With less than two weeks to go until Ironman Lake Tahoe, my workout volume has decreased and I'm able to catch up on a few things including this blog. After a very satisfactory performance in early June at the Hawaii 70.3 half ironman that earned me a fourth place age group podium spot, I was pretty pumped up.
Waiting for the swim start at Hapuna Beach.
The first turnaround in front of the Mauna Lani entrance.
Still very fresh at this point.
Official finish time was 6:34:58
This year the race started in 3 waves.
Eight weeks after the Hawaii race, I had my first taste of a long distance triathlon at 6,000 feet when I raced in the Donner Lake Half Ironman. This was the first of two high altitude half iron distance races with the goal of getting an idea of race paces. This was a fun weekend with one of the three C’s (Cecile) racing in the sprint race on Saturday and my race on Sunday. We were there to cheer each other on and to keep our personal photographer (my husband) company.
The swim buoys were set for the 1.2 mile swim right before the Sunday race and the first one was so far away, I could barely see it from shore. It looked like an extraordinarily long swim but when I trudged out of the water Cecile yelled out 35 minutes and Dennis indicated I was the 6th out of the water in my wave which was women over 40 and relays. With the run to the timing mat at the entrance to the transition area, my official swim split was 36:16. Any time that I swim 1.2 miles in less than 40 minutes, I consider it a good swim. Thirty-five minutes is very good for me.
According to my Garmin 705 GPS with barometric altimeter, the 56 miles of biking had a total ascent of 7,168 feet. The first three miles are directly uphill at approximately a 7.5 % grade. My official bike time was 3:30:32 which is an average pace of 16 mph. I didn’t know it at the time, but upon exiting the bike to run transition (T2) I had a 23 minute lead on my closest competitor. That was fortunate because she gained about 12 minutes on me during the run which took me 2 hours and 38 minutes to cover the 13.4 mile run. My comment to Dennis at the end of the race was “that was brutal.” His reply was something to the effect of: “you think that was bad; just wait until Ironman.” Overall I was happy with my performance, with a final time of 6:49:21 and a pair of swim goggles for first place.
The last 3 miles of speed on a steep downhill were FUN!
It was hard to leave the finish area for a second loop of the run
First and second place F 55-59
Three weeks later, I took part in the 33rd annual Donner Lake Open Water Swim. It is a Masters Swimming event from one end of Donner Lake to the other, 2.7 miles. My pace was 1:47/100 yards which is right on target for a good Ironman swim pace for me. I’ve participated in this event a few times with the first one being in 1980 which I had not realized at the time was the inaugural event. I was swimming with the Davis Aquatic Masters in 1980 and did this swim with my good friend and roommate Susan Kerns Eskew and our neighbor, Greg Mollar. Fast forward to 2013 however, I wore a wetsuit and followed up the swim with an hour and 45 minute run. I got back from my run just in time to get in on the last pieces of delicious bar-b-q chicken provided by the event organizers and even got some to take home as they offering the leftovers to the few of us that were still around. SCORE, since I would be in Squaw on my own for the week participating in what was going to be the last training camp before Ironman Lake Tahoe. I wasn't expecting to have the time or energy to do much cooking durning the camp. I was also planning on staying in Tahoe for the five weeks after the Donner swim until Ironman, to be fully adjusted to the altitude. Things don't always go according to plan...
