Patti Thompson Eagleman 70.3 (First HIM!) Report
We drove from New Jersey on Saturday morning and arrived in Cambridge around 10:30 a.m. We drove straight to packet pickup at Sailwinds Park. Everything about the athlete check-in moved very smoothly and the volunteers were quick and competent. I got my swag and debated briefly whether I wanted to purchase merchandise on Saturday or should I wait until after the race. A few texts back and forth with my race buddies and it was decided that I would have to finish if I’d already bought the gear, so I grabbed a visor, sweatshirt and Eagleman sticker for the car!
We then drove to Great Marsh Park and I put the stickers on my bike and checked her in to transition for the night. Then we went and drove most of the bike course. I was happy to see it closely resembled the Pine Barrens of New Jersey where I did most of my race rehearsal rides so it was going to be perfect for me. We had some lunch at the Cambridge diner and then checked in to our hotel room. There, I organized my bag and we relaxed and I went over the athlete guide one more time. A quick dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and I was asleep by 8:00 p.m.
The alarms woke us up at 3:42 am, and I hit the button on the coffee pot and ate my bagel with peanut butter and banana. We attended to our morning rituals, then I dressed in my race kit and we were off to transition. My tires had not lost hardly any air overnight and I was very happy I had gone back to my butyl tubes. The latex tubes and their habit of deflating so quickly just made me edgy. I poured my Gatorade Endurance in my aero bottle and down tube bottle, so I was starting the bike with 48 ounces of Gatorade on board. My bento box was packed with gels and Clif blocks and salt tabs if needed. Also, I had two extra packets of chamois butter in there. I had a terrible experience at my half iron aqua bike a few weeks earlier with my bike fit and I had raised my seat about an inch and was now dealing with saddle sores after an aggressive Computrainer class, so I wanted to be ready if I was having a chamois area emergency!
I had brought my sleeveless wetsuit along with my swim skin to race site, but luckily the talk was that it was going to be wetsuit legal. That was a big relief. My swim is not strong right now and I’m sort of a one-trick pony – easy or hard is about the same speed. I was a little keyed up and nervous, so it was great to see Endurance Nation teammate, Derrek Sanks, which put me at ease, as he is so calm and such a pro. After chatting for a bit, I made sure my transition area was ready, my shoes were on my pedals, and everything was powdered up. I was ready to rock, so I grabbed my wetsuit, goggles and swim cap and went to get in the water in the practice area. The water was perfect, and I said to my friend, Julia, “Can you believe how freaking lucky we are that we get to do this?”
After a little swimming out and back, and taking some silly pictures we walked over to swim start to watch the pros start. Very quickly the professional men were off, followed in quick succession by the professional women, then next thing I knew, a bunch of women in orange caps were standing in front of me in the corral. “Oh crap! That’s my wave!” I said and ran around the barrier and into the corral. There was no fiddly-farting around, we were allowed to get in the water and by the time the front girls were at the start buoy, they sent our wave off! There was a fair amount of contact, I thought I was hanging with everyone but by the turn first left turn I had pretty much lost contact with most of my orange caps and was starting to be lapped by other colors. The river was very calm and there were some jellies, but I did not get stung at all. They just wiggled through my fingers a few times. When I made the second left which put us on the straight swim back in, the current was definitely “there” and I had my work cut out for me not to drift into the safety boats or kayaks. I heard a couple times “Hard left!” when I was heading in their direction. Finally, I got near the boat ramp swim exit and that felt like I was fighting current to get to the ramp. Luckily, I am not a fast swimmer but I am very confident in my ability to swim, so I didn’t panic and eventually my hands and then feet reached solid ground. My swim was 49:22, which frankly is only 4 minutes slower than my last 1.2 mile stand alone race time.
I took advantage of the wetsuit strippers – it was so much fun! I held my suit under my left arm and started hobbling toward T1. I can’t run barefoot due to my PF so I wasn’t moving too quickly but I got a nice shuffle going and finally reached my bike where I grabbed my helmet and my bike sunglasses and attached my race belt number and off I went toward Bike Out. The excitement at the bike mount line was like a party. I’m glad that I have done many smaller races and I’m pretty calm about things, because I can see how one would get caught up in the hype at these bigger races and either make a mistake causing crashes or take off out of there like a bat out of hell.
I had my Garmin 910 on my makeshift mount between my aerobars. I had it set to show my Lap Normalized Power (every 2 miles) and my current Power, as well as elapsed time and heart rate. The heart rate never did read correctly, which didn’t surprise me because I had the strap on in the swim and it really didn’t concern me, as I wanted that information later when I was on the run. So off I went, got my feet in my shoes and just started drinking the Gatorade. Once we got out on to straight road I took my first gel. People were blasting by me but I was also steadily passing people and was watching my power and told myself the first ten miles was eat- a-bucket-of-chicken-easy, and all ospreys and unicorns. (There are a lot of ospreys in the area and they are my favorite bird and I hoped to see some that morning!)
My goal power was Zone 2, letting it creep up to low Zone 3 if I felt good for the last 10 miles. I wanted to err on the conservative side, as the heat was well, “Eagleman Hot”, and this was going to be my longest run in over a month (my longest in 2017 had only been 9 miles, due to nagging injuries.) So I wanted to be sure I got off the bike with my legs intact. I also promised myself that I would stand up, stretch my back out and give my crotch a break on a regular basis and I would also stop at the Mile 30 aid station to use the portaloo and reapply chamois butter as needed. I have to say, this was the most fun ride I have had on my bike so far this year. By having a reasonable goal and keeping my eye on my power, I was well within my capabilities but also moving at just the right speed. When we turned into a headwind, I dialed it back to keep my watts the same, when we had a slight downhill, I geared accordingly and bought a little free speed. While I was not setting any land speed records out there, I really loved having the disk on the rear because I think it just made my ride easier, like I got more bang for my wattage buck, so to speak.
A funny thing on the bike was that when I passed some of the girls in my age group, they reacted the way I “normally” would, not the way Coach Patrick and EN have taught me to. I would pass someone and then move to the right, doing my own thing and a few minutes later, the girl I passed would come flying by me, guns a blazing, and then I’d see her putter out a little ways up the road. We would hit a headwind or a slight downhill and I would very gradually catch up to her and slide by again. One woman in an orange top had me chuckling to myself most of the second half of the course because she had such an eggbeater style of pedaling and she was just assaulting herself to stay in front of me and all I kept thinking was what Coach P said to me, “This is a chess game. Be patient.” My bike was 3:13 and I averaged 17.7 mph on the bike with a NP 119W, VI 1.01. I drank the better part of three 24 ounce bottles of Gatorade Endurance and ate 3 gels and a pack of blocks on the bike.
When I rolled in to T2 I was feeling pretty great and happy with my execution thus far. Unbelievably, I was excited about the run! I racked my bike and sat right down on the grass to put my socks and shoes on. I put on my hat and was rolling my arm coolers on as I ran out of transition. Oh my goodness the adrenaline as the volunteers were screaming my name! I let one of them spray me again with sunscreen and then I was on my way. I literally ran a bit too quickly away from transition and once I was out of sight I walked to get my heart rate down. It was then I realized I had forgotten my Garmin but there was no way I was going back for it. My plan was to walk each mile and to walk through each aid station. I walked and joked with the other athletes around me, some who were not looking too good already. I did not feel overheated or even really notice the heat at all and I’m carrying a bit of extra composition on my body if you get my drift.
I started jogging again and next thing I knew I was at the first awesomely-stocked aid station. I put ice down my bra, a little in my hat and a chunk in my shorts that was just completely inappropriate! Took a swig of Gatorade, some water and trotted up the road. As I was running I held ice in my hands and it felt great. When I would reach a mile marker I would walk 30 steps and when I reached an aid station I would walk enough to get everything I needed and reload with ice and be off again. I finally saw my ospreys around mile 4 or 5 and did they put on a show! There were three of them and they were very vocal. A woman running behind me said, “What are they?” And I told her they were ospreys and they were probably wondering why we crazy humans were the only mammals dumb enough to be running down the asphalt road in this heat!
I felt really awesome until about Mile 8. I think that my lack of run training caught up to me, because I had an “Aha!” moment as my shoulders just wanted to hunch forward and my run posture became more difficult to maintain. I thought to myself that this is what everyone talks about when they say you need strength for the longer distances! My back and arms and shoulders were literally more tired than anything. So my walk breaks between mile markers and aid stations were stretching to say, 37 steps, then 42 steps, then the last 3 miles it was probably every half mile I would take some walk steps, crack a joke and try again. Not having my Garmin on, I am guessing I may have run a bit quicker than I should have too in those middle miles. I was feeling just great, and one woman even commented to me how I just kept motoring along at a steady pace, and I told her, “That’s what EN has taught me to do.”
Finally I turned a corner and I could hear the finish. I got a little emotional and said probably three times to the people around me, “I can’t effing believe I’m going to do this. I really just can’t believe I’m going to do this!” And then I could see the finish and I just shuffled as fast as my legs would carry me. I ran my way up the red carpet and was just ecstatic to finish Eagleman 70.3, my first half iron race, in 6 hours and 56 minutes. It was definitely the best race experience I have had thus far in my triathlon journey. I was shocked to see later I had run a 2:44:16 for my run, because as I said I did very little running this year and my stand alone half marathon PR is 2:16.
My very outside goal besides finishing and not doing any damage to myself for this race was a sub-7 hour finish. I am ECSTATIC that I finished in 6:56:52! I'm still a little in shock that I did this at all!
I took just Gatorade and water at every aid station on the run, until the last one where I ate a packet of spearmint Clif blocks. Yeah, they sound gross, but they were lovely by that point in the race! Now that I have finished a 70.3, I feel like I know what racing this distance is going to require of me and I am absolutely excited to race Lake Placid 70.3 in September. Now when I don’t feel like doing a workout or getting up for Masters swim, I’ll remember what long course demands of me on race day and so I will do everything in my power to get it done.
Eagleman is a great race, some of the best volunteers I have ever seen in my 22 years of racing running and triathlon races. They are like professional volunteers they are so enthusiastic and competent!
So, I survived the Eagleman heat, and I have always said I am not a heat racer, and now I can’t wait to see what I can do on the Lake Placid hills! I’m so excited about applying all the EN tools to my next race!
Comments
Congrats on your first 70.3! Nice write up. I will see you at Lake Placid in September, that will be my first 70.3 distance.