Barb's Race - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The morning was chilly, but by the time the sun came up and I got in my wetsuit it had warmed up nicely. I entered the swim corral, which logged our timing chips, and got in the water. The water was a little chilly at first, but was comfortable within a few minutes. I swam over to the group, and placed myself to the side of the large group towards the middle of the river where the water was deeper. A few minutes later the gun went off and we were swimming. Since we were in a river, the buoys marking the course were in the middle, so we only had half the river width available for swimming. This made for the most cramped quarters I had ever been in. In other lake swims, everyone usually spreads out. But since there was a bank on one side the entire time, there was less area available for spreading out. I had the most contact with people during this race. I didn't get kicked too bad, but had quite a few people cut across my path at a pretty sharp angle. I had no idea where they were going.

I tried to stay in the middle of the river the entire time, but kind of swam zigzagged. This race I pushed myself hard on the swim, similar to my aquathlon pace. My arms were burning, but I kept telling myself to keep them burning. We passed under 2 bridges, and I hoped that I wouldn't crash into the support structures. Luckily there were kayakers in the water to guide us through.

It felt like forever when we got to the turnaround buoys marked with balloons. That's when the first purple cap (next wave) caught me, so I figured that was a good sign, since they didn't catch me sooner. I even passed a few blue caps, which were the wave in front of us. I got to the turn, and a few people were standing up and walking. The water was only 3 feet deep in this section, but I decided to keep swimming rather than stand. I did a quick time check and saw 25 min on my watch. I thought the turn was half way, and figured I needed to speed up to make it in under 50 min.

After the turn the sun came up over the trees, and I could see the ground under the water. With the slight flow of the river and seeing the rocks below, I started to get dizzy. After that I closed my eyes when my face was in the water until I got to deeper water. That helped with the dizziness. On the way back it was easier to sight off the bridges, but I found myself swimming in a zig zag pattern again. I probably lost a few minutes due to less than perfect navigation. I kept going, and by this point I really wanted to be out of the water and on my bike. After the bridges I could see the swim finish, which was sooner than I was expecting. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised like that. I picked up the pace, telling myself that if I pushed hard I could get in in under 50 min. The closer I got to the bank the more people appeared around me. I saw some people standing up, so I decided to get up and run in knee-deep water. I was done with the swim! I hit my watch as I ran over the timing mat and looked down to see 46 minutes! My best OW swim time yet! This was also 16 minutes faster than my SOMA swim time, and only 1 min slower than my "best" time that I gave Zac as an estimate. I was so happy!

Swim straighter.

I ran to T1, and had looked for reference points when I set up my stuff that morning, so I went straight to my spot. That was critical, since there were over 1000 bikes in transition. I got my wetsuit off (no strippers at this race) and bagged it, along with my goggles and towels. I got my shoes and helmet on, finished bagging everything, and grabbed my bike. I saw Zac at the front of the group by the chute, so I threw him my bag, which he missed. Oh well, it's not like we had practiced that. He got the bag and I was off for the bike portion. There was a hill right after transition, so I decided to walk my bike to the top and get on the bike at the flat portion at the top.

Nothing. T1 took longer than usual because I had to bag everything.

A few days before the race we had visited the SportsBasement.com store in San Francisco, and I bought myself a new Giro E2 helmet (it was purple and matched my jersey!). So I had a brand new helmet for the ride, and it was better ventilated than my old helmet.

We got onto the main street in Guerneville, and I kept the bike in an easy gear to spin my legs out, get a swig of Gatorade, and burp out the lake water bubbles in my stomach. It felt like there were a ton of people passing me in the first 3 miles, but a lot of them were relays. I immediately got into my aerobars. I had Rudy from TriSports fit my bike, so now it was much more comfortable for me to be in the aerobars, and my new seat was much better than my old one. I've learned how critical bike fits are!

At about mile 5 we had to make a sharp right turn onto Sunset down a short, steep hill with a left turn right after it. They had warned us about this section at the race meeting, so I slowed way down and got into an easy gear, as right after the bridge we passed under there was a steep uphill. We had no momentum for the climb, so just had to gut it out. After that the terrain switched to rolling hills. The nice part was that the trees on the sides of the road formed a shaded tunnel over the road. The not so nice part was the rough sections of road. Some were pretty bad, almost rivaling that of Euclid Ave in Tucson. Whenever I could I got back in the aerobars, and I actually gained a lot on the downhills on people that didn't have aerobars. I also had my hilly gearing on my bike, giving me 2 lower gears and one taller than what came stock on the bike, so I could push a bit more on the downhills and spin better on the uphills.

For the first hour I planned to be on liquid nutrition, relying on my Gatorade with 100 cal of Carbo-Pro added. Since I was drinking like mad, I really had to go to the bathroom by the first aid station. The station was at mile 13, and I timed it perfectly to where I rolled up to the potty right as another gal was coming out, so I didn't have to wait. I was surprised that the aid stations only had 1 porta potty. We (full Vineman plus Barb's racers) were all on the same bike course so I thought that was kind of odd. But I was in and out in about a minute and back on the course. I checked my watch right at the 1 hr mark, and I was just passed mile 15, so I was averaging better than I had hoped.

We turned onto Dry Creek Rd, which was a nicely paved road with a good bike lane, so I was able to sit & spin easily through the rollers on this road. It felt like it took me forever to reach the turn on Canyon Rd, which was the half way point at mile 28. My legs started to get sore on the climbs, and I was beginning to worry. I pulled into the aid station at mile 29 to use the bathroom again (only had to wait for 1 person) and refill my aerobottle with water. This was a welcomed aid station because it gave me a chance to walk upright and stretch a bit. After the station I felt much better, and started attacking the course again. Not long after that was the 2 hr mark, and I was just past mile 30, so I was holding my 15mph average.

The major rough spot of this section was where we had to cross railroad tracks, and it looked lik a disaster zone. Gel flasks, water bottles, and aerobottle sponges were everywhere! This next section we had a lot of turns to make onto different roads, but they had a lot of volunteers out pointing us in the right direction, and white arrows on the ground to follow, so I never got lost. Finally I got onto Chalk Hill Rd, which I knew I would be on for awhile. It was back to the rolling terrain. I got to the mile 45 aid station, again timing the potty perfectly and jumping in right as someone else came out. Stopping at each aid station on the bike really helped my mental game, and made my legs feel better. After this aid station I pulled out onto the road, checking behind me to avoid any racers. I had to go a bit wide as I pulled around a volunteer holding out bananas, and some girl passed by yelling "On your left! Better move!" in a not-so-nice manner. What was her problem? She had plenty of room and I didn't want to mow over the volunteer. We got into the hills, and as soon as I got up to speed I passed her on a climb and then dropped her while in my aerobars on the following downhill and never saw her again. Ha! Take that bitchy chick!

While on Chalk Hill Rd I continuously looked for a street on the left called Spurgeon. I had spotted this while driving the bike course because that was my marker for when the famous Chalk Hill climb was coming up. I was prepared...bring it on. Sure enough, the climb began, and I got in my lowest gear. I spun my legs along, trying to keep as much forward motion as possible. I looked for a big group of painted names on the ground, because that was when the climb was almost over. I was standing in the pedals at this point, and passed by some college guys hanging out on the side by their truck cheering the racers on. It was nice to have folks yelling at the worst part of the climb. A few people around me stopped in the middle of the climb, but I kept going. If I stopped I knew I would have a hard time getting going again. Finally I reached a group resting at the very top. I didn't stop then either, and instead hit the crest and enjoyed the long downhill afterwards.

At this point I only had about 10 more miles to go, but the hills had taken their toll on my legs. My legs were getting toasted by the end, and I couldn't wait to get off the bike. For the second part of the ride I had switched to Clif Bloks for my nutrition, but dropped my last block in the last few miles. I switched to my contingency fuel of vanilla Carb-Boom gel, which was all that I had left in my Bento box. In the last hour of the bike I also took a salt pill in preparation for the run.

The last mile or so of the bike I kept it in an easy gear to spin my legs out. I arrived in T2 at 3 hrs 45 min, which was about the same as my SOMA bike time, but this was a much harder course.

Train more on hills. Can never have too much hill training! Also, put sunscreen on my lower back. I thought my jersey went down to my shorts line all the way, but it crept up a little, so I had a thin sliver of a sunburn. A few days later the burn has peeled, and I have a scab back there. Hard to see it in the tattoo though.

I found my stuff waiting for me in T2. I got my run stuff on and headed out. There was a long line for the porta potty in T2 (again, only one!) so I decided to skip it and use the first potty out on the course. I decided to not apply more sunscreen in T2 because it didn't feel too hot, but that was a mistake.

Put more sunscreen on in T2 no matter what!

It actually felt really good to start running because I was using different muscles. I ran the first mile in a little over 10 min, but had to use the porta potty, so that added another minute to the first mile. But I felt much better after that. I ran with my race belt that has a storage pocket in back, which had 2 packages of Clif Shot Bloks and a gel, along with my water bottle. I started to get a side stitch, which reminded me to take in more salt. So I was now on salt pills, taking one every hour.

The first 3 miles went well, and I averaged my goal of 12 min miles. After that the hills caught up with me. The worst hill was on the way to the turnaround, but I kept jogging. My goal was to run as long as possible and avoid walking for as much as possible. For SOMA I walked the entire thing, and I was determined to run more this time, no matter how slow the running was. It felt like forever getting to the far turnaround, but after that I knew I wouldn't be seeing that part of the course again. I had 1 Clif Blok every 20 min, and kept drinking water. A few aid station people were spraying hoses, so that felt great. I was SO glad I wasn't doing the full iron distance race at this point.

At about mile 8 my legs started to hurt bad. I slowed down even more. I wanted to amputate my legs so bad at this point. We had to run all the way back to T2 to make the turnaround. I saw Zac in the crowd, but I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the next few miles. As I passed through the area past the finish line the announcers told me I had about 6 miles to go. This really ticked me off. I knew I was past mile 8 at this point. Why were they screwing with me and telling me the wrong distance? Funny how emotions go all crazy at times like these.

I headed back out of the high school parking lot, and I was shuffling along really slow at this point. At the mile 1 aid station (or mile 9 for me) I took some grapes along with cold water. I was sick of my Clif Bloks, and I wanted real food. I knew from the Summer Aquathlon races that grapes wouldn't bother my stomach, so I went with those. I only ate a few at each aid station, but they tasted so much better than Bloks. I also started pouring water on my thighs. I had been pouring water on my head and face at each station to stay cool, but my leg muscles were on fire at this point and cool water felt really good. I finally had to stop and walk, which also felt really good because it used my leg muscles in a different way. I stopped by a tree and stretched a bit, and as I bent over to touch my toes my lower back sounded like wood splitting. Ugh. I was hurting bad at this point. I had to walk all the uphills, but tried to keep running as much as possible. At least I wasn't walking the whole thing.

I got to the second turnaround point for Barb's race, and only had a little over 2 miles left. That felt like the longest few miles of my life. It felt like the high school parking lot was 100 miles away with how slow I was going. I tried to pay attention to just getting to the aid sations, and to look for people that were cheering the racers on. I encouraged as many people along the way that I could, especially at the end since I was almost done.

I finally got onto Windsor road, the final stretch of the way. I was so happy to be heading to the finish line. I got to the transition area, and made the turn towards the finish line. I heard people calling out my number and someone else's number behind me. I quickened my pace, and suddenly I was sprinting to the finish line. I just wanted to stay in front of whoever was behind me. I finished the run in exactly 3 hrs, which was 30 minutes quicker than my SOMA run. I crossed the line in 7 hrs 39 minutes, a total of 50 minutes faster than SOMA.

More run training (running is the weakest sport for me). Be aware that I'm going to get bored with foods after awhile, and know what I can and can't eat on the course.

I got to the first bit of grassy shade that I could find, and quickly pulled my running shoes off. My feet hurt so bad! So did my legs. It took all of my remaining strength to get some food (Italian pasta on a bun...strange I know), change out of my wet clothes, and pack up my T2 gear. I was walking around like I was 80 years old. I kept thinking, "there's no way I'll be able to do the full IM distance!" but Zac kept reminding me that I'm not trained for that distance yet, and when that race comes around I will be.

We got back to the River Village Resort, and I took a shower and immediately laid down for a nap. My muscles felt like rocks, so it was very uncomfortable. That evening I got a massage by one of the massage therapists at the resort. I had made my reservation with her earlier that week, and that was the best decision I had made all week! She worked on me for 90 min, complete with essential oils and hot towels. All for only $85, as they were doing a special for the race. It was so worth it!


My run. But I had a much stronger mental game this time around, and it paid off. I AM GOING TO BEAT THE SOMA COURSE THIS YEAR!


Good race and pretty well organized. I thought they could have used more porta potties on the course though.

This felt very much like a local race. It was hard to belive that an Ironman was going on at the same time. I could definitely see the difference between M-Dot and non-MDot races. This is a non M-Dot, and it had a very different vibe. I could see it as a good race for those that have done more than one M-Dot and want something different. But I'm glad I'm doing an M-Dot for my first IM (IMAZ 2007). It's kind of like a big formal wedding vs. a smaller wedding. You only have your first IM once, and I want the big to-do. Kinda funny as I had a small wedding. Come to think of it, I'll spend more on my IM than I did on my wedding! There's just something about the atmosphere and the vibe. And I want more than one porta potty available at each aid station.

Closing credits
Thanks to:
- My husband Zac. For running with me on the first parts of my training runs, bringing me water on my long runs, taking over housework, and encouraging me the whole way.
- Tucson Tri Girls. Best tri club in all of Tucson! Group workouts kept me motivated during the summer. Also, reading past race reports of this race were really valuable.
- Mom & Dad. For watching our doggies and helping out & encouraging along the way.
- BT. Training plans, logs, forums, coach support...it's all so great! I don't think I'd be doing these races without this site!