Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was apprehensive about the swim since I haven't been in the pool in a couple of months. I've done one or two long open water swims every week or so and raced a couple of sprints, but I knew that my swim fitness was severely lacking heading into this race.

I started off right at the flag, along the buoy line and it wasn't long until I was tapping feet in front of me. I just thought I'd take it easy and cruise, but then my feet started to get tapped and I didn't feel like I was racing. I moved around a bit to find some open water, but really tried to keep the buoy line in sight. Sometimes I was right on top of it, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right. When we got to the first large orange buoy, I thought it was the first turn and I was thinking I was having a great swim, but then I realized no one was turning and we still had farther to go. I caught up with some of the previous wave somewhere before the turn, so there was some dodging (and keeping an eye out for frog kicks from breast-strokers). Shortly after the first turn, I got caught by the first pink caps. The swim was mostly uneventful. I just knew I was going to be unhappy with my time. I had some down moments out in the water.


Train in the pool. Push harder. Of course, I would have liked to have beaten last year's 34, but I would have been thrilled with my typical 35. I was disappointed when I got out of the water in 37, but it is what it is. You get out what you put in and I haven't put in any work in the water.

I was wearing a new wetsuit for only the second time and it's still pretty tight. I also forgot to apply Body Glide before heading to the swim start with my wetsuit and I really struggled to get the suit off. I gave up and sat down and fought with it for a while. Got up, put on helmet, glasses and bib and started to run out. Realized that my chin strap was unfastened, so I stopped and took care of it before heading out of transition. Good mount and getting into shoes was no problem.

Wear the suit a few more times in training and apply Body Glide to my ankles before heading out of transition.

I knew I had a much slower swim than last year and I was frustrated with my transition, so that was weighing on my mind in the early part of the bike. My legs felt stiff and my lower back was sore. I was struggling and the pace felt hard. I figured I would get used to it, so I just pushed on. I realized I was passing a lot of people and there were only one or two riders that passed me on the way to the loop portion of the course, so that picked me up a bit and most of the first loop felt pretty good.

Towards the end of the first loop and through much of the second, my back was really bothering me. Standing on the hills and stretching on the descents helped, but it never really went away. I think it had to do with some recent fit adjustments. I just got put into a different position and my back wasn't ready to handle the change. I kept up with nutrition and hydration better this year which really carried over to the run.

I was glad to have the 11-28 cassette this year. Last year I rode with an 11-23 and felt like I really struggled on the bike. It was nice to have the bailout gear for the hills. It allowed me to stay in the big ring for the whole ride.

Not much - I think the bike went about as well as it could have. I probably could have concentrated more on my spin efficiency as I only thought about it a few times. Other than a course preview a few weeks ago, I haven't been on the CompuTrainer at all recently (weather has been too nice to spin indoors!) and I didn't really focus on my pedal stroke at all during the race.

This transition went well although I had forgotten to set out my Garmin so I had to get it out of the zippered compartment in my tri bag. I spent some time fiddling with it so that it would start searching for satellites while I got on my socks and shoes. It was starting to get pretty hot, so I grabbed the water bottle from my bike and squirted the top of my head before grabbing my handheld bottle and running out.

Stage my Garmin with my shoes - or forget it. I didn't really use it for pace or HR. I just looked at it from time to time. I am glad that I have the data, though.

The first mile felt really hard. I was following Samantha Warriner, who was on her 2nd loop, in 3rd place. I could see the 2nd place woman farther up ahead. She had a mountain bike escort. Back down through town and starting the lake portion of the second loop, I really needed to use the porta-potty, so I stopped just before the aid station at the base of the big hill. I felt much better afterwards and just went about the run. It was nice to start checking off locations on the second loop, knowing I wouldn't have to be there again. Many of the other competitors were very nice and offered comments and complements as I ran by. I tried to thank them and I said, "good job" as much as I could. It was getting hot by the time I hit the lake hill for the last time and it was tough, but I knew there was just a mile of real tough going and then the last mile I could empty the tank. I felt like the gradual hill coming back was harder than the steeper hill going out. It just felt much longer. Running the last stretch along the lake was great. I knew I was going to finish under 5 hours and I had a shot at sub 4:55, which was my PR at Oceanside this year.

This was my best half marathon off the bike on a tough course on a hot day, so I really can't complain. I was suffering out there so I'm not sure how much more I had to give. I was fighting the urge to quit quite a bit, but I knew I had to keep going. The stop at the porta-potty was necessary, but it took almost a minute off of my run.

Picked up a water bottle and ate some grapes. I checked out the results, but my time hadn't been posted yet so I walked out to the hot corner to cheer on friends still on the course. After they went through, I walked over to transition, gathered up my gear, chatted with some other guys at my rack and went back to the finish. I checked the results again on the way and was shocked to see that I finished 4th in my age group. I had seen that there were 4 Clearwater spots in my division, so I knew that if everything was accurate I had qualified. I took pictures of my friends as soon as they finished and went down to register for Clearwater when it opened. Someone told me that awards ran 5-deep, so we loaded up the cars and grabbed some drinks before heading back to sit on the lawn and watch the award ceremony.


Poor swim training, a new wetsuit and the temperature.


I noticed a few subtle changes (for the better) this year. Last year, it was more evident that it was, at one point, an independent (non-M-dot) event. This year, things like the style of the apparel, the gear bag and the fact that awards ran 5-deep made it feel more like the other Ironman-brand events I have raced. The announcer (and emcee for the mandatory athlete meeting) is very good and the event has a very professional feel.