Ironman 70.3 St. George - Triathlon

My slowest HIM swim yet. I guess I need to start training the swim again. Didn't train the swim much for my last HIM 5 years ago, and even less this time. The biggest issue was that my left calf muscle cramped up badly on the final segment of the swim, forcing me to hold my foot at a rigid 90 degree angle to relieve the pain while I finished the last few hundred yards. Also, I never managed to catch a draft off of anybody this time. Note to self: my same goggles from last time which leaked, they leaked again on this swim. If I'm reading this race report for the next tri in 5 years, REMEMBER TO ADJUST GOGGLES FIRST !!!

Don't know my T1/T2 times, but this race had wetsuit strippers. That worked pretty well. Volunteers were awesome.

Didn't bother practicing transitions. I'm really not sure if it cost me much, maybe a minute per transition max. I'll worry about it if I suddenly get 25% faster overall. :)

Was in a late wave (18/21). Dear god, there must have been 100 dropped bottles at least on the course in the first ten miles due to the rough surface on that section. One rider lost a bottle directly in front of me.

Apparently nobody bothers to stay right any longer. I ended up passing on the right a few times and over the yellow more than once. I guess if people are going to treat the bike like a casual Sunday ride going side be side and chatting, then you gotta do what you gotta do. There was little advantage to being able to slingshot because people were all over the course, and you didn't want to come up close on someone's wheel as you went around because of the water spraying behind every bike from the wet roads.

I don't know what to do differently. Weather conditions were very tough -- cold, windy, and raining for most of the 56 miles. I left my arm warmers, gloves and riding jacket behind at T1 and just went out in the tri suit. I'd have been wet and frozen either way, so it was probably just as well.

Thank goodness I had the foresight to put a pair of dry socks in my T2 bag with my running shoes. Since the run ended up being dry, the dry socks were a godsend. Initially I racked my bike at the wrong spot about ten numbers away from my bag. I wasn't thinking super clearly due to being so cold and had a hard time reading the tag numbers.

I forgot to pull my feet out of my bike shoes before arriving at the dismount line. I was so cold and completely soaked by that point that I was just on autopilot. Somehow many others managed to get a foil blanket to wrap up in, but I didn't see where people were getting those so I just went to my spot and transitioned.

Very hilly course. But I was better prepared for this HIM run than any of my previous ones, and it really helped out. I actually was passing more people than were passing me on the first 4-5 miles -- that was a first for me. Then it balanced out from mile 6 to 10. By the final three miles when it was a descent, my stomach went sideways and completely cramped in distress. I had to dial it back at that point, which killed me, because I gave up probably six spots in my age group over that last stretch. Oh well.

I'm wondering if I had popped a couple of pepto bismol tabs about half way through the run if it might have helped. I've never tried that. But it seems like at every race I end up with an unhappy gut by some point on the run no matter what or how much I take in on the bike.

Warm down? Ha ha ha. Maybe dethawing would be a better description of this post-race.


Stomach cost me 5-6 minutes over last three miles of the run. I had the stomach flu at the start of taper week, so I can't be sure if maybe that didn't play a factor.


Ironman puts on a really great race. St George was a very neat town, and the community seemed to largely support this event, which was really appreciated -- people out in front of their homes cheering us on at many points of the race. Thank you St. George !! The course is very challenging. This was my first crack at it. I'm not sure if I will be back right away, but hopefully again at some point. This was as challenging a course as I would really ever want to face. From older race reports and conversations I had with other athletes, it sounds like this location can hit you with tough weather pretty much every year, be it high heat, winds, or cold rain. For accommodations, I was happy with the Quality Inn South Bluff. Room was really inexpensive, quiet and reasonably comfortable for the price, and those guys put a full breakfast out there by 3:30AM for Ironman participants. How cool is that?