On June 26, I did my first half ironman in almost 2 years. Luckily, I got to dust off the cobwebs in a local race 90 minutes north in Franconia. Despite training hard throughout the pandemic, there were more cobwebs than expected.
I started off the morning with some Pickybars Can’t Beet Chocolate overnight oats. The less I have to prepare in the morning, the better. It was awesome to bring my bike to the race the morning of, so I could also load up my bento box with 7(!) gels and bottles the night before rather than saving it until racing morning.
I prepared my transition area and walked over to the lake to put on my wetsuit and get in a warmup swim. The swim was in Echo Lake in Franconia in the White Mountains. It was the most gorgeous swim I’ve ever done!
Tha lake we swam in is surrounded by mountains, and there was a bit a wind tunnel effect, which caused a lot of chop in what are usually calm waters. I had a tough time seeing the buoys, but I loved that the course was two loops. It helped break up the swim, which I usually perceive as feeling very long.
With a 32:04 swim (1:32/100yd), I headed to grab my bike for the initial 3 mile descent at 10%!
Once I got past the initial descent, I tackled the undulating course which covered 3300 feet in 56 miles. 2:45 is not a great split, but it’s a fair one considering the terrain and first half ironman in almost two years.
The run was a damn mind game. It consisted of 5 laps, and each lap had a harrowing downhill of 12% followed by an equally steep uphill. I’m all for hilly courses, but I like when I can at least enjoy the fruits of my labor and fly down a hill I had ascended earlier. This downhill felt like it was going to snap my legs in half!
They gave us rubberbands (and can to dispose of them!) to keep track of our laps, and eventually these disappeared off of my wrist. They went into my hair, which was flopping around like a gogurt. A final surprise kick-in-the-pants dirt hill to the base of a ski resort marked the end of the race. There were rocks under the finishing carpet, so I had an inebriated-looking finish. I ran 7:15 pace overall, which was about 30 seconds slower per mile than it felt like!
I ended up as the first woman and 4th overall. I won a local sapling and an insulated water bottle. I got to hang out with Gabe, Eric, and Colin while we waited for awards. What made it all worth it was that I got to support a local triathlon while knocking off some rust, mean….patina after not racing a 70.3 for almost two years!
