Eagleman 70.3: First Post-Pandemic Race

After enjoying our trips to Cambridge, MD for Eagleman 70.3 and Ironman Maryland, we signed up for Eagleman again in 2019 only to see it cancelled due to the pandemic and our race entries deferred to 2021. In January 2021, with COVID seeing its biggest surge ever but the launch of the vaccines, I figured it was 50-50 the race would be on.  As the vaccines were becoming widespread and the virus prevalence was dramatically dropping, in April it appeared it would be a go.  

We spent our winter months skiing in Utah which generally only left time for 2 swims a week, 1 bike a week, and 1-2 runs per week -- not enough for proper training for a 70.3.  So when we came back East in late April, we knew we had to get serious about picking up with our training plans. We spent 2 weeks at our Connecticut home and then headed up to our Martha’s Vineyard home in early May to take full advantage of the perfect biking and running right out our door, as well as an open YMCA for swimming.

 

In the midst of this, the other thing that happened is we decided to foster a sweet English Bulldog, Nala, for Sandy Paws Rescue.  Knowing we would have to go off Island for the race and figuring we would need to focus on the race, I committed to a three-week foster stay. Well, we fell in love with Nala and she proved to be a well-tempered, go-with-the-flow kind of companion who loves all humans so when she wasn’t yet adopted, we couldn’t bear the thought of sending her back to the kennel.  Fortunately our AirBnB accepted dogs, and Barb decided to come to Maryland and dog sit for us the day of the race so we added Nala to our Ironman support crew!

The other thing that happened a week before the race was Mike getting bit by a dog on his last bike – run workout. If only he hadn’t run by our house to get that extra 2/10 of a mile to hit 4 miles!  Our neighbor’s dachshund unfortunately decided to take a chomp at Mike’s leg, and he arrived home a bloody mess with some serious puncture wounds. Our neighbor apologetically sent us the rabies certificate, and Mike’s doctor put him on antibiotics, which caused some stomach turmoil. And, of course, no swimming while it was healing up.

 

Watching the weather the week of the race, it was 90 degrees on the Sunday before the race, followed by rain on the Friday before the race. But Sunday, June 13 looked like great race conditions – party sunny/cloudy and not too much wind, which can be a challenge for this race.  Our car packed to the gills with dog and race gear, we drove from Martha’s Vineyard to our CT home for a couple nights, and then headed to Maryland on Friday morning driving through some heavy rain.

 

We arrived mid-afternoon at our AirBnB in Church Creek, about 15 min. from downtown Cambridge and right around mile 15 of the bike course. The house was built in 1908 and had a nice fenced in yard, as well as beautiful farmland with walking trails behind the house, for easy Nala walking. Barb arrived in the evening with Bella, and since Nala doesn’t like other dogs, we had already hatched a plan to divide up the house between the two dogs.

On Saturday we spent the day checking in with Nala in tow. We were amazed how many people were enamored with her – suddenly we are part of the triathlon Bulldog “in crowd”. They even let her into the “Athlete’s only” check in area. With the new CDC guidelines no longer requiring masks for vaccinated people, the COVID rules that we had been prepared to follow were much more relaxed. I did a swim warm up, and we socialized with our Philadelphia Tri Club and my TriDot teaming mates. We did our typical race eve pasta dinner and were in bed by 9pm.

 

We’ve rarely set an alarm during COVID times, naturally waking up when we need to, but race morning called for a 4am alarm. I slept remarkably well for race night sleep with a snoring dog in the room. Added to the race morning activities were fueling Nala, giving her eye drops, and her bathroom run in addition to ours!

 

Knowing I wasn’t in my prime racing shape, my goal was simply to enjoy the day and finish the race. Arriving at the race venue with the usual last-minute rushing around, porta potty stop, and National anthem amongst two thousand racers never felt so good! 

 

SWIM: Having done a pool test swim for the 1.2 mile distance in 49 minutes, I lined up in the 45-50 min swimming wave. The weather was a warm 73 degrees and still wet suit legal. As a started, the water was a bit choppy, and I found myself needing to breath every stroke. My first 500 yards were very slow but then I started to get into my rhythm as I was able to swim to the left of the sighting buoys outside the crowds. After the first turn buoy, the current was in my favor but I had more swimmers bumping into me and I felt a few, brief jellyfish stings. Rounding the second turn buoy, I headed to shore. The final gateway into the swim finish was crowded with swimmers. My swim was slower than expected at 56:45.

 

T1: I spent 8:37 in T1. I decided to put my socks on in T1, which took a little time drying my feet and the socks on after getting my wetsuit off. I was pretty well positioned for the bike exit, anyway.

 

Mike on bike

BIKE: Off on the bike, I was familiar with the flat course from the two prior races here. Early in the bike, a fellow athlete over corrected as he went to the right when he was being passed by someone on the left, and he flipped over his handle bars right in front of me. I stopped to help if I could. He was shaken up and hurting but appeared to be ok, and a volunteer on a bike was at the scene quickly so I continued on. He eventually got back in the saddle and caught up to me and thanked me for stopping.  Other than a few short stretches of road that were bumpy, the course was in generally good shape. At one point, I looked around and took notice of the beautiful scenery of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. But my aero position didn’t give me much opportunity to appreciate the scenery. I knew the more I could stay in aero, the better, but having not trained all winter on my tri bike, I took a few short breaks upright to stretch my neck and back. I kept a steady pace throughout the race with an average 16.42 mph, finishing in 3:24:56, which I was happy with.

T2: While it had been a fairly short bike exit, that meant it was a long bike re-entry. I had thought about stopping for a bathroom break on the bike course, but there were too many people at one rest stop so I needed a porta potty break. I also had made the rookie mistake of leaving my run hat in my bag so I had to open the bag and dig for it. In addition, this was the first race ever I didn’t have slip in shoe laces. I had meant to put some in my running shoes and do a long training run with them to insure the right comfort, but I misplaced them and didn’t find them until too late so I didn’t want to risk the wrong fit. All this added up to a 10:11 T2.

 

RUN: Despite not having run as much during the winter months, my long runs had been longer than they were in 2018 when I had put this race in as a B race in my training plan. I thought that might translate into feeling better on the run than I did in 2018. But it was cooler and rainy in 2018, and I haven’t had much running in the heat. This course is notorious for little shade and heat. While it could have been worse, I really felt the eighty-something degree hot sun, and I stopped at each aid station to drink some water and put ice in my tri suit and hat, and I took frequent walk breaks to keep my heart rate down. I saw Mike when I was at mile 3 and he was at mile 10. He looked strong and appeared to be having a good run. I finished the run in 2:41:59, a 12:19 pace, which was a bit slower than my previous two 70.3s.

 

All in all, I met my goal to finish. Post-race we enjoyed a crab dinner with some of my fellow TriDot ambassadors.  I’ll remember this race mostly as the first race coming on the other side of the pandemic after not having raced a long-course Ironman race for a year and half. And of course, my fond memories of having Nala as part of our support crew will remain with me forever. 

Mike and I with TriDot Ambassadors Ande Wegner and Rick Lagacy