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| Spoiler Alert!!! Celebrating with #roseallday ;) |
My “A” race
this season is Ironman Chattanooga, so IM Santa Rosa 70.3 was going to be a
test of the fitness 2 months out. As my 9th 70.3, I went into
race weekend/registration/preparation like it was old hat. I was super
relaxed…my shake out ride/run went smoothly, registration was easy, checked my
bike into the transport shuttle so I didn’t have to deal with traffic up to
Lake Sonoma, and had a great lunch with good friends. All this was
done by 1:30, and it was time to kick my feet up and relax for the rest of the
afternoon at our delightful AirBnB up in Healdsburg. Everything was going great. Then mom and
I headed out to my traditional pre-race dinner of Basil Chicken at the Thai
Orchid Restaurant…and that is where the night took a turn…
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| Sherpa Extraordinaire - My Mom! |
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| Best part of the Air BnB - 2.5 year old Uma!! |
During dinner,
mom realized she didn’t have her wallet. After checking the car, we
thought she left it at the cottage. After dinner, we turned the cottage
inside out…no wallet. So we went back to check the restaurant and parking
lot again…no wallet. Back to the cottage to scour it again. As
we’re searching a second time, I realize that I had all three of my gear bags
(morning clothes, bike gear, and run gear). And it hit me…I was supposed
to turn in my run bag at T2 in Santa Rosa earlier that day since the race has
two different transition locations!!! All
that relaxation from earlier in the day went right out the window. I knew
it would work out ok, but I had to revamp my race morning plan, including a
wake-up call 45 minutes earlier than planned! Plus it meant that I tossed
and turned all night worried that I would miss my alarm :/ That will definitely teach me a lesson in not
taking my race prep seriously!!!
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| 5am arrival at Lake Sonoma |
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| Ironman definitely made the right call! Photo Cred: Tammy |
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| The lake was nice and clear by the time we started riding! Photo Cred: Tammy |
Race morning
rolls around. I make it to T2 in plenty of time, grab a spot on one of
the shuttle busses, and pop in my new favorite playlist for the drive up to
Lake Sonoma. As we arrived, I completely understood why Ironman was
contemplating cancelling or shortening the swim…the dark and fog was super
eerie! But I found my bike racked right where it was supposed to be (thank
goodness the Tribike transport shuttle worked so well) and prepped Penny the P3
for the day ahead. Then it was a waiting game. Lots of potty stops
and chatting with most of my friends in transition until the final decision was
made at 7am that the swim was cancelled. I was surprisingly bummed (I
don’t hate swimming, but it’s definitely my least favorite of the 3) because I
really wanted to test out my swim improvements from Coach Tom’s torture sessions
for the past year.
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| Body marking by friends is the best! Photo Cred: Tammy |
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| Killing time with Kathy and Bill until the swim was cancelled! |
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| Pre-race photo with Brenda - Thanks for pulling me along when you caught me on the run! |
Bike: 2:32.15 - The race began
with a time trial start with 5 people being sent off on their bikes every 5
seconds. I lucked out because of my AWA
status and was within the first 100ish people out on the course. Coach Muddy had given me a plan for the day
and it started out with riding my bike as hard as I could. The course was
great, weather was perfect, and it turned out to be a beautiful day.
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| Flying through the vineyards. Photo cred: @alpynephoto |
Even though there was an elevation gain of
about 2k, most of that was on rolling hills, and I just felt like I was
flying! I played leapfrog with another
lady for most of the day, totally legal on both our parts, but great motivation
to keep pushing the pace the whole time.
As I rolled into transition, I checked my watch and saw that I held
nearly 22mph and came in with a 13 minute bike PR!!! So stoked!
My mom yelled out that I was in 4th, which was awesome, but
my main goal was to execute my plan and as long as I did that I would be happy
with my day regardless of placement. But
it was definitely an incentive to keep my head in the game on the run.
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| A look of concern when I thought my watch was broken! Photo cred: @alpynephoto |
Run: 14:41.12 - After a quick
transition, I was off for the last 13.1 miles of the day. My legs felt great as I started running, and
as I looked down at my watch to check my pace, I thought my watch was
broken! My pace was WAY faster than I
imagined and when mile one clicked over at 7:11, I was shocked. I knew that the “out” portion of the 2-loop
run course was slightly downhill, and I still had 12 miles to go, so I tried to
dial back my pace. Coach said he would
be happy with 8:20s for my first few miles, but when mile 2 clicked off at
7:31, I decided to just go with it and hold that pace as long as possible.
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| Is it really an Ironman run if I don't do jazz hands?!? Photo credit: mom :) |
The course was
shady and quiet for the first loop so it was easy to settle into a rhythm. The miles passed pretty quickly and soon I
was at the turn around. When I was out
on the bike course I spotted 2 of my training partners with Coach Muddy and I
was certain that they would catch me before the end of the bike. But they didn’t, and when I finally saw them
on the run my goal was to hold them off for as long as I could 😉 I managed to do just that…barely! I heard the finish line announcer call out John’s
name just as I crossed the line, and Jeff and Fred crossed the line minutes
later. I managed to pull out a 3 minute
run PR, but the best part was feeling like I could have kept on running at that
pace (I guess that means I should have run faster, but it bodes well for IM
Chattanooga!)
Total (69.1 miles): 4:17.16
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| #muddylove - Best training partners ever! |
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| Women's 35-39 Podium! |
All in all, it
was a solid day of racing. I’m still a
bit bummed that we didn’t swim because I KNOW I would have had a huge 70.3 PR (and
my first sub 5 hour finish), but I am beyond proud of my day and my first 70.3
podium spot. And the best part of racing
“local” was the number of friends I shared the course with, and spotting my photographer
hubby out on the course. And as always,
a huge shout out to my Sherpa extraordinaire mom – xoxo
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| This crazy triathlon obsession all started because of that guy in middle! |
59 days to IMChattanooga!! #headdowndowork
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