Here the kids got 2nd place in the Kids Adventure Race!
Race day for me was kind of an" out of body experience." It is tough mentally to do a race when you are not rested or tapered.
I am preparing for Ironman Coeur d Alene in 2 weeks and due to my racing/training schedule I really had to accept that some races I could focus on and some would just be hard training days. Coach Paulo reminded me that this race was not to be my focus and that I should just race with what I had. Now sometimes you can surprise yourself with how you feel. Last year I won Tinman up in Lake Placid after a very heavy training week. But that race was way more low key and there were not 4 World Champions there!
Race morning however after two noisy nights in a hotel room and little sleep I felt more fatigued than anything. My warmup run was on heavy legs and I tried my best to ignore them. Watching the stellar field of girls all warming up didn't help either, but I too put my game face on and tried to ignore what my body was telling me.
Sydney with breakfast on hand giving me a last hug before entering the water!
My race morning nutrition had consisted of a gluten free bagel with almond butter at 4am and a bottle of Ultragen that I sipped on and the a small bottle of EFS right before the swim.
Swim start
I got off to a good quick start( all 30 seconds of it) before the faster swimmers started pulling away. My arms did not want to turn over so I just settled into what I could do... my own pace. I didn't feel awful, my endurance felt good, but I was definitely in the Ironman swim pace....
Onto the bike, I hoped that my body would start to kick in but instead I felt rather flat. I missed the first turn 5 minutes into the ride which was annoying and my fault for not making driving the course a priority. The cop directing bikers decided to take a nap in his car and the turn said run turn so I kept going only to hear the cop honking a minute later...major bummer...enough time wasted for me to have a girl pass me and for me to totally lose sight of Amanda and Natasha. The hills were relentless and I noticed that I was riding at least 10 heart beats lower than usual. It was however a fun pretty course but I battled to keep my focus. Your mind set is so important in racing. My second wrong turn was following two bikers down a road that apparently was the wrong one. The person directing bikers had got on his bike to go chase the biker who had gone the wrong way...thus there was nobody at that spot. With such a windy course with some big fast descents it was imperative to know the course.
Seeing Julie and Kelly heading to their second mile while I was still heading in on the bike was a reminder that I needed to give the run everything I had to try make up for my swim/bike. The run course was great and challenging. I raced in the new Saucony Kinvara's and were amazed how good they felt on the hills. They are the lightest race flat I have raced in by far but the most comfortable! I pushed hard the first few miles and then tried to push hard up the big hill climbs.
My legs felt pretty solid and I ran pretty strong the whole way until the last two miles. My heart rate was abnormally high all race and was hitting 173 on the last hill climb and I was ready for this race to be over. It was so great to see my fam out on the course and it kept things real.
Coming into the finish line the Hank was there with the kids and they were ready to run with me. They have not run across a finish line since my first IM in Lake Placid probably 5/6 years ago. So it was great to see their excitement and have them there. They are the greatest two kids a mom could ask for!
Post Race kids meeting team mate Amanda
So all in all a great race! It was great to see all the Trakkers girls and guys out there working hard and having fun! This is a must do race for everyone and I will definitely go back next year ready to race!!
