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| Bear Lake in full sun the day before the race |
What I hadn't remember was how hard it is to balance all the disciplines of triathlon. And since I really don't enjoy swimming, it's a struggle to make myself do it. Plus I really hate water...especially open water with those green stringy plants growing up from the bottom and sliming their way along my arms. Yuk. Training for the biking was fun, on a nice hot day with a pleasant breeze. When it's cold and rainy, my bike generally stays in the garage! To that respect, I picked Bear Lake, because the water didn't look green, its a desert so the sun should have been out, and the course was fairly flat.
With 2 weeks to go, I fasted for 4 days. I've always found this helps my body clean house a little. I lost 5 pounds and kept 3 of them off for the week before the race. Then I avoided all forms of wheat, pasta, etc until after the race was over. I wanted my gut to be happy and I know that can be a reason it's not.
Race day came with an iffy weather forecast. Definitely not hot and desert-y. Low of 40s high of 63. As a I drove through a bit of fog getting to the race, the temperature in the car said 33 degrees. Ouch. The water temperature of Bear Lake was a few degrees warmer than usual for this time of year. But still cold at 68 degrees...although that was the warmest temperature of the day, it didn't feel like it getting in. For the full Ironman, we would have to do 4 laps around 4 buoys. And this was my first open water swim in the last 12 years. Dumb, I know. First my swim cap, which I never wear, got in the seal around my goggles and let water in. I fixed that but my goggle just kept fogging up the whole way. It was cloudy and dark, and hard to see the buoys. It took me 12 minutes to settle down enough to swim my regular stroke. Still, my first lap took 23 minutes and I hoped I could improve on that the rest of the way. No, not really. My times stayed about the same although the 2nd and 3rd lap didn't seem so bad. The 4th lap was horrible, my body was getting really cold, the swimmers had churned up colder water from the bottom and the water was getting colder too. The sun finally peeked through the clouds and illuminated the buoys, but my goggles were toast. I got out of the water at 1:40, hungry and freezing. Then it was 1/2 mile run to transition. I had some clogs but they weren't amazing for running through sand with a body that wasn't really responding well.
In transition, it took long than usual to get my wetsuit off and put warmer clothes on. My usual bike outfit wasn't enough, I added arm warmers and a windbreaker and was glad to have them. The first loop around the lake was calm, dead calm. I settled into a rhythm and saw my average speed increasing over time. It went up to 17.7 and I hoped on the second half of the bike maybe I would see 18. At the halfway, the sun peeked out and I doffed the extra clothing. I figured between 12 and 3 pm would be the warmest part of the day, and I was sick of my windbreaker flapping in the breeze. Heading out in just my sports bra, it was nice for a while, until I saw a storm cloud heading across the south end of the lake. Uh oh. I had absolutely no clothing to save me from cold rain, or worse hail, or a downpour. The storm seemed to be getting worse, the winds kicked up, and I made tough choice, turn around and face a DQ, but avoid needing to be rescued for my stupid clothing choices. Back at transition an hour later, I explained my choice, grabbed some warmer clothes again (the time I wasted with clothing, gah!) and made up the mileage I had missed by riding a longer out and back on the north end. The last 30 miles felt like a headwind no matter where I turned, and my average speed sunk to 17. It was demoralizing, and everyone else had the same wind to deal with as well.
I also found my bike seat had loosened, which was perhaps what had caused my seat to be so uncomfortable when I hadn't felt that before. I have an Infinity Seat which I have loved this year, but today it was painful and I couldn't find a position that didn't make my hips ache. I was able to tighten it up quickly but it was another stop to make.
Finally I was done with the bike, and glad of it. Bike time 6:44. At that moment, the wind also died, and we had a beautiful evening for a while. My biggest question in redoing this type of race was whether I could run off the bike. For a minute I could barely walk off the bike (!) but after another change of clothing and dry socks and shoes, I did run. And kept on running every step of the marathon.
During the bike, I had eaten some dried mango, trail mix, a bit of gummy candy, a coke, and a couple of my drink mixes with electrolytes. I also drank an ounce of both Ketone IQ and Kava, 4 times over the whole race. For the run, I wanted to keep it simple. The first 6 miles I sipped from a 12 ounce coke bottle I carried with me. At the turnaround of the first loop, I mixed my drink mix squishy bottle with water and switched to that. At my halfway bag, I slammed the last of my Ketone and Kava (they both taste TERRIBLE!) and then I repeated the same drinks for the second half. The race didn't have much real food. The aid stations on the run had Gu and chips and gatorade, nothing of which sounded good to me. I just kept running. I loved my Saucony carbon plated running shoes, my feet felt comfy, and I literally ran every mile at the same pace the entire race. I caught up to people who were miles ahead of me at the start of the run. I ran my way right into first place for the women. Granted the gene pool was small...only 3 women finished the whole distance. The race offered every iteration of distance and duathlon so there were people swimming but not biking, etc.
The last 3 miles, it got fully dark and then started to rain. My little headlamp was enough to illuminate the puddles and bring me home. Final marathon time 4:24, and I almost negative split my marathon! I haven't come within 20 minutes of doing that, ever. It was a great feeling of redemption.
Final time was 13:10. Here's the results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=290640
It's been a really busy summer. As evidenced by the fact that my last blog post was in May! Training for this Ironman Triathlon sucks up a lot of time; trying to balance swimming, biking, and running, along with the hiking I love to do, with a little weight lifting thrown in? It was a lot.
So was the new business I've been involved in starting. Together with my good friend Karen Minchow, who's a PA, we offer concierge medicine. We can advice you on nutrition, hormones, and supplements; to get you to thrive in your life and health, rather than just survive. If you are interested and want to know more of what we do, checkout vigeohealth.net.
