Racine 70.3 Race Report
This race was very different for me on a couple fronts. First, this was the first 70.3 I've done that wasn't a pure A race, rather an A- race in prep for IMMOO. Additionally, , I had the whole family in tow...not just my wife.
I had a business trip to Europe come up about two weeks ago that had me leaving on Sunday and returning Wednesday night. As a result of this and the fact that IMMOO is my A race my taper was unconventional. I ended up doing a big tri day on the Saturday before my trip (8 days before the race). that included 1 hr of swimming, an 80 mile/4hr bike, and a 55 min/7 mile run. Sunday I hydrated and donned the compression tights for my trip to Italy. I had brought my running gear and intended to do a short run and hit the hotel gym bike, but neither materialized as business obligations and the requisite Italian wine and pasta took priority. I cut myself off for the trip home, and solely (almost) drank water on the long flight home. I was tired and jetlagged, but did get out for a short 5 mile run on Thursday AM to stretch out the legs. I knocked out about 1500 yds in the pool that night, and 17 miles on the road bike Friday morning.
I left for Racine on Friday morning during the peak of the heat wave. My car was reading 91 degrees at 10AM...I was thankful to be in an air conditioned car. We arrived in Racine around 3 local time and went straight to the Expo to sign in. Was reading the GroupMe texts that afternoon about the painfully cold water so took a detour to North Beach to check out the water first hand. I didn't get in, but a knee high walk in the water confirmed it was indeed cold so decided a short swim was in store for Saturday. Since I hadn't ridden the tri bike in over a week, I decided to go out for a short ride Saturday AM to make sure everything was functioning properly. As I was prepping my bike in the parking lot, Mirinda Carfrae walked up to me in her full kit and asked to use my bike pump. Had a brief conversation about the Racine course, the new IM Boulder, and wished each other good luck for the race. Knocked out a quick 9 miles and the bike checked out fine. From there grabbed a burrito at Chipotle and headed to the lake with two buddies from high school who were also doing the race. We donned our wetsuits and I was pleasantly surprised. The water was indeed cold (low 60s) but by no means unbearable and personally what I would consider ideal. 4-500 yards later I was done.
Hit up Noodles and Co with my family, my buddies and their families, and Coach R for dinner Saturday night.
Race Morning
Woke up at 2AM and down a large bottle of Naked Juice green smoothie, or about 600 calories. Went back to sleep and set the alarm for 4:45. Had a Powerbar and grabbed a bottle of Perform and headed to transition around 5:15. Transition closed at 6:30, but my wave didn't go off until 8, so I had a lot of down time after setting up transition. Missed the very punctual EN team pic by 2 minutes, but did meet a few new EN folks and had a brief chat with Sean Sullivan (Pro triathlete and son of ENer Jeff Sullivan) who I met at the Blue Ridge camp. From there, made the mile walk up the beach to the swim start with my buddies. Quick jump in the water then sat on the beach for 40 minutes watching the prior waves go off. Water was very choppy and we were seeing a lot of people being pulled from the swim, some only a few hundred yards into the race.
Swim 32:18 (1:40/100m), 12/255 AG, 116OA
The swim was rough. You swam out 3-400 yards, straight into the 3-5 foot surf. I started out in the front right..essentially the pole position. Given the conditions, the field quickly separated. I made it to the the first turn buoy and was already passing folks from the wave 4 minutes earlier. As I turned right....the surf became a left to right shift vs. straight ahead. That made pacing easier as I generally floated with the surf, but sighting was very difficult as I had to try and time it at the peak of the wave otherwise I couldn't see the buoy ahead. The water was like a washing machine and people were being tossed all around. I didn't make too much contact with others, and managed to find a decent groove despite swallowing loads of lake water. Also had to deal with pretty strong diesel fumes from the patrol boats. The carnage was very clear as each buoy had at least 2-3 people holding on gathering themselves. When I reached the final turn buoy I was disappointed that the surf didn't push us toward shore as much as I hoped. Folks were clearly limping home as I saw many different colored caps from prior waves. I suspected I would be 4-5 minutes slower than expected given the conditions, and it appeared I was more like 3 minutes slower so overall very pleased.
T1 - 3:17
Pretty long run up the beach, and along the entire length of the transition. I focused on keeping touches to a minimum by pre-loading my nutrition on the bike or in my tri top pocket so just had to put on my sunglasses and helmet and head out.
Bike - 2:32:24 pNorm 196 watts .73IF, 19/255AG, 127OA
Bike starts out with a relatively short, but steep climb to Main St. My shoes were clipped in to the pedals so I climbed the hill with my feet on top of my shoes, then settled in to a nice pace and slid the feet into the shoes. My goal was to spend the first 30 minutes at 200 watts then the balance at 220-225 (low Z3). The road conditions were very rough. So rough that if I lived in that area I would not train on them. There were consistent cracks every 20-25 feet for at least 90% of the ride. The course looked like a yard sale, everything from the normal bottles to spare tires, and I even saw an entire seat mounted bottle cage with two bottles in the cages still. The first 25-30 miles I hit my numbers and was averaging 23MPH which was a bit higher than I expected. I went for nutrition at the 20 minute mark to learn that my salt tabs were now a salt mush as the ziplock bag I had in my top during the swim had a hole in it. I tried to take in a bit more Perform to account for the missing 300mg of sodium, but couldn't take in much more than my planned 40oz/hr. I saw a number of EN folks on the bike. Carl and I passed each other a few times and saw someone on the side of the road after a crash that I now understand was Niels. As we reached the halfway point, I realized we had a pretty healthy tailwind helping us out as the back half was about 1-2 MPH slower. As I looked at the pro splits I saw a similar change. I had a hard time generating power for the last 25 miles, so decided to dial it down to low 200s and attributed it to the fatigue from travel and big week beforehand. By mile 40 I had lost 2-3 bottles from the constant vibration (all from my horizontal aerobar mount) and my left bar end shifter rattled loose. I probably wouldn't do this race again until they change the route or repave much of the roads. It made it very difficult to get in a groove or get comfortable.
T2 - 1:42
Quick transition...sat quickly to put on socks and shoes, grabbed hat and ran to run out as I put on my race belt.
Run - 1:38:09 (7:29/mile)
By now it was getting pretty hot, and there was little shade on the run course. I was worried about the lack of sodium from my salt cap incident so was focused on getting in more sodium early including salt tabs that were available per the athlete guide. My goal was to run 3 miles at 7:30 pace then dial down closer to 7 for the next 7 miles and see what I had left from there. I saw Coach R at the top of the first hill, less than a mile in. I was doing about a 7:15 pace, but decided to stick with it as I knew I was about 15-20 spots back in my AG and to see how I held up. I was starting to get pretty good side stitches in the first mile and was irritated when the first aid station told me they didn't have salt tabs. I took in some Perform and moved on. The middle 2/3 of the run are fairly flat with a mix of sun/shade. I had a low RPE, HR was where I expected, so gutted through the side stitches and found a groove. I knocked out the first 3.4 miles at a 7:07 pace. By mile 4, all aid stations were missing salt tabs, and some were already running out of ice. I held a mid 7s pace for the first 5-6 miles, but at that point I decided to back it down as I knew I was sodium deficient and while I felt I could turn it up back to the lower 7s, I knew I'd likely pay for it in terms of recovery this week. I started taking in cola for additional sodium which started to help, but once my pace dropped to the 7:45ish range, I settled in and decided to just finish at a consistent pace. By this time there were many people walking...many more than I remember in a HIM..almost felt like an IM, so even at a slower pace I was passing people left and right. I saw a lot of EN folks on the run thanks to the double out and back loop. Joe Motz particularly was chugging right along enroute to a top 20 AG finish in his first HIM!
Total 4:47:50, 16/255 in 35-39AG, 118 overall
This was a 9 minute PR for me, so was happy overall. 16th in the AG is roughly where I've been in the past despite pretty strong improvements but as this ST thread states, the 35-39 AG was pretty with guys at the pointy end of the distribution....a 4:12 finish wouldn't even get you top 5! That said, I felt like I left some time on the course on both the run and bike - some of which was intentional, some not. I have some serious work to do ahead of IMMOO to improve my bike, and need to extend my stamina on the run.
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| From Racine 70.3 |
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Comments
p.s. No complaining about the roads at Racine. They aren't that bad, really. Everyone goes on and on about how horrible they are but really it is just the parts at the beginning and end that everyone seems to remember...
Very well done Jeremy. Makes me feel better to hear you comments on the course-the tough swim and rough road conditions as I certainly had issues but have nothing to compare to. Look forward to the Wis camp and IM
Coming off the bike I felt as if I was getting baked by the sun. Had to slow myself down a few times then seen Coach Rich and he said, "Remember 3-7-3" and I followed that to a T. Agree about so many walkers I don't remember a 70.3 I've did and seeing that many!!
It was great to see you and looking forward to visiting with you in Wisconsin.
Very nice race all around and congrats on your PR