Pre-race:
Given that I was on my honeymoon, I wanted much of relaxation and little of hard work. Be it stupid, the only pre-race work out I did was 2 days prior to race day which consisted of an hour bike and half hour run. I struggled on the bike as it was really hot and I was winded. This didn’t help build confidence for the race but I tried not to think about it – everything was going to be great. I was fine on the run and a mid-way ocean swim to cool down with was great! Race morning, we woke up at 4:00am, had a bagel w/ peanut butter, a banana and sports drink each and then headed out the door for our short drive to The Fairmont Orchid – the host of the
Swim:
44:49 [2:15 / 100 yds]
The swim was a mass start with the option to start deep in the water, at waist length or completely out of the water on the beach. Given that this was my first mass start ever and first tri of the season; I felt comfortable starting waist deep, middle of the pact. I didn’t really feel like getting beat up and toppled over. The cannon went off and it was a mad dash out into the water for 1100 racers. The swim was a counter-clockwise, 1-loop in the crystal clear waters of
T1:
Nothing could be left on the ground, everything needed to be in a bag hanging on our bikes. Rinsed the salt water off on the run up to T1 with a hose, threw the helmet, glasses, race belt and shoes on and was off. Total time in T1 was 3:36. Yea, room to improve. Ha!
Bike: 3:01:10 [18.5 mph]
I was most nervous for the bike cause I’m not a strong biker. Within the first 5 minutes, I spotted two people fixing flats. Eek – not a good sign. We started with an out and back on 
was nothing compared to what they could have been! The road shoulders were huge and clean – drivers were amazingly polite. Justin passed me somewhere between mile 42-47 on an uphill. He is a maniac on hills and are definitely his time to shine! Overall the course was reasonable – some good drawn out hills, absolutely no short and steep ones. The sun was hot and I scored myself some awesome tan lines, including race number tattoos (see pic). I drank two bottles of Gu2O during the ride and felt pretty good. My only issue was at mile 46… my left foot went dead. My fit has my left foot turned inward a little and before the race I had issues with this but never bothered to fix it. I blame this for a dead foot. I’ll fix the alignment for my next ride and hopefully things will turn out better!
T2:
Not much to say – put the sneaks on and headed out for a 13.1 mile run. Total T2 time was 3:13 (my number bib ripped so I had to safety pin it on – took some extra time!!)
Run: 2:04:21 [9:30 min/mile]
I felt really good heading out for the run. I had forgotten to grab my water bottle to run with in T2 so I was a little panicked at first. I knew this would be a hot run and I wanted to be assured that I would have water when I needed. To make up for it, I made a point to drink up at every single water station on the course – routine at each station: gulp of water, gulp of Gatorade, finish water, dump ice down the sports bra and ice water on my hat, seemed to hold me over between each station just fine. The run wasn’t pretty, not even enjoyable for the most part but definitely new scenery than what I am used to and different at that. The run took you through lava fields and parts were on the grass of a golf course, which I swear was hotter than the lava fields. There was not one spec of shade the entire run, just you and the sun. The course was rolling hills with 4 out and backs. I spotted Justin at the first turnaround and gave him a wave. He was looking strong and as much as I wanted to catch him, it would have taken a lot out of me… next time ;) I really had no issues on the run. In fact, I probably could have gone faster but I kept telling myself not to kill it. I walked each water station to assure I was getting enough liquids. I have so much more training to do for LP, it wasn’t worth making a mistake. I took a GU every 45 minutes in the race and this seemed to work out well for me. The last mile of the run was the hardest part for me, it always seems to be. The stretch was entirely across the golf course and you could hear the cheering at the finish line which for some reason makes it feel longer to get there. I made it though, with a total run time of 2:04:21. I crossed the line with a smile on my face, happy to be done and to go sub 6. Such an improvement from RI last year. I snagged myself a Gatorade and took a seat in the shade to stretch before grabbing some food.
My final time was 5:57:08 which is 40 minutes faster from RI! A little (actually, a lot) of training goes a long ways! : )
Not sure if Justin will be posting his own race report… if not, below are his times – congrats to Jus for setting a new personal PR and for ALMOST breaking 2 hrs on his run!
Swim: 45:54 [2:18]
T1: 3:40
Bike: 2:57:33 [18.9 mph]
T2: 3:18
Run: 2:00:17 [9:11 min/mile]
Total: 5:50:40
On a side note, on the flight out of
A successful race in the books…
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