Vegas 70.3 World Championship Race Report

I know...who writes a race report a month after the race happened?  The truth is, Vegas took a lot out of me, both physically and mentally.  I simply did not have the energy to sit down and write a report until now...I got lazy!  I guess a month late is better than never, right?

This was my second year racing at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Henderson, NV.  My race report from last year can be found here. The race was on a Sunday Sept. 9th, but I arrived in Vegas Thursday afternoon with the hopes of enjoying a day of actual vacation before I had to start stressing about the race. The highlight of Thursday night was a meal at Shibuya Japanese Steakhouse, the best Japanese steakhouse I have ever been to. Saturday morning I woke up early and went for a short hike in Red Rock Canyon which is about a 30 minute drive east of the strip.  That was a great hike and provided beautiful views like these:

After the hike, I headed to Henderson and began the 1.5 days of race logistics including packet pick-up, mandatory athlete meeting, run gear drop-off, and bike drop-off.  I really hate doing all of that stuff, but I guess it is part of the activity.  On Saturday, I was able to get a very short swim-bike-run in just to make sure everything was working properly.  It was. 

I was all smiles race morning because I was about to do what I came to Vegas to do - race.  You will soon see that I lost the smile by the end of the race.  Here's how it went.

Swim:
The swim is in Lake Las Vegas.  Because I had done this race last year, I thought I had a solid understanding of the course and a good idea of how the conditions would be.  Last year I remember the swim being quite pleasant. The swim this year would likely have been just as pleasant other than the fact that the water temperature was a little warm for my taste at 83F.  At the start of the swim I found the lead pack and immediately latched onto the lead swimmer in my wave.  My goal was to stay with him and take advantage of the draft, a strategy I used last year at this race.  Unfortunately, this guy was a little fast for me to stay with and he dropped me about 400m into the swim.  From then on, I was pretty much alone as I couldn't keep up with the leader but I was able to pull away from the rest of my wave.  About halfway through the swim, the hot water temperature got to me and I started to feel awful. It felt like the heat was draining all my energy and I knew I still had a lot of racing to do.  As I approached the swim exit I was more than happy to get out of the water and cool off on the bike, even though the air temperature was about 90F.

I came out of the water 4th in my division with a split of 27:02. That was about a 30 second improvement from my split last year and coming out of the water in 4th was a good place to be.

Yay, I'm out of the water! Onto the bike...

Bike:

As I started the bike leg, my heart rate felt like it was still pretty high from the uncomfortably warm swim.  Once I made the climb out of Lake Las Vegas and started to descend into Lake Mead Recreation Area, my heart rate dropped to a comfortable level and I was able to get into a groove.  The bike seemed to go fairly well for about the first 2/3 of the ride.  During the last third, my energy seemed to seep away more and more as I got closer to T2. In retrospect, I think I may have pushed it a little too hard on the bike. When racing the Half Ironman distance, I sometimes forget to hold back a little and end up pushing it like I am racing an Olympic distance race.  I did this earlier in the year at Vineman and was OK, but in the hot Vegas heat I was not able to get away with it.

The last 8 miles of the bike consist of a gradual climb to T2 in Henderson.  As I was approaching T2, my legs were feeling fairly drained and despite drinking a lot of water while riding, I still felt dehydrated.  I knew a challenging run was ahead.  I came off the bike 13th in my division with a time of 2:28:57.  I was just under my bike split from the previous year and am happy with that, but I am surprised to see that dropped me all the way to 13th going into T2.  There were some fast riders out there.

I like busting out a cheesy smile for the professional photographers at FinisherPix.

Run:
The run course is a three loop course where each loops contains a 2 mile uphill run followed by 2 miles downhill. The elevation profile can be seen here:

Coming out of T2, I was hoping my tired legs would regain some energy now that I was off of the bike.  I realized that would not be the case about a mile into the run as I started the first of the three uphill stretches.  The first loop was hard but manageable.  As I started the second uphill stretch, I began to have doubts as to whether I would be able to make it to the top of the climb and especially whether I would be able to do it one last time.  At that point I basically blew up and went into survival mode.  I was overheating, cramping, and fantasizing about laying in a giant martini glass filled with cool jello. I ended up running the last 5 or so miles at a slow jog and walked through aid stations while dumping every single cup of liquid that I could get my hands on over my head.  This death march resulted in a 1:43:09 run split, about 12 minutes slower than my split from last year.  That is obviously not good but it is what happens when you go from racing to just trying to survive.

This picture of me approaching the finish line is pretty much enough to show how I felt at the end of the race. I was completely drained.

  

I ended up finishing 27th in my division, a significant drop my 9th place finish last year. Here are my splits:

The basic fact is that I was not able to handle the heat.  I was unprepared for it and caught by surprise by its severity.  I know there were many in the same boat as me. There were also many people that conquered the heat and had awesome races. One example is my Team TriSports.com teammate, Sarah Jarvis, who finished 3rd in her age group.  Mad props to Sarah and everyone else who an awesome day. It just didn't work out for me.

Thanks as always to TriSports.com for the support throughout the season.

Next up is my final race of the season, the Herbalife Triathlon Los Angeles.  Oh shit, that race was last weekend.  I guess I better write a race report for it.