Ironman 70.3 World Championships Race Report

Not much more to say other than it was all the words people use to
describe great events all rolled into one - great, fantastic,
wonderful, special. I guess I will start with the swim practice the
day before. Perfect weather about low 70s at 8am calm water. Head out for a nice
swim to get acclumated to the water, get in my wetsuit, water temp abut 72 degress. Just hate that first bit of water trickling down the back - Burrr! After that everything is fine. Swimming back in I see a Coast Guard boat hanging out and chatting it up wiht the guys on Sea Doos (Safety Crew) so I decide to ask about current, you can bet the Coast Guard knows all the local currents.
He told me to expect a mild current to the north - which seemed to be confimred as I slowly drifted North away from the mark, while talking to them. He also confirmed we would have perfect conditions for tomorrow's race, low to mid 80s for a high and calm water. First time
I had been to Clearwater, really a great area, might go back for some
R&R one day. Noticed swimming back in the sun was dead in my eyes - should have
brought DARK goggles - Oh well (Live and learn). Took a short ride on the bike to test
eveything else and spin the legs a little - followed that with the
race meeting. They run everything just like a FULL Ironman race (So
now I know what to expect in Arizona April 2007). In transition you have 3
bags, one for each discipline - Volunteers help strip your wetsuit at T1 and you grab your bike bag which has all your gear accept your hemet - you can clip your shoes to the bike if you so desire. After the ride at T2 the volunteers grab your bike and rack it for you while you continue to the bag rack and pickup your running bag that has all your running gear, like shoes hat, shades etc.
Race day morning starts early. Nothing much to do since all your gear and bike had to be checked in the daybefore. It makes for a no rush effort on race morning with little or nothing to forget on race day. You can tell Ironman has perfected this system over time. Bottom line it simply works very well. Race day jitters - go for a short run to free up the nerves. Run feels good but not sure the nerves are gone. Everyone seems uptight. Very little idle chat, boy these guys are dead serious!
Get in my wetsuit and head for the start. Beach Start - Wave starts
but BIG waves 300 or more in my group, split by 5 minutes apart. My age group is 40-44 but they also decide to add the 18 -24 year old age group. this really stinks. I have been here before in local races. Nothing against the younger guys but they tend to "lose it in the water" and hammer the bike way too soon. However this is Worlds so clearly these guys should be better at keeping their emotions in check. Our wave is now lining up, I find myself about one 3rd back from the front of the pack and roughly somewhere in the middle. I know from previous experience this is going to be a slugfest and I will shortly be proven correct. Gun sounds! I am off, head for the water struggle several times with my goggles immediately leaking water. Seems no matter what I do sometimes I just cannot get the fit I want. Roll over on the back re-seat the goggles multiple times, getting tons of salt water in the eyes, finally get it right. Got killed, hit on the head, slapped in the back, run over from behind, nearly kicked in the face, you name it, it happened. The washing machine last the entire swim no way to find clear water to swim in with this many people but I was finally swimmming in my own space by about 400 meters or so. I am definately aenarobic - keep trying to calm myself down and get into any kind of rythum. Every once in a while I end up running into other people or them running into me. By this time though I am somewhere in the middle of the pack and just being towed along
nicely. Make the two turns and start heading back in, now we start catching some of the slower swimmers in the wave that started 5 minutes ahead of us (Blue caps we have purple caps) GREAT more people to contend with! I cannot see a thing between the sun and salt water eyes. I breath on my left and bouys are on the right, so every once in a while I roll right and pick
up a bouy - must have been swimming pretty straight since when I roll I always manage to be relatively close to the bouy. In the back of my mind I know I need to swim as if I am headed more to the right - towards the bouy to counteract the current. In my sailing days we would call this sailing high of the mark due to the current pushing you down. (thanks Coast Guard!) a lot of people do not realize they are getting pushed to the left by the current and thus swim farther while I am able to stay closer to the bouys and swim more of a stright line. Somewhere along
here is where I get the black eye (however I will not even know this
until after the race when my wife ask me what happened to my eye and
then as the day goes on it starts to turn black on the bottom corner -
(I never knew IM was a full contact sport!) the best I can figure is
when I roll to breath on my left the guy next to me landed a perfect
elbow in my eye. Swim over I forgot to start my watch but knew
what time I started the race so I thought I swam about a 35 minute leg
(typical for me - but it ended up being better - 33:42 that is a PR) After standing
up from the swim I had to walk all the way out of the water due to
cramps - never had this happen either, usually have no problems. Once again you have to deal with what race day brings and some things you simply have no control over. Don't panic, walk slowly the legs will come back I tell myself. Once blood started to flow to my legs again I was able to jog up the beach and over the timming mat. Into T1 and out on the bike, no problems here just a standard T1. Oh yea - I forgot a lady started laughing at me as I grabbed my bike going through T-1 they were playing a cool song on the radio and I started singing - I remember her pointing at me and laughing and saying - "Look at the singing Tri-Guy! Pretty funny in retrospect. Really not much happening on the bike, this is my strength, I stayed in my aero position really nicely, felt pretty good the whole ride and according to my splits held
a constant 22.3 or so average for the ride. Lots of people riding in
packs I hope they got penalties but it did not look like many were
handed out. 4 miles or so from the end of the bike is where this
knucklehead decides to ignore the cop directing traffic and he pulled
right out in front of me while I was doing about 30 or so down a
slight hill. Of course he hears everyone yelling and instead of
continuing on, he stops dead in front of me. I locked up the back
wheel and slid sideways and just knew I was toast but some how stopped
literally one foot from his right car door - had a few choice words
for him as I pedaled around the front of his car . At this point I
tried to calm myself down - get those emotions in check - that is just wasted energy! Let's just get the bike back to T2. Bike ended up being 2:30 and some change - decent (Fast course a few causway bridges to cross for hills but pretty much flat - a little wind on one
long bridge but not too bad) Home safe and through transition. Out we
go for the run, the first 3 or 4 miles I just felt bad, but that is normal and I am somewhat used to it, I knew the legs would eventually start feeling better. Mile 6 or so
it felt better. The course had us go over a causeway bridge 4 times
which made the run a little tougher than I anticipated. Comming home I
was definately on empty, a sure sign of this is when your heart rate will not go up but your legs feel like dead weights. Basically you are starting to bonk, not from aerobic (lung) issues but from Muscle fatigue/Mulscular endurance. This is the key to IM racing and something we all strive for in our training to develop - better Muscular Endurance. I knew I was not going to break 5 hours but I also knew I would be close and set a knew PR - so no complaints with that. Came home in 5:04 and some change, an 8 minute improvement over my Cancun 70.3.
Overall just a great day, a great experiece.
Overall
I was somewhere in the middle of the pack like 8 hundred and something
out of about 1600 or 1700 particapants. I was only 164 out of about
200 or so in my age group (tough age group). When I think about that I
qualified with a roll down slot and I am only in my second year of Tri
that seems about where my fitness is, but I know I can get to the
level many of these guys are at, I just need another year or two. I plan on taking a couple weeks
off but I am reenergized to start training for IM Arizona soon. All I
can say is I can guarantee you this 70.3 thing is going to be huge and
I think will shortly gain the respect that Kona does, giving more
athletes a chance to race a World Championship at this very fast
distance instead of the much different Full IM distance. The race
directors at IM said this is exactly what they are trying for. As far
as I am concerned they sure have a good start. So get out there and
race one of the 70.3 races and try to qualify for Clearwater - trust
me you will love it!
See you out there!
Got good SWAG (Shit we all get!)

P.S make sure to come back and look for my links about another even more rewarding experience I had in Clearwater. It is the "Blazeman" story. This one you cannot miss! During this experieince I was literally tapped on the shoulder as if someone was saying to me - that is you buddy, your ticket has been punched! I will be an ALS Warrior in my future Ironman races. Look for details in future posst.