Friday, 6/8 – Packet Pick-up
The great thing about a local race, Liberty 70.3 Triathlon, is no travel and pack pick-up is less than 30 minutes away! Although same day pick-up is available, I drove 20 minutes to get my packet on Friday evening. I wanted to have everything set up (stickers on, race number attached, etc) before arriving on race morning. I picked up a rotisserie chicken at Whole Foods and combined with jasmine rice (and dark chocolate) that was my pre-race meal.
I try my to best to relax the night before a race and did so successfully until it was time to sleep. Instead of watching HGTV or reading, I was browsing YouTube for last minute tips and looking up information on my racing wheels. Not a good idea and it took me forever to fall asleep!
Saturday, 6/9 – Race Day!
I was up at 5:30 am with an 8:00 am start. I was solo for this race as Alex was participating in the MS 150. I ate overnight oats (oatmeal, protein powder, banana, cinnamon) and was out the door!
Rain was in the forecast all week but I woke up to dry skies and was ready to race!
Lake Rebecca is a quick 30 minute drive and soon I was there and ready to go!
Goal – sub 5:45
SWIM
The hard thing about an early summer triathlon in MN is that there isn’t much time for open water swimming yet. Like none. Open Swim hadn’t started yet so my only time in open water was the 10 minutes I spent trying out my wetsuit earlier in the week. I was confident in my ability to finish 1.2 miles but there is still a bit of fear given that I hadn’t been in open water yet.
The swim was lovely. It was a 2 loop course and I was able to relax and settle in right away. I count every stroke to keep me focused and did a pretty good job sighting and staying on course. I swam twice a week throughout training but don’t feel like I’ve gotten much faster since last summer. I’m going to swim 3/week for the rest of the summer to see if that helps.
I stopped my Garmin after I got out of the water with a 40:43 (1:55) and ran up a big hill to the transition area.
BIKE
I followed others and soon we were out on the country roads enjoying the rolling hills…and rain. Yes, the rain started. And it continued. It was a warm rain so I didn’t mind it and was enjoying myself. The course has a 2 loop section and I was at mile 28 and about to start my second loop when they told me the event had been shortened due to lightning and we are sent back to the park. Big bummer as I didn’t see any lightning and I was getting prepared for the second half of the bike. Garmin bike time 1:58:59 for 37.35 miles (18.8 average speed)
RUN
I had no idea how long we’d be able to run given the shortened bike course and no one I asked seemed to know either. So I just started running. I discovered everyone would be running a 10K which shifted my focus just a bit and tried to pick up the pace. I did a good amount of brick runs but it was still tough and thought to myself that I need to run faster in training if I want to run a 2:00 half marathon. It was an out and back along a trail so I enjoyed cheering on the other runners as we passed each other. Garmin run time 56:32 (9:13)
AFTER
I finished the shortened race in 3:43 which would have put me on target for a 5:45 so I’m happy about that but it is always a bummer not to complete the entire distance. The shortened distance didn’t allow me to go to the “dig deep” zone which I was looking forward to experiencing. This was my “B” race with Ironman 70.3 Boulder in August being my “A” race of the season. As mentioned above, I will increase my swimming from 2/week to 3/week, increase my run speed during interval runs and in brick workouts to help me meet my 5:30 goal for Ironman 70.3 Boulder.
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