Ironman 70.3 Syracuse : Official Thread (Page 17)

First tri ever done! Was freaking out the night before about how cold the water was but I managed to finish the swim in a decent time (37 mins). Finished overall in 5:28--my legs are still pretty sore today.

It was great to race in my own back yard, that's for sure. Even though I rode the course almost every Saturday morning for a couple of months this summer, it was reassuring to read the course descriptions that a couple of you took the time to post and see that someone else had the same take I did. 

I thought I had no chance at a HIM PR based on the bike, but somehow I rode it 10-15 min faster on Sunday than I had ever rode in training.

Swim 35:28 - I was out in the next-to-last wave, kind of pain waiting all that time, but what with 4 port-o-potty trips, time went by pretty quickly. The water was cold, but otherwise conditions were great - no weeds, wind, waves to speak of.

T1 3:54 - Lots slower than a typical T1, but it was a long way from the water to the bike. I left T1 with 4 gels, but left my Power and Clif bars on my mat rather than stuffing them in my tri tank pockets. Oops.

Bike 3:00:03 - The bike is not my strong suit and the early climbing had me nervous. Somehow, I managed to ride 10-15 min faster than I had in training all summer. Lack of wind, cool temps helped. Grabbed every gel and bar that I could on the bike, given that I left about 135 grams of carbs back in transition.

T2 2:11 - It was a slippery, muddy downhill running back in with the bike, but I didn't see anyone go down, fortunately. Legs didn't feel too bad.

Run 1:43:08 - Started fast and faded a bit, but picked up the pace for the last 1.1 compared to the previous 4. Not my best HIM run, but only off by a couple of minutes. The course was like running through a full parking lot in which all the cars had been left running all day. The taste of car exhaust is unpleasant.

5:24:44 A PR for me at this distance, which I really didn’t think was going to be possible with this bike course.

Volunteers were great, law enforcement was great with traffic control. Post-race was just OK. I would have liked some signs - I had no idea where to go to find anything after I crossed the finish line - bathroom, dry clothes - they were all a mystery unless I asked someone.

I saw one BTer in a singlet early in the run, congrats to all of you on a successful race! I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves enough to come back to Syracuse next year, assuming there is a next year.