Summer’s Texas 70.3 Race Report

On 8 April 2018, Summer raced Ironman 70.3 Texas in Galveston, TX. Read about the training and mindset leading up to the race as well as how it turned out (spoiler: it went fantastically).

Goals

1. Break 5 hours

2. Run under 1:40

Splits

| Swim  | 34:47    |
| T1        | 2:59      |
| Bike    | 2:35:53 |
| T2       | 3:43       |
| Run    | 1:34:41  |
| Total  | 4:52:03 |

Training

My training going in to this race went pretty well all things considered. I raced and won an Olympic distance about 3 weeks before, and at that time was just coming off of a back injury that I sustained at work. During the back injury period of my training I was taking days off at a time. I thought that would really hurt my overall fitness, but based on my race results it didn’t seem to have hindered it as much as I expected. Per my coach, my focus on this training block was to really start to progress more in my swim and bike. Being a distance runner I am always most concerned about the run portion, and honestly, only running 2-3 times a week was really getting to me mentally- but my coach insisted that I trust the process, and turns out he was right!

Pre-race

We live in Albuquerque, NM…so Galveston, Texas was about a 15 hour drive. With a history of back problems the length of the drive worried me a good bit, so we split it up over two days. Friday we drove 10 hours to Dallas, TX and stayed with Ben’s friend. Saturday we drove the additional 5 hours to Galveston, where we were met with chilly winds and stormy clouds. Typically this race is always super hot, but the forecast was looking pretty windy and cold. After we checked everything in we went out for burgers with our gracious host (whom we had never met, but the Gavin’s were SO amazing for letting us crash at their place!). I typically like to get my pre-race cookie the night before, so we stopped by a grocery store on the way back from dinner to grab race day breakfast.

Race

As mentioned, I do love a good chocolate chip cookie and an iced coffee on race morning. Warm-ups went smoothly and I was ready to finally get this thing underway. The swim was in a choppy lake (due to the winds), and started out a little rough. The nerves definitely set in right before plunging myself in to the cold water.

The swim is always my worst event, and even though my swim time was 6 minutes faster than my first and only 70.3, I was still 12th in my age group coming out of the water. Funny, but also ridiculous side story here: I didn’t realize until too late that I was still wearing my engagement ring when I was being corralled to the start line. The ring was Ben’s grandmother’s ring, and I was so paranoid about it falling off into the depths of the lake that every left stroke I would use my thumb to hold the ring in place. I’m pretty sure that didn’t help my swim time!

Transition from swim to the bike went swimmingly! I had never worn a wet suit before, but it was easier than I thought to peel it off. I hopped on the bike and just started hammering it. I find it satisfying to hear my laborious inhales of breath as I push myself on the bike. With a massive tailwind on the way out I knew I needed to work extra hard to get a good split on the way out. About 2 miles from the turn-around my hands were completely frozen. The side winds were picking up, and the air was getting colder as the misty rain started to roll in. The way back was absolutely miserable. A headwind and frozen hands and arms meant that I was not able to grab my water bottle from behind to replenish my bottle between my aero bars. The last 28 miles of the ride I was unable to take in any nutrition…which I was sure would destroy me. I started to bonk with 10 miles to go, trying desperately to get my water bottle loose, but swerving into oncoming traffic with each attempt.

When I finally got to T2 I was relieved, and still freezing. I hobbled to my bike at the far end, trying to quickly regain feeling in my hands so I could take off my helmet and tie my shoes. That didn’t happen as quickly as I had hoped. After struggling for over a minute to unsnap my helmet I eventually came to the conclusion I would just run with my stupid helmet on. So I sat down to change shoes instead. Shoes on, helmet on, gu-chomps in hand. I gave the helmet one more go with my teeth, and this time I was able to bite my helmet snap and finally be free of it.

I immediately began refueling on the run. My first mile ticked in around 7:05 and I felt great. Three loops of cheering fans and weary triathletes was the perfect scenario for me. I started ticking off the miles, watching each one flash on my watch around 7 minute mile pace. I expected to bonk at any moment. I kept telling myself “just keep running like this until you can’t anymore!” With three miles to go I began to feel a poop coming on. No shame here, distance people are not afraid to talk about their digestive habits/problems. Two miles to go and I knew I needed to find a port-a-pottie or there would be a problem. This isn’t Kona. I’m not even a professional…so pooping in my pants was clearly not an option. The next loo I found I jumped in line. A 53 second bathroom break at mile 11 meant that my legs had finally stopped moving, and I honestly think they liked that. Starting back up again was a different story. I watched as my pace went from an easy 7 minute mile pace to a really freaking hard 8:15 pace. I was still able to manage a 1:34 run time, bathroom break included.

Post-race

Not much to say post-race other than a long (but happy) ride home with the fiancé, and some lingering stomach issues. This race taught me that racing can actually be fun (My first 70.3 was in Raleigh in 2017, and it was disgraceful) and also that I can run a lot faster than I thought after swimming and biking. We (my coach and I) came away from this race realizing that my future training efforts needed to focus on the swim, which is what we’ve been doing.