After making sure I had my Zoot prophet wetsuit on just right, I headed down to the swim with my Zoot Ultra team mate Kendra. I met Kendra on the plane to Kona last year before she was part of the Zoot team and we saw each other quite a bit during the bike. I was really excited when I found out she was going to be on the team this year because she is such a positive, fun (and fast) person. We chatted a little and then lined up for the start. I actually had a really good start to the swim for me. I was able to get a feel for who was around me and I broke away from the main group pretty quickly with a few other girls. I was swimming right next to a girl and once she pulled ahead a little I got right on her feet and she was the perfect set of feet for me to be on. I was feeling pretty good about actually catching a good pair of feet until we caught up to another wave and I lost her trying to get around everyone. I just settled into my own rhythm, tried to focus on form and breathing and kept going. The current was a little tricky, it almost felt like it should take me in the right direction but I did have to fight it a little. I was feeling like I was having a solid swim until I came out of the water and glanced at my watch. I thought "what the heck, my swimming has gotten so much better!" Not a great swim time for me, but talking to people after it sounds like it was slower for most. I pushed it out of my mind and concentrated on getting on my bike.
Brian has always been great at transitioning and I've always been a little envious. I got my stuff together quickly in T1 though and I think even passed a couple girls in transition.
The first mile or so on the bike was uphill so I didn't hammer out of transition. Instead I drank a few sips of my favorite race and training drink GU Brew 2X sodium (blueberry pomegranate) and tried to figure out why my watch wouldn't take me to my bike screen. Turns out I never hit lap coming out of transition, but I figured it out eventually. I love the GU Brew because I tend to be a high volume, high sodium sweater so it's an easy way for me to get a little extra sodium and it has some calories as well. I also took in some of the new lemon GU chomps that taste just like lemon bars, yummmmm. I got into a groove quickly on the bike, I am starting to get a better feel for how hard to go on the bike, and I felt like I was flying through the first half of the race. It rained a little in the first hour and was overcast but my Spy Screw sunglasses with rose lenses were perfect. I got up to our friend Mike around 40 min in and he paced off me for awhile. He eventually came around me to tell me we were coming up on a fast part and he took off. I took off after him and pushed it through the fast section, and then got back into my rhythm once the hills started up again. The course was rolling hills which I love, and I only got into a lull for a little bit somewhere in the middle to end. I knew there was at least one girl still ahead and I kept looking for her thinking "where the heck is this girl?" I thought maybe Mike and I would get off the bike close to each other but he had taken off and I was happy that he wasn't holding back.
Coming down the hill I could see a girl in a pink top running up the hill to start the run. Coming into transition I heard the announcer say "and our second female, Rachel Jastrebsky, has just entered transition. The first female has a 6 minute lead, let's see if Rachel can get through transition quickly and chase her down on the run." Well you better believe that after hearing she had a 6 minute lead I moved through transition quickly! I got out on the run course and settled into a good pace. The run course was three loops. The loops started with about a mile long hill, had some gentler ups and downs in the middle and finished with a fairly steep third of a mile downhill. On the first two laps I never really thought that I couldn't catch the first girl, I just kept a fairly consistent pace and tried to reel her in slowly. Finishing the first lap, I ran by Brian and he yelled out that I had gained three minutes on her. There were a ton of people giving me splits, and being really encouraging that I could make up the time. The second time I came through Brian yelled that I had gained another minute and a half and she was around 1:15 up. The first two times up the big hill I was feeling pretty good, I kept my cadence up and tried to keep my effort even. The last time up the hill was much tougher but I managed to reach the top no worse for wear.
On the back side of each loop, I saw my team mate Kendra. She was very encouraging and kept telling me how close the 1st girl was and let me know I could still catch her. I try to respond to all this encouragement during races but many times it just comes out as a huff "thanks, you too!" or a thumbs up.
It wasn't until the last loop that I started to think gosh, where is this girl? Am I going to catch her? I was worried I was going to run out of pavement. I finally saw her on the little lollipop section with about 2 miles left. She kept looking back at me and I knew I was going to be able to catch her. I came by and said, great work girl, because she was really making me work for it! After that I never looked back. I was worried she was going to have some crazy kick so I pushed it as much as I could in those last two miles. I had started to develop a blister on lap 2 and by lap 3 it was a full blown large open blister on the ball of my foot. I ignored it as much as I could but it slowed me down a little on the downhills. I was wearing the Zoot Kiawe 2.0s, which I love. There are very lightweight and responsive. I've worn them in a half marathon without socks before and was fine, but it rained during the bike and since the shoes were really wet and my feet were really wet, it was just a little too much for my skin. I love the shoes and I'll wear them at Rev3 Williamsburg but will most likely throw a pair of socks on underneath, just in case. It was also pretty cool having the guy bike in front of me and radio into the finish line where I was.
I finished up with a 4:38, which is a big PR for me. My previous PR was from Ironman 70.3 Providence in 2011. The swim and run were a little slower than I had wanted but given the slower swim and the tougher than I expected run course, I was really happy with it. It also gave me a really good idea of what I can do better at Rev3 Williamsburg in a month or so. That will be my first pro race, and this race made me realize that I am ready. My team mate Kendra finished as third women so Zoot was all over the podium. Side note, we got ready to go up on the podium and she looked awesome! Her hair looked like she had just showered and blow dried! She said its all about dumping water on your head at each aid station. I mistook a cup of Heed for water so it didn't exactly have the same effect... Super fun racing with her, and I hope to see her and other team mates at other races this year.
Setup events gave us some cool swag for the top three women, including two bottles of local red wine. However, the trophies were a bit big... so I put mine to some good use later that night...
A bunch of friends were racing the Kinetic sprint the next day so after getting an hour of my 3 hour recovery spin done before the race, Gunther and I headed over to watch them.
Our friends managed very well and it looked like everyone had a really fun day. It was fun to cheer them on. Several of the Fat Frogs team were out there, and they were pretty easy to spot in their green frog kits. We also ran into our friend Beth Ann who is just such a wonderful and positive person, I'm always so happy to get a chance to catch up with her. If you have a minute, read her story, it's pretty incredible (http://www.teambt.org/). Here are some pictures of our friends racing the half (Mike, Paul, Jon, Sarah) and the sprint (Jessika, Deb, Mary, Megan, Peggy, Greg, Dixie, Joe).
Mike
Greg
Peggy
Jon and Sarah
Jessika
Peggy, Greg, Dixie
Mary
Joe
Deb
Jon
Paul
Dixie
And of course, super spectator puppy Gunther, who was very well behaved for his first race weekend. He was super exhausted from a long weekend of attention, playing and watching us all run around. And thank you to my wonderful husband Brian, for putting aside his own training for a bit so that he could be a fantastic sherpa and give me great splits and encouragement. I love our life together!
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