Toughman Tennessee 70.3 Race Report

[bostonmichelle]

Just a fair warning this is probably going to be long and wordy. Settle in with some snacks.

Training Recap
So I decided earlier this year to do a relay at IMNC with 2 of my girlfriends. Once the time came to register they both backed out due to various reasons. I had already planned on doing it and doing the swim portion and therefore had structured my racing season with some OWS races and such. I decided after a few days of mulling it over and talking to some friends about it to just do it myself. A handful of my friends had tried me to do the race last year but since signups opened up when DD was born I had passed. So that was that, I was going to do a half ironman this fall. Fast forward to mid-May to start my training, the first week I had a stomach bug, the second week I fell 20 steps into a group run and smashed up my arm, the third week well shit hit the fan and sadly my dad committed suicide on his 62nd birthday. I flew up to Massachusetts and didn’t train for weeks 3 and 4. I flew back and 2 weeks after his death I had a sprint triathlon. I did it and decided even though my life was going to be crazy, I’d do the best I could with training. I had initially lined up a 20 week training plan, if I had to guess I may have done 10 total weeks of training with various weeks off either fully or partially due to dealing with the aftermath of my dad’s death, working on his estate, getting my sister married at the end of September, and just life. 

5 weeks before IMNC, Hurricane Florence formed off the coast of the Carolinas. It was a horrible week to live in NC, it came through the area of the race and devastated the area 4 weeks before the race. At that moment after it came through and I could see the photos of the destruction just a few hours from me, I knew IMNC would not go on as planned. I started researching other races in the area and found the Toughman Tennessee 70.3 race the day after IMNC. About 3 weeks before the race was scheduled, I decided to just buy my insurance policy and sign up for TT 70.3. A few days later it was announced that IMNC was cancelled and they gave us a generous deferral policy, so I’lll be doing IMVA 70.3 in May.

Packet Pickup the night before
So this race normally has maybe 100 participants, due to IMNC and a few other cancelled races in the area there was over 200 participants. I got there right when packet pickup opened at 5:30 and didn’t get my packet until about 6:30. They only had 1 person checking in people and hadn’t expected basically all 200 participants to come out that night to packet pickup. But it went smoothly and I talked to a bunch of other people in line and we all were pretty much supposed to do IMNC. But we got our packets and most of our swag. I have to say the swag was amazing. We got arm warmers, calf compression sleeves, hooded sweatshirts, towel, water bottle and sunglasses at packet pickup. Then DD, DH, and I went to dinner and headed to bed for an early night.

Race morning
Day of the race we got up at about 5:15 and I got dressed and grabbed my water bottles and got dropped off at the race site. It was pitch black and they really needed lights of some sort. I racked my bike and got my transition set up as best as possible but it was going to rain most of the race so I left my shoes in plastic bags and my socks and bike gloves in ziploc bags. I mingled and chatted with the other people around me and a lot of people were nervous because we had all trained for the flat and fast IMNC race. The RD was doing announcements while helping check people in and helping some beginners even set up their transition areas and making sure everyone was okay. I have to say the RD made this race, he was amazing and was so friendly and personable. He was calling a friend at one point because a lady was having problems with her electronic shifters/bike computer/bike setup.

At about 7:15am they announced they were going to start closing transition and to make our way down to the swim start for announcements. So I got my wetsuit on and got down to the water. The air temperature was about 55* and the water was in the 70s so everyone basically jumped in the water to warm up. They did a wave start for the swim and I was in the 3rd wave.

Swim
There were maybe 30 or so women in my wave start so it was nice to not have to worry about any craziness. I hung towards the back and let everyone else rush and go for it. It was a double loop rectangle. They had kayakers and paddleboarders go out with every swim wave to bring up the rear since they said historically the start is when most people get in trouble and then they kind of positioned themselves so there was always someone near by. I settled into a rhythm though a few ladies around me couldn’t sight at all, I know I’m not the best but they would be going perpendicular from the flow and then do a 180 turn and go perpendicular the other way. I only flipped on my back once when a couple ladies at the start were kinda shoving near me and I just didn’t want to deal with it. I’m not the strongest swimmer and it was rainy and foggy so I just wanted to swim my own race. I held a pretty consistent pace and finished with a pace of 2:13/100 yards per my garmin which is pretty much what I was hoping for. The last bit of the swim was through a bunch of seaweed type stuff and so there was a lot of breaststroke in there because I kept getting tangled up. I ran out of the water toward the wetsuit strippers and got my wetsuit off and ran up to T1.

Swim time: 57:38 for 2600 yards per Garmin

T1
It had rained basically the whole swim so everything was pretty soggy. I got my socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, gloves, and sweatshirt on and I was off. I had bought a hoodie at Walmart the day before for $10 thinking I’d toss it during the bike when I got warm, spoiler that never happened.

T1 Time: 4:03

Bike
So the course was shaped like the letter T and the first and last 8 miles were technical, hilly, curvy roads. Most of the elevation gain was in this part of the bike section. The middle 40ish miles were flat and fast. So I started out and just chugged along, I took a gel within mile 1 knowing I wouldn’t be able to fuel on the technical part. I’d say my bike skills are average, but being in an unknown area on a technical, curvy, hilly road that is wet with rain made me nervous. So I just chugged along and climbed and descended until I got to the flat section. I turned right and went out about 3 miles and then turned around and went out 10 miles then turned around went out 10 miles and then turned around and went back 7 miles. It was pretty windy and cool out there. My feet froze at one point and I didn’t regain true feeling until somewhere around mile 2 of the run. I never once took off and discarded my sweatshirt as I had planned to do. I had a double scoop of tailwind in my water bottle and took gels at miles 15ish, 35ish, and 45ish and a waffle at mile 28. My fueling was pretty spot on and I felt good going into the last 8 miles of technical hilly curvy roads. It was a pretty uneventful bike ride on the flat section. Due to the double loop and minimal auto traffic there was a constant stream of bikers coming and going. I tried to push the pace a bit on the flat but not burn myself out that I couldn’t do the last 8 miles or the run. I think I got pretty close to it and felt pretty good going into the last 8 miles. The last 8 miles though were hard and I talked to myself a lot during those 8 miles. Due to the wet curvy roads and rain I couldn’t really speed up on the downhills so I just puttered along and did what I could. The two big uphills were bad though, there was definitely a point that I looked down and was going 4.9 mph. I knew though that the uphill was almost done and then it was mostly downhill/flat to the transition area. I came into the transition area and dismounted ungracefully. I almost fell over because I had no feeling in my feet what so ever, but recovered.

Bike: 3:33 (15.7 mph)

T2
I racked my bike and got all my bike gear off and got my run shoes on. I tossed my sweatshirt into my transition area and took off.

T2 Time: 4:26

Run
So I ran out of transition and we immediately went uphill. My feet were numb and defrosting so I stopped to walk a minute on the uphill and my feet started to regain feeling. I had programmed my watch to do 4/1 intervals and did that for maybe 2 miles. At that point the road had been up and down and severely slanted. It felt like I was running on a hilly race car track, it was awful. Around mile 2 my IT bands started to really tell me what they thought of all this and they were not happy. I texted DH around this point saying that I’d be done in about 2 hours and to bring coffee, ibuprofen, and my sweatshirt. I tried my best to run the flats/downhills and walk the uphills. The hills were so steep and slanted that I ended up having to walk a lot of the downhills because my knees were screaming at me. The run was a double loop and there were aid stations basically every mile. I had brought my camelback with 2 scoops of tailwind and took two gels along the way as well. A guy from my triathlon club found me around mile 5 and gave me a few minute pep talk about finishing and he was struggling as well, he shared he almost quit in the first 8 miles of the bike course and pushed me along to keep moving. So I just kept shuffling, running when I could, walking when my knees were screaming at me. I probably could’ve pushed through the pain but knowing there were no cutoffs and not wanting to do more damage I decided to just take it in. Somewhere around mile 10 I started getting nauseous and started taking in Gatorade from the aid stations and ate another waffle. Most of the other participants were also struggling and most of us were doing our own versions of run/walk and saying this wasn’t the flat Wilmington race we signed up for. We all pretty much were cheering each other along and tell ourselves we could finish. Also at some point the RD had jumped in his pickup truck and had been riding the run course checking in on people and cheering us on. At mile 12.9 there was one last water stop. At that point I picked it up and ran as fast/hard as I could to hit the finish line. I practically started crying when I saw DD so excited to see me. I crossed the finish line and got my medal and water and kept on walking.

Run: 2:37 (11:56 min/mile)

Overall Thoughts
Even though the course was tough it was one of the best races I’ve done. The RD and all the volunteers were amazing and so supportive. It felt like a family run event. I’d highly endorse this race in particular for beginners and back of the packers like myself. It was great knowing there were no time limits and I never worried I’d get pulled off the course because I was slow. I definitely missed a lot of training and that definitely shown through during the day. Hopefully my next training cycle is a lot less busy and complicated.

[al320]

You are AMAZING.

I cant imagine training through all of that, then switching races, then dealing with such non-ideal conditions. Congratulations on a truly amazing race!!!

[minzy]

Awesome, congrats to you!

[sadlebred]

Congratulations!!!!

[labbie]

You're amazing!! Congrats on accomplishing such a huge goal, especially amidst everything else you had to deal with. I loved hearing about the support from the other racers and especially the RD. Glad you had an overall good experience.

[jene]

Congratulations! You are amazing!

[woowoo]

CONGRATS!!

[cinco]

Congratulations! I’m so impressed!

[CallingAllAngels]

I am totally in awe of you. I'm so sorry that you had such a shitty training cycle. I'm really impressed how you stuck with it in the face of so many obstacles. Not just on race day, but your entire training cycle. Congratulations on an amazing race. Good luck in VA in the spring. I can't wait to hear all about it.

[emilyj]

Congratulations! I am so proud of you for pushing through a really tough training cycle!!

[gt7301b]

Congrats!!! I'm glad you were able to get out there and tackle this monster.

[jreeds]

Congratulations! Nice work!!

[wawa]

You are amazing. Do push through so much shit during training (hugs for that...I'm so sorry) and switch races to a harder course in crap weather is an amazing testiment to your fundemental badassery.

And you killed it!! So amazing.

[scm1011]

Wow, you are amazing! Sounds like a super tough race and I'm proud of you for pushing through. Its hard to switch gears to a race that is nothing like you trained for.

I know the last 6 months have been hugely challenging and I'm in awe of your strength and grace, friend. You are truly an inspiration <3

[sassystace]

Congrats!! It sounds awful but exhilarating at the same time!

[mrshandy]

Congratulations!!! Seeing your journey has been so inspiring!! I love how you just throw off adversity and keep going!!

[hurricanedrunk]

Congrats! Wow, way to push through all that craziness during training and make it through a tougher 70.3 than you planned for. I can't wait to see what you do with your next one!

[mysticmuffin]

Congratulations! Way to push through a really tough training cycle ((hugs)) and crappy weather conditions on race day.

[ebeth]

You’re amazing! Congratulations on powering through a tough training cycle and making it to the finish line.

[hannahb]

Congrats on many levels. From the tough training to the day of.

[shauni27]

my god. This is amazing. You are amazing. You completed a super fucking awesome HALF IRONMAN. And further, you did it in awful conditions with a less than stellar training cycle. I am SO proud of you!

[G22]

You conquered so many things just to get to the start line, and then you raced like a badass! So many congrats!

[bostonmichelle]

Thanks everyone. Knowing I had all your support during this especially during the race made it doable.

[thom]

Congrats!! It is amazing you made it to the start of this race -- and of course the finish. Way to go; you powered through SO much. I hope things are much smoother for your training for IMVA.

[melmel48]

bostonmichelle, I am not sure how I am just seeing this, but congrats. You did amazing.