Last year I raced at Escape to Miami at the end of my season coming off of four races in six weeks. I think a year ago my fitness wasn't there to attempt that, and expect to do well. My thinking was later proved correct, when i struggled through the last couple miles on the bike, and walk-jogged to the finish line finishing in over 2:35:00, barely breaking 150th place. That race was a dagger to the heart. It was a serious sign that I needed to train hard, refocus, come back, and redeem myself next year.
Three weeks leading up to this race, pretty much after Hy-Vee my last race, I hadn't been swimming due to pain in my shoulder. The pain was almost to the point that I wasn't even going to race so as to avoid further injury. Luckily I have the best coach ever, Sara McLarty, and she was able to work on my stroke with me leading up to the race, allowing me to swim a little more pain free. I had gone from having more confidence in my swim than anything else, to just wanting to get it over with and not be in pain, but i decided to race to clean the slate from last year's disaster as well as to race in my home town so my family could watch me race at least once this year.
Pre Race: Saturday before the race was spent driving around running errands, which included taking my bike to get some much needed love from the guys at UltraBikeX. The steed ran flawlessly on race day. I got in a short swim that afternoon but just felt so tired and sore in the water after just starting swimming with a little bit different stroke as of days ago. I had decided not to taper much for this race and focus on my upcoming races and it was becoming apparent to me that I was gonna pay for it. [Flash back to Friday while packing for the race I picked up my race shoes and realized they had a huge hole in the side of them, after calling several running stores in Miami and 7 out of 7 being sold out of my size, I made my final call to the guys at iRun. (I knew that if they didn't have them, Hector would steer me in the right direction and get me in the closest thing possible) Just my luck they were also out! This just goes to show how much these guys care, Cobi (who also was going to be my main competition for the weekend) who happens to wear my exact size, and race in the same shoe as me, was willing to lend me his personal pair to race in. He had two pairs. Can't thank Cobi and Hector at iRun enough!] Now I had my bike and my shoes for the race it was time to go pick up my packet and check in my bike. While at the race expo I saw my good friend Roy Liu, who I'd be trying to keep up with on the bike on Sunday. We had some fun admiring bikes in transition and sabotaging others (not really, just pretending). I felt like I had been driving all day long, but i was finally headed home, absolutely starving. It was already 7:30pm. I knew if I went home and cooked dinner for my self it would have been 9:00pm before I was eating so I fell back on my ever faithful plan B, Pizza. My mom and sister had previous dinner plans so I was eating alone, which apparently is a problem because I ate the entire thing, and I was so full I couldn't fall asleep. Mistake #1. Showered, fed and in bed by 9:15. Awake till 2:00am.
A shot of me after pizza for dinner
Able to relax once I had these in my possession
Caught slashing.. I mean admiring Isabels wheels.
Race Morning: Opposed to my standard wake up before the alarm because of excitement, this morning i heard the alarm go off and snoozed it. I was so exhausted. Still feeling like i just ate dinner, I opted not to eat breakfast and just go for some PowerBar Perform and Energy Blast about 30 minutes before race start. As I got to the race site and was walking to transition, I saw a couple friends already making their way to the ferry to be dropped off on the Island. So I hustled to get my stuff set up and headed to the ferry also. Once the boat got to the island we were ordered to jump off and swim to shore. With the tinted goggles i had opted to race in, I could hardly see a thing. Mistake #2. It was difficult to keep track of the people I got on the ferry with. When we got to the island there was pretty much a party happening on a boat, that by the looks of it, had been there since last night. It was kinda cool, they played music and I was getting pumped to race.
If you could combine these two pictures
this was pretty much the scene at the island.
Swim: The swim was 1/3 out to a turn buoy, a sharp left hand turn then 2/3s to the swim exit. At the start to my right I had Isabel Olivas my good friend, and after that day, five time consecutive Escape to Miami female champion, and to my left Rob DeClercq. The gun went off and I dove straight in and started swimming. There was a fair drop off, so no one could really dolphin dive. The current was pushing us a bit to the left so I was sighting slightly right of the turn buoy. There were three buoys in a line from the start to the turn buoy and once I made it to the second one, I took a breath to my left and recognized Rob with his reflective goggles and bright red swim skin. I know he is a really great swimmer, so I thought if I could just hang with him I would have a good swim time. I hopped right on his feet doing my best not to touch them. I personally hate when people repetitively touch my feet. So as not to make him uncomfortable and get my self in a little better position, I put in a quick sprint to climb up to his hip. I was able to stay there, not having to sight much and swimming Rob's pace comfortably till about 100 meters out, when he picked it up a bit. That was okay because I know I'd just be a couple seconds back. Six to be exact. I came out of the water 29th in 22:30, which is a swim PR for me regardless of the fact the course measured long by .10 of a mile and the best part was it felt easy.
Basically how I felt coming out of the water.
T1: I gave Rob a quick five in transition, grabbed my bike and headed out.
I was all like...
Bike: I fumbled around a bit mounting my bike because I apparently set up my shoes with the wrong foot forward. There are two quick turns soon after you exit transition. As soon as I went around the second turn I saw Roy and Cobi. At this point I realized I had made the same exact mistake I made at my last race but this time it was too late to go back, I was still wearing my blue seventy swim skin. The thing is just so comfortable. Mistake #3. I was happy because I knew if I could hang with Roy I'd have a good bike split but I also knew if I wanted to have any chance against Cobi I needed to put 3-5 minutes on him. Throughout the first loop of the bike Roy and I took turns setting the pace. I was feeling good sticking to my plan of holding off 10-15 watts so I would be sure to make it through the very hot run to come. I averaged 286 watts on the first loop. Right where I wanted to be, and feeling great by the second loop, I decided to hang right where I was, push the down hills on the bridges and ease up a bit with about a mile to go. I was at a 287 watts average by the end of the second loop and right where I wanted to be with a time of 1:02:55 coming off the bike in 7th or 8th and again the course measured long by over a mile.
Still wearing my swim skin.
T2: Didn't forget to take my swim skin off this time. Slid on my run shoes and was out.
Run: The run was standard for me. The course is a tough out and back including a bridge close to a mile long. I had been running hills the weeks leading up to this race to prepare myself for the bridge. My plan was to cruise the whole way and run up the bridge both ways as hard as I could. I ran alone the whole way trying to hold off the inevitable of Cobi passing me. I knew I put time on him but I didn't know how much at the time. Turns out it was about 50 seconds. I couldn't see anyone behind me or ahead of me besides Cobi running away. I got to the 5k mark right around 20:30 which put me at 41:00 if i even split it. Along the edge of the road there is a tall hedge that apparently grew a ton between last year and this year. At that exact time of day it offered about a two foot wide section of shade. I was so stoked to have found shade on a course known for its brutal heat. Granted, it was only for about a quarter of mile but it was something. I passed two guys on the way back who I could tell were suffering from the heat. All I had left was the bridge. I ran up as hard as I could and coasted down. I looked back and there was no one in sight. I finished the race with a smile on my face and a run split of 42:19 and again the run course measured long by .21 of a mile which would account for the extra 1:19, so I was happy. I ended up with a 6th place overall finish, for which I am very pleased with and a total time of 2:09:42. Not a PR but pretty good for a super hot course that measured long in all three sports.
My face when I saw the shade.
Final Thoughts: After not knowing if I would be able to even toe the line a week before the race I am ridiculously happy with the outcome. Not the overall win I had hoped for but I definitely feel redeemed with heaps of improvement over last years complete disaster. I will be back next year going for the win. It was great to be back racing in my home town. Thank you to all my friends and family who were out there racing and spectating. You all made this race a Blast! Of course thank you to my sponsor Wattie Ink and all my teammates! Biggest shout out of this race to my Wolfpack for having my back over the last five months.
Post race, happy to see my mom and sister at the finish!
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