As I mentioned in my last post, Utah’s Toughest is about doing something within the sport that I love that is very different from what I normally do. I don’t care about times or paces or even placing. I just want to feel strong all day and have fun. Which, even that, requires good preparation! I want it to be the MOST FUN race that I am doing this year with NO PRESSURE. I want this race to be a CELEBRATION of triathlon, even if I am walking the run. BACK TO THE ROOTS.
I really enjoyed the training for this race. Long hours in the saddle and on the trails up in the mountains is my idea of fun! A big THANK YOU to Coach Liz for guiding me in this adventure but also letting me off the leash enough to have this feel different than Ironman prep. Less structure, less focus on numbers. Loved it!
(For info on course, race prep, goals, etc. please refer to the post prior or go here.)
Race morning:
Pretty low-key. The longer the race, the easier to tell myself that there is no reason to be nervous. Control what you can and deal with everything else to the best of your abilities once it happens. Definitely more EXCITED than nervous. It was shaping up to be a great day with mild temps and plenty of sun. Just the way I like it! Having my mechanic (aka the husband) by my side basically all day gives me peace of mind. Small but friendly group of athletes. With the teams and relays it was actually a decent sized field for a first-year out-of-the-ordinary event! Better organized than expected. I had low expectations when it came to the organization of this race and found myself pleasantly surprised.
Swim: 1:13
Start got delayed 15 minutes and we went off at 6:15 in the DARK. Sunrise wasn’t until 6:45 so that was an adventure. I had clear goggles and still didn’t see the first buoy. I couldn’t even differentiate between the shore and the lake. Ha! So, I just swam blind. Water temp was perfect. If this hadn’t been a race, I would’ve been scared to death, but in this case, I was just fine. Fortunately, the course was four loops, so we were never too far away from safety. Hooked up with a guy and we swam most of the next 3 loops together. Traded off the lead. It was CHOPPY at first and the first loop took FOREVER. I honestly thought they would pull us out after 3 loops because they realized that the swim was WAY too long. It calmed down a bit after two loops and I was starting to have fun and just accept the fact that I would be in this lake ALL DAY LONG. Not sure how long it ended up being. Neither I didn’t wear a Garmin. It is my slowest IM swim by 10 minutes, so I am guessing it was long (and social media chatter confirms this). Or we were just really off course because of terrible sighting in the dark. Either way, I got out of the water in 2nd overall and 1st solo. No matches burnt.
Bike: 6:31
My estimated time of 6:30 wasn’t far off! I thought that would be on the conservative side, but it wasn’t. Nevertheless, I had a pretty good ride.
I paced myself well and executed the crap out of this. I would do it just like that again. I kept an eye on power but rode by feel. What pace can I hold all day? That’s the effort I was shooting for. Nutrition + hydration went according to plan.
This was a fun ride! Scenic and hilly = my cup of tea.
There are no aid stations. You get to choose one person as your main support and then rely on him for the whole ride. It took the husband and me a bit to figure out a system since it was the first time we had ever done something like this but he eventually figured out how to hand me stuff on the fly. The plan was to stop here and there to refuel but – who am I kidding? I don’t stop. Ok, I did stop once at mile 85 to make sure I had everything for the brutal climb up Guardsman Pass to the ski resort as there was no support allowed on that part. (The cars had to actually take a detour through Park City.)
That last climb? Absolute KILLER. Triple Lemmon (I did this back in March) is easier than one of these. It lived up to its reputation of being the hardest climb in Utah. I needed 35 more gears and ALMOST walked my bike. (Glad I didn’t preview this. Ignorance is bliss.)
Three things to note:
Low-grade headache all day. I blame the altitude.
I had to pee FOUR times on the bike. (No, of course I didn’t stop to pee…) I almost had Karl text my coach to see what could be the issue. I also peed FOUR times in the swim. This is unusual. And I didn’t drink more than usual before or during the race. Stomach wasn’t great but not terrible either.
My lungs started to hurt/burn toward the end of this ride. Again, I blame the altitude, although I should be used to it since I live at 6,000ft and had plenty of training days around 10,000ft.
I got passed once by the solo guy I was in T1 with. That’s it. I caught back up to him toward the end of the climb, but he was having none of it, so I let him get to T2 first.
RUN: 7:15
YIKES. There was virtually no running on these trails at Brighton Ski Resort. Maybe 1 mile each loop. It’s not that I was that tired or my legs that trashed. It was just either REALLY steep up/down or VERY technical/sandy. Definitely more so than I expected. I also got lost a few times on each loop but eventually found my way back on course. First loop was mostly by myself with a bit of help from an awesome random girl (Caroline Gleich) and some water from strangers because the promised water station wasn’t there yet when I passed. I kept eating and drinking and taking salt every 30 minutes like my life depended on it because it basically did! Ha.
I actually felt decent on the first loop. Never discouraged. Just slow. But the views made up for it! I never worried about placing. I knew I was in first overall but, honestly, didn’t give a sh*t. It was just a matter of one foot in front of the other. My headache was still there but didn’t get worse.
On the second loop, accompanied by Karl now, my lungs were getting worse and I had a hard time breathing. Which limited my running even more. It wasn’t so much my legs (which were tired but ok), I just couldn’t take deep breaths and was coughing a lot. This is where my athletic-induced asthma really comes into play. Usually, it’s just at the very tail end of a race or as soon as I cross the finish line. Today I struggled with it for hours. Haven’t had an inhaler since before I turned pro. Not really considering a TUE while I am still racing as a pro. But something that I always need keep an eye on.
My stomach was ok all things considered. I forced myself to stay on schedule with eating and drinking plus salt intake because I know it is key and once you get behind, it’s a slippery slope.
The second loop took FOREVER. Every part seemed twice as long as before, especially once it got dark. I had about an hour in the darkness, including running down a ski slope with no trail. Snail pace! It was all I could do to keep moving but there was also no way I was going to stop or cut the course. Super grateful for the patient, kind, pack-carrying, trail-runner husband!
Made it to the finish in 1st place still! Crazy. The male winner was definitely closing in on me but there was no way to know and, honestly, I didn’t care. This was just about making it to the finish line before the tank was completely empty!
A big THANK YOU to the Iron Cowboy + team for dreaming up this race and then making it a reality! I got exactly what I came for and I would love to give it another shot next year. THE BEST!
Was this harder than Ironman?
Yes and no. Physically, yes. Mentally and emotionally, no. There is something about racing IM as a pro and really digging so deep and being at the limit ALL DAY that makes it harder than this. No tears shed during or after this race. After IM, I am usually an emotional MESS.
Recovery
Legs and lungs recovering ok but it’s taking a week at least. Overall fatigue is normal given the circumstances. Soreness is going away. Left knee still an issue. Other than that nothing alarming. (Note: That knee became a HUGE issue about a week after the race. More about this in the next post.)
SBJ Adventures 
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