2017 TriFtWorth 70.3 for Marvin Karlow
2017 was the first year for Tri Ft Worth. The event combines a 70.3 and 140.6 on the same day with overlapping but distinct courses for half and full distance races. I assumed there would be some first year issues, which there were, but that if I went with the 70.3 distance, I would be able to work through them on race day. I finished in 6:38 which is a 60 minute PR over my last 70.3 2 years ago at Honu.
The race had about 100 full and 600 half distance participants. There was an expo at the Ft Worth Convention Center on Friday and Saturday with packet pickup. Gear drop was on Saturday between 12 and 5. Bikes had to be dropped on Saturday, but bags were allowed to be dropped on Sunday. TriFtWorth is a split transition race with T1 at the lake where the swim happens and T2 at the Ft Worth Convention center where the run starts and finishes.
The swim occurs at Marine Creek Lake about 10 miles north of downtown Ft Worth. It is a relatively small lake so the 70.3 course looped about half the lake, while the full distance swim basically followed the shoreline. There were shuttles to take participants and spectators from the Convention Center to the lake.
It was raining race morning so the swim start was delayed about 30 minutes. This was on top of the relatively late 8:00 scheduled start of the swim. My understanding is that the later start was designed to avoid conflict between full and half distance swimmers but that never made any sense to me. In an case we jumped off the boat dock into the lake about 8:30 and were off. The water temp was wet suit legal and the lake was relatively calm. I enjoyed the swim and there was certainly less contact than an IM event. I got out of the water at 50 minutes and was somewhat surprised since I was expecting more like 40. I chalked it up to taking it really easy and figured it would benefit me later in the day. It was only after the race that I learned that the swim course had been mismarked and was actually 2500 yards.
T1 was up a steep boat ramp and across a grass field with wet suit strippers. T1 went according to plan and my 6 minute time was mostly moving time.
I realized during the swim that while I had loaded hydration onto my bike, I'd failed to load my nutrition. The morning clothes bags had already been taken so there was nothing I could do to retrieve it. Just a bone headed move. I figured I would drink the two bottles on my bike and grab something at the first aid station.
My heart rate was right where I wanted it at 140 and I held my watts around my plan of 130 for the first 15 miles. There turned out to be no nutrition at the first aid station at 15 miles so I just grabbed hydration (BASE Hydro) and carried on. Fortunately, the second aid station came at about mile 25 and I was able to get PowerBars and PowerGels. I ate a whole power bar and a gel immediately. I realized pretty quickly that I'd eaten too fast but fortunately, the discomfort passed in about 20 minutes. I decided that rather than trying to 'catch up' I would just get on my calorie plan for the day. However, I was not planning to use PowerBars so I didn't know how many calories or sodium I was getting in a bar, so I went by feel. I ended up eating 2 PowerBars and 3 PowerGels on the bike and consuming about 4 bottles on Base Hydro.
From mile 20 on I pushed the watts up to 135-140 and a HR of 145-150. I didn't display speed on my 920xt but based on the 5 mile lap times, I knew I was running around 17 mph which put me right on my target for the bike.
My #1 goal for this race was to execute well, which I'd never done before, and my #2 goal was to get as close to 6:00 as I could. I knew based on race rehearsals that 6:00 was slightly out of reach but I thought maybe 6:10 or 6:15 with perfect execution. The 50 minute swim and 6 minute T1 eliminated my second goal, so I shifted my complete focus to perfect execution.
I had the typical EN experience on the bike ... passed going up the hills by people crushing it, passing them coasting on the down hills. Toward the end of the bike I began dropping people that I'd been playing cat and mouse with all day. Several in my age group that I saw for the last time between miles 40 and 56 on the bike. I finished the bike in 3:18.
T2 was actually a room in the convention center. I dropped bike gear, put on shoes, grabbed my EN 'go bag', and headed out. T2 was right at 2 minute with again, most of the time moving. My HR was right on target at 155 and I got my pace down from 7:30 to my target of 10:00 as quickly as possible. Mile 1 was 9:30 and included putting on my hat and pulling on my race belt.
The first 2 miles were on roads headed to Trinity Park where the middle 9 miles of the run were along path following the Trinity River. We lucked out with the weather and even though the run started at 12:30 for me, temps were in the 70's. I put ice in my ziplock 'go bag' at mile 1. I took a gel at mile 2 along with Base Hydro. I alternated the ice bag between my hands and inside my trisuit. I walked the aid station at mile 3 where I took more Base Hydro. My stomach was a bit unsettled so I decided I was just going to run until I felt that I really needed something again. I really wanted to even split the run so I focused on my Box and on running well and getting through the Line. The Line hit at mile 8.5 on a steep, but short, uphill to the turn around. I walked about 150 paces back down the hill to the aid station at the bottom. Took one gel, a water, and filled up with ice. I also saw a team mate coming into the aid station with perked up my spirits and I decided that was my last walk until the finish line.
I worked hard to get my pace back up after mile 8 but the course was net uphill for the last 3 miles and so I missed even splitting by about 5 minutes. I finished with nothing left. That, combined with the near even split and a total time of 2:18 on the run, made me feel like I'd achieved my execution goal.
Thanks to EN for all the excellent training and coaching. I'm confident that if I continue to follow the plan, 6:00 is within reach.
The race had about 100 full and 600 half distance participants. There was an expo at the Ft Worth Convention Center on Friday and Saturday with packet pickup. Gear drop was on Saturday between 12 and 5. Bikes had to be dropped on Saturday, but bags were allowed to be dropped on Sunday. TriFtWorth is a split transition race with T1 at the lake where the swim happens and T2 at the Ft Worth Convention center where the run starts and finishes.
The swim occurs at Marine Creek Lake about 10 miles north of downtown Ft Worth. It is a relatively small lake so the 70.3 course looped about half the lake, while the full distance swim basically followed the shoreline. There were shuttles to take participants and spectators from the Convention Center to the lake.
It was raining race morning so the swim start was delayed about 30 minutes. This was on top of the relatively late 8:00 scheduled start of the swim. My understanding is that the later start was designed to avoid conflict between full and half distance swimmers but that never made any sense to me. In an case we jumped off the boat dock into the lake about 8:30 and were off. The water temp was wet suit legal and the lake was relatively calm. I enjoyed the swim and there was certainly less contact than an IM event. I got out of the water at 50 minutes and was somewhat surprised since I was expecting more like 40. I chalked it up to taking it really easy and figured it would benefit me later in the day. It was only after the race that I learned that the swim course had been mismarked and was actually 2500 yards.
T1 was up a steep boat ramp and across a grass field with wet suit strippers. T1 went according to plan and my 6 minute time was mostly moving time.
I realized during the swim that while I had loaded hydration onto my bike, I'd failed to load my nutrition. The morning clothes bags had already been taken so there was nothing I could do to retrieve it. Just a bone headed move. I figured I would drink the two bottles on my bike and grab something at the first aid station.
My heart rate was right where I wanted it at 140 and I held my watts around my plan of 130 for the first 15 miles. There turned out to be no nutrition at the first aid station at 15 miles so I just grabbed hydration (BASE Hydro) and carried on. Fortunately, the second aid station came at about mile 25 and I was able to get PowerBars and PowerGels. I ate a whole power bar and a gel immediately. I realized pretty quickly that I'd eaten too fast but fortunately, the discomfort passed in about 20 minutes. I decided that rather than trying to 'catch up' I would just get on my calorie plan for the day. However, I was not planning to use PowerBars so I didn't know how many calories or sodium I was getting in a bar, so I went by feel. I ended up eating 2 PowerBars and 3 PowerGels on the bike and consuming about 4 bottles on Base Hydro.
From mile 20 on I pushed the watts up to 135-140 and a HR of 145-150. I didn't display speed on my 920xt but based on the 5 mile lap times, I knew I was running around 17 mph which put me right on my target for the bike.
My #1 goal for this race was to execute well, which I'd never done before, and my #2 goal was to get as close to 6:00 as I could. I knew based on race rehearsals that 6:00 was slightly out of reach but I thought maybe 6:10 or 6:15 with perfect execution. The 50 minute swim and 6 minute T1 eliminated my second goal, so I shifted my complete focus to perfect execution.
I had the typical EN experience on the bike ... passed going up the hills by people crushing it, passing them coasting on the down hills. Toward the end of the bike I began dropping people that I'd been playing cat and mouse with all day. Several in my age group that I saw for the last time between miles 40 and 56 on the bike. I finished the bike in 3:18.
T2 was actually a room in the convention center. I dropped bike gear, put on shoes, grabbed my EN 'go bag', and headed out. T2 was right at 2 minute with again, most of the time moving. My HR was right on target at 155 and I got my pace down from 7:30 to my target of 10:00 as quickly as possible. Mile 1 was 9:30 and included putting on my hat and pulling on my race belt.
The first 2 miles were on roads headed to Trinity Park where the middle 9 miles of the run were along path following the Trinity River. We lucked out with the weather and even though the run started at 12:30 for me, temps were in the 70's. I put ice in my ziplock 'go bag' at mile 1. I took a gel at mile 2 along with Base Hydro. I alternated the ice bag between my hands and inside my trisuit. I walked the aid station at mile 3 where I took more Base Hydro. My stomach was a bit unsettled so I decided I was just going to run until I felt that I really needed something again. I really wanted to even split the run so I focused on my Box and on running well and getting through the Line. The Line hit at mile 8.5 on a steep, but short, uphill to the turn around. I walked about 150 paces back down the hill to the aid station at the bottom. Took one gel, a water, and filled up with ice. I also saw a team mate coming into the aid station with perked up my spirits and I decided that was my last walk until the finish line.
I worked hard to get my pace back up after mile 8 but the course was net uphill for the last 3 miles and so I missed even splitting by about 5 minutes. I finished with nothing left. That, combined with the near even split and a total time of 2:18 on the run, made me feel like I'd achieved my execution goal.
Thanks to EN for all the excellent training and coaching. I'm confident that if I continue to follow the plan, 6:00 is within reach.
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Comments
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SS
I had several athletes competing in FTW and most of the wetsuit strippers were from one of my local tri groups, DFW Tri Club. First year events are always moving targets, but I sincerely hope the event continues for a long time and never sells out (to WTC)!