Gulf Coast...well, I'm not sure how to put the distance since I got RAILED on slowtwitch.com for calling it a 70.3. SO I guess I will say it is a 1.2 mile swim, 56mile bike, and a 13.1 mile bike. :) I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet.
Swim:
The swim was rough. Really rough. It was hard to keep an eye on the buoys and stay on course. Thankfully I have been spending some quality time in the gulf, so I felt pretty strong. But it was still challenging. The two waves before my wave where HUGE - so I got beat up pretty bad half way through. I love getting kicked in the eye, specially while wearing Swedish goggles. I finally hit the beach, and fell. I literally fell on my knees. I'm not sure who has done a rough open water swim, but at least when I get out I feel like I have a pretty good martini buzz going on. No biggie, just hoped up and kept on going. Swim time: 37ish. Not my best, but I'll take it.
Bike:
The bike is pretty close to the IMFL bike course. You go out on Front Beach, up 79 highway, out on 388 and back. The wind was pretty random and blew me around Front Beach going out pretty bad. But once I made the turn north I was feeling good. I was by myself for most of the bike (which I guess is a good thing). But these roads are what I train on - so mentally I just thought of the race as another training ride. And we totally lucked out with the weather. For most of the race it was overcast...love it. Back onto Front Beach I had a shit eating grin on my face because my legs felt so good. Time 2:50ish, ave 19mph-ish (sorry I don't have the actual break downs yet of the times)
Run:
Hopped off of the bike feeling awesome. Grabbed my hammer gels and took off. Nothing too exciting going on in the run. Actually, nothing really exciting happened the whole race which is a good thing! Just one foot in front of the other. By the time I hit the dreaded state park loop (for those of you who have done this race or IMFL you know what I'm talking about) I started wearing down. I wanted to keep under a 9min pace, but my body just laughed at me. But guess who came out of no where right when I got out of the park? MY COACH! It was so awesome to see him out there!! So the last five miles he would randomly ride by me to keep me going. Total run time: 2:09ish.
Finishing the race was great. I LOVE LOVE LOVE local races. Just knowing people when you cross the finish line is so awesome. I've done so many races where you cross the line, hand over your chip, get your medal and just walk along. But this race I knew everyone working the finish line. I just get chill bumps thinking about the smiles and hugs from everyone when I crossed that line.
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I cut 30 minutes from my last PR! 5:42! 9th in the 30-34 age group! (Ok, I still can't stand to write 30 on my leg. I have until October!)
Congrats to everyone who raced and a huge shout out to the amazing volunteers we had out there.
Also, happy mother's day to all of the mom's out there! I love you mom!
19 comments:
Great job Chloe! I remember the first time i did st. A's and hit the stairs coming out of the swim, i was so dizzy! What an odd feeling. I'm glad to see the oil is staying away.
awesome job and great job on SMASHING your old PR...looks like you're getting BETTA with age...rock on!
Huge PR! Great job out there. Sounds like you had lots of fun!! You and your mom look fabulous.
congrats on the PR!!
Writing 30 sure beats writing 55, but I'll still take it.
Good race given what sounds to be less than ideal conditions. I'm starting to get into the IMFL mojo figuring how I can drop an hour or at least top Arnie's 12:28 last year to become the new time leader now that he isn't doing IMFL..
Amazing! Congrats on your PR...loved the recap and pics!
yay chloe! awesome time girl :) so stoked for you. i knew you were going to crush 6 hours!
Why did you get railed for calling it a 70.3? Cause it's not an Ironman branded event? LAME. Congrats on such an awesome race and PR. You are going to be amazing in IMFL. Can't wait to read all your race reports this year.
Fantastic job. Glad you had such a fantastic race and 30 minutes better. Whoa this is huge!!!
And I'm glad that your coast is still oil free.
Have a great week.
Great job on the race. Congrats on the PR! The pix of you and your mom are very nice. You both are very gorgeous!
Ugh, another reminder why I stay away from the ST forums. Its a 70.3, regardless how anyone looks at it.
Congrats on the PR, local races are the best.
Congrats! - 30 minute PR - awesome!
Nice job! Great RR and amazing pics.
Just call it a HIM, I suppose.
30 minute PR improvement and breaking the 6 hour barrier. Congratulations and Wow!!!
Congratulations on your race! You did awesome! Woohoo!! :)
Nice job on the race. That's funny ST picked on you, since a few years ago NOBODY on there would call half ironman 70.3. They like half ironman.
30 mintues. Holy shit girl!! You really are the bomb! I totally get the buzz coming out of the chop.
We have matching GCT starting line pictures!...mine being from last year, since I was getting flogged at Rev3 this year (see Missy's bloggy blog).
Great race!...we would totally be training partners if you lived in Nashville...I can only imagine what it would be like to have you join Missy and me on our training rides and runs...hahahahaha!!
Leave it to SlowTwitch to bring out a bunch of d-bags...
But anyway..
Congrats on an awesome race and finally breaking that 6 hour mark. A 30 minute PR is GIGANTIC!
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