Ironman 70.3 Texas - Triathlon

I lined up toward the front/right side (buoys are meant to stay on your left) hoping I could find some clear water and then settle in on some feet as I made my way toward the buoys. When the horn sounded, I hit the start button on my 910 and took off. The plan was to start out hard and then settle into what feels like HIM effort in the pool (for me, that's pretty consistently about 1:38/100m in a 25m pool)....and make surges if I find a set of feet that I can latch onto.

I felt like I was executing my plan at the start of the swim and was feeling confident that I was going to have a good swim split (unlike all of last year!). My pool swimming has improved a lot over the past five months and I was excited to see how it would translate to OWS.

We made it to the first set of turn buoys reasonably quickly, and then the second set was also pretty close.....then we settled into the long back stretch that seemed to go on forever! I was trying to keep myself mentally focused, but did find myself relaxing a bit too much and slowing my turnover rate. I tried to pick it back up and stay focused. I was working my way through blue, purple, and red caps.....but was pretty lonely as my fellow pink cappers had either dropped me or were somewhere behind me. It's pretty common that I swim in no-mans land with regards to my AG.....I definitely did not grow up a swimmer, but I seem to have picked it up alright for an adult.

We finally made it to the last set of turn buoys and headed in toward shore....and toward the sun and wind! It was choppy and felt a little bit like an endless pool, but it wasn't really that bad. I heard a lot of complaints about it, but I felt like the long back stretch was worse!

I swam until my hand touched the ground and then popped up to my feet to run out of the water. The exit ramp was very narrow, so I had to squeeze by if I wanted to get out quickly, which I did! I hit the lap button on my 910 and immediately saw that the screen was blank. Damn!


At this time, I was blissfully unaware of just how bad my split was. It may have been a blessing in disguise that my 910 died on me, but I had also mentally prepared myself for another 38 minute split, so I probably would have been just fine.

Regardless, there's something about OWS that's not clicking for me these days. My pool swimming has improved a lot since last year, and I'm back swimming at paces that I was when I was racing well in 2014, but it's not translating to my OWS. Spoiler alert (in case I do a race report later...): I swam a 2.5k OWS race the following weekend to see if I subconsciously sabotage myself in triathlons because I know I have to bike and run after.....and I swam just as poorly. There are two girls who swim in my masters group who each swim a lane down from me....one was within 30" of me for this race and the other one beat me for the 2.5k race. So I've gotta figure that out....and I will!

By the time I got up the ramp exiting the water, I had my 910 off and clamped the band in my teeth, pulled my cap and goggles off, and started to work the top half of my wetsuit down. I actually managed to get it off my wrists with no issues and had it down below my butt by the time I got to the wetsuit strippers.....scoped out my best option and ran to a guy, laid down, and he ripped that thing off like he has practiced it a billion times :)

I ran to my bike, put on socks and shoes, helmet, sunglasses, grabbed my bike, and ran out to the mount line. I'm actually pretty pleased with this transition


Flying mount? lol, I think I mention that in every race report :P

The bike....my favorite! Everyone had been freaking out about the wind. In fact, in the athlete briefing the day before, they made a comment about how this was going to be a race "to keep both hands on the handlebars"....curious how many people didn't take in enough hydration or nutrition because of that. The cross wind was gnarly....made even more "fun" by the fact that you go along long sections that have condos, then no condos, then condos, then no condos, etc....so you get a little protected from the wind and then it hits you again. Honestly, stuff like this doesn't bother me in the least. I opted to run my disk and Flo60 front wheel, as I was not concerned and wanted to be fast. I train in stuff like this all the time.....headwind, crosswind, tailwind.....can basically guarantee that if I'm riding outside in Houston, it's gonna be windy! The thing that was a little sketchy was the fact that there were others who were obviously not as comfortable in it as I was, which meant they did unpredictable things and/or would get moved around in the lane a lot more than I did. Given that I started in a reasonably late wave, had a reasonably slow swim, and am a pretty good cyclist meant that I'd be passing for most of the race....and watching out for slower cyclists who were struggling to hold their lines. There were only a handful of people who passed me (none of whom were female), and they did so convincingly!

The course starts by winding through some residential area until you get up to the main drag, where you spend something like 25 miles going out, U-turn, and then spend another 25 miles coming back in. I love this course....I love it for training (there are only three stop lights total!) and I love it for racing -- you can settle into your power and just hold it forever. It's pancake-flat, with the exception of San Luis pass, which is about a five second "climb" over some rough roads in each direction.

Heading out, I was making mental notes of how I was feeling, where the aid station was on the return leg, and when I crossed paths with the pros. Most of the time (sometimes in training, but especially in racing), RPE is not in line with what HIM power should be. I convince myself that I'm going too hard and need to back it off so I can save some for the run. I raced Austin 70.3 last year to prove to myself that I could have a strong bike and follow it up with a strong run, so I told myself I was doing it again. Thankfully, RPE was exactly in line with power this time! My HR was slightly elevated early on, but that was more a matter of having come from the swim (horizontal) to the bike (vertical), and it came down soon enough.

The bike plan for this race was to hold high-150's to low-160's and make small surges if/when needed to ride legally. About a quarter of the way into the ride, my power was fluctuating back and forth between 162 and 161 and I made myself a deal....hold 162 to the turn-around and then you can let off a little and fall back into the high-150's. I made it to the turn-around and was feeling great.....so I ended up holding power steady throughout. Oh yeah, and for those wondering how I had these metrics with my 910 having died....I run a 520 on my bike, so I had all the information I needed :)

There were three aid stations on the course. I carry two bottles (of Skratch) on my bike -- one BTA, one behind my seat, and a third bottle behind the seat as a flat kit. I know I need to drink about three bottles' worth of liquid to keep hydrated over the expected time it would take me to ride the course, so I grabbed bottles of water at each aid station. I'd grab the bottle, drink as much as I wanted/needed, would sometimes pour some water on me to keep me cool, and then would toss it by the "last trash" sign. I successfully grabbed bottles at all three aid stations, which made me happy, as I tend to miss at least one attempted grab!

I had three Honey Stinger waffles cut into quarters in my bento box. I ate quarters every 15-20 minutes and made it through 2.75 waffles by the end of the ride. I keep thinking about eating "real food" and/or changing up my nutrition plan, but this just keeps working for me, so I haven't been overly motivated to change.

In the end, my NP/AP was 162/160, so I was really pleased with that.....it's just slightly over 3.0 W/kg, which is pretty respectable, imo :) My max 30 second power was right about threshold and my max 1 minute power was in the sweet spot range, meaning that I kept my surges short and smart, minimizing any match-burning. I think I was about a minute faster on the way back in than I was on the way out, so it was almost completely cross-wind, but maybe slightly more beneficial on the way in. I managed to go from 22nd out of the water to 4th by the end of the bike :)



Honestly, probably nothing. I told Marc that Best Bike Split had predicted 2:29....he thought that was optimistic. I was pretty happy when I saw that I'd come in just under 2:29....I bet he thought I blew my power target, but I was very disciplined!

Coming back into Moody Gardens, I slipped my feet out of my shoes and prepared to dismount. Everything here went smoothly, but then something weird happened. When I was running with my bike, the crank would continue to turn, and my shoes would drag on the ground. At some point, one of my shoes/pedals smashed into the big toe on my right foot. It hurt instantly, and I noticed that it was cut (but not bleeding) when I got to my transition spot. It hurt a little, but it wasn't a big deal.

Once I got to my transition spot, I racked the bike, changed socks, threw my shoes on, and ran out while situating my hat, race belt, and Gu's.

Oh yeah, and I made the decision that I didn't want to run blind....so I had grabbed my 520 off my bike and ran with it in my hand for the entire half marathon. I'm more concerned with the fact that I wouldn't push myself hard enough without it, rather than needing it to keep me in check.


I need to figure out if this whole crank rotating while in freewheel is normal or not. I had a 10-speed cassette on my Flo rear wheel that I recently changed out the freehub body so I could put an 11-speed cassette on there. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, or if this is normal. If it's normal, I need to figure out how to run with the bike if the shoes are still clipped in.

For what it's worth, my big toe was pretty sore and the toenail is completely black now. I kinda thought it was broken for about a minute, but it's not :)

Every single race report leading up to this one laments about how I need to learn to run....well, I finally did it! I finally learned to run! I mean, I still have room for improvement....like a lot of improvement....but for the first time ever, I feel like I've actually kind of learned to run :)

Another first (and maybe this isn't good....), my run was better than my swim in terms of AG-placement. Admittedly, my swim was pretty pathetic, but still....I'm super happy with my run!

This is a three loop run course and you rarely get long straight-aways to just settle into your pace. When I did this race two years ago, the first mile marker you came across was for mile #9. I remember thinking to myself, "Oh god, that's not fair! I can't wait to be there...." This year, I didn't even see mile marker #9 until I was on my second loop, but it was still the first mile marker you came across! I did see the #5 mile marker, which is the second one.....and then came across mile #1. I think there's a lot to be said for the fact that I didn't even notice #9 and when I got to #5, I wasn't dying to be there (or further along than I was).

Now, don't get me wrong....the first loop was tough. It was starting to get warm out and my legs hadn't quite settled in yet. Each loop got progressively better, though I could feel the fatigue settling in during the second half of the third loop.

My 910 was set up to auto lap every mile, and I also had average pace and lap pace displayed. My 520 is obviously not set up that way....auto lapping every mile would drive me batty on the bike! It was tough to try to keep track of my pace with just a timer and distance and I didn't want to be trying to do all kinds of calculations in my head (though it is a nice distraction sometimes). I decided to lap my computer at each mile marker....some were long, some were short, and there might have been a couple that were right on. I could have lapped at 1.00 miles each time it came across on the computer, but I didn't want to be staring at it all the time, so I decided to just lap at the mile markers even if they were off.....and not freak out if I ran a 7:50 or a 9:10 lap, even though my target pace was about 8:20 :)

Mostly, what I wanted the computer for was to make sure that I didn't let my HR go too low. I know I need to keep it above 155 for a race, and I also know that I can maintain up into the low-160's.....so if I ever found myself slacking off, I'd have the data to remind myself to pick it up.

I was making good progress through the course and through the racers, but there were still a lot of people passing me. Some people make it look so effortless, even though you can tell that they're working hard. Unfortunately, a couple girls in my AG did pass me and I had zero chance of actually holding on to their pace (in fact, of the five girls who placed higher than me, four of them ran 1:35-1:37 and the fifth ran a 1:40....I'm not quite there yet, but I'm working on it). I also remember when the female pro with the fastest run split passed me....she was breathing hard, but she looked really good! I want to run like that!

At each aid station, I grabbed at least one cup of water. I did a run-through on all but one aid station.....walked through (I think) the second to last one to make sure to get water in me. For the second time ever, Gu sounded awful....I literally forced myself to suck it down. I'd never had this problem in the past, but starting at Austin 70.3 last year, I began to hate the stuff. It happened again at the race, but I forced it down....and, unlike the bike, I'm actually motivated to find something different to eat on the run, since this is no longer ideal (it seems to work, but I kinda hate it!).

Coming in to the finish, I was feeling pretty good, but also feeling the fatigue....and was happy when I got to hang a left to go to the finish, instead of staying right to make another lap (or two). I finished strong and crossed the line feeling completely spent.....though a few minutes later, I was fine, so maybe I wasn't as spent as I could be...


I think I could have been mentally stronger if I'd been able to see my paces and continue to push if I was letting them slide, but I'm pretty happy with the execution and effort.....and my decision-making skills to bring the 520 with me :)

When I crossed the finish line, I was kind of a mess....I hardly noticed the volunteers who were trying to put a medal around my neck and hand me a finisher's hat....I had tunnel vision on the kiddie pools full of cold water! I regained my composure, thanked the volunteers, and made my way to the water, where I was handed two bottles. I then heard my friend, Michelle, call out my name. I leaned against the fence and talked to her for a moment before it occurred to me to ask her what time it was. She looked at her phone and said "12:48" and I instantly lost it!

I knew I'd started at 7:48am, so if it was just now 12:48pm, then I must have come in under five hours. I was in shock....I was so happy....and then she pulled up the results and confirmed that I'd come in under five hours and I completely lost it. Emotions took over and I was a crying, laughing, sweaty, hugging mess....and completely unapologetic for it!

Marc had told me a while back that he thought I could go sub-5. I knew I had it in me, but I didn't think I was quite there for this race. In fact, I'd wager that he didn't think I was there for this race either. It is a flat, fast course, so sub-5 here doesn't mean I can go sub-5 anywhere, but I'm hoping to continue to grow and improve....and hoping I can do it again at 70.3 WC in Chattanooga later this year :)

Michelle had chocolate milk for me, and I grabbed a few more bottles of water. We headed over to the run course to cheer on other athletes and meet up with friends. I changed into some dry clothes and dry shoes....and saw that my right big toe was kind of mangled :P

We hung around for a while and then decided to head over to Galveston Island Brewery for a couple post-race celebratory beers! This is the first race ever where I wasn't hungry after the race, but I sure was thirsty :)



I need to figure out my swim issues (which are in progress) and will continue to work on my running. This race exceeded my expectations. I truly thought 5:05 - 5:10 was achievable, and that there was a very slight possibility that I could go sub-5, but everything would have to be perfect. My previous PR was 5:26, so this is a huge step for me! Not everything was perfect, but I managed to sneak in under five hours, so I think I need to work on being more confident in myself



This is a good race, and I'll probably do it again in the future, but that's really only because it's local to me. Personally, I don't think I'd travel to race Galveston 70.3