Ironman 70.3 Boise - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Both my race report and that of my Wife Heather is summed up below.

Food on the bike:
2 cans of ensure+Calories in a bottle
Half an organic Food bar
2 bottles of NUUN
Half Bottle of water to rinse off the pee.
I didn't take any electorlyte pills as the day wasn't very hot.

Carbo Pro 1200 sips before every aid station followed by water for teh first half of the run. Then went to Coke for the final 6 miles. Water on occasion.

http://www.fyzz.ca/blog

I’m sure an opinion of a race venue lies largely in the outcome of the race result. Thankfully Heather and I can say that the Boise Ironman 70.3 Venue was freaking sweet!!!

The Lucky Peak Dam got hit with some strong winds overnight and into race morning. Saturday’s 60 degree calm and somewhat appealing water quickly turned into a 55 degree, white capped mess. Water never looks very rough when you’re on shore, and I’m sure most of you are aware how different it can feel once you’re actually in the water trying to breath and swim from buoy to buoy. This proved to be the case for pretty much everyone in the race. Even the faster swimmers seemed to be about 3-4 minutes off a normal time. It’s been a long time since I’ve (Trevor)really choked on water in a race, and this was a bad one. It was all I could do to keep from totally freaking out ‘Pin Head’ style. I managed to hold strong and take a few relaxed strokes to get my head back in the game. “Long, strong, and relaxed” was the mantra for the next 500meters. I managed to find a good pair of feet on the return leg, this really saved the swim for me and managed to get my mind back on track. Heather came out of the water with Kate Major, doing what she needed to do to put herself in a good position going into the bike leg. She wasn’t happy that I nipped (killed) her time wise out of the water, but what can I say. Granted we had different start times and different competitors so a fair comparison can’t really be made. Heehee. We have rivalry in the water that I’m sure most Husband and Wife athletes would want to steer away from. We’ll get our chance to be on the start line together and duke it out for real at Ironman Canada later this year. They always start the Pro/Elite men a woman together so there’ll be NO EXCUSES!! Again, I’m only joking. It is a healthy rivalry…I swear.

The ingestion of water during the swim left Heather feeling pretty nausious and vomity for the first 20min or so of the bike. After a few pukes and burps she got into a rythm and rode strong, as always, and held on to second place. She kept Kate Major in sight for much of the ride but she got away in the second half. With nothing significant happening in front or behind her immediate position on course for the remainder of the race it was a lonely 2.5hrs in the saddle for her.

Coming out of T1 I managed to get past a few athletes taking their time to put their shoes on. This was the first time I’ve actually put my feet in the shoes while moving on the bike and I’m happy to say it went off without a hitch. About 6 km into the bike Jordan Rapp came flying by me. He must have had some issues in T1 as I came out of the water behind him. I was going 50+km/hr at that point of the ride, judging by the wind wake he was giving off it’s safe to say I couldn’t hold pace. I thought I could try and keep him in my sights and use him as a bait for a bit… That thought left my head pretty quickly. He and Chris Lieto were the only two to break 2:10 on the ride, Lieto did so in 2:05!!! Making my 2:17 split look somewhat feeble…even though it wasn’t bad at all.

Heather was so close to hanging on to that second position over the course of the run. Desiree Ficker had her in her sights for much of the second half and the gap wasn’t closing quickly at all. When the pass finally did happen, at 3 miles to go, Heather held strong and kept on Ficker’s tail just in case an implosion should occur. That almost happened as she closed the gap again, but Desiree surged forward in the final mile grabbing the second place spot by less than 30 seconds. A great finish and a first podium spot in an Ironman 70.3 event for Heather.

My goal for the run was to go sub 1:20. I came very close, pushing it good right till the end but coming up short by 30 seconds. I had a level of confidence going into the run that was higher than normal. I could see guys up the road and all I thought about was picking them off one by one. Moving from 14th to 9thin the final leg of the race feels good. I started thinking about someone coming up from behind when I couldn’t see anyone else up the road. That’s when I got a glimpse of Chris Hauth. There was only a couple miles to go so I figured the gap was big enough. Even so, it’s amazing how my mind went from “This is awesome…running strong…smooth and fast…you can catch them” to “This isn’t happening…I’m caught in the vortex…I can’t get passed…don’t cramp don’t cramp don’t cramp”. And this was for 9th, in my mind a great result for my second race as a Pro/Elite, I’m not sure where that ranks on Chris Hauth’s resume but I’m assuming not the highlight of his career. Can’t complain about having his name after mine on the results sheet, however.

Boise put on a great race. The community was so happy to have people checking out their city. On numerous occasions we had people ask us what we thought of Boise. They were all (the ones we met anyway) so happy to have us racing through their downtown main streets. Volunteers and school groups made the aid stations incredibly loud and energetic. They seemed to be having a competition for who could give away the most cups of water, Gatorade, or coke. At every station you had 50 cups within reach, it was almost overwhelming trying to find the perfect beverage for the occasion. Do I want a half-full cup of Gatorade? Do I want a full cup of Gatorade? Would I like ice with that? Would I like flat coke or carbonated coke? What flavor gel do I want? Would you like me to make it a half half water/coke mixture? Perhaps just an ice cube and a sponge? Haha, it was sweet. ”Sweet” in a wicked type of way. Not an “oh, that’s so sweet” type thing. You know what I mean.

Till next year ironman 70.3 Boise!!