Race Coverage

"...A Tug of War With My Mind."...

Friday, 20 November 2020 23:10

By Shyanne McGregor

IRONMAN FLORIDA RACE REPORT - It’s been a little over a week since my second Ironman. I did Ironman Florida in 2019 and finished 4th overall and 1st in my age group qualifying me for the World Championship in Kona. That day went pretty smooth. Ironman Florida 2020 did’t turn out the way I had hoped but there was a lot of good things that happened that day and good that came out of what went wrong....

My alarm went off at 3:00am but I’d been up since around 2:00am. The usual pre-race nerves. I started fueling right away with applesauce, banana, Juice Performer beet juice, almond butter and coffee. I applied my race number tats from TriTats, put on my race kit, braided my hair and then put my feet up until it was time to head to transition at 4:30am. The morning was warm, 65 degrees which was a lot more comfortable than last year’s 40’s in the morning! To keep the race safe, we had to stay next to our bike until we were called down to the start based on our expected swim finish time. I went with the first group expecting to finish under one hour. We were corralled in properly social distanced lanes.

THE SWIM:
It was pretty wavy to start, once I got past the initial break the water was a little smoother. My thoughts in the swim are always to stay calm and strong. The first lap of two went well. I came out at about 30 min. We had a longer beach run this year as the course changed from last year. Back in for the second loop! This one was a lot more crowded as many athletes were just starting their first lap. I tried my best to keep my pace while navigating around other swimmers. I finished the swim at 1:02:41. Initially, I wasn’t happy with that swim but after seeing that I placed 15th overall female, including the pros, and 6th age group female I felt better about it. There was quite a long transition run then onto the bike!...READ MORE