Ironman 70.3 Hawaii - Triathlon

My position at the very start of the swim was right next to the marker buoy, so I was really far up front. As such I put myself in a spot to get swum over by lots of people. The first quarter of the course had us swimming out along the beach, so I tried to get more to the outside. With so many people in the water around you, sighting is really not an issue unless you are out in the lead. Just kind of follow the crowd. I didn't swim the course as straight as I could have, as my GPS recorded 1.24 miles of swimming. That would mean my true swim speed was about 2:01/100m and I should have covered the distance in about 39 minutes if I could have swam straight. After looking back at the data, I'm not so disappointed with my swim performance now. I just rightly realize that I need to get faster in the water if I ever want to be truly competitive, so I can feel more comfortable and not have to do gladitorial combat in the water with as many other athletes.

Anyway, the swim course felt easier this year, all things considered. They flipped it from clockwise to counter-clockwise, and I think that helped a great deal. The wind did not become an issue until the final turn toward shore. At that point we were about 400 yards from the finish, but going head first into the wind. This meant dealing with some chop in the water, but it's something I'm used to in swimming at Ala Moana Beach back in Honolulu, so this was something where my open water training paid off greatly. The only major issue at the end of the swim was in where I decided to put my feet down and start hauling out of the water. My calves suddenly cramped up on me significantly here, and I almost fell down back into the water here since I couldn't easily make forward progress. Next time I need to swim further up before rising. Overall, I cut 7 minute from my time here last year.

Swim faster. I need to get out of the washing machine and get more space for myself. Also, work on my breathing so in a race situation I actually can settle and do it bilaterally. And of course, technique, technique, technique.

If you look at the official results, you'll notice the age group transition times trend pretty high for this race. It's a long run from the beach through the sandy beach and up a hill to the transition area. I was in the very back of the transition area, so while it was very easy to find my bike, I had a long run with my bike to the transition exit. I got everything put on as I anticipated and took a little bit of extra time to make sure I did it right. It took me about a minute longer than I would have liked to get out, but I still shaved off exactly 3 minutes from my T1 time last year.

Easiest gear possible. Failing that, run with the bike up to the top of the hill and mount there. There was absolute carnage at the mount line and it may be better to just get the hell out of the way of it.

The bike has become my bread and butter this year, but I completely fucked up at the mount line. Part of the problem is in the course design, since the mount line starts at a rather steep incline that requires you be in the easiest gear on your bike. I had put myself into the small ring up front, but I was a click or two too hard on the rear cogs. Despite having my pedals horizontal and shoes already on the bike, I just could not get the pedals to turn. In retrospect, what I should have done at the first sign of trouble here was to run with my bike the 100 feet or so up the hill until it flattened out a bit, and then mount up there. Anyway, I kept struggling until I ripped my right shoe off the pedal and put that on to try and get more power into the pedal. It was at this time a volunteer came over and offered a helpful push to get me going. Looking back at my bike data, I lost about a minute to this fuckup.

But once I did get going, I calmed myself down and tried to wrestle my heart rate down. I was averaging 20+ mph easy even while doing this, and passing en masse began. The descent to Kawaihae about 12 miles in was absolutely screaming. Down in my aerobars, spun out and going 47 mph was a fucking blast. Making the right turn on the way up to Hawi I kept my speed up and made it into the rolling hills with a good head of steam. My main goal here was to keep my cadence as steady as I could and ignore the other riders. This meant accepting slowing down on the hills but then turning the gas back on just before cresting and then screaming down the backside. I did notice many riders I kept changing places with as they powered ahead uphill but then I passed again on the downhill and flats. I knew exactly where the real ascent to Hawi would begin, and with about 500-600 feet of climing ahead over 5 miles, I knew a steady effort with higher cadence would see me up to the turnaround easily. The climb could not have gone better for me, and I was ready at this point to leave everyone around me in the dust.Just as expected, my legs felt great at the turnaround, so I finally got myself back in the big ring up front and shot out downhill. Nobody at all was passing me at this point and I was flying by people. Many of them were certainly a little hesitant to pedal and deal with the crosswind, but I was a bit fearless here, spinning like mad and staying as aero as I could. Nutrition-wise, everything was going according to plan. I felt well-hydrated and I felt no weakness whatsoever. With about 15 miles to the bike finish, I anticipated I'd make it in averaging about 21 mph and do around 2:40. 5:15 certainly felt totally doable.

But then, a big pop sound came from the rear of my bike and I knew immediately what that meant. My day was going almost perfectly to that point, but alas. To my credit, I did not freak out too much besides a few expletives here and there. I had a guardrail I could lean my bike on, so I got to changing the tube out immediately after stopping. I have changed many flats on the road before, but never in a race with the clock ticking away on me. I got my levers, inflator, and CO2 out and got to work. The tire was really warm, so getting it off the rim was easy. I didn't bother checking the tube and just chucked it aside. At this point I should have made a cursory inspection of the tire to see if anything was embedded inside. I failed to do this and it could have really cost me. Fortunately it seems there was no real damage to the tire. Gave a quick blow onto the tube valve and got it inside the tire, then proceeded to mount the tire without needing to lever it on. Fortunately the tire doesn't have a wire bead, and given how warm it was I think that helped stretch it out a bit. I was expecting a struggle here, but the wheel was ready to go. In trying to get it back in the dropout, I stupidly made the chain fall off the front ring and had to fumble with that. Fortunately I got the wheel back on. Skewers back in and secured, I inflated with CO2. Put the levers and CO2 in my pocket and I took back off. My GPS data indicates this whole process took 6 minutes. I got props from people I talked to after the race about the speed of this repair at least.

This is the point where I should have just accepted what the course had dealt me, but I took off with too much eagerness and hammered in an attempt to make up some of the time that I lost. This was a bad idea, because the headwinds really started to kick up. I may have shredded my legs a bit here. The wind was really making a lot of noise, but I eventually noticed there was a bit of a rubbing sound behind me. It was then I realized that one of my rear brake pads was rubbing against my rim. Of all the fucking things. I had forgotten to close the brakes and adjust it to make sure the pads were clear of the rim. It took me two miles to realize this before I pulled side and quickly fixed it. 30 more seconds lost, plus whatever speed I was losing from cycling like that for a couple miles.

Getting back to Kawaihae at sea level, I settled down a bit. There was a mile of climbing up about 250 feet ahead, so this gave me a chance to settle down again. Unfortunately I started feeling a nasty cramp in my lower left quad. This was the first time I finally cracked into my ample supply of salt tablets. There was another 8 miles to the finish line after cresting and I rode the last bit as best I could. The cramp at least went away. Getting into T2 I was able to perfectly execute getting my feet out of the shoes and do a flying dismount right before the dismount line. All in all, a good finish to what could have been a huge disaster for me physically and mentally. I still managed to knock my bike time down by 11 minutes compared to last year, but my bike time "should" have been around 2:43.

After getting back on the road after a flat, I would be a lot smarter in not hammering to make up for the lost time. I can always practice getting faster at a flat repair, but I did it about as fast as I could given the stress of the situation. Also, I need to get further ahead on my electrolyte intake.

Fortunately, I had a relatively short run to my rack position in T2. I spent a little bit more time in here than I wanted (notice a theme yet?), but I made sure to get everything I needed, socks and shoes on, hat, and all of that. I drank down the last bit of my fuel bottle. It was then I realized this was the best time to take a piss that I really needed to. I ducked into the port-o-john and took care of that. I cut 30 seconds off this transition from last year, and I think sub-3:00 is easily doable next year.

Just need to do everything faster. T2 wasn't too shabby in terms of sequencing.

The run is always the part of a triathlon that makes or breaks your race, and is even more critical on long course races. It was really hot and humid out there, and somehow or another the wind completely disappeared on the run. After running the first 2-3 miles a little bit of a slower pace than I had expected, I realized that I would not meet my running goals for the day. I dialed back my pace, as you can see in the GPS data and run split information from the results website. Also, that same cramp from before showed up again and made for some exruciatingly painful downhill sections. I realized that I had to abuse the hell out of my salt tablets to keep that cramp at bay.

The middle miles were brutal. I had to walk my way through the aid stations to make sure that I got enough water and cola down. I kept eating one Clif gel block before hitting each aid station, and chased a salt tablet or two with water at every other aid station. Ice went down my tri shorts to hit the arteries in my legs and try to keep my core temp down. Otherwise ice went into my hands, which I clenched. I used to cold sponges to run water down my face and the back of my neck. I did this at just about every aid station. I was focusing on simply surviving this part of the run, and that if I could keep myself feeling relatively good until the last 3-4 miles, that I could pick up the pace again and run hard to the finish.

Fortunately, that's exactly how it turned out. Along a long run out along a maintenance road, I started to accelerate a bit. Upon turning around to the last 3 miles of the run, I knew that I would be able to run sub-8:30 miles and hold it. I knew I would be cutting it close to a 5:30 overall finish, and that I needed to average under 8:30/mi on the whole run to do it. Finding my legs at last, I was able to enter the last mile of the run and really kick it up. My last mile was a 7:46, so I made my last mile my fastest one of the whole run. Somehow during the last mile, my right shoelaces came undone, but I had no intention of retying it until I finished.

Coming up on the finish, I was able to pass a few more people, including a guy I had traded places with many times on the bike before he probably blew past me while I was repairing my flat. I buzzed past him in the last quarter mile. Always awesome to reel in people on the run, let me tell you. However, when I looked at the clock, I saw that it said 5:31. My heart immediately sank, knowing that I had just missed out on my goal and that I had let a lot of people (including myself down). Fortunately, after getting myself sat down somewhere in the shade, I called up my mom and she informed me that the website said I had done it in 5:28! Indeed, the clock had started at the time the pros did, three minutes ahead of us age group men.

Honestly, I ran that as best I could given the conditions. I did what I needed to at the aid stations and kept my pacing under control until it was time to finally wake up my legs and race to the finish line.

Took my time taking in fluids and food and seeking shade in the post-race area. Went back to T2 to get my bag and showered off a little bit. By then my stomach was ready for the burger and three free Kona Longboard beers.


Duh, flat tire. Cramps on the climb up from Kawaihae that then persisted into the run. Then, lack of wind on the run which made the heat that much worse. Otherwise, no other pre-race injury to slow me down.


I am in absolute love with this race, this course, the volunteers, the athletes, everything.