Pacific Crest Half Ironman

Well....where to begin on this one! There's so much I could talk about this weekend so I'll just do my usual rambling.

I don't think I mentioned much about where we stayed in my last entry. We stayed in Sun River, OR which is actually more of a resort village than a real town. We stayed in townhomes (6 to a townhome) that were gorgeous. We found out they were each like $500k+ and the resort village rented them out while the owners weren't there.

Unfortunately coach Mike was unable to make it. There was a family emergency. And one of our training captains also had a family emergency come up so it was kind of weird at first not having our full group.

Race morning was pretty typical except for the two transition areas we had to setup. (hate that!) I was pretty calm, not really feeling much of the excitement at that point. I stayed pretty laid back about the whole day (except for hitting the finish line I was wonderfully excited). Unfortunately the first thing I noticed when we got to T1 is that my back tire was completely flat. So I went and had that fixed. The race start was delayed due to a traffic backup issue so instead of starting at 9am we didn't get going until 9:30. Which in my opinion was just fine. Gave the air some time to warm up. I got in to acclimate to the f#&(!^%$!! cold water. The worst part was getting my face and neck wet but once I got in it started to get better. I was still slightly blue and shivering but when the race got started I was fine temperature wise by about 200 yards. I took my time and found my own space in the water. It was slightly green but at the same time the water was pretty clear. No weeds like around home. Pace averaged 2:03 which I wish was a little faster but I was not focused on speed so I guess I’ll take that.

The transition to bike went smoothly and got some cheers from the sidelines to get me going. J The first 20 some miles were pretty smooth and seems everyone else felt like they were flying through this portion as well. Racers got pretty spaced out by this point and many times I couldn’t see anyone in front of me so I tried to find a relaxing pace and just enjoy the scenery. We went through some of the most beautiful areas! Lava fields, pine trees, clear blue lakes, open grassy areas. And then I had the biggest “oh s$&t” moment. Right at mile marker 34 I was looking out across this gorgeous green, grassy area towards a snow capped mountain thinking how pretty it was….then everything changed when I realized…”oh s$%t….I need to be on the OTHER side of that mountain (Mt. Bachelor). And about half mile up we took a quick left turn and it was a LONG climb for the next 5 miles or so. Pretty much had to hang out in the lowest gear and just keep moving. A few times I thought about walking but managed to stay on the bike. I forget what the elevation change was but near the top there was a lot of snow in the ditches and we even went through one of those gates that they use to close the roads down in the winter to the ski resort. So after that horribly long climb it was pretty much all down hill from there. No kidding, you got to your highest gear, pedaled as fast as you could until your feet couldn’t keep up and than it was coasting at probably 35-40mph down the road praying you didn’t have to grab your breaks. Luckily it was a smooth road and you could see far ahead of you so it wasn’t too scary. I did stay on my hoods or drops the whole time though. Way to fast for me to be comfortable in aero.

Upon getting to T2 I was feeling pretty good but the sun was really hot by then. Again, got great support to start the run and it was off for 13.1 miles on foot (side note, in my age group I placed first in the T2 time…I kick arse in transitions….my one claim to fame :-P)
I started out running about a mile, then walking about a minute and back to running. Luckily they had water/ice/HED every mile of the run course. It was relatively flat and somewhat shaded. But unfortunately miles 7-about 12 were across this open field with nearly no shade. We all hit the wall going through here. I completely didn’t care about my place in the race at that point but then I heard this guy behind me talking to his girlfriend. He jumped on the course and was running with her, holding water and ice for her (which is not course legal) so I was getting irritated by that. I knew she was in my age group and right before he jumped off the course about mile 9 I heard him say “go get her babe, you can get her”. I knew he was talking about me since I wasn’t far ahead and I got it in my head there was no way I was letting that happen….

So I pulled every last ounce of fuel I had to keep jogging without walking as much as I could. Luckily I had a few opportunities to sneak a peak behind me and found she was slowly falling behind….hehehe….that’s what you get for cheating missy…:-P

Coming up to the finish line was awesome. As usual with big events the last mile was packed with people cheering and lots of kids wanting a high-five. I wasn’t able to pick up much speed to the finish but I had a huge smile to see where I could finally STOP! They had a nice cold shower available and cold towels to grab. Oddly enough though with as hot as I was, the quick cold shower and towel on my shoulders quickly sent me into a shiver and I had to put on more clothes to warm up. One of our other teammates stayed in the cold a little too long and the poor guy had to have the medics warm him up. Thankfully he was ok though.

So that was my race recap, it was an awesome trip and an event I would consider doing again in association with a few vacation days afterwards.

Next event is Minneman on Saturday (July 4th). I’m a little nervous for that one since I really haven’t raced “speed” yet and this is my other “A” race besides Ironman. I really want to be able to beat my time from last year. Also I’m battling a sinus cold so training this week might not be completely up to par.

I’m feeling a little better about my Ironman training since I have the half Iron under my belt but I’m still nervous about my bike speed. Just looked today and am planning on doing 2-3 90-100 mile rides over the next two months.