Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon Race Report

The Escape From Alcatraz race is pretty well known in the triathlon world and a lot of people consider it a bucket list race. I read somewhere that 6700 people enter the lottery to get one of the 2,000 slots. And there were the few people there because they qualified at an Escape To Alcatraz race. I received a rolled down slot at Kemah Triathlon this past April and was super excited to get the slot!!   The event takes place in none other than San Francisco. The swim is chilly in the bay, the bike is hilly and the run has an infamous sand ladder and lots of running on the sand. It was surprise to me, however, to hear that 79% of the athletes racing were men....where were all the ladies!?



I arrived into San Francisco early on Friday morning (2 hours behind makes an early flight even earlier), retrieved my Ruster sports bike and wheel bags (I just carried on my purse and my Ironman Texas bag otherwise) and took to the BART (their subway). I was booked at the Parc 55 hotel just off of Union Square and the Powell Street station. Bad part was that the elevator at the station was put so I carried all my stuff up three flights of stairs. But I don't regret doing this over Tri Bike Transport as I saved myself $500 checking I myself. And taking apart a bike takes like 5 minutes and putting it together is pretty much the same - it is not that difficult! Anyways, the hotel was one block from the station and lucky for me, the room was ready when I got there. Awesome hotel - great location next to prime tourist spots. However, I would not recommend anyone doing the triathlon to stay there. It was almost comical how many people that I mentioned the race to in passing near the hotel had no idea about this race. People that lived there. And let me just say that San Fran has some of the nicest people! From the ladies that sat next to me on the bus, to the guys that gave me directions, to the servers to the person that explained hoe the bus system in town worked, it was refreshing. And there was a surprising amount of active people there, running and biking around town.

The reason why I don't recommend staying where I did was that the race site was an $19 cab ride away. I needed a cab for the bike. But luckily they do run at 3am, when I ordered pick up for me and the bike. The buses doesn't operate that early.

So Friday at 5:30pm, there was an optional meeting at the Sports Basement that was optional. Since I came in town early enough, I had plenty of time before the meeting, so I did some site seeing. Being as this was my second time in San Fran, I had seen most of the sites before so did more casual walking tour. Not ideal for serious races. But I was just racing this for fun...sometimes I take myself too seriously...since I just had done Ironman Texas three weeks before. Which according to a man irt at the airport trip return home, makes me pretty hardcore. Lol. So I took the cable car from Union square area and then to the end to Fisherman's Warf. This area or closer to Marina Green is where I suggest athletes to stay. Just past Bay as it kind of turns into Marina Street, there is a very nice paved path that lots of local bikers and runners are active on and affords nice views of the ocean and Golden Gate Bridge. Sports Basement was in the Presidio area, so I basically did some window shopping, stopped by Ghirardelli's Square, got some hot chai tea, watched people swim on the beach and spent some time chilling in the park. I slowly walked the rest of the way to the meeting. Whig there was a short presentation on of race tips and a small question answer period with 5 pros. And 50 giveaways. I didn't win anything. And the information covered in this meeting was also covered almost verbatim in the mandatory athlete meeting. So no need to attend unless you feel lucky. I caught a cab (should've uber it) back to the hotel and ate at the restaurant there.

Saturday morning I got up and did a quick bike around Union Square at 6am.  Being as I was still used to central time, I had no problems this entire trip getting up that early.  It was great biking around the town when everyone else is sleeping - it is surreal.  I recommend everyone that ever travels to get up early to view the city on two feet.  Anyways, a quick run off the bike and shower later, I headed to a local diner for breakfast.  Note: food in San Francisco is fairly expensive.  I then took the bus to Marina Green to pick up my race packet.  I got there at about 11:30am and the line was crazy long.  All in all, I think I waited in line for an hour.  I stood next to a man and his wife from Australia and learned a bit about their triathlon world in Australia.  Have to do one out there some day.  On Saturday, you have the option of dropping of a swim exit bag, for the long run (.5 mile) to transition.  I didn't elect to do this.  More on that later.  I got all of my stuff squared away and took the bus (public transportation in San Fran is great) back to near the hotel.  I grabbed a sandwich from Walgreens and then chillaxed at the hotel watching movies.  I ordered food to go from a local Italian restaurant one block away and then went to bed early.  7:30pm.

Sunday morning, I got up and had a banana, two PowerBars, Herbalife 24 Hydrate and on the cab ride, Herbalife 24 Prepare.  I had pre-ordered a cab the night before for 4am as transition opened at 4:30am and the cab, a Prius, was ready for me and my bicycle promptly.  Took the quick cab ride to Marina Green and hopped in line to have air put in my tires.  If you can, bring your own as the lines were long.  I went and set up my transition area and was ready to go by 5:15am or so and hopped on the shuttle that would take us to the boat that I would later jump off of. The ride was a quick 10 - 15 minutes and then everyone went towards the boat.  There was another set of port o potties there and after a quick stop, got on the boat. 

I was on the boat from like 5:45am until I jumped off.  It was a one way trip. :) I brought on board my Blue Seventy swim socks, my Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit, a latex cap and the race cap they provided and my trusty tinted googles.  I was already wearing half of my wetsuit at this point as I am from Texas and it was a little chilly for me.  And I wore the swim socks sort of as shoes... I sat next to a girl and we chatted for a bit the entire ride.  Honestly it went by quick!  Then everyone started standing and I knew it was time to put on the rest of my wetsuit.  Before I knew it, the cannon went off and the pros dived in.  And then it was a mad rush to get off the boat.  Everyone that was under 40 was on the lower level and 40 and up were on the upper level.  You jump off of the lower level.  I opted not to wear a neoprene cap.  Obviously, the water was going to be cold, but I have never swam in before and knew I would be fine.  Looking around the boat at what everyone else was wearing, about 25% had neoprene caps, 60% had swim socks and 99% had wetsuits (yes, some people did the swim without a wetsuit!) 


Anyways, I finally saw the opening and it was my turn to jump in, feet first for non-pros, and off I go.  So everyone is like, OMG, I could never do that race because that water is so COLD.  Well, yes, it was cold.  But I had been taking cold showers for a week leading up to the race, no joke, without a wetsuit on! So I knew what it would feel like, sort of.  So I get in the water and the ONLY thing that was cold was my face. It was quite shocking.  But I was thinking more like, hmm, which way should I angle myself.  In the pre-race meeting, they stressed over and over again, swim to the left early on to get the best of the current.  So I did.  And as soon as I thought that, I was no longer thinking the water was cold, but that it was refreshing.  Which it was.  In Texas, the water is like 80+ degrees right now.  The bay was about 57.  So I got in a grove early and had very few interruptions (i.e. people bumping into me) the entire swim.  There were no buoys in the water and I actually quite enjoyed that.  It makes sighting more real and it feel more like an open water swim, if that makes any sense.  I kept left the entire swim and focused on swimming as straight as possible and did not draft at all.  They had kayaks a ways off to the right and left and I kept where I could always see them on my left, not right. And something else everyone says about that swim is that it is so wavy and hard to sight.  Maybe God smiled on us, but honestly, I didn't think it was that bad!  I swam the 1.5 mile swim in just over 38 minutes and considering I had done a 1500m swim in the ocean at a race in April in 33 minutes, I think I had a fantastic swim.  Not to mention that I exited with strong looking men and hardly any females. 

As soon as you get out of the water, on the beach there is a pre-transition transition.  You have the option of leaving a bag at the swim exit for a pair of shoes, a towel and bottle of water, checked like any other transition bag.  I opted not to leave anything for the .5 mile run as I would be fine just running in my swim socks.  That and they said that these bags would not be available for pick up until 1pm after the race.  So this run was pretty uneventful.  It is always surprising to me how slow some people run after they swim, as they get to transition.

I had a mental moment and ran past my bike, twice, trying to find it.  No matter.  Found my bike, ran to near transition, put the shoes on, (I can't run in these shoes and my flying mount is a work in progress) and off I went.  With 2000 of my tri friends. :)  There was never a moment on the entire 18 mile hilly ride where I had the road all to myself.  So you start off on a little bit of straight aways and then the fun begins. I rode my TT bike with a 11-27 cassette on my 80 carbon front and back race wheels. For people considering doing this race, I would recommend the road bike for better handling as there was very few spots where I actually got in the aero bars.  But I don't own a road bike, so..... I would also recommend not so deep of a wheel for the lighter folks as there were a few crosswinds off the ocean.  Not that bad but worth a thought.  And at least that cassette for sure.  So, I live in flat lands Texas where there are really not any hills.  The things we call hills pale in comparison to that of San Fran.  The course was out and back so every hill you went up, you would have to go down on the way back and vice versa.  I would highly recommend you to drive the course the day before to see what you have to do as there are some tight turns coming off of a hill that would be quite shocking if you were not prepared.  Being as I didn't have a rental car, I went to trusty U-Tube and watched a guy's post of him biking the entire course.  Very helpful.  Anyways, there was one hill on the course that was like never ending.  You make a turn and go up.  Then you make another turn and go up.  At this point I was already in the easiest gear as well I don't do hills often (and hey, it looked like everyone else was in lowest gear too).  You turn another slight corner and then you realize you need to go up more.  Yikes.  I imagine some people got off and walked it.  But not the people around me, which there was probably like 10 of us attacking the hill.  There was some grunting and standing and very slow cadence involved with getting up this hill.  At the end of the day, the up hills were fine.  I just hated flying down some of these hills with so many people next to me and not knowing where they are at with their bike handling skills.  All in all, the 18 miles was ridden in similar time to my normal 25 mile time.  I won't even tell you my average mph...



Pull into transition and throw on my trusty Asics noosa tri shoes and off I go.  I should have worn socks.  But I have worn those shoes over 20 times without socks for similar distance without socks no problem.  I didn't really think of how I didn't have a big toenail (thank Ironman Texas 3 weeks prior of that one) and how much sand was going to get into my shoe and how that was going to feel.  So the run starts off on a hardened sandy path and then you run for a ways and then up like 30 steps to the road.  Then down a mountain bike looking path and then to the beach.  At the beach this year was a turnaround and a water station.  There was loose sand here.  The second my shoes hit the beach, sand got everywhere.  And I stopped dead in my tracks due to the pain on my big toe, that didn't have a nail on it.  Lucky for me, there was an aid station a few hobbles away and I stopped there and asked if they had an aid station.  It was unbearable pain and I was hoping for a bandaid at least.  I was okay with loosing a couple minutes to finish this race feeling okay.  I was here for the experience and didn't have any goals but to finished and knew I would at this point, preferably running, not walking.  They searched for a first aid kit and I used a cleaning wipe to clean off the tip of my big toe which had lost several layers of skin where the nail used to be and had sand in it.  Ewww.  And took big gauze and wrapped it with tape around my entire toe.  Problem semi solved. I knew at the end of the beach run part was the sand ladder and needed to be better for that.  So I gave it a run after the wrapped toe and it was painful but bearable.  So I half walk jogged up the sand ladder (it was pretty congested here and lots of slow walking folks).  It is a sand ladder as it says.  There are steps semi built in this very steep cliff that are completely covered in sand.  They say to use the ropes and step on the steps but that didn't work that well for me.  Anyways made it up that few hundred steps and then off to the road and down the previous steps (very congested! One lane only!) and back on the harded path and around to a very welcoming, loud finish line. 



It was an awesome finish line!  Straight to the food tent and got some chicken broth and pasta and bread.  They also offered salad....seriously people?  Salad after working out a couple hours. lol!  If you have people waiting for you at the finish line, I highly suggest you have them ready with warm clothes as the breeze off the ocean can get chilly.  I went to transition to grab my wallet and bought the race jacket (very nice!!), cycling socks and coffee cup.  I figured this was a souvenir worthy race!  Then went to get myself a beer at the Sierra Nevada trailer (not free, purchased) and chilled out for a while.  Then called for a cab, waited FOREVER!!! for my cab and chilled in my hotel before seeing the rest of town that I didn't get a chance to see earlier that week.  And gone the next day!



So I have gotten asked a lot in the last week if I would do this again.  And the answer is HELL yes!  The race was awesome.  And the second time around, I would actually "race" it as I would know what to expect.  Thanks to Wattie Ink and all sponsors for their support in the sport I love. What should my next challenge be?

Ironman Texas 2015 - 2nd go around

I debated with myself for a good month after Ironman Cozumel if I ever wanted to do another Ironman.  I figured after a less than stellar day there, I owed it to myself to try and do another one.  So I found a spot for Ironman Texas and registered.  I did Ironman Texas in 2013 and had some nutrition issues which made for a tough race so I wanted to see how I could do 2 years later.

My lead up to the race was okay.  I did a couple of race day simulations and nailed them.  BUT after doing my long run two weeks before the race, I got sick.  I felt like my throat was sore after my run, just thought I was thirsty? and then that night we went to see the new Avengers movie (great movie) and towards the end of the movie, I felt like someone took the wind out from under my sails.  The next day I could barely breathe and I called off of work.  I went to work the next day which was a terrible decision and was totally out of it. And then the same with the next.  That entire week, I did not work out as I barely could breathe.  That Saturday I did a relay that had me running 1.5 miles and it went better than I would have expected but it still hurt like hell.  The next day I did a very EASY 3 hours on the bike and the rest of the week, I just tried to get better and do as minimal as possible.  Let's just say that I over tapered.

I left work early on Thursday to pick up my race packet and visited the Wattie Ink tent (I am on the Wattie Ink team) and met Wattie himself!  Friday I did a quick run around my neighborhood, went to the practice swim, came back home to get the bike and gear check items and then back to drop them off at transition.  Which was disgusting!  The mud was all over the place and it smelled terrible, like manure.  It was raining the few days up to the race and that is what caused the mud.  Anyways, racked my bike and covered it up with trash bags and went home to chill on the couch.  While I was chillaxing, I noticed that my throat was again sore and nose was running.  Not ideal conditions for the day before an Ironman.  Had my regular dinner of baked chicken, sweet potato and sautéed spinach and then in bed by 8pm.  And slept all night.  I know a lot of people have trouble sleeping the night before a race and I did when I first started doing triathlons, but now I seem to be able to sleep all night.

Race morning was paleo pancakes with banana, walnuts and syrup and then some Herbalife 24 hydrate, a decaf coffee and a Herbalife 24 prepare.  Parked by the mall and then walked to transition. Set up my bike and then walked to the swim start.  Checked my bags and got in line for the swim.

This year was the first year that they did a rolling start for Ironman Texas.  Basically like a running race, you self seed yourself based on what swim time you think you will have.  I seeded myself aggressively by the 1:10 mark.  I did a 1:07 in Cozumel and so it was hard to guess where I need to stand.  Some people don't like the rolling start but actually I liked it.  It seemed to space everyone out more on the bike a little.  The thing I didn't like was when it was time to go all they said was "GO" no air horn or cannon!  That takes away a little of the feeling of the mass start.

I wore my Blueseventy swim skin, Wattie Iink team shorts and Wattie Ink sports bra with my heart rate strap already on.  So we walk into the water and then we dive in.  And start swimming.  There was quite a bit of rough swimming for a while, only got one really good elbow.  Which thankfully was not to the goggles.  Anyways, after I got in the water, I swam the entire way. At a comfortable race pace.  I know I could have swam more aggressively but I didn't want to overdue it since I still felt sick.  And I certainly was.  Did you know that you can have a coughing attack while swimming?  I do know as I had 3 over the 2.4 miles.  And when I first got in the water, my nose was stuffed so I was having trouble breathing but eventually it cleared and it was swimming as normal.  I found myself at times getting scattered brained like loosing track of forward movement which I tend to have happen in open water, but then pulled it together.  Best way for me to swim open water is to focus on getting buoy to buoy and just take one at a time and don't worry about the big picture.  That gets overwhelming as it seems so long otherwise and sometimes feels like you are going no where fast. 

2013 swim time: 1:39:04 2:33/100m
2015 swim time: 1:12:50 1:53/100m

So what did I do differently from 2013?  Well, leading up to 2103, I had felt like I could teach myself how to swim.  Wrong.  Oh and I had some panic attacks.  I joined a master swim class for all of 2014 (it hasn't worked into my schedule for 2015 yet) and that made a huge difference.  If I want to keep on moving forward, there is more drill work and hard internals in the future!  But I am quite happy with that time as it got me out of the water in 15th in my age group.

2013 T1: 7:36
2015 T1: 4:35

Every minute counts!  I taped up my transition bag with a special design in black duct tape so I wouldn't run past it.  Normally I run past my transition bag (did in 2013) and then have to back track to it.  I ran with my bag to the tent, took off the cap, goggles, swimskin and put on my Wattie Ink team bike jersey, helmet with visor and held my shoes.  Thankfully, with the muddy transition, they had little kiddie pools by the exit of transition for us to clean off our feet.  And some really nice volunteers splashed my legs with water.  I put on my shoes and runish to the mount like.  I hate running in bike shoes.  Hop on the bike and off I go. 

About 5 minutes in, I go to blow my nose and my visor popped off.  I should have checked it before running out of transition.  Plus it felt like my back brake was rubbing.  So I hopped off, checked the brake, clipped the visor in and off I went.  While on Woodlands Parkway, an Escalade pulled out in front of me to cross the road and I had to slam on my brakes which caused me to slide sideways a little and luckily just missed the car and didn't wipe out.  That's one way to spike the heart rate!!

112 miles is a long way but I have trained prior to getting sick, at an aggressive power that I had maintained for my long rides.  But this day, I just wasn't feeling it.  I normally have a whole another gear but I guess with being still sick and my over taper, I just didn't have anything more.  I felt really bad at mile 30ish and just couldn't get myself to pee on the bike, so the next aid station, I took a few minutes to get off and go to the port o potty.  Which was down hill and incredibly difficult to get out of in cycling shoes without slipping. :)  Back on the bike and I still felt so out of it.  My visor had popped back off at mile 10ish and I had been riding without a visor/sunglasses for almost two hours.  It had been overcast so it didn't really bother me.  But then the sun came out in full force and I decided to stop again and pop the visor back in.  I got the attention of a motorcycle cop who was just what I needed at that point.   I asked him to try to snap back in my visor, which he couldn't, and then I got it in myself.  I was chatting with him, telling him I seriously just wanted to quit and he said that you are doing better than me by just starting.  Nice man.  Also, at that point, I was more concerned with how I would get back so I decided to just keep on going.  The ride took more out of me than it ever normally does so it just wasn't my day.  I have never been passed so many times on the bike before.  I now know what the faster swimmers/slower bikers feel like, getting passed over an over. :/

At 80% of the water stations, I squeezed water over my jersey, in my mouth and in my speedfill aero water bottle.  As far as the rest of my nutrition, I had 3 bottles filled with Herbalife 24 prolong, 1.5 Powerbar performance energy peanut butter chocolate bar, Powerbar cola blast energy chews and a Gatorade hand up at the last couple aid stations.  I also had 1 Energy Lab electrolyte tab every 30 minutes.

2013 bike: 6:08:11
2015 bike: 6:06:52 

Considering how much faster I have been on the bike last year, this is disappointing.  But in 2013, I didn't stop at all and in 2015, I stopped 3 times, so I guess that is good??

2013 T2: 9:41
2015 T2: 5:11

So, as I was running from where I dropped off my bike, I was unzipping and taking off my jersey (ran in sports bra and shorts for the run), taking off my helmet, quickly found my run bag taped in black and got in the tent.  Where I had the best volunteer.  She brought over water for my muddy feet while I put on my Injinji toe socks and Asic zoosa tri shoes. I clipped on my belt that had my 6 gels and electrolyte tabs and put on my shades and off I went.  I was one of the few people that wasn't wearing a hat.  Everyone had a hat or visor on to help with ice to the head and shade.  But on long runs, wearing a hat or even a visor feels like it squeezes my brains and causes me to overheat so I just can't wear them.  The downside is that my hair is long and usually my French braid as a few fly aways that are annoying but I will take that over a head ache!

I ran through the first couple aid stations tossing water over my head and then realized that I was going to need to walk the aid stations.  I have a very high sweat ratio and I need to consume at least 2 - 3 cups of fluid at every aid station in that kind of heat to keep performing.  Unfortunately learned this the hard way.  And everyone else was walking the aid stations.  I tell you, it is really hard to walk for a minute and then get back to running.  That is what makes this race so tough.  Your body is saying F this and you are like do I really want to do this, yes you can do this.  I personally have arguments with myself in my head all of the run about walk or run.  Anyways, I found a slow pace that I could run forever and stuck to it and ran from aid station to aid station.  It is the hardest on the last lap because a majority of the people are walking so it is so hard to keep running when everyone else is walking.  Kind of draining.  But someone had a sign along the run course that said "it's all about that pace, that pace, no quitting" that I found myself singing at a couple points. Thanks for that sign, whoever put that up there.  I did Gatorade for two aid stations in a row then a couple waters with a tab and Powerbar gel every 3 miles and put ice water over my head and ice down the front and back of the sports bra and shorts.  Towards the end of the second lap, I added coke into the mix and the last lap, I took one of their gus at mile 21 and grabbed more salt out of my special needs bag on the last lap.  I did stop 3 times to use the port o potty which is pretty much the same as the last time I raced here.  Last lap was incredibly tough as I could feel my heart rate spiking a little and my breathing being more labored but wanted to get it over with. :D  Ran up to the finish line and for the first time since being married, heard, Claudia Smith, you are an IRONMAN!

2013 Run: 4:53:48
2015 Run: 4:23:53

I really thought I would run faster as I run 1 - 2 minutes/mile faster on my long runs in training but all in all, I guess I can't complain.

2013 total time: 12:58:20 31 in AG 30 - 34
2015 total time: 11:53:21 16th in AG 30 - 34

Honestly I was expecting more from myself but can't be that disappointed as this is a new PR for me!!

Aftermath:  I had a Herbalife Rebuild endurance shake as soon as I picked up my morning clothes bag and tried to eat a Powerbar protein bar.  The back of my legs were/are pretty tight and there is a massage scheduled for Tuesday.  Hobbled back to my bike and off to Ginos for pizza.  And I had blood blisters under both of my big toe nails.  Probably will be loosing one or two in the future.

I have to take a moment to thank Wattie Ink and the sponsors (Blueseventy, Speedfill, Rudy Project, ISM, Powerbar and Herbalife) for their support on this journey.

I also have to thank my husband, Ryan, for his support of this crazy hobby of mine.  He would normally have pictures for me to share (he brought his very nice camera) but he raced in a beer mile that morning as part of the Jockstrap Catapult IM Texas festivities, which was his first one and he ran a 6:46 which is like good for 150th in the country???  And a few jello shots later, him and all of the JSC crew were cheering on the runners in their underwear.  But I looked forward to that part of the run every lap. Thanks for the cheers.  And thanks to all of the volunteers - amazing!

Next up is Escape from Alcatraz on June 7th, so after a week off this week, I am going to do some easy sessions to just experience that race.  Then I have a little gap to fill before the half in Redman at the end of September.  Future focus is building on my speed on the bike and run and maintaining the improvements on the swim.

I think this may be my last ironman for a while.  I do so much better at shorter stuff. And while it still hurts doing shorter stuff, it is more my style of hurt!  On to the next one...

Kemah Triathlon 2015

So, I promised someone that I was going to write up a blog about this race, and here I am a months later.  LOL.

Race morning started like any other.  With the addition of seeing definite rain in the forecast.  Was afraid there would be lightning but thankfully it held off for us to race!

Kemah Olympic Triathlon is unlike most other triathlons because you get to jump off of a paddle boat.  Everyone has to be on their boat by 6am and then the boat slowly takes you out to the starting point 1500 meters from shore.  The swim is pretty straight forward as you just pretty much swim in a straight line to shore. 

On the boat, I hung out with my JSC/SBS friends and we all jumped off the boat one after the other.  I had ordered a wetsuit as my last one's zipper was broken and was tossed, but unfortunately it didn't arrive in time for the race.  Luckily enough, my friend Amanda had a sleeveless wetsuit that no one claimed that fit me great. Anyways, since the start was a rolling self seeded jump off the boat start, it was hard to figure out where you placed as it did take 15 minutes for everyone to get off the boats.  We were towards the back of the line.

It came my turn to jump off the boat, maybe 10 foot jump??, into the water and placed my hands over my goggles so they didn't get knocked off and in I went.  I have been working a lot on my swim.  I have previously always gotten out of the water towards the middle of my age group and then passed a lot of people on the bike and run.  Something about open water, I get so confused and scatter brained.  It's like I swim myself in circles and prevent myself from moving forward.  Anyways, I told myself on this day that I would swim the entire time and only stop for dire circumstances (water up the nose, choking, goggles off, etc.). So after I jumped I got in my grove and had an okay swim.  Note: I took a good elbow to the face as I passed a dude and then had to fix the goggles and then back to swimming.  Seeding wise, should have jumped sooner but oh well.  There was plenty of space for me to swim.  Swam in 32:21(2:09 per 100m) which was good enough from 3rd in my age group.  I guess everyone else had a rough swim.

Seriously, I never take a good swim exit photo.

 

A little jog to transition on concrete to the bike and off I went. Or so I thought.  I had my bike shoes rubber banded on my bike and the right shoe had somehow snapped as I ran it out of transition.  I didn't realize this until after I hopped on my bike and it rubbed on the ground and then unclipped itself.  And of course I was rolling at this point, so I had to turn me around and go pick it up and dodge people going out for their bike ride.  And a volunteer was yelling at me to get out of the way and I was like, I will get out the way after I get my shoe.  Anyways, put my shoe on then hoped on the bike.  Annoying. It was raining at a decent rate at this point and there are few spots on the road that had little pebbles and dirt so everyone looked kind of like they pooped their pants after they got off the bike. :D There was a few pot holes so between dodging those and passing people, the ride went by quick.  But again, should have jumped sooner so I wouldn't have had to do quite so much dodging.  Average watts: 230 for a time of 1:09:29 21.4 mph

 

 

They see me rollin'

 

 

Had a more successful dismount and sprinted to re-rack my bike.  Since I had Ironman Texas in a few weeks, I didn't want to get any blisters by running barefoot, so I put socks on.  I have, since this race, found a pair of shoes that I can actually run in for 6 miles without blisters, so next race I will wear those! Anyways, set to work on the run, my first couple miles being faster than the last two as I was a little too aggressive (uh a 10k is not a 5k) and ran with my heart rate through the roof.  Ran a 42:46 10k which is a 6:54 pace.

 

 

 

I would like to think I look tough in this photo. :D

 

 

Overall time 2:28:44 good for 2nd in my age group which I lost 1st just by over a minute.

 

So, something else awesome about this race is that you can bypass the lottery for Escape From Alcatraz race in San Francisco by winning your age group.  I was really gunning for 1st in my age group because I have wanted to do Alcatraz ever since I have first heard about it.  So I was pretty bummed after I heard that I was 2nd in my age group.  I approached the girl that won the age group asking if she was going to take it and she said she was a maybe. 

 

 





 

That's me in the pink

 

 

Well, if the first place person doesn't take the slot, they do roll it down.  The roll down process was slower that Ironman (you get an email in the middle of the week after the event if you get the slot, and then it is rolled down.)  The girl who beat me, found me on Facebook to let me know that she was not going to take the slot as she is already registered for this year and doesn't want to do it next year, so I got the slot!!  YAY!  I let them know I wanted to do it this year, so I am all registered to do it this year on June 7th!! Seriously can't wait!!

Ironman Cozumel 2014

What a day yesterday was! And talk about not having your dream race!!

Leading up to the race, I felt really prepared as I have been hitting awesome paces in each discipline and felt like I was set to set a personal best in all three sports since doing Ironman Texas last year. I have significantly improved my times in all other distances, so it just seemed logical.

I flew in Thursday (Thanksgiving) on a plane full of other Ironman Cozumel participants. Actually that morning, I had to make a slight change of plans as Delta sent me a message that my first flight was delayed so much that I wouldn't make my connecting flight. So they rebooked me for Friday. I told them this was unacceptable so they gave me my money back. And I found a nonstop flight on a united that morning for the same price, so I flew United.

Cozumel is a beautiful spot to be. The beaches and water are beautiful, there's lots of shopping and tons of nightlife. So much to tempt you to not take it easy before an Ironman. I think I did good by taking a cab to lunch one day and briefly walking the shops. I stayed at the Hotel Cozumel & Resort and would recommend it to anyone looking to do this race. It is 2.5 - 3 blocks from the Mega (grocery store), athlete check-in, T2 drop off, is a host hotel so you have the Ironman shuttle perks and it is right near the finish line. Lower in price with an option to include breakfast and dinner for not much more.

Race morning I was up and ready to do just after 4. My oatmeal didn't turn out good so I had some granola instead with a banana and a beet shot. The bus to take us to T1 was already waiting at 4:50 when I walked down to the lobby and off we all went. I brought just my morning clothes bag which had everything I needed.

I walked over to my bike and immediately went to find a tire pump. They won't let you bring your own unless it is miniature sized, so you need to find some to earthier take it for you or loan you one. I found the official bike pump area that the race provided and waited my turn. On my bike, I had my deep 80 wheels and the back one was not taking in air. So a fella came over and worked the valve extender to get it to take in air.   Not sure what he did honestly but he messed up my race.  More on that later.

After that I went and put my bottles on my bike. Then at T1, they wanted us to drop the morning clothes bag, so I grabbed my Blue Seventy speedsuit, goggles and cap and walked barefoot to the bus to take us to the swim start.  Got there pretty early as there was an hour before my wave.

Sat around the swim start waiting for it to get closer to the start. Put on my speedsuit and took a picture with my JSC/SBS friends and then it was our corral's turn to go. We went down the pier and jumped off to swim to the start. They bragged online and prompted this race to be the fastest swim with the current at your favor. Let's just say I felt it, but it surely was as fast as it sounds like most people anticipated. Anyways, I lined up like the second row in. The air born goes off and so do we. I drafted off the front people for a whole 30 seconds and then they dropped me. But I can say a couple things about this start. No anxiety at all, which tends to be an ongoing issue. And I didn't have girls swimming over me and held my spot. So 2.4 miles of swimming seems to take forever!  Strange to me that even though the time in the water is so much less, it feels to me that the it is so much longer. Anyways, we were the third wave and a couple other things happened this race don't not all happen. I passed people in the wave before me and the wave before them! And not just a couple of people, but a lot! And, get this, I had people actually drafting off of me. I guess I can't say that I am that bad at swimming anymore. :) The two waves behind us were some fast men, some caught me but I latched on to some for the last 600 meters, which they said was the section against the current, which I didn't think was that bad. The results say I swam a 1:08 but, I started my Garmin like 20 seconds before and stopped after I exited the water and mine said 1:07 so not sure what happened there. My last IM swim was a 1:32 also in a speedsuit so obviously, current or not, I have improved at swimming.

Ran and grabbed my transition bag with my helmet, sunglasses and shoes and had the two greatest volunteers in transition. They opened my bag, helped me put my stuff on and put it back in the bag. Problem was they weren't too clear on where it went (this wasn't covered in the athletes meeting) so I took it with me as I grabbed my bike. One main volunteer lady said leave it where my bike is. By the way, their numbering system had different age groups racked near each other. Nevertheless, it was nice to see all the neighboring bikes still there. I take my bike, run almost to the line and put on my shoes. I hop only bike.

And notice that something is wrong. I have a flat. I yell some sort of bad word and pull of the side to fix it.  And watch a lot of people pass me, as in like a hundred. There goes my good bike position. So this is illegal, but where I pulled off, a guy had a bike pump and so as I changed my tube, I used his pump to put air in it. I of course, since I was just out of transition, yelled for a bike tech but there wasn't one there. So took care of the tire and off I went.

Cruising along and my heart rate actually was bring normal. And there was no crazy winds at that point so I was holding a good speed. And about 12 miles in, I thought I was working harder than I had to. And saw a bike tech helping another girl with a pump. So I thought maybe I didn't air up my tires enough. So I put more air in them and they seemed to keeping air. So off I went again. So on the back side of the islands and as you approached it, you got a good taste of shocking crosswinds and oh man crazy headwinds. One person I was talking to said 25 mph headwinds. For like 10 miles of each of three laps. Yay. Everyone else had the same issue there so that is what it is. As I was just starting my second lap, I noticed I was pushing too hard, pulled over and realized my tube wasn't keeping air. So at this point, I had a decision to make - change the tube or just keeping stopping every so often to put more air in the tire. I chose the later and not sure if that was the right call. I guess my valve extender is messed up. I don't know. I will have it looked at when I get back. In all, I stopped around 5 times to fill the tires, the last one being 10 miles from the end after pushing through the headwinds on a slightly deflated tire.

And I know it wasn't as hot as some previous years but the heat got to me. I was have cramps all over. My stomach cramps were "shocking" to say the least. I felt like I kept getting punched in the gut over and over again in the same spot and sitting up made it worse. And to make matters worse, I felt some tunnel vision and dizziness at the beginning of my third lap. None of this makes any sense as I have trained in hotter rather and consumed the same amount and type of fluids and fuel. In all, I drank 3 Gatorade and about (some water was splashed on me) 11 bottles of water, 8 salt pills, 11 Gu, 1.5 bonk breaker bars. Needless to say, with the tire issues and the wind, this ride took a lot longer than I thought it would.

When I got off the bike, I shuffled to transition with my bag with my shoes, socks, compression sleeves and visor and another nice volunteer helped me out as another rubbed me down with more sunscreen. And this was quite a process. As I eat there and put those on, I realized I was in for trouble. I had cramping in my feet, calves, quads and stomach. Anyways, I felt maybe it would go away as I ran so out of transition I went, streaked with white sunscreen everywhere. Can't wait to see those race pictures!  Ha ha ha

So Muffy with SBS was in transition and I took off running. And the. She caught me. And said to run with her. I did for a little but that just want going to happen. I walked. A lot. My breathing was very rapid and my heart rate was way too high for the pace I was doing. So I felt like I was walk to an air station and then drink as much fluids as I could as it seemed like there was some sort of dehydration going on. And so I jogged again for a few seconds and my side hurt so bad it felt like my body was shutting down. So I walked again. And did the math. Obviously it was not really looking to be a PR day nor any sort of good day. So I figured at a 16 minute per mile walking pace with some occasional jogs of 10 minute per mile would get me there well before I needed to be there as it was like 3:30 at that point. And then I met Bob from Austin and we did two laps together of walking and jogging. I seriously considered quitting. But I figured I spent all that money to be here and didn't want to waste it. I didn't keep going to prove anything, but to not waste money. Ha! On the second lap, I decided to make a bathroom break and started seeing stars in there. I stood right up and got moving out of there while still pulling my shorts up. I will be darned if I am found passed out in a port o potty! So back to the shuffle jog. I have never felt so terrible In my life - it felt like my body was shutting down. But dammit, I was going to get that darned medal!  Bob wanted to run the last 4 miles and due to my make you want to fall over stomach cramps, I couldn't. So I walked until there was just under a mile left. And then ran to just before the line. Did a nice buff girl pose and got that silly medal. This time I had a different last name as they called out "Claudia Smith from Houston, Texas - you are an Ironman!"

Surprisingly, I was only just over half an hour slower than my last Ironman. I will say a couple of things. First, while I stayed in my ideal heart rate range most of the ride (some was actually lower), my legs took too much of a beating! And even though I drank my ideal amount on the bike, I still ended up being dehydrated! And that wind was definitely a downer.   I spent a year planning this as my A race and building up to it and was nicely prepared and it just wasn't meant to be. So if I do another Ironman, and that is a big if, it will be somewhere cooler with less winds. And if that means I get more hills, so be it!!

Next year I will be racing on the Wattie Ink team and am so excited to rock the W. Next up is USA Fit Marathon in two months. And I have some recovering to do!!

Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 - Now that was a tough one!

Where's Buffalo Springs Lake you might ask.  Well it is in Lubbock, Texas.  Being as I live in Houston, I decided to drive there.  Which at the end of the day,  I am glad that I drove over flying.  But it was a long, long drive.  8+ hours of pretty much all flat land.  And then about an hour out, you start to notice a couple hills and a slight change in elevation.  Nothing major at all.  Misleading as Buffalo Springs Lake has some well hidden hills.

The race started at 6:30am.  And in all of the materials, the race crew warns you to come early.  Transition opened at 5am and parking at 4:30am. My internal time clock, as normal, got me up at 3:40am.  I had everything laid out but it still takes me a few to assemble myself. Went down to microwave my lovely breakfast of quinoa flakes, almond butter and raisins.  I ate this while getting ready along with slowly sipping a coffee and downing a beet shot.  Double French braiding my hair, layered on the sunscreen, put on my clothes, two trips to the car and we were off.  Luckily the hotel, which I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott, was only 15 minutes away, considering the only traffic we found was just a mile from the parking.  Which we joined the line that backed up a little bit but nothing too crazy and were parked by 5:08am. Now parking in a tall grassy field that is not exactly level in a Prius is a whole another story...

My friend Susan, who happily made the trip with me, helped me carry my stuff to transition.  Susan signed up to volunteer all day - seriously the volunteer coordinator loved her.  She helped with getting people out of the water and wetsuit stripping, directing people on the bike and then catching people with finisher metals at the end. Good stuff. 

Arriving into the transition area, the temperatures were about 77 degrees.  I slowly laid out my run and bike gear and set aside my wetsuit, goggles and cap.  I already had my warm up socks and shoes on and then ran away from the craziness to do a 10 minute warm up with a few race pace pick ups.  Felt good and noticed a couple hills but nothing undoable.  Got back around 6am and then took off the shoes and socks and went down to the lake and slowly put on my wetsuit.  The water was very accessible as the swim start is you running into the lake, so after I got the suit on, I did a quick warm up swim.  Fairly dark out at this point but still could sight the first bouy. I stood in the water after I was done with the swim warm up and then waited until they kicked us out.

Male pros went off at 6:30am.  This race is not a big race by any means.  There were only 24 people in my age group.  So my wave was anyone from 18 to 44.  We got to wear a lovely powder blue cap.  I seeded myself right in the middle a couple rows back.  I am not a dominate swimmer so no need to be in front.  Unless I want to get swam over.  Nope.  The course is pretty simple - you go out only a little, make a right and swim a little, make a left, swim a little, and then a left back past where you started and then a left to shore.  Pretty smooth lake and an ideal swimming lake for a race.  I felt good in the swim.  Especially when I noticed that I was passing the slightly older women who started 3 minutes before me and then the 50+ males who started 6 minutes before us.  In all fairness, a couple red caps did catch me.  I don't get this, though.  I was swimming along, minding my own business and then this guy from the wave after me swiims up to me and deilberately places his hands on his shoulders and pulls me down.  What the hell??  Normally I would say triathletes are pretty friendly and welcomeing but at that point not so much.  My reaction?  He got an elbow to the face.  Then he grunted and swam away.  I said "jerk" and then it was back to swimming.  I swam a 36:10 which was shockingly slightly above average.  A new PR for the half ironman swim.  How could I further improve, which is needed for sure, would be swim closer to the bouys and fix my left arm crossing over.  It is a work in progress and let me tell ya, it throws you off course if you are constantly veering right.

Was pulled out of the water and ran up to the largest guy who just happened to be decent looking and had him strip me of my wetsuit.  And ran up the few feet to my transition spot.  Threw down the wetsuit, cap and goggles, snapped on helmet and sunglasses, grabbed the shoes and ran to the line, an awesome volunteer held my bike while I put on my shoes and then off I went.  Not my best transition but was done in 2:35.

Now the bike course.  At this point we are up to 80 degrees which grew to about 90 by the end.  The bike course is only shaded in one spot so I had on my Castelli T1 3/4 length sleeve top.  And I did not burn at all.  Nice to not have a tri top burn/tan lines.  Anyways, you exit transition, go like 40 feet and then you go up a 8.9% hill to get out of transition so be ready.  Coast down that hill, which is a 8.9% grade for the way back, cross a bridge and then up a  6.7% grade.  And this is where I have to tell you, this course is beautiful, fun and challenging.  If I was not racing, you totally must take in the view.  And speaking of which, if anyone is considering doing this race, be sure the at the very least drive the course.  There are some hills that I am glad I knew about ahead of time.  Anyways, after this you make a few turns and have some straightaways.  Which is normally my strong point.  Well it makes it ever so much more challenging when the winds are more than 25 miles per hour.  Which they were on race day.  But over and over the bike course, I was powering past guys that were struggling going up the hills and staying small in the wind.  Lucky me.

 So when you look that the bike course, there are 3 u turns.  I hate u turns.  I especially hate u turns on a two lane road with no shoulders.  On the 3rd one, I unclipped as it was ever so tight and the previous u turn scared me.  When they designed this bike course, I swear they thought, lets go down the roads with the challenging hills and then come back.  Each road before the u turn has a pretty decent sized hill.  The first has a slow 4.5% and 4.9% hill, the next has a 6.1%.  The next road has the "spiral staircase" with a 6.0% hill and then you go back.  Which you would think the winds at one point would be a tail wind.  Talk about an unlucky day.  The winds hit me in every direction with tailwinds only for like 1 to 2 minutes.  And these hills were narrow with traffic always coming up as you are trying to go down, so while there was coasting, you definitely should slow down, unless you want to hit another biker.  The aid stations are not exactly every 10 miles like most ironman branded races so I grabbed water where ever it was offered.  And there was a big gap from the last aid station to the end so make sure you fill up beforehand.  I ran out of water.  I drank about 5 bottles of water and some chocolate peanut butter Gu water and had some salt on the bike.  Now considering my personal best bike was in April in 2:24, you would think I would only slow down a little.  HA!  My bike was second fastest in my age group at 2:49:57.  Killer.

So remember that hill just out of transition?  Well you go down that to get back and make a fairly sharp left turn, Rode the brakes in and ran off the bike, I had already slid out of the shoes before the hill, re racked my bike, put on my socks and shoes and off on the run.  This transition wasn't idea eaither (the darn pavement with no mats was hot and hard on my bare feet) at 1:56.

I exited transition with another girl in my age group (she swam almost 7 minutes faster than me!) and she took off.  At the pace I wanted to go.  And this is when I realized I was in for a tough run.  Considering it was hot...and my legs felt like lead, no springs.  I know, I know.  They call it a brick.  Well I can tell you within the first mile how the run will be.  And this was going to be bad.  I was thirsty and my legs were tight.  Ran through the first aid station with water in hand and she didn't.  So I gained some ground, which that was the only time that happened.  She caught back up to me as we ran up to a hell of a hill.  Up she went, I slowly followed and then noticed a heart rate of 180.  Decided to walk a stretch, then run the HR back up and then walk.  Made it and then she was gone.  She definitely had fresher legs and I couldn't keep up.  The run was a battle and I did something I am not proud of.  I walked every aid station.  It was difficult to grab water x 2, ice and then sometimes a coke or perform.  Anything.  I was burning up.  And because it was so windy, my hat flew off not once or twice but three times.  And I like the hat and didn't want to through away my money, so I ran after it 3 times.  All while out on the run, I kept my eyes peeled to see if other girls would run past me, but I didn't get passed by anyone in my age group.  And after that hellacious hill was when the shoe issues started.  I wore my Newton elites which I have worn on some hot days in Houston and for over an hour and they have definitely not given me any problems.  Well it wasn't my day to have a good run.  The liners, not even half way through the run, started to shift, to the outsides of the shoes and this was causing an ugly feeling in my arches and toes.  I could feel the blisters coming on.  By mile 7, I could not take it any more and at the aid station, pulled off my shoes and fixed the liners.  Which my hands were damn swollen and losing feeling.  Uck.  More difficult than it needed to be.  Anyways, I put my shoes back on and off I went.  Mentally just telling myself to just make it to the aid station, take in the fluids and get back to running. And then I got a piercing stop you in your tracks leg cramp.  And then it was gone.  This happened three times on the run.  First time ever that this happened to me. All while making sure I don't get passed by a girl.  It is so frustrating now for me to look back at my training, seeing me hitting long sets at 7:10 - 7:30 pace to have my average pace now being around 9.  And struggling.  I ran past the whole like 10 people cheering and then finish.  Hallelujah.  The hot struggle is over.  Ran in 1:59::56, 4th best in my age group.  The girl at the beginning of the run with me ran a 1:51:40 and the girl that won the age group did a 1:44:27  which is still slower than I anticipated I would do, even with the heat.  But oh well.  I finished in 5:30:30.  Which Susan tells me is 3rd in my AG.  And this ended up being 19th female overall.  So really at the end of the day, I can't complain.  Except for the foot spasms I had post race that knocked me off me feet. Seriously, Susan said she could see my foot freaking out.  So weird.

This race, even though it is Ironman branded, has the feel of a smaller race.  The volunteers at this race were the friendliest of any that I have ever encountered and the race directors were so personable.  After the event, they do an awards banquet that evening.  The host hotel was the Holiday Inn and the food was as expected.  Only complaint is the room was super hot (no compression pants or you will overheat) and they kept running out of water.  They started the awards around 7pm going handcycles first and then oldest to youngest.  I waited patiently for my age group, the 30 - 34 females.  I watched time after time people saying that they didn't want to go to the 70.3 world championships.  Now I did Galveston 70.3 and got 3rd in my AG, there were only 2 slots, and the other 2 girls took them.  So the only reason why I did this race to get a slot.  Well they had the number of slots per age group posted and there was only 1.  So I was already thinking I didn't get a slot.  But of course I was hanging out to get the trophy.  Which OMG these trophies rock - it is a nice sized buffalo.  Totally brag worthy.  Anyways, they call us out and we go on stage.  They ask the first placed girl if she wants the slot.  She says no.  They ask the second place slot if she wants the slot and she says yes.  And is super happy.  And my heart drops.  But I smile as it was great that she got it .  And I could see the annoucer guy looking at his paperwork. And then he asks, "Claudia Smith, would you like to go to Canada?" and my reply?  "Hell yeah!!!"  So I got a world championship slot to go race in Mont Tremblant Quebec Canada!!  Awesome!  For like 5 hours, I had convinced myself I had no hope of getting a slot.  But I did!!!!!! So, while it was  not a PR kind of day, mission accomplished!  See ya in Canada!

Oh and driving a car for 8+ hours the day after a half ironman makes for a very stiff back!

My Galveson 70.3 Recap

A couple weeks before, there was an oil spill in the bay and then leading up to the race, the weather man was saying it would rain along with thunder and lightning. But got the all clear on the water and the weather was not threatening on race morning so the races proceeded as planned.

When checking in, my friend Amanda and I got to skip the long, really long athlete check in and went straight to the front. Why? Because we are what Ironman brand calls an All World Athlete. Still a little shocked at this because I only did two Ironman brand events last year and they were Ironman Texas which I got 31st in my age group and then Austin 70.3 which I got 13th in my age group. So I am only a bronze level athlete and they put a nice bronze sticker on my race bib to let everyone know. :)

Arrived at the race site at about 5:30am and quickly setup my transition spot. Nowadays, I am faster at setting this up. Sometimes I obsess about the transition setup, but I have set this up the same way for the last few times and it seems to work great for me, so why change things up? Well, this morning it was raining and looked certain that it would rain more, so I put my bike shoes, run shoes and all run gears in bags. Seemed to help a little. 

After this was setup, went to say hello at the JSC/SBS tents. Went for a quick "wake up" run and then back to the tent to begin the wetsuit setup. I was in the first non pro wave for 7:10. However, start was delayed by 5 minutes. Standing just outside the pier, looking at the pros swim and the kayaks in the water, I noticed some waves and it was still pretty dim out to see the first turn buoy. 

Anyways the first cannon goes off and the pros swim away. It becomes our turn, we walk down to the pier and hop off to get our first taste of ocean water. It wasn't that cold and well it is Galveston so the water isn't clear. Treaded water for 5 minutes and then off we went. I have been working on my swim, in the pool. But unfortunately, I need help in open water. I, even though I have done 8 tris now, still seem to forget how to swim when it comes to open water. I get so disoriented and tend to swim more than the race distance, every time. I need to find someone to take the time and watch me in open water. And fix it. Any volunteers? Anyways, the waves really don't help me with sighting or swimming in a straight line considering the current worked against me. 

My goal was to sprint the start and then find some feet to stick on. I made it all of 100 meters and then got a serious kick to my right goggle and when I went up to sight, took in a LOT of water. In my mouth. Galveston water. Eww. So no feet for me. Anyways I slowly made progress towards that first turn buoy, taking in water a few more times. Double Eww! At this point, I am doubting ever doing a triathlon again. (this was my first ocean swim) Never in a race have I been so happy to see that first turn buoy. The next straightaway was easier, waves not coming right in my face. Found some feet finally and hung on for a while, but then realized this person was leading me more right. Duoh! And then I saw the wave after us had already caught up. Bummer. Made it to the last turn buoy and swam straight towards the swim exit. Or so I thought. I went a little far right and missed the ramp to exit. Swam in 41:45 for 41st in my age group.

Ran to transition, passing people, seriously, why don't people run while in transition? And got straight to my bike.  Easy to find as it was racked in the first row.  And I was the only bike in my age group with lime green tires.  Maybe doesn't match the best on my bike but definitely makes it easier to spot.  Throw on my helmet, run to just before bike out, throw Considering my sub par swim, I knew I had to bring it on the bike.  On the way out, there was a tailwind. I capitalized on that for sure, hitting the turn around in like 1:06.  The turn around I slowed way down for - don't need to crash due to the roads being slick!  And at this point I couldn't see anymore out of my sunglasses, and took them off, putting them in my back pocket.  And hit a head wind.  But it wasn't too crazy.  The wind shifted a little like 10 - 15 miles from the end.  Crosswinds with my 80s on was a little interesting but I have been there, done that on these wheels.  Nothing new.  Had some guys pass me but I held on to one and then the turns to the end.  Got to say, I felt like I was flying on the tarmack.  That was kind of cool/unique.  I had the fasted bike split in my age group putting me now 6th in my age group with 2:24:18.

Quickly got in transition, put on the socks and shoes and off I ran.  At this point, the sprinkling of the rain was done and the humidity was in full force.  I got some water at every single aid station, some with ice, and tossed it over my head.  For like a few seconds of relief.  Thankfully they have aid stations every mile pretty much.  My tummy was begging me to make a quick pit stop, did that in like 40 seconds (record?) and off again.  My legs were a little heavy and boy did I just want to quit.  But again, not giving in.  It seemed like a lot further than just over 4 miles but made it through the first one.  At the beginning of the second, I was doubting that I could stick the pace.  I tried real hard and began the 3rd lap, just looking to at least stay the pace and if I can, pick up a little at the end.  I didn't really pick up the pace until a quarter mile from the finish but finished strong.  Ran myself into 3rd place in my age group with a 1:39:29. 

Going into this race, I had a few dream goals and realistic goals.  1. Go sub 5 hours - finished in 4:49:49 2. podium in my age group - got 3rd place 3. don't let any of the JSC guys finish before me - Colin passed me but I was just finishing up my 2nd lap where he was finishing the 1st so success 4. - get a World champs slot.  Well that one I failed on.  There were two slots in my AG and the other two girls claimed them.  So I waited for roll down and they rolled down in the 35 - 39 and 40 - 45 but then the older ladies didn't want their slots so that opened up some for the most populated age groups.  Those previously mentioned.  There were two ladies waiting around for them and took them.  I would have been next, if there was one more slot.  So I missed a slot by one, twice.  :(  Oh well, better race harder next time!

Recovery?

Three weeks ago, I did my mega PR in the Austin 70.3. Two weeks ago, I did a half marathon in the winning women's relay. Since then I haven't did much and I am okay with that! After Ironman Texas in May, I took two weeks off. At that point, I was pretty much not sure what I would do next. The whole reason why I got into triathlons was to do do an Ironman. So I progressed slowly towards that goal in a year's time. So when it was over, the thought came about..."um so I just did an Ironman. What else should I do?" For two weeks I slept on it and for those two weeks, so many people asked me "what's next"? I swore I would never do another Ironman, maybe another half here and there but why do another one? Well, I planned another race for myself, a 5k. It was a pretty hot one on July 4th but, for it being a pretty popular race, I came out pretty good with 3rd in my age group. And then I figured, I would fully re-commit to this whole triathlon thing, get a new coach, eat better and try harder. I know, I know, I just did an Ironman, how much harder could I try? The answer is a lot. And after that I podiumed a couple times and then had a mega PR. So obviously the right decision was made. :D And I honestly can say those two weeks off were the first couple weeks I took off since starting running again in 2010. And I partially think I had these better results due to taking that break and time to refocus. So after Austin, I have done a couple recovery swims and runs and bikes. And I am not sweating it. I am paying attention to my body and am going to do some off season work. And finish wedding planning and maybe actually clean a little more often... So, this off season, it is time to work. Next up, the Woodlands Half Marathon March 1st and then New Orleans 70.3. Other than that, I have decided to give another go at this whole Ironman thing and plan on Ironman Cozumel 2014. Happy training!