Apparently my first experience participating in a half iron-distance/70.3 race in Grand Rapids didn’t scare me away because I returned to the race again this year on Sunday, June 9. It took me just over six hours to complete last year and I was pretty beat up by the end, but I did it. As soon as registration opened in the fall, I committed to doing it again this year.

It seemed like a great idea at the time, but just like last year, reality started to kick in after the Boston Marathon in mid-April when I only had eight weeks to get ready. Swimming isn’t a problem because I maintain that year-round. Subtract at least one week of running for post-marathon recovery time, plus I needed more time this year to allow my angry Achilles to get better. I found myself slowly rebuilding my running with six weeks to go and basically just starting to ride the bike again since I totally neglected it by the end of marathon training. Although I seem to pull it off somehow, I’m not exactly setting myself up for success with this approach. Both times now I’ve felt like I didn’t take preparation seriously enough and a few weeks out I started to question if I should even do the race. I committed to it though and decided to follow through. At the very least, this race would serve as a good “training session” for my third 70.3, which I’m scheduled to do six weeks later.

With plans in Ann Arbor earlier in the day on Saturday, I got to packet pickup at a park in Ada at 5:30 which was half an hour before they’d wrap up. I grabbed food from Firehouse Subs, checked in at my hotel that was within 10-15 minutes of the race site, and got my stuff situated the best I could for the next morning.

I left the hotel before 5:30 on Sunday morning and got to downtown Ada early enough to find street parking that was a mile from Ada Park – the main grounds of the race. I got an awesome triathlon backpack for Christmas (thanks Mom!) that holds everything I need, so I strapped that on my back and rode my bike to the park. 

It was helpful to do a triathlon the weekend prior to this one to refresh my memory about things I could tweak. I realized it would be helpful to put my backpack in a garbage bag to protect it from my dripping wetsuit once I hung it on the rack after the swim. Plus, the grass was wet from rain the night before too. Other than that, it was a pretty standard setup. First thing in the morning I’d had a protein Picky Bar and at 6:00 I had one of the regular bars, allowing an hour for it to settle before I started racing.

Knowing that I’d be racing for six hours, I was hoping I could last that long without any bathroom stops. I hit a porta potty before leaving transition then was glad to see no lines for the few placed by the start of the swim. I figured I may as well make one more last-minute stop. I heard guys discussing their techniques for peeing on the bike and I had no plans to do the same!

Athletes could do a warm up swim from 6-6:30 but I got to the start just after that timeframe. I’m not sure I would have wanted to stand around for half an hour waiting to start while wet anyway. Since the swim took place in a river and we had to go down a ramp to get in the water, it’s not like some beach starts where I could have just wandered in. I’d just have to warm up as I went and maybe my jog from the transition area was enough to get my body moving a bit.

One thing I love about this race is the use of pace signs for the swim start. It’s common to see in running races and extremely helpful for swimming as well. I placed myself somewhere in the middle of the 1:56-2:00/100m group which worked perfectly. We entered the water in pairs every few seconds.

Because of the ramp start, I only got a few steps into the water before “diving” in. The water was 69.5° and I wondered if it would be shockingly cool but it was totally fine, even with my sleeveless wetsuit. A couple of strokes in and I was good.

Then I “just” had 1.2 miles to swim. It was a beautiful morning in the high 50s and the lake felt great, other than moments when I snagged a few pieces of seaweed along the way. Nothing too bothersome though and no real waves or current that I noticed. I had plenty of space around me and even found myself mostly on my own at times. Seeding ourselves based on pace really helped. I felt good during the swim and enjoyed being able to let my mind wander rather than keeping track of laps like I do in the pool.

When the sun is out it makes it challenging to spot the buoys at some point during basically any race. We will head toward the sun eventually and this time it was on the way back. There was a stretch when I couldn’t really see where I needed to go and just kept moving forward, at least staying between the lifeguards in kayaks until I could spot the next buoy. I finished the swim in 38:16 which was an average of 1:58/100m.

When I approached the ramp out of the water, two awesome guys were ready to grab my hands to pull me up. One of them even unfastened the neck of my wetsuit to make it easier for me to get out of it.

Then more wonderful volunteers were ready to yank my wetsuit off in a quick motion. Based on how much time I usually spend fumbling to get out of it on my own, the wetsuit strippers probably saved me a minute or two!

Since the transition area is more than a quarter mile from the river, I’m thankful that the race sets up a shoe corral area. I took advantage of it because that allowed me to get a solid run in on my way back rather than tenderly stepping on the pavement in my bare feet.

Of course that bonus jog alone added three minutes to my first transition time which contributed to it taking 7:17. I also took time to spray sunscreen on myself, eat a Clif Blok, drink, stuff my tri suit pockets with bars and chews, and try to get bike gloves on my wet hands. Eventually I ran my bike out to the mount line and started the 56-mile ride.

For the first 15 miles heading east I felt pretty good, ranging between 16.2 mph to 18.4 mph. I enjoyed the pretty ride by farmland and felt grateful that I am able to do things like this. I slowed down for the next few miles when I hit some rolling hills. When we headed south for a stretch of five miles, a crosswind got to me.

My average of 17 mph declined pretty quickly as I racked up a bunch of miles going 14 mph.

It was an out-and-back course so when I saw the leader coming back the opposite direction I calculated how far ahead he was. Oh, only 16 miles. He had a good hour on me! It just made me laugh and think about how I clearly don’t do this to be competitive because I don’t stand a chance!

I thought that crosswind was tough until we headed west for four miles. At that point I dropped just below 14 mph for a couple miles. I was glad the wind hadn’t been around during our swim to create waves but it had clearly picked up quite a bit while I was out on the bike. When I got to the turn-around point of 28 miles, life was suddenly amazing again for four miles when I had a lovely tailwind. I even made it up to 19.8 mph for one mile! It told me just how significant the wind was that I could go from 13.7 mph in one direction up to 19.8 mph on the same flat stretch.

When I made the turn to head back north, I did better than I expected, averaging around 17 mph. After getting through 40 miles, my speed was stuck mostly in the 14-15 mph range as I headed back west and I cursed the wind the rest of the ride. I tried to talk myself through it knowing I had roughly an hour left. I wasn’t especially comfortable on my bike seat and didn’t enjoy battling the wind, but maybe having done it once before helped me keep a good enough mindset. Still, at my slow speed I felt like I was just “tooling around” out there.

My countdown continued when I hit the 50-mile mark and had six miles to go. At 53 miles I visualized one of my normal training rides and where I’d be with three miles left. I came across a few people who were doing the Olympic race in my last couple miles, and I was especially excited when I had a mile to go. 

While I had finished the course in 3:23:47 last year, it took me 3:31:19 this year. I was just glad to be done. Now I ONLY had a half marathon to go. Craziness.

I think I fueled enough between eating two Picky Bars during the ride and drinking from one bottle with water and one with Skratch electrolyte mix. When I got back to transition I ate a Clif Blok and drank a sip of electrolyte drink before heading out for the run. I swapped from my helmet to a hat, put my race belt on, and sprayed myself with more sunscreen. My second transition took 3:18.

When I finished this race last year I remember thinking that it felt like one of the hardest half marathons I had run. A half marathon feeling hard after 56 miles on the bike? Imagine that! Because it had beat me up so much I was determined to take it easier this year in hopes of getting through it a bit more smoothly. After having my side cramp up and seeing how much my heart rate skyrocketed at the beginning of the run during a triathlon the week before this, I knew I didn’t want to do that to myself again.

While the wind had felt brutal on the bike, it was fine during the run. I didn’t notice a headwind and it felt like the breeze probably helped keep me from getting too warm.

Even after struggling through some cruel hills on the course last year, I went ahead and signed up to do it again this year. I knew what I was getting myself into. Somehow I didn’t walk at all but I felt like I was barely moving faster than a walk on one of the hills…and we got to do two loops of the course. There were some stretches that were a slow-go and other parts that didn’t feel as bad. I tried to remind myself of that when I went through the hard parts – it would get better after that.

I had some weird tweaks from the back of my ankle throughout this run. It wasn’t the same as the Achilles thing that I’d dealt with recently, but just something to keep me a little on edge. I’m thankful it didn’t turn into anything more than twinges and it didn’t stick around after the race.

I ate a Clif Blok every couple miles, drank some of my electrolyte drink, and made a point of grabbing water from nearly every aid station. I saw one of the leaders go by a few times and he was huffing and puffing like crazy. Maybe it would have been nice for me to end up with a faster time, but pushing that hard just didn’t look fun. It seemed more ideal to not to pay attention to my pace and just go with what I felt like I could maintain. 

One spectator said to a couple of us, “You ladies are beasts!” Even when it felt tough I told myself that we were all badasses. Plenty of people were walking which made me feel like I was doing pretty good. We were all going to cover the same distance though! Since we kept going out and back on parts of the course and passed the same people multiple times, I would often exchange smiles, thumbs ups, and “good job” wishes with those who were receptive. It was hard for all of us and it was nice to feel like we were rooting for each other. 

I ran six of the miles under a 9:00 pace and seven of them over. My third mile was the fastest at 8:38 and my eleventh was the slowest at 9:29. The slowest miles definitely corresponded with the placement of the hills. After that 9:29 mile I knew the course got easier again, and surprisingly, I still had energy left. With two miles to go I decided I could pick up my pace. Taking it “easy” during this run paid off because instead of dying by the end like last year, I felt pretty good. I finished the run in 1:57:27 and completed the race in a total of 6:17:34.

Over six hours of going non-stop – crazy. When I came to a complete stop after crossing the finish line I went straight to a folding chair to sit for five minutes or so. I chatted with a kind volunteer and recovered enough to feel like I could go check out the food. After burning over 3,000 calories it was time to eat!

I was glad they had chocolate milk in a cooler so I could get some protein. I figured I could use the salt from Fritos, and went for plenty of carbs with pieces of bagels and muffins. I stopped by the food table a couple times then went to the awards table to collect a medal for placing second (out of five) in my age group. 

I finally returned to transition to pack up my stuff and casually cruised a mile on my bike back to the car.

The two-hour drive home wasn’t so bad but getting up after sitting that long didn’t feel great. I stopped at Culver’s on the way home for more replenishment of calories.

It was an accomplishment doing my first 70.3 last year and now having done it twice confirms to me that I can legitimately do this. I was 15 minutes slower this year and it’s always nice to believe I can improve, but I’m totally fine with the results. I was 2.5 minutes slower on the swim even though I felt good this year. I peaked with a 42-mile bike ride during training this time while I did a 56-mile ride last year. I knew I hadn’t put in as much time on the bike to prepare and that was the part that had me the most concerned going into the race. The wind this year was the real killer for me and I ended up 8.5 minutes slower. I had to take more time to recover from this year’s Boston Marathon and feel like I haven’t rebuilt my mileage enough and don’t have any running speed at all. My run definitely felt better this year but I was also four minutes slower. 

Although I like to look back and analyze how everything broke down, I really am not hung up on time at all. Just getting through this kind of distance is a big challenge and finishing was my only real goal. I did pretty darn good considering how much I questioned my level of preparation! Tris4Health does a really great job with this race and I’m glad I returned to do it again. 

This year I decided to try two 70.3 races, so the next one comes up in July in Ohio. I chose that one because of its flat course. At the very least this race served as a great training session to work toward possibly improving for that race. I took a couple days off to recover but luckily this race didn’t beat me up like marathons do. I have over a month to keep building up my running and to get more long rides in. I do not have ANY ambitions to try a full Ironman at this point and am still kind of questioning what I think of the 70.3 distance. Plenty of times I’ve wondered if I ought to stick with the more reasonable Olympic distance. I like to challenge myself though and there’s definitely a feeling of real empowerment after completing this. I hope the weather will cooperate enough next month to see if I can improve with my third attempt at the distance.

– Janet

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