IM70.3WC Race Report

Sorry to take so long and for the brevity of the RR. Given my approach to the race if felt appropriate.

2011 IM70.3 World Championship Race Report
September 11th, 2011

Location: Lake Las Vegas, Nevada
Distance: 1.2-mile swim/56-mile bike/13.1-mile run
2011 Triathlon Race Number: 12
Career Triathlon Race Number: 112
Conditions: Low 90s and sunny. Light wind. 81 degrees water temperature.

Background

My second appearance at this World Championship race—I did the first Clearwater race back in 2006. This was the first year the race would be held in its new venue in Nevada. I had a very challenging week leading up to the race and wasn’t able to fly out to Nevada until late Friday night. Also, my prior five weeks of Ironman build left me extremely fatigued coming into the race.

I arrived at my hotel a little after midnight (3 a.m. my time) and decided to unpack my bike and put it together. I gave up around 2 after I determined that my rear derailleur hanger had been damaged during the trip. I slept very fitfully as I was less than 30 hours away from the start of the race and it wasn’t clear my bike would be available.

I did a short practice swim and run on Saturday morning and noted that I felt sore and tired—not what you’d ideally like before a half-Ironman. Around 10, I found a mechanic who worked on my bike for the better part of two hours and was finally able to get my bike working well enough to give it a go.

I did a short warm-up ride and then drove the course—what a monster—more on that later. I checked my bike in and went to bed early.

The Swim

Race morning dawned clear and with the promise of heat later in the day. Last week it was routinely in the 100/110s but yesterday was a very pleasant overcast 80 degrees. Today it would be hotter—indeed reaching the low to mid 90s with a blazing sun.

The water was over 76 degrees, so no wetsuit. The swim venue was a long, curving loop in the main part of Lake Las Vegas. I was in the 3rd wave—just after the pros. As I sat in the water I decided to just swim real easy. I was just to fatigued to really hammer today, and I felt it more important to “preserve” myself for my more important task of building for my “A” race at IMAZ. Not to say that I would have been very competitive had I gone for it, as the race was stacked with many of the best LC triathletes in the world.

I stayed to the far left—away from the buoy line and just cruised around the course. It seemed like everyone was faster than I. It did not deter me as I swam very comfortably and exited the swim with a 44:41. My heart rate averaged 148 bpm, which is remarkably low given no wetsuit. This was my second slowest H-IM swim time—the other coming in a non-wetsuit swim back in 2004. In comparison, my Kona time, at twice the distance was 80 minutes.

Not surprisingly, this was not very competitive. I was 1332th out of 1503 competitors (11.4%-tile). Back at Clearwater in 2006 I was 53.4 %-tile and I was no-where near as strong a swimmer as I am now.

Transition One

The first transition entailed a very lengthy run around the bottom of the lake back over to the side of the lake we started on. I grabbed my bike and exited T1 with an elapsed time of 5:27 and an average HR of 147bpm. Although I don’t have the comparative data, I’m sure this was one of the slower T1s this morning.

The Bike

The race director said there was about 5600 feet of climbing on this course (and I believe him) and so I had brought my training/road bike and training wheels—no aero helmet either. I’m glad I did as the course was quite challenging with many nervous descents. I was very cautious and sat up a lot and used my brakes to keep my top speed to 40 mph—other folks were blazing past me on the descents at well over 50 mph.

The course was beautiful—this would be a great place to come train. It always seemed up or down and the most challenging part came from 42-46 miles—a demanding 4-mile climb. My PM conked out around 15 miles and at that point I was averaging 195 watts—which is pretty decent given my lack of pedaling on the descents. I was routinely in the mid to high 200s on the climbs.

Obviously not my cup of tea but I enjoyed the ride and finished with an elapsed time of 3:06:04 and an average HR of just 140bpm. This was my slowest H-IM bike split of my career. I was 1234th in the bike (18.0 %-tile).

Transition Two

I took my time in transition two—even hit the porta-potty and finished T2 with a 3:39 (131 bpm).

The Run

The run venue is a big let down after the majesty of the bike course. It basically is contested on about a 2.2-mile hill that you run up and down 3 times. It’s right in the middle of Henderson on some very busy streets with traffic blasting a few feet away. The course is L shaped with the middle being near T2 and the finish—there also is a short flat section there. Consequently, you are almost always either going up or down in the run—difficult to find proper pacing. The course had over 700 feet of vertical so it certainly wasn’t a fast run course (for me). The sun was out and it was very hot.

I felt pretty good all things considered and with the heat I just tried to run an easy run. I stopped at every aid station and drank a lot, put ice in my hat and poured water all over myself. Despite all of this, by the end of the run I was quite dehydrated. Still, I had no trouble jogging around the whole course. Here are my splits (the variable nature is in part due to the hills):

1. 7:53/150 bpm
2. 9:17/155
3. 10:00/153
4. 9:24/152
5. 8:37/149
6. 9:23/148
7. 9:59/149
8. 10:04/150
9. 9:20/145
10. 9:52/145
11. 11:03/148
12. 11:10/152
13. 9:51/152

My total run time was 2:06:21, which I was fine with. This was the 1249th fastest (17.0 %-tile). Overall, I finished 1274th (15.2 %-tile) (I was 22.9 %-tile in Clearwater and 14.3 %-tile at Kona).


Conclusion

I’m pleased with the outcome of the race. Obviously, I didn’t race it but more participated in it. This was the right call and now a couple of weeks latter my body feels up to the rigors of IM training again. It was a privilege to be in this race and I know even if I was 100% that I would have probably been in the bottom 30%. Clearly, at this race and at Kona, I’m punching well out of my weight class!