Patrik, Scott, and I competed the 2011 Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island on July 10th. This was my first attempt at the 70.3 distance. It was quite an experience full of surprises. Looking back on it now, I feel fortunate to work with a coach who helped me prepare for the challenge both physically and mentally. Here is my version of how the weekend went.
It started with the drive from the Boston area to to my mom’s house as she kindly watched our son for the weekend. After dropping of our son, my wife and I headed back out for the 30 minute ride to Providence Rhode Island. The drive was uneventful, but my brain was going a mile a minute anticipating I forgot something. We arrived at the Westin Hotel around 11am. This hotel was a great choice as it was connected to the Convention Center(where check in was located) and connected to Providence Place Mall, both of which where right near T2 and the finish line. After lugging our stuff to the hotel room, I got a pleasant surprise when looking out the window….it overlooked T2 and the finish shoot to the State House! Score! My wife could see I was itching to check-in and see all the festivities at the Convention Center, so off we went. Check-in was easy, even with all the waiver forms. I picked my T1 bike drop off slot(T1 and T2 in different locations and had mandatory Saturday drops) and decided to hit the next Athlete Briefing. While waiting, I see Patrik and Scott show up.
It was about this time that the “big news” started to circulate around. The water temperature was 84 degrees in the swim venue! No wetsuits allowed. This wasn’t official yet, but the race director basically said you have a better chance of winning the lottery than using a wetsuit tomorrow. OK, not a big deal, I can do this. It will be slower, but no worries. Oh, and this comes one day after the lake reopens due to high bacteria counts:)
After the Athlete Briefing I set out to T1, which was about 7 miles away in Lincoln RI, to rack my bike. Pretty simple, but annoying. I walked over to the water and sure enough, it felt like bath water. Back to the hotel.
Last stop before relaxing to a nice dinner was the mandatory bag drop at T2. This was simple too, just put my sneaks, visor, and sunglasses in the designated bag and drop it of in my rack spot. Felt weird, but easy. After a little scoping out of bike-in and run-out I made sure I new my rack location and side assigned. No need to waste time searching tomorrow. Now off to dinner and hit the hay early! I was actually a bit pumped and had a hard time falling asleep. Checked my alarm five times to make sure it was set for 3:30am:)
Race Day! I started my fueling plan slowly while putting on my race suit and heart rate strap. Slipped on some additional cloths as it was cold out. Had time to kill before the bus to T1 so I laid down and almost fell back to sleep.
Shuttle to T1 was easy, but didn’t leave as much time to prepare my bike as I hoped. In my morning fog, I zip-tied my aero bottle on backwards. With no zip-ties to fix the problem, I used some electrical tape I had for securing my gels to the cross bar. This seemed to hold securely, so no harm right? More on this later. At this point, the race director came on and said the water temp had cooled some, but still over the legal limit for wetsuits allowance. They did however create an additional wave to accommodate those who really wanted to use one, but warned they would not be eligible for placement or awards. Everything else went fine in T2. One last visit to the porta-john and I was ready to go.
Met my wife on the beach while setting out for a w/u swim. Surprisingly I felt calm.
Race started at 6:00am, with my wave set for 6:30. The time went by fast and soon enough we were lined up on the beach waiting for the horn. I stood front and center, with the goal of sprinting fast into the water, then going hard for the first couple minutes. My plan worked well, I did not have to deal with the masses very much. Sure, most of the competitors swam past me, but I never had to change mt stroke in order to “fit it”. This was a positive start for me. I quickly found some feet to draft, but lost them just as fast. The entire swim I was on a quest to find feet to draft. One pair was good for 100m or so, but he was not sighting well and we found ourselves off course. I decided to head back toward the pack and grunted out some meters solo. The halfway mark was approaching and I was being passed by the swimmers in the wave behind me. Not to worry, let’s try to draft them. Well, I found my self working hard just to stay close. The good thing was they sighted well, the bad thing is I could not maintain the draft. I kept searching for feet. In the end, I wasn’t to successful with drafting. Hopefully this will come with time, because I’m a relatively poor swimmer and need every advantage I can get. Later on, I found out my swim time was 47:06, much slower than the 38:00 I was hoping for. Still, I have many positive things to take way from the swim.
T1 was smooth(1:55). The bike felt good as I spun out of Lincoln State Park. It wasn’t long before the shabby RI roads tested that electrical tape I used to secure my aero bottle…. It popped out and almost dropped, but I caught it. From there on, I would have to monitor the bottle and adjust when needed. Not to mention hold it securely during the numerous rough sections. It was more of an annoyance than anything else. I settled into my desired wattage, and by mile 3 my HR was slightly lower than I anticipated averaging so all was well. I maintained even power output while covering the rolling terrain. This is when I had my first surprise. A young fit female passed me up a hill, then I passed her going down, then she passed me up the next hill, then I passed her, etc. She pulls up to me on the next hill and says why are you slowing down when you pass me. I just smiled. We would pass each other a few more times, then she pulls up to me again and says, so where are you from, I say around here, and she says well c’mon you have hills to train on and I don’t so let’s go! Now I’m getting a little pissed at her because I’m the one holding a nice even efforts. She was getting out of the saddle on every mild incline. Well, before long she faded and was never seen again. With the second annoyance out of my hair I settled into a groove. Average power was 195w with my HR right on target. The wattage was materially lower than I anticipated, but HR rules so steady as she goes. All was going well until I heard a clunk and looked down to see my garmin watch bouncing on the ground. I only use it for the run and didn’t want to stress over it “locating Satellites” while I started the run, so I decided to take it along for the ride. Should have just strapped it on my arm, which is what I ended up doing after I circled back to pick it up. Not much time lost, but lesson learned. back to pedaling. I planned to use the 2nd aid station to swap out a bottle. They said it was at mile 28, but it wasn’t. It was earlier and I scrambled to make the swap. Shortly thereafter I tried to fill up the aero bottle with the course given sport bottle. This was a mess. The cap was big and I ended up jamming it in to far and getting the sport bottle stuck. I had to slow down for a bit and work it loose. Ended up just unscrewing the top and pouring it in the old fashion way. No real harm done. Back to steady pedaling. Miles ticked off fast. I was locked into my target HR, but power was a bit lower now as I covered the second half of the course, which was more downhill than up. Around this time my inner quad muscles started to cramp bad. I never felt it quite like this. It hurt a lot to get out of the saddle. Still not sure what caused it, but I just tried to blocked it out and pushed on. Around mile 39, another surprise hit me with the sound of clicking at every tire rotation. It sounded like it was coming from up front, but I didn’t see anything in the wheel. I decided to pull over and noticed something sticking out of my wheel. After a closer look, I realized I just picked up a piece of electrical tape(black, not the red stuff I was using). Peeled it off and got underway again. Two competitors actually slowed down to ask me if I was ok. Nice gesture, as I would later pass them and see one was in my AG. Again, no harm done and it was back to steady pedaling. It was about here when I really had to pee…. I was in a back road stretch with no one close to me so I just let it go. Easily the weirdest thing I’ve ever done on the bike, but I felt so much better after. The final stretch of the bike course was horrendous. Looked like a combat zone and included 3 sets of railroad tracks to cross. It was so bad that they had a half mile “do not pass” zone where you had to swerve non-stop to avoid major damage. I was aware of this so I made a charge to pass anyone close to me as I entered the zone. Rounded out the ride in 2:40:22. Close to my goal time of 2:38! Average power was about 187w and aHR 153. Average speed was just under 21mph.
Dismount was smooth and into T2 I go. Was out in 1:10. As I started to run, the quads were definitely front and center. It hurt bad. My pace was solid, though. And my mind shifted from quad pain to making sure I got my nutrition in and hydrated. The run course was two loops and covered a mile+ hill near Brown University. This hill was tough the second time around and really hit me. I ran well though, with my aHR right on target. Average pace was close to 7:00 per mile through the first loop. Then I slowed a bit after facing the hill for a second time. I also missed a gel(s) somehow…. Only took two when the plan was for 3-4. This could have easily been the difference over the last few miles. Ended up with a 1:35:21, about 4 minutes slower than I anticipated. Average pace was 7:16. Average HR was 157(although it did rise when running uphill).
Overall I finished in 5:05:54, which was good for 179th place OA and 30th in my AG. I really loved this distance. The race felt like a battle between the course and I. Rarely did I think about other competitors. I look forward to more 70.3 distance races and building on what I learned here.
Cheers
David
