70.3 World Championships Trip/Race Report

Wednesday
Our flight down to Florida took us through Dallas, Texas for our connecting flight to Tampa. Overall the flight was pleasant and went fairly quickly. We picked up our car rental at the Tampa airport and drove out to Clearwater Beach to meet up with Chris/Jill who were already there (our rental was about a km from transition). Took just over an hour to get there as we stopped to pick up groceries along the way. Once there, we all made dinner together and were in bed pretty early.

Thursday
Chris, Jill, and I were up early in the morning to do a short 25 minute run along the beach - my first run outside since Sept 27. The weather was overcast, cool, and windy. Early on in the week a tropical storm blew through the area and we were on the tail end of it. The ocean looked extremely rough and we saw a few brave souls out trying to swim in it. It definitely did not look inviting and I was skeptical about swimming in those huge waves.

Later in the morning, the four of us went down to the expo to look around and to get registered. They had a free pair of Foster Grant sunglasses in our race kits which was great. Another neat thing as well were the race numbers had the flag our of country on them.

After the check-in, it was back to the beach house to assemble bikes, test ride them, then off to the carb dinner/race briefing in the evening.

Friday
In the morning we decided to don the wetsuits and give it a go at swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. The waves were giant and powerful. I lasted about 15 minutes before getting motion sickness. Coming back onto shore, where Mel was watching, she commented on how green I looked. I told her I wasn't swimming in that tomorrow - it didn't feel safe. Thankfully they announced later in the day the swim later would be moving from the Gulf to the harbour on the other side.

After the swim, myself, Jill, Chris, and their friend Mark drove the bike course. The course itself is flat as a pancake with a few small climbs up to bridges. It was definitely an urban ride taking us through various surrounding communities and counties. Lots of time in the aero-bars...good thing I practiced that beforehand. It was also incredible to see all the major intersections we had to go through and the potential for side-street traffic to cut into our lane. Part of the course even took us onto freeways where we would have the median lane to ourselves!

When we got back from our bike course scouting, Mel and I went for a drive together. I needed to get away from the race site because the energy there was too intense for me. Races I have done in the past have also had this type of energy there but not in this amount. Too many serious people for my liking. Add to that everyone was in shape - there was only one-size at this race.

So Mel and I drove out to a Christmas store and bought a few ornaments - one of which is a pink flamingo with a palm tree! Weird to experience Christmas in such a tropical environment.

In the evening, Chris and I took the bikes out for a short spin to do some sprints. My knee, up to this point in the trip, was not an issue. Although I still felt a little tired from tapering and were wondering if I started my taper too late.

After the ride, we were back at the rental to pack up our bags, and walk them down along with our bikes to be checked into transition. Transition was pretty cool as we all had individual volunteers to walk us to our designated bike area as well as explain how T1 & T2 would operate.

Later that evening we  made a nice meal of pasta, chicken, and shrimp together back on the beach condo. My nutrition heading into this race was fairly good - I cut out alcohol about a month before the race, and cut out red meat/dairy about a week before the race. Katie recommended the dairy/red meat avoidance and I have to say I felt better leading into this race by following her advice.


Saturday - Race Day
Chris, Jill, and I were up at 4:30am to eat and gather our belongings for the race. Breakfast for me was a bowl of oatmeal with sliced banana - I was keeping it light compared to previous races. Gave Mel a quick kiss and the three of us were off shortly after 5am to walk over to transition.

It was still dark outside as we were walking through the streets but fairly warm. I was listening to my music and feeling pretty calm and confident at this point - no matter the issues I had leading into this race I am here and I will make the best of it.

After getting body marked, double-checking our bikes, and setting up our nutrition the three of us left transition to walk over to the swim start. Because the swim had switched over to the harbour side, we would be doing time-trail starts based on our age group.

At the start, we wished each other luck and headed off to our age group lines.

Swim
My wave started around 7am and we were herded off the dock into the water like lemmings. The water was calm and fairly comfortable temperature. We were not allowed a warm up in the water prior to the swim so I took it easy during the first 300m to get into a steady rhythm. After that I kicked it up a notch into a steady pace. I made my way as close to the buoys as I could to be efficient.

Heading out we were going directly into the rising sun. About two buoys before the first turn, I got stuck behind a big pack of swimmers and had to do a large detour to the inside to get around them. It was difficult sighting the last couple of buoys before the turn. I lost track of them and decided to follow the splashing in front of me. After a minute I could make out what I thought was the next buoy until a volunteer on a kayak came flying over screaming at everyone to NOT go left but straight ahead.

I stopped and could actually stand up in the middle of the harbour to take a look at my surroundings. Most of the swimmers were cutting left early therefore eliminating swimming out to the last buoy. It was too late for the volunteers to do anything as a lot of people had already taken the shortcut. Even though I was half-way through the shortcut I decided to swim back around the last buoy. Note to self: don't rely on the person in front of you on knowing where they are going.

The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful as I was swimming on my own. I kept focusing on high elbows, long smooth strokes, and keeping my hips open and up. As we got close to shore I could see everyone starting to funnel into smaller area. They had a single lane ramp leading out of the water onto shore - it looked really congested. I swung to the outside of the group and swam as hard as I could to pass as many people as I could before cutting back into the line...hehe.

Swim time was 29 minutes even and a new PB.

Had a fairly quick T1 - 4:12

Bike
With the swim over, I had two things on my mind:

1. How was the knee going to feel when I started biking. 
2. What kind of cycling fitness am I in now?
   

Keeping these two things in mind I took it easy the first 20km to get a feel of how things could play out. After that I decided to increase my intensity into a steady effort for the remainder of the ride. As I mentioned before, the course is pancake flat for the most part and a little boring. I can honestly say I have never spent so much time in my aerobars as in this race. It was a relief to see a slight incline up to a bridge so I could stand for a few moments to stretch out the legs. Surprisingly, my knee didn't give me any grief at all during the ride.

When I rolled into T2 I felt like a million bucks!!! I paced the bike a little easier this go around but still cranked out a new PB - 2:17:33

Had a quick-for-me T2 - 2:51

Run
Normally when I start the run I am having stomach issues and feeling like crap. Today I felt like a Rock-Star. I switched up my nutrition plan for this race which included changing nutrition products as well as decreasing the amount of calories I take per hour from 300 - 350 to the 220 - 250 range. It worked like a charm!

Knowing I hadn't ran outside since the end of September I knew I would really feel the run about midway through so I picked comfortable pace and stuck to it. The first lap went well but by the 12km mark my legs started to feel heavy and weak and my pace slowed a bit.

Started to feel my knee on the downhills so with 3km left to go I decided to dial it back to enjoy the last few kms and take it all in. I walked for a bit gazing at the palm trees which seem so surreal, high-fived some volunteers, and just enjoyed being out there.

Approaching the finish line I slowed it down to really soak in this finish!

4:43:27 - new PB

Post-Race Thoughts
I really surprised myself with the results I achieved at Clearwater given the issues with my knee and the lack of training during the last 1.5 months. For a while there I was digging myself into a hole worrying about the missed training. It took a few heart-to-hearts with some terrific people to get back on track. I applied their advice, and some stuff I recently read, to my mental preparation during final two weeks leading up to this race. And it paid off - I had such a positive race.

I have heard that previous races at Clearwater were notorious for drafting. This year was no different. The number of packs - their sizes, were absolutely atrocious. So many drafters benefited from a fast bike split and subsequent run split because of fresher legs. I believe people like that are weak and it is an indication of what kind of person they truly are. Some argue that you can't help but draft on a course like that. I whole-heartedly disagree - you have a choice whether you want to latch onto a pack or let them go by. I am proud that my PR is my own work and not the result of someone else doing part of the work for me.

On a more positive note, both Chris and Jill also had great races and both PR'ed as well.

My short-term plan is to take some time off from structured training and start back on strength training.

Thanks for reading!
Shannon