- My fueling was "spot on" as far as I am concerned (a later post with more details about that) . I had practiced for months earlier on my nutrition especially on the bike so I knew what foods and drinks I could tolerate and I got comfortable with eating on the bike. I am thankful that I found my love for Lara Bars early on. They are tasty, portable, enough calories and easy on my stomach.
- The practice swim 2 days earlier really gave me the confidence that I needed on race day. I was ready for just how cold the water would be and I was also prepared for the river grass.
- Wearing my own tri-tats race numbers versus the traditional sharpie numbers on the arm. When you sweat, sharpie runs and looks terrible. However, the temporary tattoos look great and will withstand sunscreen and sweat.
- Previewing the course; especially the bike course. We took the time on Saturday to drive the bike course. I always like to familiarize myself with hills, potholes, and road condition in general. There were some racers that did not preview the course and were not familiar with a certain "hook-screw" turn in the course where you make a hard right turn and turn onto another road. He took it too fast and crash with a broken front fork on his bike.
- Not focusing on my time. Since this was my first 70.3, I didn't want the goal to be how fast I could do it. Of course I wanted to make the time cutoff, but mainly I wanted to enjoy the experience. You only get your 1st one time.
- Prayer! I started out this journey with prayer many months back and I definitely prayed a lot on race day. God got through all the training, He would definitely see me through race day. The main thing was the I gave Him all the credit.
What didn't go right? What would I do different next time?
- Sun exposure. Even though it was overcast all day and the sun really didn't shine, I got sunburned. I applied sunscreen 3 times and still got sunburned! Sounds crazy I know, but I am a seriously white girl. Next time, I will spend more time in the sun in the months/weeks pre-race so that I can get a bit of a base so that I don't burn. If it had been sunny, I would have been in real mess.
- Spend more time running in my training leading up to race day. I spent lots of time cycling and swimming which was great. I did some mid-length runs but was frustrated when work or time and weather constraints got in the way of doing longer runs. Next time I would like to add more longer runs in even if part of those sessions include walking.
No comments:
Post a Comment