WORLD CHAMPS DISAPPOINTMENT
I am usually pretty eager to share my race recap with you guys.
unfortunately, after racing in IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Utah, I find myself feeling…. disappointed and therefore procrastinating in writing this blog.
Let me be clear. I am NOT disappointed at myself. I am disappointed at the accumulation of decisions made and how things were managed.
Let me back up just a little.
Exactly 30 days before race day, we got an email from IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, notifying us that the race was moving from a 2-day format to a 1-day race. This meant moving the females from Friday to race with the males on Saturday.
The move made sense at that time. Since almost all international age groupers (AG) could not travel to the USA due to boarder restrictions, they had to consolidate the race. Choosing to move the females instead of the males was probably due to 2 reasons. One, our group has less athletes than the men and two; a Friday race has more impact in the community with race logistics instead of a Saturday.
This date change meant that all female athletes and their families/friends traveling to support them, had to change their travel plans at the last minute. We were lucky that our airbnb accommodation was able to shift our reservations down one day and changing flights and car rental dates was done without extra charge. We did though lose one day of vacation with our friends, who weren’t able to shift their travel dates. I lot of female athletes were unable to shift dates and therefore had to defer. Still, I felt very grateful that the race was not canceled.
If we have learned anything in the past 2 years it’s to remain flexible, pivot and know if you register for a race it comes with a gamble.
Then a few days before race day, our Swim Wave Times were posted.
Since combining males and females to a 1-day race it meant 3500 athletes from 85 countries would toe the start line. The pros would start at 7AM while the last aG Wave would start close to 10AM.
Again, IRONMAN had to manage how to arrange the males and females AGers and they chose to place all females AGers at the end of the race. This meant right away from the start, there would be 2 very different races at IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship. I understand that when IRONMAN made such decision, one group will always feel less off. An option would have been to alternate gender with each AG wave.
We work so hard for equality and representation in all sports. All year we train in the same sport, we qualify for the same race, and come race day in an IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship I personally didn’t feel world class athlete.
I have raced in 2 other IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships which have been truly the highlight of my sport journey! In 2018 I raced in IM 70.3 WC Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa and 2019 in IM 70.3 WC Nice, France. I have invested both monetary and time in my sport in past 6 years, like most AGer triathletes, qualifying at this level. But unfortunately the accumulation of decisions made by IRONMAN, made me feel like females didn’t matter.
PRE RACE WAIT
Waiting for hours in transition for my wave to start was a total mind fuck. My usual pre race nutrition plan had to be accommodated and knowing I would race in the heat of the day had me nervous. Finally after hours and hours of waiting, my AG started to line up making our way out of transition and into the swim start! My AG was the last wave to start the race at 10AM. Just to keep things in perspective, by the time we made it to our swim start, the pros were about to finish their race!
SWIM
I came into World Champs 70.3 with a strong final training block. I had a superb race season with racing in St. George 70.3 early in May and Lubbock 70.3 late in June where I podium 4th. I invested extra time in my swim technique for Worlds, which clearly paid off for the 1st half of the swim averaging 1:49 min/100m. But all this went to hell as I made the final turn to head back to T1 with about 850 meters go to the finish.
The official water temperature at Sand Hollow on race morning was 78.3 F making wetsuits not permitted. I personally love racing without a wetsuit so this was great news for me! Air temps in the morning where about 70+F with blue skies.
At 9:51AM my AG wave started and I placed myself towards the front. We were 175 females in my wave. The first half of the swim was pure perfection. I was relaxed and calm. I was concentrating on my swim technique. I felt efficient in the water. The sky was blue and the water was crystal clear.
As I made my last right turn on the last red buoy to head back to shore, I noticed a change in the color of the sky and water. I was wearing my tinted Roka goggles to protect me from the sun glare that I had expected at 10am but when I turned, all I saw was black on black and choppy water.
I kept swimming about another 350 meters feeling the current and choppiness in the reservoir increase and then the sky turned pitch black. At about 500 meters to the finish, I had to stop swimming to gather my bearings. The choppiness had turned into big waves and it was hailing and I couldn’t see the next buoy.
We were in the middle of a massive storm with wind, hail, rain, and lighting! Every stroke pushed me back with a mouth full of water and boats zipping in and out around me in total panic.
I put my head down in the water and kept pushing between breaststroke and freestyle making zero goggle contact with boaters. I could hear athletes asking for help and boaters zipping in and pulling the athlete out of the water. I kept moving forward as I knew getting on a boat meant one thing... DNF (did not finish).
I didn’t come this far to only come this far was all kept telling myself. I also felt calm under such chaotic conditions. My personality actually thrives in chaos. No, it was not safe but I believed in me and my swim strength.
I may not be the fastest swimmer in my AG but I am a strong swimmer. Needless to say those last 500 meters took me forever to get done. My overall swim time was 40:47 which is my 2nd slowest HIM swim to date. My slowest HIM swim is still Miami 70.3 (41:53) in October 2017 when the race was held right after Hurricane Maria. The ocean was rough with swells and athletes were pulled out. But in that race, athletes pulled out were not allowed to continue racing, they all got DNFs.
Garmin data from my swim. The red line is my heart rate, green line swim pace, and yellow cadence. This clearly shows when Wizard of Oz storm hit the reservoir.
T1
Coming out of the swim, I was physically spent after fighting those waves. My heart rate was spiked and coming up to land I was greeted with more chaos. Sand Hollow Reservoir was turned into an evacuation site. The water behind me was filled with flashing rescue boats moving in and out of the swim course. Boats were rushing female athletes to shore dropping them right at the boat ramp of the swim finish and going out to rescue more.
I didn’t know if the race was canceled but someone yelled saying keep moving.
Finish the swim, running up the boat ramp wondering what the fuck is going on.
I started jogging up the boat ramp into T1 to find that all the metal transition fences where gone! The storm had blown them and scattered them on the empty transition parking lot. Spectators where gone….. evacuated. Only the volunteers where left to guide the last female AG out of Sand Hollow.
I made my way to my bike bag and sat on the floor contemplating what to do next as the rain was pouring and the wind was roaring. How safe was it to continue?
I laugh now but as we asked a male volunteer at this station if the race was canceled, he looked at us and with much excitement he yelled “you are an IRONMAN, you train for this”!
BIKE
Getting on my bike was 100% empowered by my family.
Jimmie, Karen and Peggy were waiting for me at mile marker 20 just outside our airbnb on the bike course. I told myself, just get to them.
I started riding out of transition with the heavy down pour and 30-40 mph wind. They told us later there were some sustained 50+ mph gusts. Many athletes crashed out on the bike course that morning and I saw several athletes just seating next to their bikes waiting for help. All I kept telling myself was get to mile maker 20.
Getting to mile marker 20 was truly the highlight of my race!!! Seeing Jimmie, Karen and Peggy was all that I needed to keep fighting through this race.
Picture taken by Peggy at mile marker 20! I was so happy to see them! My race day highlight right here!
At this stage the rain had stopped and I was coming up to my favorite epic bike section of this course: the infamous Snow Canyon climb. Snow Canyon is the most picturesque road in between red rocks, lava fields, and pink sand dunes on a 5 miler stretch over 1,000 ft (300+ meters) elevation gain.
As soon as I got to the top of Snow Canyon, the scariest moment of this race was awaiting me!
The last few miles of the bike course are fast steep descents back into St. George. At this moment the sky reopened with another strong down pour and cross winds. My Pinarello TT bike is equipped with break pads, which do not respond well in the rain.
Those last few miles were terrifying as I had zero breaking and my bike kept been blown to the side. not to mention visibility was low as not sure how but the rain was coming from under my visor.
My overall bike time clearly indicated the struggle I faced in the 56 miles with strong head winds, sand storm, and flush flood. I didn’t hit my normalized power target nor did I hit a PR on this bike course compared to my early May St George race. My overall bike time was 3:11 and truthfully I was demoralized at my bike performance even under such weather conditions. I played it safe and took no risk.
T2
Coming into transition, I dropped my bike with much pleasure to the volunteers and went running to grab my run bag. I must have been deep into survival mode on the bike, as I must have past my run bag at least 3x. I remember hearing Karen say, “E did they move your bag?”. I am pretty sure I didn’t respond back as I was having a total internal melt down telling myself: “Esther… Fucking Focus”. I felt frustrated until I looked at my landmark where my bag was located and I looked at my wristband to literally match my bib number to my run bag.
RUN
My family greeted me right at the exit of T2. I wanted to stop so badly to say hi but I knew if I stopped it would have been hard to start again. So I waved, gave them high fives, and kept going.
Coming out of T2 feeling frustrated before I heard my name being cheered by Jimmie, Karen and Peggy.
The run course in St. George is evil. It will fuck you up even in your best mental game day. For me it is by far the hardest half marathon course that I have ever done as a 70.3 or stand alone half marathon. It has 1,300ft elevation gain and the first 3 miles are straight up and you do this 2x. Yes, evil, whom ever designed it.
By the time I started running, the rain had stopped and all the males AGers where done with their race. All the females were left to finish the course under the heavy heat. I felt defeated and I just couldn’t kick my running gait up those hills. I clocked a disappointing run pace of 9:39 min/mile. Not the pace that I had trained to execute.
Running up to the red carpet finish line my emotions where 100% relieved that this race was over. I didn’t enjoy this race. It left me disappointed in so many levels.
POST RACE
About 80+ females from my AG were pulled out of the swim and transported on boats to the swim finish while other females that started towards the end of my swim wave, where told to turn back to shore. All females in my AG were allowed to continue racing with their timing chip regardless if they were pulled out of the swim or turned back around.
here we are, racing in the most competitive field in IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds Championship and yet our timing and ranking in our own AG is FUCKED UP.
Listen, I completely agree in allowing these athletes to continue racing as they were pulled out of a swim for uncontrollable safety reasons. But if this was allowed then they should adjust our times as the field became unleveled.
2+ weeks later post race and still no adjustments in our rankings and points.
