Thursday, July 18, 2013

Vineman 70.3 Race Report

MOST EPIC RACE/BIRTHDAY/CAMPING/ROAD TRIP WEEKEND EVER!

I couldn’t think of a better way to start off my new age than Vineman race weekend. I had the most awesome road trip buddy (Alex!) who shares my love of techno music, Sonic drive-thru’s, and Snapchatting anything & everything J. The 8 hours on the road flew by! I also loved camping with everyone… although it was more like “glamping” since we were basically in the backyard of downtown Guerneville & within walking distance to stores. My birthday was filled with so much love, cupcakes, swimming, running, exploring a new town, meeting new friends and getting to know my current friends a lot better. I was able to run part of the course and drive the whole entire bike course while jamming out to a pre-race pump up mix including gems such as “Eye of the Tiger” and “We will rock you”. (Thank you Andrey for driving & riding the whole course the day before to give us a full report!) I got to finish off the night at dinner with my parents, a hot shower and a cozy bed.

It. Was. Perfect.

The next day we spent most of our time at the Expo picking up packets, getting our FREE compression socks and, errr, not-so-free race swag. After leaving, it was time for me to zone out into race mode & lay out everything for the next morning… & check it 15 more times before finally going to bed.

Onto the good stuff…

Swim: I’m so happy that the water cooled down enough to be “wetsuit legal”! Sure, I could swim 1.2 miles in a river without one, but all of my open water swims and races have been in my wetsuit so I was fortunate enough not to have to try anything new on race day J. A few days before the race we had a chance to get in the water for a short pre-race swim & see the course, feel out the water and have a good idea of what to expect on race day. Good to know beforehand that you actually have to WALK part of it! Historically, before the swim start is when I usually lose it and think “why am I doing this?” “I don’t want to do this anymore!”… But not this time. I was actually EXCITED and so pumped to start the race! I was enjoying the calm and cool grey sky before the storm; wading in the water with all females 29 & under and feeling my heart race with excitement and anticipation. The swim felt like nothing. There were buoys every couple hundred yards which was so helpful because 1. I cannot swim in a straight line and 2. my goggles (even with the anti-fog spray) were fogged up so dang bad! I finally had a chance to fix them at the turnaround point where we had to stand up because the river was so shallow. Imagine a zombie apocalypse in the water. It was such a trip seeing all of the staggering bodies in full swim gear (wetsuit, swim cap, goggles) trying to power walk in a rocky river, while at the same time seeing people swim their hearts out on the other side. 42 calm surreal minutes later I was out! I was happy to ditch my goggles and thankful I had a good swim to start off with. It wasn’t very kind of them to put the 35-39 year old males right after us, but was happy to finally get an early wave time & even passed a few people in the wave ahead of me!

Bike: I heard from a lot of people how great the bike course is and that it was their favorite part of the race, or why they choose to do this race every year. In my mind I had pictured a hot, desolate course with maybe a few vineyards, but I severely underestimated how beautiful that area is! The bike course is surrounded (& shaded) by redwoods, multiple vineyards and is made up of a whole lot of rollers. The course is relatively flat except for Chalk Hill at mile 45 (that was just rude) and the best downhill EVER at the halfway point! One of my birthday challenges was to get up to at least 28mph (my age), and that hill got my little self up to 34mph! Fastest I’ve ever gone! Oh yes, tears were coming out the sides of my eyes and I had the biggest Kool-Aid grin the entire way down. I even had a nice fog cover for the first half of my race. I can honestly say that even though I heard “on your left!” about 5,012 times, I really truly enjoyed myself. The only downside was the quality of the asphalt. (If you’re familiar with the SB area, think Hope Ranch.) I’ve never seen so many racers on the side of the road with flats. Luckily… luckily luckily luckily I was not one of them. It’s always something I fear during every race, which you can’t predict and is also inevitable. My boyfriend bike made it through all 56 miles like a champ, but couldn’t make it back on the car ride home!

[Side note: when I took my bike out of the car the back tire was completed deflated. I still haven’t fixed it… I can only do so many productive things per day. J]

Ok back to the race… I knew I was close to the end when I saw the cemetery on the corner (see what I did there?). Never in my life have I been so excited to see a cemetery! 3:39 hours later I had racked my bike up, felt like I had adequate hydration & nutrition, made a promise to myself to work on getting faster (& going aero!) and  thanked God for no flats or crashes. ALSO… I’ll have you know that I was only a bit emotional twice during the race (ok, 3 times if you count the finish line), and both times were on the bike.  At the halfway point and at T2 when I heard my timing chip beep as I rode over the mats, I felt an overwhelming surge of love and could hear your cheers from 400+ miles away. I could barely keep it together, but thank you for that.  

Run: I was NOT excited to run a half marathon after that ride. I definitely lost a few future children and wore my quads out pretty bad from the bike. I took my sweet time in T2 (7min) to sit down & put on my shoes, use the bathroom, etc. I gave myself a quick mental pep talk and started my run. “The faster you get going, the faster you’re done!” My quads never loosened up all the way and that run course was brutal! SO HILLY and zero shade. My coach would have loved it, though. I walked up most of the hills, ran the flats and downhills, and stopped at every aid station (each mile). I loved running through the La Crema vineyard which was all dirt (better on my legs), and the fact that they had a huge half dome full of misters (water, not males) that you could run through. My run was absolutely just about surviving the rest of the race and getting to that finish line. At a few aid stations I even got so desperate that I dumped cups of water on my head & even took a swig of (real) Coca-Cola! I don’t drink soda but I will admit… it was very refreshing at mile 10 plus getting a little caffeine in my system to perk me up a bit. At last I saw that dearly loved cemetery again & smiled the rest of the way home. I was really going to make it!! The last half mile was filled with uplifting spectators, my parents and fellow friends and teammates. It was all I needed to finish the race strong in just under 7 hours, even with a 2.5 hour run.

I’m a half Ironman finisher. I DID IT. THE WHOLE THING.

And just like that the race was over. The months of training, the anticipation, the lists upon lists, nutrition & hydration planning, my LIFE for the past 4 months… finally reaching its end in (what felt like) no time at all. I definitely still am on race cloud 9, but it’s very weird and wonderful that it’s over and time to move on to the next thing. I want to go back to that race & relive it a bit more because I feel like there is so much that I missed! I’m well aware that I’m far from the best, but this makes me happy. I’ve learned, so far, that each race is MY race against the clock and not other people. Instead of feeling intimidated, I feel joyous being out on the course with people I admire. I’ve learned I can push my body and take more control of my mind, & will continue to dig deeper and go further. I will earn the respect, do the work, and maybe someday get on that podium. But if not, it doesn’t really matter to me so much anymore because no matter what I’ll still feel awesome & have some really cool hardware hanging in my room.

So to answer your questions… Will I do another one? Yep. Did it discourage me from doing a full Ironman? Nope. Have I lost my mind? You bet.

 

P.S. Shout out to my awesome parents who are celebrating their 31st anniversary today! Holla!

P.P.S. Super thank yous to Alex, Aldous, Amy, Paul, Marisa, Andrey, the Martinich family, Tamara, Adrienne, Jason, Elda, and the IronStalkers Mike & Kristine for your support and all-around awesomeness. AND my coach AND all of you who were there in spirit!

 

Monday, July 1, 2013

It's JULY!?!?

I can’t believe how fast time is flying. It seems like so long ago when I first signed up for Vineman, & now it’s less than 2 weeks away. I’m also trying to digest the fact that I’m doing my first half IronMan only 10.5 months after doing my very first triathlon (SBTri long course), & taking my 28th trip around the sun at the same time. Not sure my brain has quite grasped all of this. (I know this to be true because no emotional breakdowns have occurred yet.)

This past week has been a HUGE confidence booster. I’ve been doing the Reef & Run 1 mile open water swims which I can use as fairly accurate time & performance indicators for the swim portion of my race… I just hope the Russian River is cold enough for a wetsuit! I’m still not even close to the best swimmer out there, but holy cow, my time and skill in the water has improved SO MUCH in this past year. Thank you Coach AB, Nite Moves, and R&R!!

On Saturday I did my longest bike ride EVER (65 miles) in super hot weather. Huge thank you to Gabe & Aldous who’ve been awesome riding buddies the past few weeks. You guys have both been so encouraging, patient and most of all FUN to be out training with! There has been a lot of serious mileage happening the last month, & I finally feel confident that I can ride a strong 56 mile hot & hilly race! Still have some nutrition issues to dial in though… any advice?? The hydration part I have under control, & have become a believer in salt pills, but after mile 50 I’m starvvvvvving. I try to take in roughly 200 cal/hr whether it’s real food (granola bars, sandwich, etc) or powder (CarboPro, Roctane). I prefer to have actual food on the bike versus the sugary GU gels or blocks (I’ll have enough of those on the run!). My stomach can handle pretty much anything when I’m cycling so I’m looking for solid dense nutrition recommendations. At this point I think this is my weakest part of race prep… once I get the nutrition dialed in I’ll be ready to rock!! Oh yeah… & some tire changing lessons too. J

I clocked in a solid 15 miles running yesterday (10 miles in the morning, 5 in the evening), & felt totally great! I’m still unsure why my coach had me split the runs, but I felt like a rockstar after my 10 miler. I was on tired legs & it was already pretty hot out, but kept an easy 8:30 pace with a huge endorphin dosage. Love me some of that “runners high”.  I even got a high five from another runner who thanked me for being such a good pacer. (The real reason behind the high five is debatable.)  Anyways, the fact that I could run that distance with no problem (& no pain! Hallelujah!!) has totally boosted my confidence to run the 13.1 run portion of the race. Plus there is an aid station at EVERY mile which means I don’t have to run with any extra food/gear except for maybe a few salt capsules. Race day is still projected to be over 90 degrees (yes, the weather for that city is bookmarked in my phone), so there will be many ice cubes going in my hat & down my shirt.

I haven’t received my training schedule for this week yet, but I know that I’ve completed the peak of my training and am starting my journey down the Taper hill. Training has been building so much for so long that it’s hard to believe my longest & hardest workouts are done & now it’s just maintenance and minor tweaking until race day.

::GULP::

It will be more of a mental battle now more than anything, and I’ll have to draw my confidence from my months of preparation & the trust I have in my coach. Let me just tell you… Mike is THE best coach. (I’m not biased I swear! haha). Not only does he have a massive amount of experience, he also has an amazing talent to take you (he magically does this with everyone) right to that very edge… when you think you can’t hold on for 1 more mile or 1 more workout… but then you DO. Coach has the gift to make anyone better, faster, stronger than you thought you could ever be & has given me (& others) the incredible gift to continually surprise even ourselves. So, THANK YOU MIKE. I really can’t say that enough.

Also I have to say that so much of my motivation and vast improvements in my training has come from everyone in (& friends of) the SB Tri club. You guys are pretty damn impressive. I’m constantly blown away when I hear about what workouts and races everyone is doing… and am very humbled by it as well. Thank you for being so awesome & letting me pick your brains about anything & everything! I already have felt so much love & support throughout my training & know that will carry me through my toughest parts on race day.

Crap. Getting a little emotional. Can’t get all soft about this now… I still have 12 days 20 hours and 30 minutes to go! “And let it be known to all that on the 13th day… We party. Hard.” I know my friends & family have been impatiently patiently waiting for this day to come for a while! The end is near you guys!! (until my next race… which is actually pretty soon.) J

See you out there!

-E