Coach Angies Lake Havasu Hits Half Ironman Race Report: I dont always write these but I had fun in this one and wanted to share! • This was a “D” race! Boulder was in August which was a long time ago. A end of the year half Ironman seemed like a good idea so I signed up 5 weeks ago. Trever came with me and I knew NOBODY else! I was excited to race all week which was pretty cool! I crammed a lot of training into 3 weeks and did a very short taper! o This was a low key event with heart! The race director was everywhere and so friendly. For Albertans it reminds me of Heart of the Rockies! Swim… 2 buoys for a one loop half Ironman swim. I thought a lot about Great White North. Not ideal. The buoys were also the small ones that are about a foot high. I couldn’t see anything!! About ¾ of the way to the first turn I got on feet and decided to trust my pilot to take me in the right general direction! It worked well as I was pretty lost on my own. We even had a little walk break in the swim where it was too shallow! I didn’t wear a watch and didn’t know my time. The course was short.. for sure, but I do think I swam well. I’ve been working on a lot of short fast hard sets in the pool, and did nothing specifically to prepare for this race. It’s working though and I seem to be getting faster! A nice perk at my age. I’m changing the timing of my stroke too to be more of a front quadrant stroke, and I think that’s helping. My swim time was 29:20. Corrected for distance it would have been under 32 min which is a GREAT day for me! I also swam faster than the 2 women who took first and second in the race AND my overall swim placement was much closer to my bike and run placing. (I think this was the 4th fastest swim for women. I was 22nd out of the water.) o T1: FASTEST T1 of the ENTIRE RACE!!!!!! Yup! That was me! o The bike course was really challenging but fun. You have to ride thru a parking lot, on a sidewalk, on gravel.. it felt like a mountain bike course at times! The first lap thru the parking lot I was so thankful another athlete was in front of me. No pylons.. nothing to mark where we were supposed to go! RV’s and boats all around though. There was nothing you could do to “race” this section. We also had a piece where you had a path wide strip for 2 way bike traffic. The Race Director was doing his best to make this course work. It took some serious creativity to create this. There was nothing you could do but ride your bike. Not such a bad thing! Once thru this section it was a rolling up hill to the “roller coasters”! For me, this was fun! Standing short steep climbs with scary roller coaster like descents! 4 climbs in total I think. Roads were rough and you had to take a deep breath to let your wheels roll! First time thru I chatted with this super nice fellow Jimmy! I was quite laid back the first lap. Heart rate was low, and I was OK with it. I told myself this was a “for fun” day, and my only goal was to have fun! I played with a group of 3 men for a bit, but that still didn’t get me working all that hard. o Second lap, I got an awakening! I thought I was probably in first place as I was somewhat “tootling” along. Out of the blue 3 women passed me.. boom boom boom! WAKE UP TIME! I stayed with them for a bit, then fell back. I decided “4th place is good… no need to kill yourself!” Ridiculous thought! Then, in the hills, I got them all. On the first climb I took 2 of them. I didn’t see these two gals again. On the last climb I caught the woman who was the overall winner. I must have taken quite a bit out of her on the descent because it took her quite a while to catch me again. (She was SUPER nice!) The trip back to town on the second lap was a lot different than the first lap. I was now racing! I stayed with the lead woman for a while, then HR got higher than I thought it should be so I backed off a bit. I wasn’t losing much until I went off course. Again, newbie volunteers and a confusing course. Unfortunately I took 3 others with me. SORRY!!!! I only lost maybe a minute so not much. Game was “still” on! I have to say, on reflection I think I “won” the hills with better bike handling skills. I used my gears better than they did. I’m certainly not the strongest, I just rode smarter. That was kind of rewarding. Bike 2:50, 3rd for women, 19th overall. o T2… not near as smooth. Need to fix that! • Run: This was the fastest run I’ve had off the bike since 2010! It wasn’t without some bumps! Aid stations had 2 or 3 volunteers who were trying their best but maybe have never raced! I asked for coke at the first run aid station and these two older gentlemen who were manning the fort said they didn’t have coke! There were 2 unopened bottles on the table! At the turn around aid station I asked for coke and water… the boy with cups in his hand just held them. He didn’t know to hand them to me! At one point 4 of us went off course too. Mr. Purple Man (really nice gentleman) and I were running together. We came to a fork and decided to go right. We should have went left. Unfortunately 2 others followed us with one being one of the women who passed me on the bike! Purple man decided to go straight and try to find the course. I stopped to have a team meeting with the 2 behind me to decide what to do! DUMB! We followed purple man, hopped over this huge cauldron, and continued on! General consensus was a minute or so was lost. I will never know exactly and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. Good news is I kept my race head on and got back in it! o I ran really well for about 7 miles. The last 6 the wheels fell off a bit. I allowed myself several 10 step walk breaks. I had a run “angel” though and I stayed glued to him! I would lose him on my little walk breaks, then catch him. I stayed on his shoulder! With about 2 miles to go I saw the 4th place woman. I thought she was gaining on me. I was running scared. I told my run “angel” that if I held on for third he was getting a hug whether he wanted one or not! As it turns out 4th place girl.. who had passed me on the bike early on, wasn’t catching me. I’m SO glad I thought she was though! o I left T2 in second. I did get passed by a woman from New Mexico. She outran me by quite a bit. At the end she beat me by 2:25 so I wasnt catching her! I was THRILLED with my day. I raced, had fun, embraced the “suck” in the words of Macca… and stayed positive. Run 1:43:55, 12th overall, 4th for women I think! I rode by HR, and was looking forward to downloading my garmin to look at my watts as I just got my power tap fixed this week. I was chagrined to see that I didn’t turn my watch on for the ride!! Not once did I flip thru the screens to see my speed, time, distance. I only looked at HR. I had NO idea my watch wasn’t on. WHAT A GOOF!!… but oh well. o Loved the race. The prizes were awesome. This was a race with a heart, and I’m signed up for next year! I achieved my only goal which was to enjoy racing! I met some really cool people on the race course, and even introduced myself during the race! My heart was in the right place, and that made this a pretty cool day! THANKS For reading if you made it this far!
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 15:38:59 +0000
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