Eagleman 70.3 Race Report

I have no idea why my nerves were so high before this race, but they were.   I always get the butterflies and I think they are a GOOD thing, but Sunday morning I was really jittery.  There had been a lot of glitches in the training plan this block, due only to regular life stuff (work, travel, health), but it still made me question where I was at and if I was as prepared as I could/should be.

SWIM: The water was 76 degrees, so no wetsuits for the pros.  I just was a little concerned about the jellyfish, especially when Courtenay emerged from the swim warmup with a sting on her cheek.  Ugh… dread.   They announced 3 of the top pro women separately and each one had her 15seconds of fame to wave at the crowd and enter the water for the swim start.  Then they announced “the rest of the pro women”  (no glory for the pee-ons!) and said “you have about 20 seconds” — which was a little irritating because the swim start buoy was pretty much exactly 20 seconds away.  I barely made it.

Then the clobbering began.  My swim strategy was pretty much to find some feet and hang on for dear life.  Some benevolent woman, however, decided to instead lend me her left fist, and repeatedly at that. It was to the point where I was screaming under water. I mean, once or twice- OK– but this was a full-on beating and I was wondering what I did in a past life to deserve this kind of brutality.  Apparently you CAN hear screams under water, because when I passed someone on the bike, she looked at me and said, “Oh, sorry  about that swim!“  This was funny to me, because 1.)I could never recognize anyone in the water anyway, and 2.)she actually apologized. I’m still not sure who it is, but I appreciate the remorse.  You know what they say about battered women, though– we tend to forgive our abusers too quickly.

So I hate to admit it, but I was beat into submission before the first buoy, and I passively removed myself from the pounding fists and lost any chance for feet to draft off of.  I was on my own, just me and the jellyfish.  I am pretty good at making friends, though, and two of those little buggers got overly friendly with me and stung me on my arms.  More underwater screaming ensued.  The poor guys on the kayaks must’ve thought I was a complete lunatic.   Anyway, I swam steady and exited the water in 32:16– a new PR for me.  Quit laughing… this is progress, people.  Last year I was swimming 35:xx with a wetsuit and in a pack.  It’s coming down!   I cannot wait to break 31:00… that’s my new goal.

BIKE: I had no problem finding my bike since almost all the other pro women had already headed out on the course (one minor benefit of being a slow swimmer).  I was now ready to race.  I immediately saw my Dad and Deb and they were screaming for me.  I was fired up!  I was in a hurry to start catching some girls on the bike, but I had to keep my efforts under control and stay on the plan that Matt and I had disccussed, power/heartrate-wise.  I just watched my power meter, heart rate, and played a  little game of eating a gel every 20 minutes.  And of course finding more people to pass.  I love a flat course and stayed steady with my power.  We had practically no wind and the conditions were perfect.  I went from 2nd to last (12th or 13th) to rolling into transition in 4th place.  2:23:49 bike time (23.36mph) and 2nd fastest split behind Natascha— I’ll take it!

I was ecstatic– and the announcer made it really fun.  I had no idea I was in 4th place.  I had some speedy chicks behind me, so I was pretty sure that my excitement would be short-lived, but I headed out on the run course feeling amazing and effortlessly running a faster pace than I expected.

* Editor’s Note: Please don’t laugh at the mankini. It takes a special girl to leave  her shorts at home, but an even more special one to rock a mankini on race day.  There’s a first for everything I guess.

RUN: Desiree and Kelly passed me within the first few miles, but I wasn’t entirely surprised. I was pleased with my own pace and just tried to hold it steady.  If only the race could’ve ended at 10miles instead of 13.1…  The last couple miles were TOUGH. I thought I really slowed down, but in reviewing my data, my pace didn’t drop off too much. I just was caught the last mile by 2 girls that ran a little faster than I did.  No complaints here– I 100% gave everything I had on Sunday, and that’s all I could ask for.  I would like to think I can respond when someone passes me so close to the finish, but I was depleted.  I held 6:55 avg pace on the half marathon (1:30:44) and I’m stoked about it, mainly because I know I can bring it down a little more.

So I finished in the payout (8th!) in competitive field, and even more exciting was to see how close the results were for the last 3-4 girls.  If anything, it’s just very encouraging, because you realize that you’re not THAT far off.

Oh- and I got a slot to Clearwater (70.3 World Championships).   I guess I have plans for November this year now.

Note that both Mirinda and Natascha raced the Rev3 Tri the previous week, and still came back to smash the field.  They were just awesome.

All Pro Female Athletes

	ATHLETE	RANK	AGE/DIV	SWIM	BIKE	RUN	TOTAL
1	CARFRAE, MIRINDA	10/16/11	28/Professional	00:26:29	02:24:42	01:19:33	04:13:27
2	BADMANN, NATASCHA	22/13/14	43/Professional	00:30:26	02:16:38	01:26:48	04:17:00
3	FICKER, DESIREE	19/19/16	33/Professional	00:29:07	02:28:08	01:24:17	04:24:49
4	STEVENS, AMANDA	5/17/17	32/Professional	00:25:08	02:30:50	01:28:47	04:27:29
5	HANDEL, KELLY	8/26/18	32/Professional	00:26:18	02:36:36	01:22:25	04:28:18
6	WASSNER, LAUREL	7/23/19	34/Professional	00:26:16	02:33:29	01:27:03	04:29:44
7	PALLARDY, KATE	23/22/20	24/Professional	00:30:58	02:27:30	01:26:41	04:29:51
8	KLONER, AMY	25/18/21	32/Professional	00:32:16	02:23:49	01:30:44	04:30:01
9	JERDONEK, LINDSEY	11/20/22	25/Professional	00:26:32	02:31:02	01:30:28	04:31:13
10	BASSO, ANNE	21/21/23	26/Professional	00:30:24	02:27:29	01:32:20	04:33:23
11	MILLER, MARY	20/24/24	29/Professional	00:29:25	02:31:18	01:35:21	04:39:30
12	LEIGGI, HEATHER	24/25/25	34/Professional	00:31:23	02:31:02	01:36:05	04:41:44
13	BROWN, COURTENAY	26/27/26	31/Professional	00:42:43	02:31:09	01:32:02	04:49:42
14	GORDON, JACQUI	–/–/–	36/Professional	00:00:00	00:00:00	00:00:00	00:00:00

My dad caught a picture of me in the massage tent.  I would have waved, but as you can see I was well-entrenched in my post-race coma to notice.

My dear friend Bianca wasn’t able to make it, as she ambitiously thought she was going to be able to attend a wedding in NYC on Saturday night and then make it to Cambridge, MD (from Philly!) for the 6:40am start on Sunday.  Her husband reminded her of the logistical challenges of such a plan.  Since she’s from New Zealand, I won’t hold her to the same standards of basic U.S. geography.  In all honesty, I was relieved that she wasn’t screaming at me on that run course from her mountain bike!

Of course having my Dad and Debra there was wonderful, and I really appreciated their loving and enthusiastic support.  Being a tri spectator is no small task, and we are known to be a wee difficult before race day.  Just a wee bit.  Thanks guys.  Love you so much.

My dad is hilarious. He apparently told one of the cops on the course, “Listen, sir, don’t arrest me, but I’m telling you up front that I’m going to be standing in the middle of this road screaming for my daughter when she comes by.  I promise to move as soon as she passes, but I just want to tell you up front.”

All in all, another great racing weekend. I am grateful for the opportunity to compete at this level and I’m not going to take it for granted.  I am also extremely lucky to have such a wicked smart, talented, and dedicated coach behind me, and I cannot thank him enough for all he’s done to get me from where I started to where I am now . . . and where I am going.  THANK YOU, Matt Russ, for your dedication to your athletes. I am lucky to be one of them.

Now, back to work!