Orissa's Triathlon Adventures: August 2017

IM Canada 70.3 – one of the most challenging, fun, beautiful, and rewarding races I’ve ever done.

If you have not been to British Columbia, I highly recommend you visit. This was our 3^rd visit to BC and each time I leave, I swear a little piece of my soul stays behind. Besides the race, we did a zip line tour, hiked around Whistler Mountain, and rode mountain bikes on trails that were absolutely amazing and terrifying. And there’s still so much more that we need to go see – there’s definitely another trip (or 2) in our future! Okay, onto the race…

SWIM: 43:31

Happy to be alive!

They say that you always remember the tough races; the ones where it doesn’t always come easy. This was definitely one of those races and, surprisingly, it started on the swim. The full Ironman and half Ironman took place on the same day with the half starting after all the full participants got in the water, so I didn’t get started until about 9 a.m. Unfortunately, that meant that the wind had time to pick up and cause the water to be some of the choppiest I’ve every swam in. I didn’t notice it right away, because at first, I was shocked by the 68-degree water in my sleeveless wetsuit. My first thoughts were that my arms were going to turn into blocks of ice before I finished the swim. After a few strokes, I realized that the water seemed really choppy and I had to focus on not inhaling a ton of water whenever I tried to breathe. Once I got into a rhythm, I realized my arms were warmed up and the water didn’t feel that bad anymore. I made the first and second turns with no problems and relatively little contact. I felt like I had a great rhythm going. Then I made the third turn and I realized it was going to get ugly. The waves were coming in from the direction I was breathing and I had a slight moment of panic. I tried to breathe on my other side but the waves were coming down over my head and I sucked in a big gulp of water. I coughed a bit and stopped swimming for a spell to get my bearings and I could see the shore and the swim finish. I decided to keep breathing towards the direction of the waves so that at least I could see them coming and try to time my breathing. As I started swimming again, my calf cramped up bad. I had a moment of sheer panic when I thought to myself that I was going to drown with the shore in sight. Luckily that only lasted for a couple of seconds as I mentally smacked myself and told myself to do what I do in the pool when I cramp and just keep swimming with my cramped leg as relaxed as possible. It worked. The cramp subsided and I finally made it to the shore. I’ve never been happier to finish a swim ever in my life. As I looked at my watch, I was also pleasantly surprised by my time. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

T1: 9:39 (Oops)

BIKE: 3:47:05

Best views ever

The great thing about doing a half when there’s a full Ironman going in is that you get to go into the changing tent and have volunteers there to help you, just as if you were doing the full. I was able to sit in a chair and dry off, put on my socks and shoes, and not be covered in dirt and grass from doing all that by my bike, albeit, this probably made my T1 a little bit longer than necessary. I wasn’t too worried though. I knew it was going to be a long day on the bike for me and I wanted to make sure I was comfortable. My motto for the bike was, “Just keep pedaling and enjoy the view”. Every time I hit a particularly long climb, I lifted my eyes off the road and looked up into the mountains. The thing about going up, is that you have to come down and there were some awesome stretches of the course where you didn’t have to pedal for what seemed like miles. The views on this course were just spectacular and were a great distraction when the legs were burning. I was hoping to see some wildlife while I was out on the bike, but either I was looking in the wrong places or there just wasn’t any. There was good crowd support along Whistler Village but not any once you made it out of the town. It did feel pretty lonely out there but having the road blocked off to traffic was very nice. My goal was to be done with the bike in under 4 hours and I was happy to have met that goal. I definitely need to work on my hill climbing skills.

T2: 5:59

RUN: 2:32:55

Not bad views on the run either

I was so excited to get out on the run course. Maybe it was because I knew it was going to pretty or the weather was nice or I didn’t ride hard enough, whatever it was, it was a super nice feeling. I saw Brian as I came down to the trail and I remember telling him that the bike had been so hard. He cheered me on and I continued running. It was a super great course of asphalt trail, dirt/gravel paths, a wooden bridge, and a little bit of concrete. Someone had circled a pile of poop and labeled it “Bear Poop” and that made me chuckle. The crowd support was great on the course and it was nice to be able to enjoy their cheers and interact with people so I could take my mind off my less than stellar pace. When the miles started beeping off, I was actually surprised to see I was doing an okay pace. I wasn’t blazing fast but I wasn’t crawling along either. I had fun cheering at my teammates I saw along the course and yelling “Go Smash” to all the other ladies in Smash on the course. Pretty soon I was at the turnaround and I couldn’t believe I was over halfway done with the run. I hadn’t been to the “dark place” once! I guess I visited that place enough times on the bike that I didn’t need to revisit it on the run. The last 3-4 miles hurt. My feet were done. Once I made the turn into the village I only had eyes on that finish line. I saw the running time at the finish and I just had to laugh to myself. Definitely not the finish time I was hoping for, but considering I hadn’t raced a 70.3 since 2015 I was just happy to be crossing the finish line.

Total Time: 7:19:08