Blistering in the sun/Wildflower race report

After a 15 hours of driving, I'm back in Seattle and have that droopy, dehydrated, sunburned feeling that seems to follow races. The Wildflower long course was a great confidence boost for CDA! Keep reading for more details than you ever wanted about my race....

Pre-race
Chris and I left Seattle on Wednesday night, stayed at my folks' house in Portland that night, and went for a modified golf course run on Thursday morning before hopping back in the car for a 10 hour drive to Alameda. On Thursday, we stayed with Sarah and Johnny in their lovely beachfront apartment and got up early to drive the last 3 hours down to Lake San Antonio.

We arrived at the course around noon on Friday. After setting up camp, we drove a bit of the bike course to check out the "nasty grade hill" at mile 42 and went for a 10 minute swim to say we'd done some open water swimming this season. I was feeling well rested, but also tired. I slept for 3 hours in the car on Friday and still managed to fall asleep by 9:00 p.m. the night before the race, after a dinner of chicken burritos at the race festival and ravioli back at the campsite.

On race morning, the temperature was 35 degrees and ice crystals had formed on the outside of my tent. Needless to say, I was not excited to jump into a cold lake. We biked down Lynch Hill to the start (this caused me some stress because I had to ride down the hill with my race gear stuffed into a Trader Joe's tote bag, which I precariously strapped to my back). Since Chris's wave was an hour before mine, I had plenty of time to make friends with the women setting up next to me in transition, stand in line for the bathroom and watch the pros start their swim, finish their swim, and tear off their wetsuits in about 1/300th the amount of time it takes me to transition.

At 9:00 I headed down to the start for my race.

Swim: 37:47
I started in the front, which was a BIG mistake. After running into the water, 25 or so women immediately plowed over the top of me, and I choked and sputtered. I tried to keep my head down, stay calm and not panic. I moved out to the outside left and got into a relaxed rhythm. Maybe a little too relaxed because soon I was all alone with no drafting options. Then I veered too far to the left and had to re-orient myself and swim back toward the buoys. About halfway to the turnaround, I started catching a few of the slower swimmers in the waves before mine and got kicked a couple of times. I still felt like I was swimming really slow, breathing every 3 or 5 strokes, but I felt comfortable. I tried to imagine doing the whole loop twice in the Ironman and it didn't seem impossible. For the first time in a race, I didn't consider quitting and stayed positive. Near the end, I even started to feel a bit nostalgic about the swim and wanted it to last longer. What?!!

T1: 4:17
A bit slow, but I always feel wobbly when I get out of the water. My friend Ryan somehow picked me out of the crowd and cheered me up the hill to the transition area. I slathered on sunscreen, but couldn't reach my back and now have a huge, blistering burn between my shoulder blades.

Bike: 3:13:23
Shortly after getting on my bike, I realized that I hadn't added any water to my flask full of perpetuem. I learned this by taking a swig of powder. Oops! I pulled over at the first aid station and dumped all the perpetuum into my water bottle and shook it up. I had a mix of Gatorade and carbopro in my aerobottle, half of which splattered on my arms and handlebars as I started out on the bumpy road. I felt great on the first hill, passing people continuously, and then got passed by most of them on the way back down. I used my heartrate monitor for the first time in a race and tried to keep my heartrate between 140 and 150, but allowed it to go up to 160 on the hills. I felt relaxed most of the ride, but around mile 17, my tummy started to hurt. I thought I might have had too much sweet Gatorade, so I ate some of a Luna bar, but that didn't help. I finally I pulled over at a Honey Bucket around mile 20 and the problem was solved! I used the stop to top off my aerobottle as well, which was a mistake because the next 3 miles were downhill and I was drenched by Gatorade. The back of my legs were sticking to each other with every pedal stroke. The middle of the ride went by quickly, partly because I was focusing on conserving energy for the big hill at mile 41. I downed a Roctane Gu just before the hill and felt great all the way up. I tried my best not to ride the brakes down the other side. The whole ride went by quickly (so much shorter than 100!). During the last 5 miles, I was ready to run.

Nutritionwise, I think I did pretty well. My goal was to take in about 300 calories/hour on the bike. I think I got about 1100, including: one 16 oz. bottle of perpetuum (~350 calories), 16 oz. of carbopro/Gatorade mix in my aerobottle (200 calories), 1 luna bar (~150 calories), 2.5 gels (~220 calories) and and a couple of Gatorade refills (~200 calories?). I also planned to have 1 salt tab per hour, but couldn't get the plastic ziplock bag open on the bike, so gave up until the run.

T2: 2:06
This transition was uneventful. I grabbed my watch, gu, salt stix, hat, race belt, sunscreen and was off.

Run: 1:44:09
My first two miles felt nice and easy and were both 7:48's (w/ a 20 second bathroom stop between the two). Mile 3 was a 7:37, and then miles 4 and 5 combined were 18:21, much slower because the hill on mile 4 was so steep that I almost put my hands down on the trail at one point and was scrambling. Mile 6 was a slight downhill and I felt great (6:55). Mile 7 (7:21), 8 (8:03), and 9 (7:10) were mostly uneventful. Around mile 8, the course circled back to the campgrounds where the crowds cheered us on. I saw Ryan again and gave him my heartrate strap and declined the beer bong being offered around mile 9. Mile 10 (7:51) was the start of a long out (down) and back (up). Mile 11 (8:53) was hardest one for me. My feet started hurting, the end didn't feel close enough, and it was a long gradual uphill in the sun. Mile 12 (8:34) was about the same, but by mile 13 (7:20), I knew I was home free. Overall, I couldn't believe how easy the run felt. My feet started to hurt near the end from all the trail running, but no blisters, hot spots or leg pain. My calves burned on the steep uphill, but I felt good overall and continuously passed people. I drank water or gatorade at every aid station and had a salt tablet every 45 minutes or so. I had 1 gu around mile 8.

I finished in 5:41:42. I felt strong through the whole race and finished 10th in my age group!