This week was pretty much spent in recovery. I did very little, which was ok because I was supposed to be tapering anyway for my Syracuse 70.3 (Half Ironman) on the weekend.
I took a lesson from the week prior and got to bed early most nights and ate plenty. Given I had no "drag-my-ass-out-of-bed" mornings, I think it did a lot for my overall recovery. However I did have a specific issue with my back.
Monday morning I woke up and it was SOOORE. Felt like I had a huge knot in my lower back. I sucked it up for most of the day knowing that I had a physio appt. in the evening and she always fixes me up good with some dry needling. This time it didn't do the trick. Come Tuesday and Wednesday though, my back was still sore.
Despite the sore back I did manage a swim Wednesday morning. I really needed to get some kinda of gauge as to where I was at with my swimming (since I hadn't swam since the Sprint Tri two weeks ago) so Wednesday morning I headed out to Blanchette beach with a friend from work. She kayaked beside me while I swam out a kilometer and back in. Verdict : 2km in about 53 minutes. I'll take it!
With that load off my mind, I went back to physio on Thursday with the hopes of getting my back sorted out. She needled me again with a specific focus on my right lower back. I left feeling hopeful given I had felt some really good twinges (releases) aaaaaaand ... Friday morning I woke up and things felt a lot better.
Syracuse 70.3
I wanted to make sure I got a good night's sleep Friday night so I took off for Syracuse early Friday afternoon. I rolled into Syracuse around 5:30. I had hoped to do my Athlete Check-In that night to get it out of the way (and ideally get some outlet shopping in on Saturday :) but didn't make the cut-off time so I just hunkered down in my hotel room, unpacked and arranged all my gear meticulously, had a huge dinner and hit the lights at 9:00.
Saturday I headed to the venue for 10am. I checked-in (essentially got my bib, timing chip, swim cap), then attended an Athlete's briefing (race director goes over the swim/bike/run courses, rules, answers questions, etc.) Surprise #1: Some roads would be open during the race so we'd have to watch out for cars. Surprise #2: no change tents. Grrr ... all this time I had assumed a Half IM event would be just like a Full IM event. Anywho, more about that later.
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| Had to get this T-shirt. Back logo is made up of the names of all participants! |
- Checked my bike into transition.
- Checked out the swim course and went for a quick swim (surprise #3: Swim course is weedy!)
- Checked out the merchandise tent and got a t-shirt.
- Drove the run course (Hilly!)
- Drove the bike course (Hilly!)
- Returned to hotel.
- Dinner
- Packed my gear for next day.
- Repack my gear for the next day.
- Repack my gear for the next day.
- Hit the lights at 10:30
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| My name! |
4:45 AM - Breakfast
5:00 AM - Double check my gear bag again.
5:30 AM - Leave hotel
6:00 AM - Get to race venue, get body marked, set up my transition station.
6:30 AM - Get my wetsuit on. Head down to the water to warm up.
7:00 AM - Stand on the beach nervously and watch as the first wave of swimmers takes off.
7:20 AM - MY SWIM START!
I stayed to the back of the coral and walked into the water so I started swimming pretty easily - not much jostling amongst others. I felt like I got into a good rhythm pretty quickly and then just kind of went into auto-pilot ... left stroke, right stroke, left stroke, right stroke. About half way through the course there was a point where I felt a bit swum over (hands on feet, jostled on the side), but again, nothing like the nightmares I'd heard of. Anyway, the swim was over before I knew it and I came out of the water, stripped out of my wetsuit and headed to transition.
*Best piece of advice I got from someone about getting out of the water: Remember to breath deeply. I credit that for not having the same dizzy/queazy feeling I had coming out of the water when I did the Riverkeeper Tri.
Transitions were the part I had been stressing over since I found out they'd have no change tents. I don't have a fancy tri-suit so somehow, I would have to change out of my bathing suit and into my bra/shirt/bike shorts without flashing anyone. I ended up doing it half in the open (stealthily) and half in a near-by porta-potty.
8:25 AM : On to the bike course.
I had been warned about the bike course:
"It's hilly. Don't worry about dropping your speed if you have to, or walking."
Says I: "Phhhtt - I'm not walking?!?... "
And I didn't, but there were two pretty killer hills and plenty of people walking their bikes up. I just made sure to get some good speed going before both and get my gears changed in time. The 5 and 10 mile markers came and went pretty fast. Seemed to take a lot longer to get to 15 and 20. I don't remember 25 and 30 but when I saw 35 and new I was past halfway, I said a little "F*CK YEAH!" to myself.
Some random memorable moments on the bike :
- At one point I finally hit an actual flat and, despite feeling a little worn down, I figured I'd make the best of it, hunkered down into aero and pushed a little harder. Passed a lone spectator and, god bless her, she gave me an encouraging "You look STRONG! Keep it up!"
- Came up on an aid station. Slowed down, grabbed a banana from a volunteer at the start of the aid station. Peeled it open with one hand-mouth, shoved it in my mouth and chucked the peel (
- Hit a series of rollers and was chugging along. Veteran triathlete passes me saying, "You're doing great. Keep it up."
11:55 AM : Rolled back into transition.
Again, stressed about changing. Was going to change into my run shorts but stayed in my bike shorts (chammy didn't feel like too much of a diaper) so just changed my top, put on a hat, runners, bib and fuel belt (with gels) and was off.
By this time, the weather was a HOT, 31 degrees with wall to wall sunshine. The run course offered some shade but not enough. I was thirsty within five minutes of being on the run course. Didn't have anything with me though as I didn't want to carry the extra weight and I was expecting aid stations every mile. Turned out to be about every 2 - 3 miles. Not horrible. I survived, but not ideal.
Run course was tough. It's pretty much down one side of an old river bed then up the other side and back. Two loops of this. Because of the heat, my strategy quickly went from running all of it to running the downhills and flats, walking the up hills.
- First three miles felt like forever.
- Next three miles felt like I finally got my legs back. Finishing my first loop I could hear the announcer calling out the names of finishers. I couldn't wait to hear my name being called.
- Heading back out for my second loop I could see some seriously dark clouds headed our way.
- At the turn around point of the second loop it started to rain.
- At about mile 11 it really started to thunder. I could hear the announcer urging people to take shelter. I ran faster, worried that they would stop the race before I finished.
- At about mile 13 there were two really big claps of lighting that made me jump... and run even faster.
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| My new piece of BLING! |
When I crossed the finish line, it was pretty anti-climactic. The announcer was gone. The mass of cheering spectators had dispersed and the volunteers were huddled under a tent. One ran out to take the timing chip off my ankle and scoot me over to another tent where I got my finisher medal and hat. Ducking from one tent to another, I loaded up on food, collected my morning bag, then went back to transition to collect my (soaked) gear. I trudged back to my car, loaded everything up and then waited for an hour for the parking lot to clear.
The rest is a blur until Monday after noon sometime when I got an email from a woman that I had gotten to know from my swim program and had trained with on and off. She congratulated me and a few others on finishing the 70.3. She'd heard about the crazy weather conditions (stinking hot combined with a thunderstorm) and quipped "it's races like these that get you hooked." And you know what? She's absolutely right :)
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