Ironman 70.3 Lubbock Race Report by Rebecca Marrou

I participated in the Ironman 70.3 Lubbock event on 6/30/19 for a few reasons,
1) It was a close race to my hometown.
2) We were headed out of town up to Colorado so it was on the way.
3) I want to keep doing bigger races to see where I compare with others in my league.
4) Last, but not least, Austin Tri Club members got a great discount on registration!
I put in between 10–12 hours a week of training for this race (probably could have done more but I had a hamstring injury for the last month that affected my running).

My goals for this race: Swim Sub 29’, Bike 2:40:00 with a power goal of 200–210 and Run 1:36:00 at a pace of 7:20.

My support crew included, my husband, my kids, my mom, my aunt and my cousin. As always, it's hard to get to bed at a decent time with my kids but we went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner and were able to get to bed by 9:30.

Swim was 31:11 time for a pace of 1:37min/100m: I was 4th in my age group. I did not make my goal for the swim. I believe the biggest factor that affected my swim was that it was technically a wetsuit legal swim and they claim that the water temp was 70°. It felt a lot warmer to me, more like 78° and after talking to others we all seemed to agree that it was warmer water. I used my full sleeve wet suit (it is the only one I have) and I was hot during the swim. I would occasionally pull the neck of my wetsuit down to let in a little water and help me cool off but it was still too hot. This time was still an improvement for me so I’m happy with it.

Bike was 2:30:32 time @ 22.75mph:  I was 1st in my age group and I beat my goal by almost 10 minutes. I’m not sure of my power output because I forgot to zero out my pedals before the race and Lubbock is about 2,500’ higher than my normal riding elevation. I will learn from this and be sure to zero them out in the future. I got out of the swim and had the volunteers help me get my wetsuit off then ran into T1 (side note, we had 2 separate transitions for this race, I’m not a big fan of separate transitions). Because of the separate transitions we all had to put our wetsuits and any other objects we needed into our transition bags. After two unsuccessful attempts at getting my wet suit into the bag I finally calmed down enough to get it in and tie the bag shut. Grabbed my helmet and locked it into place; put my BASE Salt vile and Hammer nutrition gel flask into my back pockets; put on my shoes; took my bike off the rack and I started running down the long chute out to the bike course.

The roads were very rough with lots of uneven pavement and holes. I pre-drove the course the day before so I was familiar with the turns and hills however as I got to the first main right turn the racer in front of me went straight. I did not think that was the correct way to go but started second guessing myself. I had one other racer beside me and we were both trying to figure out which way to go. I ended up coming to a complete stop and yelling back at the police officer that was at the corner, asking which way to go. The officer just said “well everyone else went to the right except for that guy”. I’m still frustrated with this situation and would like for the course to be marked better in the future. But I jumped back on my bike and knew I had some ground to make up after stopping. The climbs were a lot of fun and I started catching people. By the time the turn around point came I had three females in front of me and before we made it to T2 I caught two of them!

Run was 1:37:09 time @ 7:26 pace: I was 1st in my age group and I am happy with how close I got to my goal of 1:36. As I came into T2 I again had a hard time getting my transition bag untied from the rack (obviously I need to do some work with transition bags). But once I got it undone I got my shoes on (I run and ride sockless in any race that is 70.3 and below. For a full Ironman I put on socks and this is how I train as well), grabbed my hat, sunglasses and timing belt and I was off on the run course. As I started the 13.1 miles the volunteer shouts, “you are No.2 female and 8 min behind”. Wow, talk about a blow to your spirit, I knew I was not going to be able to make up 8 min (at least not with a tender hamstring) so I just told myself to keep my pace and hold onto 2nd place. Less than a mile into the run my quads were cramping so badly I wanted to quit but I started praying and telling God that if I was going to finish this race, he was going to have to help me get through those cramps. This is when I remembered the BASE Salt I had in my back pocket. I took a few licks from that and within a minute or two the cramps subsided. They would come back every 5 min or so but I had a good handle on them. I also took Coke, water, ice and Gatorade from the aid stations. By the second lap of this 2-lap course my hamstring was feeling pretty fatigued and it was all about praying and just making it to the finish line on the Texas Tech football field.

Once it was all done, I had a personal best time of 4:42:56 and I hit very close to my goals for this race. Every race I learn more and more about what I am capable of and how pushing through the pain is more mental than physical. This was only my second ever Ironman 70.3 race and I’m very happy with 2nd Place Overall Female. This would not have been possible without the support of my heavenly father, my husband and kids or my parents who make it to most of my races and my incredible coach Sierra Snyder who keeps me on my toes and in line with my goals. I highly recommend this race to all Austin Tri Club members considering a half iron distance race, especially if you’re looking to get that awesome bike profile picture to show off to your friends and family!
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Now it’s off to the mountains for a week of family and downtime then back to work as I prepare for Standard Distance Age Group World Championships on September 1st in Switzerland. Happy Training!

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