2014 St Croix Ironman 70.3

What an amazing Venue!  I am already excited to go back next year.

I first got to St Croix Friday evening.  David picked me up from the airport and we headed to town.  The Jump Up festival was just winding down so I headed to my hotel to leave my bags.  I stayed at the Holgar Danske and until later, I didn't realize I was right on the water!  It was a great location for the race; close to transition and close to everything I needed.  I got situated and decided to grab dinner.  I ate at the hotel bar and it was delicious but expensive.

Checkin on Saturday was fun and interesting.  It was in a hot room and the volunteers were all soooo nice!  Plus, where do they give you a bottle of rum for doing a race?!?  I thought that was awesome!

I did have a little bike issue on Saturday.  One of the pins in my read drop-outs got bent so my tire was rubbing.  I couldn't find another pin, but a local mechanic bent it back for me and I was good to go.

I went into the race with a mindset that I was going to just have fun and take it easy.  I think this worked well since I had less pressure to perform.  I had a great race finishing 10th in my AG. 

The Swim:
I loved the clear water.  It made drafting easy since you could see the bubbles of the other swimmers. Sometimes I feel claustrophobic in the water, but with clear water I never feel this way.  The swim starts on a separate little island so you get to swim over to the island as a warmup.  Right when they say GO, you get to run into the water and swim a very short distance before you make a sharp left turn.  This made for a lot of congestion, but I tried to be close to the front to avoid most of it.  Until the end you have plenty of room to spread out.  Once you make the last turn, you get to swim along the sea wall for a bit.  If you get too close to the wall though your hands will touch the ground as you swim.  I came out of the water 6th in my AG.

T1:
Other than ripping my swim skin due to a broken zipper it went fairly smooth.  It is a small transition area so it is pretty quick.

The Bike:
Before the race, everyone told me how hard the bike was so I took it easy for the first bit.  I decided that I would push it harder after The Beast.  I was cruising pretty fast into some of the corners along the coast before the beast and I lost traction and thought I was going down, but I recovered and all was well.  The Beast was not as hard as everyone led to believe.  But, I was glad to have my 11-28 cassette in the rear.  We had a nice headwind on a big portion of the bike but the rest went really smooth.  I really liked the bike course.  It was challenging, but not over the top.  I finished the bike at 8th in my AG.

T2:
Again, since the transition area is so small it went really quick.  Nothing out of the ordinary here.

The Run:
Similar to the bike, everyone had told me how awful the run was so my expectations of shittyness were really high.  I ended up really liking the run.  It had the perfect amount of hills and I enjoy running in the heat.  A few times you had wonderful views of the ocean and it's bright, pretty colors.  The aid stations were well stocked and the people were awesome helpers!  I yelled for ice once and never got any so one of the volunteers ran me a cup of ice! (...does that mean I was running too slow?)

I can't wait to go back next year...and maybe I'll be good enough for a Kona slot at that point...

Not sure what I am doing in this picture....besides dancing maybe?


Below is the status I sent to Blain:
I felt good the whole day (except maybe the last 2 miles of the run where I didn't feel bad...just not great).  I never pooped in the morning, but I didn't let anything bother me! The swim felt great!  I loved being able to see everything around.  I tried to draft off some people, but they always ended up being too fast or too slow.  I tried to keep people by my side and sighting, but I ended up going off course quite a bit the second half.  I breathed every stroke and since I had been practicing that, it felt better.  My swim times really should be better if I can learn to sight better.

Coming out of the water into T1, I felt great.  But then I had an issue.  I grabbed the pull cord for the skin and it came untied.  I wore it the day before and it worked great so I guess I just need to make sure I check the knot next time.

I felt pretty good at the start of the bike, but I tried not to push too hard until after the beast.  I almost went down on the bike coming into a corner with too much speed, but I recovered.  A couple people passed me on the beast, but I just wanted to take it easy until after that hill.  I felt really good the whole bike.  BUT, I feel like I could have pushed it much harder.  Maybe I felt good the whole day because I didn't push too hard on the bike, but I honestly never left like really tried to push myself on the bike.

Coming into T2, everything was going great. I took a little longer grabbing my stuff and just took it easy.

I felt good at the start of the run.  I ran at a steady pace, and I didn't push too hard.  I wanted to be able to run the whole time and I did!  I didn't even walk a single aid station or the hills.  I'm guessing I just need more high speed base running to get my 'normal' pace higher. 

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