I felt totally great about signing up for the 70.3. I mean, I figured I’d barely even need to train for it what with Ironman fitness and all. And then Ironman came and went, and the Triple Bypass got canceled - meaning I did *not* have the big bike fitness bump I was counting on - and I was 4 weeks from a 70.3 with almost no swim or run training since IM Boulder. I started referring to the race as “stupid Boulder 70.3,” as if it wasn’t actually my own damn idea and more like someone else had committed me to the race, or it was court ordered community service.
I managed to eek out two pretty standard 70.3 training weeks - run volume and intensity were lower than I would've liked, but it was all my schedule and my legs would allow for. I did pull off a solid 65+ mile ride to Raymond and Ward (that means a shit ton of climbing, for those who don't cycle in Boulder) so I was at least feeling confident in my bike fitness.
I did a two week taper into the race to allow me enough time to actually train, but I've done that before for 70.3 B races so I wasn't worried. Even with a 2 week taper though, I was able to magically forget my long rides and long runs and question my fitness. I had to set a pretty aggressive goal time due to a wager with one of my athletes and it made me pretty freaked out. I did the math over and over and it made sense, but the goal was 2 minutes faster than my lifetime 70.3 PR and this was a throwaway race. Which translated in my head to W. T. F.
The Morning
It was a good thing that I tend to err on the side of arriving early to things, because the traffic getting into the Rez was just nuts. Probably took us 30+ minutes to get the final mile in and get parked. I still had plenty of time to get my transition area set up, chat a bit, and then sit around *FOREVER* waiting for my swim wave. I was the last wave, going off 63 minutes after the first pro wave, and there was a 25 minute delay due to the traffic. I totally appreciate that they wanted to give everyone the chance to get in and parked and ready for the day, but I had quite a bit of waiting around. I hung out at the D3 tent, chatted a bit, then took my time getting on my wetsuit and headed down for a quick warm up swim. Got in line for the swim start and summoned up all my good race juju.The Swim - 33:14 / 6th AG
Mike told me that if you don’t drop a few f-bombs during the swim you’re not working hard enough. I don’t remember any specific f-bombs but that swim was annoying as shit. The problem with being a strong swimmer in the very last swim wave is that after only a few hundred yards everyone is fucking in your way. No sooner had I swam through one group of people than I was on top of the next. I know everyone out there is doing the best they can, but they were seriously pissing me off.My race mantra for the day was "strong and consistent" and that's how I was swimming - strong, driving strokes that inevitably put me on top of I don't even know how many other swimmers. I was lifting my head to make sure I didn't run over people as much as I was for sighting. Swimming pissed off apparently works for me, though, since I had my first swim in ages where I was happy to be done because my arms were tired and not because I was bored of swimming.
End result: I actually think the swim was a PR by a few seconds. Didn't even realize that till I wrote up this race report. Go figure!
T1 - 2:46
A quick stop at the wetsuit strippers (love you!) and I was off to my transition spot. Kinda shocked by how many bikes were still there! Especially since I was racked with all the all world athlete ladies, I wasn't expecting that. A nice ego boost helped a purposeful but not rushed transition and I was off.The Bike - 2:37:48 / 10th AG
If I thought the swim course was crowded, the bike course was even worse. I hopped on my bike, saw a dozen people leisurely pedaling in front of me, and basically screamed "all right people, ON YOUR LEFT!" And that was the entire fucking course, all day long.I was cranking right out of the gate, and based on last year I figured it would be 30-35 miles before I found clear road. Turns out that never happened. I have no idea how to quantify the extra effort of screaming at people for 2-1/2+ hours, but I can tell you that it's annoying as shit. But like the swim, maybe it was good to be pissed off.
I had both a power target for my ride and a hope / anticipation for how that would translate to my bike time. I needed to average 20mph - or 15 minutes per 5 miles, a.k.a. easy math - in order to match my time from 2016. But time is the *output* so I was focused on my input - power - and hoping that the time fell into place. At mile 10 I felt great, my watts were coming in above my target (don't overdo it too early!!!) and I was 4 minutes ahead of schedule. Hot damn.
So I kept screaming at people so they'd stay on the right, focused on my watts and my cadence and on my mantra: strong and consistent. I got held up at every narrow underpass, every turn, and every aid station because of crowds of slow people. Between that and people who liked to ride right down the damn middle of the bike lane my pissed off-ness stayed at a pretty consistent level (at least that was in keeping with my mantra). I knew that I'd lose a few minutes on the upcoming uphill portions of the course, but my hope was that I'd at least stay on track time-wise and maybe even pull ahead again on the downhill sections that followed.
I hit the top of Nelson - the final uphill section of the bike - around mile 35, and my watts were still strong and my time was right on pace. By mile 40 I was back to being a few minutes ahead of schedule, and started to really get a glimpse of what my day could hold. My WTF goal time required the same swim as in 2016 (check), the same bike as in 2016 (looking like that's in the bag with room to spare), and a 2:10 run - 5 minutes faster than 2016 when it was melt-your-skin kind of hot.
I started picturing one of my favorite inspirational posters, and decided that I was going to have to go to where the magic happens. The downside of self-coaching for the past 2 years is that I didn't spend a lot of time out of my comfort zone (one of the main reasons I'm going to start working with a coach again in September), but despite being majorly out of practice, suffering is what what race day is about and I was going to do my damnedest to get there.During those final 14 miles (yes, the bike course was 2 miles short and I knew that going in) any time I felt myself letting up I would think of that poster and my WTF goal time and the possibly of crushing that goal and I would get those damn watts back up. I was working hard, but my legs felt less trashed than at IMTX 70.3 in April or at Boulder 70.3 in 2016 so I knew I was ok.
And I had some help staying pissed off. There was the BSR guy that would pass me and then 20 yards later stop pedaling. I seriously wanted to tell him that if he just kept fucking pedaling then he'd stay in front of me and save me the trouble of passing him again. Then there was the massive douchebag that I saw drafting off a girl for *at least* a half mile if not longer. And this was deliberate, flagrant drafting: 18 inches off her wheel, up and down rollers and sticking right with her as she was passing people. At this point I'd been pissed off for various reasons for almost 3 hours and I was just bubbling over with annoyance, so I pulled up next to the asshat and asked if his race plan included drafting off her on the run, too. Apparently I was snarky enough that he finally dropped off her tail, so at least something positive came from being so damn irritated for so damn long.
I was still flying by and passing people the final 10 miles, all the way to the dismount line. I have no idea why the field never spread out, but it just didn't happen. Despite that, I kept up my power through to the very end, and my average watts for the ride (nicely visible on my Edge because I'd just added that data field the day before) were right on target. And I came in about 5 minutes ahead of plan. Hot. Damn.
T2 - 3:11
I had made the decision during the final miles of the bike to stop at the port o potty in transition. Yes, there are other ways to play this, but I've tried them before and ultimately I just feel gross, and given that I'd bought some time on the bike I was willing to sacrifice the minute to avoid that. So the potty run and finally brushing the rocks off my feet that I'd picked up in T1 were the highlights of transition.The Run - 2:09:14 / 14th AG
I knew that I'd bought enough time on the bike that I didn't need a stellar run to hit my WTF goal. I also knew two other things: (1) if I hit my goal run split I'd have a lifetime 70.3 PR *even after adjusting for the short bike course* and (2) I was not going to feel proud of my day if I loafed the run, even if I hit my WTF goal. So I was going to dig in and follow my well detailed run plan (the only part of my race plan that had any detail, which makes sense if you know about my day at IM Boulder 2017).My run plan, while having greater detail, essentially came down to walking ONLY at the aid stations and, in the immortal words of Ed Harris as Gene Krantz in Apollo 13, working the problem when it arose. This whole walking only the aid stations was kind of a thing because the first half of each loop includes two pretty nasty hills. So the first three miles were all about being conservative with my pace and getting up the damn hills.
I pulled that off and decided to work the 2nd half of the loop, which is flat to downhill. I didn't want to work it too hard, because I wanted to run the hills on loop 2, but I figured it should feel harder than a standard long run and so I picked it up a little. If I had more practice getting outside my comfort zone I probably could have pushed even harder, but I was working and was running strong and consistent and I was happy with that. Plus I was just a tiny bit ahead of my goal pace, which was perfect.
The bigger issue was that I was bored. My legs were ok and my heart rate wasn't off the charts but I was working and I wanted a milestone to hit, preferably an aid station where I could get to walk and get in the gel that I'd been carrying from the mile 3 aid station thinking I'd take it in at mile 4, but apparently there was no mile 4 aid station. At the point that I realized this I was running shoulder to shoulder with a guy, and figured it was completely reasonable to ask him where the FUCK the aid station was. Because that's how I roll.
Good news was that the question led to Kenny and I running together, which went a long way toward solving the boredom problem. We finally hit the mile 5 aid station after some additional color commentary on my part, and then I made Kenny start running again sooner than he wanted to so I'd continue to have company. We were running down the dam road (not a typo - the road is along a dam) and chatting, which was great for killing time, and kept me from noticing right away a new out and back section they'd added to the course. And then all the sudden I saw it - tiny section but with a hill - and dropped a giant Fuck. Me. loudly enough that I actually apologized to a 3rd guy running a few feet from us.
I dragged Kenny about halfway around the loop me with me. We walked through the aid stations but that was it - I'd run this course 2 other times and had never run both hills on both loops, but this time I was determined to Run the Damn Hills. We had taken the pace down a notch, but Kenny was not happy that there was no walking allowed, and was possibly pretty sure he didn't like me much in general, even though I promised him that he'd thank me later. At the top of the final hill Kenny gave up on me and decided to walk a bit.
I swear I hadn't run more than 20 steps after leaving Kenny before I turned and realized I was running shoulder to shoulder with Kris, whom I'd driven in with that morning. We said hi and then she put a little distance on me, but I caught up to her at the 10 mile aid station. Holy shit - I'd made it to the 10 mile aid station. Final 5k is when I wanted to dig in and go for it. I was on track to hit my goal run split and I knew that meant I was crushing my WTF goal, but I didn't want to give up on my other goal of embracing the suck.
I was doing my best to run strong, but that 2 mile stretch due to a missing aid station is a tough one mentally. I really wanted a little break, and was trying to find an excuse for one. There should be an aid station, I rationalized, so I can walk for 30 seconds at the 11 mile mark. But I ran through that because there was a more logical break ahead, and then I ran through that because ahead there was a woman giving out ice. Given how dry my mouth was, I thought walking for a few seconds to suck down a piece of ice was a totally justifiable break.
After that it became doable. Just a half mile or so to the aid station, final gulp of water and then count it down to the finish. I had about 2.5 miles to go, and I worked those final miles as best I could. I hit that fucking little out and back and then wound around to the final straightaway along the Rez. Once there's only a mile left it's easier to count down, and I mentally placed myself on the final mile of my route home so I'd have a better sense of how far I had to go.
Hit the final corner, just a few tenths of a mile to the finish. Turn it on big, sprint in, all smiles. Wasn't sure what my time was just yet, but I knew I'd crushed it.
Overall - 5:26:10 / 9th AG / 102nd Female / 456th Overall
I was thrilled - THRILLED - with my final time. Even adding 6 minutes to adjust for the short bike, it's a 5:32 - five minutes faster than my lifetime 70.3 PR. And I broke into the top 10 in a field of 108. AWESOME!!!
I do think that, had I been more comfortable getting out of my comfort zone, I could've run harder. I know I've run harder before. But rather than being disappointed in this, I honestly believe I did the best I could given my run fitness (and lack of run speed post-IM) and recent running experience, suffering-wise. Suffering is something you need to practice, and I haven't of late. Plus it's kind of nice to know how I can improve and do even better next time. Next goal: break 5:30 on a true 70.3 course. I think it's absolutely doable if I do the work I need to do to get there.