INAUGURAL IRONMAN SANTA ROSA 70.3

PRE-RACE

Women For Tri Meet-up

This was a very social race for me, as I knew at least 50 people who were racing, including several of my regular training buddies. In addition, my friend Amy who lives in New Jersey came out to race and we drove up to Santa Rosa together. I also co-hosted a Women For Tri meet-up on Friday afternoon. The purpose of the meet-up was to have some of the women racing meet each other and also meet Mirinda (Rinny) Carfrae. Rinny is a three-time Ironman World Champion with another three podiums at the Championships. She is pregnant right now and didn’t race this weekend but was there to support her Husband, Tim O’Donnell, who placed third. We were pleased to get her to come to our meet-up and she graciously answered questions and posed for pictures with many of our female athletes. We also had a variety of door prizes for everyone who attended. Thanks to ROKA, Dixie Devil, and My Soxy Feet for the prizes. 

I made an effort to train a bit on the course in the months leading up to the race, with four bike rides on the course, a couple of swims and one run. This helped me with my mental preparation, made me less nervous and set me up to be able to enjoy some time socializing before the race.

RACE MORNING

This race is a point-to-point race with the Swim in Lake Sonoma, which is about a thirty-five-mile drive from Santa Rosa where the bike-to-run transition, finish line and lodging were. With limited parking at the Lake, they offered Shuttles starting at 4 am for the 6:25 am start. I walked over at 4 am with my friends Liz and Leishia and didn’t have to wait long to get on a bus. This was the point where I was bemoaning signing up for this race, because I do not like getting up before 5 am (more truthfully before 9 am.)

We passed a broken-down bus on the way and thought how lucky we were not to be on that bus. We heard later that they got to the start with 35 minutes to spare. I usually need a full hour to set up stuff at my bike, pump up my tires, change into my wet-suit, hit the porta-potty and line up at the start.

Excited to get started!

THE SWIM

The wind was up and the water was a little choppy, but nothing dramatic. Ironman had decided to change the direction of the swim since it was going to be windy, so the 1.2-mile course was all right hand turns until the final turn back to the boat ramp. I tend to veer left which made me swing a little wider around the buoys than when it is a left-hand turn course. I did avoid getting smacked and run over by swinging a little wide, though it may have added to my swim time of 39:17. That was on the high end of my normal range for a wet suit swim.

SWIM TO BIKE TRANSITION

We exited the swim onto a long boat ramp which led up to a road and then to a long chute that went half way around the transition area. A narrow strip of the concrete boat ramp had been carpeted but not the asphalt road or chute, which had a bunch of tiny loose black rocks. I should have worn booties or left shoes at the top of the carpet because I’m a tender foot. Running up the incline wasn’t a problem for me but the pain and little stone bruises on me feet slowed me down. When I wiped my feet on a little towel I had left in transition it got covered in rocks that had been pressed into the bottom of my feet. Two days later and the bottom of my feet still hurt. Lesson learned/re-learned after my first Escape from Alcatraz: booties or shoes!

Beginning of the bike ride

THE BIKE

The bike course has more climbing than the old Vineman course, but a lot of the climbing is rollers so I found the bike course to be much easier/faster than the previous course. It’s a beautiful ride, if you had any time to look around. I really had to pay attention to the road because the pavement is pretty variable with some really rough sections and pot holes. The only small problem I had on the bike was when at mile 50 I sort of gagged on something caught in my throat and I threw-up (mostly on my right shoulder.) I took a few sips of water and those came right back up. I needed to get some more calories in before I got off the bike, so at 52 miles I started eating a pack of Honey Stinger Chews and was able to keep those down. My stomach never really felt upset. 

I finished the 56-mile ride in 2 hours, 48 minutes and 21 seconds. This was the fastest bike time of my age group and the fastest I’ve ridden in a 70.3/half ironman. I stayed within my planned effort and still finished in record time. I was in first place in my age group at the start of my run.

On the Run

THE RUN

Running is my weakest link in this sport, so I decided to take a little different approach to the run. The plan was to use the first 3 miles to find my running legs after the bike ride, the next 3 miles to push the pace without looking at my watch, the next three miles to try to hold a race pace of 10:45, the next 3 miles repeat 4 minutes pushing hard alternating with 4 minutes easing off. Then to finish it off by giving it everything I had left for the last mile.

Everything was feeling good for the first 6 miles. When it came time to run 3 miles at a 10:45 pace, the best I could muster was an 11:13. That wasn’t so great for me mentally when my goal was 10:45. For the next three-mile section, I slowed down way too much on several of the 4 minutes easing off. Given all that, it was a mostly flat course and I ended up having my second fastest half ironman run of all time.

THE FINISH

Nothing like friends waiting at the finish 

I crossed the finish line to find three of my training partners waiting for me at the finish line in the medals area even though they finished over 20 minutes before me. That was a nice surprise and a ton of fun! I ended up in 8^th place of the 81 women who started in my age group with a time of 6 hours and 7 minutes. Only three minutes slower than my fastest half ironman time which I did in 2012.

The highlights of the race were seeing all of at least 50 people I knew out on the race course, coming in first after the fast bike course and having reasonable temperatures and shade on the run. The worst part was having to leave the hotel at 4 am to catch the shuttle to the start. 

Alwayw happy to finish!

Now I have less than three weeks to my favorite race, Hawaii 70.3!