Ironman St. George 70.3

This race I was really looking forward to this year because I planned on going with my friend Maggie and I had coached my athlete Devon for this and it was not only his first 70.3 it was his first ever Triathlon!  It is crazy trying to get someone prepared for a TRI in general with no experience but make it a ½ Ironman to boot! I had worked with him enough and he was a strong and capable athlete so I felt like he was going to do great. 

I honestly could not have asked for a more beautiful race.  The town of St. George and the Snow Canyon Mountain State park is really just spectacular.  The weather conditions on the other hand… It could have been worse for sure.  The day before was a blistering 99 degrees and I remember thinking “man this is going to be a HOT race if the weather stays like this”.  The weather app said it was cooling down to about 88 degrees and that sounded so much nicer then 99.  There was a picture of wind on the app and I thought no problem I have had wind at races before maybe it will keep us cool? As my friend Maggie and I were settling into bed we received an urgent message from the race director informing us that swim wave times have changed and we were going earlier due to the increase of high winds expecting in the afternoon.  OK… well that's good I thought. Hopefully we will be off the bike in time for the winds and only have to deal with them during the run.

Swim: Water temp 64 degrees.  Much colder then I like but I had my full sleeve wetsuit and I was ready for it.  On the shuttle into the lake we all saw a sign that said “swimmers itch active”.  LOL.  I had to explain to people on the shuttle what this was (parasites in the water from bird poop that get under your skin and attack your veins) lol.  It is fine I said it goes away in like a week.  I am sure I didn't make anyone feel better. Lol.  I have dealt with this enough I wasn't concerned about it.  Honestly I felt pretty calm at the swim start.  I leaned over and told my friend Maggie “just think about dinner tonight in Vegas, all we have to do is get done with this and we will be on our way”.  Into the water we went.  It was very chilly starting out I and  was worried I was going to get one of the frozen sinus headaches that happen when the water is to cold.  But after a few minutes my body started warming up and the temperature was fine.  Honestly this is the first time in a race I actually really enjoyed the swim.  The scenery around me was beautiful the lake was pretty clean and clear.  If only I didn’t have 1000 people swimming around me.  They sent the younger guys in waves out behind us and sure enough they came charging though!  Got swam over a couple of times and punched in the face once.  For a triathlon this is pretty standard.  The swim is always carnage.  Made it out alive, which is always the goal, and on to my bike.

Bike: I had driven the course the day before and felt good about my strategy.  I planned to take the bike course a little easier then I usually do because of the elevation and knowing the run course had 1200 ft of climbing.  I usually just barrel out the bike because that is my strength and whatever I have left for the run is whatever.  But this time I was really concerned about the run.  I took my time on the first climb of the bike, which was within the first few miles.  Just kept telling myself to take it easy.  About 20 miles into the bike course I started experiencing severe menstrual cramps. The only reason I am talking about this is because it is a situation I have never had to deal with and I want to share with my female triathletes so they can learn from my experience.  So sorry guys if this is just not something you want to know about you might want to stop reading here… I needed an ibuprofen so bad.  Seriously, it was bad.  I was not prepared for this.  Forget about the bike course, the pain in my abdominals was far worse then the pain in my legs.  Now I just needed to figure out what to do.  I have never had to stop on my bike at a bathroom for a 70.3 but I had no choice today.  I had no ibuprofen and just had to deal with the pain.  I started just trying to focus on the scenery and not worry about my bike times and find a happy place.

The bike course was very much like my rides to sunflower I had done previously so I felt really good about the training I had done to prepare for the bike course.  The long slow grind up snow canyon was really nothing comparatively to some of the sunflower hills.  It was really beautiful.  Sometimes Ironman bike courses can be dull and non-inspiring but if I needed to be on a course to take my mind off of my problems this was the one to be on!  The weather had remained pretty decent with cloud cover for most of the ride.  The last 10 miles of my bike the winds started really picking up with some strong gusts blowing us all over the road.  I felt good that I had finished fast enough to miss most of wind and felt sorry for the people that were still on the course.  Into transition I rolled.

Run: Oh boy.  The first aid station I came to I begged for some ibuprofen and nobody had any.  Even after taking it easy on my bike the first 3 miles of the run were all uphill.  I couldn't get a good groove going and had to walk a lot of it.  After that, we had a nice downhill section and I was finally able to get my legs underneath me to get my run going.  It was really kind of a wacky run course.  1200 ft of climbing consisting of 3 miles up, rollers, and then a out and back 2 times up and down a mountain then 3 miles down.  The wind had really kicked up now and people’s hats were blowing off, big gusts of dirt and debris were hitting us in the face and it was adding resistance to our run paces. It was just a “survive” kind of run for sure.  I never ended up with ibuprofen and I had several people ask if I was ok as they saw blood running down my legs (totally embarrassing I wanted to die).  But I FINISHED! Not my fastest times by far but I ran through the chute happy to have finished and have another experience in under my belt.  All of these experiences just makes me a better coach.

My athlete Devon had succeeded in finishing his very first triathlon and first 70.3.  All in all a successful day! Yay!!!