NicoleHere we go! My A-race for the season.
My last 70.3 that I completed was the Kansas 70.3 in 2013. That year I also did Boulder, but didn’t do the run due to injury. But now I’m back!
For this race report, part 1 covers the days leading up to the race, and part 2 will be the race itself.
Thursday
My flight left Denver around 1:45 in the afternoon, and I had a long layover in MSP. I got into Syracuse around 11pm, got my rental car. This was also my first time flying with my bike.
I would be staying with my aunt and uncle (my Dad’s sister and her husband) about 15-20 minutes from both the airport and race site, so it was quite convenient. Once I got there, I got a quick tour of the house and went to bed.
Friday
I wanted to get as much race preparation work done today so that I could relax more on Saturday. Gina had plenty of food and good healthy stuff that I eat, so my meals stayed right on plan. We caught up in the morning, I was able to get some work done, unpack my bike, get it put together and head to the race site for packet pick-up.
I got my race packet, and then had a mechanic check out my headset on my bike. I don’t often take my handlebars off my bike, so I didn’t quite get that right. It’s now on my “things to work on” list. I then listened to the athlete briefing. Most of it would be valuable to newer triathletes, but there is always race specific information that is quite useful for every athlete.
[Tip: Know your bike! Take a basic bike maintenance course at a local bike shop, especially if you travel with your bike.]
After I knew my bike was in good shape, I went for a quick ride to see the first 5 miles of the course, and with that I got to experience the first climb. This course is not easy by any means; there is about 3000 feet of climbing on the bike. But at least that made for about 3000 feet of descent, too! Wheeee!
After the bike I went for an easy jog, and noted how some of the rolling terrain felt. Even coming from Colorado, I knew the glacier carved landscape was going to be a challenge on Sunday.
At the house Gina and Michael were taking good care of me. We had a nice chicken dinner with salad and veggies, and a quinoa-rice pasta. They stocked a great fridge and pantry! I’m glad I had home-cooked meals to eat rather than be forced to eat out.
[Tip: if you’re forced to eat out when traveling for a race, do some recon work ahead of time so you can pick the places and even what you will eat.]
Saturday
This was my sleep in day. I went to bed early, got up around 7:30 or so. Gina had some oatmeal made up, so I added my protein powder, some peanut butter and berries. Next up was to get ready to head to the reservoir to get in a quick swim/bike/run workout and check in my bike. My swim plans changed as the swim beach wasn’t open yet and I didn’t want to hang around quite that long. The water was calm and when I waded in to see how it felt. Cool yet comfortable! The buoys were all set up with one about every 100m, so it would be a fairly easy course to swim a straight line.
On my way back to the car, I stopped by a chiropractor tent and got a free adjustment to my lower back. My right hip was feeling a little tight, and I thought a little tweaking could help. You have to be careful with these things – and these guys knew not to do anything drastic. Anything too intense could have consequences on race day.
After I got back to my aunt’s house in the afternoon, I started making final race preparations – putting my race numbers on my gear, sorting my swim/bike/run clothes, and going through my race checklist. I got a short stretching session from my uncle (he’s a trainer/yoga instructor), had a great “traditional” pre-race dinner (salmon, brown rice, and veggies), relaxed some more, made sure my alarm was set (3:50am!) and then tried to sleep.
Kudos once again to Gina and Michael for really making sure I didn’t have to do much but take care of my race stuff. They were excellent triathlon hosts!
With that early alarm set, I went to bed.
Part 2 will be the next published post where I talk about how the race itself went down!
Nicole
