Race Recap: Gulf Coast 70.3

With all my 2020 races being deferred to this year, and my first race of the 2021 season (Puerto Rico 70.3) deferred to 2022, I was itching to do a race.

Luckily there were spots open for Gulf Coast 70.3 because they had this race in November when they ran the full with it. So 12 weeks before the race, I decided to sign up. I had just switched to a new coach, Billy Sawyer, who was part of my I Race Like A Girl Tri team, and Angela Naeth coaching. So the training was a bit different for this race than in the past, but I loved every minute and felt extremely prepared and healthy going into this race (note to self: signing up for an early season race while living in New England is tough because of the weather….please rethink for next year!).

The whole family came with me. It was our first vacation since the pandemic began, and with 3/4 of us fully vaccinated, I felt safe traveling to Florida.

We stayed right at the race resort, The Edgewater, and had a nice condo and view of the ocean. There is a reason they call this the Emerald Coast. The water is gorgeous!

We got there on Tuesday so I could acclimate to the heat a bit, but it was cooler and rainy for the first two days we were there, so that didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it to. 😬

Anyway… let’s jump into race day. Race morning, it was a nice temp in the 60s. Since transition was right out the front door of the condo, I didn’t have to wake up too early. I was up at 3:45 AM and in transition by 4:45. If you care, I ate a gluten free PB and J, half a banana, and had coffee in the morning. My nutritionist wanted me to eat more but I just get too nervous to eat more than that.

You had to wear a mask in transition before the race (and at the expo) but it wasn’t bad (side note: I bet they do away with this rule very soon now that the CDC has relaxed mask wearing rules for vaccinated people).

I decided to seed myself in the 37-40 minute group, knowing I was probably closer to 40. I stood in the snakey line on the beach in a mask, talking to some lovely women from Tampa. We were supposed to be 6 feet apart, but we were not. The race started at 6:00 AM and by 6:17, I was in the water.

There were some small waves to dolphin dive over and then just settled into a smooth and relaxed stroke. I’m not the fastest swimmer, even though I’m working on it, so I don’t try to push the swim and burn all my matches when the race is the just starting.

Once I got out there, I realized that there were small rollers and a strong current I had to contend with. The weather report said the ocean was supposed to be flat, but it wasn’t. Oh well. Sometimes you could not see the buoy but it certainly was not as crazy as Maine 2019. In any case, I had lots of people running into me (or maybe I was running in to them!) but it wasn’t too much contact. Lots of people said their swim times were slower than normal and that the swim was tougher than they thought. The water was about 72-73 degrees, so wetsuit legal and just gorgeous out there.

Swim time: 41:07

Transition was easy… it’s not far from the ocean. 

The gulf coast bike is straightforward. 5 miles due west, 23 miles due north on a highway, and then reverse. It’s not a pretty bike but it’s flat, so if you can stay in aero and if you have the fitness, you can haul a$$. This course is notorious for wind and we had a 10 mph ENE wind with gusts. This means that it was mostly a cross wind, which wasn’t bad. Sometimes there can be a crazy headwind on the way back. I’m a Cape Cod girl, so I know about riding in the wind.

I felt so good on the bike. I ride by heart rate and RPE. My heart rate skirted the edge of low Z3 but I felt good so just kept it there. Stuck to my nutrition and hydration plan (thanks Scott Tindal). Eat every 20, drink every 10. Since I knew it would take me a little over 2.5 hrs, I ate three clif blocks every 20 minutes, and sometimes a bite of gluten free honey stinger waffle . I drank SOS bike … food in your pocket, hydration in your bottles. Caffeine pill at 1.5 hrs into the bike. 25 minutes before the end of the bike I had an endurance tap gel and then stopped nutrition so I wouldn’t have a full stomach for the run.

The last 5 miles were brutal because it was strong headwind the whole way back and there were a ton of cars on Front Beach Road. I did hear that two people were hit, but I think they are okay.

Bike: 2:38:52

T2 also easy! 

Run: For a Cape Cod girl, the run started off hot. My goal was to not go crazy out of the gate because I have a bad habit of running too fast out of T2. The run course is also flat and 3 loops with no shade. It’s not a pretty run course, to be honest. It’s on busy roads and through a couple parking lots and behind a water park. My heart rate was high right out of the gate, and when that happens, I start to get a side stitch. And of course, I felt it come on right at mile 3, but I immediately slowed down and walked through the aid station and thank goodness it went away. From then on, my goal was to just keep it steady around an 8 minute mile so the stitch wouldn’t come back. 

The plan was to walk through every aid station and get water, dump water, and put ice down my shirt. I had an endurance tap gel at 3,5,8, and 11 miles. Salt tabs at mile 4 and 8.  Coke at mile 9.  Caffeine pill at mile 8. Again, I stuck to the plan that Scott laid out for me.

Seamus told me my standings about half way through the run and said I could catch a few women ahead of me if I wanted to push but didn’t have to. 

I felt good as the run progressed and so I started to run just a wee bit faster. To be honest, my legs were great but the little stitch in my side forced me to stay a bit above the pace I wanted. (Side note: I get this stitch a lot in races so I need to figure it out)

The last 3 miles I moved up a couple of spots in my age group. I wanted to really push the last mile, but that stitch came back right at the end, so I had to breathe it out and just coast it in to the finish.

Run: 1:46:40

Finish: 5:11:59- 7th in AG; 29th overall female; qualified for Worlds.

This wasn’t my fastest 70.3 (that was Turkey) but I had a solid race. This course is notorious for a fast bike and slow swim and run. And that’s what happened to me!

Pros of Gulf Coast: easy to navigate race venue and transition area; lots of lodging options; awesome volunteers; gorgeous water; great aid stations on the run; fast bike; insane competition down there in Florida (pro or con? haha).

Cons of Gulf Coast: boring and slightly dangerous bike (the roads are crowded at the beginning and end…one lady cut me off but I saw her and slowed down). Hot and ugly run. Flat does not always equal fast. Ocean swim was a bit rough, but that’s an ocean swim for ya! Can be a really hot race depending on the day.

In the end, I was so happy to finally race. I’m not sure if I would do this particular race again because of the course, but a safe race is a good race.