IM World Championship St. George - Pre-Race Recap

On Thursday morning, we headed back to the lake for another opportunity to get more comfortable in the cold water. Whereas the water temp was around 58 degrees on Wednesday, it “warmed” up to 60 degrees on Thursday. We arrived around 8am and there was a line to get in the water (pick up a timing chip before entering) but it moved pretty quickly. I wanted to try swimming without my booties (I wore them on Wed) to see if I could tolerate the cold water on my feet. I feel better swimming without the booties but I also wanted to feel comfortable. Karel opted to wear his booties as his feet do not do well in cold water. It took me several minutes to get in as it felt like my feet were being chopped off from the cold water but eventually I just committed and started swimming. Although my face, feet and hands felt very cold to start, I felt more comfortable after around 300 yards. I swam two loops of the modified swim course (~900 yards per loop) and not only did I swim faster without the booties (1:25/100 yards on Thurs vs. 1:29/100 yards on Wed) but I also felt really good in the water. I also wore my one piece tri suit but wore it down at my waist instead of over my shoulders and I felt so much better with my shoulder mobility in the wetsuit with the kit down. I made the decision that I wouldn’t wear booties on race day and I would wear my one piece kit half way down for the swim under my wetsuit. Karel decided he would wear his on race day. After the 26 min, ~1800 yard swim, we changed into our bike gear and went for a 57 min/18 mile ride on the out and back section (to Warner Valley road) by the lake. This was the last part of the entire course that we hadn’t previewed yet so when we were done, it was nice to know that we had ridden every part of the bike course (factoring in the 3-4 times we have raced the 70.3 in the past few years).

Throughout the week, I wasn’t feeling all that great. My energy level was a bit low, I was feeling bloated and I was really tired. My period was a few days late which was unusual since it is pretty routine every 25-26 days. On Thursday early evening, my period came. On one hand I was relieved but on the other hand, I knew that Friday would be rough.

On Friday morning, I woke up with cramps. For the rest of the day, I was miserable. It felt like a little alien was inside me, grabbing my intestines and twisting them around (that’s what I like to tell Karel every month 😊 ). The cramps would come and go and when they were on, it was rough. I went out for my warm-up spin and the exercise certainly helped. I then went for a short run. Around my menstrual cycle, I have the typical PMS symptoms but I have to be extra careful with running. My SI joint gets out of whack, my body feels all gumby and I really struggle with running. Normally I wouldn’t run on the first day of my period but I knew I needed to get in a light jog – it went ok.

After my 60-minute bike/run workout, I had a Skratch recovery drink w/ milk and a decent breakfast. Prior to the workout I had a bagel + PB, granola and syrup.

We packed up our transition bags and then headed downtown to drop off our run bags in T2 and then went to the lake to drop off our bike bag and bike in T1. We stayed in Washington, which is about ½ way from downtown and the lake. The downtown area was all dressed up, ready for the race. It was neat to see how it all came together. The transition area was inside a big tent which was cool to see. Karel and I did not fill our running flasks with water but instead, filled them with powder knowing that they would sit out all night and we could fill them up with cold water before we started the run on Saturday.

The experience dropping off our bikes at the lake was pretty uneventful. It was a bit anticlimactic compared to the experience in Kona but it was still exciting knowing that we only had one more sleep until the race. The more I was moving, the better my body felt but I still felt pretty crappy. I knew that I needed to eat to fuel my body and although I didn’t feel the best, I needed to fuel for my tomorrow effort and not think about how I felt today.

After we dropped off everything, we made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up a few things (ex. soup) and then headed back to our Airbnb. I snacked on pretzels in the car and sipped on Skratch. I had two cups of peppermint tea (which seemed to help my tummy) and ate tomato soup w/ rice, a bagel w/ peanut butter and jam, a yogurt, a large sweet potato and granola. Considering how I felt, I was happy with how I fueled on Friday. Instead of using pre-load for extra sodium, I just added ¼ tsp salt to water and had a glass of “salt water” in the evening. I haven’t had the best experience with pre-loading with sodium before a race (it makes me feel weird) so I just salted my food and sipped on a sport drink throughout the day – and finished with my salty water.

Around 6pm, we started to wind down for the evening. I could feel the nerves in my belly (or maybe it was cramps – not sure 😉
Karel was not nervous and I really liked his calm energy. I always get nervous for the first race of the season and with this being an Ironman, I had double the nerves. You’d think after 17 Ironman’s I wouldn’t get so nervous but I still get the nerves about what the day will bring me for 140.6 miles.

I watched the run and bike course videos a few times before bed to visualize the course and aid stations. I watched some funny shows on Netflix and by 7:30pm we were falling asleep. I slept ok for most of the night but then I tossed and turned for at least an hour before the alarm went off at 3:10am. It’s Race day!

RACE DAY
I took my time getting out of bed (due to my past experience with race morning fainting) and I made my coffee and ate a cinnamon raisin bagel w/ peanut butter, syrup and granola. I also made 2 eggs (1 white+1 whole) as this was something that I did before a mountain bike race in late March and I liked how it made me feel before and during the race. I also had a glass of salty water. After I ate I put on my race kit and then around 3:45am, I went for a quick jog around the complex. That got my system going before we left around 4:15am to catch the shuttle downtown. We grabbed our pre-made bottles from the fridge (we opted not to freeze them as we didn’t think it would make much difference with the heat). We had a house full of Czech’s racing and spectating so it was nice to have someone drop us off downtown so that we didn’t have to stress about parking.

We arrived downtown around 4:40am which was right around my scheduled shuttle time of 4:45-4:55am. Since Karel was in the wave ahead of me, his shuttle time was around my time so it worked out perfect.

I wore my headphones on the shuttle for the ~30 min drive to the lake and listened to the recent episode of the Pro Tri News Podcast. It helped ease some of my nerves. I was a bit tired and looked forward to the extra time that we had in the transition area before our start (we arrived 2 hours before our wave start). It felt a bit warm in the morning so I didn’t wear a long sleeve shirt or jacket but when we got to the lake, it felt a bit cool so I grabbed a towel that Karel had in his morning clothes bag to wrap around my shoulders (I had a tank on over my sports bra. I wore my one piece trisuit but kept the top down for the swim).

I put my front and rear water bottles on my bike and filled up the hydration system (1.2 liters) with a big Smart Water bottle of my sport drink. I placed my computer on the bike, checked the brakes and wheels and waited for Karel to pump up my tires. Karel bought a cordless air compressor which makes it easy to pump up our tires and have the correct air pressure in them. It’s also compact enough to put in our morning clothes bag (unlike a regular pump). Karel attached a disc wheel adapter to it so it would be easy to pump up his disc wheel as well as my wheels.

After we got everything done at our bikes, we made a potty stop and then spent the next hour (from 6-6:45am) laying down by the barricades and resting our eyes. I had a nice nap – not deep sleep but enough to feel rested and ready to go. It also gave me time to get my butterflies into formation. Around 6:45am, Karel started to put on his wetsuit, apply AMP on his arms and legs, slather on the body glide and put on his cap and goggles. I gave him a kiss and a hug and then he went off to get in his corral with his wave. Around 7am, I started to get myself ready in my wetsuit. I dropped off my morning clothes bag (filled with clothing for post race and my morning running shoes) and lined up with my wave. It was strange lining up in the 40-44 age group for the first time (I’m still 39 but I have to race my age for this year). I had a water bottle filled with skratch to sip on over the next 30 minutes and a bag of honey stinger chews to nibble on (I had a few of them). I also had a plain bottle of water to pour down my wetsuit to get some water inside before I got into the water to ensure that the wetsuit didn’t feel to tight on my chest.

My wave was the first female wave of the race. There was supposed to be a 15 min gap between the last male wave (Karel’s wave) and the first female wave (my wave) but they moved it up to get everyone in the water sooner. I lined myself up toward the front of the wave. The time passed by really quickly and before I knew it, we were lining up by the water, ready to get the race started.

We lined up in a row of 10, each in our own spot with a volunteer in front of us. When we heard a beep, it was time to get into the water.

BEEP!