Mary's 70.3 race report

I haven't written any race reports in a while so here are the details of my Calgary 70.3:

This was my second half Ironman distance race, ever, and I was very excited to be competing on my stopping grounds opposed to in Stoney Plains. I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed although not much sleeping occurred on the evening prior to the race. I went to bed around 10:30 but woke up at 12, 1:30 and 3am to thunder and lightning and when my alarm went off at 3:40 it was pouring. My scheduled bus out to Ghost lake was at 4:15 and I wondered if I should take a later one to avoid standing around in the rain while officials debated whether there would be a delay or possibly the cancellation of the swim portion of the race. I decided to continue on as planned and by the time I got to the lake the rain had stopped and everything was proceeding as scheduled.

Once on site, I hit the bathrooms first, pumped my tires, organized my bags, and then ran into Elaine and Steph who were also racing. I put on my wetsuit and started heading towards the lake and ran into Tina and Viv. This was a total surprise. My family was away this wkd and I had assumed that I would not have any support on the course. It was so great to see familiar faces and get a last minute pep talk. Ambient temp. was 13C and water temperature around 17C. It didn't feel too cold to me but lots of competitors had on neoprene caps so I decided to double cap and wore ear plugs to prevent the cold water from piercing through my ear canals...I hate that feeling.

Elaine positioned us in an optimal spot amongst all the other female age groupers (about 250) in the front of the pack on the far left. She kept telling me to hug the boats to our left. This worked out really well and although I lost her immediately at the start I was swimming hard (could hear myself breathing)and had a great line to the farthest buoy. The swim course was 1 loop that I was visualizing as a rectangle. Turns out it was more of a wedge shape. I never asked Elaine what to target when heading back to the boat launch. From the farthest point away I could not see any landmarks. I swam straight back not sighting anything and continued to stay to the left. I remembered the official saying stay left in order to not collide with swimmers in subsequent heats. After about 300m, I started observing that I was the farthest person left and about halfway back concluded that I was very wide. Made correction but extra swimming cost me some time. Oh well, lesson learned- know where you are going!

T1- I'm used to having my stuff all set out in transition. Getting changed in a muddy, grassy area, out of a bag, is new to me and I felt very disorganized = slow T1. Temp was about 13C and stormy (although not raining) so I donned only arm warmers but grabbed my light rain/wind resistant jacket just in case. Wind was minimal on the bike and I got excited to ride the familiar course. My core was a little cool and my feet very cold but within minutes they were numb. Glad I decided to take the time to put on socks but also should have had toe warmers on my shoes as well. I underestimated the effect of 17C water on bare feet. Was reasonably comfortable and biking well but then it started to rain around 40k and I was really cold and uncomfortable. I decided to take the time to stop and put on my jacket. Was so thankful I had it- it made a huge difference. I had a decent ride with a really strong last 20k. Course was a wee bit long at 94k but I had done many 90k+ rides (thx Tina, Viv, Kendall) in the weeks prior and unlike last year at GWN, I wasn't wishing I was done with the bike leg at 60k. Transitioned to run and conditions were ideal. Overcast and 15C. Hit the 1km mark and realized I still had 1 arm warmer on. Oops. Better than realizing you are running with your bike helmet. Saw "my crew", now including Kendall, Ian and Lisa, tossed my arm warmer, and headed down into the weaselhead. BTW, it took about 3km for my feet to thaw and along the way I ran into Alex, another No Limits athlete, who commented on her thawing feet. Then she was off- a very speedy runner!

When I don't have earphones in my ear I often struggle with lots of negative thoughts. I picked a mantra and said it to myself the ENTIRE time. There wasn't any room at all for any negative thoughts. Another good distraction was saying something positive to every runner I passed. This technique worked really well.
I watched for and spotted Elaine, Steph, Doug, and Alex running by on their way back. They all looked like they were running strong although I did note that everyone looked fairly uncomfortable. I reminded myself that racing is hard and I tried to run a bit harder myself. Made it to the 10.5k turnaround and was still feeling pretty good although there was definitely tightening in my glutes and hamstrings. Made my way through the undulating course and braced myself running down the steep hill. Everyone always says take advantage of gravity but running down steep hills is hard on the legs. At 16km there was a final uphill (weaslehead) to crest to get back towards the finish for the final 4km out and back portion. This is where I hit the proverbial wall. I got to the top of the hill and my legs were done. Not only were my hamstrings really tight but my quads were now screaming. I slowed a bit and walked the next aid station and found that walking was as painful as running. I continued with my slow jog to the finish feeling like I had to anvils strapped to my feet. I had taken 2 gels on the run...maybe a 3rd would have helped? I'm not sure. Many of the other finishers were also lamenting on how hard the last 4km were even though that was the flattest portion of the course.

I finished in 6:16 missing my overall goal time by 16 min. However, I feel like I had a very successful day. Yes, I had a mistake on the swim, but, I had a great first 900 meters. My goal pace on the bike was slow by 2km/hr but it wasn't exactly ideal biking conditions and I pushed as hard as I could and felt strong for the entire 94km. And, although I also missed my goal time on the run, my pace for the first 16k was bang on and I had no knee or GI issues as I did last year at GWN. Now I have some things to work on and improve for next year. I'm already looking forward to Calgary 70.3 2011.