We arrived in Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon, which gave us a day or two to enjoy the area before really buckling down into race mode. We strolled around the city, had some delicious food and even made it by the Louisville Zoo. Brian even got to visit a giant Cabela's store, one of the highlights of his trip haha.
compared to a gorilla, wish I had that arm span for swimming!
selfie with a meerkat trip to Cabela's
We were blessed with a wonderful homestay with a great family. Kelly even rode with me for one of my pre race rides. We really enjoyed meeting her and her husband Garry and their three kids Trey, Parker and Olivia. The kids were a lot of fun. They all played our traditional pre race mini golf with us, and Olivia brought me some green nail polish so my nails could match my tri kit. Most of them came down to the finish line area to give us high fives before crossing the finish line. Late that night, exhausted from the race and hanging around after, we got back to find that the kids had made us really sweet signs. We took the signs home with us and they are going to go up in our training room.
Our pre race preparations went very smoothly, and I arrived to transition on race morning feeling nervous but relaxed and ready. I like being a bit nervous because it shows how much I care about the race.
Brian and I walked down to the start with his coach Jesse and Jesse and I got ready to get in the water. We jumped in a few minutes before 6:50 and I splashed around a little before lining up. As soon as the gun went off the group of pro men and women started to break up. I desperately tried to latch onto someone. Just as I felt like I was losing the pair of feet I was on, a male pro passed me and slid into the gap so I could catch on. The three of us, Whitney, male pro from US pro tri team then me, swam in this line until right before the finish. Every time I thought I could maybe get around them, someone would throw in a surge and I was hanging on again. I'm pretty sure I drove the male pro a little nuts with my continuous foot slapping but I didn't want to lose those feet! I came out of the water and glanced at my watch, a six minute swim PR! I know part of it was the current, but it was still nice to come out of the water knowing I wasn't super far behind. I heard the announcer say, "and Rachel Jastrebsky is another one of our female pros out of the water, one of the favorites for the day." I thought, huh?! Since when am I a favorite?! Even if he was mistaking me for someone else it was still pretty cool to hear.
The bike starts with a pretty fast section, and then about 20 miles out of town you do an out and back with a couple bigger downhills and uphills. After that, its rolling hills until about you start to head back to town around mile 90 to 100. I kept thinking about what Brian's coach had said before the race, don't go crazy on the first 70 miles and you can kill it on the last 40. I held back a little on the climbs, trying not to tax my legs too much. Looking back, I probably could have and should have pushed it just a little bit more on the two loops in the middle of the course, but am still ok with my effort on the bike. About mile 60 or so we started the second loop and collided with the amateurs. This was a tricky section for me, because it was difficult to get around everyone. There were many times when people were riding 3-4 wide across the road, and descending with riders in the middle of the road made me nervous. I managed ok though, and as soon as I split off to head to town I was able to pick up some more speed.
coming into T2 - picture by Kelly Smith, her husband Steven (a friend of ours) was racing
starting out on the run (picture also by Kelly Smith)
I have a bad habit of booking it out of transition, and this race was no exception. Fortunately I was able to catch myself pretty quickly and reign it in. I remember hearing the announcer call out that I was starting the run and that my husband was also racing, it gave me a bit of a lift being reminded that Brian was out there. I was holding a good pace and feeling pretty good until about the first turn around. That was when I started to notice the heat and I could feel that my legs didn't quite have the spunk they started with. I was able to hold pretty steady though, and started making sure I was staying on top of nutrition. It made a huge difference with the heat to put ice down my top/shorts every chance I got as well as dumping water over my head. Although, I'm pretty sure one of the photographers got a not so flattering picture of me putting ice down my shorts. Every time I started to think I couldn't possibly hold the pace, I did one of a few things. 1. I did a little self assessment and discovered that my legs weren't really as tired as I kept thinking they were. 2. I remembered what coach Tara said and repeated to myself, this will pass. 3. I prayed that my legs would keep moving. It seemed to work, because even though my pace slowed a little, I was still holding fairly steady.
thank you Ali Engin Photography for the sweet photo
On the second lap, I started to notice that 6th place wasn't incredible far ahead. I thought, if I can hold this I might just be able to catch her. After the turn around on the far side of the second lap I kept thinking where the heck is this girl!? A little before the 24 mile mark I could see her just ahead. Shortly after, I passed our team mate Diana and she yelled out, you can catch her! And it gave me that little extra umph I needed to make the pass. I did my best to keep it together to avoid a pass back and ran pretty strongly to the finish. About half a mile from the finish I decided I was going to really enjoy the last few minutes. Too often, we get tunnel vision during these races and we forget to really soak it in. I reminded myself how lucky I am to be able to do this and tried to slap as many high fives as possible. One lady was holding a sign that said "For super powers, press here" and I almost knocked the sign out of her hand I slapped it so hard. WTC played a mean trick on me by switching the clock to the amateur start time before I finished so I thought I'd done a 9:46, but surprisingly, after seeing on my watch that it was 9:56 I was not disappointed. I hadn't fallen apart, I hadn't given up on myself, I had been smart. There are things I can do better next time, there always are, but that doesn't change my happiness about this race. I made it into the money in my first pro Ironman and that to me was awesome. I went to the awards the next day expecting to see the top 5 on the stage and was pleasantly surprised to get a trophy for 6th! The other pro women/men were all very positive and inspiring and I enjoyed getting to chat with a few of them, especially fellow rookie Brooke who absolutely killed it.
I always enjoy racing with Brian, it picks me up seeing him on the course and it was great to get a high five and an "I love you" from him about halfway through the run. I also got to put his medal on him at the finish which was really special. I was so proud of him for his 6 minute swim PR (he has come sooooo far), his blazing fast bike (5:06!) and then for toughing it out on the run even though he hadn't run in almost two months.
I was overwhelmed with the response from our friends and family about our races this past weekend. The support and encouragement really does mean so much to us. Thank you also to our awesome sponsors. Zoot, the swim skin, shoes and kit made for a fast and comfortable day. GU my nutrition plan was just about spot on thanks to you guys. Fat Frogs Chesapeake, thanks for checking my bike over! Ghent Chiropractic, keeping us healthy so we can train and race. Stages Cycling, using power to gauge my effort on the bike is very useful. Big thank you to my coach Tara for believing in my potential and for helping me to develop into a better athlete and person. Looking forward to continuing to work with her!
Last but not least huge congrats to our fellow team mates that raced this weekend, Cathy and Diana both placing in their age groups and Jesse making top ten for the male pros. Congrats as well to Steven and Adam, doing awesome in their first Ironman! And of course our friend Shane for toughing it out once again in Louisville. Congrats as well to our team mates and friends that raced elsewhere this weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment