Racine 70.3- 4th Pro

On July 15th I competed at Ironman 70.3 Racine, and took home 4th place. Overally I was fairly happy with my race, and staying with local (Milwawkee) friends Jason and Renee (and their cat, Baloo), and having Chris be able to fly in to cheer my on (after getting back from Prague just the night prior) and motivate me for the race, really made it special and a fun weekend.

 I’d had some great, solid training in the weeks leading up to this race and was ready to put in a good effort. Though my training (and mental focus) has really been on Ironman NYC coming up in less than four weeks, I was excited to see what I could do here in Racine, where I was 2nd last year. Then the week before the race, after dining out at a restaurant that had lost power in the previous week, I came down with food poisoning. This derailed my weekend training a bit, but after taking a day off, I was able to get back on track quickly– and know that ALL things are for a purpose. However, though I was super careful to re-hydrate after the food poisoning, I still felt a but uneasy stomach wise for the entire week, which definitely threw off my nutrition, though not my workouts substantially.

 

Immediately upon arriving in Wisconsin on Thursday evening, I felt much more relaxed! Definitely a different pace of life in WI compared with DC, and I could sense it even when driving on the highway. Plus, the evening actually felt refreshingly cool, whereas in DC it was still 99 degrees out at 6pm. I spent the day Friday finishing up some work and getting some short workouts in, then dining out at a fabulous restaurant in Milwaukee with Jason, Renee, and their friends

 

Saturday it was time to pickup Chris from the airport, get all the race gear organized and attend packet pickup, the pro meeting, and jump into lake Michigan (refreshingly cold at 70 degrees!) for a quick and awesome swim. Then I had to get my bike looked at by a mechanic. Though I’ve used my bike and disk wheel in combo before to race, for some reason the brake pads were now alarmingly close to the disk and rubbing at times. I found a great mechanic who was very helpful and spent about 30 minutes working on the break (the P4 break is integrated, so trickier to work with). This helped and the bike seemed to ride well, but by the time I got it home it was back to being extremely close/ borderline rubbing with my wheel. The only remaining solution was to shave down the break pads! Thankfully Chris did this for me and got the break just right, and I didn’t have any issues during the race. I guess this is why pre-race activities consume an entire day- there’s always something!

 

On race day, I did my usual pre-race routine with Chris joining me for support (probably his 8th day in a row of getting only 5 hours/ sleep per night). As for Eagleman, I was for some reason super nervous before this race. I honestly don’t remember getting this nervous pre-race before my races earlier this season, or last year. However, I know pre-race anxiety is normal and nothing to worry about (according to our FFT sponsor, Dr. Steve of SPaRC) and can actually help you perform better, so I decided to just stick with that thought! Chris reminded me that God already had the day planned out and knew exactly how things were going to go, so I didn’t need to be worried and anxious about it. About 30 minutes before the start, I took my usual First Endurance Pre-Race, and was ready to go!

 

My race plan was to get a quick swim start and stick closeby others to have a pack to swim with/ draft off of, then really kill it on the bike sticking with my goal race wattage. I definitely got a good swim start and stayed with a small pack for the entire swim. The water was extremely choppy with a sideways current- not at all like last year’s glassy swim. However, thanks to my swimming buddies, I exited the water in under 30 minutes, which is only the 2nd time I’ve had a sub-30 minute swim in a 70.3, so I definitely consider that a win. The run through the sand up to transition was TOUGH! My HR spiked, and immediately after, you climb up a steep hill out of transition, so it took me several miles for my HR to settle down. Unfortunately, the girls ahead of me out of transition took off at the start of the bike, but I decided it was OK to keep a controlled pace for the first half of the bike and to race my own race.

 

After passing one woman around mile 5, I literally saw no one for the next 20 miles. I knew my watts were lower than I ideally wanted, so told myself that at the halfway, I was going to start seriously building my effort level. Around mile 25 Jessica Jacobs (eventual winner) went by, and since I knew what a strong biker she is, my new goal was to keep her within range for the rest of the ride. This helped a lot, actually, and I was able to stay within 200m until mile 45-50 when my effort level dropped off a bit. Definitely more motivating for me to chase after someone than to stare at my Garmin!

 

One disadvantage to this course is that the roads are really bumpy. I had a really tough time keeping my nutrition in the bottle cage in my aero bar, so ended up having to do the entire ride with a bottle stuck down my tri top. However, I was determined to stay really well hydrated on this ride, especially since there are only 3 bike aid stations on the course and the weather was very hot and humid. Last year I’d underestimated how many aid stations there would be on the bike course- or how much I needed to drink- and paid the price on the run, which I did not want to repeat this time.

 

I started the run in 6th and gradually moved up to 4th, coming within 12 seconds of 3rd place and a minute of 2nd. As expected, the run was hot and humid. Thankfully, I managed my hydration and nutrition well and never felt nauseous or dehydrated, consuming 1 First Endurance EFS gel flask, plenty of coke and water, and several salt stick pills. I also took all the ice I could get. My run pace was by no means fast, but I tried to stick to a manageable pace without overheating. I was a bit regretful I didn’t close the small gap to 3rd place,  but also realize that’s the way it goes sometimes.

 

Overall, I’m always thankful to finish a race in the money, giving it all I’ve got, and especially to have friends there supporting me, as well as family and friends following me online. Looking forward to putting in a few more weeks of good training leading up to my A race- Ironman NYC on August 11th!