Raleigh 70.3- I did the whole thing!
What a great weekend in Raleigh! We celebrated John’s birthday, hung out with great friends, and got some exercise. 🙂
Hey, I actually did a race too, run and all! Going into this race, the week of I truly thought at times there was only a 15% chance I was going to be able to complete the run safely. I felt like I restrained my plantar fascia and I was hobbling around till Thursday. I ran eight miles once since March. Because of this (and my really light training in April after I was injured) my only stated goal was to finish without hurting myself. My secondary goal was to finish and run the run less than 20 minutes slower than my last half ironman.
Here’s how the day went down…
The swim I felt good.. really good actually. I’m not going to win any swim awards, but I am getting more efficient. I am swimming at about the same pace I always have and it’s taking less effort. Now, unfortunately, I seem to be unable to translate that leftover effort into faster paces.
Perhaps my only issue with the swim is that I was too comfortable. I truly felt like I was kicking butt though, so perhaps my perception was a bit off. Ended up coming out of the swim 11th in division, which is really a pretty good spot for me. I was 13th in Fl so we’ll call it an improvement! J
The bike- So here’s where the unknown started. My bike fitness going into this was questionable, and I made a rather unwise decision. Rather than start the ride off conservatively and see, I decided to ride rather aggressively knowing there was a good chance I might not have the miles to back it up this year after soft pedaling through April (riding hard hurt my foot for awhile)
I had fun the first hour and a half. There were a few snafus. I had to stop for a bit at an intersection for an ambulance. Also, I dropped my chain, which hasn’t happened by the way, in like a year. Anyways, it got jammed up against the frame and while trying to fix it by kicking it out (it was really wedged in) I fell over, down a hill, with my bike on top of me.  It was “my first triathlon” all over again. I definitely gave the folks behind a good laugh. So then I proceeded to get passed by everyone I had formerly passed the last ten miles
After that, I realized I definitely should have gone the conservative route. I don’t have the miles on my legs this year to absorb any pacing errors, and my power faded a lot the last hour. Keep in mind this was a really low stakes race for me so I actually wasn’t bothered by this realization. My only goal was to try and complete the run without injurying my foot, and use it as a launching point ot get back in shape. Somehow off thebike, I was in 6th place, though I didn’t know it at the time. In my mind I wasn’t racing, I was just out there working out and trying to stay healthy.
Starting the run I was amazed and happy when I realized my foot wasn’t coming into play. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I can’t blame anything about my fade on my foot.. it was all lack of run fitness. I didn’t feel too bad on the first loop, though I certainly didn’t feel in tip top run shape, and it was evident that faithful water running and Alter-G ing had paid off.. to a point. (Huge thanks to Josh Glass at Georgia Sports Chiropractic for keeping me in the game this way) By the second loop though, my lack of endurance and durability was kicking in and I was suffering and slowing down. I kept having to remind myself that my sole goal was to finish uninjured so that I wouldn’t become discouraged.
Last few miles were a real struggle. I slowed down a lot and cursed myself for every time I’ve shown a lack of empathy for the pain of those who are undertrained. Sure it hurts to race hard while you’re simultanesouly meeting your expectations but there is Nothing like trying to race when you are really undertrained. The last few miles were more reminiscent of the end of an Ironamn.
I saw Sondra near the end and she told me that I was in second or third at the last checkpoint? What?! I thought she was being sneaky (in a good way!) and trying to get me motivated to run faster. Well I couldn’t help but think of the folks who must have passed me since that checkpoint so I was able to pick it up a bit for the last mile. Also, I knew my teammate Chrissy was charging hard behind me so I just barely managed to hold her off!
I ended up in fifth and met my most important goal.. finishing without injury. Unfortunately, I did not meet any other of my goals… haha. I was pretty happy at the end. Terrible execution and didn’t have the fitness to post the splits I wanted but the most important thing is I have an honest baseline for where I’m at post-injury that I can build upon.
The rest of the team did awesome! Some great first HIM performances, Tim smoked it with a 2nd AG, and Susie scored a slot to 70.3 Worlds. Lots of other fast times. Atlanta Tri Club won the division. It was a mixed bag of performances- some folks weren’t as happy. John had an okay race but wasn’t thrilled.
I was proud of all my athletes who raced, too. Heather toughed it out despite hurting on the run, Rich toughed it out despite almost no running  since he broke his toe. The surprise of the day was Dan, who after thinking it wasn’t possible, ended up 5th AG and nabbed his spot to Mont Tremblant! Also, some great news from Macon with Alyssa scoring her first podium and Katarina posting 3rd OA on her very first Half Iron. Overall a fantastic race weekend and I’m happy to be a part of things again.
