Ironman New Orleans 70.3 (First Race as a Pro!)

I flew into Baton Rouge, LA so I could have a fun visit with friends Ted and Shanelle and Tiago and Paula.  I feel lucky to have met such great people through the sport of triathlon!  Staying with Ted and Shanelle was a blast, they have a gorgeous new house and we have a super primo dinner that all of us contributed to (ok Shanelle made the best chicken ever, Ted's garlic bread and asparagus were awesome and I tried to contribute with a salad).

I got to get some sleep during the day (leaving Columbia was hectic and I got only 3-4 hours sleep the night before I left).  We had a nice swim session on Friday morning at Crawfish Aquatics, with some solid sprint sets and Tiago (who is a superstar swimmer) filmed us and I got some really excellent feedback on my stroke, which was especially helpful.  Hilarious how bad my stroke looks compared to true swimmers, lots to work on!!!

As you might imagine, I was really nervous about my first race in the pro field.  I wanted to belong and I didn't want to be racing by myself but I knew this was an honest reality given the strength of the field amassed for this race.  The weather had been extremely windy and lake Pontchartrain was boiling with waves and really scary so they cancelled the swim and replaced it with a 2 mile run.  The bike was also shortened to 52 miles due to debris on the course.  I was disappointed but I knew this would be an advantage for me since I am a weak swimmer compared to the other girls.

We drove down to New Orleans at 4:00 am on Sunday for the race.  Ted, Shanelle, Paula and Tiago all came down (BEST FRIENDS EVER!!).  I felt like I had a posse/hommies/goons/entourage with me, so pro right?!?!  Ted and Tiago (both PhDs in Exercise Physiology) distracted me during the drive with various super tri-geek discussions varying from crank length to power/wattage graphs and I almost forgot I had to race.  See Ted and Tiago pictured with fellow Baton Rouge Tri-club member Doug.  Talk about double trouble !! ;)

I was glad I had discussed my plan with Joe before the race, I was prepared to go out hard to stay with the pack but wanted to cap my pace around 6:00/mile given the length of the race to follow.  There were some serious big-time girls including Mirinda Carfrae, Caitlin Snow, Magali Tisseyre, Heather Wurtele, Amanda Lovato and Amy Marsh.  WOW, talk about some awesome competition!!  They started us in a corner around a traffic circle and I had flashbacks of my track days.  I started at the outer corner so I could run the tangent to the curve.  The run felt effortless and I checked my mile split and it said 5:45, holy SH**!!  I calmed it down a little for the second mile and came into T1 about 30-40s behind the lead pack.  It was the experience of a lifetime to come into T1 that close to the World Champion and multiple Ironman champions, I was giddy!!  

The first 10 miles of the bike course was more windy than any conditions I had ever experienced.  I had a 808 front and disc rear which probably wasn't the best choice but it was what I had, my bike lifted off the ground completely a couple times, YIKES!!  I decided to not put my shoes on my bike and put them on in transition.  I felt like a tool doing this but I noticed a lot of girls stopped during the bike to put their shoes on because of the wind making it so dangerous to take their hands off the bike to get their feet in their shoes.  The most exciting part was I had girls to bike with and they were going for it!!  I thought, well if I stick to my standard 70.3 pace which is 180 watts I will get dropped right away so I'm going to risk it and ride with these girls and stay in the fray for as long as I can....first 20 miles I had 200 watts and ended up with a 189 watt average which was absolutely stellar for me and almost 10 watts better than I've ever done before!  I wasn't last off the bike!!

Starting the half-marathon I knew I needed to be conservative because I had biked really hard.  I started out with 6:40/mile pace and was feeling good but I was careful to really try and stay in 6:50-7:00 range for the whole race.  I caught a few girls and was passed by one in the first 5 miles, when I came around the loop for the first time Ted was yelling that I was only 1:30 down on the next girl (who is really good and I was shocked to be anywhere near her).  I continued to run conservatively and carefully in my goal-pace range and it was starting to get harder to achieve this.  With 1 mile to go I caught the last girl and took the pace down to 6:30 and ran as hard as I could into the finish.  I was really excited to run 1:29 (a PR of over 5 minutes) off such a hard bike and with training focused on full Ironman distance predominantly!!  It was a huge relief to complete my first Pro race 15/20 (not last!!).  I felt like although I wasn't in contention for a podium or top 10 I did belong in the pro field and it gave me an opportunity to get such a great race out of myself due to the incredible talent I had to race against!  Next up, Ironman Texas on May 19th!!  Check out the nice flag behind me in the photo below!!

I flew back a few hours after the race as I needed to be at work first thing on Monday, still do love my day-job!!  It was awesome using Tri Bike Transport so I didn't have to take my bike box to the airport, they transported my bike from the site directly to a partner shop in St. Louis!  So convenient!

Training, Sponsors and Going Pro!

In the last few months I have been hard at work getting a good base and preparing for two spring races (Ironman 70.3 New Orleans in April and Ironman Texas in May).  Balancing a career as a veterinary ophthalmologist and an athlete is always a challenge and my time away from my real job (a vet) is mostly spent training.  I feel so lucky that this training time is also my social outlet, I have such awesome training partners and friends making the hard days so much less of a chore!

I have a great group of people who are into doing long rides (such a pleasure to have people who want to do this and not look at me like I have rabies when I say I want to do 100 miles twice a week!!).  My very good friend Stephanie Essman did an epic ride with me out to Glasgow from Columbia recently (110 miles with 5x30min intervals at 70.3 pace).  The pie in Glasgow at the Bakery made it all worth it!!  I am so sad that Stephanie is moving to San Diego this week, I will miss her as a riding partner very much but look forward to visiting her and getting a cycling tour of San Diego when I go out to lecture at the American Veterinary Medical Association Conference in August!!

Kate Chettle, my superstar running training partner has also had some great success racing this spring.  I am so lucky to have her to run with and push me in workouts and keep me honest with a really solid interval set every week on the track or trail!  She is a true talent and I am really excited to see her success so early in the season, she recently ran 17:37 on the track beating a whole load of college girls!!

Sponsors!!

I am so, so lucky that several companies believe in my goals and are willing to help me this year, for a first-year pro sponsorship opportunities are truly a gift and I am so grateful for the ones who have trusted me with their brands in 2012!! Endurance Company coaching provides me with superb guidance in my training and provides me with realistic plans that coincide with the time I can realistically commit to training since I do have a full-time job!  Valdora cycles has helped me obtain best tri-bikes (yes I own two, and they are awesome!!) on the market!!  I have ridden other top-level brands and my Valdora PHX2 is by far the stiffest, best climbing, super primo amazing bike I have ever been on!  The guys at Tryathletics are simply awesome and constantly help me make good decisions on gear, keep my bikes in order mechanically and drink lots of beer with my husband Steve!  I hate to think how fast Steve woud be without all that beer, I would never keep up.  I am excited to have some super top-notch carbon hydration bling from XLab USA, a company that sponsors some goddess-level triathletes who are the leaders of our sport!  My cat Gidget is shown below, clearly as excited as I was about the new XLab pressies!  I will be racing in TYR Freak of Nature wetsuit this year and using TYR gear for my swimming.  People, this wetsuit is AMAZING!!!  No more sore shoulders when you swim long distances.  The best was when I was out swimming at a local lake and upon exiting the water over heard a kid asking his mum if I was a superhero, due to the graphics on the suit which are quite superhero-esque, it made my day!!  I'm fueled by Electodelytes (these are the equivalent of turkish delight with electolytes in them), so yummy and delicious, even when I don't feel like eating during a race I want to eat them!  I am using Gu energy gel for training and racing (they are now the official gel of Ironman events).  I am glad to have continuity with products I successfully train with being available in races I am doing.  For those who know me well, I do have a fashion diva streak in me, my new race kit from ABPro Sports is simply awesome!!  The fabrics are technically elite and the completely custom graphics and design satisfy the diva in me too!

Making the decision to go pro in 2012 was a difficult one, I will trade success as an elite amateur for hardship as a pro in terms of placings at races.  I know with my primary career as a veterinarian, I will never be able to give the time it will take to be an elite professional in the sport of triathlon but I do think it will be an incredible experience to race as a professional and see what I am capable of with truly tough competition.  It has already increased my motivation to train at a higher level and I look forward to some really cool travel opportunities and adventures it will also open up in the next year.  As a mere mortal in a field of immortals at races it is daunting but what a great experience it will be to race alongside world champions and heroes of triathlon right?!