Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The lake was closed to swimming on the Tuesday before the race due to high bacteria levels... e-coli (yummy). I wasn't real happy about the swim being held here to begin with. Every year it is closed multiple time due to the poor water quality. I made a conscious effort to not take in any water.

After the first turn the sun was directly in our faces so sighting was a bit tough on this section, but I did OK overall. For the most part I held a pretty good line, there were only 2 sections where I went off course a bit, but nothing horrible.

Not much, this was actually a good swim for me. I was planning a 45 minute swim and when it was declared non-wetsuit I figured it would be a bit slower. So overall I'm very happy with this swim.

It was a bit of a run from the lake to T1, so I'm sure that added some time, I also went down the wrong isle for my bike. Well it was the right isle just the wrong side so that cost me a bit also.

The T1 area was pretty messy in some spots due to the heavy rain two days before. There was still some standing puddles of water and lots of spots were pretty mushy. Since I haven't mastered the flying mount and I use speedplay pedals, I was fairly cautious coming out of transition... trotting along tip-toed so I didn't clog up my cleats.

Try to pay more attention to where I am. The buses got us to the lake pretty late so I only had about 15 minutes to set up and walk the transition.

This course was pretty tough for me. There was very little flat road, all rolling hills, with a few tough ones. I wasn't fully prepared for the constant up and down.

Additionally, the last 10 or so miles were absolutely horrible from a condition standpoint; potholes the size of kitchen sinks, patches of sand, railroad tracks, and on. This made it very tough to do much of anything other than trying not to flat for the last stretch.

The ride was slower than I had hoped, I was planning on coming in just under 3 hours, but the hills had other plans for me... I really need to work on the bike.

Train a bit more to build up some hill strength. My cycling has improved since I started ridding again, but I'm still below where I know I can be. I've got to put in some serious cycling effort this off-season. This was my biggest limiter in this race.

Not great, not bad just OK. I didn't run hard into or out of transition... more of a slow trot so I could've save 20 seconds or so I suppose.

Not much, maybe run a bit harder through the in/out to save some time.

The course wasn't too bad, there was one continuous up hill for about a mile, from just before the 1 mile marker to just before mile maker 2. This section was tough both times. Also the heat was a bit of a factor especially given the fact that my wave didn't start until almost 7 AM.

Started the run at about 10:45, so it was starting to get pretty hot out. I took sponges at every aid station to try to keep cool. By the last few miles, nothing was helping I was just getting cooked.

Overall I did pretty well on the run, although the 2nd loop was much worse than the first averaging nearly a full 30 seconds/mile slower. I think a good portion of this was due to the heat taking its toll on me.

Not too much. I think if it was a bit cooler out or if there was even a stitch of shade I could have made a sub 8:00/mile pace but overall I'm happy with the run.

Walked around for 10-15 minutes in the shade and continuously poured water over my head to try to cool down. Then I stretch a bit, got a massage, had some chow and headed home.


The heat for one, but lack of bike fitness was my biggest factor. I think that I was a solid 15 minutes slower than I could/should be. This will be my focus over the rest of the season and into the off season. If I get my bike strength in line, I should be able to go 5:15-5:30 for my next HIM.


Overall this was a good event. It was well managed, with a few exceptions, and the volunteers were fantastic. I did have a couple of issues though:

1) The decision to swim at Lincoln Woods. I'm sure this was because of the sponsor (Amica), since their HQ is in Lincoln, RI but damn. Really? a lake swim in "the Ocean State"? Not to mention in a lake that is locally referred to as "Goose Poop Pond".

2) There were multiple changes to the course that were not even mentioned during the race briefings. The three things I noticed were a change to the swim wave times (not a huge deal 5 minutes for me), three turns on the bike course (basically adding a block of about 1.5 miles), and a little jaunt into a parking lot on the run adding about 200 meters. I'm sure that the latter two changes were needed to adjust things for the proper distance, but at least tell your athletes about it.

3) The decision to have us ride over that God-forsaken stretch of Central Avenue. It was horrible.

4) Holding a point to point race where you need to take a shuttle to the race start and charging your athletes for it. Really, you couldn't cover this in the $250 entry fee?