Rach Paxton: Austin 70.3 and en-route to Miami!

Sunday was Austin 70.3- my 2^nd race in the USA in 2 weeks and 4^th one back since august. Bit a a confiendence lull after the Rev3 in south Carolina, but having trained well for a good 10days with Minsok I was feeling like I had improvement to show. Seeing the sun doesn’t come up here til 7am, I’d been doing a lot of sleeping in, so the 4:10am wake up race morning was a rude shock. After my ritual peanut butter, honey, banana on toast and a good serve of caffine, Minsok, Bliss and myself headed out to Walter E Lake for the race. Another race with two transitions makes careful planning and timing race morning essential. T2 was close to the finish line and T1 was a short bus trip over to the Lake’s edge (which we would later run past 3 times). My bike happened to be positioned under a tree and in pitch black so moved it to a flood light to get prepped which kept me away from the hussel and bussel of the other pro girls, setting up at the last minute in my allocated spot. Then after a short warm up run on pitch black roads and about 4 trips to the porta-loos, I got to the start line a little late and only managed a 2minute swim to warm up. The pro men were off two minutes before us and I nearly soiled myself when the shotgun went off! BOOM!!!! Only in Texas……

Then we were off, frantic sratching, hitting, kicking in the first 100m and then it settles. I found myself swimming with two other girls and on a nice set of feet which I latched onto for the 1.9km swim, came out in 8^th, seconds pack and in 28:40 (which I was happy with), quick transition and only the bike, leaving my swim feet behind me, passing another in the first 1km, catching 2 more by 15miles and then having one girl repass me around mile 30. Biggest breakthrough during this race was my nutrition. After lengthy talks with Minsok, I realised that taking one maybe 2 gels during the bike IS NOT enough which probably has contributed to my lack luster performance of late. I timed the whole ride and 15min inttervals taking in either electrolyte (or rather my sludge concoction) or a gel. I got off the bike in 6^th with a time a little slower than I’d hoped for. Once again picking up more nutrition than I have ever before for the run leg. The aid stations were plentiful- about 5 per lap of the 3 lap course!!! I got passed in the early part of lap 2 by two girls so back into 8^th, not happy, hang on for top 10 I kept telling myself. Then at the beginning of lap 3 another girl passed me- oh no, 9^th, even more unhappy! Then things began to fall apart in front of me! The leader dropped out with over-heating/ dehydration, so back into 8^th. I could see two girls infront who’d been fading the whole run leg and with 3 miles to go passed both of them in a span of about 2minutes. Okay, I could see 5^th in front, not far. Someone who’d passed me earlier but was now struggling. GOOOO!!! Your legs feel great! At the final aid station she looked over her shoulder and saw me coming- dam! She kicked it up a gear, as did I but too little too late. I managed to close the gap to 5^th by 11seconds at the finish line, but she got me, so had to settle for 6^th. 9^th to 6^th in the last 3miles. I was happy. Still seconds from prize money, but I got a glimpse of what I know I’m capable of.

Minsok my training partner came in a little while later- our overall times only 27seconds difference…..he got me! At least I beat his run time by 2 seconds!!!!!! Bliss came through about half hour after Minsok with a great performance too!

That afternoon consisted of “horrible bosses” movie, a massive steak and 2 great bottles of red wine between the three of us. The next few days were pretty painful though. Monday and Tuesday of some very easy light training and Wednesday saw my only hard day of the week and a big day of bonking. I turned out 2.5hr ride into 3 ¼ hrs by having a tyre come off the rim, throwing a little hissy fit wanting to turn around and then getting a great hunk on metal through my tyre resulting in a flat. After a massive feed of pancakes, crashed hard for 2hours, struggled through a surprisingly good sprint swim set, watched Hanna then chick a heap of boys at her cross country meet and set herself a new PR for 2miles (sub 15mins for 11year old girl!) and then surprise myself again with a solid 7 mile run (thanks again Minsok for pushing me to my limits!). With Hanna rocking out at a Taylor Swift concert (soooooo jealous) Bliss, Minsok and myself hit the famous Austin Trailer resturanat’s the Odd Duck and Gordough’s for dinner with yet another great drop of red (no wonder I’m not fitting into my jeans at present!!). Crashed hard again after my solid day for this week.

So depressingly left my amazing Austin family. Oh how I will miss my time here. They are trying to con me into doing a ‘real race’ and signing up for Texas IM in May and coming back to stay…..and I’m actually considering it! At the Austin airport now, enroute to Miami for the 70.3 there this Sunday. I have the training, I have some racing in me now and I feel that the best of three will be Sunday. I can’t wait!

Rachie xo