Ironman 70.3 Augusta - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Well, it's difficult to predict what I "wanted" to do. Last year my swim was pretty close to the same time, but with a stronger current. I had hoped that with similar current I would be closer to 24 minutes with the increase in swim speed I've had. That said, looking at the move in overall placing (almost 200 spots better) I assume that I was quicker, but the current was slower.

The swim itself was fairly uneventful. The beginning was pretty physical, moreso than usual. I never really found a good pair of feet to draft off of, and on a few occasions trying to find some nearly got me hurt... there were lots of different colored caps still floundering around ahead of us, so I would see a kick ahead of me and assume it was somebody in my wave, then have to get out of the way when I realized it was a slower swimmer from the waves before us kicking around. Finally I settled out by myself and the rest of the swim was uneventful. As I came up I saw my watch was at 28 minutes and I kind of had that sinking feeling that it was going to be a hard day at the office.

Not much. I need to continue to work on my swim and do a bit more open water swimming in practice. I am also going to try a sleeveless wetsuit in the future as I have had some issue with my shoulder plate and a full sleeve lately.

I came out of the water and had just a tad of vertigo. The long run went right by the strippers (who were empty) so I decided to give that a shot. It worked out pretty well, although I'm not convinced it was any faster than me just doing it myself... plus laying down didn't exactly help my sense of equilibrium. Then it was on to the bike. I ran it out of T1 and was involved in my first cluster**** of the day... the mount line. I ran it out another 15 or so feet before I hopped on the bike and took off, all the while trying to avoid the deadly swerves of those ahead of me.

-Story of my life, skip the strippers.

Oh boy. Here is where my day takes a decided turn for the negative.
I come out onto the main highway in Augusta feeling good. There's plenty of people out here, but I expected that coming out of the water... just like last year. About half a mile in I hear an odd noise... kind of like a baseball card stuck in the spokes. I start to panic, thinking I've flatted, or that my derailleur is messed up. Despite the sound, the bike is working fine. Finally I notice that every time my front wheel is spinning around, something is slapping the fork. It takes me a minute until it dawns on me... that friggin tape! How it was not sticky enough to hold onto the side of the wheel, yet sticky enough to get stuck on the tire and slap the fork I will never know. It sounded BAD. Not just bad, but loud as well. I tried to pick it off, but couldn't get it off the tire (even after the race it took me some muscle to peel it off the tire) without risking digits in the spokes. Finally I just accepted the noise and tried to move on.

A few more miles in (about 10) I started to notice something... the crowds weren't thinning out. I would pass 5 or 6 people and another hundred foot there would be another "pack." Even worse, there was rampant "blocking" going on, so I was often having to attempt a pass 2 or 3 people wide. This was killing my time in Aero... as every time someone would pull out in front of me I'd have to brake and sit up and let them complete their pass before I could finish mine. My voice is cracked today from all the "on your left"s I had to repeat.

Here is where I lost it. My goal was Avg watts around 205, with np close to 215, not going above around 270 on hills. Well, as I would look down at my Joule I noticed I was running low (about 183w avg) and so I thought to myself "I'm fine." Well, yeah... if AV and NP were all that mattered I would have been. Unfortunately, I was spending a lot of time passing on hills, but at 300+ watts. I mean, when you are passing a line of 15 people, all you can really do is get past... but I was not cycling smart.

From mile 1 to mile 56 I was never out of a group, and never spent more than a couple of minutes at a time in aero... it was just too dangerous (for me) especially after seeing ambulances go flying by and a cyclist on the side of the road. I rode in the last few miles knowing that 4:30 wasn't happening.

Not go off in Wave 20
Be more aggressive passing people
Be able to stay in aero :/

I made some mistakes (breaking my watt limit was a big one)

I hop off the bike (like a boss might I add)and head into transition. In the endless row of racks everyone has decided to hang their wetsuit by the side...generally covering the #'s on the signs. I run right by my rack before I realize it and have to do a little backtracking. D'oh.
I get my hat and shoes (and belt) on and head out the gates.

Landmarks. Memorize them.

Just putting down the time it took me was embarrassing. I ran the same course nearly 13 minutes faster last year with a bum hamstring and in the blazing heat. My garmin did a great job of letting me know I was going to slowly every couple of minutes, and I very strongly considered throwing it in the trash... although I restrained myself. I saw my mom on the first loop and she had that "putting on my best face because I know you are getting crushed" look that just made me feel worse. I will say, this was probably the toughest run I've ever gutted out. It's really hard to dig deep when you know your race is already over.

I cruised into the finish line at 4:57:52... over 10 minutes slower than last year in much hotter conditions. To say I felt disappointed would be understatement of the century.

Either learn to run or become a roadie.

I had a beer. Then I had a good choke up moment feeling sorry for myself. Then I put on my game face and went and hugged the family (mom & grandparents) and then went and cheered on some of the other people out there.


David called it "A bad day to have a bad day."

That sounds about right to me.

Being in Wave 20 didn't help me out IMO, but it didn't seem to hurt the other 24 guys that crushed me, so no excuses. HTFU and all that.


Augusta is a great place to go. My first year was awesome and the experience this year was great as well. It was also the biggest 70.3 Ever.