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[thejerkstorecalled]

Leaving on a high (low?) note [Ohio 70.3 Race Report]

My favorite episode of one of my favorite shows - also the inspiration for my blog title – resolves around a main character leaving on a high note. If you can’t read between the lines or haven’t been blessed to watch, we’re talking about Seinfeld.

That was the goal: leaving on a high note. I found, fortunately or unfortunately, that it’s easier to leave on a low note. You don’t have all the “what ifs”; e.g., what could happen if I put in just a little more effort?

That was Ohio 70.3 for me. I knew this would be my last 70.3 for quite a while, and now I’m really, really okay with that. Before, part of me was ready for a triatus while part of me was bummed not to be threading together another race schedule.

My journey of all these crazy events started ten years ago, with an experimental sprint tri – that sparked an interest I stewed on for five years before really swimming, biking and running – and my first half marathon. It’s been a good run, but maybe it’s run its course?

Pre-race: the pre-race logistics snafus and tight timelines were something special, so I’ve put them at the end because they nearly deserved their own post.

The swim: there’s a reason I don’t do non-wetsuit swims. I’ll preface what I’m about to say by noting that I’ve attended a handful of masters and tri swim groups over the last five years and have had individual and team consulting from swim coaches. I’ve also continued to pour more effort into improving in the swim each passing year by having a longer swim focus in the off-season, increasing swim frequency with bonus swims, etc. The only other non-wetsuit 70.3 I’ve raced was my very first 70.3 - 5.5 years ago when I didn’t have a coach, a training plan or a fancy swim skin. And I briefly stopped swimming and stood on a sand bar during the event; there’s actually a photo of it somewhere on the internet. I only swam :16 faster in Ohio (47:08 vs 46:52) … It’s incredibly frustrating to love a sport that doesn’t love you back. Just kidding - I hate swimming like Cleveland hates Lebron, so I mean that it’s a complicated and estranged love-hate relationship.

The bike: I didn’t feel great, I didn’t feel terrible, but I did expect a faster bike split. I only bested my old bike PR by :14 (2:37:32 vs 2:37:46 though GPS reflects course as a tad long and my Strava segment time for the course was 2:35:57 though it doesn’t count since it’s totally not official) which was set three years ago. I also raced St George 70.3 three years ago, and then rode 13 minutes faster on that course this year… I forgot to pack my aero bottle for this event, so I had to modify my nutrition, and maybe that was off, too.

The run: Oh, how I wanted to DNF. I was mentally checked out, and to be fair, I’d already had a conversation with my coach about how I want to shift to a pure cycling focus, pun sort of intended. Now that we live in Austin, road cycling in the shiny thing. I also didn’t feel like I was having fun although adding about 75 mg of caffeine in the first few miles kinda helped. I’ve really lost my fire for running lately; I’ve been feeling that way on and off for a couple years. Maybe it’s a flicker that goes in and out and it’s just really out right now. Running is my most competitive discipline, both within triathlon and as a standalone, so I hope the flicker comes back someday, eventually. As much as I wanted to quit, and I did sort of phone it in, three things kept me going:

1.     Michael and I have a map where we pin new states [where we’ve raced a half or full tri or marathon] and I really wanted my Ohio pin – I haven’t gotten any new pins this year!

2.     My friend Kirby was waiting and I didn’t want to keep her waiting all day, I was ready to get back to the fun stuff!

3.     If I could have at least a decent finish, I could get a high enough USAT score to average in and lock up All-American for a fourth consecutive year, my only real chance to finish on a high note at this point.

A few bullets reviewing the actual race [event]:

·      For a two-transition race, this was easy breezy! The transitions were only five or six miles apart and a pretty easy drive.

·      Generally speaking, the whole event was a compact experience and didn’t feel like a hugely produced WTC race, in a good way: Our hotel was right on the town’s main street where we were a quarter mile from Ironman village and the finish line, a moderate walk to the morning shuttles to the swim start and a lovely walk from local restaurants and the cute downtown of Delaware.

·      It was a neat town and we enjoyed the local spots. Everyone was super-friendly.

·      Transitions were short, and T2 was in Ohio Wesleyan stadium, though my watch-out would be the stadium grass and material, as I got a lot of it all over my feet as I was putting on my socks for the run and it was a bit painful to run with those beads stuck to the bottom of my feet for 13.1 miles!

·      The swim was warm (79.25*) and I was surprised how choppy the water got. It was also VERY murky, there was no visibility, but it didn’t taste too bad (I got a lot of it in my mouth via the chop, so can confidently confirm).

·      The roads on the bike were pretty good and traffic was light and well-controlled, so I felt pretty safe. The first 1/3 or so had almost no turns, so was very fast. The second 1/3 seemed a bit windy or false flatish to me, which I thought might be me getting tired but I was leap-frogging with the same group throughout that stretch while we were trying to stay legal as we continually entered each others draft zones. I’d also note that there were a lot of course marshals out monitoring drafting. The last third was hilly* and had a lot of turns, so was a bit slower, but I was able to drop the group I’d been leap-frogging with when we hit this section. *the hills were generally short and shallow, I’m pretty sure I only broke aero twice and never once had to shift out of my big ring, I was riding in pretty big gears all day

·      The loops on the run seemed to go by more quickly than I thought they would, which made me like the format. There were gentle rollers on the run. Some up-hill within that, but nothing major, just nice undulations to break up the monotony. There were also some very well-shaded portions, and I was surprised how many spectators were out on the loop, presumably locals since it was rural-residential. It was a neat community. The finish was on the university track, which was pretty cool!

The pre-race ordeal that was so chaotic it’s almost un-believable:  

·      I booked my flight in May on Allegiant instead of Delta because the price was hard to pass up, and it was a quick, direct flight – those are hard to find out of Austin. When I did this, I was under the assumption that Tri Bike Transport would be servicing Ohio 70.3 and I would be light on flight baggage. That was not the case.

·      I ended up booking a Bike Flights shipment to get my bike to Ohio and having it shipped to a Trek store to be rebuilt. I find it stressful to do myself when I’m short on time and it needs to be done right so I can race on the bike.

·      When my bike was en route back from Ironman Boulder in June, the front carbon clincher got deeply scratched. I logged a ticket with Tri Bike Transport and they worked with Profile Design to get me a crash replacement for free, all within about a month, which was pretty amazing, but it arrived to my house a few days after I had shipped my bike already.

·      Since you have to declare any checked or carried-on luggage well in advance with the budget airlines to avoid hefty fees, I opted to ship my new carbon wheel to Ohio via FedEx, to arrive at Kirby’s house.

·      The shipment got screwed up and arrived early and needed a signature. I was unable to edit it for store pick-up, so Kirby had to stay home all day Friday waiting for the wheel to arrive. Aside: I’m never using FedEx again, terrible customer service. All that meant that Kirby wouldn’t be able to pick me up from the airport if she were sitting around waiting on the wheel, therefore…

·      I had to book a rental car so that I could pick up my bike and then get to her house, about an hour from the airport. But wait, there’s more!

·      The airport that I was flying into on my cheap Allegiant flight was not the main airport, and there were no rental cars or cheap rental car locations nearby, so I had to take a Lyft from one airport to another – the main airport - so that I could rent a car big enough to fit a bike box and a fully built bike!

·      I scooped up both amidst my logistical circus on Friday and planned to check the bike and ready the wheel Friday night. I discovered that the seat had been positioned well higher than my bike fit called for and was not ride-able. The tool I needed for that was missing from my bike box, though I know I packed it. I also realized that the wheel needed rim tape, and I was hesitant to do that myself and screw it up, resulting in multiple flat tires (I always like to be able to blame someone else, not that I would, but it’s best to minimize the ways things can go wrong)

·      I took the bike back to the shop on Saturday, as they said they didn’t have the tool I had packed, and suggested it fell out during shipping. They noted that the seat was left high so that I could see that the carbon on the seat post had been compromised. At this point, I decided that I didn’t want to invest any more money into this bike since this “race” would probably be the last time I’d ride it outside, so decided to chance it and hope the roads weren’t bad!

·      Getting the bike re-readied took some time, so we were crunched to check in for the race and make two gear drops (bike and run bag) for a two-transition race.

·      The next few hours were a scramble, and I arrived at mandatory run bag check four minutes before it closed, and the volunteer reminded me that “if you do things at the last minute, then they only take a minute.” I appreciated that validation.

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