Ironman 70.3 Florida - Triathlon

Lined up on the front row on the far outside. The wave was a 30-39 women combination and not too large of a group. Only minor contact during the swim and that was usually when I reached a wave that started before me. For some reason I kept veering to the left, so my sighting wasn't spot on. The water was opaque so couldn't take advantage of drafting. Kept my stroke smooth and HR on the lower end. Tried to stay calm and focused.

Lost my Road ID during the first few minutes of the swim - just came right off - sucks.

Better sighting! Not my fastest swim, but I knew it was going to be a long day and didn't want to push it.

The run into transition was long.

Not much - I haven't practiced transitions this year, but I wasn't worried about fast transitions for this race.

Overall I was ok with my bike performance. It took about 1/2 hour to get my HR down after transition and find a comfortable pace. I tried hard to remember to hydrate and eat often as I knew it was going to be hot. My legs felt like they were going to cramp at any moment for the last half of the bike, fortunately they never did. Stopped at the second aid station to pee and stretch. I was actually surprised that I passed a few people on the bike, though the majority of the time I was being passed.

While I was ok with my performance, I knew I could of gone harder. My HR often was in the 130's and even 120's at times. Now would that have negatively affected my run, I donn't know.

Need to train harder on the bike - I spend way too much time in my "comfort zone"

Again, wasn't too worried about my transition times. I did try to put my bike shoes back on instead of my running shoes - duh.

Nothing

Hot, hot hot!!!!!

My HR spiked up into the 170's for the first 1/2 of the first loop. Took a long time to find a comfortable pace and was feeling fairly sick by the time I did. The 2 hills at the begiining of the loops were tough and ended up walking them for the last 2 loops to keep HR down. Thank God for the homeowners who had the sprinklers on and for the wonderful cups of ice that I threw down my top at each aid station! I felt like I was making a martini in my tri top, but I think it helped keep my core temperature down. I really slowed down the last 2 laps and hit a dark place the second 1/2 of the second lap. I think I drank too much on the first lap and really felt queezy for awhile. The last lap felt better and ended the run strong. Except for one short section during the second loop and the aid stations I ran the entire way.

My run was fairly slow for me - the heat really affected my HR and had to slow down to keep a somewhat comfortable pace. By the 3rd loop most of the people around me were doing a walk/run and didn't look like they were having a very good time!

One major complaint I had during this run was I felt like I was burning my back/shoulders really bad. I spent the last loop freaking out about it and asking all the aid stations if they had sunscreen. Even asked the paramadics if they had some - no one did. I guess it kept my mind busy and luckily I only had minor burning in a few areas that rubbed against my top.

Not much you can do about the heat. I felt good about my run training with lots of 2 hr plus runs.

Walked around for a few minutes trying to cool down and then sitting with family for quite awhile. Starting feeling pretty sick and just worked on getting pretzles down. Made the mistake of trying to eat an ice cream cone - tasted wonderful but didn't sit well. Didn't really feel good for a good 2 hous post race. Said goodbye to my parents and headed w/ Steve and kids to Orlando for some fun resort time.


The heat was a huge factor for me - most of it was mental as I was afraid to exert too much energy.


Overall a good venue. My only complaints were the parking situation was bad, no sunscreen at aid stations and no bottles available at start. Seems pretty minor considering the enormity of the event.