Ironman Wisconsin 2014 Race Report

I like to get these race reports done as soon as possible, so the events of the day and my reactions to them are fresh in my mind. Short synopsis is: It was a tough day, but I learned a lot. 12:21 on the day, 1:07 swim, 6:45 bike, 4:19 run.

Jeff and I flew into Chicago Thursday morning before the race, met up with family and then made the drive to our favorite town in the Midwest. Madison is a great place, full of cyclists, coffee shops, great places to eat, and hills hills and more hills that can put a smile on any cyclist's face, as long as they are a glutton for punishment. One of the things we have missed the most since moving to Houston are the weekend trips we would take to Mad-town to train,  so the familiar drive up John Nolan drive with Monona Terrance in the background was a welcome and comforting sight.

The days leading up to the race were pretty relaxing as far as pre-Ironman goes. Normally we are frantically running around dealing with random ridiculous crises, but since we had our fair share of that before we left for our trip ( remember the bike fit debacle?) we seemed to have gotten that out of the way. We did our best to nap, stay off our feet and eat plenty of good food (more on food and nutrition later, our choice to embrace Metabolic Efficiency training dramatically improved our training experiences and completely saved race day for me). I was nervous as usual. I had high expectations and really felt that I could achieve the goals I had set forth for myself, but was nervous about the unknown.  But I tried to only worry about things I could control, so the weekend went on.

** Brief sidebar on nutrition before I get into the day: After Ironman Brazil and my severe GI issues I decided that my usual plan of ‘ just eat whatever and hope that it works’ was no longer a viable plan. If I was going to be serious about racing, I needed to be serious about race day nutrition. I would loosely practice nutrition before, but I never turned down a mid ride snickers bar either, and would frequently fuel long rides with pineapple empanadas from El Tierra Caliente ( the best Mexican Bakery EVER).

After doing some research about different training and racing nutrition, I was pointed in the direction of Metabolic Efficiency (ME) training, which addresses training/racing nutrition via every day nutrition. The idea is to teach your body to use fat instead of carbohydrate as fuel during exercise, done by consuming high amounts of good fats, protein and fiber, and little carbohydrate ( carbs from lots of veggies and a little fruit is fine, but the idea is to cut out grains, starches and legumes) and keeping protein/carb ratio as close to 1:1 as possible. There are also aspects of periodization – so if you want to learn more I would highly recommend picking up the book Metabolic Efficiency Training: Teaching the Body to Burn More Fat by Bob Seebohar or talking to our super awesome friend Robyn Lalonde ( owner of Edge Athlete Lounge in Chicago who is trained in MET). **

So Sunday morning came quickly. I'll skip over normal morning stuff. Getting down to swim start always takes longer than you expect in Madison, and if you want to line up near the front of the swim you have to be prepared to get in early, and tread water for a little while. So I made my way down early and got in place. It felt crowded. Well, it felt like there were nearly 3000 people in the water ( largest number of athletes starting to date, I believe). So there’s that.

Gun goes off. Its chaos for a while, but I quickly find some feet to draft off and the first stretch of the swim is pretty uneventful. It was a lot of contact as usual, but I expected it to clear up once we turned the first buoy and made our way to the second- I wasn't sighting well but that’s because the bottle neck caused by turning the buoy meant more crowding, and more contact. All of a sudden I went up to take a breath and was hit hard on my head by a guy swimming diagonally trying to get in front of me. I swallowed what felt like was a gallon of water but kept going. After turning the last buoy I lost focus and as far as I can tell I added quite a bit of distance to my swim by drifting off the line- I scrambled to cut across, but I think the damage had been done. Slower than expected swim- 1:07:XX, but meh, 2 minutes extra  is not the end of the world if you think about it within the context of an entire day.

Coming out of the water I hit up the wetsuit strippers. There were some issues getting the wetsuit off over my garmin. My watch got reset in the process, but this isn't a huge deal to me. I dealt with it on the fly and moved on. But as I ran to my bike in T1 I had that sloshy feeling in my stomach and was almost immediately hit with serious nausea. I thought this was just because of the abrupt transition from swimming to running, and figured it would subside. As planned, I didn’t take in any calories for the first 15-20 minutes to let my stomach calm down. About 20 minutes in I took a swig of water. Oh no, that didn’t feel good- this nausea was real, and it was about to rear its ugly head. I took a few sips of Osmo in an attempt to get some salt and electrolytes and some calories, and then in started… think Norman Stadler epic meltdown Kona 2007

What I can only imagine was lake water and a couple sips of Osmo came right up. This was not good- I just got on the bike and there was no way for me to take in any calories. I began to panic. How was I going to finish this bike ride without any caloric intake, while getting sick, much less run a marathon after? I really didn’t know what to do except press on and try to take in some calories. Small bite of cliff bar? Nope, that didn’t work. More osmo and water? Nope, right back out. I managed to keep a decent pace for the first part of the loop but I started to get desperate, scared, disappointed and upset all in one. I saw girls in my age group pass me left and right and I knew my goals for the day were out the window. But that wasn’t my primary concern at that moment. Was I going to be able to finish this race at all? I stopped at an aid station right after the climb into Mt Horeb, got sick again and then immediately started to cry. It’s embarrassing thinking about it now, but the rush of emotion and disappointment was overwhelming as I contemplated pulling the plug on the race. But as one of the volunteers approached me to ask if I wanted to call Medical or the sag van, I found myself saying “No, I’m going to keep going, it’s just going to be a long day”. So there it was. I was committing to this race.

And that’s how my bike ride continued. After the first of the “three sisters” ( three major climbs on the back half of the loop), I pulled over to the side of the road again.  A sweet older gentleman saw me, crossed the street to check up on me. After I assured him I would be fine ( I wasn't entirely sure of this myself, but I guess I made a compelling case) and we chatted for a while.  I told him I appreciated him stopping for me, and went on my way. I was miserable. But I was moving forward, and in the ever so wise words of a friend “forward is a pace” so I pressed on. I got to the last climb on the first loop where tri clubs, friends, family and random spectators set up camp, grills, coolers and music and line the side of the road Tour de France style. I knew that Element Multisport, our tri shop back in Chicago, would have their tent set up near the top of the hill and I was desperate for a friendly face. I saw our friend Chris, the owner of Element, and pulled over.  As he asked me what was wrong I started crying again. I was a blubbering mess, and I apologize to anyone I encountered during this less than glamorous moment in my life.

Chris gave me a pretzel and made the compelling argument that my second loop would be better since hopefully by then I will have gotten rid of all that lake water in my stomach. Hmm ok, I could get behind this idea. I was almost at the second loop anyway, how bad could another one be? I passed the half way mark and somewhere around mile 60 or so is special needs. I decided to stop as I had originally planned to switch bottles even though I had only gone through half of one of my bottles of Osmo. I was able to keep liquid down at this point, (but still hadn’t tried food) so I wanted to make sure I had enough osmo on me in case I was able to actually fuel my way through the rest of the ride.

But as I pulled up to special needs and stopped, I was shaking and a couple volunteers rushed to me. I explained to them what happened and in the most pitiful, but honest, moment of the day I blurted out “ I just need a hug from my husband”. Despite our hilarious “rivalry” hinged solely on burger bets, I was secretly hoping he was somewhere right behind me, and that I could let him know what was going on. The volunteers were quick to jump to action with the hug though. All the volunteers this past Sunday were amazing, and there aren’t enough “thank yous” I can give for the people that sacrifice their time to spend an entire day catering to the base needs (hugs included) of triathletes.

I decided to use the opportunity to open up a packet of almond butter and suck it down. Finally taking food in was energizing, and as I started back up I became cautiously optimistic that I was going to make it through this ride. For the rest of the 112 miles I kept a slow and steady pace, taking in small bites of cliff bar and almond butter. All in all, I made it through the ride on less than 400 calories and there is absolutely no way I would have been able to do that if I had not been practicing metabolic efficiency- training ( ok, done with my soap box moment)

I got a little weepy (AGAIN, it was like a Meryl Streep movie I swear) as I pulled into T2 because I honestly could not believe that ride was over. I had mentally been preparing myself for a near midnight finish throughout the entire ride because I had no idea how my day was going to unfold. I left my garmin on my bike. This run was going to be old school.

Starting the run I felt surprisingly good – I hit the first aid station for some ice, because it always calms my stomach, and started to pick up momentum. Before I knew it, I was actually running this marathon. I wasn't moving at a blazing pace or anything but to put it in perspective, I had dropped down to 25^th place after my bike ( from 13^th on the swim) and ran my way back to 15^th in my age group. I passed 91 women and around 400 men on the run. Given the day I had, I can’t really complain about this. I won’t go into too much detail on the run. Parts were great, parts were not so great ( including the world’s longest pee break because my body was FINALLY allowing me to hydrate) but overall, that run was fun, despite what my face  may look like in the pictures. I took potato chips from random spectators ( SO GOOD), high fived some kids, danced to some music around mile 18, saw friends and old teammates, and got several compliments on my hot pink shoes.

Looking back on the day, I can honestly say it was full of small, personal victories.  I kept going when I really wanted to stop. I used my training to adapt to what came my way. And I was reminded of the kindness and generosity of others in a sport that’s so often described as selfish. But, there is an element of disappointment as well that seems to be a recent theme for my racing. Part of it is that I put a lot of pressure on myself so no matter what the result is, I will always expect more. The other aspect of it is that I know how hard I work, and during training I see glimpses of what I am really capable of and then for whatever reason, the pieces don’t come together on race day. I’m not writing this the whine or complain, but just as a way to reflect on a long, rewarding and challenging year of racing. I know it’s “just a hobby” but I am lucky enough to have found something I am passionate about, and part of the joy I derive from this is challenging myself to become better at it. So it’s time to step back and think about what’s next for me. I plan on using a little bit of off season time to test the waters with ultra marathon running before hopping back on tri training, Contrary to previous plans though, it looks like 2015 will focus on building speed. I’ll come back to Ironman the following year hopefully refreshed, faster and stronger J

Ironman Brasil!! Força guerra!

For the record, "Força guerra!" was a phrase that was shouted at me about a million times during Sunday's  race, and from what I can decipher from this colloquialism is that it means "strong war" or "all out war". To me this is preferable to  " you're almost there!" (No I'm not, shut up) and "looking strong"(didn't your mother ever teach you not to lie?) and sounds almost joyful when said in the melodic tone of Portuguese. 

Before I get into the race report ( spoiler alert; it's going to be long so grab some trail mix and get comfy) I just wanted to say that IM Brasil was an amazing experience. Florianopolis, or Floripa for short, is an island that celebrates the triathlon culture and recognizes race day as a culmination of months of training, sacrifice and dedication, both on behalf of the athletes as well as their supportive families. The pre race culture here was positive and jovial as opposed to the stern " I'm going to kick your ass or at least throw a stick in your spokes" stare down that characterizes other races  I've participated in. It was by far the most relaxing IM experience I've had and for that I am thankful, and hopeful that other races will catch on. Also, I really hope the European style cafe in the middle of race expo catches on too. 

 A few things about this race made it kind of interesting. The first was the lack of women competing. Out of the 2100 competitors in the race, only 175 bib numbers were assigned to women including pros. I have a few theories on why this may be the case, but regardless it gave a much different vibe to the race. A low female count could have resulted in a weak field, but that was actually the opposite of the case as I would find out on race day. The second was the ocean swim, with a water exit half way through and only a total of four buoys. Sighting was a huge challenge, coupled with the strong current and aggressive male field, this was a tough swim. 

The third interesting aspect here is the difference in the perception of the race difficulty and the reality. This course was by no means the hardest I have done, but there is a hilly section on both the bike (done twice)and the run that you don't really hear about until you get here. To put this into perspective, ironman Wisconsin which has a reputation for being hilly and difficult has approximately 7400 feet of climbing. IM Brasil, which has a reputation for being flat and fast, actually clocks in about 5400 feet of climbing. 2 thousand less than Wisconsin but still nothing to sneeze at if you are coming into the race expecting a flat course. So on to the race report. 

Note: GI issues played a major part in my race day. Blog will likely be TMI, but hey this is part of the sport. We pee in wet suits, we pee on bikes, and we talk about bodily functions. Regression at its finest.

Race morning: bags and bikes had been checked the day before so after getting nutrition on my bike, pumping up tires, it was time to mosey on over to swim start. This part was smooth. I was nervous, a little emotional, but things were going off without a hitch, and I even saw my street dog friend, Giuseppe, roaming transition. I took this as a good sign. My stomach didn't feel great but I assumed it was race nerves and usually this means several bathroom trips right before swim start, and that gets things sorted out. Jeff and I made the 1k walk to swim start, wetsuits half on, expecting to find Porto Jon's near swim start. No dice. Apparently they aren't allowed near the beach. Race was starting in 15 minutes and I was out of luck. Decided to just put it out if my mind and hope it would just go away. Because physiology will certainly be considerate of the fact that in the middle of a race. 

Ken Glah, former pro, 30 time kona finisher, owner of Endurance  Sports Travel and local Floripa celebrity had told us on our course tour a couple days earlier that we should look at the directions the kayaks and boats were facing in order to read the direction of the current. Based on what we saw, we lined up toward the far right, hoping that the current would drag us toward the buoys, instead of way off course,

Swim 1:06:xx:  for all the camaraderie that characterized the days leading up to the race, the swim was by far one of the most violent and ruthless I have ever participated in. Brazillians are incredible swimmers and on this day there didn't seem to be many back of the pack swimmers at all. I lined up in the second row as I usually do but in all honestly, I probably I should have sat 3 or 4 rows back on Sunday. As the swim started I got clocked in the lip pretty hard and elbowed in the eye so badly it knocked my goggles off. Great, what a way to start the day. I sat in the middle of the washing machine fixing my goggles and basically thought that any swim sub 1:10 was going to be impossible today. The current was strong, the swimmers were fierce, and I still hadn't gotten to the mid swim beach run. But, if my countless hours swimming with the masters team taught me anything, it was that while I may not be the fastest swimmer , I AM a strong and consistent one, so I blocked out the commotion around me and focused on long strokes. Despite the lack of buoys, I found that I was as actually spotting pretty well- there were sections of the swim where I found some open water while everyone else swam off course. When I got caught in the middle of it all, I hitched myself on to a pair of feet and let them pull me along for a while. About 2200 meters in was the swim exit to run over the timing chip. I was nervous about this because it meant having to get over the breakers (not easy at 4 foot 11) and run through the sand while trying to keep my HR under control. The beach run we went as smooth as I could have hoped for. I swam into shore while most people walked and stood up on the beach actually feeling fresh ( ( again a huge thanks to coach Greg at masters for beating my butt every practice and a huge thanks to zoot for making this amazing wet suit). I washed some salt out of my mouth with fresh water at the aid station and kept going. At this point I was feeling a little crampy because of the salt water I had taken in during the swim but overall  feeling good. I hopped back in, dolphin dove over the breakers ( thanks Karin for the tip!!!) and in to the rest of the swim. Mostly uneventful. As I came into the (buoyless) finish line of the swim I prepared myself to look at my watch to find a disappointing swim time, but as I looked down to hit lap I saw 1:06:xx!! I was ecstatic -given the conditions that was a great swim time for me

(Me giggling like a little girl through the fresh water shower- hey dude you're blocking my shot)

T1: there is a bit of a run up a carpeted ramp before you hit the wetsuit strippers, then a little more run after that through the fresh water shower and into the transition to grab your bag. Off into the changing tents then off to grab my bike. Volunteers at IM Brasil are instructed NOT to help with retrieving bags or bikes, or putting your swim stuff into your bike bag for you, so this makes it a little slower, but totally fine. I was in and out in 5 minutes or so. 

Bike 5:45:xx: I was excited to get on the bike. Thanks to coach Michelle LeBlanc, I've seen huge strides in my cycling. Better strength and endurance, and just generally more confident. I set out on the ride cautiously optimistic. I knew I had to keep my heart rate in Zone 2 for the ride but I also knew that it would be elevated coming out of the swim and t1 so I was ready to use power as a gage until I got my HR under control. Holy draft packs batman!! Drafting was rampant on this course and I was committed to not get sucked up in it. There was cheating everywhere, and it was sad to see. But I raced my race on my own and am proud of that.

 As I got off the cobble stone path that lead out of the transition area I remember thinking something felt off. I looked down at my leg to notice I had no timing chip. F*ck!!!!! The last thing I wanted was to get disqualified ( we later heard that first place in one of the male age groups was dq'ed for not crossing over all the timing mats so I feel justified in my paranoia ). I road like that, having a minor panic attack until the first aid station/ penalty tent. I yelled Oi! ( hello) then "English"  to the volunteers standing there. One of them spoke a few words. I pointed down at my leg said I lost my timing chip during the swim( by doing the best air freestyle I could muster). She motioned for me to keep going and said she would call ahead to warn them. I thought this meant ahead to the next aid station/ med tent. So I kept riding, staying as calm as I could. At this point my HR hadn't recovered yet but I was comfortably in my zone2 power. I was feeling good. 

As I came up to the next aids station I had two primary goals 1) discuss my lack of chip with the race officials and 2) exchange my bottle of perform ( that I had made that morning with my own stash) for a bottle of Gatorade, which much to our surprise, is the on course nutrition in Brasil.Brasilian Gatorade is different as you can imagine and the last thing I wanted was to mix perform and Gatorade all in one day. I exchanged my bottle and spoke with an official. He told me the call had been made ahead to transition and they were writing my number down at each check point so I could continue in as normal until the run. Relieved, it was finally time to focus on my ride. The first loop was uneventful really. Weaving in and out of packs was annoying and the hils were tough but I rode them conservatively. 

EFS, water, power gel blasts, Gatorade. And on to the second loop. As warned the coastal winds picked up big time and my comfortable 20+ mph average took a hit. I also developed a killer side stitch and started feeling some major GI distress around mile 80. I told myself to ride it out. Took a slice of banana at the next aid station which helped a little. The last 30 miles or so were a bit painful. Heart rate was in the right zone but power was low as I granny geared through the wind. I was frustrated but knew I was on course for a huge bike PR. I think total ride time was 5:45. My split/transition times may be off since I have no timing chip and was going off where I hit lap on my watch.

(Um ignore the stomach bloat. This picture is photographic evidence that there was a storm brewing in my belly, and the day was not going to end well)

T2: I ran into transition yelling for my timing chip like some insane person, and a volunteer informed me that someone had called ahead and they had made me a new one and it was already hanging on my T2 bag. Now that is service. I owe those volunteers a lot. In the hustle and bustle I forgot to grab my garmin off the bike mount so I had to run back to my bike to get it. This resulted in a slow t2. Maybe 7 minutes or so? Need to check the watch

Run: ah, the run. My race ended somewhere around mile 5 or 6 and turned into a slower than hoped for trot to the finish. I came out of transition feeling strong. My legs have never felt that good coming off an ironman bike and I was excited to run. I was easily holding 8s right out of T2 but decided to take it to 8:30s for the first few miles to let it all settle in. Around mile 2 or 3 I hit the first monster hill on the run course. Before the race everyone said "walk the hills" and I laughed it off since I've never met a hill I haven't been able to run up. A few steps into this hill I started to walk. It was no joke and not worth sacrificing the rest of my run, which at that point was salvageable. I hit that hill again at mile 6 or so, and it's around then that I decided I really, really needed to use a rest room. My stomach had inflated and I was running looking like I was carrying around a big pasta lunch.  Fluids sloshed in my stomach and then GI stress induced stomach cramps were in full force.But being my stubborn self I did not want to stop and waste the time. I could push through 26 miles and run straight through the finish to a portopotty right? Sure. 

I gave in at mile 10. I had temporary relief( and a quicker pace) for about a mile, until I had to stop again. And this was my run from about mile 10-26. Bathroom stops every 2 miles or so and really no ability to take in nutrition. Oranges seemed to help and I took a couple saltines. Luckily the run was comprised of one 13 mile loop and two 6.5 mile loops, and the last two loops were mostly flat with the exception of a false flat near the last turn around. Crowds were denser here which helped. But I had to come to terms that my initial sub 11 goals were out the window and I was hoping to just salvage a PR. I managed to finish in 11:32, 6th in my age group and a 6 minute PR. 

Now that I've spent 9 glorious days in Brazil, the last 4 or so indulging in pao de quijo, Nutella, pizza, croissants and amazing cappuccinos and sleeping a TON, it's time to get home and refocus. My guess is I still have some recovery to do, but it's time to get my nutrition in order. Day to day I do a good job but it seems like I haven't found a good training and racing combination that will maximize my performance. Or, you know, keep me out of the bathroom. Next major race is Ironman Wisconsin in September, where I hope to return to my old stomping grounds for a great race.

Nawlins 70.3

As usual, life has taken over, and I haven't written a blog post in months. Let's look at it this way, it means I've been spending my time training, right?

So I'm gonna get down to the nitty gritty: New Orleans 70.3 race report. I'll give the full details below, but if you want a brief snap shot here it is: 4th place age group, total time 5:13:XX which is a 6 minute PR on a tough day. This is the highest I have ever placed in a 70.3, which tend to have highly competitive fields. I was really happy with my swim, but bike and run were tough with the conditions. Lesson's learned 1) need to tweak nutrition a little bit. came off the bike with some GI distress 2) Bike has definitely improved- felt strong but need to keep more consistent over the ride 3) Run needs some more work. Felt like I was running strong, but couldn't hit expected paces. Overall I am realllly happy with my performance, especially given the fact that it seemed to be a slow day over all. Thanks to Coach Michelle for getting me here!

For those of you wanting a more detailed report.....

Pre Race:  The nature of my job makes race prep a little interesting. Normally, I would love to get to a race Friday night, sleep in a little on Saturday, check in for the race, prep all my gear, eat a big late lunch and then spend the night with my feet up watching inspirational sports movies or countless episodes of Property Brothers while stuffing my face with nutella and peanut butter sandwiches. Unfortunately, I work late on Fridays, which meant the only option for the 6 hour drive to New Orleans was Saturday morning. An early wake up call and a large Dunkin Donut's coffee later, we were on the road. Getting to NOLA was uneventful, and check in for the race was a BREEZE. They were super efficient, and I want to give them props because this was a dream compared to the nightmare of check in at Austin. But by the time we made it to town, checked in, and ate lunch, it was already 4:30 in the afternoon, which means my lounging and relaxing time was significantly cut short. Not a huge deal, but didn't really get a chance to get in my normal pre race ritual of getting my hair braided or getting my race day manicure. This may not be a big deal to some, but I am a creature of habit and breaking tradition is really upsetting. No race day mani = truly tragic. In all seriousness though, I really wish I had time to get my head on straight. I put a lot of pressure on myself, and the rush of the day made it difficult to get things into perspective.

Race morning: Up at 3:30. banana, bagel, peanut butter and a pop tart for good measure. Lots of water, a little perform and off to transition. set up was easy breezy and then i spend the rest of the time trying to figure out the swim course.

The swim course was in this lovely N shape. there were yellow buoys, green buoys, and orange buoys, right turns, left turns etc. a little confusing. but the waters were still and calm ( at least, when 2000 people wernt thrashing around). NOLA is a time trial start, which I love. We started in waves, and each wave went off in groups of 8 a few seconds apart. It made swim start  a lot more tolerable but I was 8 waves in, which means I also had to swim over a ton of people. But my new wetsuit kicked ass. After spending 8 years racing in a sleeveless, I finally splurged on a more-than-entry-level wetsuit with sleeves, and boy did it feel good. Oh, but I totally forgot to hit start on the garmin until about 400 meters in. So that was awesome. 

 Other than swallowing too much water, swim was great. 33:11, PR. 

T1: LONG T1. I had a spot near bike out though, so that made up for it. Uneventful. Had a hard time getting out of my wetsuit, sleeves were an added challenge. 

Bike:  I had been told this was a notoriously windy course and this year was no different. I had been told that in general it was a head wind out, and a killer tail wind in which I knew I could handle. Jeff and I had done a ton of training in Galveston and I had plenty of experience in head wind for at least 50% of any given ride. Unfortunately, on race day headwind was the name of the game. looking at my data, it looks like there was about a 10 mile stretch we got some reprieve from the wind. My heart rate recovered a little bit and I was average about 24 mph but it was really short lived. In retrospect, I can tell from the data that I didn't do a great job of managing my effort over the entire bike course. The headwind on the second half was a real surprise, since the first 25 miles or so had already been brutal. My fault. Lesson learned. As far as nutrition:  I have been experimenting with using EFS liquid shots during training. The taste is palatable, and it really had been working well, but I was supplementing with power bar gel blasts, perform and stinger waffles. Unfortunately, something didnt sit right on Sunday. I got off the bike with a little GI distress. Something I definitely need to work on before Brazil

T2: easy peasy. not much to discuss 

Run: Ah, the run. Running is by far my favorite part of any tri and as usual I was excited about this. I came off the bike not feeling great but I need to remind myself that this usually shakes out in a couple miles, or at least once I get on the course and someone hands my some ice ( chewing ice ALWAYS settles my stomach on the run. Don't know why, all I know is that it works). The run course was lonely, windy, hot and FULL of long slow inclines (not steep, but enough to slow you down). Definitely not what I was expecting at all. Coming into training I was feeling super confident about my run, so as the 13 miles progressed and  I realized it was not going to go the way I wanted, I was getting a little bit down on myself. But I just pushed through it, tried to keep cool and got the run done. 

All in all, I am happy with my finish, but definitely have a few things to work on before IM Brazil. Great day off training ( and my healthy eating...mmmm tacos for dinner, back on track tomorrow!) but back to training and focusing hard until May 25th.