Ironman 70.3 World Championships.....

I got back from Clearwater Beach Florida this afternoon, from the IM 70.3 World Championships. Just thought I would post a few pictures and give my story of how it all went down. ( sorry for the black spot on all the pictures, my shutter is broken)

My goals for the day were to go as fast as I could, and hopefully that would place me well in my age group. I was shooting for 4:10, which seemed doable, since the bike course was super flat.

1.2 mile swim: The swim was my first open water swim in salt water. I was in the last swim wave of the day, which I wasnt pleased about. The swim start was rough as we all ran in from the beach, but I found a good draft, and made it out to the turn bouys in no time. I lost my draft around the turn bouy in the chaos and conjestion, which killed my momentum. The way back in to shore was directly into the rising sun, making it hard to navigate, and I felt like I wasnt making any progress towards shore. I eventually hit the beach in 29 min, not my best swim, not my worst. I didnt think twice about it, and just booked it into T1.

56 mile bike: This bike course was ridiculous. Sooo fast. The lack of hills also meant that there were huge packs of people drafting/blantantly cheating. It was frustrating to watch, and I did not see one draft marshal handing out penalties. Anyways, my legs felt awesome, and I pushed it harder with every mile. I was flying, only one guy passed me. I hit the 40 mile mark in 1:29, and finished the bike course in 2:11, for a 25.6 mph average! I feel like I could have ridden 3-4 minutes faster, but at times when the course narrowed down to one lane, I would get stuck behind these massive packs that took up the whole course. It was still a blast to go so fast.

13.1 mile run: I made it through T2, and my stomach immediately felt odd when I started running. It wasnt pain, just a mild discomfort that I hoped would pass. My plan as always was to take it out at a comfortable pace for the first lap, and then push it the second lap. The first mile came in 5:54! The second mile (which had a pretty steep/long causway hill) was 6:10, the third mile was 6:40 (which included a pee stop) .... my legs felt great. I was hoping to run a 1:20, and I was on my way....

The fourth mile, I puked. I think I swallowed a lot of salt water in the swim. I tried so hard not to, but sometimes you get water in your mouth during the chaos, and its just a natural reaction that happens before you can do otherwise. Miles 5-8 were 6:40-7:30 survival pace. I downed a caffinated Gu at mile 7 in hopes of picking up the pace, but instead I puked again at mile 8. I started running again, ditched all my remaining Gu's, and surprisingly, I felt a lot better. I managed to start running 6:30's again. At mile 11, some fast guys caught me, and I latched on, and ran 6:11 and 6:05 final miles. My run split was 1:27 - This year I have been good for 1:23's on hilly courses, so this was a bit disappointing for a pretty flat course, but it wasnt due to lack of fitness.

Overall I finished in 4:14 (still a big PR for me). I was 17th of 47 in my age group, and 110th overall of 1433 competitors. It was a bitter sweet day. I dont want to blindly accuse others of cheating, but when there are a whole slew of guys in my age group that exit the bike together, with really fast times, that are almost exactly the same, and only minutes slower than those off the top pros, it makes me suspicious. Not that I am saying I could have won the age group, I just dont think this is the type of course to separate the best from the rest. I rode a clean race, I'm proud of my bike time, and overall, it was a fun weekend in the sun.

Time for the offseason!

~Mike