Christine Coppola: April 2014

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."

~John Wooden

To say that this race did not go as expected would be an understatement, but I thought I'd jot down a quick race report, as no matter what, this will always be my favorite race. To me, it is simply one of the most beautiful courses I've ever raced on and takes place in one of my favorite places to visit.

We arrived in San Juan on Thursday, and for the first time did not stay at the host hotel but rather a friend's condo - it was perfect. After putting the bikes together (always a stressor for me), I pretty much followed the usual routine of taking it easy and hydrating prior to race day. However, in San Juan, the added challenge for me is not going overboard with the food. I did go to La Placita (if you are not familiar with it, you can read about it here: NYT La Placita Article) and found a new restaurant, La Cueva Del Mar, which I fell in love with, but still kept the nutrition in check.

Practice swim

At the Condado Lagoon

Even from +1K miles away, Pro Cycling was still helping me!

So, race day arrives and all was going smooth. I arrived at transition and was pretty calm, setting up for the day ahead. I was listening to the announcer, and I heard him say, "if anyone wants to top off their water bottles, we have a station right outside of transition." I looked down at my bottle holder and my heart sank...oh.my.god. I forgot the bottles at the condo. At this point, with road closures and traffic, it was too late to go back. The only thing we could do was walk to the convenience store across the street and try and find something - all they had was three bottles of Powerade. Not good. But, no choice at this point. I really tried not to freak out or let this suck too much energy out of me, but knowing this course well and knowing the heat, hydration was not something I wanted to play around with. After letting it settle in that this was the way it was going to be, we headed over to transition.

The swim. The 1.2 mile swim starts in Condado Lagoon. The water is always calm for most of the swim since the lagoon is well protected, and this swim has never wetsuit been legal because of the water temperatures. This is one of my favorite swims. In the past at this race the swim has taken me ~33 minutes, and I was aiming for ~32, but it took me ~34, and I felt a little sluggish. I got to the ramp at the swim exit, and made the fairly long run to T-1.

The bike. The 56 mile bike goes out and back toward Dorado. Every year I've done this race there is a nice tailwind going out, but you pay for it with the headwind on the way back (2x). The course is pretty flat (with the exception of bridges and one ramp), and there's a section that has lots of iguanas on the side of the road, and sometimes they want to cross so you need to be careful. In the past the turnarounds have been tight, but this year they changed them a bit and there was much more room. I felt pretty good heading out and felt like I got to the first turnaround quick. I was mindful to keep drinking and grabbed Gatorade at the aid station. I arrived at the final turnaround and still felt good, and made my way back into the headwind. I got to mile 50, pulled my bottle out and took a sip, but dropped it. At this point, there were no more aid stations and I didn't stop to grab it (that might have been yet another mistake). As I rode back I thought to myself, "this is kind of a long time to go without drinking" but blocked it out and tried to tick off the last 15 miles to transition.

The run. I made it back to transition but was extremely thirsty and knew that was going to impact my run. I drank in T2, then head out on the course. The race really comes down to this run - it is HOT, and there are hills. BUT you do get to run along the shore and it is such a gorgeous run course through the streets of Old San Juan and by El Morro. I headed out on the first loop and instantly felt the dehydration. I grabbed Gatorade and water at the aid stations, but it was too late at that point. I arrived at the end of the 1st loop and ran into my friend who was watching the race - feeling very dehydrated at that point, I had told him while passing him I wasn't sure I was going to make it. His reaction: "WHAAAAT are you talking about?!!!" and grabbed the microphone out of the hand of an announcer at one of the tents, and told me to keep going and just finish. It honestly made me laugh out loud, and I made it my business to make the best of this. Was it going to be a slow run? Yes. Did my goal time come and go for this race? Yes. But not finishing would have been much worse for sure.

I made it to the finish, saw my friend and gave him a huge hug for being so awesome out there. Jose Camacho, if you take the time to read through this entire blog, this is your shout out. Thank you for being an amazing friend. Of course a giant thank you to X²PERFORMANCE® for their constant support and for making an amazing product. I also need to thank Pro Cycling for being such an incredible resource to me and for exhibiting such patience with me! Definitely THE BEST shop!

My after. Now, this is my favorite part. Even with the issues this island might have, Puerto Rico is one of my favorite places on this planet. I had two days after the race to take it all in. Below are some pictures I tried to capture along the way.