World's Toughest Half RR

Well...another year has come and gone and my 4th World's Toughest Half is under my belt. This may well have been the toughest of the four because of the scorching hot temps on Sunday, but I also came into this one with a bit more preparation than usual, so I really enjoyed the day!

Here's a picture of our swim start and Brad interviewing me post-race (stolen from Brad's web site) since I'm devoid of race photos for the moment. I need to get better about bringing my camera with me!

So I headed to California for a whirlwind 48-hr trip to visit old friends from Davis, some family from Rocklin, and oh yeah...do a little event called the World's Toughest Half. As you may have already guessed, this race has become a tradition for me. I love the hard courses, and this one takes the cake! Plus, it's a great excuse to visit my old tri buds from California.

I wasn't quite sure how the day would go, as I just came off of St. Croix 70.3 two weeks prior and since then I had basically taken a rest week and then another taper week before race day. As I've always been a volume junkie, I wasn't sure if the whole rest thing was going to hurt me or help me. At check in the day before race day, I was greeted with a very cool number for the race...numero uno (since I was the top female finisher last year...no pro women to pummel me last year!). That is one race number I'm actually not going to toss in the trash : ). It was great to catch up with the awesome race director, Brad Kearns and his wife Tracy. They are really fantastic people!

So...on to the race (since this is supposed to be a race report!). I got some assistance from a guy I was standing next to before the start to zip up my wetsuit before getting in the water. I have a BlueSeventy and it zips from the top down. Apparently, this is a technically difficult suit to zip because this guy seemed to be having problems. When he finally hooked it together, I thought he broke it because of the force involved when the zipper finally zipped...but apparently it was just fine I didn't think more about it (till later, that is...). The swim came and went and I felt okay...definitely not awesome like I did 2 weeks earlier in St. Croix, but pretty good overall. The best part was, I found a pair of feet to draft off of for the 2nd half of the swim. That almost never happens to me, so I was pretty psyched. I popped out of the swim, excited to get onto my favorite leg (the bike)...grabbed the strap for my wetsuit...unzipped the back and then my zipper wouldn't unclasp at my neckline! I was freaked out for a good 45 seconds as I was desperate to get going on the bike, but as the minutes ticked by and it was looking like there was no hope to get the darn thing undone, I just stood there (while some guy kept trying to unclasp it for me) and contemplated whether I was going to be able to complete the race. I was trying to make a decision on whether I should just break the whole zipper by pulling on it really hard and then send it in for a zipper replacement as what seemed like over a hundred people ran by me, and then it magically released! Apparently, when the zipper was applied, the guy hooked it with the little plastic teeth misaligned by 1 tooth. I'm not sure how it finally came undone...but I'm just glad it did and I could get on with my race. No clue how many minutes passed as I patiently stood there watching people run by. It felt like 5 minutes, but you know how times like that feel like an eternity, so I'm guessing it was more like 3 or 4 minutes. I glanced at my watch as I approached my bike and it said some ridiculous time like 39 minutes and change. I think I swam 30 minutes last year, so it was a combo of an extra long course, and my zipper debacle that put me 9 minutes behind.

On to the bike leg...my favorite! Dang, this is a brutal course! It was a seemingly endless 7 mile climb into Auburn, followed by another 20+ miles of climbing to the half way point. I felt pretty good though and was reeling in a lot of the gals who passed me in transition. At mile 20ish, some girl rode by me rather quickly (that never happens to me, unless Karin Thurig is racing!), and it happened to be Anissa Seguin (the only pro woman who was competing). I passed her back a few minutes later, but then she passed me for good after that and ended up putting a good 4 or 5 minute lead into me by the end of the bike leg. She's quite an awesome cyclist...oh, and a pretty darn good runner to boot! The bike went well for me overall with the exception of this one brutal out and back section that occurs toward the end of the bike ride. It was quite hot and the uphill road combined with the headwind made for a miserable stretch of road for me. Once I turned around, I felt great though and the "LeMonde Walked Hill" felt like a cakewalk this year (unlike past years). The bike leg finally ended and the real challenge was ahead...the World's Toughest run course.

Getting started on the run, I actually felt fantastic (a new feeling for me on this course). The legs were great, so I was psyched! I pretty much cruised along focusing on hydrating well and staying as cool as possible and it payed off for me. I enjoyed the new run course...still brutally hard, but scenic and fun. After a long 5hr 45 minutes (my longest time ever on this course), I crossed the line, still feeling like I could have run a few more miles! Must be a result of my MarkAllenOnline training program. Much to my surprise, that put me in 2nd place overall for the women, and 1st amateur. Not sure why the finish time was so slow this year, but I have to attribute it to the long swim, my extra special time in transition with my wetsuit, and the brutally high temps that day. Average HR for the race was 151 (5 beats lower than my "A" race 2 weeks ago). It's funny because training at a HR of 151 is pretty much impossible for me, and I can race above 150 for nearly 6 hours!

Well...that's it for a while. I have a few bike races and a sprint tri (5430 Sprint) before my next big race, Buffalo Springs 70.3 on June 29th (my last chance for a Kona slot!). I'm feeling pretty motivated right now to do some damage in Lubbock and snag my slot to Kona!

St. Croix Race Report

My trip to St. Croix started out a little rough with a red-eye flight out of Denver to Philadelphia on Frontier airlines. Turns out I had a paper ticket (purchased 5 months ago from Expedia) that I forgot existed, so of course I failed to bring it to the airport with me. So I arrived at check-in...they requested the required paper ticket, and my jaw dropped. No chance of running back home to grab it, as it's a 3-4 hr trip (since I parked in a remote lot), and zero chance of getting on the plane without it. So...I was a little stressed! I spent the next hour on the phone trying to find a way to get to St. Croix without my paper ticket and the short story is, I bought 2 different tickets ($700) to get there (i.e. $1400 flight)...ugh!

So I finally arrived in St. Croix after an 18 hour travel period and my bike and luggage somehow managed to arrive within an hour of my arrival! (a rare thing for many travelers). I put the travel fiasco out of my head and got into St. Croix vacation and race prep mode and it was all good after that. After arrival, I had the chance to meet some of my teammates on the MAO team and they were really great.

Race day arrived 4 days into my trip and I was feeling really ready to race and in good form. I wasn't sure how I would do as the whole MarkAllenOnline training program is brand new to me this year and this would be my first test, but I also knew I had put in some solid training.

Race day morning started out with a moderate breeze and mixed cloud cover and the swim was nice and choppy, making for some slow swim times. The small group starts made the likelihood of getting a good pair of feet to draft off of not too good...and I had a draft for a grand total of maybe 15-30 seconds of the entire swim. Despite that, I had what I thought was a fantastic swim...swimming solo and hard through the ocean chop with a good turnover, but was greeted with a 35 minute swim time at the exit. Since I could tell I swam well, I didn't worry about it and figured everyone's swim time was extra long (and I was right...3-4 minutes long for most).

On to my favorite leg...the bike! The rain started falling just as I got on the bike and it was a welcome relief from the heat of the morning. I'm convinced that this course was designed to be just perfect for me! It was brutally hard with continuous climbs and technical descents and long sections into a steady headwind. I loved every minute of it and the legs felt really good. As always, I pushed hard on the bike, as it's my main weapon in triathlon, but still left just enough to have a respectable run.

The run was my true test of my MAO training plan, as it's always been my weakness, particularly in recent years. The St. Croix run is a particularly challenging one because of the oppressive heat and continual hills...remember those rain clouds I mentioned at the start of the bike? Well, those were long gone and I had scorching hot sunshine for the last 20 miles of the bike and just about all of the run. My saving grace was the aid stations with ice every 0.6 miles. If they were every mile, I don't think I would have survived! My main competition for the race was my own teammate, Cassie, who has won the world championships at this distance 2 years in a row. She is a phenomenal runner, and a pretty spectacular swimmer and good cyclist...a tough combination! I was really pleased to see I still had a 9-10 minute lead on her at mile 7 of the run due to my solid bike split! Of course I was doing the math in my head and thought I had this one in the bag, even if I slowed to 8:30 miles in the latter part of the race (which is what happened). Well...turns out Cassie was on fire clicking off one 7:00 mile after another over the hills in the high heat and humidity. As I entered the last little out and back before the finish line, with less than a half mile to go...I asked a lady on the sidelines if she saw any women behind me. At first she shook her head no and then corrected herself and said "yes!" I turned around and looked and there was Cassie hammering up the hill about 250 m behind me. At that point, I jumped into an all out sprint effort...rounded the corner toward the finish in a state of massive lactic acidosis with no more than 2/10's of a mile to go, and watched Cassie fly by me at a 5:30/mi pace like I was literally standing still. As I was in a near collapsing state, I walked the next 100m to get the function of my legs back and hobbled in at a slow jog across the line to finish a minute behind Cassie at 5:13. Cassie ended up running faster than all but the top 3 pro women, who were world class athletes!

I got to know Cassie more after the race and learn about her running past. She has quite an impressive running background. We decided that if we were to train together (although she lives in NY and I'm in CO), we could really help eachother...me for my running and her for her biking. I had this distant hope that there would be 2 Kona slots for my AG, as we were the 2nd largest AG for the women, but unfortunately, the only spare slot went to the 30-34 year-olds. I was really kicking myself that night after the race for not pushing harder through the last 4 miles, as I know I could have skipped walking those latter aid stations and slowing down on some of the hills, but I had no idea of the rapidly closing talent behind me. Guess I need to find me a good spotter to inform me of the dangers behind me to help dictate my level of suffering in the closing miles! I already got one lined up for Buffalo Springs : ).

Next up...World's Toughest Half (2 weeks away!).

But first...a little fun time in the Carribean : ).