Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

As my first 70.3 and only second Tri, I felt really good during the swim. It is my strongest event, as you can tell by how slow my bike and run splits are and that helped me stay relaxed. I was surprised I came out of the water first though since there were some great athletes in my age group. I saw a few next to me periodically and assumed they had pulled away by the end.
Water was clear and waves were pretty small, so breathing was not a problem.

Nothing I can think of.

I really took a lot of time getting out of my wetsuit and getting my shoes on. I have not yet converted to clipless, so was putting on my running socks and shoes. Just moved too slowly

Practice peeling off wetsuit more quickly.

I felt pretty good about the bike portion, although after looking at the other competitors times, I should have trained more on hills. Was happy that my back didn't hurt with the aero bars. I think the hills may have helped a bit in that respect due to getting out of aero position for hill climbs.

Get clipless set up.
Train more on hills.
May have drank too much liquid during the bike because I had to use the portapot once during the run.

Great transition time mostly because I was already in my running gear. Also racked my bike handle bars in which went very quickly. I didn't see anyone else doing this, so maybe it's not allowed, but it saved some time.

Nothing

First off, I'm a really slow runner. I just started running a year ago and am just slow and heavy on my feet. Overall though I was fairly happy with my run. I expected about 9:00/mi and did better than that plus I improved my splits for the second half of the run compared to the first half. I ended up taking a cup of the sports drink every other station and that seemed to keep me well hydrated. As mentioned I had to use the portapot about 2 miles in, which helped with distress and the break seemed to get my legs a bit re-energized.

Work on my speed for running. Don't know what I'll do, but will try to find something.
Work on brick training more. My feet and legs were dead coming off the bike and it took 4 to 5 miles to get into a good running rhythm.

Walked around some. Drank some water. Stretched out my calfs and hammys.


Lack of enough Bike hill training.
Not enough Brick training.
Just too slow at running.


I thought all the volunteers before and during the race did a great job. Thanks to all of them.
Only thing I would like to see changed is some of the hard turns after downhills on the bike course. I heard several racers crashed due to wet roads and those sharp turns which is unfortunate.