On Sunday, I raced the Eagleman 70.3 in Cambridge, Maryland. It is the first of three 70.3's that I'm racing this year. All are within 5 weeks of one another and the goal (hope?) is to get a spot at the 70.3 World Championship. The Eagleman is a very popular race. The athletes are experienced and fast!
I was looking forward to this race because it is flat and I've never done a flat triathlon (at any distance). When we arrived in the morning, it was announced that the water temperature was 76.5 degrees, making it a non-wetsuit race. Great! I bought a new wetsuit this year, but I'm always happy to not wear one. I hate wetsuits. I did, however, get to wear my swim skin, which probably does nothing for speed but makes me at least look like I'm fast.
Once we got ourselves settled in to transition, I had to wait over an hour from the pro start to my own start at 8:00. Randy and Matt had already taken off on their swims (as did everyone else I knew at the race), so I patiently waited for my swim in the Choptank River. The water temperature was great and I settled in pretty quickly. The course was easy to see, but the water was murky. I would hit someone in the legs without actually seeing them. But it was a relatively calm swim and I started passing people in my own age group, then people in the waves before me. I was more than halfway through the course when I started seeing the green caps coming up behind me. They were flying by! I jumped onto the feet of one of them to draft my way around two ladies who were in my way. That was fun!
I exited the water with a 37-minute swim, which is pretty typical for me in a non-wetsuit race. T1 was uneventful. I loaded up the sunscreen and headed out for my flat bike ride.
About 10 miles into the ride, I realized my mistake. I'd forgotten my electrolyte tablets. And it was hot and sunny. I haven't been in hot, sunny weather yet this season, so I wasn't ready. I tried to compensate by drinking a lot of Gatorade, but I started to feel the cramps around mile 30. My quads and my feet (?). Because of the flat course, you are in the same position the whole time and utilizing the same muscles the whole time. I had to make a conscious effort to stand or sit up, but it didn't help. I managed to go under 3 hours for my ride, which I was happy about, but I was concerned that the cramps were going to affect my run.
I hopped off the bike and was going to run to my transition area when I felt the cramps. So, I walked the bike in. I took some time to get my compression socks on, spray on some more sunscreen, and hit the porta-loo, then headed out on the run. Oddly, the cramps were gone. It took a good mile to settle into a rhythm, but I managed to move along. It was hot and sunny. I knew I was cutting it close to going under 6 hours, but I also knew that I had to take advantage of the aid stations if I was going to survive the heat. Since the run was an out-and-back, the aid stations serviced both directions and were pretty cramped. I walked through each one, downing water and Gatorade and cola, grabbing a Gu or potato chips (for the salt), and using the cups of ice to cool off (in my hat, in the legs of my shorts, in my jersey pockets). I knew it was slowing me down to do all of this, but I knew that if I tried to blow through the aid stations I would get in trouble later on. Besides, they were so crammed with people and garbage that I'm not sure I would have been able to run through them! I manage to maintain a little over a 10-minute pace, which means I was doing relatively well while I was actually running. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough to get under 6 hours. I ended up with a time of 6:01. I'm a little disappointed, but I know that I did the best I could under the conditions.
After the race, we attended the roll-down for the 70.3 World Championships in Mont Tremblant. Since I'm not placing in the top two in my age group, the roll-down is my only chance for a spot. When they got to my age group, the spot just kept rolling down until they asked if there was anyone who wanted it. Three of us jumped up. One of the other two was faster than me. Bummer. However, I had spent some time talking to this woman earlier and she was super excited, so although I'm bummed I didn't get the spot, I'm glad she was so happy!
All in all, it was a pretty good race. I ended up with a pretty bad sunburn, despite the sunscreen (I may opt for SPF 50 in the future!). Afterwards, Randy and I went out for some Maryland crabs, which I've never had before. They were covered with Old Bay seasoning - nice and salty after a sweaty race! Yum!
I spent this week on recovery and will get myself ready for Syracuse 70.3 next weekend!
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