Double-Double Pt. 2: Oilman 70.3

So right after racing Austin 70.3 I ran into my coach as she was walking back into the arena to get her Worlds spot (can I say Bad Ass!) and she told me that my plan was up but to go by feel.  I'm so happy she told me that because I could barely move my legs for two days after the race.  I did manage an easy spin midweek but I was spending a lot of time with my feet up and sleeping in before work.  

Finally Saturday morning comes and Brian and I load up the car and head out to East Texas.  This was going to be his last triathlon of the season too so we were both excited.  We finally got to Conroe and found the resort and picked up our packets and checked into the hotel.  I would totally recommend staying at the resort.  The rooms were super nice and we were on the 15th floor so we had a great view.  After we settled into the room we headed out to drive the bike course since neither of us was familiar with the area.  The landscape is totally different than San Antonio so I was excited to see some new things.  What I was not excited for was the wind and the cool temps.  I tried to stay optimistic and told myself that the wind would be gone by tomorrow and it would be warmer in the morning.  Race morning came and we had a nice, short walk to transition in the resort's parking lot.  It was definitely still cool in the morning and still windy.  After we racked our bikes and got our timing chip we walked down to the water. They said the water was about 70*, so just warm enough for my sleeveless wetsuit.      

Swim:  41:17

The swim was a beach start so when they told you to go, you had to run into the water and start swimming. The water was pretty shallow so you could probably walk a pretty long way out into the water but once the water seemed high enough I started swimming.  Everything went great around the first turn and I noticed some waves on the way to the second turn marker.  Okay, so far so good.  I'm passing people and I'm almost to the second turn.  BAM!!  a foot right between the eyes.  "M*therf*&&er!!" were the words that came out of my mouth as I raised up and reached up to push my goggles back on my face.  I shot the kicker a dirty look and continued swimming.  I'll be damned if I was going to stop and clear the water out of my goggles.  Luckily they weren't filling up with anymore water so it was tolerable.  Now I started to notice how choppy the water was.  There were swells raising me up and slapping me down.  I remember thinking to myself that I was glad that I don't get seasick because the rolling motion could make someone feel queasy.  I could have sworn that someone was driving their boat back and forth on purpose stirring up the water to cause waves.  Okay, now this is choppy water!  But I was very happy that my sighting was on course and I wasn't being pulled all over the place in the water.  The rest of the swim was, thankfully, uneventful.  I noticed that my arms were feeling kind of tired, which was not a big surprise.  I kind of was just taking stock of how I was feeling and was happy that I wasn't feeling too tired.    

I ran into T1 and took the time to dry off a little bit and put on my bike jacket.  I had made the decision to wear the jacket on the run to the bike when instead of feeling comfortable I was still cold.  A lot of the bike course was through the shaded national forest and I didn't want to be cold.  

Bike:  3:18:51

My friend, Aixa, had lent me her "magic" wheels.  Cute pink Zipp wheels that are autographed by Hilary Biscay and Maik Twelseik.  I was really hoping to not let them down.  Alas, the bike course is a tale of two journeys.  The way out was awesome.  The wind was at my bike and I was averaging exactly where I wanted to.  I hit the halfway mark about 1 minute under my goal time and I was super stoked about that.  But once I turned onto the road headed back, it was straight into a headwind.  I tried my best to just tuck in tight and pedal strong, but I could feel my legs just didn't have the power in them that they did last weekend.  With about 2 or 3 miles left on the bike I was shifting my front ring and the chain dropped.  So I had to stop and fix that, which probably took a couple of minutes.  Overall, I'm not too dissatisfied with my bike split, because even though it's not my fastest (or even second fastest) it's way better than it used to be when I first started racing.  And just for the record, there were a few F-bombs on the bike course as well.  Mostly aimed at the wind and the dropped chain.  :)  

I was so happy to drop my bike off into T2 and I had a pretty smooth transition from my bike shoes to running shoes.  No falling over this time!

Run:  2:05:43

The run.  What can I say about this run....it was painful.  Luckily this course is flat so I didn't have to worry about hills.  I really wanted to go sub 2 hrs on this run but I'm so happy with my time.  This course was a 3-loop course, again, and I just remember thinking to myself, "Just get to the third loop".  I was not looking at my watch until it beeped to tell me what my mile splits were.  I was actually pleasantly surprised to see the low 9-min pace I was running.  Okay, maybe this run won't be so bad after all!  I again came to the conclusion that a 3-loop run course is just torture.  My second lap hurt and I was so happy to start my third loop.  There was one F-bomb on the run when my watch lost satellite reception and it pissed me off. I remember approaching the 10 mile mark and the guy I was passing (ha!) said he just wanted a beer.  I told him that I just wanted to stop running!  I finally saw Brian on the side of the road finished with the race and he looked great!  I was so happy to see him.  I told him I had a little over 2 miles to go.  Once I hit the 12 mile mark I decided to "drop the hammer".  I figured I could hang on for a mile to finish strong.  This ended up being my fastest split and it felt great to see the legs respond.

Total:  6:12:31

I have never been so happy to be done with a race.  Brian was there at the finish line and he came over and gave me the best congratulatory hug ever.  That's when I lost it.  The tears just came and wouldn't stop.  Brian just tucked me under his arm and lead me away to a quiet place and I told him that I was so happy to be done!  I was bummed about my bike split but overall I was extremely happy with everything else. A feeling of great accomplishment came over me.  I remember looking at him and saying, "I did it".  I think I had had doubts in my mind, even after starting the race, of whether I could actually do this or not.  

So here completes my Double-Double 70.3 weekends.  Thanks to everyone who wished me luck and supported me!!  Next year's challenge:  IMCdA!!!!   

Double-Double Pt. 1: Austin 70.3

     Well, this was a pretty fun season of racing and I had tons of gains and learned a lot about my abilities by going back and doing some short-course races.  I found new breakthroughs on the run, which thrills me endlessly!  I also think the 5 lbs or so I lost by changing the way I was eating played a big part in that.  Less junk in the trunk to haul up those hills!!  But by mid-season I was looking for a challenge.  What could I do to make this season memorable?  So when a friend posted on Facebook the idea of racing Oilman 70.3 the weekend after Austin 70.3 my interest was sparked!  My friends and I had already decided to do Austin 70.3 again as a "measuring stick" so to speak.  It was our first 70.3 race 2 or 3 years ago and I was really curious to go back and see how my times would compare.  So I texted Coachie my idea and she was all in on the double-double challenge because she said that I had already proved I could do it with my double-double 1/2 marathons earlier in the year.  Perfect!  I had found my challenge!

Austin 70.3 turned out to be the best race ever.  The weather started out iffy when we woke up in the morning.  It had rained overnight and was still kind of drizzling that morning.  The temps were cool but not cold but there was still lightening sticking around so that delayed the start of the race by a few minutes.  We all hung around chit chatting and trying to relax.  The group of supporters from San Antonio made it up and we had fun hanging with them before we had to drop of our morning bags and get in line to head down to the water.  By then, the rain had stopped and I was hoping that it would stay away so the roads would dry up on the bike course.  

Swim:  39:53

I was wearing my new sleeveless wetsuit for the first time and I was hoping that it would bring me good luck.  As we were waiting in the water for our wave to start, the girls and I wished each other luck and got ourselves into position and then "Bang" we were off.  I immediately was in a crowd of girls and was just trying to not get kicked in the face or have the skin of my arms scratched off.  I knew it was going to be a "fight for your position" swim.  For the most part the swim went good.  I managed to get some clear water every now and then and  I was feeling pretty happy with my ability to get around people.  I don't know if it was all the people in the water around me or what but I thought to myself that the water felt pretty choppy.  Which was good, because I've been very lucky in all of my open water swims in races to have very calm water.  I felt I needed to know what choppy water felt like during a race to see if I could handle it.  Little did I know that this was nothing compared to what was coming up next weekend!  I exited the water with a new swim PR!  Very stoked about that!!

The run to T1 went smooth.  Luckily I didn't step on any stickers and made it to my bike on the first shot.  I was very fortunate in T1 to have a spot pretty close to the bike out.  With all the rain and wet athletes, the ground was pretty muddy and having to run through all that mud was causing problems for people who had to run a long distance with their bike shoes on.  As I was running out of T1 with my bike up in the air because I didn't want to risk getting a flat by running over any stickers, I told the girl running next to me, "I didn't know we had signed up for a cyclocross race!!"  She laughed and I finally got to the mount line.

Bike:  2:55

I honestly don't have any words for my bike split.  It's the fastest I've ever ridden my bike (race or training) and the whole bike just felt so awesome.  The course was crowded when I started and the roads were still damp so I just worked on being aware of everyone around me.  The weather turned out to be great; there was no wind and overcast skies.  I had rented some Zipp 404 wheels for my bike and they just felt so responsive.  Every time I pedaled they responded quickly and they felt weightless.  I had gone over my numbers the night before on where I would like to be time wise at the halfway point of the bike and, when that time came, I saw I was 9 minutes ahead of my goal!  Of course, this made start thinking to myself, "Am I pushing it too hard?  Am I going to have enough in my legs for the run?"  But I was feeling good and decided to ride it out.  It was on this bike ride that I thought to myself that I felt like a cyclist.    

Riding into T2, I looked at my watch and saw I was 8 minutes ahead of where I wanted to be when I started the run.  I was super excited about that and ran to rack my bike and put on my running shoes.  I had some trouble staying upright when I tried to lean over to switch shoes so I had to sit down to swap out my shoes.  Oh well, better that than tumbling face first into the asphalt parking lot!

Run:  2:04:02

I headed out of T2 and just wanted to run to the best of my ability.  Doing more short-course races, I really hadn't been doing a whole bunch of long runs during the summer, so I was actually kind of leery of how I was going to do.  The Austin course is not flat by any means and it's three loops, so I knew I would be going up and down a lot of hills.  On the road out of T2 I heard a whole bunch of screams and I saw all the San Antonio peeps cheering!!  It was so awesome to see them.  I ran by and high fived as many as I could.  I saw Dawn and Aixa on the run and they were both looking strong.  I had seen Kris in T2 so I knew she was close behind me.  The first loop of the run went good.  My splits were good.  Probably a little too fast, but I couldn't seem to make my legs slow down.  The second loop turned into a "I am never doing a race with a loop run again".  My quads were cramped and so was my right ankle and foot.  I drank as much Gatorade that I could and took my salt pills but the taste of the Gatorade and gu's was making me sick.  Heading out on the third loop, I knew it was going to be tough.  I had slowed down enough that I knew finishing the run in 2 hrs was out of the question but I knew I was going to hit my goal of going sub 6 hours for the total race if I could just keep running.  I had seen Aixa as she was heading out on her third loop and she yelled at me to "make it hurt".  I managed to yell back at her "it already hurts!"  On the turnaround at the end of the third loop I saw Kris and she yelled that we were 5:25 in and to "GO!"  I did some mental calculations in my head and knew I could run a little over 2 miles in 20 or so minutes.  I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and was finally turning down the finisher shoot.

Total:  5:46:19

I was in complete shock that I had just had, to me, the perfect race.  I kept looking at my watch in disbelief and was feeling completely dumbstruck.  I would have been happy with any time that was under 6 hours, but to break that mark by 14 minutes was amazing!  Seeing Brian and all my friends at the finish line was awesome too.  I'm so happy and grateful for all their support and encouragement.   But, the brain being what it is, had already started having doubts of how I was going to do this all again next weekend.  So I was able to enjoy the moment, but in a way I was already thinking ahead to the next race...