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| Medal from Santa Rosa IM 70.3 |
Wow! What a race. I had lofty goals for this one. It was my third IM 70.3 and I had done the original Vineman 2 years ago, so I figured it would be a good one for me to get a personal best - my stretch goal was to break 6 hours. I had an abbreviated training schedule of just about 4 months, but I felt ready.
My husband and I drove up from San Diego on Thursday. We had rented a house in Healdsburg with a group of triathletes and their husbands from the San Diego area. They ranged from super experienced to a couple of girls who were competing in their second 70.3. Some people were super nervous, some had done so many that they had their routine down. I try to stay away from the hype and focus on myself. Sometimes you listen to so may things that you get nervous hearing about all of the things that could go wrong and end up stressing yourself out.
On Friday, I drove down to Santa Rosa by myself to pick up my race packet and swag bag. A nice man even paid for my parking on a downtown street. He was happy to see the town bustling with tourists and it made me want to come back at another time. After I picked up my packet I took my T2 stuff to my rack. I hated leaving it there because there wasn't any security. My stuff was there with everyone else's so I had to say good bye to my running shoes. This is a point to point race, so you have to make sure that you have the correct items staged at each transition. I made sure that I knew exactly where my rack was in relation to the bike in and I left slowly.
After finishing everything I needed to do in Santa Rosa, I headed up to Lake Sonoma to set up my T1 and get in a quick practice swim. I dropped my bike, helmet, gloves, and shoes off. We were allowed to bring drinks and such in the morning. They told us to prepare for a cold bike start so I also left sleeves and a vest there. The other important thing they told us was to put our bikes on the small ring. My coach told me the same thing, so I made sure that I did that. I headed over to the lake and put on my wetsuit and jumped in the water, it was chilly, but ok. There were only a couple of buoys out there and no lifeguard. I thought I might swim to the far buoy, but I only swam about 2/3 of the way to the small buoy and decided to come back. I'm glad I did. Coming back was a lot harder. There were bigger waves and it was really choppy. I heard a lot of people talking about it and they were saying that it's not so windy and choppy in the morning. I had hoped that they were right, but either way, I would be able to finish. I am not a strong swimmer, but if I didn't panic being out there by myself, I would be able to handle myself in the race.
Now all I have to do is get ready for race morning.
The group planned to leave the house at 5:00am. I got up at 4:20 and got my drinks ready and my almond butter and banana english muffin ready. I don't normally eat that early in the morning, so I took it 'to go'. We got to the bottom of the hill and had to take the shuttle up the hill. By the time we got to transition we only had about 15 minutes to set everything up. I was able to get my wetsuit on, grab my sandwich and head down the hill to the lake just in time for the pro start at 6:15. The pros missed the turn at the first red buoy, it was a little crazy, I am not sure if there was a current or what happened, everyone was confused. We were nervous and excited. My goal for the swim is always 43 minutes. The swim was nice until I came around the last buoy and got kicked really hard in the nose. I kept looking for blood. I didn't see any, but I felt like there was going to be some at any second. It didn't happen, thank goodness. I got out of the lake at 48 minutes - that's my normal time - I wish I could get faster at this swim.
You have to run up to the transition area and it's pretty far, maybe half a mile and it's uphill. We didn't think to leave shoes by the carpet, even though they had a shoe drop area. That would have been a good idea. Maybe next time. When you finally make it up the hill on adrenaline, you get to the parking lot and you have to run all the way around the lot. There was a lot of gravel up there. Our feet were hurting and they were cold too. It was awful. I was able to get my wetsuit off and put all of my bike stuff on in a reasonable amount of time. Looking back, I would have run more and faster up the hill. T1-12 minutes (ugh!)
The bike started out great. I was in my small chain ring, I was able to get up the first hill to get out of transition and onto the bike course. I was feeling good, my friend was right in front of me and I hoped to see her on the bike course. There is a long incline at mile one and then a 2-3 mile downhill section where it was not allowed to use aerobars, unless you had a deathwish. I found my friend at the bottom of the hill. She passed me a little later maybe at mile 15, then I passed her again at mile 25. Everything was going well, I was steadily passing people, especially on the uphill sections. I passed by the rental house and my husband and friends were there cheering, that was awesome! Then at mile 39 I had a disaster. I guess it was windy out there. Both of my contact lenses fell out! They just peeled off of my eyes. I saw one on the edge of my sunglasses and then the other. I slowed down 1- because I couldn't see a thing and 2 - because I was hoping that the contact lens would stick to the sunglasses and stay there until I got to the aid station at mile 42. Unfortunately, the lenses fell away from my sunglasses and I had to make a decision.
I had to decide whether to cry and quit the race that I had trained 4 months to complete or to attempt to finish the race with minimal vision, my other option was to get to a medic at the aid station and have them call my husband to get my gear bag with my extra contacts in them. My eyesight is very poor. I could only see colors and big things, like trees. I couldn't see anyone's face or read any signs unless I was right next to them. Making turns was a nightmare and I never noticed how much your eyes work when the light shifts. The roads were pretty bumpy, so I couldn't distinguish between shadows from the trees or bumps in the road. Let's just say it was slow going, I tried to ride in other people's lines, but that was illegal, but I really had no choice. I just wanted to get off my bike in one piece and not hurt anyone. I rode all the downhills using my brakes and when we got to a road that we had to share with cars, I just tucked in behind a slower rider so I could follow her line. What a nightmare! When I got to the dismount, I heard people cheering for me, I finally recognized that it was my coach and friends. I told them what happened and that I would complete the race, but that I really couldn't see much. All I could hope for was a smoothly paved run course. Bike time - 3:16 - I was hoping for 3:05. Oh well, thank goodness I had literally memorized where my bike rack was.
The run course was pretty non-eventful. There were a couple of sections where it was a trail and the rest was paved. It wasn't as flat as advertised, but it wasn't 'hilly' like the old Vineman course. There were lots of turns up and over the creek and the course was laid out so you had to do 1 and a half loops. I heard about some people missing turns. I was unable to stick with any particular runner, I couldn't talk to anyone, I was just focused one step in front of the other. My friends said that I had a glazed over look because I couldn't really see much and I was really looking at the ground most of the time so I wouldn't trip over a manhole or a tree root. I found my husband in the last 200 meters. He ran me in. I was happy that I didn't fall. I wish I had done about 5 minutes better. Run time 2:00:20 pretty good, considering.
Total time 6:22:50 Not bad for doing the last 29 mile with a major visual impairment.
So... I have reached out to my eye doctor. Who has contacts that just fall out of their eyeballs during a race? There must be something wrong with me. I even packed spares for coming out of the water because I usually end up racing with only one contact. Anyway, I am going to get prescription sunglasses and maybe goggles for future races. I don't want this to happen again.
Did you race at Santa Rosa? How did you find it? I will definitely sign up again because I need to redeem myself. I thought it was a fair course and hopefully they iron out some of the minor wrinkles for next time.
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| Anything is possible! |
Lessons learned for next time. 1. Use the shoe drop 2. Run all the way through long transitions (especially if that's your strength) 3. Pack extra contacts in the run gear bag
What did you learn in your last race? Everyone loves new tips.
