You never know what the body will do on race day. The body
can play games on you – tummy upset, feeling aches/twinges you have never felt before, nerves out the
wazoo and legs that feel like jello one minute and lead the next, as if they
wouldn’t respond to any type of movement (even walking to the transition area).
But no matter how you feel on race day morning, you have to trust that your
body will know exactly what to do when the race starts. Sometimes this is
easier said than done.
Perhaps at some races you will feel amazing before the race
and you will be itching to get your party with your body started but this doesn’t
mean that you still do not have that unknown of what the body will do as you
swim, bike and run for x-miles. Even if you are 100% prepared and ready to go,
you may even find yourself completely stressed and overwhelmed by things that
you cannot control which also adds to the emotions of racing.
Considering that age group triathletes balance a lot while training
for races (work, family, et.c) and can still dedicate 8-20+ hours of training
per week, there’s something special about tapering the body for a race and
experiencing all the emotions that come with race day. I truly believe that if
racing was easy and effortless and we didn’t have to battle the ever-changing
emotions that we feel before a race begins, we wouldn’t be who we are as
triathletes.
Racing is not supposed to be easy. We, as athletes, can
learn so much about ourselves and what we are capable of (as well as capable of
overcoming) through racing so I always encourage athletes to not be afraid of
things out of (or at the top) of your comfort zone. Regardless if you are
veteran athletes, have raced a course in the past or are racing a new
distance/course for the very first time, I promise, you just have to get started to
realize how amazing your body can be when you ask it to perform. You just have
to trust yourself, respect your racing distance and appreciate what your body
is capable of by focusing only on one mile at a time.
PRE RACE
With multiple alarms set for race morning (on my phone), we were up at
3:30am and started the coffee maker.
There wasn’t a lot of talking between Karel and myself on race day morning for
we were both nervous for the day and just focused on ourselves, each getting
ourselves ready for our race.
The afternoon before the race I had laid out all my race
gear and then put my gear into 4 separate grocery bags (Pre race, swim, bike and run) and filled my 3 bottles w/ my
custom INFINIT nutrition drink (280
calories) for the bike and two flasks for the run with NAPALM (each flask with
2 ounces – 100 calories in each flask). I put all my nutrition bottles/flasks in
another grocery bag.
On race day morning, I first put on my race outfit and
timing chip, 110% calf sleeves (not allowed on swim) and socks and extra run
shoes for walking in transition area and
then as I sipped my coffee, I tried to keep my body moving instead of sitting
back down to eat. After double checking my race gear bags and filling my
bottles with cold water from water jugs, I was ready for my pre race meal.
My tummy was fine while I was eating my normal pre training/racing snack of 2
WASA crackers + smear of nut butter + banana slices, granola and raisins (no
maple syrup or honey this race because I didn’t bring/purchase any but that’s
ok – I just had a bit more granola) and I had 1 bottle of water to sip on
throughout the morning and 1 bottle w/ 1 OSMO packet (hydration for women) in a
bottle of water to sip on in transition area. I didn’t finish both bottles
before the race start but they were there for me to sip on.
Karel had 1 scoop MUD from INFINIT + 1 thick slice raisin
walnut bread (local bread) + jam and 1 scoop OSMO pre-hydration formula in a
glass of water.
As I packed up my Oakley Women bag (I didn’t bring my tri
transition bag here) , Karel packed up our Ford Focus with our bikes (wheels
removed so the bike frames could fit in the back seat). At St. Croix 70.3,
there is no day before bike check and no body markings. Our plan was to leave
our place at 4:30am to arrive close to the transition area to park before
transition opened at 5am. The transition area was first come, first serve for
racking bikes on the respected racks (I had 1 rack for the 30-34 women and
Karel had two racks) and we weren’t sure about parking or traffic on the two
lane road to the transition area so we wanted to arrive early to avoid any
pre-race stress.
Our cottage is about 4 miles from the race start but we are
also two miles (in route to transition area) from the Buccaneer (host hotel and
where we run through on the run course) so we wanted to arrive early to bypass
any of that traffic from that resort.
We parked in a side parking lot just a few minutes of
walking from the transition area and after waiting in a short line before 5am,
we both were able to rack our bikes in the front of our racks.
Karel and I both do our own things pre-race (although I like
to be around Karel as much as possible but he likes to zone-out and just do his
own thing which I respect) but then meet up before the race for a last minute
hug and kiss and good luck wishes.
After quickly setting up my transition area and several trips to the bathroom to relieve my
nervous tummy (same for Karel) , we just waited around for a pump to pump our
tires but saw only 2 pumps in the entire transition area. Luckily Karel had a
hand pump which he used to top off my tubular tires (which need pumping daily)
and his clincher tires. Because there was no bike check in the day before, this
is likely why there were no pumps in our small transition area. As far as body
marking, they say body marking is only for the mainland races J However, I did look up
all the athletes in my age group for their bib numbers so that I could be aware
of my competition without having race numbers on the body (although those
usually get washed off anyways or smeared).
For my transition area:
Swim: TYR pro speed suit, Speedo mirrored tint vanquisher goggles, spray body
glide, race cap (pink – yay!), extra goggles in bag just in case, timing chip on
strap, COOLA spray sunscreen, 910XT Garmin set on multi-sport function.
Bike: Oakley towel, 3 bottles of sport drink on bike (two rear cages which also hold two CO2s, CO2 adapter and quick flat sealant for tubular tires), Garmin 500 on bike,
cycling shoes, 110% Flat out socks, GIRO helmet, Oakley Women commit sunglasses
and two bottles – 1 with water and 1 with OSMO – from morning that I didn’t
completely finish. I put a gu gel in my tri top pocket of my Trimarni kit
before I put on my speed suit just in case I lost a bottle on the course (which
is typical on this bumpy course) to ensure I wouldn’t be without fuel for any
section of the course.
Run: 1 container of endurance aminos from Hammer (to take 4 before the run),
race belt w/ number and safety pins securing the bib number, 110% visor, 2
flasks (standing up in my shoes so they wouldn’t fall over or drip), Brooks
Pure Flow run shoes w/ locks for shoe laces.
Around 5:50am, Karel and I met up by the edge of the water
and at 6am we jumped off the ledge into the water and we both swam together to
the Hotel on the Cay, no more than 300 yard swim (I’m guessing). It felt SO
good to jump into the water and get the body going. Once we arrived to the
island we could swim a bit more if we wanted since there was plenty of room
around the little island to the side of the beach start for the race. The race
director had the pros stay on the shore and all the age groupers were on the
sand on the island. There was water and sport drinks on the island which was
nice. Karel and I found some fishies (finally!) to look at so that made us
smile.
I kissed Karel good luck and then he made his way to his
wave start (35-39) at 6:39am. My wave start was 6:50am.
After watching Karel go off, I felt a bit more relaxed and was ready to get
this party started.
There were 20 girls in my age group (131 women total in the
half IM distance) so it was a small wave. We all lined up on the beach and I
centered myself in the middle to outside of the buoys that we would make a left
turn around. The buoys were more like lane lines so it was not an easy way to
start the race but then it was nice to see two sets of large orange buoys to
swim through as we made our way to the large yellow buoy to make our first of
two right hand turns (buoys on our right).
Despite only 20 girls, I knew this competition was tough so
therefore I had an idea of respectable and realistic times for this race course
but absolutely no time goals for myself for any leg of the race or total time.
I was simply racing my competition and racing smart.
It was a little chaotic at the swim start but my goal was to
swim comfortable just like I did in our two prep swims on Thurs and Fri (on the
same course although this was the true 1.2 miles). I managed to stay with a 2
other pink caps for the entire swim and I guessed that we were top 5 from our
age group because I saw a few pink caps swim away at the beginning of the race.
Because of the difficulty of this bike course, I didn’t want to waste any extra
energy in the swim. Also knowing the swim course from the practice swims, I
knew that there would be a section at the end where we would get a little push
to make the effort much easier whereas it was a bit choppy heading out to the
first turn buoy. I managed to sight well and stay with the other girls which
made me happy. I tried to draft as much as possible but found myself having to
swim through some of the other waves which caused me to lose the girls and then
have to regroup again.
I absolutely loved this swim. For some reason, I find this
ocean water so much smoother than Kona and if this makes sense, less salty too.
There are no dolphins, sea turtles or colorful fishies like in Kona but the
water is incredibly clear which is wonderful to swim in. I was able to look at
my 910XT
After rounding the last buoy, I took another look at my watch
(which I was looking at a few times just to see my pace/time) and noticed that
this swim was a bit slower than my usual swims but I didn’t let it stress me
out or make me frustrated. I just kept swimming smooth in the water as if this
was my race warm-up for the bike/run race ahead.
Getting out of the water was a bit tricky – there was a
floating (yet secured to the shore) ramp to get out of and there were two males
pulling us on to the ramp. This was a bit weird for my legs to be pulled to
this platform and then stand up but it all worked out ok.
I exited the water as 5th female out of the water
(after looking at results) but I saw 3 or 4 other girls in transition area when
I arrived. I took off my caps and goggles and I put on my 110% compression
socks for this race instead of my normal calf sleeves since the calf sleeves
sometimes give me blisters where the bottom of the sleeve rubs my shoe when I
run. This didn’t take much time to put on in transition area but my main worry
was forgetting my chip after I took it off to put on my socks. I kept reminding
myself “chip, chip” – for the next race, I will just put the chip in my mouth
so I don’t forget it. I then put on my cycling shoes (I never keep them on my
bike – I find it unsafe and I don’t feel it saves significant time in endurance
races – Karel believes the same), helmet and sunglasses, took a sip of my drink
and then grabbed my bike, turned on my bike computer and then when I exited
transition area I was ready to start my bike.
Oh my!! My speedsuit was still on!!
OK – this has NEVER happened before and I must say that I
couldn’t help but laugh that my new TYR Torque Pro is SO comfortable that I
didn’t even realize I still had it on! Not only is the suit super fast (really –
it is incredibly fast) but it just feels so good (I had no chaffing too and
even with body glide in past races I would still chaff with the speed suit). I
leaned my bike against the fence and then ran back to the rack (just 4 racks
from the start so not too far and took off my speedsuit over my cycling shoes
and ran back to my bike. Transitions always seem sooooo long but this
transition was just over 2 minutes so I didn’t lose that much time with my
speedsuit issue and putting on socks.
I hit lap on my Garmin 910 and then hit start on my Garmin
500 bike computer when I got on my bike and I was feeling fresh and ready to
go. All those nerves went away and my body was feeling good. Now it was time
for my body to start riding the most challenging 56 mile bike course that my
bike has ever taken me on.