Odyssey Swimrun Austin Race Report 2020

I didn't think I'd get to post a race report in 2020. Like everyone else as the months of this endless year dragged by, I watched my races get cancelled or deferred: a half marathon in Kansas City, Ironman St. George, the Leadville Marathon. Yes, I know in the scheme of things that cancelled races are a tiny inconsequential thing. But for someone who has built a whole lot of their happiness around training and racing, it was just another sign for me that the world was ending. With more curiosity than hope, I kept my eye on Odyssey Swimrun Austin, for which my friends and I had joyfully signed up more than a year in advance. Eventually it looked like the race was definitely ON so I purchased my $57 ticket (!!!) to fly to Texas and we booked rooms at a hotel near the race venue. 

Add to the many reasons that I love my friends: we met up at a Whataburger to kick off the weekend!

Pre-race shenanigans. Aixa, Sanaa, Orissa, and Julia raced the short course and I'm certain they're hooked on swimrun now too!

This was the first swimrun race in Texas and it was organized by the same company that put on the Orcas Island race that was so amazing two years ago. When the inaugural Austin race open for registration last year and it happened to take place on Linda's birthday, it was a no brainer that I'd fly home to race it. Linda and I signed up immediately as Team SUPERSTOKED. We'd picked the long course which was made up of approximately 13 miles of running and 5 miles of swimming broken into 13 segments. This would be Linda's first swimrun experience.

One of the long course competitors made stickers with the distances of each leg for everyone to use. Look how cute the little cliff-jumping figure is.

Team SUPERSTOKED: masked up at the time trial start for safety.

As we took off at the 7 am time trial start, I immediately regretted that I'd spent the last six months "exercising" while Linda had spent the time training. I huffed and puffed beside her through the first 2-mile run, and as we entered the first swim of the day in the Colorado River, I realized that I had only one gear for swimming and it was much slower than hers. So I got on her feet and just tried to stay there for the rest of the race.

Linda and I are running on the left in this picture. I am SUPERSTOKED that our picture made it into a Slowtwitch gallery! Photo by Aaron Palaian.

We made a good team. We worked our way through the day together, watching the fluttering yellow and orange course markers and only going off course once. We decided to make a "game time" decision at the optional 30-foot cliff jump - we jumped and it was probably the coolest experience of the whole race. We scrambled up rocks and navigated rooty, rocky trails. We entered the swims with joy - it was a warm day and we were grateful for the cool water (62 degrees) on each swim entry. Linda pushed the pace on both the swim and the run, and I gamely followed. I pushed us to move quickly through aid stations and transitions.

Linda dragged me around the course for four hours until she got tired too, and then we cussed our way together to the end of the race for the last half hour. Our middle of the pack finish was so exciting for me that I ran across the finish line and practically tackled one of the race directors, yelling, "Lars! I came in last place at Orcas Island!" to which he charitably replied, "well you're definitely not in last place today." 

Mom and Dad drove over to cheer (and kept their distance for safety). The last time I saw them in person was for the Kerrville Tri last September, so this was just the most amazing treat at the end of the race.

Swimrun Austin was the only swimrun event that took place in the United States this year and I'm so grateful that it did. To steal a phrase from the Low Tide Boyz podcast, for the first time in months, for four and a half hours on this race course in Texas, life felt completely normal. It was as if the pandemic and the election and everything else had just been placed on hold for a few hours, and it was exactly what I needed. Now I'm sitting here writing a race report with a full heart after seeing my friends and family in Texas in the familiar environment of an endurance race venue. It can't get much better than that.

Awesome finisher's sweatshirt that I've now been wearing for 6 days straight.

California International Marathon Race Report: Brave or Stupid?

As usual, I've started and deleted several posts about the California International Marathon, the race that I trained for all year in 2019. A few posts started with "I tried and failed, but at least I was brave enough to try." I couldn't complete those because I'm still questioning whether I was brave or stupid, or maybe both.

I started 2019 with the goal of running a Boston-qualifying time at CIM. CIM is a point-to-point race from Folsom, CA to Sacramento. It's known for producing PRs, BQs, and OTQs. Last February, I ran a "test race" marathon in Mesa, AZ, on a downhill, "easy to qualify" course. I went out at my BQ pace of 8:50 and blew up around 13 miles. I knew I had my work cut out for me for CIM in December. 

Over the next 9 months, I trained hard. I ran more miles last year than I've ever run in my life. I got stronger and faster. I earned new PRs at the 10K and half marathon distances. I prepared as well as I could. But my times on my training runs weren't fast enough to go into CIM confident about a BQ and I knew it would take a perfect day to achieve running 26.2 miles at BQ pace. But it was just so tempting. My previous best marathon time was 3:51 and my age group's BQ time is 3:50. If I got just a one minute marathon PR, I'd also get a BQ. It was sooooo tempting.

Kudos to my coach, Nell Rojas, for being very patient with me when I claimed that that was what I was going to try to do. She told me that if I ran conservatively in the first part of the race I could definitely run sub-4. But that's not what I wanted: I wanted 3:50. Because I tried for 3:50, I ended up with a 4:14. I ran strong for 12ish miles, started to try to hang on from 12 to mile 19, where I knew the hills would end. I expected it to be downhill from there, which might help me pick up the pace again...but it wasn't downhill. It was flat. I lost all momentum and fell off my pace. If my amazing friend Shelly hadn't caught up with me at mile 24 and dragged me to the finish, I would probably have run 10 minutes slower! 

Pre-race with Orissa and Shelly. This race was very well organized, including the buses to the start and the many many porta-potties available before and during the race (porta potties! Porta potties everywhere!).

Feeling happy before mile 13.

I wasn't unhappy with my time. I had a lot of fun running the first half of the race with Shelly and I felt like I could fight until mile 19, which is an improvement over my performance in Arizona in February. I missed my time goal by nearly half an hour, but I ran faster than the race in Phoenix, which means I'm getting stronger. 

So I still don't know if I was brave or stupid to race for a goal that is currently outside of my limits. After the race, Nell and I debriefed and she talked to me about the importance of patience: I'm improving, I'll get there, it will take time. We talked about how you should never hope for a miracle on race day - you should never hope to have a breakout race to get a goal. You should prepare and be ready and confident about what you can do.

Of course I know this is true. Every coach I've had has told me this. But after 15 years and 20 marathons, I still needed this reminder from Nell. How many times have I had to hear that I should be focused on the process and not on a specific time goal? Focus on the process and improvement will come.

Having a specific time to race for makes this difficult. It's not like triathlon, where it's understood that times at different races will vary because of the terrain and conditions. At an Ironman, there is no set time for each age group for a Kona qualification - you race against your competitors on that day and that's how it goes. In some ways I know that makes it mentally harder, but it also takes off some of the pressure. You can say "I'm going to do my best today" and then you do it.

So, what's next? Winning a slot to Ironman St. George through my awesome triathlon team, Big Sexy Racing, is probably the best thing that could have happened to me right now. I have no choice but to focus on the process and see what I can do with the bike/triathlon fitness that I can build between now and May. 

For the first time ever, I'm going into a season where I'm doing an ironman but it's not my "A" race. I decided that in order to focus on process and improve my skill at racing a marathon, I need to stop signing up for "easy BQ" races. My next stand alone road marathon race will be the Kansas City Marathon in October. Between now and then, I'll "race" two more marathons - one at the end of Ironman St. George in May, and one on the trails around Leadville in June. Let's see if I learn anything along the way.

It was so much fun to look forward to a girls' trip to Sacramento all year. Racing with friends and having friends on the course for support was priceless! Thank you to Aixa and Sanaa for being awesome Sherpas!