Somewhat belated race report from the BSLT 70.3 race on 6/24.

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Waiting on the beach to start the Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon I found myself reviewing all of the days I got up early to train, all the hard runs I had done, and the long bike rides I really did do. I had to do that to remind myself that I was trained for this distance. For some reason when I arrived in Lubbock, TX the day before and went to packet pick up I freaked out, feeling like there was no way I was ready for this race. It took until I was starting the swim on race morning for me to shake that.

When the horn sounded to start my swim wave I stopped all that doubtful thinking. It was time to get down to the task at hand. As I made my way through the first half of the swim I felt comfortable in the water, and was pleased to be swimming in what was a relatively straight line. Rounding the final turn I was starting to get warm in my full sleeved wetsuit but continued in the smooth rhythm I’d established, passing swim caps from the prior waves, and ultimately seeing the shoreline and the wading volunteers who were helping racers safely out of the water. I was grateful for three of those volunteers for helping to pull my wetsuit off, I’ve been struggling with that lately and dreaded the idea of a three minute transition trying to get that thing off. (I've since taken my wetsuit for some alteration work on the ankles to hopefully help this for the future.)

Wetsuit off, I headed toward my transition spot, and noticed how comfortable that little run was. The path on the way to my bike was carpeted! That was a first in all of my triathlon racing, and a phenomenal treat. But there was no time to bask in that comfort. At my bike I sprayed myself down with another layer of sunscreen got the helmet on and headed out.

As planned, I took it easy directly out of transition so as to take on the first 7.9% grade hill without sending my heart rate into zone 4 where I’m sure I’d have struggled to get it back down. I knew that the seven total climbs over the 56 mile course were going to take some planning and I was determined to manage them wisely. Unfortunately my careful planning was threatened slightly when an angry old triathlete gave me a military style dressing down for apparently not knowing the rules. That shook me up a little because I’ve never experienced such anger in a race, but I recovered and proceed to have a great bike ride. The horrible chip and seal road surface complete with dips and potholes (one of which swallowed my CO2 cartridges) didn’t seem to keep me from a great ride. As I neared transition and the final 8.9% grade climb I realized that I had put down an under 3 hour bike time, a PR for me. That was a great feeling to take with me as I started the run.

On the way out of transition I enjoyed a couple of waves to my friends, and the fact that next time I was back there I’d have finished the race. Then off I went into the Texas heat which had finally made itself known. By mile three in the run, I realized that I hadn’t planned as well for that final leg of the race as I had for the bike. I wasn’t sure how hard to push and where or how conservatively I should be going and where. My heart rate was in zone 4 for the whole run, and on some of the hills neared 5. I kept thinking I needed to bring that down or I’d really blow up, especially given the hills on the run course. That thinking probably caused me to err on the conservative side. I ended up with a 2 hour half marathon, which was disappointing after my bike split. I didn’t feel a final kick in my run as I neared the finish as I often do, but still made it into the finish chute smiling. I was done with my first half iron race of the season!

Despite my struggles on the run, my final time was seven minutes better than my last half iron distance race from last year. I was pleased to have finished 6th in my age group and to have been offered a slot to the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, FL, which I declined. This was a challenging event which I was glad to have had the chance to race, and it proved to be a great start to my longer distance racing for the 2007 season!