70.3 World Championship Race Week & Swim

Race week excitement began mid-ride, the Friday before the race. I was becoming re-familiarized with my carbon wheels and making sure the bike was running smoothly after a tune up. I road over a poorly patched up pot hole, heard a snap and then my upper body dropped. My aero bar assembly broke off my bike and was being held on by the shifter cables. Luckily, I stayed upright and was only a few miles from home. After many rounds of feeling surprisingly calm and then swearing out loud about “why did this have to happen three days before flying out for a race”, I made it home. I quickly showered, ate and went to the bike shop, assuming the worst. Turns out a bolt had snapped and the other half of the bolt was stuck inside a small piece. It took a few hours, help from a random guy who went home to get tools, a few broken drill bits, and me going to my father-in-law’s house desperate for help, to carefully drill out the bolt and remove it. The bike was put back together and I felt saved. I rode the bike later that weekend to confirm the bike was once again in working order, before taking it apart and packing it up for the flight.

Monday, I flew to Las Vegas with Bill and his dad, then drove to St. George, where my dad had already arrived. Tuesday morning I went to the lake where Ironman was holding a practice swim with a shortened swim course. I tried to quickly shimmy into my wetsuit in the parking lot while watching other swimmers shaking post swim. The water was 65F which was chilly but felt warm compared to the air. A lap was less than 700m and I was feeling good each time I came back to the start. I ended up swimming five laps with some stronger efforts mixed in. My body was warm enough minus my hands and feet. By the time I made it back to the car, both were numb, I was struggling to get my wetsuit off and I was starting to shake. It was a good preview for race morning.

Later that afternoon, I rode about 22 miles of the bike course, including the main climb up Snow Canyon. Utah is probably the state I’ve visited the most in my life, between visiting family and sisters in college, and attending weddings and funerals. This was my third trip to Utah in a year and I’ve hiked in all the “big 5” parks over the years. I love the varying terrain and climate of Utah. This park was no exception. While I’ve hiked all over the state, this was my first time riding and it was such a great experience. In many parts of Utah, it feels like a different planet, perhaps Mars. The slow climb up Snow Canyon really gave me a chance to soak in the surrounds and feel appreciative for the opportunity to race there.
 
Wednesday, I met up with a friend, Sarah, to do athlete check-in and do a run on part of the run course. I ran down Diagonal on a trip earlier this year but it was good to run both up and down to get a feeling for the elevation. Rest of the day was spent doing mobility work and relaxing, knowing that Thursday would be more hectic.

On Thursday, I met back up with Sarah to do a swim at another part of the lake. This time, it was windy which made me even colder and made for choppy water. We were both miserable during our slow 20-minute swim. I was so cold on the return walk to the car, that I drove back to the rental with my wetsuit on. After drying off and changing, we rode straight from my rental which was located on the bike course. The ride confirmed which layers I wanted to pack for the race. In the afternoon, I made a stop at Walmart to buy throw away layers for race morning. There were probably a dozen other athletes I saw holding a variety of blankets, sweaters, socks, slippers and gloves. I decided on a cheap pair of gloves, fuzzy socks and koala bear slippers. I dropped my bike and bags off at T1 and T2, then tried to relax as much as possible rest of the day.

Race morning, Bill and I got lucky with a parking spot near the run course. Following the swim and shuttle schedule, I got on a shuttle bus for my age group, about three hours before I was supposed to start. It didn’t take long to get my bike set up with nutrition and then there was nothing to do for almost two hours than sit and freeze as the temperatures continued to drop. Eventually my family made it on the later shuttles, arriving after I hit the point of shaking when it was 39F. I waited long enough to go the bathroom one last time, did a short run to get warm and loosen up, and then de-layed half my body at a time to get my wetsuit on. I did another short run to warm up again, then put my koala slippers on and said goodbye to my family. I loaded into the swim start chute with my age group and after several minutes, we started loading into the water, 10 athletes at a time.

1.2 mile swim – 31:51

I think this was the first time I got to do a running start into the water which was fun. The water was around 63F and I was happy to get in it and get this show started. As I knew it would, the sun came right over the mountain around the time I started. It made sighting the yellow buoys a little more difficult, but I didn’t have any issues staying on the simple course. Given I was going to be dealing with pulling on and off layers later in the race, I decided that having a watch on my wrist would just get in my way. Based on that, I didn’t wear a watch for the swim and instead had it packed in my run bag. I’ve done other races including an Ironman without a watch, so while it doesn’t bother me not knowing my time when I’m finished, I don’t like that I have no sense of time while swimming. I finally resorted to counting buoys to at least gauge my distance.

This was the first 70.3 World Championship race where they split the men’s and women’s field across two days. Having women only, made the course a lot less congested with only about 1,900 racers. I rarely felt like I was fighting to hold my space in the water. I felt like I was moving well through the water and passing plenty of swimmers. Towards the end, I was swimming side by side with another, each of us holding our ground. I didn’t feel the need to be competitive and beat her, more like use her as a way to hold a steady, strong effort. I was truly enjoying myself during the swim and honestly didn’t want it to be over. My feet were numb, but I felt good otherwise and wasn’t looking forward to the cold air that awaited me. I got to the boat ramp with a herd of other swimmers and up we ran.

T1 – 9:20

This was a long transition due to the temperature. I debated before the race if it was worth using the wetsuit strippers. On the one hand, I knew from my practice swim that I would struggle getting it off with not fully-functional hands. On the other hand, it meant my body would be fully exposed to the cold for longer. In the end, I could tell how quickly my hands were going numb so I decided to use the strippers. This was not a good race to have Reynolds syndrome. There was a warming tent which I skipped and a changing tent which is unusual for a 70.3. Before the tent were lines of chairs which I decided to use since I wasn’t changing. This was the one place I was really hoping there would be volunteers helping but there weren’t any nearby while I was struggling to pull on layers. Most female triathletes know the difficulty of trying to pull on a sports bra while wet. It was a similar struggle but trying to pull on quickly socks, arm warmers and a jacket with useless hands. I had hand warmer packets I wanted to shove in the back of my gloves which I couldn’t get open. Luckily, a volunteer was finally standing idly nearby and I asked for help. I eventually got everything on, got my bike and made it to the mount line.