St. Croix 70.3

I designated 2012 as my year to focus on a great performance in Kona, as I am a newbie in the 45-49 age group and it will be the 10^th anniversary of my one and only 1^st place age group finish on the big island.  But first things first…qualify!  St. Croix 70.3 was my first shot at it, and also the first tri of the season.  Although my training had been going well leading up to the race, I had quite a disconcerting setback weeks 2 and 3 pre-race.  After a 1-week-long business/pleasure trip to Costa Rica where I did not touch a bicycle and did zero swimming workouts, I returned home with a nasty cold that completely debilitated me.  The result was systemic antibiotics and no swim, bike or run for another 5 days.  As you can imagine, nearly 2 weeks off the bike and out of the water was a bit disconcerting immediately prior to my “A” qualifier race for Kona.  In an effort to make up for the deficit, I signed up for the Koppenberg bike race followed by the Horsetooth TT a mere 8 and 5 days prior to race day.  So much for the taper!  I felt like I needed those efforts at least from a mental standpoint to get back into race shape.  I had good experiences in both races and renewed my confidence in having a solid race at St. Croix.

St. Croix 70.3 is one of the toughest 70.3 triathlons on the planet, as it is characterized by very steep climbs (i.e. “The Beast” which is a relentless 1 mile climb that includes inclines as much as 23%!), fierce headwinds, and high humidity and brutal Caribbean heat!  It’s my favorite kind of race!  Little did we know…we would be tackled with additional challenges of heavy rains, flooded out streets, and mud and gravel all over the technically challenging roads. 

The day started out nice with a nice 3-mile ride to the start with my hubby Dean and our roommate and fellow MAO athlete, Ian.  Not long after our arrival to the start, the rain started.  We got our transition gear set up and jumped in the water to head to the start on the little island off shore.  It was a brutal and cold 1 hour until the start of my wave, so I hovered in the warm bathroom most of the time until just before the start.  We were the very last wave and a pretty large group of all women 45 and up with a small start area, but everyone was pretty cordial and the contact was minimal.  I mostly swam solo the whole way and felt quite good throughout the swim.  When I arrived in transition, a few bikes had left ahead of me, but I was happy with my position.  I headed out of transition with my shoes attached to my pedals and ended up running through some soft mud, so was ecstatic that I didn’t have my shoes on yet as I know the cleats would be totally non-functional had I packed them with mud.  The bike was incredibly wet, rainy, and technical, so there were lots of minor casualties on the roads (i.e. lots of people with road rash and tons of flats!).  I pushed pretty hard on the bike and felt comfortable despite the brutal and wet conditions and ended up first off the bike for all master women.  It was my first experience putting running socks and shoes on over feet covered in mud!  I could only laugh as I tried to wipe my feet on the grass while putting on my socks in transition.

I got rolling on the run and felt pretty decent.  I pushed hard as I knew the competition wouldn’t be too far behind.  My first glimpse of them was at mile 6…the turnaround for loop 2 of the run.  I spotted a gal in my age group only 3 minutes behind me and was pretty worried that I would be caught by the end of the 13.1 miles.  My mantra was push as hard a possible on the downhills and stay out of site (and out of mind) for the girls chasing behind.  It was deceivingly hot despite the cloud cover and I spotted a girl ahead seize up with a leg cramp.  I decided to stop and give her some of my salt tabs as I had plenty and I thought a good deed might provide that little extra karma I needed!  In the final few miles I was so positive I would be caught (I was caught in this same race in 2008 with only 200 meters to go and lost my Kona slot), that I was pulling myself inside out to stay ahead.  Every woman I saw behind me I assumed was in my age group and I did everything in my power to stay ahead.  In the end it turns out I had a 3 minute lead on 2^nd place and I was able to cross the finish line in 1^st place, securing my spot to Kona this October.  Whew!  I can’t remember ever working so hard at the end of a race!  Well worth it on yet another fun and challenging day in St. Croix!