Lake Stevens 70.3 Triathlon World Qualifier - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started the swim really slowly, just to warm up and get in rhythm. After about the first 300 yards or so I felt pretty good and picked up the pace. I had started right on the buoy line and somewhere in here I made a nice little discovery. They had run a rope the length of the buoy line, about 8 feet under water, to tie the buoys off of. So here I had a nice straight line to follow all the way out to the first turn buoy! Obviously, sighting was not a problem. I was sighting really well before this but this helped a lot the rest of the race. Made the turns and headed back in, following my new friend, the underwater rope, and picked up the pace quite a bit. Hit the beach and headed for the bike.


Should have tried to warm up somehow and been able to start a lot faster. I felt pretty strong on the way back in so I should have been able to swim this quite a bit better.

Had a bit of an issue in T1. Had to use the bathroom and couldn't find one with any toilet tissue. I looked in every one of them and finally found some in the last one. Took way too much time in this transition.

Not have to use the facilities.

This is a pretty hilly course. The first 3-4 miles are flat and then you turn into the hills and have a few little climbs and a lot of gentle uphills that really don't look uphill but when you look at your computer and the effort it's taking to average 15-16 mph, it's definitely uphill. A couple more climbs and then you level out a bit by the lake and even have some downhills. Then the fun starts! After making the turn past the lake there's a section of probably more than 2 miles that is that same gentle grade, only now you're going downhill. I ran out of gears here and was just spinning along at 35-36 mph for a bit. I liked that! Then another climb, a few rollers, and a short, steep downhill. I sat up on this one the first lap, because I wasn't too sure about the road surface or the turns, but on the second lap I hit 51 mph down this stretch! Whoohoo!! Right back into another uphill after this, some rollers, another climb, and then about 3 1/2 miles of flat to finish.
Just after starting the bike, I ran into BellinghamSpence and rode with him for a couple minutes. It was good to see a fellow BT'er out there!
About 8 miles into the second loop, the lead group of pros caught me. There were 5 of them in the pack, led by Luke Mackenzie, and they were drafting like crazy. There was maybe a bike length between each of them as they went by. Left me a bit disgusted when I saw that.
When I had about 10 miles left, I thought I could break the 3 hour mark for the ride and started to push a bit more. With 5 miles left, I was really close and pushed even harder. I knew this might haunt me on the run but I didn't really care, since this was a training and learning day. As it was, I hit my watch as I crossed the timing mat into T2 and it was exactly 3 hours. Kind of funny. I had a 1 1/2 minute negative split on the second loop so I was happy with that.

Obviously, not push as hard on the bike. I was having some minor cramps in my right hammy on the last 10 miles and these would come back to haunt me. Overall though, since I'm not a good hill climber, I was happy with this time on this really hilly course.

Pretty decent T2. Kind of took it easy after pushing hard the last 10 miles of the bike.

Not much.

The wheels fell off quickly on the run. I had dropped my last two Endurolytes while on the bike, and hadn't taken enough of them to begin with which became a problem. I started getting hamstring cramps in my right leg within the first half mile of the run. I stopped and stretched, tried to shorten my stride, slow down, everything I could think of to ward them off but I could tell it was going to be a long run. Even so, I made it to the 1 mile mark in about 9:45 which was a little faster than my goal pace. Slowed down some more and then started cramping up in my left quad too. This wasn't good. I spent the rest of the first loop stopping 3-4 times per mile and stretching out the cramps.
The second loop didn't get any better. I was drinking Gatorade and eating bananas at every aid station but nothing was helping. The cramps were getting so bad that I had to start walking quite a bit. I could run a ways, stop and stretch, walk a bit, run, stop and stretch, repeat ad nauseum. But, eventually, I finished. Saw BellinghamSpence again toward the end of the run and he gave me a bad time about walking! Just had to grin and bear it!

Well...not cramp up!! More Endurolytes on the bike and not push quite as hard on the bike. Maybe 10 minutes slower on the bike would equate to 20 minutes faster on the run?? Who knows? Again, I was using this race as a learning experience and training day so it's all good.

Got some pizza and cold water and found Conrad. He was totally jacked because he'd done a 4:36 and qualified for the 70.3 World Championships!! It was great to see him so pumped up.


Leg cramps and more leg cramps. There's always the next race.


This was obviously not a North American Sports organized race. Too few aid stations on the bike and not enough port a potties. The crowd was ok and the volunteers were enthusiastic though and they were a great help. I get spoiled by seeing IMCDA though so it's not really fair to compare other races to that. Had a fun time and would do this race again.