Race Report Lanzarote 70.3

The Club Race Morning

This was a fun one! Race morning was sort of funny cause I woke up after not much sleep, drove over to the race and was like omg this is empty, like no one was around. I went into reception and oh oops I had somehow set my alarm an hour too early?? So it was 5 am and I was standing there, had already eaten my breakfast and the security guards were looking at me like who is this girl? So I took an hour long nap in the car then it was race time.

I met a really nice girl in the transition area and after setting up our bikes I found some espresso and then we took a seat to hurry up and wait! We accidentally walked down to the swim start with our warm up bags and had to last minute run them back up to transition so I didn’t get my usual land or swim warm up in. Oh well!

Swim:

UGH. This was terrible. I wasn’t too hopefully since A) it was wetsuit legal and I hate my wetsuit B) it was a mass start of about 900 people in like a narrow lagoon?? Silly. I didn’t get a good starting position so when the whistle went off I was in a SEA of aggressive black seals and after floundering for a while I ran into a leg. Like a leg that was standing up. I look up and people were walk/running because it was so shallow and crowded. I couldn’t swim through them so I followed suit, sluddging through the water, then swam again, then walked again. It was ridiculous. I could not get around all of these people or see anything. I was also just like moving my arms but not really swimming because it was impossible to get into any sort of rhythm. Halfway through the swim you get out of the water and then swim this loop again. The second loop went better than the first and I just tried to hug the buoys and stay away from the crazy people. I was so excited to get out of that water because my mouth was burning it was so salty. 

Bike:

Within the first 5 miles I almost dropped out. The wind was INSANE. All I could think of was getting thrown off of the bike and the climb to come. I was getting blown to bits just drifting across the road and tossed around. There were some guys in front of me also getting rocked and none of them were in their aero bars either so I was like ok, give it some time! It was really awesome when we rode by the surfers beach at Fumara and the sand was blown in the cross winds stinging us. So fun. Not. My plan was just to ride hard the whole way.

The wind made sure that I did! When we would turn and get a tail wind for a bit it was amazing. I tried to just keep picking people off but when the wind would get really tough or we hit a huge downhill I would just get re-passed.

View from the top of the main climb!

The whole ride I had Taylor Swift’s new song Everything Has Changed stuck in my head which is like such a slow one but so good but it was a bit ridiculous. Right before we hit the big climb I saw the first girl since getting onto the bike. Once on the climb I caught a couple of female pros so I was feeling a bit better and just tried to be smart on the climb and buckle down. It was not nearly as scary, just painful! In a good way.

There were quite a few crowds out on the roads cheering us on and once at the top there was a huge group cheering which was so fun. I was excited to descend but was pretty quickly laying the breaks on and out of my aero bars. I have to fix this for the future because just a few minutes into the descent people just flew by me and were out of sight for the rest of the ride.

Falling rock signs up the bike course

It was only about 20 miles to go so I was feeling pretty good, drinking lots of varying concentrations of “sports drink” and could feel the sunburn on my back. The winds continued and there were some descents done out of the saddle because the head winds were so strong.

 

 

The last 5 miles I was totally alone and feeling like eek maybe I should try and catch those people but I relaxed, sang a little T-Swift and reminded myself of the run to come and just focused on getting in some water and staying steady going into transition.

RUN:

I felt blisters on my arches on the bike so for the first time in forever I took the time to put socks on in transition; I was very thankful I had thrown them in my run transition bag last minute! I felt pretty crap when I got going and was scared to look at my Garmin. I knew it was a flat run with 3 loops so I gave myself some time to get my legs under me and was pleasantly surprised when I glanced down and saw a work-able split on my Garmin. I knew this was not sustainable but I was like I might be ok after all!

That was until I turned the corner out of la Santa and saw the run course splayed out in front of me: SO NOT FLAT. I was like noooo this is wrong! It’s suppose to be flat! What’s going on! The wind was also worse, again, so I was getting a bit like uh oh! But I just focused on breaking each lap up. The loop was an out and back, with a tail wind on the way out and head wind on the way back, each with 2 climbs. Terrible haha. I only drank coke and water and had it at every single aid station. I spotted a girl who had passed me going down the descent not far up the road and was able to pass her pretty quickly. I felt pretty decent considering everything once through the second lap.

Not THAT hilly, but also NOT flat

Around mile 7 I accidentally took sports drink instead of coke and almost vomed but thankfully it passed. I was carrying salt sticks and a gel but only took in 2 salt sticks and threw the gel down after awhile because I really didn’t need it. I was able to get a really good view of the field since there were so many turn arounds on the run course and I saw the mens professional race unfold which was pretty cool. The women’s professional race was also awesome and I knew I was still in front of a few of them. I didn’t see any amateurs in front of me but the numbering system was a bit funny so I was having trouble telling. Going into the 3^rd lap I had put enough time into the next female back I knew if I could just hold on I would be alright. I made sure to give a cheesy smile like I FEEL GREAT!! whenever I saw her at a turn around so she didn’t get any ideas…

My calves had started to seize up (because they were not expecting to climb hills or fight winds on the run…) so I was happy I didn’t need to try and hold anyone off. It was also toasty with zero shade so I was dousing water and grabbing lots of sponges whenever I could. My third lap was 3 minutes slower than my first 2 so oops but like honestly the wind and hills were just beyond me at that point ha so I was like it’s fine, just bring it in, and stopped looking at my watch. 

The finish line felt good and I was pretty excited with the result! I was a bit disappointed when I saw the number of one of the girls who had been ahead of me and realized that she was an age grouper because I thought she was a pro so I was a bit regretful I hadn’t kept her in sight but I don’t know if it would have made much difference. I was still very happy with second amateur, 12^th female and that I won my age group. These people know how to put on a good race and the spectators and volunteers were awesome. I would love to come back next year!!