Calgary 70.3
...was awesome! Possibly my best, most fun race ever. I must have been better trained than I thought, because the distances did not seem to be that much longer or more different than my usual Olympic races.
I had two major concerns going in to this race. #1 was the swim. I'm not sure why because it can be fairly random, but I sometimes get this weird rapid breathing attack during open water swims, which result in me swimming with my head up for minutes on end. It's strange because I don't feel scared; it's more that I just start breathing way faster than I should and I can no longer swim with my head under the water like normal.
My #2 concern was that I would die on the run. During my last two Olympic races (10k), I have felt terrible during the run and have been fairly slow because of it. Since this run was more than twice as long, following a bike ride that was 2.35 times as long, I figured I'd be done for.
Before the race, I did my typical 10 minute jog and 5 minute swim warm-ups. By the time I got into the water, I felt really relaxed and ready to give it my best shot. The horn went off, and I started swimming. We went in age group heats, luckily since there were 1700 participants in this race, so there were never that many bodies around me at any given time. I did pop my head up a couple of times, but only to make sure I knew where I was going, not because I was feeling panicky. My swim time wasn't great, probably because I felt like I was zigzagging the entire way. But it felt relaxed and comfortable, which was what I was hoping for.
The bike was AWESOME! I had decided that I didn't care how tired it made me, I was going to give it all I could and not hold back for the run. I figured since the run always sucks and I would have to push through it anyway, I should just go for it on the bike. For the first time ever, my average speed was over 30k/hour. I've never even done that in shorter races. I think that the wind and the hills were on my side for some of it, but still. It felt great.
Believe it or not, the run wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it might be. I felt pretty strong for the first 10k. The second 11k my stomach started bothering me and my pace dropped a bit. But it wasn't too bad and it went by surprisingly quickly.
I'm still waiting for the race organizers to post my results on splits and placing, but I can tell you that overall the race took me about 6:18. My super goal was to do it in under 6 hours, but three things made this not happen. My swim and swim to bike transition times were slow, they added an extra 4k to the bike (which probably accounted for 8-10 extra minutes), and I was under trained on the run. But whatever. I was just so happy the entire time to be actually doing the race. And that's the important thing.
So next year? I had been thinking that I wanted to do a full Ironman, but I am reconsidering this. I may just try and do a couple more 1/2 Ironmans and see how that goes. Who knows?
I had two major concerns going in to this race. #1 was the swim. I'm not sure why because it can be fairly random, but I sometimes get this weird rapid breathing attack during open water swims, which result in me swimming with my head up for minutes on end. It's strange because I don't feel scared; it's more that I just start breathing way faster than I should and I can no longer swim with my head under the water like normal.
My #2 concern was that I would die on the run. During my last two Olympic races (10k), I have felt terrible during the run and have been fairly slow because of it. Since this run was more than twice as long, following a bike ride that was 2.35 times as long, I figured I'd be done for.
Before the race, I did my typical 10 minute jog and 5 minute swim warm-ups. By the time I got into the water, I felt really relaxed and ready to give it my best shot. The horn went off, and I started swimming. We went in age group heats, luckily since there were 1700 participants in this race, so there were never that many bodies around me at any given time. I did pop my head up a couple of times, but only to make sure I knew where I was going, not because I was feeling panicky. My swim time wasn't great, probably because I felt like I was zigzagging the entire way. But it felt relaxed and comfortable, which was what I was hoping for.
The bike was AWESOME! I had decided that I didn't care how tired it made me, I was going to give it all I could and not hold back for the run. I figured since the run always sucks and I would have to push through it anyway, I should just go for it on the bike. For the first time ever, my average speed was over 30k/hour. I've never even done that in shorter races. I think that the wind and the hills were on my side for some of it, but still. It felt great.
Believe it or not, the run wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it might be. I felt pretty strong for the first 10k. The second 11k my stomach started bothering me and my pace dropped a bit. But it wasn't too bad and it went by surprisingly quickly.
I'm still waiting for the race organizers to post my results on splits and placing, but I can tell you that overall the race took me about 6:18. My super goal was to do it in under 6 hours, but three things made this not happen. My swim and swim to bike transition times were slow, they added an extra 4k to the bike (which probably accounted for 8-10 extra minutes), and I was under trained on the run. But whatever. I was just so happy the entire time to be actually doing the race. And that's the important thing.
So next year? I had been thinking that I wanted to do a full Ironman, but I am reconsidering this. I may just try and do a couple more 1/2 Ironmans and see how that goes. Who knows?