Ironman 70.3 RI - 2009 Race Report

Official Results: 180th OA out of 1,306 / 25th M-25-29 out of 130; 4:50:01

Pre-Race:

Race week worked out good and bad for both reasons. I was on vacation all of last week out on Martha's Vineyard with my family and Jess. It was the perfect week to taper before the race and being on vacation was a good excuse not to do much exercise wise. The worst part of this was that coming back from vacation was on Saturday, the day before the race. Saturday started out coming back on a ferry from the Vineyard at 8:30am and then driving from the Cape to Providence, RI, which was about an hour. After picking up all my race stuff we then headed over to drop off my run gear bag because that was required to be dropped off on Saturday. We then headed to Roger Wheeler State Park Beach to drop off my bike. After doing that we then drove the bike course back to Providence. Needless to say after all then we then had to drive to my parents place with a little side trip to Foxwoods because Jess wasn't feeling well and didn't want to be out all day at the race on Sunday she had her dad pick her up. I didn't get to bed until 8:30pm or so. I was exhausted and I slept very lightly Saturday night and then woke up at 2:30am on Sunday morning to get ready for the race. The drive from my parents place to Narragansett for the swim start was just over an hour drive. We left my parents house at 3:45am and got to the swim start around 5:00am. After getting there I then dropped off my bike gear bag and left my helmet on my bike. The swim wave starts was suppose to start at 6:00am for the pros and then 6:02am for the pro women, but because it was so windy on race morning the swim buoys had blown out of place and had to be reset and the race start was postponed 15 minutes. I was in the 13th swim wave and didn't get in the water until an hour after the pro start.

Swim: 1.2 miles: 319th OA, 52nd AG; 31:19 (1:38/100m)

The swim start was off of Narragansett beach and I've swam pretty close to this swim start before at Firmman Half last year and I knew what kind of conditions I was in for. The only difference from Firmman was that we saw out and back instead of parallel to the beach. The race conditions down at the beach were really windy. The flag was straight out and waves before the pro start were white caps but then the wind died down a very little bit before my swim wave went off. This swim time was not what I was looking for. I hoping to be around or under 30 minutes, but that didn't happen. I must have sucked in ocean water about 2-3 times heading out. Heading out into the waves was the worst. When the waves came in and you were swimming into them I was coming out the backside of the wave and slapping down between the next wave, very unpleasant. I felt like I never got comfortable during this swim. My dad said that he saw 5 people throw-up after coming out of the water from taking in to much water from the swim.

T-1: 3:25

This transition took more time than it should have only because when I got to my bike I had noticed that it had been knocked over from another racer...needless to say my bag was on the ground and then my helmet that was on my bike was placed on my bike, but I then had to mess with the straps to get it on since it had been knocked on the ground.

Bike 56 miles: 169th OA, 24th AG; 2:33:24 (21.9 MPH)

This is by far my fastest bike split at the half iron distance. The first 25 miles of this race was flat and fast along the shore of RI. Those first 25 miles I looked down at my bike computer to see that I was averaging 23.3 mph, but I knew that would soon come down because of the hills I knew that were in store on this course. There were about 4 good size hills on the course with the last big hill being at about mile 50, which I ended up going about 8 mph up...The down hills more than made up for it though. I hit 41 mph on one of the downhills while on the others I was going 38-39 mph. The good thing about being in the 2nd to last swim wave was that I was catching people all day and that made for an awesome incentive on the bike. I felt very strong and focused on this portion of the race, the only thing I regret is not taking in enough nutrition for the run. The bike course itself was very well marked and there were a ton of volunteers and police out there, which was awesome. The only part that sucked was that about 2-3 miles left to go on the bike when I was going over the train tracks my bike computer came loose on my chain stay and hit my rear wheel and went flying off the the bike. My brand new Cateye V3 was gone....I didn't know what the nose was until I looked down and saw that I was getting anymore feed back on the computer.

Run 13.1 miles: 198 OA, 25th AG; 1:40:02 (7:39)

I made my way out of T-2 in good time. The thing about the Ironman sanctioned races is that you have to wear your run bib number while you ride so it was one less thing to worry about when I hit the run. I headed out for the run and I felt like I couldn't get my legs going at all to where I wanted to run and then the first hill came and there is no way to explain how steep this hill was and I had to run up and down it twice. It was a grueling hill, but I refused to walk it. It was more of a shuffle up the hill instead of a run up the hill. Like I said earlier, I don't think I took in enough nutrition in on the bike for run because I hit up the 2nd aid station around mile 2 or 3 and then hit them all for the rest of the race. I ended up walking about 4-5 times during the race, but it was mostly at the aid stations. I just don't have the run mileage yet to run a good half marathon after biking 56 miles yet. After this race I only have 158 miles to date of running, which is no where near where I was when I did my first half of the season last year. The most surprising thing to me was that I dropped 20 spots overall on the run. The run leg is usually my strongest leg and where I pick up a lot of spots, but not with this race.

Post-Race:

Unfortunately, I didn't grab any of the Clearwater spots (3 in my age group) or the Kona slots (2 in my age group). All and all it was a great race and I can't wait for Timberman next month. For now I'm taking this week off to recover and then next week its back to some hard training in preparation for Timberman. Many thanks to my dad for driving my car from Narragansett to Providence and then driving me back to CT. My Aunt Joyce was also able to make it as well, which was great since my dad was the only one from the family that was healthy to make it.