This is my second year capping off my season with the PPD Beach2Battleship Half Iron distance race. I like finishing the year with a break from the all-out intensity of sprints and Olympics and it's hard to beat this awesome late October race at the beach!
Last year I finished this race in 5:15:26 (race report here), winning the master's division. Going into this year's race I thought best case maybe I could shave a couple of minutes off that time mainly in the swim and run, but I also knew it was just as likely that I could end up slower. One never knows on race day so I just went into it wanting a strong and happy race.
Coming in under 5 hours never EVER seemed within the realm of possibility. I confess I briefly thought about the math required to make that happen and quickly dismissed it. So no one was more surprised and thrilled than I was to have finished in 4:59:29. That was good enough for 10th overall out of 329 women, and 2nd Masters! Here's how the day went.
Pre-Race
I arrived in Wilmington late Thursday and enjoyed a pretty relaxing Friday. Races are so much less complicated the second year you do them! I headed to packet pickup, chatted with the weekend's honorary host - tri-legend Michellie Jones, and dropped off my bike-to-run bag.
After that the fortyninegroup (me, Erin and John) had a spontaneous reunion/meeting in front of the Wilmington Convention Center! We do some work for the race (communications, social media, sponsorships) but by this point things were moving very smoothly and we were all very happy!
Then I took Roo to T1 bike check-in near Wrightsville Beach (#2118....drinking age and voting age is how I remembered my number).
I had a nice dinner and slept reasonably well for a race night, and awoke at 6 am to start the day, get to transition before it closed and then to the swim start. My wave was scheduled for 9:04.
Swim - 1.2 miles
30:53
56th/329 women
Thankfully, it was not nearly as cold this year and I did not need my chemical hand and foot warmers and three layers of clothing! The water was warm, perfect for a wetsuit, and there was a favorable push from the tide. The earlier swimmers had a bit more current assist, and those of us in the last wave had a bit less, but even so, once in the water we found ourselves having to swim against the tide just to remain on the starting line.
The channel is so wide that it's easy to get your own bit of space on the swim. Still, I did a fair amount of drafting and was pretty straight to the first and only turn buoy, then it's anybody's guess if I took a good line. I basically followed the crowd, so who knows.
I climbed the ladder up out of the water and felt my wetsuit being unzipped. I dashed off to the wetsuit strippers and then was on my way! I am not in these pics, but this is what that process looked like (these pics and more from Wilmington Star News Online). Then I ran through the showers and quickly to my bike.
My analysis: Overall a solid swim, feeling strong from start to finish and lots of technique-checks on my stroke. I should have positioned myself more in the front of
the line of swimmers and gone out harder to find faster swimmers than I ended up with. I could have scouted
out landmarks ahead of time to ensure I was on a fairly optimal line.
Nutrition: 6 am breakfast of oatmeal, PB, banana, coffee, OJ with nutritional yeast. Pre-swim (8:30 am) Clif Mojo bar, half a banana, a few oz of Gatorade.
2:58
4th/328 women
I laughed pretty hard when I saw I had the 4th fastest T1 of the women, considering I had to pee...and did. Here's my little trick: squat down while putting on your bike helmet and well, go ahead and pee. T1-P1, I called it. Note: this is best suited to a grassy, absorbant transition area.
As I was ummmm....finishing up, a volunteer came over (they are the best at this race!) and offered to put my wetsuit and gear into my T1 bag. These bags are then collected and transported to T2 at the Wilmington Convention Center for later pickup.
That guy makes me look tan. Few things are more attractive than post-swim cap hair.
Bike - 56 miles
2:37:10 (21.4 mph; Garmin data here)
8th/328 women
The bike started off pretty uneventfully, once I got my feet into my shoes which seemed to take an inordinately long time. I felt great, awesome actually, and fell under the spell of believing I could sustain a higher heart rate than I'd planned on. That worked fine, for the first half, until I realized I was probably pedaling closer to an Olympic distance (24 miles) effort level than a half (56 miles). But I'd had enough tough training rides to know I had some reserve capacity and pressed on, averaging about half a mile an hour faster on the back half than the front so I guess I did OK!
We had awesome conditions - very light wind, perfect temps, and sunny skies! I saw a number of people overdressed out there, fooled by the cooler morning, and was glad I opted for nothing extra.
I passed a lot of cyclists including a few master's women that I noted (the 40-44's started two waves ahead of those over 45), and I was only passed by a handful of men (obviously the slow swimmers from a prior swim wave). At 30-some miles into the ride I got passed by a group of four - three master's women I'd passed earlier and a small guy with a disk wheel. They were very clearly riding in a pack now and they caught me by surprise. When they did not immediately break apart, I yelled in response, "You guys need to put some distance between you, that's not fair!"
The USAT no-drafting rule is: "keep at least three bike lengths of clear space between you and the cyclist in front. If you move into the zone, you must pass within 15 seconds."
One of the women in the pack with the aero helmet and shield yelled something back at me at that moment and several more times before the bike leg ended, but I couldn't make it out. Probably just as well, as I don't think she was saying "Good job!"
I wasn't quite sure what to do. In all my races I had never found myself in situation of pack riding in a race. I would back off, then my heart rate and effort would drop below what I wanted, so I'd bridge back up and sprint around in front of them and hold them off as long as I could, fueled by anger! I had a few short conversations with other riders and we just wished for course marshals to appear and bust them on this obvious pack riding. You can see the sprint level efforts in my heart rate after mile 40.
It was really annoying. It's not the fault of the race, as there were marshals out and plenty of penalties assigned. This group just got lucky. It just amazes me how blatant they were about cheating. I held them off in the final miles and pushed hard to T2 determined to finish ahead of them, which I did!
Nutrition: I took in an aero bottle of Perpetuem (270 cals), 3/4 of a Clif Bar (200 cal), and two or three caffeinated gels (180 or 270 cals). I never touched my second bottle that was just plain water.
My analysis: I don't think I would have done much differently in the bike leg. I don't regret pushing my overall effort, even though I'm sure the surges hurt me. However, I think it was appropriate given the situation.
T2
3:48
81/327
T2 at Beach2Battleship is a model of efficiency and service! You push your bike over the timing mat and immediately your bike is whisked away, valet style. You continue up around the interior of the convention center where a volunteer yells your race number into a megaphone and another volunteer finds your numbered T2 bag and hands it to you, while you continue running the perimeter. I diverted to the loo for T2-P2 (this time with an actual commode), accounting for the less than stellar T2. I did multitask and change my shoes while peeing, however.
Run - 13.1 miles
1:44:42 (7:59 pace; Garmin data here)
21/322 women
All the bricks, all the transition runs in training, they are never quite like the real deal of a 56 mile race effort on the bike followed by a 13.1 race effort on the run. Right from the get-go my inner quads were cramping and hurting; they would need to be managed to get me to the finish.
I sought that relaxed, holding back feeling the first few miles like I did at the half marathon two weeks prior, but even so, my heart rate was higher than what I thought was sustainable for that distance. I ended up walking through about every other aid station, taking 10s or so to get in enough fluids (and salt tabs twice). I hate walking in a race, just hate it, but just maybe that was the wise choice, who knows.
The aid stations are every mile on the run and they are amazing. Each was like a glittery oasis of energy and nourishment! There were lots of volunteers, and several tables with oranges, bananas, animal cookies, Heed, water, salt tabs, Coke, Clif Shot, Clif Bar, etc. I kept marveling at how well stocked, and how perfectly cut the oranges looked! It's funny what you think about out there. There were speakers and music on the course and a fair amount of shade. It's a flat out-and back course that winds around Greenfield Lake and is very pretty!
I truly cannot say enough about the support and volunteers at this race. The encouragement, the attention, the help, is absolutely incredible, particularly in transition and on the run course. (The athletes have been posting stories of awesome volunteers on the Facebook page all week and I hope the volunteers know the difference they make in our races.)
I arrived at the final aid station that had a "gridiron" theme and I noticed the green asphalt and football field type markings on the road. I knew then that it was just a few turns, a downhill, the cobblestones of Water Street and the finish. I saw my friend Kristin on the course and reached out for a high-five! She helped me find that final gear for the finish!
Thanks Kristin for the high-five just before this pic!
I've become one of those people who wears the race belt around my butt.
It's the only place where it doesn't spin around and annoy me.
It's the only place where it doesn't spin around and annoy me.
Nutrition: two caffeinated gels (180 cals), water, Coke, Heed, four salt tablets.
My analysis: Now that I've seen my heart rate data (mid-160's) I realize I could not have pushed the run much/any more than I did. The walking may very well have saved me and my crampy legs from a blowup and allowed for better running between, but ideally I'd like to get through a future 70.3 run leg without walking. I felt mentally stronger on the run this year than last - more in control of the situation with healthy legs, but there is room for improvement staying mentally tough late in the race.
Having only raced this distance three times in four years, the trickiest question for me is how to optimally balance the effort between the bike and the run. My half marathon here was five minutes slower, about 5% slower, than the Hokie Half Marathon two weeks prior. But how much would I have to hold back on the bike to bring that run time down even even just a few minutes? So as I am typing this and thinking about it, I am realizing maybe I did OK with that balancing act. I pretty well maxed out the bike and the run, had a negative split on the bike, and did not drop off too badly during the course of the run. I definitely left it all out there. So yeah, I'm going to say "good job!"
(See this is why it's good to do a race report...it makes you think about and figure things out!)
Post-race
It was a bit before I found out I'd come in under 5 hours and I really did not believe it for a long time. There's something so nice about that sub-5 time that is way better than 5:00:01!! It makes me thankful I pushed on all the places that I did, and I am still just riding a wave of happiness and satisfaction from this race, and the whole year.
I was very sore after this race, probably the most sore I have been after a triathlon. It took three days for most of it to dissipate so I guess I did work pretty hard out there!
It was a real treat to receive my award from Michellie Jones, who incidentally finished 3rd overall in the morning's NHRMC 5K running an 18:50!!!! She spent a lot of time out with athletes, it was great!
I've come away with an even deeper appreciation for why people love this race, and why I love this race. It is born of the community of Wilmington and infused with tremendous energy and pride from the volunteers all the way up through the sponsors including PPD (Pharmaceutical Product Development) who are very hands-on. The race includes the PPD Heroes who have overcome medical adversity to race and it's awesome to see their purple jerseys out on the course!
Every athlete from the first across the finish to the last is made to feel like a rock star as volunteers go above and beyond as if your race is their race too. It is a monumental effort to put on a point-to-point race like this, with separate T1 and T2 areas, but from an athlete perspective it is so much fun!
You could say I am biased, because I do work on behalf of the race, but that also gives me access to the behind-the-scenes of this race, one of just a few remaining (and the most successful) non-corporate 140.6/70.3 race in the US. All I can say is a tremendous amount of passion goes into this race and it is worth consideration for your 2015 race calendar.
This was a fantastic ending to a really satisfying season that didn't even start up until late May. I have so many people to thank for this race, and all that led up to it.
First of all, thank you to Coach Jim McGehee, who has been my Coach for almost 5-1/2 years now since I first began the sport, and who has been with me through thick and thin. He does the hard parts of planning, scheduling, adjusting...and managing me (!), while I do the fun parts of swim, bike, run, and race! The best investment a triathlete could EVER make is an experienced and knowledgeable coach. The race wheels, aero helmet, power meters, gadgets, and gizmos are nothing compared to the guidance of a great coach, and Coach Jim is the best! So thank you Coach Jim for another great year!!!
Thank you to my beloved husband Robert and kids Spencer and Grant who accept my triathlon habit without question. Robert is my race statistician and while he is not real keen to be at the races, I always know he is at the computer while I am racing, keeping an eye on my times and those of my competitors! He usually knows my results before I do! I am also grateful to my mother-in-law, Therese "Oma", who fills in when I leave town (and also when I am here). She makes sure that the family is fed and the kids get where they need to go! I am grateful to my "fans" of 47+ years, my mom and dad, Ted and Donna. No matter how old you are, it still feels good to make your parents proud :-)
Much appreciation goes to Bryan Walsh and Solar Connexion for sponsoring my race season and supporting the local triathlon community by volunteering at races and sponsoring kits. I'm pleased to serve as a solar advocate and maintain a connection to renewable energy and sustainability themes that began during my time at Virginia Tech. Bryan is the go-to "equipment coach," problem-solver, and chief sherpa!
Thank you to Coach Tom Williams for the patient swim coaching and the huge infusion of confidence that has come along with that!
Without the help of Dr. Jesse Davidson, vascular surgeon extraordinaire, I would not have been running or racing. Thank you for fixing me!!
Lastly, thank you to Krista, and all my friends/tri-friends who I do not dare try to mention all by name. This sport is infinitely more fun when shared with others, even those who are remote from me, who I may not have met (yet), but feel a kinship with.
Thank you to my readers for checking in on my blog, where I still don't know what I'm doing, but I write from the heart. My message early on, and my message still, is to dream big and go after it...whatever "it" may be. I never imagined this fulfilling life 5 years ago, and now I can't imagine it any other way.
As you look toward 2015, please, DREAM BIG!
