Ok, I mainly wrote this for family and friends but I guess all of you count as friends too!! Plus I like reading your RR’s!
IMCA70.3 2009 Race Report
Well it’s been a few days since the race and I had hoped to write this a little sooner but it’s been another busy week so far! I’m happy to report I’m feeling pretty good today and planning to do a track (running) workout later today. My calves have been a bit sore but “The Stick” and foam roller always help with the recovery!
So overall I had an almost perfect race. It was perfect in the sense that I hit my “goal” times within a minute and my overall goal time to the minute! The weather was probably the best ever for this race; sunny, cool and just a little wind. The temperature at the start was a little cool, about 44 degrees and steadily rose to 69 by noon. It was sunny and just slightly breezy (3-5mph) throughout the day.
As some of you know for the past year I have been putting together a “goal sheet” before my races mainly for friends and family to track me but also to set some goals for myself. Following was my goal sheet for this race:
So, here was my day:
3:00am- Woke up after 6 hours of sleep and couldn’t sleep anymore. I rolled around for the next half hour and then got up just before my three alarms went off.
3:50am- Got out of bed and put my race gear and warm clothes on.
4:00am- Went into the bathroom and took care of business, everything went as planned. Checked my weight…164.5, perfect! (I had lost about 8lbs in the prior month getting to “race weight”) I made some breakfast (oatmeal, granola, honey, blue berries and strawberries), coffee and filled my nutrition bottle (6 scoops or Carbo Pro and 6 Thermolytes – 800 calories) with Gatorade.
4:25am- Went through my checklist one last time and went out the door. BTW all my gear was packed in my car the night before which I have found is way easier and less likely to forget!
4:30am- Got a call from Peter, one of guys in my training group, and he was a few miles behind me. We headed up the coast to the parking lot in Oceanside.
4:50am- Parked, grabbed my bike and gear bag and started the 1/4mi walk to transition.
5:00am- Arrived at the transition area and put my nutrition bottle and other nutrition/stuff (2 half Cliff Bars and 2 half PB&J) on my bike. Pumped up my tires to 126psi with a borrowed pump. I brought my own pump but I had taken it to the shop I bought it at a few days before to replace a broken handle and they replaced it with a leaky valve…I’m still a little pissed off about that! Anyway, I was completely happy with the ride I had at this tire pressure.
5:30am- Hit the porta potty before the line got too long, then got my bike gear and run gear laid out for some quick transitions! I then got body marked and tried to stay warm.
6:30am- Decided to put my wetsuit on thinking it might warm me up which it didn’t. I was a lot warmer than some of the people around me but next time I think I’ll wear some warmer clothes as long as possible.
6:40am- The Pro Men started which is always exciting!
7:20am- After watching people from the first few waves coming out of the water and going through transition, Matt, Danny and I headed over to the “corral.” I couldn’t hold my pee anymore so I just let it go in my wetsuit which we all got a little laugh out of. Little did I know this was my last pee for the duration of the race!
7:41am- The start horn went off and my wave (the first of 3 that made up my age group) was off. I felt good and started off going pretty hard. After a few minutes I backed off to my normal swim pace. I had started swimming with a local Masters group in early March and this helped a ton! In addition to feeling a lot stronger with my new stroke I also swam a lot straighter than in past races. Going out we were swimming with the current so it was pretty quick other than having to pass swimmers from the 2-4 waves before us. At the half way mark we had turned around and were swimming directly into the sun so it was a little hard to see. I headed for the turn in the harbor instead of following the buoys since this was a straighter line which I think was a good call. Since I swam my last half Ironman here in 35 minutes and a half Ironman I did last year in 32 minutes I was looking for a time between 30 and 35 minutes.
SWIM TIME: 00:31:40 (46th out of 258)
8:12am- Exit the water and ran as fast as I could to my bike. I took off the top of my wetsuit and cap and goggles while running and passing the slower people from the waves before me. I found my bike and took my left leg out of the wetsuit. I ended up having to sit down to take the other leg out since I was still a little dizzy. I put my helmet and sunglasses on and grabbed my bike and ran the 200 yards to the start line. Though they said to not clip your shoes in the bike I left mine in since it’s a lot faster to run in bare feet and I’ve practiced this quite a bit.
T1 TIME: 00:02:50 (6th out of 258)
8:15am- Jumped on my bike after weaving around some more slow people and pedaled down the street. I put my feet in the shoes, closed the straps and started pedaling at harder. There’s a pretty steep hill about a half mile from the start so just before I got to it I dropped to my small chain ring so it would be a little easier on my legs. Once I got over that I really started pushing it. After about 15 minutes I ate half a cliff bar and drank a third of my nutrition bottle. At about mile 12 I was passed by three guys that were obviously drafting which is not allowed but hard to enforce. I recognized two of the guys from my Masters group and was pretty surprised since the one guy owns a local triathlon coaching service. This was very annoying to see but I knew they were probably stronger than me so I just continued racing my own race and following the rules. I had planned to go as hard as I could for the first 28 miles and I felt pretty good. I ended up averaging 24mph for the first 28 miles which is probably my fastest average for that distance ever. Just after the half way mark I ate half of a PB&J and drank another third of my nutrition. At mile 30 we hit the big hill which is referred to as “The Monster.” I remember it being tough but it was still tougher than that memory. I was in my lowest gear and had to stand up the entire time. After this first hill there is a nice down hill and then a flat section. I took this time to catch my breath but I kept pedaling hard since I was really trying to finish with a 23mph average. There were a few more pretty decent hills on the second half that were all tougher than I remembered but I just kept going as hard as I could especially on the flat and down hill sections. At about mile 45 we got out of the hills and into the area that is usually always windy, I was crossing my fingers it wouldn’t be too bad and it wasn’t. At this point I knew I was going to finish the bike in right around 2:30 which is what I biked at the half Ironman I did last year up in Napa. Thinking this was a tougher course I was pretty happy to finish around this time but had a small hope of finishing the bike a few minutes faster. I kept up my pace on the last 10 miles, ate another half PB&J and the last third of my nutrition in hopes I would have a good start to my run. Another tool I use on the bike is called a Power Meter, which measures the “effort” I expend on the bike. The Power Meter takes into account any wind and hills unlike a speedometer. I had averaged 222 watts at my last half Ironman and thought I could average 240 to 250 in this race. I ended up averaging 228 so slightly better than last year. Overall I felt like my legs were a little flat compared to training. Next time I’m going to try to stay off them a bit more the day before. Sitting here now I think 235 to 240 would have been an average I could have held had my legs felt better.
BIKE TIME: 02:31:23 (22.20mph avg. – 17th out of 258)
10:47am- Came off the bike feeling good. Ran to where my transition bag was, threw my bike on the almost empty rack, put socks and shoes on, grabbed my visor and watch and ran for the run start.
T2 TIME: 00:01:36 (19th out of 258)
10:49am- Left the transition area for loop 1 of 2 and started at about a 7:00 min/mi pace. I ran a 1:31 half marathon this January so I felt like I could run a low to mid hour and a half run. At mile 1 I found out that the notorious “Sand Section” was included this year so we had to run about a quarter mile each way (4 times total) in soft sand. After getting back on to concrete I was still feeling good and had backed off to about a 7:15 pace, I was thinking I would hold under a 7:20 pace for the first loop and then hopefully pick it up a bit on the second loop. I too my first GU and 2 Thermolytes at mile 3 and I felt a twinge of pain in my right quad but nothing too bad. I ended up seeing all of the people I train with (Sara, Kerry, Matt, Sean and Danny) on the first loop so that was cool and motivating. After 5 miles I was already wondering why I was doing this but knew I had to stay positive and just count down the miles. My pace slipped a bit to about 7:30 and I decided I was going to try to hold it there for the remainder of the race. I was feeling pretty good but my right quad felt like it was getting a bit worse. I hit the half way mark and saw Sara’s mom, Matt’s GF and another buddy of mine (now a rival triathlete) so that gave me some more motivation. To help my quad I decided to take my second GU and Thermolytes just before the planned mile 8 and after a few minutes I was definitely feeling better. My pace slipped a bit more but I was keeping it between 7:40 and 8:00 now. At mile 10 I could feel I wasn’t going to have much left so I stayed steady until the last half mile where I picked up the pace to 7:20. I finished strong and felt like I had very little left in the tank so I was happy with that!
RUN TIME: 1:39:40 (7:37min/mile pace – 22nd out of 258)
TOTAL: 4:47:09
STATS: 151/2113 overall, 21/258 in my age group, both top 10%!
So I usually end my race reports here but I’m happy to say I have something more… I had figured out a few weeks before the race that over the last two years at this race spots to the “Ironman 70.3 World Championships” usually roll down to about 5 hours. I decided if I had the opportunity to take one of these spots I would. Since Sara had placed 2nd in her age group and took a spot to the World Champs I wanted it even more! I waited patiently at the awards Ceremony with Sara and Peter and ended up getting the 3rd of the 4 spots available for my age group! So I’m going to the World Champs in November in Clearwater FL!! If you read this in time you can watch the 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Championships on NBC this Sunday (4/12) at 1:30pm PST.
