Ironman World Championship 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

As expected, this was a fast field. I only saw a couple white swim caps, which was the wave in front of me. I thought for a bit that yellow was the wave ahead, but oops, that was the last wave, behind us, catching me. They were M18-29, so that's some consolation aren't they the fastest at that age for swimming?
There were a few areas where I couldn't get into open water. I need to be more assertive; I usually stop and let them get some distance. This crowd was serious, and they weren't getting out of anyone's way.

Breathing pretty much turned into every stroke. Not sure if this was good or bad, or an indication of how hard I was pushing it. Maybe start closer to the front, at least for local courses.

There was a LONG run between swim exit and entering transition area. Part of the run was on pavers, the other on grass. Was a bit nervous I'd tweak an Achilles, since I've been running with heal cushions and orthotics. But everything held together. Another "sterile" transition policy; everything goes in the bike gear bag when leaving transition. One new thing was arm cooling sleeves. Since they're not allowed for the swim, had to put them on either while riding, or at T1. Decided to play it safe and eat the time. About a minute or so, but I'll take that over crashing.

Not much. Though I do need to work on a better shoe strap system; one of the rubber bands came out of the shoe loop.

Need to figure out the Garmin Edge thing with "multiple" devices being detected. The Edge kept posting that, and I think it was dropping my devices as a result. Very frustrating, I fiddled with it for a few minutes, and decided to just leave it alone. Eventually it seemed to work OK, though it did drop my my HRM again. Fortunately the 310xt was fine the whole time, so the data was recorded.
Tried to keep the power in on the downhills, and limit in the climbs. Kept leap-frogging a couple bikes, I'd pass them on the descent, they'd pass me on the climbs. NP was 184, avg power 175, where other rides np has been somewhat higher percent-wise over avg power. I think that means a more consistent power, and less physically demanding. I was going for about 70% of FTP, came in a little lower at 62%, but np was 65%. The high-power alert on the 310XT worked nice also, as a reminder on the hills to back it off. I ended up going faster than my reverse-engineered calculations figured for the power, but looking at the average speed with 15 miles to go, and knowing I had a long climb ahead, just figured I'd stick with the power plan.

Not much.

They had bike wranglers, something I'd never experienced. Very nice! Handed the bike off to someone, ran in to T2 with helmet, bare feet, and got my run gear bag. Decided to stay no-socks, though I stuffed a pair in my pocket just in case. Quick smear of body glide on the feet, and I was off. Probably should have gotten more sunscreen, but didn't burn too bad.

Don't let anyone sell you on "dry" heat. Hot is hot. Coming from the east coast, I figured the hot runs I've down with more humidity would help, maybe they did, maybe not enough. Maybe I also need to accept that hotter weather slows me down. But considering the heat, maybe a 9:00 or less pace isn't reasonable for me at my age and level of fitness.

Not much.

Felt the worst I've felt after a race. Stayed in the food tent (that had AC!) for about 20-30 minutes, which helped a lot. After about 20 minutes, walked around a bit, then got a post-race massage, which helped with the leg cramps.


Heat, and the ability to withstand it. Since Eagleman in June, I've run slower in each race; 9:00, then 9:30, then 10:30 pace in EM, Rhode Island, and Vegas. However each course was either hotter or hillier, or both, than the previous course. Leading up to this race, I've had Achilles tendon issues, and/or posterior tibial issues, so running was pretty limited.


This was my fourth IM brand race, and being a World Championship and all that, this one had more production than the others. Overall things were well organized, however being one of last waves to go, some of the aid stations were running out of ice. Not good in that kind of heat. I don't know if it was by chance, but most aid stations had a garden hose and nozzle set up to spray people down. That was a life-saver for me.