McCallum Texas 70.3 Race Report. That damn 12 seconds!
Race week started out rather sucky. On Monday we received a call that my son was sick and needed to come home from school early. I ended up catching his stomach bug and spent a good portion of Tuesday throwing up. Once the vomiting subsided, every muscle and joint in my body was cramped up. I then spent Wednesday throwing up from the other end (sorry for the TMI). Needless to say, I wasn't sure what that was going to mean for the race a few days later. I had lost 5-6 pounds and was feeling pretty weak. I was able to eat and drink normally from Thursday going forward so I just hoped to regain as much strength as possible.
My brother was coming down from Boston to do the race so I picked him up from the airport on Thursday night. I went for a 3 mile run on Friday morning to knock of some of the rest as I had not done one bit of exercising since the previous Saturday. Felt okay.
Drove the 75 miles down to Galveston on Saturday afternoon. Did the athlete and bike check-in, checked into the hotel, ate some dinner and called it a night.
Woke up at 5:15am race morning. Ate a Chobani greek yogurt, a Poptart, some applesauce, some coffee, a Gatorade and went down to transition. Pumped up my tires, laid out my gear, filled up my Torhans with some Perform and went back to the hotel to go #2 and slather up with BodyGlide and Aquaphor. I also ate a Honey Stinger Waffle.
The weather was not as warm as it had been in prior years. It still got up to 75 degrees and what started out as a cloudy day ended up very sunny.
Swim
My wave went off at 7:35. It was the middle of the three M40-44 waves. There were 432 registered in the M40-44 AG. I figure 380 or so jumped in the water and did the race.
The water around here had been unseasonably cool because our nights have remained cool. Normal water temps for the Texas 70.3 are between 70-72 degrees. The water was 65 on race day.
I had no desire to battle with people so I decided to swim wide right and angle my way back in. I pretty much did the whole swim unmolested. I did the typical McCallum HIM/IM swim of going at a very easy pace. There's never a need to wear yourself out on the swim. That was especially on my mind this day because I knew being sick all week was going to kick my ass at some point during the day.
Swim time was 34:29, which placed me 61st in my AG.
T1
T1 was changed from previous years and an already long run from the swim exit to transition was made even longer. T1 time was 4:33. Too long for some reason. I didn't particularly lollygag around in there but I was slow nonetheless.
Bike
The wind pattern for this race is normally a S to SW wind and 15+ mph. That usually meant a crosswind/headwind first half and a crosswind/tailwind second half. This year the winds came from the SSE so it was predominantly crosswinds with a very slight tailwind going out and a slight headwind coming back. I think winds were 10-12mph. This meant for a more "even" ride but I always liked the tailwind coming home. I think last year I did about 20mph the first half and 26mph the second half.
Averaged about 23mph the first half and a little less than 22mph the second half. Total bike time was 2:30:21. That moved me up to 34th in the AG.
I had thought any weakness from being sick earlier in the week would bite me on the run but it actually hit me on the bike. I normally ride a HIM at close to 85% FTP but decided to ride closer to 80% to conserve energy. I held that for maybe half the ride and then I had to back off another 10 watts or so. Ended up riding about 78% but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Drank about 3.5 bottles of Perform and 3.5 bottles of water.
T2
2:58. Nothing special.
Run
Thanks to the Hoka One One shoes, my run training had finally been very consistent and injury free. I decided to run about a 8:15/mile pace for the first mile or so and then run 8:00/mile pace until I couldn't. Pretty much ran a consistent 8:00-8:15 pace until the last two miles when I started to wear down.
Drank a couple of cups of water at each aid station. Had some coke or a gel every three miles. Took in a Salt Stick capsule every three miles.
Finished the run in 1:47. That's my best HIM run by about 6 minutes. I normally give up close to 20 spots from the bike to run and I only gave up four spots. I really do credit the Hoka's.
Misc.
My goal was to go sub-5. I finished in 5:00:11. That was good for 38th in the M40-44 AG and 312th overall out of 2,400 starters. So about top-10% AG and top-13% overall.
I'm not going to lie. That 12 seconds does annoy the shit out of me. I certainly could have done something... anything 12 seconds faster but whatever. I saw my wife and son walking along the course towards the finish line. I was probably less than a mile from the finish. I walked with them for several seconds. It probably cost me finishing in 4:59:59 but so what. I was really struggling the last couple of miles. My splits were dropping into the 8:30-8:40 range so the few seconds of family time were mentally better than finishing 12 seconds faster. I'm Type A but not that Type A.
PR of about 6 1/2 minutes at the distance and at this race. Not bad considering the sickness earlier in the week.
I nailed my nutrition perfectly. I never felt sloshy, hungry, bloated, bonky, etc.
This was my brother's second HIM. He PR'd the distance by 9 minutes despite not being able to train like he wanted due to a huge work project he'd been in charge of all spring.
Next up is IMTX in six weeks. Hoping to go sub-11 there.
Comments
Make sure you catch the stomach flu 7-10 days before IM TX
Nice job Bob. That PR on the run is very telling. Like you say you nailed the pacing and nutrition. Ninja! And oh man that 12 seconds would be staring me down and taunting me too, but like you said, whatever! I'd be willing to bet clock times are off by twice that much with wave starts anyway. Looks like a big PR in the works for IMTX based on this one? Great Job!
Bob,
Nice race and tough on the 12 second. Given the sickness prior a great race.
I have to ask, do you thing the run PR was all the shoes along with the consistent training? Or could you contribute some of that to a more conservative swim and bike pacing?
Gordon
I knew I was cutting it real close to 5:00 the last couple of miles. I saw them walking next to the run course towards the finish line and my one and only thought was the Chris G. situation where he was "that" close to the finish line and the worst thing imaginable happened. I'm certainly far from being the most sensitive and emotional guy on the planet but I couldn't just go whizzing past them without taking a brief moment... because you just never know if it might be your last.
Sentimental moment over.
Good race. Was there as well. These early races are good tests for indicators where the work is needed. Glad you had a good race even if 11 seconds was a concern. I wish I could say that. Maybe they could extend the turnaround further to reduce that garbage at the return.
Nice job, Bob! I know the 12 seconds suck, but it's hard to be disappointed anytime you PR. Good luck at IMTX and hope you nail sub11!