First 140.6 complete!!!

After 8 years of doing triathlons This was the first year I thought I had time to train for the full 140.6


I did the AC Challenge on Sunday and it was fantastic. This was the second year of the event, and from what I hear much improved over last years event. I think they have the swim and the bike coarse set very well, and the run is good but can still improve some. So hers a brief summary of my weekend.


The race is based in Atlantic City NJ, however I stayed in Ocean City which is about 20 minute drive away.

Friday- picked up all the pre-race gear and sat through the meeting, everything was smooth and easy. The RD for this event started running events a couple years back and is very knowledgeable and great to work with. I believe he spent several years racing as an elite, so he does understand the sport from the athletes perspective.

Saturday- Mandatory bike drop off. Well if my nerves were not bad enough- I was about 4 miles from the event on the AC expressway and my Thule rack broke. Look on the rear view mirror and my bike is hanging by the addition bungee cord that I always put on to keep the front wheel from flopping around. Emergency stop on the highway, just in time to prevent total disaster! I will have some words with Thule about this, the rack is only 6 months old. My old rack was Thule that I used for 7 years with no problem, only reason I switched is because this one fits my Jeep and still allows me to open the back door.
After a careful bike inspection(two chips in the gel coat now), I rack the bike and leave my transition bags.
Saturday night storms were incredible, race staff spent the whole night trying to keep everything in place. medical tent blew away and all the Porta-pots blew over. However everything was up and ready to go Sunday morning.

Sunday- Race day:

The 70.3 event started first, there was about 1,000 athletes doing this. Although it seem strange for 70.3 to go first it worked well getting them out of the water and off the bike coarse sooner.
The start was a mass start(time trial kind of) everyone walked out on a floating dock over the timing mat and jumped in, so a continuous flow of people jumping in and going.

Swim- was 2 laps in the bay wet suit legal- It was a good coarse, with some chop in the one direction probably from the tide going out. Overall I took it easy and swam slow and steady to conserve energy for the rest of the day. Came out with a 1:08 swim time. 14th overall
They had a fire truck set up before T1 with a big fresh water shower you could run through- nice to get any salt water and seaweed off.

T1- I walked an took my time, about 9 minutes later I was coming out with my bike.

Bike- I do not use power, and I do not pace by HR I go on perceived effort. I thought the bike coarse was great, there were a couple sections of ruff road and maybe some signage that could be improved but its hard not to have that over 112 miles. Because I was fast in the water I had a lot of 70.3 athletes around until I was about 20-25 miles in which is where the coarse split. It was a windy day, and lonely on the bike as I was out in the front and there was only about 250-260 athletes signed up for the event. Even with all the storm damage from the night before the roads were in good shape. Did a good job sticking to my nutrition plan 1 gel every 15 mile(45 minutes) and 7 bottles on Gatorade, 4 of which I started with the other 3 I grabbed at aid stations. Never even checked a special needs bag, couldn't see how I would need it and I didn't. Only unexpected thing was around mile 75, I heard a very load "ting" sound but everything seemed fine. After a couple miles I realized that 1 of my CO2 cartridges had come unscrewed and ejected. I'll have to double check those in the future to make sure they are tight.
At the end of the bike coming up to the dismount I always pull my right foot off but could not get it out, had enough time and was able to unlock my left before falling over in front of all the volunteers.(lesson learned- put fresh grease on cleats before race- tire legs don't come out as easily)
Overall it was a good bike ride finished it in 5hrs 30 mins. and according to race results was 1st in my age group at this point and 13th overall!

T2- volunteers racked the bike as I headed for the tent, again it was my first so I just walked and took my time. people were asking if I was OK, I guess because everyone else coming in near me were running. T2 time 11 minutes

Run-
The run was almost entirely on the AC Boardwalk, which kept things interesting. we did laps so you saw most of the other racers at some point, I got to run 4 mile with a friend of mine who was actually 10 miles behind me.

So the run is my weak point and according to race results I lost 1st and 2nd place by mile 4 and got bounced back to 3rd. I kept chugging away at that run doing my walk through aid station and than run, I did have to walk a little more than planned as I started the run a 2 and there was no shade until later in the day. I would say I was 14 miles before I started seeing some shade. Everything went well until about mile 18-19, that when I got sick to my stomach(never happened before) I wanted to puke but couldn't and just kept walking. So I walked about 3 miles maybe more before I felt better, at least it had passed and I could run again. So I finished it up running most of that last 4miles with a run time 5 hrs 40 minutes and a total time 12hrs 40 minutes.
Later I found out that I dropped out of 3rd place around that 19 mile mark.

Overall I had a great day, and will be looking forward to doing more 140.6's in the future!