Ironman 70.3 World Championship Qualifier

1,935 competitors (imbeciles) including ME

This is the last .3 miles of the race = why I look so rough! The more unattractive the picture the better. Captures the true essence of pushing yourself to the limit ;-)

I did my very first Half Ironman at this same race last year. Eagleman is notorious for its heat. Guaranteed over 90 degree temps; not a hint of shade for the entire 70.3 mile swim-bike-run course. When I crossed the finish line 5 hours, 30 minutes, and 32 seconds later I thought to myself “I won’t be doing that hot mess of a race EVER again.”

2017…I’m backkkkk

My Dad's the jokester in the family.
According to him, his shirt stands for "United States of Africa".

Pictures are funny. Here I am, all smiles. Usually the week before a big race I have epic meltdowns (i.e. crying, dread, obsessively checking the weather, humidity, dew point, wind direction….basically anything I can find on the internet, oh and daily phone calls to my parents asking what happened in my past that led me to make such poor choices). And then the day before the race a huge wave of excitement and relief comes over me. It's like someone winds me up and then I can finally go go go.

The lead up to this race went pretty smoothly.  I nailed my workouts. I was confident in my nutrition plan. I felt super fit. I even hit a max of 16 hours of training one week (in addition to working a full time job). Physically, I was ready. The only hiccup was the bike. I was still having trouble on my Scott Plasma. Don't get me wrong, it's a great bike. Unfortunately, it just wasn't the right bike for me. No matter how many fittings I had done or how much time I spent training on that thing, I was constantly in pain and maxing out at 137 FTP (no power). About 3 weeks before the race I met up with my friend Michelle (former pro triathlete) and her husband Anthony (former pro cyclist). They watched me, video taped me, picked me apart (you can see the videos on my Instagram page). Conclusion: I needed a new bike. End of story. And since I'm rich and have thousands of dollars sitting around just waiting to be spent it was an easy fix....NOT. My parents: "We support you. We'll be your bike sponsor" <3 

“The greatest gift you can give anyone is to truly believe in them”

Thank you Mom and Dad, my biggest cheerleaders, supporters, number 1 sponsors. (Dad in the pic...Mom forever taking the pictures; at bike check in with my beautiful new Specialized Shiv)

I had 2 1/2 weeks to get adjusted on a new bike. Not ideal. But boy was it worth it. Thank you Village Bicycles (Walt and Connie) for taking such good care of me. I swear I lived at that shop up until the race. Something is wrong when I'm at the bike shop more often than the running store! 

Race Day

I set a crazy goal for myself. Crack 5 hours and qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Considering I had only finished in 5 hours and 30 minutes at this race last year, it was an absurd goal. But anything can happen! Take my Marathon for example. In March, I went into the One City Marathon with a PR of 3:06:55. I had my mind dead set on breaking 3 hours. I trained hard. Went after it. And crossed the line in 3:00:06. Just a few seconds shy of what seemed like an insurmountable goal. #trainhard #believeinyourself

The Swim (1.2 miles)

Swim Start

Can you spot me???? (Hint: I'm the black one)

I actually had a great few hundred meters. Then it all began to fall apart at the first turn buoy. We swam counterclockwise this year (versus clockwise last year). I had trouble spotting and I ended up drifting farrrrrr off to the left. To be honest with you, I was expecting my watch to say 40 minutes by the time I got out of the water. 

Swim Exit

According to my parents I did not look happy. I wasn't! I glanced at my watch: 36:24 (versus 35 minutes last year). I had swam an extra .12 miles. What can I say? I have a ton of things I need to work on (i.e. rotating my hips, not taking 24 strokes every 25 yards, so on and so forth). I told myself stay positive. It's a long race. You still have 69 more miles to make up the deficit. Plus, for the first time EVER I was really looking forward to the bike leg. In the past I always looked at it as a necessary evil. Just something I had to endure to get from the swim to the run. This time I was a lot more confident and excited to see how things would unfold.

The Bike (56 miles)

I hopped on my bike and I immediately felt that same weird leg-burn thing that I experienced on my old bike. I glanced at my watch. I was only averaging in the high 17 mph range. I felt ....depressed. I started getting angry. I'm going back to running. Forget this cycling crap. If I have to be on this bike for 3 plus hours I'm never doing another one of these things. The bike course at Eagleman is very windy so that wasn't helping matters. But then something strange happened. I started loosening up. The leg burn became more manageable and I started passing people. My splits kept getting faster and faster. I was actually...dare I say...enjoying myself. 

My Splits

 

I ended up averaging 19.73 mph for 56 miles (versus 17.6 mph in 2016). I biked 17 minutes faster than last year!! While I'm still super slow and no where near competitive on a bike, this was a huge breakthrough for me. I'm super grateful :-) All those hours doing my TrainerRoad workouts, as well as getting up early every Sunday to meet Connie and her crew out in Smithfield, paid off. Oh and a big thank you to Anthony and Michelle for helping me find the right bike.

Next up: My baby, the run ;-)

The Run (13.1 miles/half marathon)

I was so pumped to get out on the run course. In fact, I was so confident in myself that I thought I could run around 1:31. Umm yeah no. It was bad. Very very bad. It was around 11:45 am at this point. The sun was out in all it's glory. It was over 90 degrees and I was tired. 

Heading out on the Half Marathon run course

I knew within the very first mile that it was going to be a sufferfest and I was going to have to dig really deep in order to keep going. By mile 5 I was toast. I looked at my watch and realized that I wasn't going to finish anywhere near 5 hours. And at the rate I was heading I wasn't even going to PR. By the time I got to the aid station I just wanted to crawl under the table and hide from the sun (and take a nap). Instead I grabbed as many cups of water as I could and dumped them on my head and soldiered onward. I also remembered something my coach said: "The key thing I want you to remember is that no matter what happens, good or bad, you keep moving with the belief that anything can happen over that distance. Talk to yourself as positively as you can and keep going."

I kept repeating over and over again "anything can happen, keep going." And truth be told, even though I was in a world of pain and felt slowwwww I was actually passing people. A TON of people. So I focused on that....the fact that no matter how bad I felt I was still moving forward. I ended up running a 1:38 half marathon. Not nearly as fast as I envisioned, but you know what .. it was 4 minutes faster than last year so I'll take it!

Heading down the red carpet towards the finish line

I did it!! I crossed the finish line in 5:12:19. Huge PR. I collapsed on the grass and began mumbling to my parents....don't EVER let me do anything like that to myself again......wait where did I place?? Did I qualify for the World Championships hahahhaa. Gotta love it. 

Happy as a clam

 

Yes! I qualified. Congrats to Adam Otstot for his 4th place finish AND for talking me into waiting around to see if I qualified! I didn't think my place/time was going to be enough. But it was :-)

On to the next one...

I’m not any good at it yet, but I absolutely LOVE this distance! It’s where I think I have the most potential. It might sound cocky, but I still think sub 5-hours is well within reach. I just have to keep working at it.

Up next...Camp/Clinic followed by the Jefferson Sprint, Tidewater Sprint (my favorite), and then the Boston Triathlon.

Shout out and a huge thank you to IRaceLikeAGirl, Virginia / Maryland Triathlon Series, Point 2 Running Company, TrainerRoad, and Mr. Slowtwitch. As well as Triathlon Business International for letting me write about something I'm truly passionate about: http://triathlonbusinessintl.com/changing-the-color-of-triathlon.html