Ironman 70.3 Pocono Mountains - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

No swim.
Current was too fast to get up river.

No T1

The bike course seemed kind of pieced together and I was worried about the ever-changing terrain that I wouldn't be able to settle in the entire race. It turned out that the terrain wasn't all that bad and I actually enjoyed it. The big issue was the crowding. I had ~800 out in front of me that I had to get through and the roads were all pretty thin with turns and times we were switching into the left/oncoming traffic lane.

It made it a bit difficult to keep pace steady and I was constantly having people and cars in my way until close to the end.

It ws great to see Heidi and Amy as I caught them or saw them going the other way. I didn't get a chance to see Tim, K, or Laura though. It was also great to see Craig and Ben out there and Craig gave me the split to Timmy (5min. down). Tim has been a beast on the bike, so that seemed about right and encouraged me I was riding well.

The great part was that after worrying about the cold for so long, the temps were actually perfect. I had arm warmers and running gloves on and had no issues right from the start. The only small problem was that the gu in my flask was tough to get out. I ate a gu every :20 with a mini cliff bar every 3rd (on the hour) feeding instead of the gu. I wasn't getting a full Gu out and wasn't drinking much, so I was probably closer to 250 calories than the 300 I hoped for.

It was fine in the end though and I felt great. The finish came up on me too fast as I was expecting a 55mi. course and it was only 53.34. I had to slam down the last Gu just before transition as I was taking off my shoes.

- Keep Gu in my shorts so it was warmer?
- Move the last Gu up a few minutes

I went to the wrong side of my rack at first, so that was pretty bad, but other than that, it was a good transition and it didn't cost me much time.

Run felt great. I knew I was 5-10 minutes down on Tim, so I set off on the hunt. My stomach was iffy after eating so late on the bike, but I thought it would be fine. I would just have to baby it a bit. I was planning initially to use the race as a nutrition test for IM and eat during the run what I would need at an IM (keep eating full Gu all the way through), but once I got out there, I was racing and backed it off to half-IM nutrition. On top of that, the new water bottle I was using is a perfect size and set up, but unfortunately it leaked, so I couldn't keep water in it longer than .5 mile.

I caught Tim after the turn around and we ran together for a bit. That time always flies by during a race. This entire run fly by actually. Every time I checked my watch it was time for another mile marker. The only miles that seemed to drag were somewhere in the 9-11 range when I started losing track of where I was on the course.

I pushed the last mile to try to catch a few guys. It turns out none of them were in my AG, but I was still happy to finish strong. The finish line was right through downtown and was one of the loudest I have ever heard. Definitely the loudest half-im finish. Pretty impressive.

Figure out the bottle issues.

Other than the busy bike course, the race was great from start to finish. The before and after however was a logistical nightmare. We joked that it felt like we were on The Amazing Race all weekend!
Go here, go there, get this, drive here.
As an example, my warm-down after the race was:
Walk 3/4 mile back to t2 to find morning clothes bag to get warm/dry. Not there, so walk 1/3 back. See someone who says clothes are on their way to t2, so walk back to t2. Walk back to finish to see others finish and get some food. Walk back to t2 to get bikes and K's dry clothes. Walk back to finish to grab some beers and see awards ceremony. Walk back to t2 to get car to leave.


Nothing


I would not do this race again until they made some changes.
- Swim needs to be accounted for (not really their fault though)
- Late in the year makes weather dicey
- Packet pickup, t1, t2, and finish all at different locations is a nightmare
- Tight bike course, with sections of bad roads, riding on the opposite side, etc.
- Dry clothes need to be at finish so you can stay and enjoy the awesome festival going on
- Spectators not allowed to get to start unless they take a mandatory $8 shuttle
- Short bike course

Good things:
- Great finish/festival if you were able to enjoy it
- Well run aid stations
- Good expo/swag
- Well run awards ceremony