Ironman Augusta 70.3 Race Report

If you have being following my blog, or twitter, you will know that last Sunday (Sept 30, 2012) I raced on my first 70.3 (half Ironman) distance triathlon in Augusta, GA...and if you didn't know now you do!. All I can say is that it was a blast, I had a lot of fun, and I can also say that it was painful too. Now I will start writing a very long wall of text describing my experience at Ironman Augusta 70.3.

Athlete's Check-In / Bike Drop Off

Athlete's check-in was fast and easy. At some points I felt like I was making the line for an attraction/ride at Disney; and after being all checked in you end up in the gift shop. Athletes were given a very nice gym bag that I actually enjoyed getting and sports t-shirt with the race's logo and NO advertising (that was nice touch, as I have being in races that the souvenir tee that athletes get is full of sponsors' logos). I ended up buying an Ironman visor and a IronMate tee for my wife. Besides this, there was nothing else to point out from check in.

  

After checking in I moved to
transition to drop off my
bike, this was about mile and half away from athlete check in. My dad (also competing) and I parked the car close to transition and started setting up the bikes. He needed to replace both of his tires as he didn't notice until this moment that they were showing the inner wiring. As for my self I need to top off the air on them. Once the bikes were ready to drop them off, my front tire went flat. I stopped at the mechanical tent, replaced the inner tube, and pumped it back up. No more issues and the bike was dropped off. I had to go back to the athlete check in to stop by the bike shop and buy a new inner tube for the bike's tool bag.

Race Morning

Woke up at 4:30 AM with the sound of my alarm clock, I felt refreshed and ready to race. Added PowerBar Perform powder to the water bottles and took all of my gear to the car. On the way back to my room I stopped by the Hotel lobby grabbed some coffee and microwaved my oatmeal with Cyto Carb. Had breakfast and waited for my dad to come down to load his gear in the car. Once we were both ready, we left towards swim start to grab the shuttle that will take us to transition to setup. We were inside transition around 5:45 AM and it was crowded. I set up my area which I believe is the smallest one I have ever gotten, but it was enough. Pumped air to the tires again as it was colder (65 F) than the day before. Once ready we had to catch another shuttle to swim start, dropped off the morning clothes bag, and put on my wet suit.

The swim start was a little bit tedious, there were like twenty something waves and I was the 19th one starting at 8:44; a whole hour after my dad, who started at 7:44. Official water temp was 76 F... wet suit legal all across the board.

Swim

It was my time to get in the water, but first I tested with my foot to check the water temp and it definitely was NOT 76 F; it was colder. I was wearing my arm-less wet suit and as I was jumping into the water my arms felt the sudden rush of cold in them that I started swimming towards the front of the line to warm up a little before my start. It was a point to point swim where half of the distance was marked with yellow buoys and the second half with orange. Red buoy marked the swim exit.

The swim went by pretty fast. My arms felt good through out the swim, I didn't have to stop to catch my breath or switch swim styles to rest. Since it was a river swim, the water was very dark and you couldn't see the bottom; this was no issue to me, but the moment huge plants were peeking out through the darkness and scratching my stomach did freak me out a little bit...I just kept turning my arms and eventually they disappeared. I reached the end of the swim and walked out of the water and picked it up to a slow jog until I spotted the wet suit strippers and I was out of it in 1 second. My official swim time was 29:53, just under my goal time of 30 minutes.

T1

I run into transition and looking for my aisle I run into the wrong one and realized I was wrong half way; luckly the bike and that spot had already left and went underneath the bike rack. Spotted my bike and started putting on the bike gear. This was my first race that I have to wear a number belt during the bike portion.Before putting any gear I turned on the Forerunner 305 so it starts getting a SAT signal by the time I am out of transition. Gear went on as follows: number belt, glasses, helmet, bike shoes. I run out of transition and hit the bike feeling 100%. T1 time was 3:56.

Bike

For me the best part of the race was the bike leg. Completely different from what we have to race with in Miami, FL. Beautiful changing scenery, climbs, and downhills. When I registered for the race, I was told that it was rolling hills and said that was cool; but they omit to tell me is that some hills were actual mountain climbs, some climbs were several miles long. Basically I had a blast on the bike, the climbs were very interesting, some of them very hard. The descents, blazing fast; I believe I touched 40MPH. Around mile 30 I had to go the bathroom very bad and I was wearing a white tri suit, so peeing on the bike was not an option. Luckily there were portable toilets next to one of the aid stations, one minute stop there and I was back on the bike. The one thing I could not understand is why some riders were not taking full advantage of their bikes: there were some sharp turns after a fast descent and some riders were breaking long before the turn; I tried to lose the least amount of speed before and during the turn so I did not have to start pedaling hard to pick up speed again. Overall the bike went on for 2:45:40 at an average of 20.3MPH.

T2

Off the bike and on to the running went by pretty quick, just a small hick-up inside transition. There was no clear signaling for the run exit, and I ended up by the toilets about 150 feet from the run exit. During transition I picked up my fuel belt, running shoes, and visor. Switched the watch to running mode and off I went. Total time in T2 was 2:13.

Run

When I started the run, for some strange reason, I could not maintain a slow pace. My legs were pushing me to a 8:30 pace when I wanted a 10:00 pace for first part of the race. I knew that if I pushed the 8:30 I was going to be burnt before the half point. To help me maintain I started talking a race during a 10:00 pace, once I got the speed in check I kept moving while my running partner for the past 3 miles stopped for some refreshments. For the rest of the race I went solo. Around the middle of the run, I slowed down to a walk, assess any damages, drop heart rate, taking in fluids and food. Went on to running after all was done, but something changed...now I couldn't go faster than 10:00 pace. I thought: OK, no worries. I kept moving and around mile 8 my lower back started hurting. First idea I had to solve this were the ice cold sponges being passed out at aid stations. I grabbed a couple in the next station and shoved them down the back of my tri suit: problem resolved. I just kept replacing the sponges every time there was a station. Before I knew it I heard my family scream that I was 2 turns away from the finish line. When I saw it, a rush of energy came surging and pushed me to a 7:30 pace for the last 100 yds. Crossed the line with anything left in the tank. Grabbed several bottles of water and started cooling down my legs and back. Grabbed a very cool finished medal and hat.

It sucked that the finish line run out of warming blankets by the time I arrived. Met with my dad, grabbed some brews and pizza. Found my wife, gave her a sweaty kiss. Total run time was 2:13:44. 

All I can say is that I had fun, at moments a little pain (long climbs or later in the run). I gave it my best and I was of my target time by 5 minutes. I was training for a 5hour to a 5h30min race. My total over all was 5:35:26. Basically if I did not transition I could of reached my goal. 

Now to start planning the next year, and do my off season with other activities. So far I have planned some rock climbing, mud runs, some mountain bike (even though my MTB was stolen), camping, hiking. 

See you all on my next post.