Race #3 of the Season: Ironman Lake Placid

If it wasn't obvious from my sporadic updates and my monthly recaps, I was quite undertrained going into this race. I hadn't even hit 1000 miles on the bike before the cannon went off which, for a race like IMLP, is NOT good. IYKYK, amiright? I had some decent swims and running had been iffy but not complete trash.

The things I had on my side going into this race were:
- 11 years experience doing long-course triathlon (9 of since my first full)
- a great mental game
- knowledge that I had probably similar training (relatively speaking) going into my first 70.3 and I survived that okay
- knowledge that regardless of anything, it was going to hurt.

Could all those things override the lack of training? According to the mental exercises I did at night before falling asleep to try to keep the nerves at bay? Yes, they were going to.

(spoiler: they did)

Lead Up

In typical T and B fashion, we road-tripped out to the race. Yes, from essentially SLC. We left Sunday afternoon to get a few hours down the road in Wyoming. Monday took us to Omaha. Tuesday took us to my relatives in LaPorte, Ind., and Wednesday took us to Syracuse, NY. Thursday brought us the rest of the way.

Chalked the car at the World's Largest Truckstop. Almost forgot!

We drove straight to athlete check-in and then off to the hotel.

Photo op Adirondack chair.

Village. Also yes, the hat made its return. It's the best for pre-race nerves.

After check-in, officially into town to grab some lunch, check in to the hotel, and unpack the car. We flopped for a while (ugh so many days in a car), eventually got dinner, and heard from our buddy Randy (an old MX12 teammate) so we went over to say hi to him.

Friday I got to swim in Mirror Lake and experience the joy that is the cable and knew that come hell or high water, I was going to get on that damn cable on race day. B took a day to himself and went down to Saratoga to the race track; I got a mani/pedi.

Saturday was a super quick spin on the bike before getting everything ready to get dropped off.

Oh gear bags.

Bike racked. Even though I came back to it a few times. First because I forgot a bottle on it (that I was using to hydrate with that day) and then because I forgot to let air out of my tires. I swear I've done this before ...

Gear bags dropped off.

With my favorite volunteer.

My official tri team right now - Feisty Triathlon. It was the North American Tri Club Championship, so there was a banner with all the clubs represented. Had to go find mine.

Dinner got a touch dicey that night; if you recall, I like to do a pre-race breakfast-for-dinner. I had talked with the restaurant at the hotel the night before to see if it would be possible (even though not technically on the menu). The person I talked to said it would probably be fine - and even said where they'd be working the next evening. Well, I didn't see them Saturday and at first it seemed like my simple eggs and toast wouldn't happen. I was trying not to freak out too heavily about this - I knew someday this tradition would probably have to fall away (probably if I ever raced overseas) - but it wasn't easy. Thankfully, it ended up working out (although I still got the backup meal I ordered which ended up being TERRIBLE so I'm glad I got my eggs and toast). I feel bad for restaurants in towns around these big races because athletes tend to be super high maintenance and have a lot of dietary restrictions so I don't like to be a difficult customer (also helllooooo trauma from childhood re: parents), so I was ridiculously apologetic and thankful to our server and we tipped him a lot.

Pretty sure I slept that night, but also don't remember. Eh. It is.

Race Day

Woke up just fine with the alarm at 4am, got ready, and went over to the free continental breakfast the hotel put out for us. Unfortunately, it was all just carbs. I ate a few bites of bagel, but that was it. Since B brought his gravel bike (oh yeah we got gravel bikes!) to bounce around the race course with, he offered to grab some protein-y type food for me from Starbucks when they opened later.

Like three bites of bagel later, we headed down the half mile or so to transition. I pumped up my bike tires, filled up my bottles, loaded my pickle chicken into my bento, and then dumped my handheld in my run bag. I then dropped off special needs (or personal needs, as they were called here)(which also weren't the easiest to find) before finding a spot to hide out at until B got back from coffee.

And got a sunrise picture over the IMLP rock.

B brought me back a ham and swiss croissant, but I wasn't really able to eat that, either. This was going to be quite possibly the least I'd eaten before an IM since my first in 2013. It also just was going to be.

Water temp was 75ish, so wetsuit legal for us AGers, but not for the pros. So hooray for that.

Oh hey, found a Randy again.

Waiting to enter.

The Swim:

Even though I unofficially swore off two loop swims after Rattlesnake in 2010, here I was doing another one. Oops. I seeded myself in the 1:40-1:50 group, thinking that would be fair given what I did in Madison and how my training was. I was able to fight my way onto the cable early and stayed on it, which was AMAZING. 

I should probably clarify: for those that aren't familiar with IM Lake Placid, they lay a cable along the race course in Mirror Lake. It's a few feet down so you don't touch it when you swim (although the little buoy things attached to it will probably smack you in the face if you swim on top of it), and the water is clear enough that you can follow it. Some say you can see it a few feet off the cable - like if you're six feet in either direction - but I preferred to keep it within probably a foot of me. If you stay on top of it as I did ... also be prepared to swim directly under the IM inflatable buoys because ... ooooops.

I did have to detour off course a tiny bit before the first turn thanks to some ridiculous mucus situation going on that didn't really clear up, but it cleared up enough for me to keep going (and every now and then, wipe snot off my upper lip while swimming. Triathlon: so glamorous).

Exiting loop one. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Time: 45:54

Seeing my time did make me happy (YAY NOT AN HOUR LIKE IN MEMPHIS) and I took a quick second at the start of my second loop to pee (I have not yet mastered peeing while swimming) ... and proceeded to have issues finding the cable again. Oops. Found it quickly though and stayed on it again for the entirety of the second loop. Ironically, it was harder to stay on it for loop two than it was for loop one, which is the opposite of what I was expecting, thinking that more people would be out of the water, but alas.

I popped out, looked at my watch, went "HOLY SHIT," and went to get stripped.

Starting to peel myself out. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Time: 1:34:58 (53rd division, 429th gender, 1625th overall)

T1:

I saw B as I was running toward the oval/transition and yelled something about a swim PR, and he yelled something back along the lines of "I hate you." I don't blame him.

I tried not to dally too much in transition, though my bags were NOT where I (and my wonderful bag check in volunteer) left them. I guess in past years, they had racks for the bags, and didn't this year, and it apparently threw everyone off. 

I popped some Aquaphor on the back of my neck right away for the wetsuit chafing, tossed on some more sunscreen, applied a tiny bit of chamois cream, stuffed my pockets full of food and other random stuff, put on my shoes, helmet, and sunglasses, and bounced out, carrying my bag to dump off as I grabbed my bike.

Time: 9:22

The Bike

Soooooo ... I didn't actually preview this bike course. At all. I didn't pre-drive it, watch videos (except for the Keene descent), nothing. I pre-rode like five miles of it and that was it. I knew it was tough and had a lot of climbing.

As advertised? Yes.

In short (because I could get into a lot of detail here), the bike course was absolutely fucking brutal. It was gorgeous - probably the most scenic and pretty of all the IM bikes I've done yet - but holy shit it was hard. It was also probably especially harder for me given that I was so undertrained. I'd gotten in what, two rides with a lot of climbing? For a course that has anywhere from 5500-8000 feet of elevation (oh Garmin discrepancies; fwiw, mine had 7500)? UGH.

Of note:

- the Keene descent was my favorite part of the day. I know how to descend a hill and I BLEW past people. Out of all the downhill portions of the day (of which there needed to be a lot more), I maybe got passed once on one of them, and not at all on Keene either time.

- Sometime after Upper Jay and before Wilmington Notch (maybe after the Haselton out and back?), we got a headwind. And at that point of the ride, it is (seemingly) all uphill and that headwind was SOUL SUCKING. Particularly on the second loop.

- I have never wanted to quit a race as badly as I did after loop one. If there hadn't been a good 10-15 miles early on in the loop that I liked so much, I may have considered throwing in the towel at special needs.

- Sometime around, oh, mile 45, maybe? maybe earlier?, the ball of my right foot started hurting. On loop two, some arch pain joined in and there were large stretches where I was crying (or some facsimile of it - I don't think the tear ducts were popping out tears) because every. single. pedal. stroke. hurt so goddamn bad.

- Sometime after 100 miles, I quit taking in food.

I think the frustrating part was until that headwind constant hill soul sucking bullshit, I was having an OUTSTANDING ride. And then all that hit. And my ride went to shit. 

But damn, was it pretty.

 

B getting me early on.

Photo (c) FinisherPix

Ha, the photog got me putting my food away. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Pretty sure this is from one of the early climbs on loop two. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Sometime later in the bike. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

This pretty much sums up how much I hated my life heading back into transition. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Some very helpful (*rolls eyes*) woman was yelling out the time as we passed special needs again ("It's 4:45 pm!"), just reinforcing how terrible life had gotten. Thanks, lady. You were probably the same asshole I heard on the run (read on for that).*

Time: 8:09:22 (53rd, 435th, 1702nd)

T2:

I'm pretty sure the same woman (in a Galactic print Skirt Sports skirt) who stripped me out of my wetsuit also took my bike away from me, and if I had been more coherent (or in a better mood), I would have given her one of my volunteer wristbands, but alas.

They rerouted us a different way into the change tent for the run, which was a bit confusing at that point in the race. Not a lot of volunteers in the tent so I was on my own for prepping to run - which don't get me wrong, it was fine!; it was just a bit odd. Overheard a woman next to me saying that was one of the more brutal bikes that IMLP has thrown at people, so that was nice.

Otherwise, tried to keep moving and popped out on the run.

Time: 8:24

The Run:

First of all, I'm a little annoyed that there were NO photographers out on the run course by the time I hit it. Apparently that extra hour of being slow really makes a difference. Quite a few of us back-of-the-packers noticed we had no run photos. Which booooo.

Luckily, I had a personal one for a bit of it.

Love you husband!

I did my best to do what I had been doing on runs since late in Boulder 70.3 last year which is run as much as I could, walk for a count of 20 (basically 20 breaths out), rinse, repeat.

This worked kinda well, although I threw it completely out near aid stations so I could grab snacks or fill my bottle.

In general though, this run was pretty miserable. I saw the ski jumps at one point which was totally cool, but otherwise? I pretty much just wanted to curl up and nap on the side of the road during the entire run. I felt like the walking dead for pretty much the whole thing. And my right foot? The one that hurt during the bike? Oh yeah, it never stopped after that.

Still, I tried moving as best as I could, since that's really the only thing you can do.

Coming back into town for the little out-and-back, there's about a mile directly uphill which is mean and evil (especially on loop two as it's basically the second-to-last mile). Which meant it was great to see husband there on loop one.

I have never stopped for more hugs in a race. And I may be smiling, but I am dead.

Running back down the hill of death at the start of loop two.

Loop two was a lot more of a death march. Everything hurt so badly. I started feeling nauseous at one point - I didn't eat much at all on the run and probably drank a lot less than I should have.

At some point, I started doing a lot of mental math, realizing that even though I was in so much pain, I needed to start attempting to run a tiny bit more if I wanted to finish in time. And even though the thought of quitting ran through my mind a lot during this race - more than it ever has during a race - I didn't want to. I was this far into it and I was not NOT finishing. Which is why if you look at my splits in the tracker, they pick up a bit around miles 15-18 - it's because I was forcing myself to shuffle jog more.

I'd like at this point to insert a little shoutout to my seven-year-old Garmin Forerunner 920, as it started beeping low battery at about mile 20, but survived until the end of the race just fine. Thanks, little buddy.

The final three miles felt like they were about 10 miles long. That final out and back, man ... just ugh.

But the worst was the woman with a quarter mile left - "25 minutes to midnight" - lady, if it takes me 25 minutes to go the rest of this race, just fucking shoot me. Also, I've got like 15 minutes, not 25, so seriously, fuck you.

Not helpful.*

It's mostly downhill after the final turnaround, and I was able to run a good chunk of it back into the oval. I took a walk break after I entered in, but ran around the final curve and SPRINTED down the chute.

The pain disappears - it's the most magical thing. I think I may have been crying. I somehow still managed to go four-for-four on jumping at the finish - B says you can see Mike Reilly cringing as I do it (he's probably nervous that we jumpers will eat it).

I became an Ironman for the fourth fucking time.

Oh look, a running photo of me finally. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Photo (c) FinisherPix.

Probably my favorite of the finish line shots. Photo (c) FinisherPix.

DONE.

Time: 6:43:32 (59th, 456th, 1703rd)

Overall Stats:

Time: 16:45:36

60/61 division (F35-39)

469/485 gender

1771/1817 overall

We all know this was my slowest and hardest. But let's see how it stacks up, shall we?

Swim 2013: 2:02:48

Swim 2016: 1:51:33

Swim 2019: 1:49:26

Swim 2022: 1:34:58

A damn near 15 minute swim PR. GO ME. I'd like to thank the cable for helping me not swim a lot extra (Garmin had me with maybe only an extra 100m or so) and helping me not lose form/body positioning thanks to not having to sight. You're the best, cable. Love you.

T1 2013: 11:24

T1 2016: 5:34

T1 2019: 10:04

T1 2022: 9:22

Always impossible to compare. But happy I could get it back under 10 minutes, which is always my goal.

Bike 2013: 7:26:02

Bike 2016: 7:28:32

Bike 2019: 7:36:02

Bike 2022: 8:09:22

... can I not have a bike split that ends in a two? Apparently not. Ha. Slowest bike by over 30 minutes. Which I guess given how much I didn't train isn't all that bad, actually? Only losing 15 minutes a loop (ish) ... actually I'm not that mad. I got out what I put into it - a crap bike thanks to crap training.

T2 2013: 7:52

T2 2016: 9:25

T2 2019: 7:58

T2 2022: 8:24

Impossible to compare. But under 10 minutes is always nice.

Run 2013: 6:07:29

Run 2016: 6:17:41

Run 2019: 6:04:56

Run 2022: 6:43:32 

Another place where I lost 30 minutes (15 minutes per loop). This is where the lack of volume training came back to bite me in the ass - I didn't have the built up ability to withstand that late race fatigue. 

Ah well. I obviously know I can do better, but I don't think I'm mentally ready to do so yet. But you'll probably see me do this again in another three years.

* Okay, so I will admit that some people may like this information. It is possible. But for the most part, I think those of us chasing cuts kinda know we're chasing cuts. Or at least we should. I definitely knew in AZ (my first).

Race #4 of the Season: Ironman Memphis 70.3

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.

 

Kinda sad I didn't do anything cool - even arms raised - at the finish. Oops.

Time: 2:55:12 (55th, 429th, 1396th)

Overall Stats:

Time: 7:32:55

50/63 division (F35-39)

388/509 gender

1338/1585 overall

In terms of 70.3s, this finished right in the middle. Horrible swim, bike PR, meh run. If I hadn't run the whole thing with B, I definitely would have gone sub-7:30 (if only due to a shortened T2 time), but could I have managed what I did in Boulder? That's a big question and one I don't care to answer. Since I'm thankful I was able to do that run with B, as it might be the last triathlon race run I have the chance to do with him. 

DONE.

Might be the last of these you see from us for quite some time.

The official post-race photo that got sent to the MIL and put on the instas.

*****

Glad I could pull off both my 70.3s this year in decent times and hopefully can get my shit together for IM attempt number 5 next year ...