This past weekend I traveled up the road a bit to Ashland City for the Nashvegas 70.3. I would have rathered travel to Las Vegas for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships but you have to earn your right to race there and I haven't done that yet. My race was a good sign that it might be a possibility next season though.
All week the forecast for race day was thunderstorms. This was going to be my only 70.3 of the season and just my second time at that distance. So I didn't like spending all week worried that the swim would be canceled or the race shortened. As race day got closer the forecast did improve some.
When I got up Saturday morning I checked the forecast and it said the thunderstorms would be around 5am and after that just rain. However, when we got to Ashland City there were no storms or rain. So I opted to take my training wheels off and put my race wheels on. BAD MISTAKE. but at the time it seemed like a good call.
I was a little rushed but was able to get transition set up and into the porta potty line and into the river for a very brief warm up. I felt good on the warm up. Of course my swim plan was to get out front of the washing machine of the wave start then swim Leadmen pace. LM pace for me is quite slow, it's my all day long pace. So I made the decision to not get caught up in chasing or going for a certain time. I knew I would be no where near my PR time since my only other 70.3 was Augusta. I swam a 24 there! No way I would swim a 24 in choppy water against a current without a wetsuit even if I had of been trying. Because of the recent rain and the wind starting to pick up the water was very choppy. That doesn't bother me but it does slow you down regardless of your ability.
Swim : 32:xx (Blueseventy PZ3TX and Vision goggles)
I did exactly as planned. I sprinted hard for the first 20 or so yards, saw that I was clear and shut it down lol. A whole 10-14 seconds of hard swimming. I got into my LM pace almost instantly. A smal group of 3 to 5 had formed up a head and the rest of the field was right behind me. I ended up leading the rest of the wave for the rest of the swim. Had this been an A race I would have been with that front pack and we would have pulled way clear of the rest of the wave. When we finally turned to go back up river to the dock I felt smooth still and could feel a bit of current. Then a bigger guy started to make his way past. He didn't blow by so I figured he wasn't swimming but maybe a second or two faster than I was. So I decided to get on his feet. It was nice because he cut the current for me and I just chilled behind him for the last 1000 or so yards. I got out of the water feeling pretty much fresh. That was a super easy swim with just about no energy expended. PERFECT. I was happy with my time though because I've never swam faster than 34 minutes at the lake that I swim in.
As I made my way into T1 I was feeling very relaxed and the weather still seemed pretty decent. It was raining now but not heavy. I decided to not wear sunglasses which was a good call.
Bike: 2:46 (Easton EC90 TT, Speedfil A2, ISM Prologue, Base Performance Amino)
The bike started out great. Or at least the first 12 miles did. It started with a nice rolling section with a tail wind. I was pedaling smooth and avgering 22.5. My bike goal was similar to my swim goal. Go slightly above LM pace. I feel like I can avg 20mph at Leadman. So anyway I made the first turn around and headed back into the head wind. It was from this point until about 14 miles to go that I hated life, thought of quitting, wished I could crash and get it over with, told myself to relax stay calm and be smart, just quit, get off the road and wait for a SAG vehicle, no we can do this, O GOD I'M GOING TO DIE OUT HERE. The rain got harder and harder and the wind got worse. It went from just a hard wind to gusting swirling wind. I would get hit from the left then from the right. I was scared plain and simple. My pace was quickly shot in the face. I decided around mile 20 that pace was no longer the concern but safety was instead. I had just crashed two weeks ago at Storm the Fort and I had a crash about 4 weeks before that in wet conditions on a training ride. The conditions I was dealing with now were 10 times worse. My disc wheel was like a kite and my mind was going crazy. I just knew the wheels were going to get blown out from under me. I couldn't get into my areo bars but for maybe a minute at a time then a gust would hit me and I'd freak out and sit back up. Going downhill was worse. If I got over 25mph the bike got crazy wobbly plus I didn't want to go fast into any of the curves so I was on my brakes a ton. So much so that my hands cramped twice. Pretty sure I was white knuckled the whole time. I wanted to quit so bad. But I just kept thinking of all the benefits I could gain by persevering. The confidence boost I could get if I could just get myself to the run. I knew I wasn't burning much energy since I was hardly riding. However, I wasn't sure how much the stress was taking out of me. I was so tense that my shoulders and neck were killing me by mile 40. I ended up getting passed by several, which never happens to me. Even two others on a disc came by me with no issues. I'm sure it was mostly in my head and I could have ridden a little harder but it just wasn't going to happen and I was ok with that. Making it to T2 was the only goal even if that took 3 hours!! Finally towards the end the rain let up. I was getting more side wind now and I was comfortable in the areo bars for longer periods of time, but still each gust would cause me to sit back up and slow down. But then the magic happened and we made a beauitful left hand turn around 16 to go and it was a tail wind. I told myself it was back on. I could ride a tail wind. I was still cautious on the downhills and turns but I was back to my normal speeds. I did some quick math and figured I could probably get back around the 2:45 mark. Not the end of the world, I could work with that. What's funny is I barely noticed any of the climbs and there were a lot of them because of the stress of the weather conditions. It was a tough course and on a dry day I bet I could have gone around 2:30-2:35. Probably would have been a fun course if dry as well. When I finally got back I was so relieved. My grip at this point was pretty much gone though. So instead of my normal dismout of taking my feet out of my shoes and swinging a leg over. I just came to a stop and unclipped and jogged in my shoes. I was fairly certain I would go down if I had of attempted my normal dismount.
T2!!! I'm surprised I didn't bend down and kiss the ground lol. I didn't fly through this transition by any means. I wanted to clear the negative tension out of my head and get on the run in good spirits.
Run: 1:43
I got out of transition and off on the run and I felt pretty good for the most part. Right away I noticed my right leg between my ankle and bottom of my calf was tight. Like really tight! I used to have this a lot two years ago. Similar to compartment syndrome but not bad enougth to warrant a hospitial visit. Well I thought I'll do like I use to and run it out. I ran a great opening mile but could not get my leg to loosen up, instead it got tighter and tighter. I was going to lose ankle mobility if it didn't let up soon. I think I stopped 3 or 4 times to stretch and do this ankle wiggle thing I used to do. Finally towards to end of mile two it was starting to fade. I think it was the GU roctaine kicking in that I had taken in right towards the end ot the bike. I was on my horse now. I was shocked by how good I felt. I was clicking off in the low 7 minute range and wasn't getting out of breath. I figured I would ride the wave and then slow down to the mid 8s once the ship had sailed. Again the goal here was to run at least a 1:50. I wasn't trying to crush the run. The whole day was a Leadman rehearsal of sorts. I didn't want to dig into the reserve or put myself too far in the box. But I wanted the confidence that I could run a halfway decent 13 miles on tired legs. Although this wasn't after 138 bike miles, but I did not taper for the race and was already on tired legs going into the day. Coming off the bike I hadn't seen anyone in a long time so I didn't think I would see anyone on the run until they were coming back by. But at around mile 3 I could see a runner way up the road and he had a slow turnover. I eventually caught him and then there was another two runners nearly 1/2 mile or more up ahead. I eventually caught them as well. What a feeling. I was catching the guys that some how found the nerve to ride hard and now had no legs to run on. Meanwhile my run stride resembled my 10k stride and I was oozing confidence. Around 2.5 until the turn around the first runner came back by with the second guy right behind. Then the 3rd and 4th and so on. So I started counting. Maybe I could get top 20. As I got closer and closer to the turn around I spotted a few runners that were clearly out of juice. I had about 7 miles to get them. Challenge acceptted!! (In the voice of Barney from How I Met Your Mother). I made the turn around and I was #21. #20 was a barefoot runner that I knew I would catch while were on the gravel trail but I also knew he would come back by once we got back to the pavement. #19 and #18 were the next two that were going to get picked off. I passed #21 around mile 7 and he let me know he would come back for me. Kind of cocky but hey if you can back it up go for it. Once I got to the pavement my breathing was getting labored and I was getting closer to #19 and 18, but I was starting to slow up. So I walked and waited for barefoot guy to catch me. I had just taken my last GU roctaine so I knew it would kick in around 9-11 miles. Until then I needed something else. I was going to let this guy catch me and then run with him as long as I could. He caught up and I said let's go run these guys down. So away we went. We were running a bit faster than I had been but I knew that was going to be case. After about a mile of that I told him to finish strong but that I was going to settle back into my race. I was back to being #21 but now 19 and 18 were 20 and 19. 20 was about 100 yards up. He stopped at the next aid station which I skipped so that he wouldn't get the idea to try and run with me. About 3 or 4 minutes later I caught the next one. I was #19 now! However I was out of guys to run down. Then around mile 10 I spotted another kit. This guy had blown by me on the bike like I was sitting still. I could tell he was trudging more than jogging. I caught him at mile 11. Sweet Now i'm #18 and nobody behind me was going to catch me. I had seen strong runners go by but they just had too many miles to go to be able to make up any ground and somehow I wasn't fading much. I was still running around mid 7 pace...at mile 11! I was so happy with myself. I did the math and determined that I had a PR if I didn't get hit by a car or make a wrong turn. I didn't think there were any more runners so I just ran comfortably. But just short of mile 12 I rounded a corner and there was a guy walking and looking back. Bad sign for him. Great sign for me. He was done and he knew it. You don't look back unless you want to know who is going to catch you. He had blown by me in the 2nd mile of the run. He looked strong when I saw him again coming back the other way when I was almost to the turn around. I quickened my step and picked him off just after mile 12. I told him we were almost home and he said he was bonking. No fun. I was now #18. Solid! I rounded the last corner and back into the park and finally to the finish line. A finisher and not a quitter!! I had done it. An 8 minute PR. A solid run! That's the result I needed for Leadman.
I ended up with a 5:07 and 2nd in my AG. Not sure if my 18th spot held up since the official results aren't posted but I'm happy either way.
I have to thank Kayla for spending the day with me. Had she not been there I would have quit. But she knew to expect me around 2:30 hours on the bike. If I had of quit it could have been much longer until I would have been delivered back to transition and I did not want her worrying that something had of happened to me.
Thank you to Wattie Ink team as well. Thoughts of all your hard fought races and those racing in Las Vegas helped keep me going. I did not want to let the team down.
As always thank you to the sponors who make this possible. Blueseventy, Easton, Speedfil, ISM, KSwiss, Xendurance, and Base Performance.
"Stay stubborn don't quit" - my road id
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