The 2009 finale

...people say she looks like me...I wish

So this was it…the race I had been training and waiting for! Needless to say, I was slightly nervous!
We drove down to NH on Friday night, leaving Figs at our friends’ house as the park that the race was at didn’t allow dogs. We arrived in Plymouth NH late Friday night and settled in for a good night sleep (yay no alarm wakeup!). My nerves were working overtime though and I ended up waking up at 7am so I ate some breaky while cliff slept. When he woke, we went for a quick ride in the pouring rain to loosen up our legs and make sure the bikes were working well before we had to check them in. We then drove about 40 minutes to the turn around point of the bike route and drove the bike course. We saw that about ½ had nice smooth flat pavement and the rest had some real kickers! Once we arrived at Gunstock resort (now sunny!) we picked up our shwag and perused the expo. We then went to Ellacoya where the race was to take place to drop our bikes off and scope out the run and swim course. We then met up with my mom and did some shopping (always a necessity when you go to the states!!) before carbo loading and hitting the hay.
Race day
Woke up after the best sleep that I’ve ever had before a race. I was delighted to see that it was going to be a clear day. We packed up the car and drove 35 minutes to the race site..where we were met with a huge lineup to park…we crawled along slowly for a while and then we were told to turn around and park at another place 15 minutes away then take the shuttle to the race site…no way! Thank goodness Ricky the suburu has AWD and we found a field right by the race site to park.
The race was slightly delayed because of a accident on the race course, which was probably a blessing considering the delay from parking. I was in wave 8 for the swim and Cliff was wave 9 (yes, his goal was to catch and pass me!). Once it was my turn, I made my way into the water, said a little prayer, though 100x about quitting right now, then we were off!

Swim
The swim was hard at first because I couldn’t seem to find space. I kept swimming between two people that kept cutting me off. I felt calm and strong though so I kept catching and passing people. The course was a big rectangle course, and on one side of the rectangle the sun was shining right in our face, which made it hard to sight the buoys. As I rounded the last corner,I saw Cliff pass me (I think). I still had lots left so I turned on the speed a bit. Before I knew it, I was on the beach again and peeling of the wetsuit…I looked down at my watch…37;XX!!! Yay…my goal was under 40 minutes so I was happy with that! On to the wetsuit pullers (my FAVORITE people of the day!) and then into transition to get my bike.

Bike
The bike was the portion I was most worried about. I’ve never rode more than 40km in a race and although I had been doing lots of hill training, I’ve only had a few 3hr rides all summer. I wanted to finish my bike in ~3 hours, which meant a 30km/h avg…a lofty goal for me. The first 15 km were tough, with a couple of huge hills (one termed “El Diablo”) Apparently my hill training payed off because I passed a ton of people on the hills and didn’t feel like it took a lot out of me. Nutrition was going to be key for me; I always seem to forget to drink in races so I really needed to concentrate on taking in fluids and taking in gels and my cliff bar pieces. There were 5 aid stations along the course so it was easy to keep the fluids filled. The middle part of the course was amazing, with smooth pavement where you could really keep your speed up. I passed the half way point under my estimated time and I was still feeling great, aside from some hip flexor tightness. I did notice that I passed many more people on the way back than I did on the way out and most of them had lower numbers than me (meaning their wave was before mine) and that made me feel strong. One thing that you can do in a longer race is take the time to enjoy your surroundings more; one girl had my dream bike…a bright pink Cervelo! Coming back towards transition, I kept checking my watch to hope I had made it under my goal time. To my surprise, I later found out I kept a 31.1 avg (my goal, considering the hills, was 30 km/h avg!) I finished the bike leg in 2:51:27, 9 minutes faster than my goal!
Run
Moving onto the run, I was feeling really good. I knew that as long as I didn’t blow up that I could finish well under my goal. I’ve been doing a lot of trail runs with Figs and Cliff so I knew I could aerobically handle the run; I just wasn’t sure how my legs would hold up after the long bike ride in the TT position. Thankfully my legs responded and they felt good. My stomach was a little bit off after having very little solid food for 4 hours, but I was on an adrenaline rush so I just pushed through it. I met Cliff finishing his 1st lap as I headed out, and he looked strong! Gave me some motivation to go faster so it would take him longer to catch me on his 2nd lap. My mantra on the run was just ‘put one foot in front of the other.’ Nothing too fancy! The support crews were great…there was ice cold water, sponges, oranges, snow, hoses, etc..basically anything you would want! The course was rolling, but in the shade quite a bit, which made for nicer run. There were so many people, telling me I looked amazing…I doubt it but thanks anyway! My hardest running is always on the way back on the 1st lap, but as I rounded the turnaround and headed on my last lap (1st lap was ~57:00) , I got renewed energy. I picked up my pace a bit and felt strong the whole last lap; it was evident that a lot of people were hurting as I passed so many runners on the 2nd lap. Coming into the finish line was one of the most amazing experiences of my life…in my finish line picture, I have such a huge smile! And the best part? Chrissy Wellington flagged me down and said –“hey beautiful, you forgot your medal!” my response-“Oh my gosh! Its so nice to meet you! Thank you!-insert big hug!!!!) So I had a hugely jealous boyfriend when I told him she gave me my medal and I got to hug her lol . Sometimes the best part of the race is getting to see your loved ones; my mom and Ron had made it to the race and you could see she was so proud…thanks for being there, Mom!

So total finish time was 5:28:17; 32 minutes under my goal time. I was 453 overall, 13/78 in my age group, and 64th woman overall. So happy with this result (though qualifying for world’s would have been amazing!!!). Can’t wait to do my next one! I especially want to thank Cliff, my coach and bf for helping me get to this race and reach my goal. Both of us thought 6hrs was a long shot when I decided to do this last fall, but we persevered, he worked around my med school schedule and made me be my best! Hopefully I made him proud

Thanks for reading! And good luck to Jen and TJ on Sunday …you have already made LMS proud! I’ll be cheering you on from Ottawa with Figs