Well I guess there's a first for everything. St.
Croix 70.3 didn't go as planned.
Race week on the island is unbelievable, and it makes the event something special. The race is a huge event on an otherwise very relaxed island, and having 500+ international athletes in town is a great excuse to party. I managed to relax and stay out of the sun for the most part, but I had time to have dinner with
Crowie,
Terenzo, and Tyler
Butterfield, and met a few other world class pros around town throughout the week.
According to both athletes and those living on the island, this past week has been the hottest it has ever been here. Believe it or not St.
Croix occasionally gets trade winds from the Sahara desert, and I've been lucky enough to experience them all week. Humidity has gone over 110 (close to 50
celsius) every day I've been here, and the only
reprieve is brutally strong winds.
Race morning went according to plan, up at 4am and over to transition to set up. Felt great in my
warmup and I was ready for a big day. I ended up swimming alone for the entire 2k, and despite feeling strong I had a pretty embarrassing swim time. Maybe because it was my first ocean swim and got thrown around a bit...maybe because I don't know how to swim. Who knows?
I hopped on my bike and tried to put the swim out of my head, while also trying to get the salt out of my mouth (mints taped to the top tube = awesome idea) and the blood back into my legs. I wasn't feeling great but got into a decent rhythm through the first 20k, then got to the
rollercoaster section. Leading up to "The Beast" there is about 10km of overall down grade along the coast with some amazing, beautiful, and very technical descents along with a few quick uphills. The Beast is definitely a tough climb and its where the heat first hits you, but I survived...at about 9km/h.
The descent from the beast is a fun one too, until you hit the insane headwinds that you have to deal with for the next 40km. I rode well up to 70k where there is a series of tough climbs to the finish, and that's where things get serious (including a 2k climb @ 10% at km 86). I backed off a little over the last 20k and came into transition with a 2:41 bike split feeling reasonably fresh.
I felt decent going onto the run, trying to block out how stupidly hot it is. The run course is very hilly and happens to be almost completely out of the wind, so you get the full brunt of the heat on the black tar road. I backed off my goal pace, thinking that if I felt
ok later I would push the second lap. But the wonderful thing of long course racing...you're always dealt the unexpected.
At 5k I started throwing up everything I tried to drink. I tried to push through it but I couldn't keep anything down and by 8k I knew I was getting in trouble if I couldn't get any liquid in me. I'm sure it looked interesting as my back cramped up every time I bent over to throw up. My run became "get to aid station, grab ice and water, drink, throw up, get to next aid station." By the end of the first lap I had enough of it and called it a day for my first
DNF ever!
I decided that it wasn't worth
reaggrivating my back problems or getting into some serious dehydration trouble just to finish another 10k of hobbling along at 5min
k's holding my back every time I threw up. I'll leave it up to debate whether I went too hard early, if I wasn't prepared for such a tough race, or if it was as simple as my body not agreeing with me today. Whatever it was, I wasn't about to sacrifice any training with a big season of racing ahead.
I headed straight for medical, where I refused to take an IV (needles are the enemy) and saw that
Crowie had dropped out too...which made me feel a little better. Over half the pro women's field dropped out as well and it was unanimous that this was the hardest year in recent memory, on the hardest 70.3 course in the world. To put things in perspective, the fastest run time today was 1:20,
Terenzo was nearly 20 minutes slower here than last week in Texas, and Tyler
Butterfield ran a minute per mile slower than last week.
Some final thoughts:
I finally realized that at my age, long course racing is really quite stupid. I signed up for this race for some fun motivation to get through base training alone in London, and my training and tough experience here has definitely made me stronger. But I need many more years of fitness before making another worthwhile attempt at being competitive in a 70.3. I guess I learned the hard way that short course is my focus for a long time to come. I've got my first
ITU race in 7 weeks, its time to get down to business and get fast.
Despite the forgettable result, I want to thank everyone who supported me leading up to this race. And in particular a big thanks to my
homestays Bill and Mal, who made it an awesome week in paradise, even though things didn't go to plan today. Back home tomorrow and back to training later this week.
