Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Non wetsuit swim! Oh Oh! The more I swim, the slower I am getting! The lake was quite nasty, and I spent some time trying to get weeds off of me! They were wrapping around my feet, shoulders, neck - it was actually quite nasty! The first half of the swim was pretty descent (or at least I think), I was able to get on someone's feet for a little while, and then I spent good half of the swim on someone's hip. I sighted off of them, as well as the shore and swam pretty straight. Once we hit the half way point and started to come back, even I started to swim into the slower swimmers from the waves in front of us, and I had an extremely difficult time with sighting,navigating through them and found myself all over the place with no rhythm whatsoever! Ugh! It was now, when I really couldn't wait to be done, and get out of the bacteria infested lake and get on my bike.

I just need to continue to work on my swim. To say that I am a bit frustrated is an "understatement", but if it was ez everyone would do it, right? As slow as my swim was, I did come in the top half of my AG, so I guess everyone else was also pretty slow. Just trying to look for some positives here, because I know in my head what needs to happen and it's just not happening ....

Pretty long run up to transition. Since this was a no wetsuit swim, and a point to point race, everything had to be either attached to the bike or in the transition bag. I also couldn't swim with my gels, and race number since it was a non wetsuit swim, so it took me a while to get the shoes out of the bag, put all my nutrition into my pockets, and put my race belt on. Put cap/goggles back in the bag, tie it up and get out of there.

Just wish I wasn't so clumsy.

I knew that if I wanted a chance to get my ticket to Vegas, I had to have an awesome bike after the horrendous swim time. I rode pretty hard, but not to the point where I totally overcooked my legs. My overall power was 185 Watts, which is actually right where my coach wanted me to be. I actually think it would be a bit higher it if wasn't for the last 10 shitty miles getting back into town, but the conditions were the same for everyone. My normalized power for the first 48 miles actually was 190 Watts so you can see my power went considerably down in the last 10 miles due to road conditions. I ended up having the fastest bike split in my age group by 4 minutes, and 4th overall bike split (3 Pro's beat me, and 1 age grouper).

It wasn't always that peachy though. When I first got on the bike, I had a super hard time keeping any nutrition down. I forced down a gel, I kept sipping on Perform, and water, but my stomach really wasn't having it. I knew that if I didn't try to eat/drink, I would be in big trouble so I kept at it. 45 minutes later, as I kept trying to hydrate (it was already getting pretty hot) powerbar perform went in, and right back out. Oops!

I actually started to feel a lot better after that little incident, and was able to get in all the calories needed. I definitely went through almost 3 bottles of water, 3 gels, and 2 performs (I did lost my last bottle on the beginning of the awesome bumpy section 10 miles from the finish). I spent most of the bike in the "left" lane, and a lot of it all alone which was a bit weird for an IM course. I guess that's what happens on a hilly one loop course! No draft packs!

The first 48 miles went by quick and the last 10 miles I was just hoping to not get a mechanical. I already mentioned the bumpiest 1 mile stretch, with as many potholes you can imagine. Add in 3 sets of railroad tracks one of which was a double set (can't bunny hop those), broken glass through the ghetto parts of Providence, lots of twists and turns, and it makes for some stupid silly 10 miles that you should NEVER ride your bike on.

I was glad to emerge out of this section in one piece and still on my bike.

I think I executed the race plan very well. I actually don't watch my avg. watts when I ride (I keep my power meter on current wattage), so to end up right where I was suppose to was awesome! Highest avg. watts to date in a race yet ...

Almost ran right by my transition bag! Again since this was a point to point, every spot looked identical! Good thing i put a nice yellow ribbon on my bag, which saved me running right by it! I took care of all the nutrition stuff in T1 so just had to get my socks and shoes on and off I went.

Nothing much - I moved as fast as I could.

PR on the run for me so considering the heat, and that this run wasn't flat, I am happy about that. Run is coming along! The kinesio tape did it's job, and I didn't have to worry about my calves feeling like rocks!

I again didn't run with my garmin, and planned on only glancing at the splits at mile markers, but since those were seriously off, I was out of luck. My watch said I went through mile 1 at 6:20 pace, which cannot be right! I was trying to hold back, and running that pace would probably about kill my race.

Since this was a 2 loop course, it was really EZ to spot your competitors, which was great! I only saw one chick ahead of my at the 2 mile turn around so I assumed I was in 2nd. It wasn't long before I got passed by another chick who just flu right by me. And then another one, and at the half way turn around I got passed again! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuudge! Now I was most likely in 5th, and all I could think about was my ticket to Vegas slipping away.

I wasn't going down without a fight though. When I made it to about the 9 mile mark, and we started to come back downhill again, I saw one of the girls that passed me on the first loop! She was in my sights for a while, but kept running about the same pace as me. At the bottom of the downhill she started to repeatedly grab her hamstring, and I knew it was time to make a move. I picked up the pace a bit, and started to really huff and puff. I went by her, and didn't even turn back. I just kept on running. I started to hurt quite a bit, but I knew I only had couple of miles left and a Vegas ticket to get. I actually passed a few people in the last 2 miles, but I knew I was still in 4th, and wanted to podium. It wasn't too much longer, before i spotted the other girl who had passed me on loop 1. Since I was already in the hurt locker, I came up with a plan. She was obviously slowing down, but I had no idea how much gas she had left in the tank, so I was going to run behind her until the end and then outsprint her to the finish line. My coaches famous sentence (it will hurt, but when it hurts run faster, I want the last mile to be the fastest mile of the day kept popping up in my head). As we were nearing the last aid station which was located no more than half a mile from the finish line, she started to call for water/coke and since the volunteers didn't have it quite ready she had to slow down a bit, and as much as I wanted coke and water and another spunge, I knew I was very close to the finish line,and made my move. (My Macca move! - if he could do it after 139 miles, why couldn't I after 69 miles right? ) :)

I never ran this hard (at least effort wise) to the finish line as I ran here. I attempted to sprint to the finish line, and my legs felt like 2 gigantic bricks! I never looked back, and I left it all on the race course! That girl actually ended up slowing quite a bit because she ended up over a minute behind me.

Very happy with this run. this was the first time I actually re-passed girls in my AG, and in the closing miles of the race. Run is definitely improving, but still have lots of work to do.

I literaly left it all out there. When I crossed the finish line a volunteer lady came right up to me and didn't want to let me go ... it took me a little bit but I convinced her I was ok. I just really needed to sit my ass down.

Lots and lots of water, and the best massage EVER followed with ice! Super psyched I got my ticket to Vegas!


I left it all out there and have no regrets!


The last 10 miles of the bike were super shit, the lake was crap, but the race was still fun. Just needs a bit of work. I think it's totally unacceptable to let people swim in a lake at which the bacteria level was over 500 all week long leading up to the race,and the day before it went down to the acceptable level of 7? I say BS!