On June 10th I competed
in the Eagleman Ironman 70.3 for the 4th year in a row and can
definitely say it’s always one of my favorite weekends of the year, not just
because of the race but all of the events surrounding the race and sharing it
all with the many friends who come out to compete in this race and/or support. Racing with friends is something I always got to do as an amateur, but I don’t so often get
to do as a pro so I'm always grateful for the opportunity.
My last race (Columbia Tri) was
really sub-par and I really wanted to have a good race at Eagleman to prove to
myself that those results were not indicative of my fitness or what I was capable
of. Eagleman exceeded even my optimistic
hopes and I couldn’t be happier. I finished 3rd in the pro field and came close to setting a PR for the 70.3 distance in 4:26 (with my only faster race being
Clearwater which always turns out unbelievably fast times from all… so in a sense I feel like this was a PR since
this is a legit course).
Chris and I headed out to Cambridge Friday morning (about 2 hours
from DC) and spent a relaxed day getting lunch with friends, swimming the
course (which was especially enjoyable since the day was beautiful and being
out on the water felt great- Cambridge is a really wonderful place to spend
time when the weather is nice!), getting settled at my homestay, and
getting dinner at an amazing restaurant (Bistro Poplar) with Chris.
Saturday was filled with the usual pre-race activities including getting gear together, analyzing my race nutrition and choice of gear many times over, and taking care of small details- which always seems to consume an inordinate amount of time, but it’s so important to pay attention to the little things since these can make or break your race… for example, forgotten salt tabs or misjudging what how much nutrition you’ll need. I finally decided on going with a very concentrated bottle of First Endurance EFS drink mix on the bike, 2 First Endurance Pre-Race caps before the race and 2 more at mile 40 of the bike, a First Endurance EFS gel flask on the run along with Salt Stick tabs and on-course sports drink and coke. I also emptied some additional Salt Stick pills into the EFS drink mix since the forecast called for it to be especially hot and humid. After everything was just right we went out for a great dinner with a fun group of friends and I was asleep by 9:30 or so.
I could have had a bad situation
when my phone didn’t charge the night prior to the race, whose
alarm I relied on to wake me up in the wee hours of the morning… but thankfully
my phone waited to die until 45 minutes after my alarm went off! Much better
than 45 minutes before. Yes, God is good. So race morning I got up on time and
had my usual coffee, and the most calorie-dense thing I could stomach- half an
Odwalla Strawberry protein smoothie and a few cups of mango juice. I can never eat
anything before a race so I try to go for the most liquid calories I can
stomach.
Race morning the race officials made the call
the water temp- just ever so barely wetsuit legal! Since I love swimming in
my wetsuit and need all the help I can get in the swim, I was super excited
about this, but it did come as somewhat of a surprise as the water temps had
already heated up beyond the wetsuit threshold by Memorial Day weekend… since
things usually only get hotter as the summer progresses, the chances of this
wetsuit swim being legal were very slim to none… in fact, the pre-race email to
pros stated that the swim would not be wetsuit legal.
My usual pre-race routine includes
warming up on the trainer for 20 minutes with some 30-second pickups
immediately upon arriving at the race site, then setting up my transition area.
I got those two things done and got ready for the swim start. For some reason I
was feeling really nervous - much more-so than usual. I really of wanted to get
the race started so I could have something to focus on other than being
nervous. Finally they called the pros into the water and it was time to swim!
After the gun went off, I found
myself on some feet early on and stuck with them the whole way. Eventually we
joined up with a few more pros and I therefore ended up coming out of the water
at about the same time or close behind 4 others. Swim PR for me! (29:30-ish). This time was so
“fast” that my dad missed me coming out of the water until Chris informed him
that I’d already gone by. Into T2 there were several women ahead of me, so I
tried to transition quickly so I could be within close range on the bike.
I decided not to swim with my Garmin
this time because I feel like it’s so big and creates additional drag so
therefore had the added challenge of grabbing it in T2 and putting it on while
riding. This was a bit more difficult than I’d imagined and pre-race practice
would have been good! I eventually managed to get it on without crashing, slowing
down, or dropping the watch which I consider a big success.
I took the first 10 miles rather
easy since there were several pros up ahead bunched together and the course
marshals were right on us… I didn’t want to try to pass and get a penalty for
being too slow in passing several people at once, or burn too many matches by
sprinting to pass within the short allotted passing time. I think this actually
worked out well for me since the slower start allowed me a more even effort
throughout the bike, something I’ve always struggled with. Since the Eagleman
course is flat and the scenery rather unchanging (though beautiful!) I decided
to take splits every 10 miles to break the race into smaller pieces and keep
myself focused, and just paid attention to my power for each 10 mile segment
(and taking in nutrition at the right intervals). Around mile 40 I took the two First-EndurancePre-Race pills and my power really picked back up for the last 10 miles, which
ended up being strongest (highest wattage) one.
Since this was a pretty
competitive field, my goal was to finish in the money (top 6) and coming into
T2 I had no idea what place I was in. I thought maybe 6th or 7th.
So when I saw the 3rd place female lead biker up ahead waiting for
the next runner to emerge from T2, I got pretty excited! I was in 4th
place at that point but right behind 3rd, and within 2 miles passed
into 3rd place. However, with the infamous heat out on the run
course (it ended up being a humid high of 93 that day, with 10 miles of the
course completely unshaded) anything can happen so I tried not to get too excited
and keep a good but not too hard effort. Though I usually do really well in hot
race conditions (comparatively), I have had a race or two where I’ve gotten
depleted and really struggled badly in this type of weather. Around mile 2 we passed a house that had a
great party going on out front, and they were cooking bacon- really NOT what
you want to smell when you’re running in 90 degree weather. I focused on taking
in as much as I could at each aid station- which meant stopping to make sure I
got everything- cups of ice to pour into my sports bra, ice water to pour on my head, and liquids to drink at every aid station, and
a coke and salt tab at every other aid station. At the run turnaround, I saw that I had a pretty good gap which made me
feel better about stopping at every aid station to get everything I needed
rather than running through. It seemed like a hot eternity between aid
stations, but pretty soon we were at the final partially shaded final mile
leading to the finish line!
The best part of my finish was that
I got to share it with so many friends, many of whom also had great results.
Chris was 2nd place in the male Aquavelo division, qualifying him
for Aquavelo nationals. My good friend Doria PR’d in her first race back after
having a stress fracture this past fall.
Friends and family including my Dad were out on the course cheering. Our
homestay hosts- who hosted me as well as friends Doria and Esther for the 2nd
year in a row- showed us incredible hospitality, and it was as if they were our
own family with how excited they were for us after the race. They even made us
a congratulatory poster on the door when we arrived home. I also saw so many
friends at the awards or finish who were as excited about my race as I was- as
well as others tracking me online- truly made it a great day.
Now that Eagleman is over I’ve
started my Ironman-specific training for Ironman NYC in August, and I’ll be racing next at Racine Ironman 70.3 on July 15th. Many thanks to
the great support of FFT, especially coach Eric for the smart, well thought out
training plan that is challenging yet manageable with my full-time work
schedule, to Computrainer for enabling me to do those killer bike sessions that
would be impossible otherwise, and to Cervelo for my super fast P4, both of
which helped me to the 3rd fastest bike split at Eagleman. I’m also
extremely grateful to Inside Out Sports for sponsoring our team and all of the
great support that they provide, First Endurance for the excellent products
(best on the market) for keeping us properly fueled and performing at our best
in training and races, and recovering properly after, CEP for the great compression/recovery
gear, and Nicole Allen Massage Therapy for the excellent massages that keep me injury free and training strong. And last but not least, many thanks to SkinSake for keeping us chafe free (an often-overlooked but vital product especially for
longer-distance races!), Rudy Project for the excellent helmets (most comfortable
and functional I’ve ever owned) and eyewear, TrainingPeaks for making tracking
training a piece of cake, SPaRC of Santa Barbara for keeping our mental game
strong, Prevail Conditioning, and FS series. Looking forward to racing again in three weeks!
