Race Report for IM 70.3 Syracuse:

I’m at a bit of a loss regarding how I should feel about my performance at this race. On the one hand my time was only minutes faster than last year, and, after training hard for a year in prep for Ironman Lake Placid it was demoralizing to not be able to preform better. On the other, everyone seemed to have a hard day. The winds, heat and humidity beat everyone down.

I’ll save you the boring logistics of waking up at 4:30 and having coffee and oatmeal and skip straight to the race.

Swim: My wave roll out was at 7:36 (late but better than last year when it was 7:50), we lined up the horn blew and we were off! A bit over a year ago I had my first open water swim at Devilman and had a horrible panic attack that led me to breaststroke for the 400 meters. Apparently I’ve come a long way since then because I felt super comfortable in the water. the 1.2 miles seemed to fly by. At the second turn around buoy I was getting thrown around by the choppy water – which I initially thought was caused my boats in the reservoir but in actuality it was due to the winds. Who knew?! I thought I was going faster than I did and exited the water with a sad time of almost 46 minutes. Although it was SLOW, I felt very fresh coming out of the water. Something that has never happened to me before. 2:20/100m. Like I said, slow.

Bike: After an uneventful T1 I hopped on my bike and off we went for a 56 mile ride with nearly 3,200 feet of climbing. The crosswinds, heat and headwinds took a toll on all the riders. I consider myself a decent climber but climbing into a headwind was something I couldn’t deal with very well. People were seemingly going down left and right as I was passing people with insane road rash. Shout out to my friend Jaclyn who stopped by a downed rider and did her RN thing until help arrived. The straight aways are usually a time to catch up on speed but I felt as though every straight and turn led into a crazy headwind. My wattage didn’t match my speed and I was trying to figure out whether my garmin was off, my power was off, I was simply going crazy or everyone was having a tough day. Rolling into T2 all I could think about was how glad I was that I no longer had to face the winds on the bike. Fluid intake: 160oz, 10 himalayan salt pinches and 3 gels. Bike time: 3:15. FTP 210. Power 188. Average speed 17.2 MPH.

Run: Boy was I wrong about wanting to get off the bike… The run presented a new disaster in the heat and wind saga. Hills, winds and heat do not make for a happy runner. My half PR stands at 1:37, which, although isn’t amazing is a decent pace. I finished the half almost 30 minutes slower than that. I was trying to negotiate with my body but it just wouldn’t listen. Glad I saw some friends and teammates on the run but overall it was a complete mess.
Time: 2:05. Intake 40 oz mostly water and salt. I couldn’t keep gels down at this point so I was using fruits and gatorade for kcal.
So, anyone want to tell me how I should feel about this race with IMLP fast approaching? This race was demoralizing to say the least. Sigh.
Props to the people that were able to keep down that nasty pizza that Ironman provided. You’re the real MVP’s.