This last weekend I raced in my first ever 70.3 distance triathlon (half ironman)! I had a great race - not only did I manage to PR my half marathon time (1:47) after biking hard, I estimated a finish time around 6 hours and ended up with 5:26:20! I got first in my age group and 9th woman overall! I enjoyed the course, Raise the Bar put on a great event, and had a blast racing against some stellar triathletes!
Swim: It was a 2 loop swim course around a diamond of buoys. I started in the middle of the pack at the very front which is so not my style, and I did not enjoy getting kicked and dunked and slapped around! Someone hit my goggles and I freaked because they filled with water in the first 100m! I fixed them fortunately and focused the first 10 minutes on just finding some space where I could get into a groove! I found this woman who was doing a stellar job sighting and navigating around the slower men so I followed her the rest of the swim and then passed her at the very end. My watch said I swam in 35 minutes but the transition was long, so I ended up with a 36 min swim. Nice lake to swim in!
T1: WHY AM I SO SLOW AT T1?! I tried to push it but took 2:16 - and almost all the other top 10 girls did it in 1:30 or less. MUST WORK ON THIS!!!
Bike: The course was 2ish loops with a little bit of difference on the 2nd loop. I knew going into this race that I had not tapered properly and might not have my fastest time. The first 10 miles of the bike, my legs just HURT. I couldn't get into a groove and I felt kind of sad I had pushed my training so hard the week before. Something clicked and after I got closer to 20 miles and my legs and my brain started cooperating. I spent most of the ride switching back and forth leading with a couple guys (I always pass going up hill, and they always fly by me going downhill). There were some false flats that were tough, but generally the course wasn't TOO hilly. Strava says I climbed 2,800 ft but I'm guessing it was less than 2k. I enjoyed the course for the most part (I did NOT like the sharp turnarounds that we had to do 3 times). It was tough trying to figure out my pacing - how hard to push to still have a decent half marathon... I think I could have gone harder because my legs felt pretty good at the start of the run, and I'd prefer them to feel a little more thrashed!! My bike time clocked in at 2:58:02! (56 miles)
T2: I had the EXACT same time - 2:16 on this transition. T2 should always be faster than T1. I was way too lax in this transition. I was SO stoked I biked less than 3 hours (I thought it'd take about 3:15) that I took a little time to make sure I had everything I needed for the half marathon ahead! (including sipping on some nuun performance - if I had cut a minute in this transition I could have hit 7th place overall!!!!)
Run: My legs felt pretty good going into the run! Which probably means I could have gone a little faster on the bike. It was a bit of a mental shift to have the adrenaline of the race pumping and know I needed to try to pace myself because I hadn't run a half marathon distance in a few months! I tried to beat my brain and just chip away at the miles. If I could get an hour in, I could finish this thing no problem. I'd be more than halfway done with the run and it'd be smooth sailing. So that was what I focused on. Run for an hour, and take it from there. The run course was a little strange - it was a one "loop" course, with one out and back you did twice and another out and back you did once. It felt like a lot of uphill. I was feeling pretty great once I hit the hour mark, but as soon as I hit about 9 miles I started getting some cramping in my legs. I was so worried the cramping would take over I slowed down (I had been averaging about 7:45 miles and dropped to 8:45 at that mile). I was worried this was going to ruin my whole race! I had to really take it easy for those next two miles but as soon as I got to 11 miles I knew I could still finish this thing mostly strong. The last mile of this run is around the lake in the woods which I LOVED, and because I feel comfortable on trails I passed a woman in the woods which took me from 10th place to 9th place overall! I ran across the finish line with a 1:47 half marathon split! Not a bad run considering I had to slow down pretty drastically for a few miles! (hoping to get this cramping issue figured out next time - I'd love to do below 1:45!)
Overall time - 5:26:20! I was thrilled with this time.
I will definitely do the Black Diamond half again - if it lines up with my race calendar! It's hard to think about races for 2018 when I'm still 65 days out from my A race for the year... but definitely going to sprinkle some 70.3 races on my calendar (how cool would it be to qualify for world champs in south africa next year?!) along with a full distance race. Looking forward to mapping those out soon!
Swim: It was a 2 loop swim course around a diamond of buoys. I started in the middle of the pack at the very front which is so not my style, and I did not enjoy getting kicked and dunked and slapped around! Someone hit my goggles and I freaked because they filled with water in the first 100m! I fixed them fortunately and focused the first 10 minutes on just finding some space where I could get into a groove! I found this woman who was doing a stellar job sighting and navigating around the slower men so I followed her the rest of the swim and then passed her at the very end. My watch said I swam in 35 minutes but the transition was long, so I ended up with a 36 min swim. Nice lake to swim in!
T1: WHY AM I SO SLOW AT T1?! I tried to push it but took 2:16 - and almost all the other top 10 girls did it in 1:30 or less. MUST WORK ON THIS!!!
Bike: The course was 2ish loops with a little bit of difference on the 2nd loop. I knew going into this race that I had not tapered properly and might not have my fastest time. The first 10 miles of the bike, my legs just HURT. I couldn't get into a groove and I felt kind of sad I had pushed my training so hard the week before. Something clicked and after I got closer to 20 miles and my legs and my brain started cooperating. I spent most of the ride switching back and forth leading with a couple guys (I always pass going up hill, and they always fly by me going downhill). There were some false flats that were tough, but generally the course wasn't TOO hilly. Strava says I climbed 2,800 ft but I'm guessing it was less than 2k. I enjoyed the course for the most part (I did NOT like the sharp turnarounds that we had to do 3 times). It was tough trying to figure out my pacing - how hard to push to still have a decent half marathon... I think I could have gone harder because my legs felt pretty good at the start of the run, and I'd prefer them to feel a little more thrashed!! My bike time clocked in at 2:58:02! (56 miles)
T2: I had the EXACT same time - 2:16 on this transition. T2 should always be faster than T1. I was way too lax in this transition. I was SO stoked I biked less than 3 hours (I thought it'd take about 3:15) that I took a little time to make sure I had everything I needed for the half marathon ahead! (including sipping on some nuun performance - if I had cut a minute in this transition I could have hit 7th place overall!!!!)
Run: My legs felt pretty good going into the run! Which probably means I could have gone a little faster on the bike. It was a bit of a mental shift to have the adrenaline of the race pumping and know I needed to try to pace myself because I hadn't run a half marathon distance in a few months! I tried to beat my brain and just chip away at the miles. If I could get an hour in, I could finish this thing no problem. I'd be more than halfway done with the run and it'd be smooth sailing. So that was what I focused on. Run for an hour, and take it from there. The run course was a little strange - it was a one "loop" course, with one out and back you did twice and another out and back you did once. It felt like a lot of uphill. I was feeling pretty great once I hit the hour mark, but as soon as I hit about 9 miles I started getting some cramping in my legs. I was so worried the cramping would take over I slowed down (I had been averaging about 7:45 miles and dropped to 8:45 at that mile). I was worried this was going to ruin my whole race! I had to really take it easy for those next two miles but as soon as I got to 11 miles I knew I could still finish this thing mostly strong. The last mile of this run is around the lake in the woods which I LOVED, and because I feel comfortable on trails I passed a woman in the woods which took me from 10th place to 9th place overall! I ran across the finish line with a 1:47 half marathon split! Not a bad run considering I had to slow down pretty drastically for a few miles! (hoping to get this cramping issue figured out next time - I'd love to do below 1:45!)
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| That moment you realize you PR'ed your 1/2 time |
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| Sticky, sweaty, nonstop smiles |
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| Sharing the podium... tri love <3 |
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