Landon and I had planned to get up early last Saturday morning and head out to Austin for my race, but decided at the last minute to rent a cheaper hotel for Friday night and drive up after work instead, so that we'd have all day Saturday there and not be so rushed. It ended up being the best decision, because we basically just crashed when we got in town and then were were able to sleep in a little on Saturday morning, before heading over to the Expo and check in.
Around 10am, after a little breakfast at the hotel, we pulled up to the expo with our bikes, and did a quick bike ride through a few miles of the bike course, just to loosen up a little--my plan had me running, biking a swimming for just a few minutes each that day.
Then, we headed inside so I could check in and sign all of the papers--it was kind of unreal to me still at this point, and so, so weird that I was the only one checking in, ha! I'd never done a race without Landon.
From there we headed over to T1 and I got my bike all set up, went for a quick jog around the park and then threw on our wetsuits for a quick swim.
I was supposed to swim about 15 minutes, but ended up swimming more like 30, because I have an awful sense of time and forgot to put on my watch!
From there, we went back to our hotel to check in and take showers and then went back out and my sweet husband spent over an hour driving the 56 mile bike course with me, so I could see what the hills looked like. Even though the hills ended up being more killer than they seemed while driving them (it was actually the never ending little ones that did me in I think), it made me feel better to at least know what I was up against.
And then, while we were driving the course, both my parents and Matthew, and Landon's brother and sister in law and their daughter Abagael, drove in to town to hang out and cheer me on. Usually it makes me super nervous to have people watching, but this time I told myself to just go with it, because I knew once I was out on the course on Sunday, it would be fun to have people there. Anyway, once we met up with them at the hotel, we loaded up and went to dinner at Carrabba's and then headed back to the hotel because we had to be up around 5am and I wanted my sleep, ha!
That next morning, when the alarms went off, the nerves hit me. I'd been surprisingly un-nervous up until that point, but when I woke up on Sunday morning, I was just ready to get out there and do it and not have to worry about what it would be like. So, Landon and I gathered everything up, I choked down a peanut butter bagel and some Gatorade and we headed out the door.
Once we got to the race site, we had to take a bus to T1, but everything was going pretty smoothly--with the exception of almost forgetting my wetsuit in the truck--thank goodness for my husband who noticed it was missing and ran back to get it for me!
After the bus ride, we headed over to the body marking area, where they wrote my number and age all over my arms and legs and then I headed over to my bike to make sure everything was set up properly.
I made sure my food was on my bike, my bottles were filled and everything was in my bag for the bike ride. Once all of that was good to go, I began pumping up my tires. When I got to the back one though, something went really wrong--a little metal rod that hold air in the tire actually broke off in the bike pump and so my tire wouldn't hold any air! I was having a little mini panic attack, partly because transition closed in about 20 minutes and my swim start started about 15 minutes after that, and partly because I had no idea how to fix what had just happened! So, I ran over to show Landon and see what he thought and we ended up figuring out that I needed a new tube. The only problem was that I had forgotten my spare tubes and my parents were on their way with them, but not there yet.
So, I gathered up my stuff and went to wait in the long line for the bike techs--and ended up talking to a girl in front of me who had had the exact same thing happen to her--weird!
Anyway, after a really stressful 20 minutes or so, the bike techs brought in some spare tubes and fixed my bike and all was good. I said a little prayer of thanks to God, because I don't know what I would have done if they wouldn't have had those spare tubes.
Once I got my bike back, I ran over and racked it in my spot and then headed out right as they were closing transition. And then, we had about 10 minutes left for me to get all ready to jump in the water and start the race--my wave was already lined up and I didn't even have my wetsuit on!
With Landon's help though, I managed to get everything on and run down to the water about 30 seconds before they called us to actually get in the water.
I will say, the only thing about having the hour before the race start be so chaotic is that I didn't have time to think about being nervous--I had to much else I was stressed about!
Overall, the swim went pretty well--and my shoulder didn't hurt at all, which I was shocked and ecstatic about! I stuck with my strategy from Captex and started out on the outside and then made my way in towards the bouys. I never did find any clear water for more than a minute or two, but that was ok--for whatever reason, my panic from swimming in groups like this seems to be gone. :) And, the water was perfect--not cold at all and pretty calm. At least, it was calm until the 45 year old men in the wave behind ours caught up to us about halfway through the swim! Man, they were rough--they would swim in to you and over you and really I just tried to stay out of their way, ha!
I could never tell when the swim was going to end because I couldn't see the short until pretty near the end, but overall it didn't feel super long and I finished in 42 minutes, which is pretty good for me. Honestly, I never know what to expect from the swim, but I was aiming for somewhere in the 40's.
I got out of the water and still felt pretty good--and got to see Landon and my parents and brother as I was running up to the wetsuit strippers (definitely a weird experience, but helpful! :)) and as I was in transition, so that was fun!
I'm always amazed at how wet I am when I take off my wetsuit--and have fight the urge to completely dry off before putting on my bike gear! As quickly as I could (which isn't very quickly, apparently!) I put on my shoes, helmet, sweat band and everything else and jumped on my bike to begin the 56 mile ride, telling myself I was 1/3 of the way there (sort of :)).
When Landon and I drove the course on Saturday, we could tell that what we'd heard was correct--that the first ten miles or so were the worst hills. So, for the first 40 minutes or so, I was just focused on getting through the hills--and making myself get down in aero and go fast on the down hills, which scares me just a little, ha! But, I got up to over 31 mph, which is really fast for me, and helped make up for some of the SLOW uphills!
Before the race, the bike was the part that I was most worried about--because of the hills mainly, I was afraid that it would seem like forever to get through and that I would just be wiped out from it. In reality, it wasn't that bad, in most respects. Because it was so much up and down pretty much the entire ride, there was a lot to think about, which helped, on top of having to make myself eat and drink every 15 minutes. The little "rollers" that just kept coming were a lot tougher than I would have thought they would be, but I still managed to keep right around 17mph, so I was happy with that.
Around mile 35 or so is when the ride started to kinda feel long--mainly because my body just started to get uncomfortable from being on the bike for that long, and partly probably from being in aero for longer than I was used to. My legs were tired, but more than that my body just started to get achy--my hips, my lower back, my shoulders. Fortunately though, at that point I had less than 20 miles left to go, and I just kept counting down and telling myself to keep pushing because the finish was close! I tried really hard to hold on to 17mph, but the last few miles were basically uphill to the finish and I ended up with 16.92 mph--oh well, close enough! I was just happy to be off the bike! :)
While I was changing into my running gear, I got to see my family and chat with them for a minute, which was a fun treat! Then, it was off to the run...13.1 miles and I was finished!!
While I was racing, the fam had set up camp along the run course--so fun!
The run was a 2 loop course, part on the road and part off road through a park, with a fair amount of elevation and 4 or 5 pretty good sized hills. I'd already decided, pretty early on in the race though, that I was going to be in a good mood during the race and have fun with it, because watching Landon race inspires me--he is SO good at this, whereas my tendency is more along the lines of despair when it gets hard, ha! Anyway, so far my plan to enjoy the experience was working and the signs that I kept seeing along the run course just helped all the more--they said things like "enjoy the journey" or "live the experience". For some reason, seeing them made me kinda of emotional, as I thought about how I'd basically been training for this for the better part of a year it seemed like.
Anyway, back to the run. I wasn't sure how I was going to be feeling on the run, especially with the hills, but I told myself that, no matter what, I was going to run the entire first lap and do the best I could--which I did and ended up with about an 11:30 pace, which was decent for me. At the end of the first loop, I was still feeling good, and still in good spirits, especially knowing that I was only 6.5 miles away from being done--but I was pretty wiped. It helped to see everyone out there cheering me on though--and to hear them say "I'll see you at the finish line!" because at that point it felt like the finish line was so close! But, as I ran by Landon, I told him I was contemplating walking up some of the uphills on the 2nd lap because I could walk them just about as fast as I was running them at that point. I was just gonna keep running and see how I felt.
On the second lap I ran until about mile 8 or so and then hit a big hill and began walking for the first time ever in a race, not counting the Houston Half that we did a few years ago without any training. I was powerwalking though, and still kinda out of breath at the top of the hill when I started running again, so I didn't feel like too much of slacker. What I was afraid would happen was that if I started walking I would end up just strolling like so many people on the course were doing, but luckily that didn't happen, ha! And that's about how the last 5 miles went--I ran most of it, but walked up the next 4 hills. On the biggest hill, "Quadzill" during the end of the off road portion, I looked around and only 2 people that I would see were actually running up it. Now granted, I'm not exactly in the fastest group, but it kinda made me laugh that no one was running up it--it was a LONG uphill! There was a guy with a microphone calling people's names out as we ran by at the top of the hill though, so that was kind of cool.
And once that hill was over, the finish line was so close I could almost taste it. There were 2 more big hills to get through, but nothing as tough as the ones already behind me. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and watching the miles tick by on my garmin, making sure my pace stayed under 12 minute miles. At this point I was pretty sure that I had a chance to be under 7 hours (my goal was to get under 8 hours), but I wasn't sure. I tried doing math in my head but it just wasn't working, so I decided to just keep going and see what happened--I was pretty sure that as long as I was under 13 minute miles, I would be under 7 hours, so I decided to go with that.
Overall, the run wasn't terrible and people were in good spirits. The weather was pretty nice, though it got a little hot on the last lap, and there were A LOT of aid stations--I stopped at every one and grabbed some combination of water, ice, Gatorade and oranges. And, at a lot of the, the volunteers were dressed up in Halloween costumes, which was a welcome distraction.
As I turned, the last corner to head in to the parking lot of the finish line, I had one last hill to climb. But then, at the top of the hill, I saw Matthew and Landon, which I was not expecting at all--I was glad I wasn't walking, ha--that would have been embarrassing! :) They asked how I was doing and took a few pictures and then Landon traded me my Ironman 70.3 visor that we had bought the day before to wear as I crossed the finish line, just like I had done for him in Coeur d' Alene. Then, they sprinted off to the finish line and I went on ahead to finish up my last half mile!
The course wove through the crowd and then turned and I had to run this weird loop around and in to the stadium type thing that the finish line was in--and as I was rounding that last turn and then running through the crowd to the finish line, and then crossing it, I had to fight back tears. I just couldn't believe I had actually done it. Before the race I was telling Landon that I didn't think even this could compare to the feeling of crossing the finish line of our first marathon in Chicago, but it definitely did. It felt like just as big of a deal and just as big of a milestone for me.
As I was running down the chute, I was able to look around and see my parents just as I was about to cross the finish line, right as I heard the announcer call my name. Then, as soon as I stopped, Matthew was standing right behind the finish line, giving me a hug, as gross and sweaty as I was. And then, everyone else was there--such a cool feeling! And, as they were telling me my time, I realized I hadn't even looked at it as I was crossing the finish line--I was just so ecstatic to be crossing the finish line! As it turns out though, I broke 7 hours by 14 minutes--I finished in 6:46! That was just the icing on the cake! :)
After I finished, I felt surprisingly ok--tired, and hungry, but overall pretty good. We hung out for a little while and I looked for some food, but nothing sounded appealing, so we headed out. My awesome sister in law called a Y and talked them in to letting me go there to shower using her pass, since we'd already checked out of our hotel, and then we all headed over to Chuy's for lunch before heading home. It was nice to be sitting down and eating good food and hanging out with people I love--I felt so lucky to have people that cared enough to come. I know it was a long day for them too!
On the way home, Landon was so sweet and talked with me about the race for most of the way home, it seemed like, as I reminisced and shared different parts of the race, as I was processing it, I guess. I don't know exactly what I was expecting from the race, but in many ways, it wasn't as horrible as I had expected. It was long and parts were really tough, but overall it was actually a very enjoyable experience and I was so thankful that I had done it, because otherwise it would have always been hanging over my head. I still don't know how Landon did the full, and don't feel like I could just out there and do a full by any means, but I'm excited to have done a 70.3! Back this summer, when I first signed up for the race, I honestly didn't know if I could do it--it seemed like a distant dream. Now that it's over, it really does feel like things I never thought would be possible, are now possible.
Thank you to my family for being out there to cheer me on--it meant so much to see your faces and hear your voices. And thank you to all of you who cheered me on from afar--so cool to see afterwords. And, a huge, HUGE thank you to my precious husband, Landon. Without you, I would have never had to courage to sign up for this race. Thank you for inspiring me and for giving me confidence that anything is possible. And thank you for learning so much about triathlons and patiently teaching me, for picking up the slack around the house while I was training, for all of the long workout you did with me and for countless other things that I could spend all day naming. I love you more than I have words for and appreciate you and your support more than I know adequately how to express. Thank you for being there with me both on the course and over the last months of training. I love you, babe!
