I recently had a break through on my swim technique. Some days, I'd shock myself with sub 2:00 min 100s, sub 4 min 200s and not know why. It would drive me crazy because a week later, I'd lose it and be back to a crappy irregular swim time all in the over 2 min range per 100y. This has gone on for over a year. I work really hard at swimming. I sprint, do drills, use paddles, use fins, and a variety of lengths. I just accepted I suck and it is what it is. I've had many lessons from many coaches without change. My swim is my warmup. The end. I just stopped stressing over it. Then one day I asked Marie McBride about her swimming background. She was a life timer and swam with ease. During the chat she told me she disliked Xterra wetsuits because the legs were so buoyant that she couldn't keep her kick underwater. A light bulb clicked and I pictured my body in the pool wearing my xterra lava pants. I visually saw my feet in the air and my head underwater. WOW that looks horrible! I have been pushing my head through the water! When you see an amazing swimmer, their head is up enough to cause a bow in the water where there is a pocket of air near their mouth. I started visually seeing other great swimmers and how their bodies floated in the water compared to mine. The next time I went to the pool, I saw the + at the back of the wall on the other side of the pool. I'd never really noticed it before but decided to really focus on seeing it in front of me. Instead of a 2:08/100, I swam a 1:53. HOLY CRAP!! I have been swimming with my head between my legs all this time! I did my first 13 - 100s all under 2:00 which has never happened. I sprinted 10 - 50s and hit a 1:40 pace! 
My goal for Barb's was to look for that imaginary + in the river and really focus on reaching towards it the entire swim and pulling back hard to my hip. This requires great focus for me but the weather was amazing and the water was perfect so there's nothing else to think about right?. However, I still can get easily confused even on a straight path. Barb's race has a lot of non-competitive racing females as well as inexperienced so I was bumped a lot during the swim and one lady swam under me but I just kept going and moving around them. I had asked the info desk how many buoys were in the river and she said 10 so when I approached #10, I started to turn and paused because I couldn't see the next buoy across the river... well there were 11 ! I started again to #11 at the turnaround but it was just a few buoys together. I thought there would be another buoy to swim across towards so I was lost again looking for a buoy. Then I recalled my coach telling me to go toward the beach, not the buoys on the return so I took off wide. Well I went so wide that I added 200 yards extra to my swim so I didn't PR in time but I'm really proud of my race pace, especially because I was so comfortable on the exit. My race pace was 1:54 which is a PR pace for me.
I ran to the wetsuit strippers and he ripped off my wetsuit and I was off running to transition. I really wanted to be efficient this time and not take my time. I had looked at the top 5 last year and set a goal of 5 minutes and finished in 5:30. I had so much mud on my feet that I had to scrub to get it off and I had to apply neck cream to control the pain I experience in aero on the bike so I was happy with my time. Even though the weather was very cool, I still wore my cooling towel on the bike because I knew I would need it for the run later anyway. I also wore Desoto cool wings which are sunsleeves with the additional coverage on the shoulder blades. I wore them inside the wetsuit so I didn't' fight to put them on later and slow my transition. They were absolutely perfect and kept me warm the first hour of the bike since it was still foggy and kept me cool for the run later.
Last year, I did the full aquabike and was terrified of the ramp out of transition. "everyone falls here!! Just walk the ramp" was the constant advice but this time I talked to my coach and she said I was absolutely riding up that ramp. really? hmmm... I went to the ramp the day before the race. I walked my bike down the ramp and turned around and looked up. OMG what the hell is wrong with me? That is a mere blip. I made sure I was in an easy gear, clipped in, and shot right up that ramp without any issue. WOW I can be so dramatic sometimes!!! Race day, I was fully confident and clipped in and passed everyone walking up the ramp with a big smile on my face! I recalled my fear last year and was so proud of my growth in confidence and ability.I felt fantastic on the bike and I was constantly reminding myself to hold back for the run later. My front bottle holds all my calories 400c Carbo Pro and 210c of IM Perform. Then I alternate BASE salt every 5 miles with water and sip the calories every 15 mins. I grab a couple pieces of banana along the way for a little bit of solid for the stomach. I took the corner turn at Sunset well and knew the sharp hill was coming soon so changed gears and zoomed right up the hill passing the walkers. Again, I recognized my improvements from all the hill riding this year. As I continued along the miles I watched my power 30s, avg power and normalized power with intensity. I was pushing above the upper limits that my coach gave me and I kept hearing her say if you don't do this, you will blow up on the run. I felt stronger than any other race today. I remembered the first half of this ride is much easier than the second half so I let my power go above the limit slightly, knowing that I would have to back off midway. At the half way, I was avg 18.1 mph and about 10 watts higher than allowed. So I settled and increased cadence and easier gears to let the legs relax. Slowly my power dropped into range and I just kept going and passing cyclists. The roads were so much better than last year. Then I hit a bump at mile 33 and my glasses fell out of my helmet. I just bought a new Rudy Project helmet with the lens attaches inside and it dropped right into my hand. So I stuffed half in my shirt with the other bowed half hanging out of my shirt and prayed I didn't run into any big bugs along the way! Back to focusing on power!
As soon as I exited and turned the corner, I stopped at the water station to pop a couple aspirin. This time I carried a handheld bottle with 200 cals of carbo pro and 1 nuun tablet. This was golden because I nursed it throughout the run always slowly taking in calories so when I was at aid stations, I focused on pouring water over myself and ice in my shirt and cap. I grabbed a couple orange slices and one GU throughout the run as well. I took BASE salt every couple miles because it wasn't very hot. I was never hot on the run, especially with the cooling towel. My legs stung constantly and I swore I was getting a blister but just ignored it. I was comfortable the first 3 miles and then the legs really started screaming. I had to count to 50 and reward myself to walk a shaded part of the street and pick it up again. The run course in not like the Ironman 70.3 which is two weeks prior. Barb's is easier and just two laps of out and back which I found incredibly boring. The two hills each way were painful but doable and I struggled more each time but always ran downhill for the free speed. I made a mantra sheet that I carried in my hand so I could feel that Julie was with me the entire run. I read over them completely once and smiled. I glanced at it frequently to stay positive. I repeated things like YES YOU CAN, BE GRATEFUL BE THANKFUL
, JULIE AND YOUR FAMILY BELIEVE IN YOU, HUNT THE RUNNER IN FRONT OF YOU... I worked hard on hunting this lady wearing an E on her jersey. Her leg said she was 57. I chased her, I passed her, she passed me, I chased her more, when she walked, I chased her. It really helped. I tried so hard to keep moving but my pace kept dropping. I was able to stay in the 10min+ range for 3 miles, then I stayed in the 11 min+ range until mile 9 when I dropped to 12 min and it angered me. It wasn't acceptable so mile 10 was back in the 11min range, then one last hill dropped me into the 12s again. I jogged with no stopping the last mile into the finish line returning to the 11 min pace and praised myself for trying so hard to hold my pace. I finished 2:32 and wanted 2:30 so much. Luckily officially, I PR'd by 17 seconds on the run. Avg pace 11:39. I can make big improvements here for sure. I am taking a running technique class at SDCC Aug-Dec so hopeful this will help.
I was happy that I had met many of my goals and worked really hard on focus this time. I enjoyed the entire event and was happy with my PR finish time of 6:39 even though I wanted 6:30. My best race was 6:42 so it felt great to raise the bar even if just by 3 minutes. I was 58th of 163 women that finished Barb's Race. I earned 8th place of 29 in my age group. I'm really happy to be in the top 10!
I have no plans to return to Guerneville. We loved staying at the Creekside Inn which is 1/2 mile from the starting line so we could walk in the morning. Although the food is absolutely the best of any race I have attended, the shuttle transportation really soured me. We waited 1 1/2 hours for the shuttle to go back to the start line. That trip took 30 minutes and then we had to drive back to the finish to get our bikes. It made for an extremely long day. We also had return flight issues with Alaska not notifying us that our flight was 1 1/2 hours earlier. We toured the redwoods just to kill time and arrived at the airport with a staff that was very rude to us and chastising us for being so late with oversize luggage. We had 8 minutes to get through everything. Of course they chose Marcus to be patted down and practically strip searched. Then they held our bikes and said they were tagged for security search. The good news is that we didn't pay the $150 for the bikes due to the rush but we had to return to the airport at 11 pm to pickup the bikes which were on the next flight. This was another really long day for us and not getting to bed until after midnight.
Overall we both had great races and a really good time here. Marcus is 2/3 ironman and I completed my 9th 70.3 race and learned great lessons to apply to my 10th 70.3 race in Santa Cruz in September!