I FUCKING PRED
I fucking PRed by 18 seconds in IRONMAN 70.3 Galveston, Texas!
I’ll take that, since a PR is a PR right? But more importantly I beat my younger self from 4 years ago in IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga, which has a fast, assisted down river current swim and a fast roller bike course with great road surfaces.
To be fully honest, I’ve never been driven by PRs. A PR depends 100% on the course profile and on race weather conditions.
Then what drives me? The PODIUM.
To be top of my age group (AG), now that…. fucking drives me. In the past, my motivation for racing and training has always been qualifying for IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship. But for 70.3 Texas, I had zero fucks about qualifying since the 70.3 World Champs are back in St. George, Utah this year. Last year alone I raced twice in Utah: St. George 70.3 in May and St. George 70.3 Worlds Champ in September. I have no desire to go back to Utah this year. Hence why we didn’t even bother going to the awards/slot roll down as with 8th in Texas I had a pretty good chance of getting a slot.
I truly had one goal for Texas: podium.
Disappointed? Honestly. NO.
I executed my race strategy for the most part and raced within my limits. Sure, I made a couple of mistakes that cost me a few minutes, dropping me from 6th to 8th in my age group (AG) but for how this race was stacked, I would need to do a lot more work to reach the podium. The top female in my AG, 45-49 finished in 4:38. That’s fucking fast! This past week, my entire focus has been flushing the body from race load and analyzing my race data to learn where can I make gains.
In the meantime, here is my IRONMAN 70.3 Texas race recap on a really fun course. In case you didn’t know this yet, I fucking love racing in Texas.
SWIM (34:57)
The swim was absolute perfection! We had a stunning sunrise over the Galveston’s Bay that set my intention for the entire race. Air temp at gun time was 65F with calm winds and water temp 70F. Since Galveston is an island surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico, the water is super salty and clear.
For this race, I wore my new sleeveless X-Terra wetsuit that I had just purchased. With water temps at around 70F I have over heated in past races when wearing my Roka full sleeves wetsuit. I can totally say, wearing the sleeveless wetsuit was game changer for me and attributed to feeling good in the swim. Plus it’s super easy and fast to remove! I can’t believe I just said that for a wetsuit!
My swim goal for Galveston was to swim strong, calm, and remain present. My swim effort felt good and I am happy with my swim time. I seeding myself in my correct swim wave allowing me to swim with similar paced swimmers and never be passed. This helps with finding your rhythm and also confidence booster. I also love swim starts where you get to jump from a pier versus having to run into the swim. As soon as I jumped into the Galveston Bay, my race mode clicked and I went straight for the inside fight for buoy placement. I was swimming so straight that I actually hit the first buoy with my head and I did this 2 more times, finding myself having to swim under the buoy.
When it comes to swimming, I know my freestyle technique is FAR from perfect. My stroke crosses over A LOT, my catch could be way stronger, my elbow could be higher for the pull, my hips could rotate smoother… the list goes on and on. Basically, you can tell that I learned swimming as an adult. But what I do have is the ability to feel the water, keep a consistent pace, and remain calm no matter what open water conditions we may have on race day. To me this is powerful as in open water it allows me to consistently finish top 10 in my AG no matter if the race is wetsuit legal or not, salt or fresh water. Of course my preferred OWS is ocean and wetsuit optional.
T1 (3:44min)
Here is where I made my first 2 mistakes in my race and lost a solid minute plus.
I transitioned super fast from exit of swim into transition shoot. I was so focused on removing my wetsuit while running that I completely forgot to pee on my way into T1, swim-to-bike. When I arrived to my bike, I realized this, so tried to pee while putting shoes and helmet which slowed me down.
My 2nd mistake was trying to clean the dew from my visor. I put my helmet on and couldn’t see a fucking thing. I frantically tried to clean the visor but was unsuccessful. I got irritated and attempting a 2nd time and decided, fuck it, I had wasted enough time. Of course the visor cleared within seconds of biking when the wind hit it. Always something to learn mother fuckers!
BIKE (2:48hr)
The bike course is flat, windy, on smooth and clean paved roads along the Texan coastline. It’s a one loop, out and back. The out had a sweet tailwind and at the turnaround before mile maker 30, you hit the famous “wall” with headwinds back to T2.
I find flat bike courses to be mentally challenging. You spend the entire bike course with your head down, on your aero position, and riding the power meter. It’s pretty much like riding a bike trainer with the exception of the moving scenery in your peripheral vision.
For Galveston, I did my entire bike fitness load on my bike trainer with the exception of 2 quality rides. I usually do a few more rides per race to help with the fitness load but my husband and I moved to Guatemala City for his job this past January. Guate is the biggest city in Central America and its super congested with cars, trucks, chicken buses, etc. We don’t own a car in Guate which limits me traveling outside of the city to ride. This confined me to my Airbnb’s rooftop patio where I loaded my bike fitness with spectacular views of the city and volcanoes.
For Galveston everybody knows you will hit headwind and its all about pacing and knowing how to set a honest power target . I divided the bike course into 2 power zones. One power target for tailwind and one for headwind and just rode my power meter like I do on my bike trainer. Since I am petite in body size, barely 5,2 feet and at 115 pounds my FTP on flats is not to my advantage like it would be for hilly courses or rollers where I can leverage my watts per kilos. So I knew I had to remain in my aero positions for entire race minus riding through aid stations to grab water.
Here’s were I made my 3rd mistake of the day. Again all around peeing.
Peeing on the bike takes skills, especially on flat courses. I usually pee once on a 56 miler, and always between miles 30 to 40. Which for this race was with headwind. I tried several times standing on my pedals and hitting my bladder with one hand to make me pee. Each time I did this I would waste a good 30 seconds or more. Finally I decided to stop on the side of the road as I was wasting so much time without any results.
My goal was to finish the bike leg at 2:45 with my conservative power target or hit 2:40 if the winds were less intense on the way back. Cleary winds were a bit more intense and I lost 3 minutes and more on the bike course, which is a lot when it comes to the podium.
T2 (2:34min)
I always enter T2, bike-to-run transition; with big smiles as for me this is when the race starts!
If you pace and fuel correctly on the bike you can save a lot of time over other athletes that failed pacing or fueling and tend to fall apart in the run after racing for 4-5+ hours on hot races. It’s a fine science for athletes to balance the correct calories, carbs, hydration, and sodium for each hour on the hour.
Entering T2 I had to pee again which meant I was well hydrated to start the hot run with no shade. I moved as quickly as I could out of transition.
RUN (1:47hr)
I finally re-executed an 8:05 min/mile pace for an IRONMAN 70.3 half marathon. This has been the pace I have been chasing for the past 4 years on a 70.3 course.
Last time I run this pace was at IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa 2019. This was by far the most gratifying moment of IRONMAN 70.3 Texas.
Part of my running success for Galveston was training at altitude and racing at sea level. Guatemala City seats at 5,000 ft and nothing is flat where we live in Zone 16. Also Galveston’s racecourse is flat with 3 loops making it easy to pace. I also got to see Jimmie on my run course 5x since it was all inside Moody Gardens looping a 4.4m course 3x. Seeing your loved ones on course gives you a special energy! I remember in one of those crossings Jimmie yelling “way to crush that hill E!!”… which is the only little hill in Galveston and it made me go faster!
I believe the most success for my run was holding back fitness on the bike course in order to unleash on the run. Another BIG factor was arriving to Galveston injury free and finish injury free. I struggled all of 2021 with minor running injures aggravated in 2020 by running on carbon plated sneakers. Hence why I no longer run with “fast sneakers”. At my age, my number one goal is to stay injury free.
FINISH LINE (5:17hr 8th place)
All joy falling into the hands of my man’s arms at the finish line!
For anybody racing and having your loved ones support you on race day, please know, the VIP registration is worth it. It’s a long & hot day for our loved ones waiting to see us come out of the swim, bike, run and finish line. For me, knowing that Jimmie is going to be at the finish line with my medal always sets me free to just run. It makes a difference as we can share this moment together.
What’s next?
Figuring out where I can save time on all 3 sports, improve my nutrition and transition in order to crush my goal to podium in an IRONMAN 70.3 race. I am not giving in. I am not giving up. I am just getting started at my age.
