Ironman 70.3 Florida - Triathlon

This race was moved up from May to April - led to cooler temperatures.
We were wet-suit legal - barely - first time that has happened in this race I believe.
I looped way outside - and still got bumped quite a bit.
Lost 8 minutes from previous 1.2 Mile swim times - had hurt shoulder so was essentially swimming with one arm.
I knew I was not going to have a great overall time - so I made decision to avoid contact - stay clear of buoys / inside track

Bring wet-suit - even if it was questionable whether they would be allowed.
The buoyancy helps and perhaps I would have been more inclined to be more aggressive.

Quite a big Transition area -
Going into transition - run counter clockwise
Pro's were furthest away from "Swim Run-In" area and closest to "Bike Out" area - Race organizers did a good job of staging the Transition area relative to swim wave starts - led to considerably less chaos.

Nothing really - I took my time to remember nutrition / hydration
Walked bike with shoes on - not worth it to me to jump on bike - try to get shoes on while underway.
Risk of fall / real delay not worth potential 45 second T1 time gain

Felt like I walked with bike In & Out a considerable distance.

I left quite a bit in the tank on the ride.
The run portion is where I struggle. So, I held back.
My club does twice weekly bike-trainer sessions - so I felt very strong on the bike.
Drafting / passing / other racers was not too much of an issue - got a little crowded at points - but fortunately I did not see any crashes - a few flats - but no crashes - luckily

Not much - felt like I had a high cadence with the tail wind - gearing was efficient.
Moved gears up to maintain high cadence on hills / head-winds.
I feel I did a good job of capitalizing on down-hills to boost overall MPH avg while staying in control and avoiding being reckless

Wow - the crotch gets beat up and the back gets sore after 56 miles.
Now it's to the fun part of the race.
Focus on the run - remember nutrition / hydrate / salt tabs
Loosen up the legs
Change socks / grab hat and away we go....

Not too much.
Probably need a professional bike-fit to avoid pain in shoulder / numbness in fingertips during ride.
Allowing feeling to return to fingers may have slowed me down a bit in T2

See course description above.
Got a little hot - but all of the racers I saw had great attitudes and were having fun out there.
We're back of the packers - we enjoy ourselves & while we work very hard - don't take ourselves too seriously.
Weak knees forces me to be a speed walker - rather than a runner. My best 13.1 time in a half IM was 2:44 (2008 Gulf Coast Tri) - I wasn't fast when I could run... but a 23 minute difference in 6 years and not being able to run - really, I am okay with.

Training, training, training.
Performance on race day is dictated by the prior 4 months.
If I up my training mileage, try to lose these last darn 10 pounds and really focus on perfecting my walk cadence / pace then I really think I can knock 20 minutes off of my time here.

Wow - that was tough
Just got water and caught my breath.
I admired my medal then grabbed my stuff to head back to Orlando and see the wife and kids..
6th half IM completed



Me. Training.
Need to work on core.
Strong abs & core will make the bike exertion so much easier and allow for a faster run.
Need to be much more scientific on the nutrition / hydration.
That is the main issue that may prevent me from doing a Full IM - the nutrition aspect of it.


Great race.
Only real problem that they may be able to address is having road construction finished on 1 mile of run section by next year.
Would they consider reversing the bike course? Would that alleviate traffic issues or head-wind during the last section - I'm not sure - but it's just a thought I had.
We pay a premium to race a WTC - M-Dot branded race.
These guys do it pretty darn well. Moving thousands of people - racers and spectators - is pretty tough. These guys did a pretty darn good job of it.