This will be my shortest race report ever, I think. For reference, see my 2008 race report here. 2008 was when I finished the whole race solo. That race report has all the elevation profiles and shit, which is why this race is so hard. It's all that shit!
What went well:
- I finished. I was off my solo effort in 2008 by about 30 minutes. Why? Heat. 2008 was much cooler air, and ice cold water. Water was cool this year, but races were all warm air temps.
- I rode Skull Kingdom instead of the road bike. That was fun. I had no mechanicals, and I only dropped the chain once!
- I remembered what it was to do a long race and stick it out mentally, which is probably the hardest part of Triple T. Nothing like jumping back into big races after an almost 2-year hiatus!
- I enjoyed myself even as I was kicking myself for signing up for this beast of a race again! The race is a true beast, and anyone who finishes it, especially solo, has done some of the hardest Ironman training/racing you can possibly imagine! OK, so it's an Ironman over 2 days (plus that short little thing on Friday evening), but what makes it hard is that you intermingle the biking, running and swimming, instead of doing all of one thing once! This makes me look forward to Ironman Canada and Ultraman Hawaii!
- I had a nice hotel room, which was important to me since I've been a prisoner in my own house with remodelers in there most days of the week, tons of noise, so even though I had an offer to bunk in a house 40 miles from the race site, it was good I was only a 10-min. drive away and able to sleep in a nice bed each night.
- I had revelations about some of the training Joanna had given me, and how it helped, for example, when doing 10-15 minute climbs with 5-9 "bumps" in them. Need to be able to keep those legs going, eh? Overall, I think I biked pretty well, and swam OK except see below.
- I skipped my night class last Wednesday so I could just spend the time packing. That took off a little of the stress pre-race.
- I wasn't heat acclimated. Nothing I could do about this, except that I did not recognize the signs that the heat was getting to me on Sunday until too late, and by that time my run was blown.
- I didn't take in enough calories/electrolytes on Sunday. This being my first big race in 2 years, I was off my nutrition game a bit. I need to answer for this to coach--she called it--it's all my fault, I'm a dumbass. See also heat above. I left my salt tabs at home, and I usually eat 2 of them at night before 1/2 IM or longer. DID. NOT. DO. And I paid for it. On Saturday, I took in enough calories during the race to do respectably (but could have taken in a wee bit more), probably didn't eat enough at dinner (nobody was feeding me like in 2008), didn't eat enough carbs, didn't take the salt tabs, didn't take in enough calories on the bike, and BAM! Fucked up run after less than optimal fueling on the bike. You'd think I'd know better, and I DO! Blame accepted 100%.
- I had a little bit of a panic attack in the water on Saturday morning's race. WHAT YOU SAY??? Someone who's swam 10k in a huge fucking lake? Yep, that's me. I think it was the combo of the cold water and cold air. I just couldn't get it together for a bit. But I'm fessing up to it. Sunday morning, though, I got in there, fought the cold water and I won.
- I was under a boatload of stress. My remodeling project hasn't been going well, but I had a great phonecall with a friend on Thursday and made a plan for myself on how to right the ship, and even though everything is going to take longer than I wanted, I should be able to chill more about it. One day at a time.
