Inaugural Pays de Aix 70.3
My report is a bit overdue, but I figure international travel provides me a bit of leeway.
Before I begin my race report, I have to give a huge thanks to everyone who made my training possible – mostly my two year old daughter for putting up with endless hours in gym care and with others while mommy went for bike rides, runs and swims. Thank you to my sister for always helping out whether watching her of picking her up and bringing her to the gym to save time and to Walter for watching her (and occasionally her cousins) for long mountain rides and bricks. I never could have done this without your support.
So, with all that help, it means I just completed my first half ironman – also my first triathlon since 2007! As most of my friends concurred I am probably a bit crazy for taking this on as my first race back but they wouldn’t expect anything less.
Of course, I didn’t do the Big Kahuna which is in my backyard or any of the dozens of long course races on the West Coast, I picked the inaugural Pays d’Aix 70.3.
I wasn’t your ideal trainee, I did most of my long runs on a treadmill, and short rides on my trainer or a spin bike. I missed workouts to take my daughter to the zoo or resolve client crises. But I did 80% of the workouts and was religious about getting my long runs and rides in. Missed workouts aside, I knew I was physically ready, with a goal of 6:30:00 – it was the mental part I was worried about.
Getting there: Tuesday before the race, I got in a short run, went to the airport with my bike, a suitcase, a car seat and a stroller – oh yeah, and my two year old. We flew 20 hours to Barcelona, Spain where my friend picked us up. My final taper week workouts were seriously compromised but I had few options on that front. Friday morning we drove to Aix early. I checked in by early afternoon and got all my transition bags. I had never done a race with multiple transition locations or used bags so I was worried about having everything fully organized. I took a short run on part of the run course to get myself moving again. And then headed back to our apartment to rest and get my stuff together. It took everything in me not to gorge on cheese, wine and pastries ahead of the race. J
Saturday we drove to the race start with my bike. I went for a short swim, and the water was divine. I am used to chilly Lake Tahoe and murky Lake Natoma, this was heaven – warm, blue, clear. I also took a short spin on the first few miles of the bike course. I knew that the course had a lot of climbing but I had been doing 48 mile training rides with 2800 feet of climbing at 7000 feet altitude. I was ready to go up, we’ll discuss coming down later. Bike was turned in, bike transition bag was in place and we were back to Aix for a big lunch and to drop off the run bag.
For those who haven’t been to Aix, there are myriad Italian restaurants in the centre. So if pizza and pasta are what you are looking for, you are in luck. We picked one and I ordered pastas for my daughter and myself and a salad. These were some big bowls of pasta and I did an impressive number on both of them. I went back to the apartment made sure my swim/post race bag was ready and rested. I had eggs and veggies for dinner and everyone down by 8:30. I couldn’t believe it.
Race Day: Okay, early race morning I woke up at 2:30 to rain, and lots of it. Saturday had been beautiful, the forecast before I left had been perfect, what happened? Well it rained and rained and rained. Then it rained some more. The streets of Aix were wet and all I could think about was coming down steep hills on wet pavement – they said this was the first rain in months.
I got up at 4:30 and made myself coffee, yogurt, granola, fruit and a peanut butter and honey on toast. Gathered the last of my things and at 5:00 I headed to the buses, still raining, but not as heavily.
When we finally arrived at the start, it had not rained as heavily there and the sky appeared to be clearing. I was starting to feel better. I had a banana, got my water bottles on the bike and listened to some music and stretched. I finally took a deep breath and headed to the swim.
Swim: We had a mass start for 1200+ athletes. I was surprised and it was my first mass start – I had always been in waves before. I will admit, I was intimidated by all the men and wasn’t feeling like getting crawled all over by them so I started at the back. I shouldn’t have in retrospect, but live and learn right. I wanted to take the swim easy and finish in 42 minutes. I took the swim nice and easy – slow and steady, I knew I had more but I didn’t use it. Despite starting at the back, keeping it slow and having to maneuver around people, I came out of the water in 35 minutes!
Transition 1: I totally blew it. We had to run from the water, up a path to a parking lot, it was one of the longer transitions I have had to make, over 600 meters to the transition area. I don’t know what I was thinking!! I was so calm, just telling myself your goal is to finish and you are well within your target, take your time. Well, ten minutes later I was on my bike. Oh well, this was a test run or something right?
Bike: I had been training so much on my bike I was feeling confident, but I was really worried about burning out my legs for the run. I am not sure why. I had down how many bricks?!?!!? But I held back early anyway and started with a goo. Then the climbing started – over 3500 feet.
Fortunately, my training had me well prepared and the climbing felt good, I passed lots of people without over exerting myself. I knew I had a lot of climbing ahead of me and a 13.1 mile run to follow. So I was careful not to use everything in my tank.
I had read the technical report warning of rough asphalt and technical descents. I am horrible on descents, it is mostly mental – I have a 2 year old, if I crash, how exactly am I going to recover and take care of her? Clearly, not an animal of a competitor yet. Add to that, every time I reached a summit an ambulance would pass me, headed to someone on the descent. I saw 6 crashes, 4 ambulances and 1 athlete completely wrapped in emergency blankets from head to toe on a stretcher. I would not be charging down the mountain, and let many a competitor pass me at these points. But I didn’t crash. And frankly, I am not likely not to focus on improving this piece, just pick a flatter or straighter course next time.
That said, it was an absolutely beautiful ride, I enjoyed scenery probably more than I should have, instead of focusing on hammering those miles. So, I still had a lot in me riding into town. I was well fueled with Gatorade, bananas and two clif bars and was ready to tackle the final arm of the race. That said I was still wondering if I had saved enough for the run. It was a beautiful if not a touch dissapointing 3:33:00
Transition 2: Okay – this is how I was supposed to do my transition. Certainly not perfect but a huge improvement in my mental approach, at least trying to do it quickly rather than leisurely. I got out of there in 4 minutes.
Run: I started the run, reminding myself to run my race. I still had plenty of time to make my 6:30 goal. As I headed out, I had a gu and started off simply making sure my legs were transitioning comfortable and catching my stride. The course was a triple loop through Aix. It was slightly uphill then down through a park climbing back up into Aix, not terribly hilly, but certainly not the flats of Sacramento I am used to. I took advantage of each aid station for oranges or bananas and water and a 5 second or so walk. I was feeling good.
As I finished my first loop, I ran past my daughter waving at me and I looked down at my watch to check my pace. And all I had was disbelief. 36 minutes couldn’t be right. Well, at least I certainly wasn’t going to be able to maintain that pace through the entire run. My daughter had made her way a couple blocks with my friend to cheer me into lap two, putting a huge motivating smile on my face. I kept my pace comfortable knowing I was only a third of the way done and kept my strategy of walking aid stations and started incorporating coke into my breaks. Well, I am officially a believer in coca-cola. Lap 2, 37 minutes. It couldn’t be, could it? And so I headed into the final lap, legs and hips getting a little weary, but not completely exhausted, needing the coke a bit at the aid stations, but still passing people and able to keep the legs moving step after step. Finally I saw the rotunda, just around it and the Cours Mirabeau to victory, well, at least completion. 6:14:14 later, and I was done, a solid 15 minutes ahead of schedule – arriving to big hugs from my daughter.
Overall: The organization overall of this event was excellent! I recommend the race, the water was great, the ride was challenging but scenic and the run was beautiful.J It wasn’t until a day later I REALLY started contemplating what I could have done better - #1 set higher/more aggressive goals and have faith in myself to achieve them. The rest of the changes fit under that category and how I reach them – swim harder, practice transitions, go harder on bike. Oh and now I have to finish my upcoming half marathon in 1:40.
I Was really happy to beat my time and thought WOW this is a fast group of athletes, maybe, someday…
All that said, I was well prepared physically to finish, well fueled and even felt fairly good the next day. So thanks for a training plan that worked to achieve my goal of finishing. Next year I'll probably stick to Olys.
Oh, and of course, on my flight home from London to LA there were about two dozen elite athletes headed to Kona. If only…
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