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Ed Croucher's 2017 Ironman 70.3 Syracuse Race Report
My Race started on Saturday when I began adding salt. I knew that Sunday was going to be hot so, I had remembered what Mike Roberts had told me at Ironman Florida. I took in 1,500 mg's of sodium above my normal diet on Saturday. Sunday morning arrived and I was relaxed and ready. When I got out of my truck at the race site I noticed there was quite a bit more wind than I has hoped. I set up my bike with one Aero bottle full of Glukos and one concentrated bottle on my seat post. I pumped up the tires, turned on my 820 edge computer and headed to the water. I saw Peter Lautenslager on the way. That gave me a good charge. I had one other friend in the race, and we walked to the beach. I got in a good warm-up and felt ready to go. The good news for me was that my swim wave was 3rd so i didn't have long to wait. When the horn sounded, I was swimming and felt really good. My swim goal was 33 minutes. After the first 75 yards, I was passing another athlete and took a foot to my left eye. That filled my goggle with water. I kept swimming and tried to empty that lens but it just kept filling up. That made sighting more difficult. In the past, I have had a tough time swimming straight. Sunday I sighted a lot. I felt fast in the water. I was always passing. Like Peter had commented in his report, the minute I made the second turn I was hit in the face with wave after wave. Sighting was much harder. I never saw my time when I got out. I thought my watch said 38 minutes. It was actually 39 minutes. I jogged to a wet suit stripper and headed to T-1. I was having a hard time getting my heart rate to calm down. I need to swim a bunch more before Tremblant. My goal for T-1 was 3:00. I was a minute slower. When I got on my bike, my Garmin 820 was not showing power. I could not resolve that so I turned my watch back on to record the ride for post race analysis. However, I could not see the information on the watch so I had to ride by feel. The bike course was hard. I rode the course two weeks earlier at an IF of .80 and knew it was going to be tough. Sunday the wind and heat added stress. The longest climb on the course is about 7 miles and runs south. That was where the wind was coming from. That really added to how hard going up was. The wind knock me around the entire bike course. I just kept telling myself to stay aero. I knew there was a huge penalty for sitting up. The only thing that was working on my Garmin 820 was the speedometer and that was not building my confidence. I had a few "oh my!" instances on the downhill sections but I finished the bike without any issues. T-2 went ok bu still not fast enough. I need to cut at least a minute there too. The run is not one I would call fun. You have to run across a grass field. The ground was spongy and a good portion of this is on grade. You get to do this section 4 times, two up and two down. Once I was out on the road, running was better. However, my legs felt like I had ridden a full Ironman and not 56 miles. I had planned for the heat and brought a cooling towel and my RaceSaver bag. These two items helped my run the entire race. At mile 11, Peter Lautsenslager caught up to me. He was looking great and gave me a big charge when he passed. I tried to keep him in sight the rest of the run. That really helped me finish. I ended up 8th in my age group. My race time was 5:46:27.
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btw, I have had a wonky garmin issue in the past, I run my watch for the entire race, and have used it as a back up. I've found that by rotating it to the inside of my wrist, I can read it with little trouble in the aerobars.
Congrats on the finish!
FOR me, coming in 8th on a day that has big distractions like heat is a testament to veteran experience and ability to execute a smart race under tough conditions.
Always leading!
Congratulations!
SS
top 10 AG is warrior style! and you are one !