Soma Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Dived into the water to get used to the darkness and as swam out to the start, the old swim demons came out. I don't have much practice swimming in a wetsuit and this compounds my anxiety. I borrowed this suit from a wonderful friend (Sally "riorio") and it fit well, but I do think I need to get around to buying my own. The tightness and pressure on my chest makes it hard to breathe and I wasn't doing so great as we floated there, but tried to calm down. I have no problems swimming in OW without a wetsuit, but add the constriction and it isn't pretty. Gun goes off and start to swim...should have positioned myself further back. I feel I am an ok swimmer, but it was a mess in the beginning! My goggles got kicked off my face and I had to move over quickly to keep from getting trampled. Once I got my goggles on, I had to talk myself off the ledge and calm down. My breathing was very erratic and it took quite a few minutes to get that under control. Once the crowd moved on, I settled into my own pace, focusing on my breath, and sighting so I didn't swim zig zag this time. Rounding the buoys was fine and I was happy to be on the way back. Seeing the stairs was so amazing and I was able to kick it up a bit before reaching the end. Thank goodness for the volunteers helping you out of the water and one more thing...WETSUIT STRIPPERS RULE! they had me out of my suit in seconds and I was so happy to be on my way to the bike. Saw my husband and went into transition.

Practice swimming in a wetsuit, preferably my own to get rid of the demons telling me to quit when I start to panic. More swim lessons.

due to the strippers :-), my T1 time was much quicker compared to other races. All I had to do was wash off my feet, make sure I had everything and head out. Was looking forward to the bike.

getting shoes on quicker, practicing running bike mount.

I feel the bike is my strongest event and I love being out there. I put aerobars on my road bike 3 weeks prior and LOVE THEM! Was in aero for at least 75% of the time and it was much better than races past. Every time I felt like pushing it I kept telling myself "you still have to run 13.1 miles after this" so I kept it conservative. Fuel was right on. Set my timer to drink every 15 min and aim for 200-250 cal on the bike. No stomach issues other than REALLY having to use the restroom, which I did on the 3rd lap. Headwind heading East that got annoying, but at least it gave us a bit of a tail wind coming back so that was nice. After all the FAST racers lapped me, the course was quite pleasant with plenty of room and great aid stations! Saw my husband every lap so that was fun!

Push harder on the bike. Get more higher intensity training sessions in during the week.

saw my parents and kids just as I was heading in from final lap. My inner hamstring always gets a bit annoyed with extended time on the bike, so any immediate running was slowed to a walk. I was fine with that, walked my bike back to transition, racked it up, got all my stuff along with my hand held water bottle (which saved me later) and gave my kids big hugs and high 5's!

Nothing really, I wouldn't want to shave off a few seconds by ignoring my family. I love being able to go over to them and show how much I appreciate them being there! That is worth a few extra moments!

By this time it was HOT. High supposted to be 95 that day and it was brutal! I wanted to run as much as possible and walk maybe every 2 miles or so. But the heat to to most of us! First lap was good, except I made the mistake of taking a gel while running and not drinking = stomach cramp. This lasted for 3 miles until it finally calmed down. I stopped drinking Gaterade and used only water for the rest of the course. I would fill my handheld bottle at each aid station and drink as I went along. I like having the option to drink whenever I want and had trained with this on most of my long runs. The aid stations were great the first lap, but it felt like they were getting tired as well and while you had to almost turn down water before, the 2nd lap you were begging for it. They seemed to run out of ice and cold water so that was tough. I did a combo of drinking from my handheld and using water from the cups to dump over me. I did the first loop in under 1 hour, so was excited that I could do this in under 2 hours. But, from mile 8 on I walked about every mile due to my quads starting to cramp a bit, not from hydration, but more from effort and use. Not too bothersome but I knew I would pay for this later. The last 2.5 miles took forever and I walked more than I would have liked but still made it thru. While I really wanted to negative split, with the heat and fatigue, it wasn't going to happen. I ran up the path to the finish line with my kids, parents and husband cheering me on and happily made it to the end. Grabbed a couple waters and whatever food I could carry and made it over to my family.

More run training. I get injured very easily so was pretty conservative when it came to pushing it. But considering I wasn't able to do this race before due to a stress fracture, I was just happy I made it to the finish line healthy!

When I stopped moving I got very dizzy and hot and told them I had to keep moving. Drank a Coconut water that I brought from home, ate some fruit and walked for a bit, then returned to chat. Got a massage (wonderful), went to get all my stuff, and we all headed home. Jumped in my pool to cool off the legs and tried to eat, although I wasn't very hungry. Went out to eat that night to celebrate.


the heat! More cold water at aid stations!


Great Race! RedRock puts on such a fantastic event! The only thing holding me back from doing this race again is the time of year...it always seems to still be hot here in late October! At least the water was nice! Can't wait to start planning for my next HIM!