IM 70.3 St George Race Report

So life has been a whirl for the past several months.  Professionally, things blew up and I have been beyond busy.  I have managed to get most of my training in -- but everything else has suffered.  I am not going to use this to whine about work -- I see a light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully things will return to somewhat normal in the next month.  I am glad I have not been trying to train for an Ironman through this.  I also need to apologize to my family for the times I have gotten a little testy in the past few months.

In the midst of all this IM St George came.  We were able to get down there, not just for the race but a few extra days to enjoy the area.  This was an early season race for me and I know my fitness is not where it will be as we move into the summer.  I have also had some niggly injuries that have prevented me from getting in the run training that I was looking for.  So going into the race I had expectations of a good swim and bike and a not so fast run--I just don't have the miles in to do a decent half marathon.

Race day managed to hit a short hot streak--the days leading up to the race and just after the race, the highs were comfortably in the mid 70's -- but that would be make the race to easy so mother nature scheduled 93 for race day.  Obviously there were a lot of us that have not had a single day of heat acclimatization going into the race.  Oh well--just adjust the race plan to accomodate the heat.
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The day before the race I was finally able to meet up with a friend that I had never met in person -- we have been online friends for probably 5 years now but had never managed to be in the same location at the same time.  It was wonderful to finally be able to put the real face to the name

Race day we were graced with a beautiful morning and calm waters at Sand Hollow reservoir.  There were a ton of waves for starting and I was in the last one -- 1 hour and 8 minutes after the first wave - -that is a long time to wait for your race start.  Hung out with friends and watched the pros.  My start time finally came.  We got into the water and swam the 100 or so m out to the start line.  Nobody had much time to hang around waiting for the start since they don't let you into the water until the wave before goes off and there are only 3 minutes between waves -- I know many of the slower swimmers did not even make it to the start line before the gun went off.  It was a beautiful swim - -the field was spread out so there were no crowding issues, the water was a great temperature (about 64) and the rocks around the resevoir were beautiful.  I settled into a comfortable stroke and just swam my race.  I came out of the water in 33:07 - -which I am happy with for this time of year.  Transition went smoothly and I was off on my bike.

The St George bike course is tough.  It is also super beautiful so that helps for you to forget that there is pretty much nothing flat on the entire course.  None of the hills are steep -- they just keep coming.  I was aiming to do this as a very controlled race so I spent the entire ride checking my power meter.  This of course means that I got passed a lot going up the hills and then passed a lot of people on the down hills as I tried to keep my power in a fairly narrow range.  Don had changed my rear cluster so I had 32 teeth on the back--enough to be able to spin and keep my power in range on all the hills.  The heat was not too bad on the bike since it was still early enough--though I did start to feel it on the final 8 mile climb up Snow Canyon (very beautiful).  Rolled into transition at 2:55 with my legs feeling quite fresh.  I will definitely be able to up my power target for the next race. 

So now the fun begins--the run at St George is no joke.  There is also nowhere flat on the run course--and in fact some pretty big hills that are also reasonably steep.  As I mentioned before I was pretty sure that this was not going to be my fastest half marathon due to lack of run training--and I was right.  I ran out of transition and aimed to set myself at a sustainable pace--also aware of the heat.  The first couple miles are up--at a reasonable grade and I was able to do an ok pace for that.  At about mile 2 you make a right hand turn--and the hill gets quite steep.  At this point I opted to powerwalk the hill - -most people around me had made the same choice.  Once you get to the top at about mile 3 the course settles into rolling hills--no flat.  They did a great job of having frequent aid stations, well stocked for a hot day--lots of sponges and ice.  I made my way to the turn around point running the whole way--just walking the aid stations.  On the way back there was one steeper hill that I chose to walk.  Then it was the 3 miles down back to the finish line.  Down is maybe easier on your aerobic system but harder on the muscles.  At this point I could feel the lack of run miles and just could not get the turn over on the legs to get any good speed on the downhill.  I paid for that--as I did the final 400m into the finish line I was passed by not 1 but 2 women in my age group--the second on passed me about 100m before the finish line--it took me a second for it to register and then decide that I  should not give up and tried to sprint to take her - -I came up about 2m short.  This put me in 7th place.  My run time was 2:03--which I am actually happy with given the hills, heat and training.

Overall I was happy with my race - -I stuck with my plan, paced it well and dealt with the heat.  I know what I need to focus on with my training before the next 1/2 IM at the end of July and will be ready to push that one much harder.

Don and I took the opportunity to enjoy southern Utah for a few days after the race.  Don had acted as my tri-bike transport and drove down (while I flew) so we were able to also bring our mountain bikes.  The day after the race we headed out to a great area of trails called Gooseberry Mesa.  I knew that I was going to be tired -- this trail is pretty flat with just small climbs and lots of fun stuff--its a mixture of desert dirt trail and slickrock.  We had a ton of fun

On Monday we headed to Zion National Park.  We started with a plan to hike a couple of the shorter trails to some pools and falls -- but when we got there we found out that the water and weather conditions were right to allow us to do an up and back hike in the Narrows.  We have been wanting to do this hike for years and any time we have been in the area the conditions were not good.  The Narrows is a very narrow canyon with the Virgin River running through it.  The hiking trail is the river itself.  We were not totally prepared for a river hike but went for it anyway--and had a blast. 

Tuesday we headed for more mountain biking near Bryce Canyon.  I was definitely ready for a few days off after we got back to Portland