Monday, October 18, 2010

ironman 70.3 austin

5:06:35 bitches. thats all i have to say.........

No , No just kidding. but yes. Knocked out a 5:06:35 at ironman 70.3 texas on sunday.  I even surprised myself.

The weekend started with us heading down to Austin by car on saturday morning with Kiera in the back and jennifer next to me. Kiera was pretty well behaved until about 2 hours into the drive, when she lost it in the back seat and we knew it was time to pull over and let her walk around a bit. After a short pitstop and a new diaper we were on the road again.

We made it to the expo centre at about 12 oclock that day and got checked in and put my bike back together. After riding it down to the lake ( T1 ) i got the bike checked in and we headed out to the hotel which was in downtown austin.

When we got to the hotel the room wasnt ready for us yet so we headed to TGIF for a quick snack ( boneless buffalo wings ) and a quick beer.

After that we got up to our room and relaxed for a while, wresting with kiera on the bed and just hanging out with the family. Austin is a cool little city and is home to Mellow Johnny's so before dinner we walked down there to have a look and buy some extra gels and stuff for the race.


After the bike shop we headed to meet some friends at a local italian restaurant and had a good time meeting family members we dont normally get to see on our early morning bike rides and stuff.


Thats Lars on the right ( my main competition and motivation ). and shannon to the left that was doing his first 70.3.
After supper we went back to the hotel room and started winding down for the evening. If you are a triathlete you know that means packing and re-packing your gear bag 3 or 4 times before tossing and turning for the rest of the night.

I made it to bed at about 10pm and tossed around till midnight when Kiera decided to get sick and threw up all her dinner. we were pretty worried about her as she wasnt a happy little camper and kept waking up and getting sick. At about 3am she calmed down a bit and i managed to get about 2 hours sleep. No , not the best nights sleep before a half ironman.

5 oclock came and i jumped out of bed, got my things together and headed downstairs to catch my taxi. We decided it would be best if we dont wake up kiera and let her sleep and only come through if she felt better. Lucky for us she did wake up feeling better and my girls came through at about 10am in time to see me at T2 and support me on the run.

The Race

I got to the race site and headed straight for my bike to start setting up and lucky for me i found it with a flat front tire. Two little bastard thorns sticking out of the tire like they were taunting me. I got a bit worried as i only had 2 spairs and knew it was a long race and anything could happen. ( shout out to lynn that had about 4 flat tired on the bike portion and almost bailed) So i fixed the flat and prayed that my 1 spair tube would be enough. Met up with buddie Jamie and we hung out till we met up with Lars, lene, Lynn and shannon.

The swim started and i was confident that i would do well as it was wetsuit legal and we all know what sort of advantage that is to your time. I got out in the front of the pack and stayed there for most of the way, passing people from the 3 groups in front of us. Finishing the swim in 34:20 i knew i had a shot at beating my PB which i set in florida in may this year which was a 5:39:47 and on that day i had a 38 minute swim without a wetsuit.

Transition went well and i was out in about 3:30. i got out on the road and was happy my elastic bands snapped pretty easily and i was off. I was planning on keeping my HR low but the first 10 miles were pretty hilly so my HR was constantly up in the 150's so just decided to keep my HR where i felt comfortable

this is a pic of me coming out of T1


The bike was great. I was comfortable the entire time. My HR was a bit higher than i wanted it to be but it was still very comfortable. The roads were awful . very bumpy and rough. There were sections that were nice and smooth but if the website says nice country roads what they actually mean is farm roads that haven't been resurfaced in a while.

I completed the bike portion in 2:36 ( florida 2:47 ) and have to give props to the sufferfest. if you havent seen these indoor training videos yet you should head over now and check them out. I also have to thank Rocktape for keeping me going through some injuries earlier in the year.

I will post some pics of me all " rocktaped " and you will see what i mean.

So i felt great coming off the bike and headed out on the run doing a couple 7:30's for the first 2 or 3 miles and ran the first 6.55 miles in 53 minutes. QuadZilla wasnt to bad on the first loop but was pretty tough on the second loop as i did a 55 for the second half of the run. Finishing the run in 1:49 ( florida 2:04 ) i was over the moon with my overall effort and surprised myself with my great time. i was pretty surprised on the run when some guy came by me and said if i keep up this sub 8min pace i could do a sub 5 hour race. i was however only 3 miles into the run and whilst i entertained the idea for a while i knew that would take some special running.

In the end however, i am super stoked with my race. I have to firstly thanks my wife Jennifer who without her, i really wouldnt be doing any of this. My saturday morning bike ride buddies for pushing me to the limit ( of regurgitation ). All my frisco triathlon club mates who keep me motivated.

overall result
swim : 34:20
Bike : 2:36:40
Run : 1:49:21

for a total time of 5:06:35.

i have a lot more to write but its pretty long already.....

1 comment: