Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

  • Home
  • About
  • Current Gear
  • Race Reports
  • Pregnancy//Baby
  • Travel
  • Bucket List
  • Hikes

September 30, 2013

Ironman Lake Tahoe – Race Prep

For those that aren’t interested in all the detail and work that goes into an ironman here is the cliff notes from the week:
·         Tahoe is beautiful
·         The race is really ridiculously hard
·         I finished (the end, now you can skip the next four posts)
For anyone wanting a little bit more info on the race and venue feel free to read on:
We decided to drive out to Tahoe from Denver so we could bring our dogs and a bunch of other crap with us. 
We also decided to camp in Park City Utah along the way. We haven’t had much of a chance to camp this summer so this seemed much more fun than staying in a generic hotel. It was beautiful and calming but we didn’t get all the fun of camping since we didn’t cook or even make a fire. Hopefully more camping will happen next summer.

On Wednesday we rolled into Kings Beach, California. Kings Beach is a little town along the shore of Lake Tahoe where we had rented a house with my parents. We were so excited to arrive and see the gorgeous view of the lake we would get to have for the week.

Thursday we all headed up to Squaw Valley where I did the athlete check in thing then we did a little touristy stuff and went up the tram, learned a bit about the Olympics that were held there and ate lunch. 
  It was sunny and beautiful. Later that afternoon we took a quick swim in the lake at our house, the water felt great and I was feeling pretty confident about the swim part of the race.
On Friday Cory and I decided to go down to T1 at Kings beach at 7 am to see what conditions would be like on race morning. It was nice to see that we would most likely not be swimming into the sun. The water felt good again, fairly warm but the air and the sand were frigid. As we were leaving the beach I couldn’t feel my hands and my feet hurt really bad. This was the first taste of how challenging race morning might be. I was not concerned at all about the swim, it was much warmer than Coeur d’Alene last year, but I was nervous about getting on the bike. I decided for sure then that I would make a full change in T1 and wear as many layers as possible. Friday was spent mostly prepping my bags and figuring out last minute details since you have to drop off your bags on Saturday and I wanted to relax as much as possible on Saturday evening.

Later that night we headed back up to Squaw Valley for the Athlete dinner and meeting.

The food was blah or bad and it was freezing in the tent. My fault for not wearing warm enough clothes. The meeting was boring and kind of long. The only important information I heard was that the private neighborhood would be open on Saturday from 3-5 for athletes to drive if we were interested in seeing that part of the course. I think in the future I will eat my own dinner as both IM dinners I have been to have not been good. They have to feed so many people it’s not surprising but I would rather make my own choices (plus it’s expensive for guests).

Saturday it was raining, windy and snowing at higher elevation.

Crazy….I had a bike and run on my schedule from coach but I just couldn’t wrap my head around going out in the cold and wet. Plus all of my jackets, gloves and hats were packed away for race day. So a bagged the shakeout sessions and decided to just drop my stuff off instead. They were nice and allowed us to put bags over our stuff as well as over our bikes so things wouldn’t be soaked come morning.

 I was glad I did because people’s saddles that weren’t covered had ice on them race morning. After dropping my gear at the two different transitions areas (much more of a pain than having one transition area) I had a big lunch then headed out to drive a loop of the bike course.  Driving the course looked as I suspected very hilly in the back part of the loop with long stretched of steep 10%+ grades and technical steep down hills that scare me a bit on my TT bike (yes, I am a wuss). After driving the course I was nervous, I knew I was ready and fit enough to finish an Ironman but THIS ironman held many challenges. I told myself to show up, do my best and see where the cards fell. I had planned on having a light dinner but I wasn’t feeling hungry after our big lunch and probably nerves.

I tucked myself into bed early hoping for some good sleep with an alarm set for 4 am.

Coming next, Ironman Lake Tahoe – Race Morning and Swim

Posted by bethcurtis 3 Comments
Filed Under: Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Keri says

    September 30, 2013 at 10:09 pm

    Hey Beth! Long time reader, first time commenter here!

    Congrats on Ironman Lake Tahoe, I cannot wait to read more about it!

    It is funny reading how cold it was in Lake Tahoe for the race. My husband and I went to lake Tahoe the exact same weekend last year and it was so warm out that I was in shorts most of the time! Of course last year was the summer of heat, but I wish it had been colder for us last year since my Ironman had already happened in Louisville.

    Reply
  2. thechangeofpace.com says

    October 1, 2013 at 2:00 am

    Congratulations, Beth! It sounds like an intimidating start with how cold the Saturday was. But, you went into it with the right attitude!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Bucket List – Just a Start says:
    January 17, 2021 at 5:20 am

    […] See Lake Tahoe 9/13 and 9/15 […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Meet Beth

Follow

Search

Instagram

Follow on Instagram

Tag Cloud

Baby Baby Update Book Nook Bumpdate Cannon Disney Disneyland Emerald Europe Family Family Adventure Favorites Friday Favorites Gear Goals Hike Hikes Holidays Ironman Ironman Canada Ironman Training Kids Hikes Marathon Marathon Training Moab Monthly Update National Park pregnancy Project 366 race report Races Run run streak trail race trail running training Travel Ultra Ultra Training Ultramarathon Update updates Utah Weekly Recap Weekly Rundown

Monthly Archives

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010

Easy Instagram

Loading...

Instagram Slider

Theme by 17th Avenue · Powered by WordPress & Genesis

← Ironman Lake Tahoe – Check! ← Ironman Lake Tahoe Race Report – Race Morning and Swim