Florida 70.3 Race Report

The morning started with a 4:30am wake up, then 30 minutes of trying to put down 800 calories with no appetite. I had a bottle of ensure, yogurt parfait, half a clif bar, a banana, half a cup of coffee, and a bottle of Gatorade endurance. Pretty gross to be putting that all down that early.

By 5:15am I was headed down to the lobby to see about getting a taxi or courtesy car over to the race. The courtesy car picked me up and we were at the race drop off to catch a shuttle bus in to Fort Wilderness where the transition area and race venue were.

The race was on the Disney property, but Disney had no further involvement than that.

I decided to hit the restrooms first, then go in and get my transition area set up. The race started at 6:20 and my wave would go off at 7:21, but transition closed at 6:15, so I had just enough time to get things set up. As I mentioned, my transition spot wasn't ideal. It turns out that the run out of the swim was very long, but it was because we basically ran around the outside of the transition area all the way around and entered very close to where my stuff was located, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After getting squared away, I made my way over to the beach. They weren't letting people into the water, so I had no warm up prior to the race. Instead, I found a patio chair and sat for about 40 minutes until my wave got closer.

The swim started in about knee deep water, and you could run about 20 steps before it got too deep. As the gun went off, I took off and tried to find feet. After 2-3 minutes I came across some and decided to settle in. I figured if they were ahead of me after 2-3 minutes, they were decent swimmers, but once back there, I really felt like we were going slow. I didn't think there was any way I was catching that good of a draft. I stuck with that swimmer for about 2 minutes until we first began to hit slow swimmers from the previous wave, and we got separated while working around a bunch, and I pulled away from that guy and moved on on my own.

The swim was very hectic. There were masses of people in large clumps that were very hard to get around. I found myself having to stop, pop up, pick a line, then shoot a narrow gap until I was clear, then do it again.

It wasn't a wetsuit legal swim, and there were lots of people struggling with that fact I believe. I can't tell you how many people were doing breastroke. There is nothing more dangerous to swimmers behind you than to do a breastroke kick. It is a wide kick, and in murky water, very hard to see coming, and is extremely dangerous for those around and behind you. I must have dodged half a dozen breastroke kicks headed right for my nose that missed by inches. Really scary.

The swim seemed to have been long. I thought so based on feel and time, and I overheard others with the same sentiment post race.

Swim: 31:33, 8th out of 239 AG, 104th overall

T1 was as I mentioned very long. You run about 300 yards from the swim exit to swim entrance. I spent only a few seconds at the racks before I was off to make my way through the length of the transition racks to the exit, again about 200 yards. I clipped in on the bike, and did not make the same mistake I did at Lonestar.

T1 4:34

The bike was a 1 loop bike course. We left the Disney property soon into the ride and didn’t return until the final miles. The course was pretty non descript. I recall seeing some cows and orange groves, and a few new track housing neighborhoods, but I really wasn’t paying an awful lot of attention.

My plan was to stay controlled and I think I was able to do that despite setting a bike PR for myself. The roads where very smooth and fast, and the course had about a 20 miles section of gentle hills in the middle. I only switched out of the big gear one or two times.

My plan was to find someone riding a little slower than I was comfortable riding, and to sit behind them at the legal distance, and make my progress that way. That way I was sure I was staying conservative. I pretty much rode the entire way behind 3 different guys.

It was getting to be hot, but the breeze on the bike masked it pretty well. I did notice salt on my shorts and face from the sweat, and knew it was going to get ugly on the run.

I took down 5 gels, 3x500mg sodium tablets, 3-4 bottles of water, 1 bottle of Pure Sport, and about 2 bottles of Gatorade Endurance. I felt the urge to pee about half way through the ride so I was confident that I was absorbing fluids, and was pretty much on the edge of feeling bloated the entire way.

Bike: 2:40:14 (21.0 mph), 88th out of 239 AG, 693rd overall

T2 went pretty well. This was the first time I saw Ingrid on the day. I had to make the long journey through the racks to my row, got switched over quick, took a swig of water and got my GPS synched, and was on my way.

T2: 2:32

The run was a 3 loop course. It was flat, hot, and much of it was on grass. Not scenic in the least despite being on the Disney property. We were in a pine forest for the first half mile, on back roads the next mile, then on grass next to a canal for 2+ miles before getting back on to roads to finish off the loop. The grass was very difficult to run on, and there wasn’t much shade out there.
First thing I did out on the run was find a port-o-john to relieve the bladder. After that, I tried to settle in to a slow and comfortable pace that I thought I could hold. I tried to ask myself very frequently if there was any way I could run slower, and if the answer was yes, then I slowed down.

My HR however was climbing and climbing and wasn’t stopping when it reached the Z3 spot I hoped it would stop at. After about 25 minutes, I was well into Z4, and was burning up.

At around the 3 mile mark, I broke the seal and had to walk. I would walk/run the rest of the race. By mile 5 I was doing 2 min/1min run/walk, which eventually fell down to 1min/1min. On a couple of occasions I would try to run as long as I could, but never could go more than 3 minutes, and would be wrecked for the next 10 minutes or so barely able to do 1/1 run/walk to recover.

With about 2.2 miles to go, I figured I had 29 minutes to keep my time under 6 hours, the only thing left to salvage the day after all of my other goals were long gone. I bore down and upped my run/walk splits to 90 sec/30 sec to up the overall pace.

With about half mile to go, I had to run carefull as my right calf was twitching as it would near a cramp on certain steps. It nearly seized up within 25 yards of the finish line, but I managed to cross without making a scene.

It was brutally hot out there. Lots of carnage on the course. I saw lots of people walking, people puking, people fainting. I ended up with the worst sun burn I’ve had in a long time despite putting on spf 30 the night before and morning of the race.

Run: 2:38:53 (12:08 pace) 182 out of 239 AG, 1476 overall

Time: 5:57:44, 124 out of 239 AG, 965 overall

After crossing the line, I just felt terrible. My ears were popping, I was woozy, and I had to search hard for some food and drink. I don't feel like going on the WTC rant, but they are terrible race organizers. It was so corporate, not designed for what was best for the athletes, and the post race support was cheap. They ran out of things out on the course and in the post race tent well before the later waves had crossed the line. It was really disappointing. This race was run by NAS until WTC bought all of the NAS races except for IM Canada at the end of 2008, so this may be a bad sign of things to come for these biggest of races in the US under the new management. I'm certain they made a fortune on the merchandising however, so I don't expect any changes.

So overall, not all that great of a race. I’m not disappointed because I pretty much got over the disappointment when the training fell apart back in March and April. It just sort of was what it was. I finished. It wasn’t as slow as my first 70.3, and wasn’t as fast as my last.

I came away from the race with 5 immediate notes on things to focus on for my next 70.3 in Oct. In no particular order, they are:

1. Increase the running as a percentage of my total tri training, more and longer long runs, more weekly volume, more running off the bike.
2. Do core work. My abs and low back are really sore after I race, which means I am using them and they aren’t up to the task. Maybe yoga is the answer.
3. Detail the objectives of each workout further. In base, go slower. Add more specificity to each workout.
4. Test more. Identify strengths and weakness and adjust training accordingly.
5. Stick to a diet, and get down to 165 by Oct.

The plan going forward is to take it easy for the rest of the month. I probably won’t train until after Memorial Day weekend. I’ll probably use the WKO+ software to monitor my fitness loss over time, and will start training when it is off 20-25% of the level it was at for the race.

I’m going to do a 6 week strength training block that will start up in a week or two. The purpose will be to add back some muscle, strengthen the tendons, and get myself ready for the Oct 70.3 training block.

I’ll build up the run volume in the month of June and would like to get up to around 100 miles of running a month by July.

I’ll do a 20 week build up to Long Horn, and will do a proper 12 weeks of base work before I start to take the governor off. That means the program will start in the second week of June.