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.

Ironman 70.3 Worlds Race Recap

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.  

Luckily I gained my composure quick enough to take a goofy looking picture in front of the Ironman backdrop.

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.

Hello Vegas

I will be leaving for Las Vegas (Henderson, NV to be exact) in a few minutes! Why? To compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship this Sunday (Sept. 11). I was able to earn a qualifying spot back in July while racing at Vineman and thought I shouldn't pass up the chance to participate in this race, so I took the slot and now here I am about to leave for Vegas. Compared to my days leading up to Vineman, I feel more prepared for this race physically. I have no major injuries and have had a good taper over the past week. Other than getting through the rush hour LA traffic while driving to Vegas, my main concern for the weekend is the hot Nevada heat. This is about how I believe the sun will appear to me during the race:

Because I live in a coastal area, the majority of my training and racing is done in a cool climate. I have tried to train during the hottest parts of the day over the past month, but I'm not sure it has been enough to prepare me for the race day conditions. I guess I'll just to stay on my game with hydration and see how it goes. The good news is the Sunday forecast is showing a high of 88F in Henderson compared to the 110F highs over the past couple weeks.

I will try to ignore the "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" rule and have a nice race report following the race. So, remember to check back early next week