Race Report: Lake Stevens 70.3

This is about 3 weeks overdue, but I wanted to give a brief report and post some pictures from the Lake Stevens 70.3.  (I say "brief", but once I get going, this will probably be as long as my race reports usually are.)   I did already post a "Race Review" on the Beyond Transition website. 

Pre-Race Day

My bike left for Lake Stevens on Tuesday via FedEx, and I boarded a plane from Denver on Friday afternoon.  My parents connected through Denver on their way from Austin, so we were on the same flight to Seattle.

We stayed in Lake Stevens Friday and I checked in and picked up my bike Saturday morning.  At noon, my teammates and I went to the course for a pre-race work out.  We did a quick swim, got an overview of the transition area, biked one loop of the run course, and drove the bike course.

Dad checking out the transition area

My teammates and our cheering section (including my parents) went out for a pre-race pasta dinner.  I had seafood cannelloni - yum! 

Carb-loaded and ready for race day!

Race Morning

I had an awful time sleeping the night before due to nerves.  I tried not to let it bother me, and thought back to an article in Runners World that I quote and think about often.  "As long as you're horizontal, you'll be fine."  I had a stress dream about not getting a ride in the morning and missing the race.  When I woke up, I thought, "Yay!  I must have gotten some sleep!"

I drank a cup of coffee and ate half a peanut butter sandwich (couldn't finish a whole one) on the drive to the course.  After setting up my transition area, I headed out to get in line for the port-a-potties.  I found my parents and then stepped into my wetsuit and hopped in the water to warm-up.

Swim

At 69 degrees, the water temp was a little warmer than the air and felt great.  It was a treading water start, so we lined up on the dock and jumped in once the wave in front of us started.   As soon as the canon sounded, it suddenly hit me how little sleep I had gotten.  I felt really tired, but I just kept swimming.  What's neat about this course is that there is a rope submerged beneath the water holding the buoys up.  If you position yourself right, you can focus on the line underwater and don't have to lift your head up to sight.   It was crowded at the start, so I pulled to the side, and just sighted the old-fashion way.  More people passed me than I had hoped, but I decided that was ok.  I finished the swim in 39:19.  While this was three minutes faster than my previous effort at this distance, I still feel that I'm capable of more.  I've always made the executive decision not to focus on my swim since it is already my strength and will not gain me much time overall.  However, that is a decision I may revisit next season.   I'm toying with the idea of packing in lots of 100m intervals this winter before training officially begins.

Bike

Clipping in

Managing a smile

Beautiful and hilly about sums it up.  No one hill was significantly harder than the others, but there were a lot of 'em, one after another, with some false flats in between.  One part was basically like a roller coaster - straight up, straight down, straight up, straight down.  It was a two loop course, but the loop did start right away - it was about six miles in.  Those first miles were fast and partly downhill.  I thought I might be in for a pretty fast (for me) bike split.  I was wrong.  I tried not to get too discouraged by my average mph and just kept pedaling, but I think I focused too much on my Garmin, and not enough on the pretty scenery.  I repeated my mantra over and over again -- "use your granny gear, get over it" -- and tried to keep my legs as spin-y as possible.  I had to stop for a bathroom break around Mile 40.  I spent awhile convincing myself to just wait until transition (I had already stopped once), but I'm soooo glad I decided to stop again.  The volunteers at the aid-station were so nice!  They held my bike and filled up my water bottles while I was taking care of business.  That little breather gave me a much-needed second wind to head into T2.  My bike time was 3:44:55 (14.9 mph) - nearly 20 minutes slower than the 5430 Long Course two years ago.  Boulder was a fast course, this was not. 

Such a pretty course!

Run

This was the highlight of the race for me.  And it was the last time I did this distance, too.  I struggle so much mentally with running, but for some reason biking 56 miles beforehand seems to guarantee that I'll feel strong and happy during a 13.1 mile run.  I guess it just take me a long time to warm up. :P  I set my Garmin so it would give me the 9min/1min intervals and did not let myself check my pace or overall time.  The course was two loops, more like two figure-eights, and the first chunk was uphill.  I forced myself to go slow and let my legs recover.  I didn't know my exact splits, but I could tell I was keeping a consistent sub-11 pace, which I felt really good about.  As in regular half-marathons, it started to feel really hard around Mile 9.  The second part of the figure-eight was an out and back beside the lake, which was mostly up on the way out.  On that last hill, I kept telling myself to shorten my stride, lean forward, and keep my turn-over quick, hearing my coaches' voices in my head.  I saw a few of my teammates while on the course which was a good boost.  It was tough, but I felt really strong the entire run.  And it wasn't just a feeling.  It was a PR!  2:16:25 (10:25/mi) - faster than my stand-alone half-marathon PR in Moab this year!

One day I'll learn how to not look like a complete dork in running pictures.

Finish

My overall time was 6:49:23 - about six minutes faster than the race in Boulder two years ago.  That's pretty good considering my bike split was so much slower.  It was great to have my parents there cheering me in and out of each transition and racing alongside teammates was a blast.

A few relaxing days in Seattle afterward was the perfect way to rest and recover the body and mind.

What's Next?

Tri season is over, but I'm already back in training.  I'll be running the Denver Rock 'n Roll marathon on October 9th!