3RD AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 70.3 -- A BRUTE OF A RACE

A young looking group of Podium finishers

Well, the Ironman World Championship 70.3 (c'mon, it's a Half Ironman), held in the local of Henderson, Nevada, deserves its reputation as one brute of a race venue.  Fortunately, the forecast of 103 degree heat for the September 8th race was interrupted by a late summer monsoon that brought rain that lasted through most of the bike leg.  [A monsoon in the desert southwest sounds like an oxymoron, but for the residents, compared to their normal dry and hot weather, it feels like a monsoon.  Every year in late summer moisture from the south makes its way north and most of the 6 or 7 annual inches of rain fall in that so-called "monsoon" season.] But, once the rain passed, the humidity remained and it warmed up to the mid-80's for the run.

Besides the usual heat, there are the hills.  2800 vertical climbing on the bike and since it is a point-to-point bike with the ending elevation about 800 feet above the starting point, the bike entropy is not zero. You get to climb but you don't get to descend all the way.  And the run has about 200 feet of climb and descent each of the 3 laps.

Entry into the 70.3 Worlds was by qualification at one of the approximately 50 qualifying races held worldwide.  My 65-69 age group typically had one qualifying slot per race.  Due to attrition or passed slots, by the time the bib numbers were assigned, there were 34 entrants in this age-group, 15 of which made their home outside the USA.  Don't think they came here just for the weather.

I had traveled back to Arizona from Minnesota some 10 days prior to the race to attempt to get heat acclimated.  My Internet research had indicated that 10 days of training for a minimum of 90 minutes per day in the heat would get you most of the way there.  I had followed that plan for the Ironman World Championships in 2011 and it proved effective.  It was the hills that were tough for me to get a handle on since my summer training terrain in Minnesota was on relatively flat ground (like 60 mile bikes with 150 foot total climbing!).

My son was going to join me again for this race so we were able to share race strategy and targets. After some consternation I settled on :40/2:50/2:00 for the swim/bike/run segments plus transitions giving 5:35 assuming a good race and the milder weather.  Part of my concern was my arthritic knees which made run training for the past two months difficult and a sprained back that occured 7 days prior to race day. Fortunately, neither was a significant issue on race day.

Early morning Lake Las Vegas during the monsoon

The swim was in Lake Las Vegas, a man-made lake with water from Lake Mead pumped up into it to maintain its water level.  Average water temp this time of year is low 80's, no wetsuits.  There were wave starts and the 60+ males had an early start in wave 4 departing at 6:44.  The swim was uneventful, I held a good line, was not hassled but was surprised by my slow split, 44:25.  I had turned in a 41minute swim at Racine 70.3 in much worse conditions.  Just not a good swim.

The rain was pretty heavy during parts of the bike which I responded to by being very cautious on turns and descents.  At mile point 25 I was not feeling great but only putting out 209 average watts, way below my Racine 70.3 numbers of 220 watts.  I decided to ease up some thinking that the hills were impacting me more than I had imagined.  I finished at an average of 200 watts and with a split of 2:52:47. I only consumed 4 gels and 2 1/2 bottles of fluid on the bike, partly due to the steady rain on the course.  I relieved myself 3 times on the bike, not a good sign, hoping the steady rain would cleanse everything.  [Having to relieve oneself is a sign of over hydration. Water is not getting through the cell membranes into the body so the bladder flushes the excess out in trying to establish a better water-to-salt-minerals balance.  Sometimes ingesting more salt minerals resolves the problem.]  I did manage to take 4 salt capsules with water.

Not in a happy place at this point

I decided in the bike/run transition to go sock less on the run as my socks were soaked (see above) and full of mud from the bike.  I had no spare socks in the run bag (error).  The first mile of the run was horrible as I was not able to get a rhythm, and I realized that I had some small gravel in my shoes which I left there.  I resorted to my planned jog/walk routine that was necessary for me to complete the half marathon, as my longest training run this summer had been 7 miles utilizing a similar jog/walk routine (the only approach my knees tolerated).  At this point I knew there were some of my age-group competitors in front of me but I didn't really care as I was already into "finish" mode.

Finding that happy place

I did notice one competitor gaining ground on me at each turn around.  Not too much I could do about that during the early miles but follow my plan and see what happened.  Besides, I was in "finish" mode and not in contention anymore to win; a podium finish was the new goal. What happened is he passed me with three miles to go starting an uphill section.   I tried to stay with him but he slowly moved away until he graciously walked through an aid station with less than 2 miles to go.  That allowed me to catch up and I remained behind him until there was about 1 mile left with a small uphill remaining followed by a long downhill finish.  I decided to push it and either open enough gap to discourage him or fail in trying.  I did not want another close finish either way.  I didn't look back, he didn't catch me.  My split was 1:59:56. I placed third with an overall time of 5:44:03 including some slow transitions.  My son placed 23rd in the highly competitive 40-44 age group in 4:44:13.

My knees and back survived just fine and I feel healthy.  I've scheduled a September evaluation at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota to evaluate my knees.  I have avoided this clinic visit for some time as I am afraid I will not like the analysis and recommendations.  But now its time to rest and recover and discover.