Ironman 70.3 Maine race report – I hope

Pre-race

I got to Old Orchard Beach on Thursday evening after a full day of air travel and then a 2 ½ hour drive from Boston. 

I made a point of doing race check-in and the athlete’s briefing on Friday so that I could spend Saturday just relaxing and hydrating. I did a short swim. Water temp was cool but fine and the water was calm, almost like a pond. Afterward, I took my bike for a 30-minute ride but the route I took was flat, so I had no need to get into my easy climbing gears. This would come back to haunt me on race day. 

On Saturday, I made sure to have a good breakfast, go for an easy run with strides and bought breakfast supplies for race morning. Checked in my bike around 11:30 a.m., and then headed to the pool at the hotel to relax, read, snack, hydrate and enjoy a peaceful day. Around 3, I walked up to Subway and bought a foot-long turkey and provolone sandwich and an ice cream sandwich to have for dinner. I made a point to eat simple fare in the days leading up to avoid potential GI issues. Had dinner around 5:30, laid out my gear for race morning, mixed my Infinit bottles and put them in the fridge. Watched “The Martian” on TV, closed the blackout blinds and went to sleep around 8. Considering the usual pre-race jitters, I slept well.

Race morning – I'm a Starman!

The alarm went off at 3:15. Got up, had cereal, banana and yogurt for breakfast, along with coffee. I listened to a podcast while I got dressed and continued to hydrate. Transition was supposed to open 4:30 and it was about a mile walk there, so after I was ready, I laid down on the floor and practiced my savasana – quiet, relaxed breathing and meditation. It quieted my mind, which helped me to push back the pre-race anxiety. 

At 4:15, I put in my earbuds and listened to “The Martian” soundtrack as I walked to transition. It was a lovely, cool morning and just outside the entrance I saw fellow Cupcake Alex Cochran. We chatted a bit and then headed into transition. When I got there, I pumped up my bike tires, set up my transition area (the athlete next to me didn’t show so I had some extra space!), ate a banana, sipped water and Infinit, visited the port-a-potty and just walked around, listening to the music, dancing a bit as I strolled and burned off energy. 

Transition was set to close at 6 a.m. so I got my wetsuit on up to my waist, grabbed my cap, earplugs, goggles and water bottle and headed down to the beach around 5:40. It was a 600-meter walk to the swim exit from transition, so I went that way to scout out the route. Once I got to the beach, I was surprised by how low the low tide was. They had told us it would be low, but this was more than I expected. Last buoy at the exit was sitting on the sand! I enjoyed the long walk down the beach toward the pier and the race start area. The dawn light was gorgeous, and I was feeling quite calm, enjoying the sound of the water and the cool sand under my feet and being present in the moment of peace.

The swim – Just keep swimming!

We had a rolling start – love this! So much better than AG starts. I put myself in the 40-43-minute pacing group and slowly made my way toward the start after the cannon went off at 6:20. Around 6:50 I finally ran down the beach toward the water. 

The tide had come in a bit but had to walk and wade 100 yards to get to a swimming depth. The surf line held for another 100 yards, so it was diving under the waves as they came toward me. We were told that the waves would calm once we got about 300 yards out, and it did, a bit, but it was quite choppy the entire way. I just focused on my form and staying close to the other swimmers to pick up as much draft as I could. However, I got pushed to the left of the buoys and discovered about halfway out to the turn that I had drifted out of the course. I made a fast beeline back to toward the right side of the buoys and just focused on getting buoy to buoy. 

I have to say at the turn, my mind started toward the negative, feeling like I was going much slower than I had hoped and feeling the effort against the waves and chop. At the turn, I expected it to calm down a bit, but it didn’t really, but with the sun to my right, I was easier to sight (I’m a left-side breather by default) so despite my mental dismay that I wasn’t having a “good swim” I just told myself to stay in the mix, focus on getting to the next buoy and keep battling through what was turning into the hardest race swim I’d ever experienced. I had done ocean swims before (Hawaii 70.3, Lavaman, Santa Cruz 70.3), but this one was a challenge, and I drank more than a couple sips of Saco Bay. 

One thing that was encouraging was that I was always surrounded by other swimmers, and never alone, so I kept on the toes of someone in front of me, turned toward the shore and like Dory, just kept swimming! 

About 100 yards out, we got back to shallow water again, I stood and started to unzip my wetsuit. Couldn’t seem to find my strap, so I asked someone next to me to help me (we’re all in this together!), and as she did I looked down at my Garmin as I hit the beach and saw my time – 40:32! I was stunned! I thought I was having a horrible swim but discovered I had a PR swim!!! (Previous best time as 44 minutes and change) I hadn’t hit the timing mat yet, but my heart soared as I ran up the soft sand toward the wetsuit strippers, and after their quick work, headed toward transition. Swim time: 41:49

T1: It was about 600 meters from swim exit to transition. After being relieved of my wetsuit, I relieved myself in another way while running toward transition. Once I got to my bike, I took a few sips of Infinit after the long run from the beach, dried off my feet, put on socks, bike shoes, sunscreen, put Garmin into bike mount, helmet on and headed out toward the mount line. Time: 9:12

The bike – You remember the name of the town, don’t you?  

One of my favorite movies is “The Shawshank Redemption,” and when I saw the bike course took us through Buxton, the place where Ellis “Red” Boyd goes to look for “the rockthat has no Earthly business in a Maine hayfield,” I was sold. It was beautiful, rolling farmland and countryside, on roads that, with a few short exceptions, were in very good condition and lightly traveled by cars. There were a 3-4 short hills with a 10%+ grade, but otherwise, it was a true rolling course with lots of opportunity to pick up some speed while going downhill and on some long, flat sections on the backside of the course. 

My goal was to average 15 mph for the ride and maintain 70% of my FTP, and I was feeling really good about that until 4 miles in when we reached the overpass over I-95 – short, and a bit steep – and I shifting into my easiest climbing gear, and the gear started to slip, and slip, and slip and rattle, rattle, rattle. Tried the next gear up, and slip, slip, slip, rattle, rattle, rattle. Did I wait too long to shift while I was already on the hill, causing it to not engage? No, I hadn’t. And I have Di2 and have never had that issue with slipping with it. I pulled over, got off the bike and tried to see what was wrong. Not seeing anything obvious, I pushed up the bike up the hill, got back on at the top and continued, adding on gears and picking up speed on the descent to carry me over the shorter hills. 

All was well, until the next steep hill. Slip, slip, slip, rattle, rattle, rattle. More pushing. At this point, I really got down low to see what was going on and discovered there were two sizable chips in the side of the cassette in the 3 easiest gears – not good. I pondered looking for bike support but figured that there was little chance that they would have a spare cassette, so just realized that I was going to have to deal with the steeper hills in push mode and stick to the plan.

The other key component of the plan was my hydration and nutrition. I have had problems in the past with GI issues in 70.3s, so getting this right on the bike has been trial and error for a few years. This year, I started using an Infinit custom blend (pink lemonade flavor!) that added in the extra electrolytes a super salty sweater like me needed to stay hydrated, as well as extra calories, which meant I didn’t need to carry a lot of extra food with me. I took 2 Stinger waffles, two bottles of Infinit (concentrated) and a water bottle in my aero bars. The plan was I would refill the water bottle at the aid stations, complete bottle 1 of the Infinit by halfway and bottle 2 by the end of the bike, nibbling on the waffles throughout. And that part of the plan worked like a treat! The weather was perfect and low heat and humidity helped as well, but I managed to take in just the right amount of fluid equal to my output because I didn’t need to stop at any of the aid stations to pee. I can’t manage a rolling refill on my aero bottle but stopped just long enough to refill and continue. Energy was good throughout and I was able to average 70% of FTP throughout the ride. 

Came in a bit slower on pace than I had wanted, but considering I was riding on damaged gears and hope (and hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things), it was a good ride – a PR time for 70.3! Bike time: 4:02:21

T2: Took off bike shoes after dismount and ran into transition to see how my legs felt. Pretty good! Racked my bike, changed my socks, but on my Altra Torins, reapplied sunscreen, put on my Cupcake hat (got lots of compliments on the Cupcake kit throughout the ride and run!) and race belt, felt like I needed to pee, but decided to wait until I got out on the run and headed out, stopping for a sip of water at the exit. Time: 6:52

The run – Get busy living, or get busy dying

The plan was to stay at my easy pace through the first lap of the run, and then start to build the pace over the second lap. My legs and energy were good, and despite there being a bit more of hills on the run than advertised in the course profile, I was doing a pretty good job of following the plan, until mile 6, when the July mistake came back to bite me in the ass.

In mid-July, I went to my running store to purchase a new pair of Altra Escalante. I had started switching between them and my old reliable Brooks Pure Flow in the spring. I had also been using the more padded Altra Torin, but was having better luck with lighter, less padded shoes at avoiding heel and Achilles issues.  However, that day, they were out of my size, and I tried on a pair of Hoka Clifton 5s. They felt like the Torins and offered a bit more cushioning, which I thought would help on longer runs, such as a half marathon. I did a few shorter runs in them and thought I would give them a bigger test in Whistler while I was volunteering and cheering during IM Canada. That decision would prove to be a huge mistake. By the end of the day at IM Canada, my Achilles tendons in both legs were screaming and my heels were equally inflamed. It took several weeks of rolling, icing, stretching and yoga to alleviate that, but it never really went away completely. 

I switched back to my regular shoes (the Hokas have since been donated), but since I had good luck with the more padded Torins, I brought those with me to Maine.

At mile 6, the Achilles started to scream, and loudly, particularly when I ran. The pain pulled back a bit when I did a fast walk, but it was still not good. As I walked up the hill the second time, with far fewer people around me, my brain started to go to the old tried-and-true negative. My previous two 70.3s were DNFs (I finished in Arizona but missed the cutoff for an official time and I stopped at Santa Cruz after a horrible bike ride), ending both races saying I would never do this again. But today, I was having a good day, and now it was going to crap! 

That’s when my old pal Red Boyd from “Shawshank” started talking to me – get busy living or get busy dying. 

I knew that I had a good cushion and could make the cutoff but that I had to dig deep and keep moving. So, I switched between a quick easy-pace shuffle and a fast walk, chatting with and encouraging other runners around me along the way. I gave away bands to the kids who were volunteering at the aid stations, sipped Coke and water, nibbled on pretzels, stayed present and positive and kept moving (and never needed to pee). In all honesty, I don’t know that if I had worn the Escalantes or Pure Flows it would have made a difference. The damage had been done in July. But that second lap went by quickly. It’s amazing how much better an experience can be when you chose to make it a good one. And at no time did I ever say, “I’m never doing this again.” Instead, I was thinking about how I can start rehabbing my Achilles and heels to get ready for next year.

Before I knew it, I was making the turn toward the finish. I tried to run a bit more over that last half mile, and my left Achilles was really killing me, but I kept my easy shuffle, high fived kids and waved my arms to encourage more cheers from the folks at an outside bar who were screaming “Go, Cupcake, go” and before I knew it, I was across the finish – with an overall PR! Run time: 3:16:13

Finish time: 8:16:27

And in the end …

• I had agreed with my coach that I needed to do a sub-8 hour 70.3 before we talked about a full Ironman, so I still must meet that goal. And after this race, I know I can do that. Need to get my feet/legs health, continue to lean out weight-wise, and perhaps do a few more running events this winter to work on running at a quicker, steady pace over longer distance.
• While it would be cheaper to just replace my rear cassette on my almost 10-year-old Scott TT bike, but instead, I think it’s time to purchase a new Cupcake Cartel Quintana Roo bike. 
• Thank you, thank you, thank you to Infinit! I worked great for me during training and in the race. 
• Consistency in my training and nutrition and a refreshed attitude this season (which I attribute greatly to becoming part of the amazing Cupcake Cartel community) made the 2018 race season a blast. The past couple of years of hard work with my coach are bearing fruit now and I am super stoked for next year. Now, which 70.3 will I do next year?