BOISE 70.3 Race Report

I would first like to begin this post by noting that entering the triathlon world has given me opportunities to visit places I would have never gone in a million years. Utah, Idaho...like.. those are two states I probably could not recognize on a map. Racing in those locations, however, has shown me that even bizarre (to me) states are interesting and unique in their own way. Hell, what am I talking about.. I'm from New Jersey so I guess I can't judge other states too much. :) Boise turned out to be beautiful and the town was actually pretty nice. It was definitely small, but was a great venue for the race.

The second thing I want to note is that I apparently do not resemble a triathlete. I learned this three times during the trip. The first happened when the bike transport man asked if I got into Kona via a lottery slot. The second was when a waitress told me that I should arrive to the finish line early to get a good spot to what the athletes finish. Last, but NOT least, was some fool on the side of the run course who apparently was tracking my run and told me that he "KNEW I would make it! I knew you could do it! Keep on trying!" Hmpffff! What haters. Does everyone in Boise sip Haterade? Ok.. on the actual race:

SWIM - 29:21
Ew! I was hoping for a 26, but that clearly did not happen! My fastest swim to date was Vineman with 27:xx, and I have yet to do that again, even though I swim 5 times a week now. Not kosher in my book! The swim was uneventful, the 60 degree water actually felt nice because it was so hot out. The winds picked up during the swim which made the water a little choppy, but nothing too horrible. I was in wave 10, so I had to weave in and out of a lot of swimmers which was annoying. Check out Xterra's website and you can see a glamour shot of yours truly exiting the h20:
http://www.xterrawetsuits.com/blog/


BIKE - 3:02.xx
Once again, not the split that I was ever expecting, but given the circumstances (i.e. WIND) I guess it was alright. I was most nervous about the bike because even the day before, my legs felt like poo. I was tired after a 20 minute ride (sorry, Phyllis ... I know it was supposed to be 60). When I got on the bike, I didn't feel great, but I didn't feel horrible. I talked with Kathy a lot before the race, and she helped me have a positive outlook on the race. I was freaking out because I thought that I was going to have a shitty race due to a fatigued body and since St. George was only 6 weeks ago. Kath's wise words of wisdom were, "Just because you don't feel good today doesn't mean it won't go well tomorrow. Sometimes our bodies do weird things. Then it is a mental game where you start to doubt your fitness or recovery. You are strong and you just have to have the confidence to believe in yourself." She followed by telling me to not "talk myself into a bad race. Get there, start it, and then decide how you feel. Don't judge it until after you actuasly start it and are in it." That helped me soo much, because I realized that I WAS talking myself into having a bad race. Sure, my legs were tired, but I had to realize that I WAS ready for this race. I was letting everyone else tell me how crazy I was to be doing this race so close after IMSG get to me, and I started to doubt myself.

I stopped doubting myself once I finally made it to the turn around and there was NO wind. Without the insanity of 27mph winds, I was actually able to hammer on the bike. That lifted my spirits a lot. I still was tired on the hills, but luckily there weren't too many of them on the course. Overall, the course would have been relatively easy if there hadn't been insanium in the cranium winds.

On a side note, I think I need to get new pedals. There was one steep section that was a no passing zone. I forgot to lighten up my gears, and my clip literally flew out of my pedal. I had to hop myself up to the top of the hill... oops!!! Sorry sir who was behind me and not happy. muahaha.

RUN - 2:08.xx
Oh baby baby, what a great run. NOT! Out of all three sports, I felt that my running was going to be the best at Boise. I felt really strong at the Blacks Beach hill repeats, and my hip wasn't hurting too badly. I have no excuses for this run, I don't know what happened! My nutrition was perfect, I suppose it just wasn't a cute run! I knew it was going to be bad when I immediately started counting down the miles from the get-go. It's never a good sign when my first thought was "where the HELL is that god forsaken mile marker!?"

As I have told some other people, this race was the hardest for me mentally. I have never wanted to actually quit a race as much as I wanted to quit this one. I could go on and on about how my hamstring hurt, or I didn't feel recovered, blah blah - but the truth is, I somehow talked myself into believing that I wasn't ready for this race. That turned into me not wanting to finish the race when times got tough during it. Even though I had an awesome support system rooting for me, I didn't go into the race with much confidence. Liz wrote down a quote for me that I read in transition that stuck with me for the whole race: she told me to not "let anyone put limitations on you and don't accept people who do." Somehow that helped me get through the race. Overall, I'm definitely happy I finished the race in 5:45.02. It was cool to win my age group and secure a spot to the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida. What's next is working with Felipe to gain more confidence (and speed!) and eventually Vineman in 5 short weeks!