Ohio 70.3 July 2023

 I flew in Wednesday morning and stayed at my parents’ place in Sylvania. After having lunch with the family on Saturday Mike and I drove to Sandusky. We stopped at the IM village so I could get my bib and rack my bike. 

We then checked into a motel a couple of miles away. It was well run with good people, but wow, did the room ever smell like mothballs. I had forgotten to grab a bowl and spoon from my parent’s place, so I ended up eating my yogurt with my toothbrush out of a coffee cup - I was laughing at myself the entire time. Mike dropped me off at transition early and went to park (parking is plentiful BTW). There is a single transition located at the swim exit. I got lucky and forgot to reserve an AWA number via active (had no idea I was supposed to do this) and ended up with a high number at the end of a row right by the bike out exit. Perfect! These days, since Ironman does not assign bib numbers until registration (an artifact of covid), the bikes are packed really close together. To get extra room you would need someone whose number is next to you to register in person, but then not rack their bike. I am sure Ironman continues to do this so they can register more people into the race without needing a larger transition area. I miss having our names on the bibs and having more space. After laying everything out (and grateful for the extra room since my bike was on the end), I could not get my disc wheel to fill with air using my pump. I then tried the race provided pumps that were zip tied to the fences. No luck and I was holding up the line, so I took it over to the bike mechanic tent and they filled it up with a compression pump (hooray)! Seems like the crack pipe (what I call the bendy adapter for disc wheels) I had just bought at the local shop was too narrow - it just did not work. Time to breathe and use the porto (do not stay in transition for this - the lines at the portos between the swim start and the expo are much shorter).

It was announced early that the water was wetsuit optional at 77+ degrees after temperature posting as 76.1 yesterday. Yay!!!! Although I did not swim in college, I have a high school swimming background and I grew up with a lake in my backyard, so open water anxiety is not an issue. Non wetsuit swims take more energy out of less efficient swimmers, and I think folks also underestimate how swim fatigue affects their bike and run times. I usually place better with non-wetsuit swims overall - Kona (so far) being an exception.

I did not really have time to run warmup and it was warm (upper 60s and humid), so I just used my swim bands for about five minutes. I should have used them a bit longer. There is a fun start on a ferry boat. The starting gun was the ferry horn, and it scared the bejeezus out of me! Good – the adrenalin is going. My coach, Jason McFaul, had joked around about keeping a jar of bees in transition to get my heart rate up (I had my best race rehearsal run when I got stung by a bee in the last couple of miles of the bike a few weeks prior). The horn went off again unexpectedly. Ok, ok, thank you ferry dude, more adrenalin is flowing. To start, you jump off the ferry into a short channel that leads out to Lake Erie. Once you hit the lake, you take a left and swim out and back – the finish is on the transition side of the pier. 

I could not see past my elbows. I could not see the bodies below water of anyone around me. Whoa - this is even worse underwater visibility than Tempe Town Lake! My goggles were fogged except for one little spot on my left eye. Decided not to pause and clear because touching the lenses can make it worse. After ten minutes the fog went away, and it was easy to sight on the buoys. People were swimming in all directions and must have been sighting on other people instead of the buoys. I got swum over diagonally twice. It is always a man. The second guy nearly peeled my watch off. The strap was still secured but no longer secured and dangling. If you race at Ohio, make sure you can sight well on buoys in open water. I have done over 50 IM branded races and this one has the worst water visibility of them all. This leads to a lot of contact with other swimmers. Too many people rely on following others’ feet instead of sighting for the buoys above water. It made for a chaotic swim all the way through. The break wall also makes for a slower swim. I did not think it was choppy this year, but there was never a current assist. Expect a non-wetsuit, challenging swim. It is easy to sight on the buoys if you practice that and your goggles are not fogged up! Just don’t sight on people above the water - they were all over the place!!

The swim seemed long (I couldn’t see my wrist to check my pace when it buzzed at 500yd increments) and slow but I passed more people than passed me - the opposite of my experience at Morro Bay. Once I was around the second to last turn buoy, I had to constantly correct to swim left. This may be because I tend to cross over with my left hand and could not visually correct under the water and it may have also been a washing machine type current off the breaker wall pushing us - not sure. I will say there were many kayaks and boards that did a great job of keeping people from going too far off course: I didn’t see any water snakes (a popular thing to meme about for this race –the pic I posted was taken by the wife of a triathlete and posted on the Ohio page) but then one would have had to swim a few inches from my face for me to have been able to see it!

 

Swim 1.2mi: 36:44, 2/47 W50-54AG, 49/394 WO, 193/1381 OA

To get out of Lake Erie, you must pull yourself up on to a ladder – it does not hang far underwater, it at all. Then (even though my bike was twenty feet away, straight ahead) we all had to run to the right towards the back of transition. The look on my face running up the ramp says it all about how I felt about my swim time. I was going for the low thirties but did not get anywhere close to my goal. I knew that it was a slow swim, so I sucked it up and decided I could still PR. Better get me a fast transition! The run for T1 is almost twice as long as T2 (see Strava pics). I got a bigger bento box for my bike ahead of this race and it was fantastic not having to waste time shoving things into my pockets. The mount line is around the corner (to right) once you exit the transition arch.

T1 2:59, 1/47 W50-54AG

 

I settled in and had a huma gel and used my inhaler. Initially there are quite a few turns and some rough parking lot patches, so it is hard to get your groove on. The roads were mostly in good condition with a freshly paved longest out section. We got lucky with very light winds - headwind out, tailwind back. Winds were blowing out of the SW, so smoke from the wildfires in Canada was thankfully not an issue. My bike mantra was, “Breathe power in and doubt out.” I think this one is a keeper, and I will use it again. I loved seeing all the folks out at the end of their driveways cheering for us along the course. Not all of Ironman’s venues can boast local support. The roads were open, but I only saw a handful of vehicles and they were all respectful. It felt safe, like the roads were closed. I loved the flat course. Everything went as planned out on the bike – it was uneventful with only a few people purposefully drafting. I only saw an official twice – I would have preferred to see them more often! There were a few small overpasses and one or two tiny hills, but it was otherwise flat as advertised. I used a disc and an 88mm front wheel with no handling issues at all - the wind was enough to tell the difference between head and crosswinds, but it was not a handling issue. Riding back to T2 the last section was awesome averaging 22-23mph. Yay – first place in my age group on the bike – but I did not know this at the time.

 Bike 56mi: 2:36:32, 1/47 W50-54AG, 23/394 WO, 254/1381 OA

In T2 I decided to run in my cleats because I didn’t have socks on and was concerned that the black asphalt would be too hot (it was probably fine but I decided not to find out). Helmet off and quick shoe change and I was off. I had half a bottle of Skratch and had licorice to get my HR up. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to run close to my target speed (but would have preferred closer to 8). I was looking around for my family that was supposed to arrive for the run - did not see them so figured they were in the main part of the course. I hit my transition time goals exactly (total of 5:00) with a 2:59 T1 and a 2:01 T2.

 T2 2:01, 1/47 W50-54AG

I was so excited to be able to get my HR close to where I wanted it over 140. At all my prior races this year, I had a low HR no matter how hard I pushed - it was most likely due to bad timing during my monthly cycle. Hooray! Prior to 2022, I was self-coached. Working with a coach (Jason McFaul) has given me extra purpose to give the races my all. I was finally running at a pace that reflected my fitness and would finally hit some mats without disappointing him - this positive feedback just buoyed everything, and I was so glad I was moving like I should be. I understand I am still nowhere near the fastest runner in my age group, and I am always running scared at races. I can sometimes get a gap to competitors with my swim bike combination, but then I know I will be losing ground to someone in the field. It is a matter of not letting the gap close completely.

I tried to get gap data from Mike and my girls when I saw them, but Mike would only tell me it was too soon to tell. The rolling, staggered start at IM races makes it difficult to know who is really right behind you. The whole age group is spread out over 1.5 hours and there can be fast bikers/ runners moving up the field way behind me. The fastest runners are often not fast swimmers, so it would be a while before he would know who was virtually behind me and how fast they were running. The run at Ohio is set up well for spectators and traffic. Every other road is closed, and spectators can move up just a couple blocks to see their athlete run by again. It seemed like family was everywhere! Once I was four miles in, I finally got some intel from Mike. I had a 5-minute gap (it was actually 7) and the third-place person was running about 20-30 seconds a mile faster than me. Oh boy - it is going to be close - this is my race to lose. I cannot slow down. Saw Lauren LeBlanc (TriDot) running up on me, going the opposite direction, shortly after – we did a shout out in person intro, and I knew I would be seeing her again on my left shoulder soon. My parents came to the race which they have not been to one since my first full in 2005 (which they promptly told me I should never do again). They are in their eighties now, so it is hard for them to hear and see, but I did get to see them twice during the run and they were able to see me finish. I managed the heat well with plenty of ice in my bra and in my hands. The run is mainly down residential streets, and many folks had thoughtfully and generously set up sprinklers for us to run through. I obliged. I was drinking the Skratch I had on me as well as Coke at about every other aid station. The run for me was a combination of clutch and flow, with periods of the race going by quickly and other miles taking a very long time. I had practiced which questions I was going to ask myself during the run: Can you pick up your turnover? Are you a racer? How many people can you pass? Don’t you want to PR at 52? Is your form on point? What is your respiration rate – do you need your inhaler? It is only 13.1 miles – why are you running like it is 26.2? Smile because you want to. If your feet hurt, it is a good thing they are so far from your heart. My new running mantra is also a keeper: “flow and clutch are your only two states,” My mantra helped prevent my brain from complaining – and there was plenty to complain about. Both of my girls were there, and I loved their enthusiasm every time I saw them! They were shouting accolades and Daria and Max ran just behind me shouting encouragement for a good tenth of a mile every stretch. Daria was reportedly sorer than I was the day after! The only time intel I was getting from my family after that first 5:00 gap info, was that I needed to hold 8:30 pace. I was just missing that mark and ended up averaging 8:38 miles, but it was enough to hold on to the lead.

 

Run 13.1mi: 1:55:07, 3/47 W50-54AG, 65/394 WO, 309/1381 OA

Total Time: 05:13:21 1/47 W50-54 AG, 32/394 WO, 218/1381 OA

After talking with my parents and meeting up with Mike and my girls, I slowly walked to transition to change out of my shoes and my kit. The bottom of my right foot was on fire and would end up with quite a few bruised toenails.  Out of nowhere and not in the forecast, I rainstorm blew in. It rained cats and dogs walking to go eat – I did think about how lovely it would have been to have that rain on the run course. Good on those folks still out there running!

The awards were late – not until 4:00 and it had been raining for a good while. The weather broke just before 4:00 and it ended up being the world’s fastest award ceremony during a lull between rainstorms. All the award ceremonies should all be this fast! Roll down started 25 minutes after the awards. Second place had asked me during awards if I was taking the New Zealand spot (70.3 World Championships in December 2024). Yes, I was! It is an excellent excuse to drag my homebody family across the Pacific. She left, and the third-place person got the second slot in our age group which rolled because no one in 65-69 wanted theirs. Always stay for roll down – you never know what is going to happen in real time. There was also an extra slot given for 35-39 and most folks had left so the 34^th place woman ended up taking it.

I did not have any bird sightings ahead of this race. When I looked up my bib number, 1285, after registering the night before, the meaning I found was: “Celebrate your wins. Have courage in yourself and your ability. You have all you need to succeed.” Well, now, that was the best one yet!  Winning my age group was a cherry on top, but I am most excited about beating my half ironman PR. Previously, I had finished in 5:21 on three separate occasions, the fastest of those at 5:21:04 was in 2010 when I was thirty-nine. Coach Jason and TriDot have brought my fitness up and I was able to smash my PR by almost 7 minutes at age 52. At a time when I expected to slow down, it is so much fun to get faster! I am still deciding if I will return to Ohio next year to defend my title. Ohio 70.3 is a well-run race with fantastic local support and logistics. I will definitely be back if not next year!