St. George 70.3 report

First of all, this is to myself, I won’t do any race without my family. It’s a mental game cuz no your spectators or supporters on course sucks. I know no one on course on the race day which was sad.

There is another thing I unlocked after this race that is I first time sleep in a hotel by myself. (If you are not interested in race report, you can stop right here)

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Let’s talk about St. George 70.3. It’s a tough course for sure, at least to me. I knew that will be a challenge for bike and run, but I thought I run and bike hills all the time, I should be fine. However, this snow canyon is no joke. The grade reaches to 11% grade and the continuing climbing before all the downhill was not fun at all. I felt I almost stopped and walked. For swim, it can be cold below 60F, the race day was 60.8F Bike elevation gain: 3244ft Run elevation gain: 752 ft Transitions This race has two transition locations which means you need to check in your bike at T1 and check in your run gear at T2. The distance between two locations is 30 mins drive so if you are thinking to pickup bibs one day before race day at noon time, you will be rushed. I almost made this mistake since I always go with my family and checkin at noon one day before the race.

Parking Race day parking was totally ok. My shuttle was 5 am and I got there 4:45 am and there were lots of street parking. I didn’t believe when people said that, but now I confirm for you. I have a screenshot showing where I parked. That’s close to T2 so it’s easy to pick up your bike after race. Stay There are a lot of hotels you can pick. Choose as close as you can. The one I stayed was Staybridge. It’s 5 mins drive to Village (T2), not big deal, but I would still prefer walking distance to T2 to take shuttle.

(For people who want to know more detail on race day, please read)

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Swim 46:43 ( expecting 45)

You need to get on the shuttle at T2 to T1. It starts at 4:30 am until 5:30 am for athletes. I picked 5 am and there was no wait.You won’t have time to do a test swim on the race day. You better get in line early if you wanna start early. I was late so I ended up starting around 7:35 am.I’m not a fast swimmer so I expected the time will be long. When I jumped in to the water, it didn’t bother me too much with water temperature cuz I try to focus on my breathing. I did stop few times since I didn’t pick up my rhythm so the result time was longer than I thought The water temperature on race day was 60.8 degree. If you are not a cold water swimmer like me, try the water before the race day. There is an area you can swim around T1. I was glad I did it the day before. Even I tested at noon, but it was still cold.

T1 6:47 (expecting 5)

Since I always have cramp issue on OWS, I have my strategy this time. Before I leave hotel I take one SaltSticks Caps and before I jump to water, I take another one and drink at least half bottle of electrolyte. It did help me not cramping until I almost finished my swim, but what I needed to pay off is to go to restroom before I bike. Or I need to learn to pee while swimming.

Bike 3:06:03 (expecting between 3:20-3:30)Since I knew there will be lots of climbing, I decided to start slow. The hills before the snow canyon didn’t bother me at all until the last part to go to top. My strategy was to ride slowly and don’t stop. I only saw one person walking on the snow canyon and the rest was just riding slow. It was my first time to feel my gears were not enough to switch anymore. I was trying to stand to paddle, but I felt my legs almost got cramp. After that, downhill all the way with few small climbing to the T2. I don’t know how to suggest this, but I will do the training for elevation for this race. I don’t ride all over the place, so I don’t know where to find a similar condition to the course. Maybe two loops for San Diego canyon will help.

T2 7:08 (expecting 5)My stomach wasn’t happy during biking, so I needed to calm it down at T2 and also I was thinking to take some time to let my legs not cramp after the bike. That’s why I took kinda long on T2. I even got sun screen from volunteers. I was glad I did that.

Run 1:57:15 (expecting 1:50)

For this course, the elevation gain for running is 752 ft. I don’t have problem with that since I always run that with my regular run. And remember, when there are uphills, that means there are downhills as well.This time for my goal was not to make the same mistake like last year in Arizona which was cramping too much and not able to run. Although I almost got cramp after bike, I took my time in T2 before running out. I was able to keep running without stopping. I grabbed 3 different cups each time at aid station.The uphills were actually not too bad. I kept pacing slow to prevent cramping while running uphill and I was able to speed up on the downhills. It’s in the downtown so there are lots of spectators cheering on you. That feels really good! I was able to speed up and cross the finish line with lots of high fives! Felt really good about that especially I knew no one on the courses and no my spectators at all.

Conclusion

Overall was good. I havent done a complete 70.3 after my IMCDA in 2021 since swim was cancelled in IMAZ 70.3 last year. Comparing with Santa Cruz I did in 2019, although my results are similar, the course in Utah is harder and my running was better than that. Also, it’s first time my Garmin watch shows productive after a race.I was glad I was able to finish the race. There were so many things happened before this race and I thought that was a sign not to do this race. I guess I was wrong Kids were sad missing this opportunity to stay on hotels, but they were happy for me and made a welcome home card. See you in Oct for IMCA