After two races in 3 weeks (Ironman St. George and IM 70.3
Chattanooga), it felt like we were pros at packing. To be honest, we didn’t
really unpack much from racing in Chattanooga 1.5 weeks ago.
On Friday morning we drove ~45 minutes to our athletes lake house for an open water swim. We had a handful of our athletes meet us there for a warm, ~35 minute wet-suit swim. After the swim we drove back to the Airbnb (we booked the same place as last year in the downtown area) and after we ate, we took a nap. We were both exhausted.
On Saturday morning, we rode on the run course and then backtracked the last few miles of the bike course (which was also new this year) as part of our pre-race warm-up. We dropped our run stuff off at our athletes house which was on the run course so that we could do a quick brick run from her house. After riding for around 50 minutes, Karel went for a 22 minute, 3.4 mile brick run and I went for a 12 minute, 1.6 mile run. We both ran until we felt good and surprisingly, we both felt really good running. This came as a huge relief (and a bit of a surprise) as we were really tired going into this race.
.heic)
We got our run gear together and double checked our bikes (charged the night
prior) and drove 2 miles to the race venue at River’s Edge Sports Complex
around 11am. After dropping off our bikes in a supervised area, we picked up
our race packet, got our swim shuttle time cards and our parking passes and
then went back to our bikes to put on the race numbers. We then dropped off our
bikes so that they could be shuttled to the cove (no cars/biking allowed at the
reservoir prior to race day). We then put our bib numbers on our belts and
double checked our run bags and hung those on the run racks in T2.
As for the rest of the day, besides eating, Karel watched Unbound Gravel and I
watched a few episodes of We Crashed on Apple TV. We prepared our sport
nutrition bottles for race day and went to bed pretty early – around 7pm – as we
were both really tired.
RACE DAY
I slept horribly on Saturday night. I pretty much saw every hour on the clock from 8 until 2am. I have no idea why I slept so bad since I slept so well the two nights prior. I eventually moved to the couch to see if changing positions would help and sure enough, I was able to fall asleep around 2pm, only to wake up to my alarm at 3:15am. I relied on past experiences and trusted myself that even though I was extremely tired, I knew I would still be able to perform.
We had our pre-race meals (oatmeal concoction for Karel and a bagel w/ nut butter, jam and banana and yogurt for me) and then each went for a short jog outside (kinda sketchy in the downtown area so we stayed close to our building) to help get the system going. We left our place at 4:00am, parked in the parking garage across from the venue and then walked to the bus to board around 4:30am. The shuttle took around 30 minutes to get to the venue (plus the additional time waiting in a church parking lot due to tight roads around the lake, only letting a few buses in at a time).
When we arrived, we walked to the packed transition area and Karel pumped up our tires with his cordless inflater (he removed pressure from our tires overnight since it was a warm 80-degree day and our bikes were out all day). We filled up our hydration system and placed the front bottle on our aerobar cage and then we were set to go to the bathroom and warmup. There wasn’t much room to warm-up in the transition area so a handful of Trimarnis gathered together and we did some mobility in one spot before putting on our wetsuits. It was great to have so many familiar faces around to keep the energy positive.
Around 6:15am, we made our way to the swim start area to line up with our respective swim times. Karel and I lined up around the 27-30 min swim wave, along with a few other of our athletes. Although it was a cool morning (in the upper 50’s), the water was warm (75 degrees) so I was anticipating being a bit uncomfortable for the swim. I poured some cold water down my wetsuit to get myself ready for the swim. I also sipped on a plastic bottle of Skratch and threw it away right before the swim start. It took a few minutes for us to get to the end of the dock and shortly after 6:30am, we jumped into the water for 70.3 Blue Ridge.
1.2 mile Swim
Marni – 29:15
Karel – 29:18
I remembered this swim to be a fast swim as it was easy to navigate on the course. There was a bit of sun in our eyes after the 2nd turn buoy (going into the 3rd and last turn buoy) so I trusted those in front of me to lead the way until I was able to sight the turn buoy. Although Karel and I didn’t start right next to each other, I was able to see Karel for most of the swim (I recognized his orange ROKA goggle strap). Although we weren’t right next to each other, we somehow stayed together for most of the swim but I made an extra effort to pick up the pace at the end to make sure I could beat Karel out of the water. I tried to push the swim but I felt like I only had one speed. When I exited the water, Karel was right there next to me and we both ran to our bikes at the same time.
T1
Marni – 3:10
Karel – 2:45
We didn’t say much to each other in the transition but as we were getting our bikes off the rack, I told Karel to get in front of me as I knew he would be able to run much faster with his bike than me. It was a very long run (almost 0.2 mile) to the mount line and Karel was moving so much faster than me. This was the last time that I saw Karel until the run.
Marni – 2:47.19
Karel – 2:39.35
The first few miles of the bike are fun – twisty turny tight country roads (similar to some of our terrain). I passed a few girls in those early miles. Around 5.5 miles in, I was passed by a girl who was riding extremely strong. She later went on to win the overall female title in a crazy fast time on this course. I tried to stay with her and I was somewhat successful. She was very strong on the flat sections so that was where I really had to work hard. It was a bit chilly out (in the low 60’s) but I found myself warming up nearing the end of the first part of the course. Although it was net downhill to Buchannan, there were enough rollers to get the legs working. Plus, we had a bit of headwind as well.
The first hour went by fast before we made the turn to start the ~5 mile climb to the blue ridge parkway. I was able to stay with her on the climb but near the top, I got dropped. It wasn’t that my legs were done but she was so much stronger than me and I couldn’t hang. I wanted to ride the climb hard as I knew I would be able to recover in the last 10 miles of the course. I wasn’t doing a great job with my nutrition as I was finding it hard to keep a good schedule with drinking as I was working really hard on the climb (it took me 31 minutes to climb 4.7 miles – the “claw”). This part of the course was marked with turn signs letting us know how many more turns we had until the top (8 in total – although there were a few that were not accounted for 😊). By this point, there weren’t a lot of other riders on the course around me which was good and bad. I found the middle section to be much easier than the last time I did the course, even though there was a bit of wind. I think knowing the course better than last year helped me break it down mentally. The next ten miles were rolling – the climbs were long and steady and the downhills were fast enough to shake out the legs. Finally, once we got to the start of the long “downhill” I was really excited to use my improved bike handling skills from winter group riding and mountain biking. The next 8.6 miles were super fun and fast – I average almost 27 mph. I was passed by another girl (the one who beat me by 2 seconds last year) before the descend and at this point, the two girls ahead of me were out of sight – and I tried to get them out of mind.
I enjoyed being on my bike but I was also ready for the bike to be overwith. I started to feel a small battle with my thoughts after the descend but with 10 miles left to go, I tried to push the negativity to the side. I saw a girl ahead of me on a road bike and she was riding the climbs really strong but not as fast on the downhills so I used her as motivation to keep myself pushing.
Karel had a great bike with no back pain. He was really happy with how he rode the course and riding the course on Thursday helped as he could break it down into segments.
For nutrition, I used Skratch Super Fuel for all my bottles (~600 calories in the hydration frame and 400 calories in the front bottle). Karel used C90 in the hydration frame (740 calories) and 2 servings C30 in the front bottle (240 calories).
The last few miles were a bit more technical through neighborhood streets and it was much more hilly than the last few miles of the 2021 course. This new course was also about 1 mile longer than last year. When I got close to T2, I was relieved to be done with the bike and I was actually looking forward to the run.
I dismounted my bike and ran my bike on to the grass field to my rack.
T2
Marni – 2:07
Karel – 2:09
I quickly put on my running shoes (Nike Zoom) and Naked Running band and as I was running out of transition, I put on my visor and sunglasses. I had two 10-ounce flasks (each with 1 scoop C30) and when I got to the fluid station at the end of the transition area, I asked a volunteer to fill up one of my flasks while I filled up the other one. This was the same approach that I took for St. George (to fill up bottles right before I ran) instead of leaving my bottles w/ sport nutrition and water in it during the day before in the transition area. Karel did the same with his 12-ounce flask – he started with C30 and then refilled it with a packet of Green Tea Matcha Skratch as he was running. He also had one Maurten gel on the course. Karel had a few sips of coke, I didn’t use any coke on this course.
Marni – 1:44.37
Karel – 1:23.07
Once I started running, I felt ok – not great but not bad. The first mile was nice as there was a bit of undulation with the terrain to help change up my run rhythm. As I was nearing the first mile, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom (#2). I normally don’t have to go to the bathroom in a half IM but I think the combo of my period starting on Thursday and being a bit off with my sport nutrition intake on the bike and probably not emptying myself completely on race day morning contributed to needing to go again. I stopped at the first port-o-potty as I didn’t want to take any risks waiting for the next one. It was a quick stop to go to the bathroom but because it was getting warmer out (low 70’s) my tri kit was a bit sticky so it took me a bit to get it back on. Plus subconsciously, I think I was enjoying not running and was delaying my time to go back out and start racing again. The stop took around 1:45.
I was looking forward to seeing Karel as well as seeing how many girls were ahead of me. The first 3.5 miles to the turn around felt long but I just focused on one mile at a time, looking forward to each aid station. The course was mostly flat but there were enough inclines on the running path to help change up my gait. I got a pick me up when I saw Karel as he was making his way back from the first turn around and he told me I was in 4th place. Once I saw the top 3 girls pass by me, they all looked really young so I assumed I was winning my age group. Part of me wanted to push it to see if I could catch the 3rd place girl but part of me was just happy to find a good rhythm and not suffer too much. I think my mind was protecting my body and not letting me push it like I did in Chattanooga 70.3 two weeks ago. My mind knew I was carrying around a lot of fatigue and it was trying to keep me safe. I had a lot of mental demons on the run and I was so close to quitting around mile 4-5. I hit a really deep low spot and the rest of the run just felt impossible. I took a quick walk break at the aid station and just told myself to get back to mile 6-7 (the split in the course) and then I could walk or quit. Thankfully, I changed my mind and I started to find my energy pick up again. I was keeping up with my nutrition and using water for cooling. I was having trouble finding ice at all the aid stations so it was nice when I had it to hold in my hands. I started to get more of a pick me up when I saw more of our athletes out on the course. Even though I was running pretty well pace wise, my mind was still trying to get me to quit. Each aid station was a great pick me up and I was really looking forward to the last half of the course – which had much more to it with more inclines/declines in the road, bridges and more turns. I really like dynamic run courses. I saw Karel on his way back with only a few miles left and he was really pushing it. He had moved up several spots and I was inspired by his effort.
The last two miles were rough and the last mile seemed to take
forever but I was so happy to finally make the turn on to the bridge and make
my way to the finish line.
Marni – 5:06.52, 4th overall amateur female, 1st AG (40-44)
Karel – 4:37.00, 5th overall, 1st AG (45-49)
And no race is complete without doggy cuddles. This little girl was extra cute!
