Haines City 70.3 Race Report

 So... I haven’t posted anything yet this year, and I had plenty of time to kill at the airport. So while the race is still fresh in my mind, let’s get a recap:

Haines City was a free race for me thanks to Wattie Ink, and I had by buddy Mitch to travel down here with. It also lined up well in my schedule to get a warmer race in before Ironman Tulsa. Coming from the Midwest, I hadn’t had the opportunity to train in weather warmer than 60 degrees, so the 80’s and humidity shocked the body a bit. I didn’t quite have the race I wanted, but I left it all out there and came away with a solid result and new knowledge.

Pre-Race with my bestie

Pre-Race: We flew down the Friday before the race, and this was the first time I’ve packed my bike. Everything went smooth on that end, and my gear was all ready to go. 
When referencing my place, I’m excluding the pros. 

1000 yard swim at Lucky's before the race

Swim (32:22 – 49th): The swim was not wetsuit legal, so I swam in my QR swim skin. A very interesting swim being an “M” shape, but I thought I handled it well. I started farther back than I would have liked, but athletes were jumping the line to start sooner. I made a fair number of passes and maintained a comfortably hard effort. I was very happy with how I swam even though the results show me 10th in my age group out of the water. 

 

T1 (4:09): I was a little more winded than normal coming up out of the water, and transition was around 1/2 mile. The bike started uphill after the mount line, and my rack was closer to the end of transition. I opted to skip the flying mount and put my shoes on at my bike. After ripping off one of the back straps to pull up my right shoe, I was on my way.

Looking back at the tracker, I jumped up 17 places to 32nd with this transition. 

 

Bike (2:22:07 - 26th): I spent the first 15-20 miles passing quite a few people during the windier section of the bike. From the tracker, I moved up 14 places to 18th during the first 16 miles. On the bike it was hot with the sun out, and we fought a headwind for the first half of the ride. I paid close attention to drinking enough fluid with my 35oz aero bottle and stayed well hydrated. My power was about 10-15 watts lower than my target, so I switched over to perceived effort and HR to gauge how hard to push. I’d say I road smart but ran my HR a little high. I also sprinted by a draft line so they couldn’t grab my wheel, and I may have overcooked it a bit there. Off bike I was sitting in 20th, and my split was 8th for my age group. 

 

T2 (3:07): Another long transition, and a very annoying one with how far I needed to push my bike with flopping shoes. I ended up stopping to pull them off to not risk losing one. Socks and shoes came on quick, and I was off. 

 

Last 1/2 mile I gave it everything

Run (1:25:48 - 23rd): Normally the run is my time to shine, but I was not able to hit the pace I was expecting. I had to slow down considerably to keep my HR in check, and even then, I maintained over 170bpm after mile 1. Without any feedback on race position, I focused on maintaining my effort and stayed on damage control. I hit the aid stations efficiently grabbing around 4 cups per (Water, ice in kit, Gatorade and more ice or dumping water).

My 1 major mishap was shaking my salt without my thumb over the top. So at mile 3, I threw all of my salt into my eye... yeah...

I also heavily bonked miles 8-9, slowing my pace by 40s/mile. After getting a Gu in me (that I should have taken at mile 6), I was back on pace.

With 2 miles to go, I bumped my HR into the 180s and hit a high of 191 at the finish. My run was the 4th fastest for my age group.

 

Wattie Ink Elite Team with some hardware!

Summary: This was my first Ironman event in over a year and a half! The last few races I did were smaller with much less competition, so I was excited to see how I’d stack up. With the venue in Florida, my body was not used to the heat and humidity after training in the Midwest all Winter. I made it a point to spend as much time outside as I could, even eating dinner in the back of our Airbnb.

My swim was very strong, and probably the leg I am the happiest with. Even after decreasing my weekly swim yards from 10,000 to 5-6K, I still held a solid pace of 1:31/100 yards.

I think I handled the bike well despite not being able to hold my goal watts. I switched to racing by feel/HR, but still feel like I overexerted just a little bit by the end.

When I got to the run, I thought I was ready to run down most of the field. After seeing my HR hit 170 on mile 1 at 6:40 pace, I knew I was in trouble. I mostly focused on maintaining the effort and staying on damage control. I had 1 nutritional hiccup, and probably added a minute to my time had I taken my Gu when I needed to.

I finished the last mile strong but was carrying a lot of grit on my face. Overall, I am happy with my 3^rd place Age Group and 8^th Overall Amateur finish. But, I can tell you I am not fully satisfied. The 2 athletes that beat me in my AG also went 1 & 2 overall, and they beat me by 10 minutes. This is tough for me to swallow since I was such a distant 3^rd in a race I thought I could win.