I figured that since I’m racing again TOMORROW (!!!) I
should probably put my Santa Cruz Race Report up first!
This was my first actual tri of the season, so I was pretty
nervous, but excited, to see how my training translated to running off the
bike. I had a goal of breaking 5:30, and
running a sub 2 hour half marathon, but I just didn’t know what to really
expect for the day.
Since the race was in Santa Cruz and my hubby was out of
town, I decided to sleep in my own bed and drive over the hill early on race morning. I was nervous about the parking situation, so
I was up at 3 am!!! I ended up with a super convenient parking spot and napped
a bit until transition opened at 5.
Coach had tons of athletes racing which was super fun. After transition set up, I met up with Jenesse
and her super Sherpa husband/photographer extraordinaire (Dennis gets photo
cred for most of the photos in this post).
Just like at Vineman (which I’ll recap soon!) I was really
relaxed before the start. Jenesse and I
hopped in the water on our way to the swim start to get adjusted and it was a
gloriously perfect 63 degrees – seriously I was surprised at how pleasant the
water felt!
Pre race nutrition: PB/honey sandwich, banana, ½ Honey
Stinger Waffle, bottle of skratch
The swim was ROUGH – it’s an ocean swim, going around the
pier and it felt like I was swimming against current all three ways. It was especially choppy near the end of the
pier! I drank lots of water, but kept my
cool and still came out of the water in 14th! Not too shabby! Even with the conditions, it ended up being a
PR by a whole minute!
SWIM: 35:12. GEAR:
Coeur Sports team kit, Roka Maverick Pro Wetsuit, Roka F2 Goggles in Light
Amber (seriously these are the best! So freaking comfortable and easy to see
out of, even though it was overcast with the sun peeking out at the start.)
After a crazy long run to transition, I was off on the
bike. I got new race wheels (Enve SES 6.7s…thank
you #coeursports #sponsorlove) Felt awesome…until I got stung by a wasp!!!
Thank goodness I’m not allergic! The weather was perfectly overcast and I just
rolled along! With this being basically
a hometown race, almost all of Coach Muddy’s athletes were racing and it was
awesome cheering everyone on out on the course!
The course follows Hwy 1 and
has some beautiful views of the coast. Luckily
the winds weren’t too crazy on race day!
Half way to the turnaround, the course cuts off the highway onto a
winding backroad…and this is where one girl simply drove me crazy! She just would not move to her right…just
rode along blocking everyone behind her!
It was crazy frustrating, but once we were back on Hwy 1, I dropped her
for good!
After unpacking, realized I DEFINTELY didn’t eat or drink
enough, but my stomach felt a little wonky and I just wasn’t feeling too much
food :/ I think I drank 1.5 bottles of
scratch and about 350 calories over my 2:45 bike…definitely need to work on
that before Arizona.
BIKE: 2:45:46, 20.27mph.
8 MIN PR!!! 6th off
the bike!!! GEAR: Cervelo P3, Enve 6.7 wheels, Rudy Wingspan helmet, LouisGarneau Tri-400 shoes, Castelli T-1 stealth jersey
Onto the run. My goal
with this race was to break 2 hours on the half. I was super close last year, with 2:00:33,
and I was determined today would be the day I put that in the past! Coach’s orders were to get “keep” my HR at
140-45 for the first 5k…yeah right!!! It started out at 160, dipped to 157 and
would not budge lower. I tried to slow
down, but honestly just felt solid and steady.
My stomach was a bit sloshy and I wanted to take some salt to calm it
down, but the salt pills I had put in my tri top came out because of my race
belt! Bummer. My stomach settled down on it’s own,
thankfully, and I sipped on a bottle of Skratch and had a salted caramel Gu at
about mile 5 during the run. After 5k of
actively trying to go slow I switched the screen of my Garmin and just
ran. I felt great…and kind of like I was
running through the halls of high school…I saw almost everyone I knew on the
out and back run course and was constantly saying Hi and cheering them on! So
fun! I had a smile on my face for the
entire run (until I got to the sand). With
4 miles left, I knew that even if I dropped my pace to 10 min miles, I would
still reach my goal of sub 2 hours…but I wanted a serious run PR, so just kept
grinding away!!
The last ¼ mile is on the sand…and whoever came up with this
idea is just nuts! It was
miserable!! I tried to run closer to the
water, on the hard packed sand, but then the waves would soak my feet and they
would be covered by the dry sand and feel like sloshy sand bricks!! NOT
cool. But I just tried to run as fast as
I could. I always remember the words of
my HS cross country coach … If you’re out there a long time, you must be
enjoying yourself. If it’s hard, run faster…then you’re done with the torture
sooner! And that I did. I just gritted
my teeth and ran as hard as I could to be done. A picture is worth a thousand words and Dennis
captured a pic that completely depicts how I felt about that run!
RUN: 1:53:42, 10th AG. General consensus is that the run was about a
¼ mile short, because the run from the swim exit to T1 was a ¼ mile, but I will
still take my run time, thank you! GEAR:
Coach Muddy trucker hat, Feetures socks with tri slide sprayed on first to
prevent blisters, Saucony Kinvara 6s.
OVERALL: 5:23:15, 10th AG, 14+ minute PR!!!
Huge shout out to my #tripletsforlyfe training partner on
her MONSTER PR and first time on the podium…that girl is going places! Now it’s time to rest up before we do it all
again tomorrow at Lake Tahoe 70.3!!
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