Augusta 70.3 Race Report

Augusta 70.3 completed today. Nearly a 30 minute PR. Had a great time and am looking forward to a little relaxation this week.

Swim: 39 minutes. I’m a poor swimmer. Nearest pool for swim instruction is 45 minutes from my home so that just isn’t feasible with two young kiddos. The river current was the lowest it’s been for this race as well. They released a lot of water from the dam in case hurricane Dorian made landfall. It didn’t and then we had a drought here in Georgia which caused a super slow current. Overall, that’s just an excuse. I could get better if I put in the effort. Including the two 70.3 races I’ve completed this year, I may have 5 miles of swimming total on the year. Not gonna cut it.

T1: 6:14, could have been better but I had to visit the porta potty!

Bike: 2:53/19.3 MPH average. Not any faster than last year on the bike, but I got off of it feeling fresh. Last year I was toast coming off the bike. I felt like I had a little more left in the tank the entire bike leg but I held myself back. No flats or mechanicals so that’s always nice! I made myself hydrate more using tailwind and took a few gels on the back half of the bike when my gut felt overfilled from fluids. Friendly bike course with around 1800ft of elevation gain.

T2: 3:56, I’m happy with this. Didn’t feel rushed but didn’t dilly dally either.

Run: 2:01:36/9:17 minute/mile. Oh boy, this is torture. My over the rainbow goal was to finish the run in 1:59:59. As I made the final turn to the last 0.2 miles for the finishers chute, I caught a bad cramp in my left hamstring. It took me around 2 minutes to work it out. Had it not been for that cramp, I would have met my goal. I’m still thrilled with the time. I had a negative split on the back half and finished the last 5k at a decent clip. Last year, I had terrible cramping starting at mile 8 or so. This year I had only that one at the worst possible time.

Overall, good enough for 69th/250 in my age group and 600th/2850 overall.

Augusta is a great venue with wonderful volunteer and crowd support on the run. If you can handle the heat, it’s a good race to check out.

Thanks for all the tips and things I’ve learned along the way from this group.