Hopp, Hopp, Hopp at 70.3 Worlds

The trip to Zell Am See, Austria for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships was a long time coming for Adam and I.  We qualified very early at Augusta 70.3 in September 2014.  We knew it was a possibility that one of us might qualify or get a roll down, but we had never thought we'd both win our AGs outright and get a couple of hours to make the decision to go or not.  You can read all about that race here, but fast forward 10 months and we were packing our bags for a European adventure.

Planning for a race in a country you are completely unfamiliar with and a language you don't speak a lick of can be a tad intimidating.  We spent a little bit of time looking for accommodations near the race site before deciding to book through Endurance Sports Travel.  They took care of accommodations, transfers to/from the train station, and had a masseuse and bike mechanic on hand for us.  Our hotel was steps off the run course, a few blocks from the finish and just a couple blocks from the race expo area.  Our hotel also included breakfast and dinner daily which was huge since we didn't have kitchen access.

Taking the Long Way
We booked our flights well ahead of time and found a great deal on airfare, with Aeroflot.  It was a good $700 cheaper than the next cheapest option and our bikes would go for free.  The catch...we flew from DCA to Moscow, then Moscow to Munich.  The way there wasn't so bad with the help of the jet stream and just a short layover in Moscow.  I didn't realize how far past Munich we were flying to get to Moscow, oi that hurt when I saw the plane on the little map over Munich and we still had 4+ hours to get to Moscow, just to back track to Munich.  All in all the plane ride wasn't horrible, the food was fine, we slept through most of both flights, got up a few times and wore compression gear to help keep the blood flowing in the legs.  I made a mistake in wearing compression pants with the idea I would put my compression socks on once we were in the air.  Whoops, I fell asleep, forgot about the socks and had some nice soft ball sized ankles once we landed.

First Stop - Munich
We arrived in Munich in the early afternoon, walked our bikes and luggage from the central train station to our AirBnB and then set out to explore via foot.  After dinner we returned back to build our bikes up and get a solid night of sleep.  The next morning we ventured out for an easy run to a local swimming pool.  There was a bit of a language barrier between us and the lady at the font desk but we worked it out and she pointed us towards the locker room.  After some back and forth of if it was the men's or women's locker room we both entered.  Apparently co-ed locker rooms are quite common.  After my initial shock we got into our swim suits and headed out to the 50m outdoor pool.  The pool was gorgeous with crystal clear water and plenty big enough for multiple lap lanes.  Unfortunately they only had 2 lap lanes set up and it was pure chaos.  No one was divided into slow or fast lanes and people would suddenly change strokes in the middle of a length.  It was actually good practice for getting around people and a bit if sighting, somewhat like open water swimming just between 2 lines.  We spent the rest of the day doing touristy things before consolidating some of our luggage and preparing to head to Zell Am See the following morning.

Platform 9 3/4 
We arrived at the train station with plenty of time to print our tickets and board the train.  Unfortunately we found out that OBB is an Austrian company, and they can't print the tickets in Germany.  Adam tried some fuddling around, but to no avail, so we decided since we already had paid for the tickets we'd get on the train, it was about to leave in 3 minutes.  The train was decently full and we had a bit of trouble finding a car with open bike space.  We had just a short trip before transferring trains in Worgl.  Luckily for us the conductor didn't throw us off the train for not having printed our tickets, but he made sure to sternly tell us to print them for the 2nd part of our journey or we'd pay extra.  We met a few other athletes at the Worgl train station and enjoyed a gorgeous train ride into Zell with them.

Triathlete Central - Zell Am See
Upon arriving in Zell we exited the train to find our ride from EST right outside the main door.  Apparently some other athletes had made our train that they weren't expecting for another couple of hours.  Since Adam and I had our bikes together they loaded are luggage into the van and we followed the van back to our hotel, luckily it was only about 1.5 kms and a gorgeous day.  We got settled in at the Living Max Hotel and headed over to packet pickup.  The town was packed with triathletes and people on holiday (the last week of holiday for many Austrians and Germans aligned perfectly with race week).  The swag for WC athletes was pretty good, a legit Ogio transition bag was the big squeeze.  We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the lake, relaxing and meeting some cool people.

Pre-Race Shenanigans

The Alps, through the clouds.

With race day getting closer we went for a short swim/bike/run workout on Friday morning.  The water was perfect, just cold enough to be comfortable in a wetsuit, clear enough to see feet in front of you and mostly calm.  After a quick 20 minute swim we met up with Cheyenne and Witek for a little spin around the back park of the course.  Our little spin turned out to be a little long as we overshot
the turn-around by quite a bit.  Time flew by as we were surrounded by gorgeous views of the Alps, glacial rivers/streams, and even castles.  Once off the bike we headed off for a short run along the lake.  It was a tad warm by this point but not bad, my legs felt good and I felt ready to go.

The rest of Friday involved more pre-race logistics - race briefing in English, car ride of the bike course, parade of Nations, and the Welcome Banquet.  The race briefing was oddly entertaining and the European side of IM was elated to have the race for the first time off North American soil. The bike course was stunning and the climb everyone was talking about didn't seem all that bad.  We put on the red, white, blue that we had and set out for the parade of Nations.  It seemed a little disorganized but we got to catch up with Cheyenne, Witek, Kathy and Tobias as we paraded through the city center of Zell Am See.  The welcome banquet wasn't quite as exciting as some that we've been to but it was nice and not too long.

Saturday was race day for our fried Tobias along with 2600 other athletes racing in the Zell Am See 70.3.  Their race started at 6:30am and they had some cool weather early in the day, a stark difference from the day we would have on Sunday.  We cheered on some people on the run course until seeing all 3 DC Tri Kits pass by (Tobia, Kyle, Jody) and then headed out for an easy spin along the lake.

Saturday evening was our time for bike racking and gear bag drop off.  It would be a clean transition for us (similar to full IM races) with a bike gear bag, run gear bag and a change tent.  Transition was humungous!  Once we dropped everything off we had to wait in a very long line to pick up our timing chip before heading back to our place for dinner.

Racing in a Postcard
For once we didn't have to wake up before the sun on race morning!  With an official race start of 10:30am and my wave not starting until 12:05pm I got to 'sleep in'.  After our pre race breakfast we went outside to catch an ETS shuttle to the race start.  After waiting about 10 minutes there was no sign of a shuttle so we joined the masses of people walking the 2km trek along the lake to race start.  Once we got to the swim start area is was very crowded with athletes and spectators galore.  We made our way into transition with the crowd.  First stop was the bike - loaded nutrition and hydration on, pumped the tires, and checked to make sure the brakes were good to go.

Once we had our bikes ready to go it was time to play the waiting game.  We found a nice shady spot along the fence inside transition to hang out.  We had our morning clothes bags with hydration and snacks as well as wetsuits, inhalers, flip flops, etc with us.  Transition closed at 10:30, the pro start time of the race.  To our surprise not only did transition close but morning clothes bags also had to be dropped by 10:30!  Oi, the purpose of the morning clothes bag seemed a little lost.  Now I had to decide to get rid of my flip flops, tri slide, Osmo, and inhaler at 10:30 or hold on to them and risk never seeing them again.  Luckily Cris has the same inhaler and since my was brand new and hers was on the way out I took a couple puffs of mine before handing it off, knowing I could use hers before race start.  I decided to hold on to the flip flops and tri slide - which I haven't seen yet, but I know Cris was able to rescue the flops post race so I will at least get those back.

As my start time approached I slipped into my wetsuit did a  short warm up swim and then got into the swim start corral.  It was approaching high noon during an odd heat waving moving through this region of Europe.  It was hot as we all stood, waiting,  donning our black neoprene.

THE SWIM - 1.2 Miles - 38:28
The start of the swim was physical, we had been warned that it would be so I was prepared for it,  thankfully!  There was full on grabbing, punching, shoving, kicking.  As we spread out over the first couple hundred meters things seemed to settle down and I was able to settle in on some feet.  The

clarity of the water, the added buoyancy of the wetsuit and the fast swimmers providing a decent draft had me feeling pretty good.  I was moving well and felt strong, excited to see what kind of PR I might pull out on the swim.  It was a bit disappointing that some of the buoys were not even close to being in line with the others, especially at a WC event.  I noticed a few times that I seemed to be swimming off course but more or less kept on feet and felt good about the line I swam.

I was slightly unhappy to see a 38 on my watch as I exited the water, but I couldn't be too displeased at my only other 1.2 mile swim this year was much slower.  The disappointment really came after the race when I looked at my data and was the line I swam.  I zig-zagged myself 283 yards more than I needed to swim.  I held the fastest pace I've ever held in open water (not counting current aided swims!).  On the bright side working on my swimming is getting me faster, on the other hand it doesn't matter how fast I swim if I swim off course.

T1 - 5:35
Super long transition!  Ran in grabbed my bike gear bag, into the change tent - bike shoes, helmet, sunglasses, race bib on, and out of the change tent. Grabbed MR off the rack ran down to enter the exit of transition and ran through the bike mount area.  It was probably close to 1/4 mile of running.

THE BIKE - 2:49:18
I got on the bike feeling pretty good.  I was slightly alarmed that transition had taken me 5+ minutes but figured it was on par with everyone else's time.  I didn't know it at the time, but it was 91 and sunny when I got on the bike.  Another hot day at the races!  I felt good the first 20k or so of the bike, I was trying to keep the power up and let my heart rate settle from the swim/transition.  Heart rate showed signs of settling, power was being slightly erratic and I had my first bottle of Osmo down in the first 20 minutes.  Just as my HR was settling the infamous climb started.

The 13 km climb is full of spectacular views and quaint towns.  The grade for the first 11km undulates between 4-6%.  I was feeling great, staying hydrated and having a great time riding through the alps for that first 11k.  The last 2km are an awesome grade of 15% and more and those last 2km are tough.  My wave was the last to start so I saw a decent number of people walking the last bit of the climb.  Once cresting the top you have a very short period of somewhat flat before starting the

descent which is also very steep and swithbacky at the top.  I took the descent carefully and was a little nervous as my rear brake started squealing every time I'd try to slow myself down.  After the first couple kilometers of descent it straightened out and became more gradual.  The course really wasn't crowded and it was a blast taking that descent with no other athletes to worry about.  As we approached the town of Zell Am See again before heading out to do the last bit of the course I noticed the bike was starting to feel difficult.  We had gone over some rough road and wooden bridges a few times and I had the thought that perhaps my back brake could be rubbing.  I told myself it was fine when I started and that I was probably just tired from the long climb and the hot weather.  I pushed on through Kaprun and past the Kaprun castle and finally back into transition.  We will really never know if it was rubbing or not during the race, but unfortunately it was rubbing when I picked my bike up from transition that evening.

T2 - 4:34
Another long transition, but at least a bit faster.  Did a flying dismount, racked MR, put my Rose Physical Therapy Visor on, and headed out onto the run course.

THE RUN - 13.1 Miles - 1:55:20
I had a small handheld of Osmo preload/active with me.  I quickly drank that during the first couple miles of the run and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible.  It was a nice boost to see our friend cheering along the lake early into the run.  I was feeling pretty good and HR was where we expected it to be as I got going.  I was taking water at every aid station and running through hoses when I could.  The crowd support was decent but I seemed to pass quite a few people who were exhausted from cheering in the heat of the day and they were mostly silent.  The cheers of Hopp,
hopp, hopp and Super gave me a nice boost when I needed it the most. Adam thought the crowds were great, he also started in the first wave after the pro men and women, so I'm sure the spectators were excited to see racers coming through at that time.  The run was a double out and back and included a nice long hill right before the turn around at the other side of the lake.  I was feeling ok, but knew I wasn't running as fast as I would have liked or as fast as I'm capable of on a better day.  I tried to continually push my HR up but about 9 or 10 miles in it got hard.  I was taking caffeine, drinking coke and was having trouble getting it to go anywhere.  The last few miles I knew I could push it and hold on until the end.  Somehow I found enough energy in my legs to jump at the finish line, unfortunately it wasn't caught on camera.

FINISH: 5:33:15
Not exactly the race I had pictured in my mind but then again I also thought we were going to have a high of about 76 on race day.  That would have been nice.  Overall it was a great experience and it was truly like racing through a post card.  Adam and I have the opportunity to race against some of the best in the world, develop new friendships with some amazing athletes and swim, bike, run our way through the Austrian Alps.  It really was a great trip and a great experience.


Post Race Fun

Adventure along the Danube!

Since we flew across the big pond and it was my first trip away from the North American continent we decided we needed to stay for a little while.  I was nervous about this decision as I knew I'd still
be in the midst of IM training.  We made our post-race plans, making sure we'd be somewhere that I could get the workouts done.  Adam did a lot of the work booking through AirBnB and getting train tickets for us and our bikes.

We visited Vienna, Salzburg and went back to Munich for a day before our long journey home.  Unfortunately I started battling some type of sinus infection the day after the race so the swims, rides and runs we were excited to undertake in Austria and Germany didn't really happen.  I was able to soldier on and between bowls of soup, hot tea and resting see some awesome sites including the Danube, the Salzburg Castle and the Salzhan River.

Thank you to all of my wonderful sponsors, support crew and coach for helping me get to Austria. Biggest thanks to an awesome supportive family that encouraged and supported training throughout family wedding weekend!  Thanks Rory, Kara, Mom, Adam, and Gary!  One more to go, see you all in Chattanooga!  Thank you to Snapple Tri Team, DC Tri Club, Rose Physical Therapy Group, Fuel Your Passion Coaching, District Taco, Osmo Nutrition, Louis Garneau, Xterra Wetsuits, and TrainingPeaks.

Patience and Time

Time off = time with CJ!

In some ways it feels like I just raced IM Texas, in other ways it feel like it's been an eternity.  After stepping back from green boxes for a couple weeks (and actually letting some turn red!) I got back on the train and having been ramping back up to IM type training numbers.  It's been about 8 weeks since race day and patience and time have been my two greatest allies and enemies throughout these 8 weeks.

Once I started back to training I was mentally ready to go, I knew what I wanted out of this next bout of training.  My mind was ready, eager, and determined my body on the other hand still needed time.  Texas was hot (90+ degress) humid (>85%) and a hard effort for me.  When I got back to training I wanted to see the same numbers I was hitting pre-Texas.  The questions and emails were rolling in to my coach - who stole my watts?  what happened to my run pace?  can I have more volume?  My patience was being tested and at times I wanted nothing more than to go out and crush a run.  I held back, patiently waiting for my first opportunity to go hard - testing week 4 weeks post race.

FTP test coming at ya!

Testing week - I was there four weeks ago and I'm back there now.  A week of lower volume with a high intensity test workout in each of the 3 disciplines. Four weeks ago my body hadn't had enough time to recover and perform the way I wanted it to.  The run test resulted in a full blown asthma attack.  The bike test went ok, head down watts out, and I was able to bring the watts up a bit compared to my last test.  The swim test continued to be a struggle, with similar results as I've had the past few tests.   I've used the time since the last test to refocus on technique and efficiency in the pool.

I've been patient over the last 4 weeks - my run pace is headed in the right direction, I've knocked out some awesome 100+ mile rides, and I've been working smart (and hard) in the pool with the help of some friends.  I'm staring down the barrel of full blown IM training after this test week and thanks to patience and time my mind is ready, my body is ready and my heart is ready.  I'm dialed in for IM Chattanooga.

"Have patience with all things, but first of all, with yourself." - Saint Francis De Sales

IM Texas 2015 Race Report

After coming off the high of IM Lake Placid and Augusta 70.3 last year and I was eager to do another full sooner rather than later.  I looked at my options of early season races and decided on IM Texas without much hesitation.  Texas would offer an IM bike course I was confident I could do well on and a mostly flat run.  Like Louisville, it would offer a hot day, sunshine, and humidity.  The added bonus of wind was icing on the cake to seal the deal ;)

The lead up to this race seemed to go by very quickly.  During the early part of training I was on the trainer, a lot.  So much in fact that by the time I got outside for my first outdoor ride of 4+ hours I knocked out 85 miles without even knowing it.  I did a fair share of outdoor riding in leg warmers, arm warmers, vest, etc. even when the temperatures were perfect for just shorts and a jersey.  A couple long rides at Lake Anna, a half, a 120 mile adventure to Columbia, MD on two wheels and all of sudden it was taper time.

I like the idea of taper, but I never end up liking taper as much as I should.  The first week when I’m actually excited to taper my workouts are still long.   Then comes a sluggish-tired week, followed by the ‘oh sh*t, I think I’m getting sick week’.  Adam started his Sherpa duties extra early for this one, shuttling my bike back and forth from the mechanic to get as close to shiny and new as possible and reassuring me that I wasn’t sick, it was just ‘taper-flu’.  Too many patients walked through my office door the week before saying “well I’ve been sick and haven’t been to work in x amount of days, but I’m sure I won’t get you sick…”(sorry patients of mine but take note: if you’re sick and can’t go to work, please cancel!).  Alas, thankfully, I didn’t come down with anything and perhaps Adam was right, taper-flu (I’m not a firm believer in this yet).

WEDNESDAY MAY 13^th 

We had a direct flight to Houston out of DCA, which made getting to the airport quick and easy.  I had Mr. packed up in my SciCon travel bag, checked him without issue and was pretty confident he was in good hands with SW airlines (I may have used entirely to much bubble wrap around his frame, but baby’s first flight!).  As soon as we got to baggage claim in Houston the baggage handler brought Mr. right in – he made it and he wasn’t ding-ed up!  Working bike, happy girl.  We drove to the house we were renting for the next 5 days, unloaded, and headed over to packet pickup.  Being Wednesday afternoon, it wasn’t very busy and we were in and out without much ado.  I was quite excited to almost literally run into a friend from my days in Acworth, GA during chip pickup!  The rest of Wednesday was relaxing back at the house.

THURSDAY MAY 14^th  

Not much going on this day, a solid rest day for me.  I used time to drive the first 25 and last 25 miles of the bike course, get all the stickers to where they need to be, sort my stuff for gear bags and special needs bags and head back to athlete village to pump my tires.  This where things started to get stressful – inflated my rear tire and attempted to roll my bike, and nothing.  The wheel wouldn’t spin, ok try not to freak out, this has happened before.  It’s a simple fix, just adjust the screws in the horizontal dropouts.  I never moved them, Adam didn’t touch them, they were find 4 weeks ago.  Light bulb, bike mechanic was being helpful and getting my training wheel closer to the frame.  Ok, Adam got a screw driver and adjusted the screw, problem fixed.  We made a short appearance at the AWA reception and then headed home for dinner and some more R&R.  I do like the athlete banquet but with 3 guests at $35 a head we decided to forego that and relax at home.

FRIDAY MAY 15^th 

I woke up early, had an awesome pancake breakfast, and headed off to the swim course practice with Adam, my mom, and Gary – Sherpa, volunteer, and photographer extraordinaire!  I was told many things before heading down to Texas – it would be hot, the water is brown, the canal is physical, I’ll turn into a headwind at mile 58ish of the bike course and so on.  I kept these things in mind and tried to prepare for them mentally and physically as best I could.  I used to think lakes in Virginia had brown water,  I no longer feel that way.  Virginia lakes seem to be quite nice compared to the chocolate milk-esque of Lake Woodlands!  Water temperature was announced to be 81*, time to pull out the Xterra Speed Suit.  The practice swim wasn’t bad, I swam for about 25 minutes and felt pretty good.  I quickly learned that I wouldn’t be able to see a thing under water, not a toe, not my hand and certainly not a body.  Unless you saw someone or something above the surface you didn’t know it was there until you ran into it.  After the short swim I headed back to the house for a shakeout ride and run.  When I got on Mr. I could hear the faintest of rubbing.  I rode him for a bit and though it wasn't constant, I didn’t want to worry about it on race day.  Adam helped me back the screws out just a bit more and then I headed out to run.  Just before I left to run I noticed some screws had started falling out of the bottom of me cleat.  Oi, another fixable but annoying issue.  Thank goodness for calm, cool, and collected sherpas! When

I set out to run it was hot, it was humid and my HR was sky high!  I took it nice and easy and let the HR settle.  I physically don’t mind the heat and humidity but my HR sure does.  After cleaning up and realizing it was still morning time we headed over to rack the bike and check in my gear bags before making a quick stop for an athlete briefing.  The rest of the day was legs up, rest, chicken, pasta, Osmo hydration, and sleep!

SATURDAY MAY 16^th – RACE DAY

‘Today is the day I’ve been waiting for!.  All the hard work, long hours and mental/physical fatigue was in preparation for this day.  This was my time, my day.  I was excited and nervous.  I woke up at 4am, got in my usual pre-race breakfast along with a bottle of Osmo Active to sip on.  I got dropped off along with Sherpa Adam at T1 to load bottles on the bike, and make sure the tires were pumped and good to go.  Once I was done in T1 it was time to walk slightly less than a mile over to swim start.

Once at swim start we had a nice meeting place picked out to meet up with my mom and Gary.  We hung out there took some pics and chatted with Heather Wurtele before swim start.  I headed over to the port-o-john one last time before getting into my swim skin.  Doof mistake of the day was grabbing part of the door on the hinge side, catching my pinking in the door and the following ‘ow, ow, ow,’ shake it off, shake it off.  The adrenaline of the day must have helped because the pain subsided, but when I eventually looked at it (post race), it was a bloody, cut up mess.  I got in to my Xterra Speed Suit and headed over to seed myself for the swim start. 

THE SWIM – 2.4 Miles – 1:30:44

I was warned that this could be a slow swim, but I was confident I would swim at least as well as Placid (1:17).  I started around the 1:15 group and felt great out to the first turn buoy.  I was able to stick to the buoy line and stay in a pack for the most part.  I hit the first turn buoy and had no trouble making it over to the 2^nd turn buoy as it was probably about 100m away.  Once at the 2^nd turn buoy I’m not sure what happened.  I thought I swam a good line, but Garmin says I swam 2.77 miles (eeeekkkk) I need to practice swimming straight.  I’m also not convinced of the accuracy of the OWS function of Garmin as it is constantly losing satellites when your hand goes under water.  Once making our way almost all the way back to the start we made a 90* turn down the canal.  The canal was crowded, the canal was physical and I knew it would be so I just kept on going.  It was pretty awesome to have people cheering along both sides of the canal and an almost impossible place to swim off course.  I saw a bridge ahead and what looked to be the end of the canal so I picked up my kicking and thought I’d have a decent swim time.  Fail, it was just a bridge we swam under, definitely not the end of the canal.  Upon exiting the water I didn’t look at my time, I spotted Adam, my mom, and Gary cheering me in as I ran to T1.  The swim is the swim and there is nothing I can do about it once I’m out of the water.  It’s best for me to just focus on what’s ahead.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, this swim time still landed me smack dab in the middle of the pack.  It seemed swim times were a bit slow all around from pros, top age groupers and back of the packers.  I wasn’t that for off of some fellow AGers that finished in the top 10.  The swim continues to be a work in progress, looking forward to making some gains here.

T1 – 4:26

I ran through, grabbed my gear bag, and headed into the change tent.  It wasn’t too busy so I sat down, pulled my Xterra Speed Suit off the rest of the way and got my helmet, sunglasses, and chamois cream on.  I opted to carry my bike shoes in one hand through the mud pit of transition.  I grabbed Mr, hoisted him onto my shoulder and ran out to the sidewalk where I promptly stepped in the kiddy pool of water to rinse my feet.  There were awesome volunteers just after the kiddie pools that held my bike for me while I got my bike shoes on before heading to the mount line.

THE BIKE 5:22: - 112 Miles

I got on the bike and felt awesome, but apparently my HR did as well.  I knew HR might run high due to the heat and humidity.    I backed off a bit and tried to let my HR come down.  It came down a few beats, I was getting my Osmo hydration in and started early on nutrition.  HR was high, but power was right on point so I went with it, hoping that HR would start to come down throughout the ride.  The first 30 miles or so were super smooth, with a nice tailwind that at times caught my disc and made me feel like I had a sail. 28 miles down and HR hadn’t dropped much, power was on point, nutrition and hydration were going well.  At this point I stuck to power while just monitoring my HR.

The 2^nd 28 miles went by almost just as fast, there was some rough road thrown in there which slowed everyone down a bit.  HR stayed just about even and power came up to the target, so I continued to stick with it.  I was still nailing hydration and nutrition (and yes, peeing as well).   I started grabbing water from every aid station to dump over myself and keep my body as cool as possible.  Though the temps when I got on the bike weren’t bad I could tell the day was heating up quickly and staying as cool as possible would benefit me in the long run.

Special needs was at mile 58, just about where the lovely headwind greats you.  I stopped at special needs for about 59 seconds to restock my Osmo bottles and nutrition.  Adam suggested I freeze the bottles I was putting in Special Needs so that they might still be cold when I got to them.   Worked like a charm, nothing better than icey cold Osmo ½ way through the bike!  I continued to bring power up, HR stayed the same.  Around mile 85 or so my stomach started feeling a little off so I sipped on some water, held off on a feed for about 20’ and ended up feeling much better.

The final 28 miles of this ride continued in the head wind.  The day continued to heat up and I was keeping my HR constant and bringing up the power bit by bit.  The last 12 or so miles of this ride were hard.  I was pushing to keep the power up.   I was able to snag two bottles of water at the final aid station to cool myself off with during the final miles of the ride.  As I started thinking about what was next I knew the run was going to be tough!

T2 - 3:57

I dismounted my bike without my shoes on, saw Adam, mom, and Gary as I passed off my bike to a volunteer and passed one more AG competitor as I entered T2.   Little did I know, her coach was right there, telling her 2^nd place was just up there…yada, yada.  Well now I knew where I was, but could I hold it?  The volunteers in T2 were awesome and got my race bib on me, made sure I didn’t forget my sunglases, visor or bottle of Osmo Active + Preload.

THE RUN 26.2 Miles – 4:27:58

I started out conservatively and felt great the first loop or so of the run.  I had a running buddy for the first couple miles that came out of T2 at the same time as me.  A couple miles into the run he looked at me and said “whoops, guess I’m doing this whole race in my swim skin!”  Oi, I’m not sure how he tolerated that on the bike and for his sake I really hope he took the time to take it off during the run.  He clearly had  a trisuit on underneath.

The tried to keep up on cadence, HR, nutrition, hydration, salt.  At one point  I became so focused on getting cold water over my head to stay cool, I didn’t drink any at a couple of the aid stations.  Thank goodness, I had my bottle of Osmo with me.  While on the bike I used Salt Stick, but BASE was handing out their salt product on the run course and since it was so easy to get and easy to use I stuck with that for my salt for the run.  The first loop was slightly overcast, somewhat empty, and I was able to bring my HR up just a smidge throughout the course of it.

The sun seemed to come out for the 2^nd loop, my legs were getting tired and HR was starting to not want to go up much.  I just tried to hold my HR where it was and keep running.  I started walking every other aid station around mile 11.5 which helped me get the water and ice I needed and conserve the legs just a bit longer.  The wind along the canal at one point was like running into a wall.  I tried to tuck behind a bigger guy but that only last about 30 seconds until he decided just to walk, so much for my draft. At the end of the 1^st and 2^nd loops we had the added bonus of running down a curvy staircase to get around some construction, thankfully my legs welcomed the change in terrain and I didn’t bite it.

The third loop was welcomed and my not-so-speedy pace was at least enough to keep me passing most and getting passed by few.  The entire run I tried to pay attention to ladies’ calves to know where I was in my AG but there were so many calf sleeves it was useless.  I did know when I got passed by bib #551 and knew she was in my AG.  Really, I’m not at the point with IM racing where I could throw down some hard miles to actually race out the marathon.  It’s best for me to just stick to my plan and execute as best as possible.  When the execution is perfect, or close to it, the result usually follows (or at least in the ½ distance it does!).  I was happy to not get sick of my nutrition on the run and was able to keep some energy consistently coming in.   The joy of reining some women back in that went out too hard on the run and had slowed significantly by loop 3 kept me moving along.  Adam tried to run next to me a few times in which in the politest way at the time I asked him to please let me do this on my own.  Soon enough I turned right, instead of going down the stairs, and started heading toward the finish chute!  A couple turns later and a short slight downhill followed but a short slight uphill push to the finish and I was done! 

FINISH TIME: 11:29:02 – 7^th W25-29 AG

This was improvement over last year (at 27 minute PR) at Lake Placid despite not exactly executing my plan very well.  Looking back at how the day went I could have made some better decisions on the bike and set myself up for a better run.  I did not run to my potential and what my training suggested I should have been able to do on that marathon.  There were a lot of positives as well as some learning experiences that came out this race.  I’m always grateful to finish 140.6 miles strong, healthy and happy, but I am beyond thrilled that I have another go at this distance in September, because there’s a lot of potential to cut out some big chunks of time.  When I think about this race there's a tangible sense of disappointment that had I actually been able to properly execute the plan I was trained to execute I likely would have placed much higher in my AG.  That's why Ironman is so great and that's what keeps me coming back - just trying to nail the plan, from start to finish!

I enjoyed my experience at IM Texas, but it is by no means somewhere I’m itching to go back to.  I’d go back to Louisville or Placid in a heartbeat over Texas.  I had a great Sherpa and support crew on board featuring Adam, my mom, and Gary.   I will say Rory and Kara were missed, I may need to do an IM overseas just go keep up their Sherpa skills!

Thank you to my sponsors for helping me get to the start line and through the finish line!  Louis Garneau for a comfortable chafe-free kit from swim through 26.2 miles of running, Rudy Project for keeping me aero and safe for 112 miles on the bike, Xterra for a great Speed Suit, Osmo Hydration for helping me keep hydrated in the heat and humidity of Houston, TrainingPeaks for making sure I don’t miss a workout, Rose Physical Therapy Group for helping me stay strong and healthy throughout training, racing, and working, DC Tri Club for awesome support, Snapple for the best training partners on earth and District Taco for helping me refuel at breakfast, lunch, or dinner!