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Kryvicky Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast Race Report
This past weekend my hubby and I completed IM70.3 Gulf ROAST as a relay - I swam and ran, he biked.
PRE-RACE
We drove down from Michigan and Ohio (we live in 2 states) Wednesday, arriving Thursday around 2pm. We got into our condo, unpacked, and immediately got changed into riding clothes, tossed a backpack over our shoulder with swim gear and headed over to the race site to get in a quick dip in the Gulf as I come from MI and have not been in my wetsuit in 2 years, nor have I been in open water in about the same. I did not want the first time for both this year to be on race morning.
It was a little turbulent so we only did a short swim, then checked in for the race and then went for a ride along the run course. Dinner at Pineapple Willy's was enjoyable.
Friday woke up early and met my Sister in law and her BF for a morning swim - we did about 0.5 miles and swam through a crap ton of jellies. Ate lunch, did the mandatory athlete meeting and then did a few more miles on the bike before making our way to transition to rackhubby's bike. While we were in transition, got word that my sister's Boyfriend was just hit by a car on their ride of the bike course. Nothing good comes from being on your legs too long the day before a race! He was bumped and bruised but made it to race day with only minimal damage.
Did some last minute shopping, dinner at 6pm in bed by 8pm fast asleep by 8:25pm. BOOM.
RACE DAY
Woke up before 4am, got in food, got dressed and walked to transition to get hubby's bike set up for the 6am start. Soooooo early! Got in the water for a quick warm up and felt really good. Then lined up at the 46-50 minute wave to get ready for the jelly fish fight of the century. THOUSANDS OF JELLIES... but only like 20 stung me, so I have that going for me. I am itchy and all red today - across my face, and all over my exposed arms. (For IMFL I am using a full sleeved suit for sure)
Got in the water and just focused on form and hoping that the jellies would lighten up... noooooope. So. Many. Jellies. Also a nurse shark and a few stingrays joined the party.
Finished right around 49 minutes to the arch in T1 - saw the hubby, kissed him good luck and off he went for his ride.
I walked back to the condo and went back to bed - I felt really ill and my head was POUNDING. Woke up a few hours later to make the trek back to Transition to get ready for a hellish run.
Hubby came in just about 5 minutes past where we had estimated, and he kissed me good luck and told me that I have got this.
Dude.. it is ninety-freaking-three degrees out and I am from Michigan... we barely broke 60* recently! So I headed out feeling absolutely horrible my first lap - I started to down my BASE Hydro and BASE Salts (they do have much more than sodium in them, and they saved my run hands down) and then just drank gatorade at every station, refilling my bottle when it was empty, and then took 3 licks of my BASE Salt every single mile. I dumped ice down my shorts in front to cool my core, kept my chiller towel that was around my neck wet and chilly, and dumped ice water over me every single stop. Doing this allowed me to not only manage the heat and my HR - but I negative split the run in a HUUUUGE way. Not only did I run strong at the end - I was an execution ninja keeping my HR at 152 or lower, so I ran when I could and walked when I should to keep in the zone.
Overall- We did a 40 minute 70.3 relay PR in crazy conditions. My swim was solid (even with the constant stinging) and my run, while very slow at 15 minute miles on average, was deliberate and what I needed to do to manage the heat and HR.
I felt like a freaking execution ninja!
POST RACE THOUGHTS
What would I change or do better?
Hands down Swim more - I joined a masters swimming group local that is focused on triathlon. I felt strong out there but knowing that I hate jelly fish stings, I would like to spend less time hanging around them.
While we're doing another relay in July ay IM70.3 Ohio, I'm going to be training as if I'm doing the whole race myself as quickly I'll be changing to ironman training for IMFL. Given this I am back on the bike and am looking forward to executing the training not just putting in time.
I've finally started to love running again, and so I'm going to be continuing my run durability training. My goal for Ohio in July is to only walk the aid stations.
PRE-RACE
We drove down from Michigan and Ohio (we live in 2 states) Wednesday, arriving Thursday around 2pm. We got into our condo, unpacked, and immediately got changed into riding clothes, tossed a backpack over our shoulder with swim gear and headed over to the race site to get in a quick dip in the Gulf as I come from MI and have not been in my wetsuit in 2 years, nor have I been in open water in about the same. I did not want the first time for both this year to be on race morning.
It was a little turbulent so we only did a short swim, then checked in for the race and then went for a ride along the run course. Dinner at Pineapple Willy's was enjoyable.
Friday woke up early and met my Sister in law and her BF for a morning swim - we did about 0.5 miles and swam through a crap ton of jellies. Ate lunch, did the mandatory athlete meeting and then did a few more miles on the bike before making our way to transition to rackhubby's bike. While we were in transition, got word that my sister's Boyfriend was just hit by a car on their ride of the bike course. Nothing good comes from being on your legs too long the day before a race! He was bumped and bruised but made it to race day with only minimal damage.
Did some last minute shopping, dinner at 6pm in bed by 8pm fast asleep by 8:25pm. BOOM.
RACE DAY
Woke up before 4am, got in food, got dressed and walked to transition to get hubby's bike set up for the 6am start. Soooooo early! Got in the water for a quick warm up and felt really good. Then lined up at the 46-50 minute wave to get ready for the jelly fish fight of the century. THOUSANDS OF JELLIES... but only like 20 stung me, so I have that going for me. I am itchy and all red today - across my face, and all over my exposed arms. (For IMFL I am using a full sleeved suit for sure)
Got in the water and just focused on form and hoping that the jellies would lighten up... noooooope. So. Many. Jellies. Also a nurse shark and a few stingrays joined the party.
Finished right around 49 minutes to the arch in T1 - saw the hubby, kissed him good luck and off he went for his ride.
I walked back to the condo and went back to bed - I felt really ill and my head was POUNDING. Woke up a few hours later to make the trek back to Transition to get ready for a hellish run.
Hubby came in just about 5 minutes past where we had estimated, and he kissed me good luck and told me that I have got this.
Dude.. it is ninety-freaking-three degrees out and I am from Michigan... we barely broke 60* recently! So I headed out feeling absolutely horrible my first lap - I started to down my BASE Hydro and BASE Salts (they do have much more than sodium in them, and they saved my run hands down) and then just drank gatorade at every station, refilling my bottle when it was empty, and then took 3 licks of my BASE Salt every single mile. I dumped ice down my shorts in front to cool my core, kept my chiller towel that was around my neck wet and chilly, and dumped ice water over me every single stop. Doing this allowed me to not only manage the heat and my HR - but I negative split the run in a HUUUUGE way. Not only did I run strong at the end - I was an execution ninja keeping my HR at 152 or lower, so I ran when I could and walked when I should to keep in the zone.
Overall- We did a 40 minute 70.3 relay PR in crazy conditions. My swim was solid (even with the constant stinging) and my run, while very slow at 15 minute miles on average, was deliberate and what I needed to do to manage the heat and HR.
I felt like a freaking execution ninja!
POST RACE THOUGHTS
What would I change or do better?
Hands down Swim more - I joined a masters swimming group local that is focused on triathlon. I felt strong out there but knowing that I hate jelly fish stings, I would like to spend less time hanging around them.
While we're doing another relay in July ay IM70.3 Ohio, I'm going to be training as if I'm doing the whole race myself as quickly I'll be changing to ironman training for IMFL. Given this I am back on the bike and am looking forward to executing the training not just putting in time.
I've finally started to love running again, and so I'm going to be continuing my run durability training. My goal for Ohio in July is to only walk the aid stations.
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Comments
Too bad I didn't get a chance to meet you guys. I was out there and outside of getting stung a zillion times by the jellyfish I'm sooooo glad I did not see stingrays or sharks. That would have been too much for me