A few people have asked how it went, so here’s a quick race report from the Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island event last weekend. The day started with a 3 AM wakeup call. It was difficult to eat so early in the morning because I was still stuffed from a great dinner the night before in Federal Hill. We took a bus from Providence to the swim start in Narragansett beach. It was 5 AM and still dark out when we arrived, but the transition area was bustling with athletes and volunteers. After getting body marked, I went to check out my bike, pumped my tires, and got my swim to run transition area setup.
The 1.2 mile swim was in a protected beach with jetties that went out from the beach and also a jetty that is parallel to the beach about ¾ of a mile out. Unfortunately, a storm had rolled in the night before and the jetties weren’t doing their job of keeping the water calm. It was extremely choppy and the storm actually moved several of the course buoys – causing the race to be delayed 25 minutes. The water was actually so rough, that they made an announcement stating that anyone wanting to skip the swim because of the rough water could do so. I have to admit, I thought about it.
At 6:25 the pro men went off and the pro women went 2 minutes after them. At 6:30, the age group waves started. Each age group wave was ushered though a coral system with gates. Every 5 minutes another wave would go off and your group would move to the next section of the corral. It felt like we were cattle. Next thing I knew, I was standing at the edge of the water and the cannon shot. The water was really rough which made it hard to get a rhythm. You would swim up the crest of a wave and then come crashing back down the other side of it. It wasn’t fun when I would turn my head to breath and get a mouthful of salt water, and it was also difficult to see the buoys unless you were on top of a wave. Somehow I made it out of the water in 32 minutes, but I was so disoriented from getting tossed around that it took me two minutes to run the 50 meters to the timing mat at the edge of beach. My official time for the swim was 34:11 – 65/186 in my age group.
In the swim to bike transition area, they had wetsuit strippers. You would lay down on a mat and the volunteer would peel you like a banana. I found my bike and was off fairly quickly. I saved some time by jumping on my bike barefoot with my shoes already clipped to the pedals, but I think I lost an equal amount of time fiddling with my Velcro straps while trying to get my feet in my shoes while riding. T1 – 2:41
The bike ride was great for the first 10 miles with nice flat roads and a tail wind. After we hit about mile 10 or so, the rolling hills started. Some of them we pretty tough, but all the spectators on the side of the road made the 56 miles fly by. I was passed by some folks that were absolutely flying – everyone should experience the sound of a disk wheel flying by at greater than 25 MPH. I hit 42 MPH on one downhill section, but I went all the way down to 6 MPH at one point on the climb at mile 45. The last section of the ride was pretty crazy as we went through a rough section of providence – it looked like a triathlon graveyard as people lost water bottles / spare tubes / spare tires / etc from the pot holes and railroad tracks. I ended the bike at 2:58:07 / 18.9 MPH – 112/186 in my age group.
T2 was pretty uneventful. I made a nice dismount with the pedals still on the bike. Dropped off my bike, through on my shoes/visor, hit the porta potty, and was off. T2 – 2:40
I felt great at the start of the run, plenty of energy. About a half mile into the run, I met the hill. The two loop run course takes you up an incredibly steep ½ mile long hill. This hill was used for the street luge event when the X-Games was held in Providence. During a race overview on Saturday, the race director offered to announce the name of any age group competitor that ran the entire hill without walking some point of it. Let’s just say my name wasn’t announced. I ran the 1st half of the hill, walked the steepest potion, and then picked it back up as the grade became more reasonable. The remainder of the 1st loop went great, I was just chugging along. My first loop was 56 minutes – 8:37 min/mile – and I was thrilled.
At the beginning of the second loop I saw my wife and friends, which was great. I gave Sara a quick kiss – caught on video – and was off for the 2nd loop. Did I mention, that this was a two loop course and we were lucky enough to meet the hill a second time. After walking most of the hill the 2nd time, I was off. A short while after the hill my legs started cramping up pretty badly. I didn’t take my electrolyte pills on the bike as planned and I was really feeling it. All I could do was try to take in as much Gatorade as I could to hydrate the muscles and battle through it. I pretty much blew up and had a much slower 2nd loop of 1:07:06 – 10:19 min/mile. I ended the run in 2:03:04 / 9:24 pace – 93/186 in my age group.
My overall time was 5:40:43 – 687/1306 overall and 90/186 in my age group. It was an amazing event and I can’t wait for my next one. There were some unbelievably inspiring athletes of all ages – men and women their 40’s / 50’s / 60’s that kicked my butt. The volunteers and spectators were awesome. We wrapped up the weekend with an awesome time of kicking back with friends, drinking a few celebratory cocktails, and eating some great food.
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