My preparations for Ironman 70.3 Syracuse included more than just the training; they also included wise packing/clothing choices. The forecast was for very cool weather so I tossed in a few clothing choices, and then a few more, just in case. (A girl can never have too many, right?) It was a good thing I had thrown in those extras, because they were needed.
It was cold and dark when we arrived at the race site in the early morning hours. We had factored in extra time for getting to the race so Christian and I hung out in the car for quite awhile to stay warm and watched as other bundled racers made their way to transition. When I arrived at the Transition Area, I first tried to figure out the layout. But even after asking numerous volunteers, I was still not exactly sure where the swim in or bike in entrances where located. There were no markings. After getting set up, I proceeded with my normal warm-up. And I must say, throughout my racing career, I’ve visited my share of port-a-potties but these were one of a kind – decorated with scented sachets, [fake] floral garlands, pictures, and mats. The sun finally rose minutes before the race start but did nothing to warm up the 43 degree air temperature. The water temp was 62 degrees so it wasn’t noticeably cold at first. However, within a few minutes of starting, my feet were numb and I never recovered feeling in them until somewhere around mile 3 of the run. I had a tough time staying on-course; sighting (at the beginning and end) wasn’t the problem, just keeping a straight line. The swim course was an elongated U-shape; sighting along the “base” of the U was virtually non-existent because the sun was blinding as it was just coming over the horizon. For about half of swim I was able to stay on the feet of another racer; it was nice to be with someone else and get a little draft. By the last quarter, I felt my course-tracking was better but I think my pace slipped as I fell off the feet of the other racer. Other than noticing a distance between us, I wasn’t aware of slowing down and now wonder if the cold had started to affect me.
The transition from swimming to biking was a slow, painful one. Getting out of the water I felt very disoriented and had thoughts of whether I should keep going. I guess a few brain cells were still working and kept me going but every step I took was painful. I felt like the ‘blocks of ice’ at the bottom of my legs cracked with each step. I struggled to remove my wetsuit and was even relegated to sitting on the ground because, with my feet frozen, my balance was off and I couldn’t keep myself upright. After finally getting my suit off and jacket on, I left with my bike, quickly mounted, and easily had my feet on the pedals. But because my feet were so cold I couldn’t control the pedals and my feet slipped right off. Once I finally got going, I was working to ride hard but also put gloves on. It wasn’t an easy task with cold, wet hands and I think I unfortunately utilized a lot of energy in the process.
In my opinion, the first 20 miles or so of this bike course were the toughest. There were several long, steady climbs in these early miles. The 2nd half of the course was flatter with just rolling hills. I think I was pushing extra hard on those climbs, trying to make up time lost in the swim and transition. I was also feeling fresh, wanted to warm up, and could see 2 athletes ahead of me that I wanted to catch. I was finally able to pass one and kept the other within sight. However, as the race progressed, my legs began to feel flat and the next female ahead of me rode out of sight. Feeling like I just didn’t have the power and strength in my legs, I started to mentally beat myself up and wondered why I was falling off pace. I continued pushing as hard as I could; my legs didn’t hurt, they just didn’t feel as strong as normal. I think my initial hard push caught up with me which was why my legs were not feeling as strong. (I was definitely focused on riding though because during the race, I never saw the cool M-dot mowed into the lawn at a local ski resort, which we had seen while pre-driving the course.) In the last several miles, I looked at my ride time and thought about the run. I was concerned that with how my legs felt that I might be walking a part of the run and not stay under 5 hours.
As I got off my bike I heard Christian tell me there were several women running together about 4 minutes ahead of me. Not exactly encouraging news when the body is feeling fatigued. However, once those running shoes were on I didn’t think about the bike or the people in front of me and just focused on my running. I had actually run and driven a portion of the course the day before so I at least knew what was coming. The course was a lollipop-shaped course with a double loop on the “pop” part. The stick was roughly the first mile, with a climb immediately as we made the turn to begin the loops. I was surprised to see a 7-minute pace over that first mile and set a goal to just try to hang on to that pace. Amazingly for the majority of the miles after that, I was able to keep a faster pace. On the first loop, I tried to remember where and how many climbs there were so that the 2nd loop would be mentally easier. As I finished the first loop, Christian let me know that the next female was about 2 minutes up. While I’d made up some time and was actually feeling decent, I wasn’t sure if those 2 minutes were doable but I was certainly going to try. The 2nd loop was tougher and around mile 9 I noticed that my pace had dropped off a little. However, I was still hoping I’d made up some ground on the runner in front of me and thought maybe I’d catch a glimpse of her. No such luck and the last 1 – 1 ½ miles hurt. I had not realized that the final stretch was a slight gradual incline. My legs were getting tight from general fatigue and also from the pounding they had taken from the descending over the prior few miles. While I wasn’t able to make any final push or catch the female in front of me, I finished happy knowing I’d made up some of my time deficit, had a much stronger run than I thought feasible, was able to stay under 5 hours, and at 1:31:06 had one of my fastest Half Ironman run splits.
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