Ironman 70.3 Virginia - Triathlon

Soooo, often I use the bathroom immediately prior to swim start (in the water, like you do). I didn't realize that this was a dock start where you just jump in and start immediately swimming. So there was that. I could have used a bathroom stop the entire time in the water.

When I first started triathlon, I wasn't sure I would stick with it so I bought the cheapest new wetsuit I could buy (online order, sight unseen, for 80 bucks), We don't have that many wetsuit races in NC, so it hasn't been a huge issue. It's actually not bad material, but the fit is poor - it's just too short through the torso so I can't get good extension on my stroke.

I ended up having a terrible swim. It felt constrained and claustrophobic and I could tell my stroke was terrible. But there wasn't really much I could do to fix it. Despite self-seeding in the back, I got passed left and right. I could feel my elbows dropping without a catch in the water. It was like I hadn't been practicing swimming at all these last few months. Also, it was full contact out there with 2500 people. I probably got hit or touched 20 times.

I decided while in the water that I'd spring for a better fitting wetsuit before doing another long wetsuit legal race.

On the upside, there was a small current to ride along which helped. The water was really cloudy for the most part. Sometimes not only could you not see your hands, but you couldn't really see much light in the water.

Port a potty beforehand. Get a new wetsuit.

Had to hit up the port a potty in the transition area before grabbing my bike. It was raining and so I had to fish my shoes out of some bags I brought. On the upside, I tried a tip I had not tried before - using baby powder in the socks to help them slide on easier. It totally worked! My socks went on much easier than is typical.

Not much despite the slow transition time. I could have hustled a bit more.

This was my best bike ever despite the rain, heavy at times. One nice thing about having a bad swim is that I passed tons of people on the bike. Not only the slow people, but plenty of serious looking triathletes with race wheels. I was extremely happy to be able to hold a good speed and finish in 3 hours despite a wet course. One crazy thing is that there was a really dangerous train track crossing area so the RD decided to put a timing mat on the front and back end of the hill it was on. Essentially they stopped the clock while you were in that area. Everyone dismounted and walked across, some people stopped for snacks. Sure enough, my time was adjusted to discount the 3 minutes or so I spend walking through that section.

I think there may be 3 reasons for an unusually good bike:
1. The course was pretty fast.
2. I rode most of the winter on Zwift which gave me power numbers. I think having power data while on there really helped.
3. I had my bike serviced for the first time in the 2 years since I bought it. New chain and a proper cleaning of the cassette really helped.

The course wasn't totally closed. At one point there were bikers passing slow cars that were trying to pass slow bikers.

Nothing. Great ride for me. I felt like I could power by others pretty well on the bike.

T2 was uneventful. I was thankful I had brought a separate pair of running socks as it rained the entire 3 hours on the bike and my feet were completely soaked. Oh, I did have yet ANOTHER bathroom stop in T2.

I really wanted to finish this race in 6 hours. I had a 3 hour bike, which I needed, and I needed a 2 hour run. The first half was pretty good and I finished the first half in right at an hour or under. Then i hit a wall (or very hilly bridge, actually) and totally gassed out. I think having missed out on a couple of truly long training sessions hurt me here. I did quite a bit of run-walk on the last 4-5 miles and was wiped totally out by the end. It's interesting how you go from having a firm goal (like 6 hours) to just surviving once you hit the wall.

I had some gels, a banana, and salt pills. But the sun was out and it was really humid. Eventually my heart rate went high enough that there was no bringing it down without stopping altogether.

More longer training session. The run was great for the first half, but I didn't have enough in the tank for the last half.

nothing really. Got in line for the food tent - BBQ was pretty good.


My only previous IM event was in Raleigh. This felt very different. The Raleigh race had the expo in the convention center and a big downtown finish (and charter buses to bring you to the point-to-point start). This felt much more like a local event with tons of people. The expo etc was in a hot tent, the grounds were very muddy (everyone's running shoes were kinda swampy from part of the run in soaked grass). It was a good course, but on the whole it didn't have the same big-ticket feel that the IM Raleigh had. With this one, I kind of wondered where all of the registration money went. Also, why does IM run out of t-shirts.