unexpected happened and one has to roll with it.
PRE-RACE
This race required a lot more logistical planning than the typical race that I can just drive to. I had to ship Michonne (my bike) through this company called Tribike Transport (awesome experience and I highly recommend, by the way), fly to San Francisco, rent a car and drive to Santa Rosa. It was also what they call a "point-to-point" race which means you have start in one place and end in another. This is pretty simple when you're doing a running only race...not as simple in triathlon.
I pulled into to Santa Rosa late on Thursday night after some flight delays and traffic through SF. I was in bed within 10 minutes after arriving.
Friday was a busy day. Up early to eat breakfast. I was starving since I didn't eat dinner. Then off to athlete checkin at 9a. Very easy and fast process. The finisher shirt kind of sucks but the finisher backpack and hat are cool. If you didn't know by now, I do these races partially because of the swag. I bought a water bottle in the store and decided to pass on any other merch. Next off to the Tribike Transport to pick up Michonne, put her pedals back on and then put her right back on the truck to head up to T1. It was then time for the athlete meeting where they announced no potential issues with the course and a wetsuit legal swim. Yay. Sounds Great.
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| T1 - Ironman Santa Rosa 70.3 |
Athlete meeting ended around 10:40 so I then headed to T2 to drop off my run gear bag. Again, because it's point-to-point, you have to plant your run stuff at the second transition in advance. I don't like this because I ike to double check everything for transition the night before but this was the system.
I then hopped in the car for the 45 minute ride to Lake Sonoma, the swim start and location of T1. Beautiful course, gorgeous water. Wow, I thought: this is going to be an amazing swim. I then walked up and down the quarter mile transition run from water to T1. Ridiculous hill from the damn boat ramp. A mean and uncalled for exit to the swim after you've just been through 1.2 miles of swimming. This part would not be fun.
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| Loving this - wanted to hop in the water |
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| swim start |
I found my spot in transition and Michonne wasn't there yet. No worries. By this point, I'm exhausted. I drove back to Santa Rosa and took a nap. It was at this point where I made my first nutrition error
Woke up around 4 and had "lunch" at In 'N Out Burger. Love it. However, this was way too late to have lunch and I should have eaten before I got back to Santa Rosa. I then decided it would be a good idea to go to the outlets in Petaluma. I need some sweatpants for morning clothes because it was actually pretty cold here in the morning. I also scored some AMAZING Sorel winter boots at the Saks Fifth Ave outlet for only $45 bucks! Very pleased with myself, I headed back to Santa Rosa and was not hungry. I forced myself to eat some chicken noodle soup and bread. This was my fatal error. I should have eaten a more normal schedule the day before the race because I ended up going into race morning in somewhat of a nutrition deficit. In bed by 9:30, a little melatonin to get the sleep process started. As I'm reading through Facebook, I see a message from the race organizers saying there may be a problem with the swim. Apparently, the drastic swings in day/night temperatures have caused Lake Sonoma to be engulfed by fog, which makes it impossible for lifeguards to see athletes if someone is having a problem. They say they'll see how tomorrow goes and make announcements on race changes that morning. Uh...not good.
RACE DAY
Ufftah...3:45 AM in the damn morning. I never got up that earlier intentionally in my LIFE. Again, because of the point-to-point race, it was advised that athletes take the shuttle at 4:15 AM to swim start since there was very little parking on site. The ride was actually pretty pleasant, chill, I ate my bagel with peanut butter and iced coffee (standard race morning meal) and I was a happy triathlon camper.
Arrived on site at 5:15am. There were already a crap-ton of people there. Did they wake up at like 3AM?! Seriously, so crazy. All seems fine, announcers says water temp is 74. Great. Porta Potty, air up Michonne's tires, shimmy myself into the wetsuit. Let's roll.
6:45AM - RACE ANNOUNCER: "So uh, athletes, we're going to delay the race start to 7am to see if this fog lifts. We'll make the determination then to either shorten the swim to 1000m (ok, but not great) or cancel the swim and do a time-trial bike start." My first thought is there's no way we're going to swim. The Fog looked like a scene from a Stephen King novel. You couldn't even see the lake from T1.
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| Stephen King's "The Mist" or T1? |
I spent the next 45 minutes chatting up my fellow athletes. They position you by age group so I was surrounded by middle age women of all shapes, sizes, races, ethinicities, doing this crazy thing called triathlon. Met a woman whose house burned down last December in Santa Rosa, and she had just had a baby...and she still trained for the last several months while her house was being rebuilt! Another woman who was training for Ironman Wisconsin, another doing her first 70.3. During this time, I probably should have eaten something.
7am - Race Announcer: "The full 1.2 mile swim has been scrubbed. We'll be back with you in 15 minutes to determine whether or not we'll do a 1000m swim or eliminate the swim and do a time trial bike start."
7:15am - Race Announcer: "No swim today, folks. We'll start launching the pro athletes in a time trial start at 7:30." Ok, no swim. This sucks but at this point, I just want to get started. I stay in my wetsuit a little longer because it's warm. I drop off my morning clothes bag at the station to transport back to T2 and I start getting my gear out for the bike. A time-trial start means, they send athletes out 5 at a time, every 10 seconds. This, in theory, spreads out the race field. Here's a quick video of Ironman World Champion Mirinda Carfrae on her start:
THE BIKE
It was truly awesome for the first 2 hours. Beautiful countryside with vineyards and rolling hills. I was getting passed like crazy but I was having a good time. That's when I started to feel really hungry. I brought exactly 4 GUs with me on the bike which I take every 45 minutes. This plan has always worked for me but clearly that's when I've already have enough fuel in advance. By mile 30 I was starving. This can't be good. And then that climb on Chalk Hill Road hit me. What would be an average climb in Colorado felt like I was going to pass out. I was Bonking. And I attribute this largely to lack of proper nutrition. Yikes.
[TRIATHLON DICTIONARY ASIDE]
Bonk /bäNGk/(verb) in endurance sports such as cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk is a condition of sudden fatigue and loss of energy which is caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles.
As I made my way into town, I was never so happy to be off that bike. I don't have official times yet but it was something like 3:54:00. Pretty shitty. My worst time for a 70.3 on the bike by like 25 minutes.
T2
GU! Sucked that down ASAP and got on with the run. I was dreaming about the pretzels and coca cola at the first aid stop at mile 1.
RUN
My legs were a little beat but I was shockingly fresh on the run. My run has been horrible all year and I walk a lot. My pace was actually averaging better than what I did in training. Then it started to get hot. I took in water and gatorade every stop. By Mile 8, I was putting ice in my sports bra as "storage" and carrying ice in each hand. And I crushed those pretzels. Hardly had any GU at all. I think the salt and the carbs were reviving me. I actually started passing people. Literally everyone was walking at some point on this run. As always on the run, you start talking to people and connecting with folks who are in the same place that you are on the course. Saw a 61 year old man run past me and I yelled out, "There is no way you are 61. You look like you're 35." He said, "that's the nicest thing I've heard all day." By the way, your age is written on your calf for these races.
By Mile 12, I was ready to get my damn finisher hat and call it day. The crowds coming into the finishing line are just amazing. Your name is on your race bib so everyone is cheering your name. It's impossible to not feel great with all these people cheering for you. Crossed the finish line. Run time was like 3:17. Pretty much a fast walk pace.
Picked up some pretty outstanding homemade paella and a beer at the athlete food tent. Sat down to inhale this and was joined by some guys in the 50+ age group who qualified for Kona. Had a nice chat and reflected on the day.
I picked up Michonne in T2, thanked her for not getting us in a crash and took her back to Tribike Transport for her journey back to Colorado.
What's next?
I'm done for this season. I am officially entering "off season." Maybe I'll do an aqua bike later in August just for fun but I'm not registering until the last minute. Ben and I go to Germany next month so I may just call it quits for this year. What I do know is, this will likely be my last 70.3 (at least for a while). Until I drop some major weight, the run is going to be a problem for me. I'm planning to focus on weight training, swimming and cycling for the rest of this year and probably throw in some other fun stuff: dance classes, yoga, hiking, etc.
Next season: it's all about the Aquabike!
Thanks everyone for your support and cheers. I'm such an amateur and slow poke, but I truly enjoy the process and getting to that finish line is such a test of mental toughness for me. I love this stuff.
Stay tuned!
7am - Race Announcer: "The full 1.2 mile swim has been scrubbed. We'll be back with you in 15 minutes to determine whether or not we'll do a 1000m swim or eliminate the swim and do a time trial bike start."
7:15am - Race Announcer: "No swim today, folks. We'll start launching the pro athletes in a time trial start at 7:30." Ok, no swim. This sucks but at this point, I just want to get started. I stay in my wetsuit a little longer because it's warm. I drop off my morning clothes bag at the station to transport back to T2 and I start getting my gear out for the bike. A time-trial start means, they send athletes out 5 at a time, every 10 seconds. This, in theory, spreads out the race field. Here's a quick video of Ironman World Champion Mirinda Carfrae on her start:
Go Rinny!
THE BIKE
It was truly awesome for the first 2 hours. Beautiful countryside with vineyards and rolling hills. I was getting passed like crazy but I was having a good time. That's when I started to feel really hungry. I brought exactly 4 GUs with me on the bike which I take every 45 minutes. This plan has always worked for me but clearly that's when I've already have enough fuel in advance. By mile 30 I was starving. This can't be good. And then that climb on Chalk Hill Road hit me. What would be an average climb in Colorado felt like I was going to pass out. I was Bonking. And I attribute this largely to lack of proper nutrition. Yikes.
[TRIATHLON DICTIONARY ASIDE]
Bonk /bäNGk/(verb) in endurance sports such as cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk is a condition of sudden fatigue and loss of energy which is caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles.
As I made my way into town, I was never so happy to be off that bike. I don't have official times yet but it was something like 3:54:00. Pretty shitty. My worst time for a 70.3 on the bike by like 25 minutes.
T2
GU! Sucked that down ASAP and got on with the run. I was dreaming about the pretzels and coca cola at the first aid stop at mile 1.
RUN
My legs were a little beat but I was shockingly fresh on the run. My run has been horrible all year and I walk a lot. My pace was actually averaging better than what I did in training. Then it started to get hot. I took in water and gatorade every stop. By Mile 8, I was putting ice in my sports bra as "storage" and carrying ice in each hand. And I crushed those pretzels. Hardly had any GU at all. I think the salt and the carbs were reviving me. I actually started passing people. Literally everyone was walking at some point on this run. As always on the run, you start talking to people and connecting with folks who are in the same place that you are on the course. Saw a 61 year old man run past me and I yelled out, "There is no way you are 61. You look like you're 35." He said, "that's the nicest thing I've heard all day." By the way, your age is written on your calf for these races.
By Mile 12, I was ready to get my damn finisher hat and call it day. The crowds coming into the finishing line are just amazing. Your name is on your race bib so everyone is cheering your name. It's impossible to not feel great with all these people cheering for you. Crossed the finish line. Run time was like 3:17. Pretty much a fast walk pace.
Picked up some pretty outstanding homemade paella and a beer at the athlete food tent. Sat down to inhale this and was joined by some guys in the 50+ age group who qualified for Kona. Had a nice chat and reflected on the day.
I picked up Michonne in T2, thanked her for not getting us in a crash and took her back to Tribike Transport for her journey back to Colorado.
What's next?
I'm done for this season. I am officially entering "off season." Maybe I'll do an aqua bike later in August just for fun but I'm not registering until the last minute. Ben and I go to Germany next month so I may just call it quits for this year. What I do know is, this will likely be my last 70.3 (at least for a while). Until I drop some major weight, the run is going to be a problem for me. I'm planning to focus on weight training, swimming and cycling for the rest of this year and probably throw in some other fun stuff: dance classes, yoga, hiking, etc.
Next season: it's all about the Aquabike!
Thanks everyone for your support and cheers. I'm such an amateur and slow poke, but I truly enjoy the process and getting to that finish line is such a test of mental toughness for me. I love this stuff.
Stay tuned!
 |
| Winner, Winner, paella dinner |
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