Race Recap

We did it!  We finished the 2019 St George Half Ironman!  What a ride (both figuratively and literally!).  Here it is in all it's glory:

Before the Race

Holy Moly, is there a lot that goes in to getting ready for this thing.  I left where we were staying at 9:00 on Friday morning and didn't show back up until 3:30!  Aside from making a short stop at a running store and grabbing some lunch, the rest of the time was checking in and getting everything set up.  

We first went over to the athlete check in and got ourselves checked in. Then to a mandatory athlete briefing that did nothing to calm our nerves due to their liberal usages of the words "challenging" and "tough" when describing the courses.  

Then off to the reservoir to get our bikes set up.  What an amazing scene!  We showed up early to take a dip in the water--along with 1000 of our closest friends.  There were bikes and people everywhere!  Toned, ripped, athletic people who knew what they were doing.  Not two dopey middle-aged moms with big dreams.  We felt very Little-Fish-Big-Pondish.  

After a quick swim, which wasn't as cold as I feared seeing at it was 80* at noon, we got our bikes and transition bags all set up.  Then headed back to the second transition area/finish line to get our other bags ready.   Then stopped for a small lunch of spaghetti.  We said our goodbyes and joined up with our families for the evenings.  It was going to be a long night waiting for 7 am to come.

Swim

The funny thing about time is that it speeds up when you don't want it to and slows down when you want it go faster, so before long, it was time to get up, get ready and catch my ride with Hillary to the shuttle buses.  I tried some sport psychology where I envisioned each event and how I would feel during it to calm my nerves.  It worked a little bit.

Charlie was working the bus unloading and happened to be unloading our bus.  So fun to see some familiar faces before we headed off to join the masses in the transition area.  After standing in line for the bathroom and getting everything situated, it was time for the Pros to start and we were about an hour out from getting in the water.  

We ran into three more friends who came to see us off and that was so neat!  It made the time go faster to chat and catch up.  I found my parents and then it was time to get in our spots.  We both decided to go at the same time.

We got up to the front of the line and before we knew it, it was GO TIME!

The water was a bit colder than I remembered from the day before, but I got use to it pretty fast.  The swim was INSANE.  SO MANY PEOPLE everywhere.  They run into you from all sides and pop up all over.  It's hard to get into a groove because you have to look up and readjust where you're at plus all the sideshow going on around you.  I drank a lot of water!  But I stayed calm and tried not to let any negative thoughts in.  I was pretty sure that the swim was taking me longer than I planned for and about a third of the way, I was starting to feel discouraged.  I checked my watch and I had only been swimming for 12 minutes and was a little under a third of the way, so that helped ease my nerves some.  Also I had to really pee.  This was new because I usually don't have to go more than once or twice before a race and rarely during, but I had to really go and I still had a long way to go.  So I...went.  And I'm not even sorry about it.  I felt so much better.

On and on I swam.  At one point, maybe at halfway, someone touched my leg and the shock of it plus the cold of the water made my calves cramp.  I prayed that this was not going to be how I went down--900 yards into a 70.3 mile race--and flipped over on my back to stretch them out.  The cramp abated and I continued on without any problems, other than having to pee again.  So I did it...again.  No regrets. 

I got to the boat dock and I still felt really strong.  YAY for all that swim training.

Charlie and Janna were my wetsuit strippers and then it was on to the bike.  

Bike

When Hillary and I came down and did the course (or tried to do the course) in October, there was this hill at mile 3.5 that has haunted me ever since.  It's not a long hill but I could not get up it without serpentining (weaving across the road) and I even had to stop and rest.  I have been SO nervous about it ever since.  I got to the hill and while it was not easy, it wasn't as hard as I remember it being, I just went into my easiest gear and concentrated on keeping the pedals moving.  My quads weren't even burning!  I felt phenomenal!  As soon as I hit the top of that hill I just settled in and let my legs take over.  It was so nice to have an open course where I didn't have to worry about debris in the road or traffic and could get into aeroposition and ride!

At about mile 6.5, I saw what looked like to be Hillary up ahead but figured it was too early to see her quite yet.  Sure enough, as I went to pass there she was!  I flew by with a "Hillary!"  There wasn't really a lot of time to react so I just kept going.  I was feeling so good and wanted to capitalize on it before the dreaded wall came.

On and on I rode.  The miles were ticking off much faster than I thought and I was excited at how fast I was going, how great I was feeling and how much fun I was having.  Friends kept popping up and it was awesome to have a support crew down there.

At about 35 miles, I was getting a little antsy about the famous Snow Canyon climb, 5 miles up a canyon with 1000 feet elevation gain.  My energy was starting to slip and I was getting tired.  I popped in a piece of caffeinated gum and kept pedaling away.  

The climb started at about 41 miles, but I misunderstood and started my tracking at the guard station of the canyon.  I slowed down to a crawl.  Seriously, it was SO slow, but I was doing it.  The good thing about going 4.5 mph on the bike is that you can talk to the people around you.  There were a lot of people serpentining.  There was some cursing. Someone was singing Miley Cyrus's The Climb.  It's fun to be with a group of people all trying to accomplish the same hard goal.  I kept tabs on my watch and figured I had about 1.5 miles to go when we got to this monster of a hill where people started getting off their bikes and walking them.  Hillary warned me that near the end would be this hill that would tempt you to want to get off and walk but just keep pedaling because you were almost there.  Clearly this wasn't it because I still had another mile to go.  I wanted to stop and rest, but I kept at it.  If this hill was like this, what was the hill she was talking about like??  BUT...when we got to the top, there was the other guard shack and we had made it!  My mileage was off by a mile!  WAHOOOOO.  I made it up Snow Canyon without stopping or swearing (though I did let out a Holy Hell I made it! at the top) and still had a smile on my face.

The final 10 miles were ALL downhill.  It was AWESOME!  I topped out at 40 mph and averaged 27.8 mph for that stretch.

The transition area loomed ahead and I knew I was almost home.  Just 13.1 miles to go.

Run

I knew from the first step that this was going to be a loooooong 13 miles.  I totally underestimated the heat and the uphill and the heat and the uphill. :)  Not an ounce of shade on that course and it was over 85* when I started.  The last time this body had seen 85* was some time in September.  I started out with a .25 mile run/.10 mile walk and kept that up for a good 2 miles.  Then that third mile I walked a lot of it.  I also had another problem--I had not run in my bike jersey before and it was driving me INSANE.  It kept riding up and I felt like I looked like sausage casing.  It was making me mad and not at all how I wanted to envision myself.  It's no joke--you should always wear your race days clothes at least once before race day so you know how things sit.  Sigh.  Such a rookie mistake. 

Luckily, a gal started chatting with me and we became fast friends.  She was my saving angel.  I think I would have gone down a rabbit hole with the heat and the jersey and it would have ruined my run and ultimately my race.  We walked and chatted and then started running.  She was struggling a bit so I hung back with her and it was so nice to have someone to chat with.  I had spent a good portion of the day in my head, so having some distraction was nice.  She gave me the tip of putting ice cubes from the aid stations down my sports bra and that saved me! It cooled me off enough that the heat stopped bothering me as much.  Not much I could do about the sausage look with my jersey, so I just keep tugging it down and hoping for the best in all the pictures.  

At 10 miles, I left my new friend and made a beeline for the finish line.  I was feeling strong and happy and I knew I had this in the bag.  Plus it was all downhill to the finish.  I hit the finish chute and there were all my friends and Wade and my parents.  It was so surreal.  I did it!  Such an amazing day and accomplishment.  Hillary crossed 11 minutes later and while we were hugging she leaned over and said she was breaking up with me.  I know she doesn't mean it.  Not with that smile on her face.

The Nitty Gritty

I am a goal girl.  I like to have something to aim for.  Sometimes, I'll put it out there and sometimes I won't because then it becomes real.  Last week, I put out my time goals, but not my performance goals.  There's so many outside influences that can change those right up to race time and I didn't want to feel the stress, but they were there in the recesses of my mind.

Swim: swim strong, keep calm.  Stay within 5 seconds of my long-swim pace at the pool

Guess what??  Check, check and CHECK!  I was, in fact, RIGHT ON my swim pace at the pool which means that I was swimming faster in the open water!  I even swam an extra 200 yards!  When I saw that after the race I was STOKED.

Bike: Stay strong, stay positive, make it up Snow Canyon without walking

Done!  I didn't even serpentine up that last hill.  I felt so good.  Suncrest felt harder than Snow Canyon!

Run:  Dig Deep.  Finish with a smile.  Thank God at least once that you get to do this.

Woot!  Check mark on that too.  There were a few moments along the way that I really felt so grateful and blessed that I have the ability and the desire to do this.  It was a beautiful course and I took the time to look around and marvel at it and send up my Thanks for an amazing experience.

Times

Swim

Goal: 50 minutes
Actual: 49:02

T1

Goal: 5 minutes

Actual: 7:24

Bike

Goal: 4:20

Actual: 3:45:29!!!

T2

Goal: 5 minutes

Actual: 6:55

Run

Goal: 2:20

Actual: 2:52:52

Total Time

Goal: 7:40

Actual: 7:41:42!!!

What's Next??

It's been over a year and a half of intense training and goals.  We did two marathons back to back last year.  I lost 30 pounds. I did a few sprints of intense training to prepare to start training for this.  Then 4 months of training for St George.  My brain, my body, my family, my life, my other passions--they are all telling me to Take a Break, You Crazy Woman.  And I'm going to listen.  In a month, we leave for the Great American Road Trip for a month.  It's going to be such an amazing experience and one I will detail in a whole new blog!  And then I'm going to spend the rest of the summer hitting the weights and taking it easy on everything else.  In the fall, I'll transition back to the three sports in preparation for starting the training for the full Ironman.  

I'm so glad I pushed through the training and got to the starting line.  There was so much I learned and so much I want to improve upon.  I don't know that I will ever do that particular race again, but I came. I saw. I conquered. And now it is on to....

WISCONSIN 2020!