My boss asked me the other day for my definition of happiness. I felt like Winona Ryder in that scene in Reality Bites where she’s asked to define ‘irony’ and just kind of awkwardly stumbles over it. He countered my long-winded explanation with something simple I hadn’t really thought of: 

Happiness is meeting or exceeding your expectations. 

With that definition in mind, it’s no wonder that I’ve been on a pink cloud daze for the past week. It’s taken me a while to gather my thoughts on this race, and honestly I’ve been enjoying taking the time to myself to process what was a really special and important training block and endeavor.

This 70.3, my first, was very outside of my comfort zone in a way that I hadn’t allowed myself to get in the past few years. I had a secret (not so secret) goal of finishing under 6 hours, but wasn’t sure if that was something I could execute, particularly on a warm day on a hilly course. 

But I did it. 5 hours, 50 minutes, and 18 seconds later I finished, completely blowing my goal out of the water and honestly it shocked me. 

With running, I don’t get shocked very much. There’s kind of an expected outcome based on training that I can surprise myself with a little (with the exception of my last 5K, where my coach told me to abandon my usually conservative pacing approach and I scored a massive PR), but never by anything like ten minutes, for sure. To say that I exceeded my expectations would be almost trivializing it. I felt so strong, powerful, and confident in myself and I hope I can hold onto that forever. 

Swim – 1.2 miles – 42:24 – 23rd AG

For a discipline I started out hating, this one sure surprised me. In previous sprints, my swims have started off super hurried and chaotic and only seemed to settle around when it was time to get out of the water.

By some miracle, I felt bizarrely calm and collected once I got into the water at Haines. It took much less effort than expected to move steadily in a controlled and relaxed rhythm, paying attention to my surroundings and sighting every so often – it felt meditative and calm. This was honestly shocking (a theme), particularly after we were released into the water after a few minutes of eardrum shattering metronome beeps that made me feel like Katniss Everdeen facing the Cornucopia.

The “pants” course was a little tricky to navigate, but I did like that the turns gave a bit of a break in what could be a monotonous out and back swim. I don’t know if this is embarrassing to write out loud (?) but I did pee while moving in my wetsuit which felt like a really impressive feat, unsarcastically.  

Transition 1 – 6 min, 43 sec

This was longer than I had allotted myself time for and I did that on purpose because I knew I saved some time on the swim. I didn’t dilly dally but I also gave myself a second to eat something (I can’t remember what) and drink some tailwind before getting on my bike. I got a surprise bumping into Amanda and Drew coming out of the water, and that gave a big boost to morale! There was an absolute clusterfuck on the mount line as I had expected and nearly crashed into someone who seemed to have some trouble holding their line but he was very nice and apologized later and we all made it out unscathed. When (not if) I do this again, I’ll put my shoes on closer to the mount line to not have to clickety clack for a 10th of a mile.

Bike – 56 miles – 2:53:59 – 18th AG

When I saw the weather report and knew it was going to be hot, I made a last minute call to push the bike pace a little from 18 – 18.5/19 to give me a bit more buffer in the run.  It’s much easier for me to hold pace on wheels than it is on my current low (comparatively) running volume.

But as my plans tend to go, particularly on the bike, I was averaging just under 21mph by the time we clocked 10 miles. Oops. Honestly though, it felt effortless. I was a little worried about not being able to draft, as I was lucky enough to do the majority of my long training rides with friends and we’d take turns pulling, but it was fine. The course started off really flat and the weather was perfect (no wind!) so it felt super easy to pick up speed here and road conditions were good. With the exception of some folks not calling out when passing, my fellow ironpeople were pretty courteous. 

The hills started maybe 25-30 miles in and I had already had a pretty good warmup. I didn’t leave the saddle and just immediately switched to low gear, taking the climbs really steady and without burning myself out. I tried to make up time and hammered down the rollers and that was super super fun. At some point, I saw Annee (and again later!) and that was such a welcome surprise as there were very long stretches and the route was a little boring in parts. 

Honestly with the exception of the last 10 miles which felt like it lasted 10 weeks, this went by super fast and I was pinching myself at how fast I was going with low HR and low seeming effort. My bike fit felt like the biggest problem, not legs or cardio.

Let’s see how long I continue to complain about bike fit without doing anything at about it at all.

I fueled the bike super well, taking in something like 65-70 grams/hour through my bottles of Tailwind, and some roctanes consolidated into a pouch (Thanks Alex!). I didn’t have to stop at any aid stations and I didn’t pee on the bike. 10/10. 

transition 2 (04:50)

Omg T2. This was the best. I saw Amanda and Drew again coming in and when I got to my bike rack, I saw my whole family (including my dad and my uncle who just flew in from Poland!) and Dina and Leo. It gave me such a boost, particularly because I wasn’t expecting them to be camped out by the bike! I got some forehead kisses from Sloane and high fives and asked the strangers next to me to calculate how fast I’d have to run to get under 6.

I knew at this second that I’d hit it, and it was really really emotional. They told me I’d need 10:22/mile and I knew I could do that even if I walked a bit. I got another surprise as I made my way back onto the course and saw Shannon, Claire, Linzie, and Vanessa. I totally wasn’t expecting to see them and it was such a joy to get greeted back out onto the course with their feral screaming.

Run – 2:02:22 – 17th

The run course is two loops, and it’s pretty tough because it starts hilly with three pretty gnarly ones and then tapers off around half way through. I fought the urge to walk, telling myself that I was allowed to take some Galloway breaks after I finished the first loop, and was able to run all of the hills without stopping which felt like a win.

I stopped at every aid station and took in fuel, mortal hydration, and water. I was a little nervous because the longest OTB run I’d done was 6 miles, but I was still feeling pretty good up until mile 4 or so when I decided to pepper in some walk breaks and walk the aid stations. I would stop at .5 and .8, starting to run again when the lap pace hit 10:00/mile. It wasn’t particularly strategic, but it gave me something to look forward to and that was really helpful.

At some point, it got HOT. It was 70 something and the course wasn’t particularly shaded – I’m so grateful for Annee’s advice to put ice in my suit because without it I don’t know that I’d survive.

Also super grateful for my fellow ironpeople on the course who were super kid, the really enthusiastic volunteers, and whoever set up the sprinkler and the hoses that gave me life.

I’m normally not a big fan of the double loop courses, but I loved seeing my people twice this way and also helped to break up the run – I feel like I generally lose my will to live around mile 7.5-8.5 of a half marathon, but I was already on the 2nd loop so I girl-mathed my way to a better attitude by reminding myself that I just did the same distance.

Finish – 05:50:18

There’s nothing i can say that would give justice to what it felt like in my body to run down that carpet. The gratitude I have for the people who supported me, my body for carrying (and surprising!) me, and myself for finishing what I said I would to the best of my ability – I just honestly don’t have the words.

I hope I can continue to surprise myself, make some old versions of me proud (they would be so shocked!), and keep doing hard things.