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...
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