Eagleman 70.3 Race Recap

This was my 5th year in a row racing Eagleman- my favorite race of the year! While I didn't PR or bring home a giant eagle trophy, I dug fairly deep for a 7th place finish and will consider it a success. The highlight of the day for me was sharing it with so many people I love. My parents traveled from Long Island to cheer me on (and had to stay about 40 miles away due to lack of availability of hotels), Chris was there and biked all over the run course to cheer for me, my close friends Doria and Maureen were also racing- along with a host of other wonderful friends and training partners, including my best swim buddy, Tommy, and so many others! Every trip out to Cambridge is a special experience that I look forward to each year, especially staying with our wonderful homestay hosts Cindy and Judi (who have graciously hosted us four times now). The race is pretty much the sprinkles on the ice cream sundae.

The week leading up to the race had been exceptionally busy and stressful. In addition, the normal 1-hour 40 min drive out to Cambridge took a very painful 5.5 hours. We were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived. Saturday we had a pretty chill day. As Doria noted, it didn't even feel like a race weekend- we were just having such a great time! I swam the course with Tommy, then did a short 20-min ride to make sure my bike was functioning properly. We then went out to eat at my FAVORITE Cambridge restaurant- Mantra (which even serves sushi, my favorite pre-race food)- both the view and the food are amazing!

RACE

I knew this race would have a huge pro field (25 pro women signed up) and some stiff competition. I prefer not to look at the race start list before races- works better for me as I don't start to subconsciously come to conclusions about how well (or not well) I might do-- but it's kind of hard when they send you a welcome email with a list of who is racing :-)

I did my usual pre-race routine- warming up on the trainer, etc.- with help from Chris who managed to somehow sneak into transition!!! I guess he had that look about him and the transition guards assumed he was racing?

The swim was wetsuit legal, which made me very happy! I had a good start and managed to stay on some feet, but unfortunately I lost them about 2/3 of the way through.

Heading out onto the bike, I felt pretty lackluster and my stomach felt really sour until mile 20ish. Throughout the ride, I just could not get my watts up to where they should have been -- though my bike time ended up being only 30 seconds slower than last year with drastically different watts- wondering if it was actually an issue with my power meter? At about mile 20, I saw my friend Beth up ahead and decided to use this as motivation to pick up the pace! Just as happened at NOLA 70.3, she and I traded places for the second half of the bike. I started having adductor cramps about midway which were pretty unpleasant and required pedaling for a couple minutes, then standing to stretch my adductors. It was such a blessing to have Beth out there for motivation. I know she is a strong cyclist and it helped to have the reassurance that even though my watts were looking crazy, I was still probably having a good ride if I could keep her in sight.

Transition basically became a huge mud pit, so running my bike in felt like I was doing the Tough Mudder rather than a triathlon. My feet were completely caked in mud when I went to put my shoes and socks on.

One thing triathlon truly reminds me of each and every race is how much we are NOT in control of. Though this should always be the case, racing in particular reminds me how much I truly need to rely on God. This should be the case just as much during other activities as well, but when I'm racing, I tend to focus on God and his power. Anything can happen during a race- a flat, sickness, a crash, etc. During the run, I tried to think of 2 attributes of God for every mile of the run- starting with each letter of the alphabet. Mile 1 was A and B, etc. It definitely gave me something better to focus on than how painful the run was! However, I did get kind of stuck when I got to about Q :-) 

The run was a nice consistent effort- the first and second half were right about the same pace- though of course, as is always to be expected at Eagleman, the run was hot and humid (honestly, I'd be disappointed if it wasn't!) I started the run in probably 11th place and ran to 7th. There were some fast ladies chasing me down so I knew I couldn't slack off! I paid attention to my salt intake, taking about 10 or so salt pills throughout the run. I felt totally spent at the line and know I put in a good effort.

Many thanks to Fast Forward Triathlon, Inside Out Sports, CompuTrainer, First Endurance, Cervelo, Skin Sake, Rudy Project, and TrainingPeaks for the amazing support and fantastic products that make it possible for me to train and race as a pro.

I'm looking forward to gearing up for & racing my last BIG race before our wedding-- Ironman Lake Placid-- in July!