Pacific Crest Half-Ironman Race Report

I'm so excited about this that I can't wait to deliver the goods. Inevitably this will be an incredibly long race report, so I'll tell you the best part first: My finish time was 5:52:00.

UNDER SIX HOURS!!!

The race began at 9 a.m., and I was in the first wave. I told my hubby and the kids that I wouldn't be at the finish line until 3 p.m., maybe 3:30, so don't bother to come earlier. I didn't want the kids waiting in the sun, bored, whining, etc.

Well, John and the kids went for ice cream some time before 3, then were on their way to the finish line when they heard my name called! I never would have known they weren't there all along, though - I was completely out of it by then, and they were right there when the volunteer was cutting off my chip strap.

So now that the exciting part is out of the way, here are the details in proper order.

First, this race was on my schedule for two primary reasons: The bike course goes 30 miles up the side of Mount Bachelor and typically it's really hot here in Sunriver, OR in June.

Well, due to road construction, the bike course was completely re-worked for this year only, and the weather was perfect - meaning, mid-60s at the high point and not in the least bit hot.

I wanted a hard climbing bike course and hot weather to help prepare me for Ironman Canada. Barring that, the weekend became a family getaway - Gabriel did the kids Splash, Pedal and Dash yesterday, coming in 174th out of 411 - and that includes kids from age 5 to 12, and he's 7! - John is doing an Olympic-distance duathlon tomorrow, and both Gabriel and Camille are going to do a half-mile run tomorrow.

So that left today's half-Iron for me. I didn't taper much, though I didn't work out last week like I planned due to other life stress. But I felt okay going into the weekend.

After I prepared all my bags, bottles, and bars Friday night I took a couple of Tylenol PMs and immediately felt drowsy and slept wonderfully for eight hours, despite going to bed at 9:30 when it was still light out.

I got up at 5:10 and decided not to shower. Usually before I race I like to shower, but honestly I wanted to stay in bed a few more minutes. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't shower, because I wouldn't have dried my hair and it would have FROZE. Seriously.

I ate a cherry Pop-Tart, a banana, and three ounces of turkey breast for breakfast. Plus coffee, of course, and I sipped on a bottle of water. Pop-Tarts are totally ridiculous, but when else do I get to eat stuff like that?

Danielle is here too - we're staying in this big gorgeous house with both of our families - so both of our husbands got up to drive us to T2 at 5:50 a.m.

T1 and T2 are in two different places, as the bike course is still point-to-point. We could have set up our T2 stations on Friday, but we didn't bother, and again, I was glad - it was so cold that there was frost on the ground, and I didn't think my running shoes needed to be outside overnight and get dewy. We quickly set up T2 as our toes went numb from the cold - it was maybe in the mid- to high 30s. That's what you get when there's no cloud cover, I guess.

We got on a bus and headed over to T1. Our bikes had been transported there the day before, so all we had to do was find them and set up the rest of our T1 stations. That took like 10 minutes, and then we had an hour and 45 minutes to freeze before the start of the race. I wore my socks with my flip-flops and was totally jealous of all the smart people with caps, gloves, and pants. I had on my tri suit, of course, with a pullover skirt and a light hoodie. Not quite warm. Danielle and I sat in the sun near the water, then walked to the Porta-Pottie, then back to the sun, then back to the Porta-Pottie, then...yeah, you get the idea.

Aside: I love the way my body responds to racing. I always have to use the Porta-Pottie like six or seven times pre-race - but the great thing is, everything in my tummy gets emptied out and I feel perfect once the race starts. Love it.

I ate a GU, got my wetsuit on, packed up all the rest of my gear in my trash bag so it could be transported back to Sunriver, and took turns with Danielle putting alleged waterproof sunscreen on each other's backs.

Then it was 9 a.m., and I was in the first wave, so I hugged Danielle and got in the water.

So, the swim. The water was pretty calm, but because I knew this was a competitive field and my wave start was 30-34 women and men, I knew to hang back. I did, but it didn't help too much - I had total panic in the beginning, so much so that I was sure the guys in the kayaks were pointing at me and planning to get me out of the water before I even hit the first sighting buoy. But eventually - before I got to the first turn - I found a rhythm and remembered how to swim. I was breathing only on one side, though, but it was okay because it was on the right, and the sun was to my left.

I believe I picked up speed at each turn - whereas I'd been one of the very last people in my wave early on, I did manage to pass a few people once I got into it. Mentally, I was preparing myself for a 50-minute swim. I figured that was the best I could do given my complete stops on the way to the first buoy. And when I started to see caps from the second wave - and later on, from the third - I was sure I was looking at my worst swim time ever.

I just counted my breaths and listened to my inhales and exhales, trying to maintain a long, even stroke and rhythm. I got off track a few times when I got splashed in the face or when someone touched my ankle, but I was able to get it back and actually felt pretty good for the middle part of my swim.

Towards the end, it was harder to sight - my goggles decided to both fog up and allow water inside, so I was worried I was going to lose my contact lenses and I was considering what I would do if they were gone - could I see well enough to ride and run?

But they were fine, and as always I was so relieved to get out of the water. I whipped off goggles, caps, and earplugs and ran to my transition station. Some people were walking - I didn't understand that. I knew I was going to take more time in T1 since I wasn't coming back there, so I needed to run.

Apparently my swim time was 40:2x, which is nutty given how much time I wasted in the beginning. I can only assume the swim was a little short. But I'll take it!

My wetsuit came off easily this time - yay for lubricating shoulders! I threw it and everything else into the garbage bag. Socks went on easily, as did shoes, but it was rough trying to pull my fingerless gloves on my wet hands. But I've never biked without gloves, and I didn't want to start today. I worried that the roads would be all chipseal and I wanted gloves to help cut the vibration. Eventually I got them on, though not velcro'ed shut, and I tossed my towel in the bag and tied it up.

I ran out of T1 with my bike and ran past the "Bikers Mount" sign because, well, everyone else was. When I got to the end of the marked chute, a woman said kindly, "You can get on your bike anytime now." I felt like an idiot, but I thanked her and took off.

Immediately I noticed that one of the straps on my shoes was undone. It bothered me, and continued to bother me throughout the ride, but since it didn't hurt and my shoe didn't feel loose, I figured I was just being anal and I needed to not waste time and energy trying to fix it. I did close my gloves, though.

My nutrition strategy for the bike was this: in my aero bottle, only clean water. On my down tube and in the two cages behind my seat, Gleukos (140 calories per bottle). My plan was to down a bottle of Gleukos plus a Clif Mojo Bar each hour for 320 calories an hour.

Well, that worked for the first hour, and I successfully dropped an empty bottle of Gleukos at the bottle exchange and got fresh water to add to my aero bottle. I added the water to my aero bottle, but then when I went to put the half-empty water bottle in the cage on my down tube, I dropped it!

Because triathlons have the rule about not littering, I stopped and went back for it, letting about a zillion people pass me. One guy said, "I don't think you have to pick that up," and I replied, "Oh, I think I do!" and did it anyway. I was not going to risk disqualification for littering. I'm not so special that I should get to deliberately dump garbage on the road!

So then, stupidly, I try to move the water bottle to the bottle holder behind my seat and move a bottle of Gleukos to the down tube, and because I've never practiced this before, it doesn't work and I drop the water bottle AGAIN.

This time when I stop to get it, I put the right bottle - the Gleukos one - on the downtube and the water bottle in the back.

The Clif Mojo Bars were open and cut in half in my Bento Box, and as much as I like them and they don't bother my tummy, I found it kind of hard to eat and breathe at the same time. I had to time my bites carefully.

My first hour, I averaged 17.6 miles per hour and got passed all the time. I only passed a couple of people. I consoled myself by checking out their bikes and aero wheels and helmets and saying they were much more hard-core than me. Plus, most of the people who passed me on the bike were men. I had a Crystal Method song in my head, though - the one with the lyric "Let me do my thing" and I just kept thinking about racing my race and not against anyone but me.

After my troubles with the water bottles, I knew I wasn't going to drink as many calories as I'd planned, but I continued to eat my Mojo bar halves, and once I had nearly finished the water in my aero bottle, I poured in the Gleukos. This was so I'd be drinking more calories, and if I really needed more water, I'd get it off the back of my bike. Somehow.

I soon realized my speed was picking up - I was on parts of the course advertised as "fast and flat" and they were. It was great - I was floating along at 22 mph and feeling fine.

I was watching mph and time on my bike computer, not distance. At two hours in, I checked distance. 36 miles gone? Therefore, an average of 18 mph? Hmm....quick math said I could have a sub-three hour bike split if I did 20 mph for the rest of the race. I knew that would be rough, but I was going along pretty fast...so maybe...

Well, I started pushing harder. I was a little anxious about what this would mean for my run, but I needed to know, and the road was great and even uphill I didn't slow past 15 mph - and downhill I could push 26-27. (It wasn't significantly up or down, of course.)

And the miles clicked away. I got a tummyache at some point and chose to ignore it. My neck and shoulders hurt, so I got in and out of the aero bars and squirmed around as much as I felt like it. I needed to pee, and I really did try to on the bike, but I couldn't do it so I told myself the faster I got to T2, the faster I would get to the Porta-Pottie.

When my bike computer said 2:48:00, I clicked over to miles. I was just over 52 in. I knew sub-three hours was not likely.

But then a couple of people passed me who shouldn't have, so I decided to pass them back and create such a large gap they couldn't close it. And I did. And then suddenly I'm riding in traffic, and I'm seeing landmarks that I knew were near T2, and I'm wondering where the next two miles were going to be because obviously we couldn't be at T2 yet - my bike computer only read 54 miles!

But I was. I jumped off the bike and ran all the way to the opposite end of the transition area where my stuff was. Again, people were walking. Why? I got my helmet off, visor on, bike shoes off, running shoes on, TransitionGirl skirt with race number on, and carried my fuel belt to the Porta-Pottie. There was a line, but I wasn't impatient - I knew it would take me forever to pee and I couldn't quite believe I'd gotten to T2 before 4 hours. Frankly, well before - it was like 3:45 or so.

While I was in the Porta-Pottie, I realized I hadn't removed my cycling gloves - so when I finished my business, I ran back to my spot, tossed them down, then ran out of T2. The timing mat was outside, so my nearly-four-minute transition time was not bad given that I really, really had to pee!

The beginning of my run was rough. My heart rate was high, it was sunny and slightly hilly - it isn't hilly really, but kind of bumpy up and down. And I didn't want to run up. :-)

I did the math, though, and realized that at 10-minute miles, I would come in at 5:50. 5:50!!! No way!!!

But how to run 10-minute miles? I felt like I was shuffling my feet. It was definitely a run, but barely.

At the first mile marker, I saw I was running at about 11 minutes per mile. I took a GU and some water, and kicked it up a little.

From then on, until mile 10, I was running nearly perfect 10-minute miles. I was comfortable - no pain, no tummyaches - I didn't really feel like running, but I was running my run-forever pace and I knew I could run. Whenever I got thirsty, there was a well-run water station available to me, and the run was on this paved trail winding throughout Sunriver. I got passed a few times - again, mostly by men - and I passed a few people. Some people were walking or taking walk breaks, but I knew I didn't need to and that if I let myself walk - even through an aid station - I might never start running again.

I had Jelly Belly Sport Beans at mile 5, and another GU just before mile 9. At mile 10, I noticed I was back down to 11 minute miles, so I tried to pick it up again to 10s and I think I did. I mean, I must have, because overall I ran 2:10 something, so I had to average 10s. But from mile 10 on it hurt, and I felt done with running, and I was getting cold. I'd been cool on the bike, then pretty warm for the first half of the run, but during the second half of the run the sun went behind some clouds and it just cooled down some.

Usually when I run, whatever distance it is, I want to be done a mile before I actually am done. It's some kind of anticipatory response to getting close. Well, today it started at mile 11 and oh my goodness, the mile between 12 and 13.1 was SO LONG.

And then. There was this guy who had walked a lot ahead of me. He would run for a little bit, and he was running faster than me, but then he'd walk, I'd catch up and pass him, and then he'd run and pass me again. Well, he was ahead of me at the mile 13 marker, and I decided I was crossing the finish line before him. I picked up speed at 13. Then when I could see the Red Bull arch, I picked it up again to a full-on sprint. I passed him just before the timing mat and flew on to the end of the chute. I went so fast I didn't look at the clock and I didn't look at the crowd - I was just going to beat that guy, really for no reason at all. I guess I just needed a rabbit.

I was dizzy and my hands were really tingly when I stopped to let the volunteer cut off my timing chip. John and the kids were just on the other side of the fence, and I think I gave John a kiss before walking into the athlete's area to get my finisher's medal and something to eat. I picked up some fruit and cookies and walked outside to John.

We sat down on a bench for a few minutes; my face hurt. It was like a headache, but it was in my temples and the sides of my face. I tried to eat and drink water, but nothing smelled or tasted good yet. I was talking, but not coherently. And I knew I wasn't coherent, but I couldn't shut up. I also couldn't get a deep breath. It was weird and yucky. But it passed quickly.

Camille was with John; she asked me, "Mommy, what's that white spot on your face?" I used the back of the medal to look at my reflection. I was covered in salt. It looked like I'd been crying salt; it was all around my eyes, in my eyelashes, and running down my face. It was actually quite funny.

So overall, it was a great race. I know the easy bike course contributed to my rockin' time; as a great coincidence, I believe I was 13th in my age group again! It's my number, I tell ya!

I definitely need to learn how to move water bottles from back to front and vice versa, and I should probably figure out how to pee on the bike.

But as I was finishing the race, I just kept thinking: I've got this. I've got to do an Ironman, because I've got this half thing down pretty well.

Post race injuries: None. Sore quads, sore left knee, and slight pain in my right ankle - actually, the top of my right foot. Some chafing under my arms and on my neckline from my tri suit. Some chafing where I should have used some chamois cream. :-) But otherwise, pretty darn good. Nothing a mojito won't cure!