Ironman 70.3 Steelhead - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Since I was in a later wave I had the benefit of watching the previous starts and could see that it was really getting crowded on the inside at the first turn buoy. So, we made a decision to go off the front on the outside and take the buoy about 10 feet wide. This turned out to be a great decision.

I went out aggressively with pace and absolutely no contact as I made the turn. Once I got into the long section it was basically a game of trying to navigate around the previous waves. The lake conditions and number of swimmers in the water made it very difficult to hang on someones feet and draft.

I felt so comfortable and strong on this swim. I was navigating around the other swimmers perfect and really felt strong. When I exited the swim and saw 33:00 on my watch I was very pleased considering the current and wave conditions.

The fastest swimmer in the AG went 30:00 and I was 17th AG just 3.5 minutes back so that was very encouraging.

Nothing. Great swim for me.

The run up the beach in the deep sand was not fun. Once in TA, I ran completely by my spot and head to turn back. Not a huge time deal and I did it again in T2!!

Had my bike shoes on the bike, so ran barefoot to the mount line. I was able to get into my shoes quickly and start to get to work.

Not run by my TA spot. Still, a good transition.

Bike Setup:
2010 Felt B12
Reynolds 66 Front
DT Swiss PT w/ Wheelcover Rear

Nutrition: One (1) concentrated bottle Infinit (550 calories)
2 bottles water

AP: 210W
NP: 215W
IF: ..79
VI: 1.02

I have never done an IM branded race and this was the most congested bike course I have ever been on. Being in one of the later waves it was a complete mess with people just not understanding how to stay right and lots of blocking. The first 30 miles of the ride was just flying by people on the left side and was riding solo. The drafting of the slower riders is astounding.

I was very focused on my power numbers and trying to stay between 215-225 watts. The first portion of the ride was into a headwind and the numbers were on the higher end per the plan. The effort right on. The roads in the middle part of the ride were pretty terrible and rough.

The second half of the ride I was absolutely flying with the tailwind and pushing the lower end of my wattage range. The blue star highway is when things started to spread out with riders and pavement was nice. I started to back down the watts a couple miles from transition.

The other fairly significant part of this ride was the change in weather conditions. The first 40 miles of the ride was cloudy and comfortable. The last 16 back to TA the sun came out and it get hot. That caught my attention.

Cruised into TA and hopped off the bike ready to rock the run. I came in to TA around 3 hours so knew if I could put down anything decent on the run that sub 4:35 was there for the taking.

Maybe should have backed down the watts even further once the sun came out but I was confident in my fitness and thought I was within myself.

Jumped off the bike and ran into transition. I missed my spot again and had to turn back. Doh! Got my run shoes on quickly and took off.

Not miss my spot...again.

Ran out of transition feeling very good. Immediately had to slow myself down. We wanted to start out at 7:15 pace and then descend from there down to 7:00 pace over the first half of the run. Everything was good over the first 2 miles. I tackled the first big hill without much issue and kept plugging away.

The moment came as I turned down wind, the sun was beating down on me and no cooling from the wind and I broke. 3 miles into the run!! I could not believe it. That was pretty much the race right there. It was a battle for the next 10 miles of run/walk to the finish line. This was extremely frustrating. I had it in my grasp and the sun and heat just destroyed me.

I gave it everything I had in that last 10 miles. Unfortunately it was not much.

I just do not do well in the heat and need to keep working at it. The especially mild summer did not help.

I was absolutely spent and dehydrated. I felt terrible for about an hour after crossing the finish line. I drank a bunch of coke and kept a cold towel on my head. Eventually I came around.


The hot conditions.


I know what I am capable of. A shame not to be able to take advantage of it here. This will keep me hungry for next year.

Extremely happy with my swim and bike performance. Next year I will put it all together. I am right there with IM 70.3 WC contention if I run to my potential.