On September 11th, I raced in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Henderson, Nevada. I gained entry into this race by earning a slot during Vineman 70.3 back in July. The following two months allowed me enough time and preparation to feel fairly ready for the Championship.
I rolled into town on Friday and picked up my race packet. As I got to the expo, I looked around and soon realized that everybody around me was super hardcore. I was suddenly surrounded by loads of compression socks, Ironman tattoos, shaved legs, and $8K rocket ship bikes. People even had cars like this:
It soon became apparent to me that this race was a big deal and held a significant amount of prestige. Following packet pick up I checked into the hotel and settled down for a bit. Dinner Friday was Shabu-Shabu followed by a short night out in Vegas.
The swim was at Lake Las Vegas which is about 10 miles outside of Henderson. The lake is not normally open for swimming, but they did allow the competitors to do a course preview for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. I guess I was practicing sighting when this picture was taken.
Following my swim course preview, I went on a short road trip to check out the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam is a pretty remarkable place and quite an engineering feat. It's a big ass dam! I'm also very impressed that it only took 5 years to build.
Following the dam tour, I headed back to Henderson and spent the rest of the day dropping off my gear at race check-in and tending to final race preparations. Dinner was a tasty lasagna dish at a nice little Italian joint, Buon Gusto, followed by some relaxing at the hotel for the rest of the evening. I hit the sack right after Michigan's exciting come from behind win over Notre Dame and slept fairly well considering the big race I had ahead of me the next day.
The water temp was about 80F on race morning which meant no wetsuits. As I said, everybody at this race was super hardcore, so most of them had swimskins to wear for the swim. I'm only partially hardcore so I elected to go old school by going topless and just rockin' the jammers. Can you find me in the mess of people?
It seemed like we were treading water for about 15 minutes waiting for our wave to go off.
Although the weather was supposed to be in the mid-90s by late morning, the early morning weather was very comfortable and the swim was greeted by a nice sunrise across the lake.
While treading water at the swim start, there was a race worker on a stand-up paddle board giving us an indication of how much time was left before the start of the race. As start time came closer, he gave us a 20 second warning. Ten seconds later, the horn went off. Oh, I guess I better start swimming.
My age group was split into two waves and I was in the second of them. During the swim, I soon found myself in a lead pack with two other people. After quite a bit of jockeying for drafting position, one of the guys dropped behind and I hung on the feet of the other guy until the swim finish. I ended up 5th out of the water in my age group.
On to the bike...
The bike course took us into Lake Mead National Park until until a turn-around at about mile 22. At that point we returned towards Lake Las Vegas and then went about 15 miles further into Henderson. The entire course was rather hilly, which I tend to like. Over the final 10 miles, a pack of riders from my wave caught up to me and it was evident that there was a bunch of drafting going on amongst them. The drafting is likely a result of fairly equal talent levels, but more likely due to egos getting in the way. Some people just can't deal with getting passed. For the rest of the ride, I hung near this pack while trying to keep out of their little drafting game. I ended losing one spot on the bike and coming into T2 in 6th place in my age group.
The run course consisted of three laps over a loop that was half uphill and half downhill. There were no flats. The first mile of my run felt fine until I developed a nasty side stitch that lasted until about mile 4. After that I got into a groove until I started to feel the effects of the heat at about mile 6. At every aid station, I would grab multiple cups of water to dump on my head. The wet sponges that they were handing out were also clutch. The second half of the run was simply a matter of surviving.
The final mile was downhill and I just opened up my stride and let it all out. When I crossed the finish line I was completely exhausted, more than I have ever been after a race.
Final result:
- Time: 4:32:17
- Placement: 9th AG, 36th Amateur, 76th Overall
Looking at the top 15 in my age group, it is evident what area of my race needs to improve at this distance: the run. I know that with fresh legs I can average a whole minute per mile faster over a half marathon. With proper training I believe I have the potential to drop at least 20 sec per mile from the pace I held at this race. Looking back at my training leading up to my race, I may have not put in enough distance on the run. Another thought is perhaps I am taking the bike too hard and not leaving enough in my legs for the run. Maybe I could dork out and get a power meter for my bike to determine if this truly is the case? Nah, I think I'll just train better. I'm happy with 9th this year but hopefully next year I can work towards cracking the top 5.
Thanks again to TriSports.com for their continued support.
Next up is the Los Angeles Triathlon on September 25th, during which I will be racing in the elite amateur division. Unless something changes, the LA Tri will likely be my last race of the season.
