Kansas 70.3 Race Report

I'm very excited to finally be on to phase 2 of this year's racing: short course training!! Of course, that means that I've finished my 70.3 race a.k.a. half Ironman. And it went well. Basically we went out there as usual two days before, spent the day before loosening up and taking care of pre-race stuff, and raced on Sunday. I've been dealing with the ITBS thing for a long time now, and so since they had a tent there with people giving free ART sessions I jumped on that. I think it helped a TON. I was really tight from the drive up till that point. We camped out at Clinton State Park, which was the race site, so in the morning of the race all I had to do was have breakfast in bed, then walk up to the transition areas (there were two at this one) and set up. The water was warm, but I went with a wetsuit anyways since everyone else was. Not sure if it helped or hurt, my wetsuit doesn't seem to fit as well as it used too....stupid muscles, they made my legs bigger! I haven't used the wetsuit up till that point this year, so maybe it is actually time to get a new one.

The swim did NOT go very well. The water was really choppy, there were people everywhere, and I started getting seasick. I came out with a 33 minute swim, which for me is just horrible. I should have gone at worst around a 30 minute swim, not 33. Oh well. Guess I know what I need to work on in the next little while. I didn't realize this in the race though, so that's good.

I got on the bike just planning to chill, let my legs warm up, and catch up to my girl-to-chase. Took me till mile 40 to do so. Overall the bike was just OK. A little hilly and pretty windy, my legs didn't feel too hot, but I was just around the time that I expected to go, so no problems there. I did, however, do my nutrition 100% correct and for that I'm glad. The syrup flask things work well for large quantities of nutrition. I pushed it on the bike only to the point that I knew I would have plenty left for the run since I was not sure what was going to happen there. Got off the bike with a feeling of "well thank goodness THAT'S done" because my legs were just killing me. Don't know why, since it's not like I haven't ridden that far before...but the run started amazingly well. I got off the bike, and felt loose, fluid, comfortable. I started cruising along at sub-8 minute miles, which I honestly haven't done in a while because of the ITBS. I was so comfortable and happy at that pace that I basically kept going. My girl-to-catch caught back up to me pretty quick into the run (and I later found out why - she put down a 6:55 mile off the bike), but I didn't hussle because we were only a few miles into a 13.1 mile run. Not the time to drop the hammer. The run was a two lap course, so somewhere between mile 6 and 7 I decided I may as well see what else there was in the tank and picked up the pace a bit. Caught my girl-to-catch before mile 8, and kept going. Ended up setting a personal best for a half marathon (of course it's going to be in a tri :-P ). Around mile 10 my legs decided they'd had enough and tightened right up, but since I've started this whole I'm-never-stopping-in-a-race-again trip, I didn't stop, just plowed right on through now matter how bad my legs hurt. Partly because the slower you go, the more time you have till you CAN stop. Overall I beat my last 1/2 IM time, by only a little bit I think, but still. Beat it. The swim took a good chunk of the time that I'd improved on in the last one.

My biggest improvement with this race (and really the other ones so far this year, too) is that mentally I've improved significantly. The crowds don't get to me anymore, bad swims don't bother me anymore - I've stopped racing by watch and started racing by feel - and I've stopped giving up.

Next phase - get my speed up, get my power up, and get that pro card :) I'm excited for the rest of the season!