Ironman 70.3 Boise - Triathlon

As I said, I started far right (inside) and really slow and smooth. The wind chop was quickly apparent but on the way out, we were swimming with it. I knew coming back was going to be a slow struggle but one thing at a time. I breath right so I didn't look over to the left for maybe 1-2 minutes to see how things were sorting out. When I did, I saw no one except one dude next to me and one dude a couple body lengths up. The guy in first appeared to be slowly pulling away....fine. The guy next to me wasn't, I was actually slowly pulling ahead. He jumped over and hopped on my feet which is ok by me. I was just cruising at this point. I'll say that I really like the new numbered buoys. Makes knowing where you are just that much easier. My new swim partner decided my pace wasn't fast enough and started to move around me. Yay! Feetsies to follow. So I hopped on his feet and followed him all the way around the first turn buoy. It was nice and relaxed and perfectly fast.

Once we made the right around the first turn buoy, the shit hit the fan. We were now solidly into many previous waves and swimming against the chop was just flat out annoying. Felt like you were going no where. It felt like for every two feet you went forward, you went one foot backwards. At this point, I lost my feet and I could see he pulled slightly ahead. If this were a swim race, I would have put in an effort to catch him, but I've sworn off any red zone efforts in a HIM swim. I'm not a pro and coming off with other guys in my division is not a priority. Turned out that the two guys in front of me were solid triathletes and wound up 2nd and 3rd on the day but that is not the norm. Usually, the good swimmers kind of fade back into the MOP (usually, obviously there are exceptions) but that's completely unknown starting with 70 guys and 2 waves. So making a red line effort to get back on someone's feet simply isn't worth it as you never know what kind of athlete you're catching back up to.

I decided rather than follow the buoy line back to the last turn, I would just swim straight for the turn buoy which put me a few yards off the main line. Sitting here typing this, I can't honestly say which would have been or was faster. It was just a decision I made at the time. The chop was super bad so I upped my stroke rate a bit and started swimming with a loping style to coincide with the chop to catch better breaths and not fight against the waves.

Exited the water 3rd and looked down to see 28:xx (the mats were a little ways up the boat ramp) and was very happy knowing the pros were mostly in the high 24 to mid 27's. I had a good swim and felt great....onward!

Looking back it also appeared the course was slightly long, same as last year.

Nothing

Good T2...

Wouldn't change anything.

The bike starts with some nice downhills out of the reservoir park. My plan for this race on the bike was to average 225 watts but be a little more aggressive on the hills. My thinking was, harder on hills = faster time but slightly higher VI. What I was hoping was that a little more run fitness could handle a slightly higher VI. I'm pretty sure I would have been ok but some bad decisions derailed that.

Legs felt great heading out and I really think my coach and I nailed my taper well this time. The only "issue" was that I was very thirsty. I'm kind of a minimalist on my nutrition which has served me well but sure bit me in the ass on this one. I took a few swigs of my sports drink but didn't want to down it because I use it to chase my liquid nutrition as that is hard to drink on its own. First mistake. In the first 5 miles I was passed by two guys in my division. One went slowly cruising by, the other passed me like I was a little child. That turned out to be pro mountain biker Jamey Yanik who went on to have the 3rd fastest bike split (overall!!) and 13th overall in the race (1st amateur). Congrats to him, fricken fantastic race. As my thirst grew I made my second mistake (well, maybe first) in waiting for the first aid station to get some water. Well, had I looked at the bike course map, I would have known that the first aid station is around mile 16-17...which is almost an hour into the bike. What I should have done, in hindsight, is down my sports drink immediately, take on a new sports drink at the first aid station and get some water as well and just toss that bottle. But no, I sat on my on board nutrition like an asshat and just got a swig of water at the first aid station.....brilliant. But, in my defense, I didn't know I was going into massive dehydration just yet.

The wind was strong and constant. Just like the chop on the water, it's just plain annoying. You power is your power but for some reason, 225 watts into a stiff (haha, I said stiff) headwind seems so much harder than 225 with a nice tail wind. The nature of the course being point to point meant that most of the ride was into a headwind and very little was a tail wind. Always seemed like when we got a tail wind, it was uphill and that just makes you hot. Anyhoo. I continued with bad decisions not taking in enough fluids and my power dropped like a rock halfway through the ride. This is when I knew there was a problem.

So, I hatched a plan! I'm going to down the rest of my sports drink, pick up a new one at the last aid station and also get some water. Perfect! I'll spend the last ten miles getting some fluids in me and the rest of my nutrition down. Sounds good. In the meantime, I was passed by another guy in my division.

Arrived at the last aid station ready to put my plan into action. I tossed my bottle off to the side and grabbed a bottle of Power Bar Perform. Then, grabbed a water bottle and was just about to start drinking it when the damn cap on the Perform fell off while it was between my bars. Sports drink went EVERYWHERE! Ah man. I dropped my water and took the bottle out as fast as I could but it was all gone. Now I'm past the aid station and I have nothing but sludge in my aero bottle and ten miles to go, straight into the wind. PERFECT!

NOW, I knew I was in trouble. shit....

Bike split was still pretty good even though my power dropped off. At first I thought I might have overbiked the first half but review of the power file shows I was right on target. You can also see in the power file pretty much the moment I overheated and my body gave up.

For the first time in a while, I can fill out this section on what I would do differently. As I mentioned, I took too much of a lackadaisical approach to my pre race plan. I did not hydrate over the previous couple of days properly and entered the race in a mild state of dehydration. This proved to be a huge mistake given the conditions. Sometimes, if conditions are prime, you can get away with this....not today.

Good T2 but knew I was in trouble.

Nothing

Right off the bat, I was in trouble. I didn't get 1/2 mile before I had to walk. I couldn't get my breathing under control no matter what pace I was running. I went into self coach panic mode....I was just thinking, ok butthole, you've screwed up but now you gotta figure out how to get through this run. First thought, quit. I should just bow out now. There's no way I'm getting around this run course. I can't even make it to the first aid station. So I stopped. I stood there for a second and my left quad started to lock up. I literally said to myself, "Ok, asshole, you got two options. Either you get moving so your leg doesn't cramp or you give up now. You've got 5 seconds to decide." So I started briskly walking. Now, figure out how to keep going. I decided I needed fluids and nutrition. Fine, there's an aid station coming. I walked through and grabbed everything I could get down. Here's the day saver...halfway through the second aid station this wonderful, beautiful, glorious young lady said, "COKE" ....HOLY SHIT, coke...thank god. I grabbed the cup and it was FULL of coke. Not those half ass 2 ounces they normally give you but like 6-8 ounces of wonderful, beautiful, glorious coke. It never tasted better.

The next few miles I decided to just try and pull myself together by run walking and get to the halfway. (I mean, what the hell else am I gonna do but it sounded reasonable at the time) I was stopping and getting in everything I could to try and bring myself back to not suffer too bad on the last lap...in fact, I still hadn't fully committed to doing the second loop. But there was a HUGE problem every time I thought about pulling the plug. The problem was.......are you ready for this? I WASN'T BEING PASSED. I was walked and shuffling and jogging for 3-4 miles and NOT ONE PERSON PASSED ME IN MY DIVISION. So how the hell do you quit? It makes it super difficult.

I got to the turn around to see all my friends. I ran passed, turned around and headed back towards them. I saw Karin and I stopped and walked and told her I was done. She said, "nope, get moving, walk the aid stations, do what you gotta do but get moving"...so I did. Then I saw Wattie on my way back out...and he simply said, "let's go...keep going." So I did.

At the start of the second loop, I started to be able to run without my heart rate and breathing skyrocketing. I latched on to a 29yo and sat on his shoulder for a couple miles. Just doing what I could and trying to maintain some semblance of a jog. I was passed by a couple people without ages on their legs and I think one turned out to be in my division. I was passed by one 38 yo who I tried to keep pace with. I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything at the end but maybe he would stop and walk and I could get by. There was also a 50/50 chance I was 4 minutes up on him as he might have been in the previous wave. I stayed about 10yards back the whole rest of the run but it did turn out he was 4 minutes back. I was passed by one more guy in my division at about mile 11.5. He was from Guatemala I found out after the race. He knew who I was which was kind of cool. The last mile was excruciating. I don't think I could have gone much slower without walking through the finisher chute.

So glad to be done....only lost two spots on the "run" which was absolutely unbelievable to me.

Hydrate....hydrate....hydrate

No warm down


Water


After the race I was flabbergasted to find out I finished 9th. For such an epic meltdown, it was quit lucky. Karin wound up getting off the bike in 6th in her division which is SO impressive. When she comes back she's going to be stronger than ever. I went over to the slot allocation tent and found out that only 2 slots of the 5 for my division had been claimed. All I needed was one person not to show and I would have a guaranteed slot. Turned out one person didn't show and I'm on my way to Vegas. Now, the goal for this race was to qualify with no roll down. I didn't accomplish that goal but I decided to take the spot to represent my team and sponsors at the World Championship.

Next time, I'll dial in my nutrition and this won't happen again.

Special thanks to all my sponsors Wattie Ink, blueseventy, KSwiss, Reynolds Wheels, Scott Bikes, ISM Saddles, Power Bar, Kask Helmets, FuelBelt, 454 Tattoo and Speedfil. Corporate Sponsors 101 Pipe & Casing, Kurt Orban Partners, and Wins Wheels.

My coach, Brian Stover, from Accelerate 3.

My body mechanic, Blair Ferguson, from Ventura Training and Athletics.

My girlfriend, Karin...definitely the biggest reason I finished this race.

Next up is Breath of Life Olympic and then Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee