I knew after Boulder what I needed to work on. Mainly, riding my damn bike and getting in bike miles.
Did I do those things? Well ... not so much, if you saw my September recap post. Mostly because of my body but also because, well, I'm kind of ready for this year to be done. I released that what will be, will be, and whatever was going to happen was going to happen.
*****
Since apparently every 70.3 this year is on a Saturday (so ... weird ...), we left CO on Wednesday. We left later than we perhaps normally would have for a long drive, but that's because I had a gastro appointment that morning that I really didn't want to cancel. The butt had basically calmed down, but better safe than sorry, right?
(really, I just need to watch the amount of fat in my diet and keep an eye on things and I probably just had some really annoying parasite that didn't want to leave my colon/stomach. probably nice in there. i dunno.)
Day one was to Tulsa and then on to Memphis. We both somehow messed up our check-in times, but we got checked in no problem and then to a very disappointing merch tent. APPARENTLY there were coffee mugs, but I had no idea about those until someone posted about them post-race. Guess they were all sold out by the end of the first day of check-in. Name tees were also not showing up until sometime the next day. I get supply-chain issues, but geez.
We did a nice little shakeout run along a bit of the run course and I almost died from the humidity. Greeeeat. Although, there are buffalo in Shelby Farms Park, which is cool ... and also why the race shirt has a buffalo on it. Because otherwise I would NOT associate "Memphis" with "buffalo."
Saturday morning we headed over for a pre-race swim in the lake thing ... but I misread stuff and apparently we needed to wear our timing chips for it. Dang it. I knew we had to check-in on Thursday in order to swim on Friday, but that was in order to get a timing chip. Ugh. So no swim for us. Instead of swimming, I left B at the park to wait for the store (and shirts) while I went back over to the hotel to get our bikes and bike stuff to get in a quick ride to make sure everything there was functional before bike check-in.
Ride done ... bikes checked in.
B staring at his bike, knowing this might be the last time he races it in a triathlon ... or at least a long-distance one.
Hopefully see you tomorrow, finish line!
Grabbed lunch after, picked up race food on the way back to the hotel (pickle chicken), and then just chilled out the rest of the day until it was time to walk to Waffle House for pre-race breakfast-for-dinner.
*****
Race Day
While we're smart enough to not check forecasts TOO obsessively, the one fact that we couldn't ignore was that it looked like rain was going to be a thing. It rained the evening before and was raining as we sat outside Waffle House at 4a waiting for the employees to get off break so we could get some breakfast.
(funny note about Waffle House here: we were chatting with some of the others waiting outside with us and one of the guys was race support for another athlete. he then became known as "Waffle House guy" and we actually saw him quite a bit over the course of the day - coming out of the swim and a few times on the run. "Waffle House guy" does have a name - Brian - and he found B on Facebook a few days later.)
Food eventually gotten, we made our way over to Shelby Farms Park. Trans opened at 5a and that's about the time that we pulled into the long train of cars waiting to park. The line was very slowly moving and we considered heading off into the field like a few others were doing ... but then we saw a pickup truck spinning its wheels, seemingly stuck in the mud. Um, we'll wait right here, thanks. In what ended up being a happy stroke of luck, we were guided to park just off the main road (still in the mud) as opposed to the GIANT FIELD OF MUD.
All parked, it was time to walk the mile or so to transition. In the rain.
Rainy walk.
Given the rain, we knew our transition set up would be a bit different - no main trans towel, shoes in plastic bags to attempt to keep stuff marginally dry - and tire pressure would be a bit lower than normal. We also learned that the water temp, despite the rain, went up a degree from the day prior so the swim would not be wetsuit legal (unless you wanted to start at the back, which neither of us really did).
One tiny COVID perk - non-pre-assigned race numbers meant we were right near each other in transition.
We did get word that the race start was delayed, but were unsure as to *why*. Later word is probably because of the parking shitshow and to ensure athletes could actually get into transition and set up.
We did eventually make our way down to the swim start and hang out (in the cold rain) until things got going.
The Swim:
We both seeded ourselves in the 46-50 minute group - me because that's where I live (and it worked out for Boulder) and B because he hadn't swum much.
Getting in the water took an extra few seconds since we were funneled into small little chutes and released every three seconds. Well, the woman in front of me was still edging her way in when it was my turn and I didn't have a lot of space to hop in.
Made my way in and started swimming. I think I didn't have my aero top zipped up enough or something because it felt like it ballooned some ... not ideal. Probably created a lot of drag.
Sighting went okay, not great. Part of that was the buoy placement (in talking with other athletes post-race).
Other general swim notes:
- I got beat up the most in that swim than any other IM swim I've done. I discovered bruises on me a few days later that I was like, yep, that's from where I got kicked.
- Amusingly enough, I didn't notice it stopped raining briefly during the swim until I actually noticed raindrops. Which obviously the brain processed as, "oh, it must have stopped raining for a second."
- Buoys were all, on your right until randomly NO LEFT LEFT LEFT and then they were on the left for like the last few?
- Also about those last few buoys - rounding them felt like swimming backwards or being in a giant suction vent trying to suck me back toward the buoy (also not the only person to feel this way)
Other swim note: it was a SLOW HORRIBLE SWIM and not just for me. I saw my watch and was not a happy athlete.
Ugh, FFS ...
Well, time to move on ...
Time: 1:00:04 (61st division, 476th gender, 1502nd overall)
T1:
Run to T1 was long. Actually, for everyone doing this race, transitions were long. AND OMG MUDDY. Okay, the mud was because of the weather, but still.
I do want to pat myself on the back for a quick second as I acknowledged my absolute shit swim and then decided to NOT DWELL ON IT. Or worry about time cuts since "oh shit that was slow and now I have a rainy bike and oh shit it's gonna be slower and oh shit ..." ... because I didn't. At all.
I ran almost all the way into T1 slowing only at the super muddy tight turn into transition since I didn't want to eat it on the grass. I considered wiping a lot of the mud and grass off my feet, but realized it would probably be pointless, so I didn't bother.
Some volunteers were saying if you have a jacket, put it on ... but the only one I had would have turned me into a sail so I just didn't bother.
I am thankful my cleats didn't pick up too much mud as I was able to clip in at the mount line. Thankfully.
I also, should note, that B did beat me out of the swim (as he does), so I was hoping I'd maybe see him on the bike.
Time: 6:26
The Bike:
So, in all my years of racing, I've never officially had the bike section in the rain. A minor exception to this could be the Big Sky Duathlon from back in ... 2014? ... since it did precipitate on me, but that was mostly hail and snow, NOT rain. Although I did have wet roads. It also misted or ... whatever ... on me at IMoo, but it didn't really truly start raining until deep into the run that day.
So this was a new one for me. I took it easy leaving Shelby Farms Park as was advised, but was able to get up to decent speed fairly early on. I did, however, take corners a lot easier than normal (mostly to start braking sooner). Yay for reading an article about bike racing in the rain the day before!
This picture gives you a good sense of the weather we had for the bike. It wasn't always super pouring rain, but I don't think the rain ever truly stopped while I was out there.
Slow cornering. Trademark wonky helmet. I also know these two photos were from early on in the bike due to my right shoe - hard to tell, but the strap wasn't done and I noticed that early and had to fix it.
Realized early on that I was going to be eating slightly soggy chicken - great. I also didn't eat any of my Bobo's bar until later than I normally would have since I was having issues opening the package in the rain. I didn't open it prior to the bike since I wanted the oatmeal bar to have a chance of NOT completely disintegrating into mush, but the trade-off was attempting to open it with wet hands while riding. My teeth eventually did the job.
In terms of nutrition, I did probably the best I have for a half. We kept being advised to hydrate more than we think we'd need to given the rain, so I drank probably the equivalent of two full bottles of Skratch and 2-3 bottles of straight water (I never drink this much in a half). I ate a full Bobo's bar and almost all of the 1.5 chicken patties I had.
This might be why I had a really good bike.
I noticed fairly early on that I was having a pretty decent ride. All my five mile beeps were well ahead of where I like them to be (a 20:00 5 mile split means I'm averaging 15mph - I like being under that) and the legs felt pretty good.
The universe maybe tried to mess with that with the wasp sting I got around 20 miles in (maybe sooner - before the first aid station) - I turned some corner and felt a sharp sting in my knee - look down and there was a wasp/yellow jacket (definitely NOT a bee) - brushed it aside, complained ow, but could do nothing but pedal on. Asshole.
Went back and forth with a few people, as you do.
The open course made it a bit interesting at times - I definitely ended up having to pass a car on their left at one point which I was NOT a fan of - and it also meant that I cruised at a lower speed than I maybe normally would have during a few sections to also not pass cars.
(this also meant that I tried to wave to as many cars as possible as a "hi thanks for not killing me" and "hi thanks for letting me/us use your roads today")
One nice perk about riding in the rain is that all the mud that was on my legs from running into transition? Yeah, it all got washed off.
Other than that, most people were pretty awesome. There were a few idiots - as always - but most of my fellow athletes were nice. Huge shoutout to the guy who warned me about the giant branch in the middle of the road that I wouldn't have seen until it was too late to avoid it. That would have been ugly.
As a race nitpick, I did not see ANY race support/officials on the bike course. No cars with the "IRONMAN SUPPORT" signs in the windshields and no officials on motorcycles. I'm sure they were probably out there, but it was weird to not see a one as I always do. I also do hope that they were ACTUALLY out there as, with the weather, there were a LOT of athletes on the side of the road with flats and other issues.
One of the drier moments.
Sticking my tongue out. As I do.
The thing that most astounded me was how well I was riding. I also never saw B, so I figured he was also having an amazing bike.
I rode so well, as it was, that I ended up getting a 70.3 bike PR by like two minutes.
Time: 3:19:47 (36th, 241st, 1040th)
T2:
Then I got into transition ... and I didn't see B's bike. And I never passed him. Oh ... shit.
I actually dug into my trans bag to check my phone to see if there were any missed notifications from anyone about him. A missed spam call and texts from his mom who was tracking us, but nothing major. Okay, chill out.
I got ready to run somewhat slowly - I didn't bother body gliding my feet as I usually do since there was no way I could get them dry enough for it to matter - and I definitely went to the bathroom as I had been needing to do that for a little while.
Thankfully, about the time I was attempting to figure my way out of the mud pit that was transition without totally soaking my feet in mud puddles was when B rolled in. Apparently he took a two minute pee break at one of the aid stations and in that two minutes is when I passed him on course.
We decided to do the run together at that point, so I just hung out until he was ready to go.
Which is why I have the slowest ever (for me) T2.
Time: 11:28
The Run:
It actually did dry out some for us on the run. It rained a little, but for the most part, it was the driest part of the day.
Except for my feet. So many puddles. My feet were so soggy that it actually hurt running on my pruny feet.
The run was two loops and wound its way around Shelby Farms Park. We got to see the buffalo (which was super happy). We had a vague run buddy for a little while - he apparently liked our "run as much as possible and then walk for a count of 20" system - but he wasn't super talkative and we weren't 100% sure why he was sticking with us. He ended up getting slightly ahead of us (and therefore missed when we took a walk break) and then left us for good which both B and I were actually kind of happy with.
I got chips at a vast majority of the aid stations, trying to keep consuming calories. I also did what I forgot to do at Boulder and brought a Skratch packet with me so I could refill my handheld with not just water and ice, but electrolytes too.
B ended up bumming (cold) coffee off one of the aid station volunteers which was somewhat hilarious for all involved.
The back half of the run course wasn't actually three miles - it was like 18 (also corroborated with other athletes). The actual best part of the back half was the St. Jude stretch with pictures of kids when at St. Jude and then later (presumably) in remission.
Loop two was a bit rougher - particularly for B - but we kept together and kept fighting.
I think we saw the photog on the back half of loop one. Obviously there's mature me with the tongue out and I love that B looks like he's dead here.
I might actually like this photo the best for the stoic face of the dude on the left.
While B implored me to leave much earlier (as he often does), I only left him on the final downhill (down and left to the finish), beating him by about the same margin from when I left him at the Saguaro half - 40 seconds.
Beat that woman in the chute running to the finish.
DONE.
Might be the last of these you see from us for quite some time.
