Thomas Jones' Augusta 70.3 Race Report (1st HIM)
Swim - 32:05 – T1 – 5:01 - Bike - 2:54:48 – T2 – 4:31 - Run 2:02:12 AG - 146/366 OA - 765/3290
Race day- woke up at 4am; ate meal as planned ; dressed and at the transition by 5am; everything set up and ready to go – team pic at 6 am – on the bus and to the swim start before 7am
Swim – GOAL (32 – 35 min) ACTUAL (32:05 [1:39/100m]) - Water temp – 68 degrees wetsuit and fast current; 28 waves (starting at 7:30 am) – I was in wave 14 (8:24 am); got into the water about 90 seconds before the start to get acclimated to the water; tried to swim in the center where the current was the strongest; swim was smooth for the most part with very little contact
T1 – GOAL (5:00 min) – ACTUAL (5:01) – Slow is smooth and smooth is fast – I normally jog out of the water to the transition; I purposely walked this time; got to the strippers and got that handled fairly quickly; long trek from water to transition area; used the baggie technique which definitely shaved some time; I used to put everything on in transition; I was able to put my gloves and nutrition for my tri top while on the bike
Bike – GOAL (NP – 205; Time - 2:45 – 3:05) – ACTUAL (NP – 203; Time - 2:54:48)
Followed the EN guidelines and kept NP ~185-190 for first 20 minutes, keeping the heart rate down; then adjusted after; course was pretty flat (a few rollers) except between miles 35 & 40; it was pretty windy throughout the course – all headwinds; I was paranoid about the IM 7 lengths rule versus the USAT 3 lengths rule; I found myself not riding as steady as a result; I got frustrated by several people, a couple women in particular, who kept passing me and then slowing down (on a flat), forcing me to back off to keep the legal distance; I tried to avoid passing before a hill but that did not always happen, so I did find myself hammering up 2-3 rollers to complete a pass; other than that, ride wqas pretty steady; temperature was reasonable and weather was overcast throughout the ride, so I pared back the Perform to 4.5 bottles; so I did not pee on the bike…
T2 – GOAL (3:00 min) – ACTUAL (4:31 min);… however, I did pee in T2 (thanks for the heads up on the practice in advance – that made a difference); used the baggie technique again; probably could have shaved another minute off; I was positioned toward the back (about 14 rows in or so)
Run - GOAL (1:55:00 – 2:00:00) – ACTUAL (2:02:12) – I started off too fast here (got too excited with all the crowds); I knew better because I had tested it out in my run rehearsals – my plan was to do the first 3-4 miles at 9:15; actual first 4 miles was 8:45; as a result, pace fell off on miles 8-12 to ~10:00; last mile kick was <9:00; followed my nutrition plan pretty closely with perform every mile, salt tabs, and bloks as needed; I will definitely force myself to follow the plan at the beginning next time around; that cost me 4-5 minutes on the run <span>
This was overall a great place for an inaugural 70.3 – the course was easy, the crowds were great, and the event was well organized and executed. It was great to serve as race captain and meet a couple of the EN members and race with them.
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