San Juan 70.3 Race Report - heading to Vegas on a roll of the dice!
San Juan 70.3 2012. Short version: 5:28:03 (including a 2:20 slog for the 1/2M) hanging on to 2nd M55-59. 30 registered with 22 finishers...1 slot available, mine at roll-down.
This was my first 70.3 since the 2009 World 70.3 at Clearwtater. I chose this race because it coincided with my daughter's spring break. My wife works in the school system so she had the same vacation time. So off to Puerto Rico we went. The Caribe Hilton is the race hotel and is conveniently situated between the swim exit on one side and T1 which is at a sports stadium just down the road. It's a very nice hotel, although food was quite pricey. For that matter, food was expensive just about everywhere we went. We showed up on Wednesday and spent all of Thursday checking out the sites downtown including a 2 hour Segway tour. Did more sight seeing on Friday. The Caribe has excellent swimming in it's own lagoon and you can run downtown fairly easily from there, but don't plan on doing much of a bike warm-up...the roads are just too dangerous with all the traffic...except on race day which had a closed course. Here I am prior to the race start. The truck was for transporting the morning clothes bag to the transition area.
Swim - 35:07, non-wetsuit swim in 79 degree beautifully clear water. The race starts in a protected lagoon across a bridge from the Caribe. The water was calm on race morning. You head down several hundred yards, take a right, another right, then head back but past the starting point. As you approach the bridge, you could feel the current coming against you as you reached the part of the lagoon that was open to the Atlantic. The last several hundred yards took a lot more work as the chop picked up and the current rushed in. The swim ends at a sea wall on the back side of the Caribe. They built a wooden ramp and steps to clear the jetty and get you over the wall and onto the road. As soon as I stood up, my left hamstring cramped (a bad sign of things to come). My watch said 34:40 so it took my 27 seconds to limp over the steps to the timing matts below.
T1 - the distance from the swim exit to transition in Sixto Escobar stadium was a good 600 yards or so. I left a pair of shoes just past the timing matts but struggled to get them on with my left leg still cramping. At this point I was 2nd in my age group, but only by 11 seconds. That guy took 8:57 for T1 to my 4:27. They had a small shower set up right after the exit, but no water station to get the salt water out of your mouth. My first drink was on the bike.
Bike - 2:28:16. Yeah, that was too fast. There are a lot of overpasses as you make your way out of the city and back into it. Other than that, it's pretty flat. I brought my flat course bike with a standard crank and a 12-21 cassette. It was more than enough. The course was well marked with cones to keep you from making any wrong turn. The middle portion of the course includes a double loop. They had 2 water stations that you hit twice on the course, but the last one came at 37 miles which was not ideal. But the biggest drawback was that the road surface wasn't the best. You really had to watch for rough patches, potholes and the like. I came the closest I ever have to crashing in a race at about 55 miles when I hit some very rough pavement that actually knocked me out of my aero bars...and caused a leg cramp. I was probably about 5 mins slower than my "could" split for this course, but apparently did not dial it back enough.
T2 - As I went to dismount my bike my left hamstring cramped again and I just leaned over the bike until it finally subsided...then limped and walked to my numbered spot. At this point, I was about 11 minutes ahead of the next guy in my age group. It was mine to win or lose.
Run - As I left the stadium, I tried to run a dozen times but now my right hamstring was cramping with every attempt. Finally, after about 1/2 mile of agony, I was able to run and thinking I was going to be OK. Then I started to get really, really hot. The trade winds had picked up every day and I was looking for a cooling breeze and on this day it just wasn't there. I was running steady but already suffering by 5 miles. I started putting ice in my back pockets and down the front of my suit. That helped, but at 7 miles I started cramping again...bad. At this point I just wanted to finish. I was walking up the hills and running - if you could call it that - from pole to pole. I even had to go backwards down the final steep hill. When my calves started cramping I knew it was bad. I'm guessing that somewhere around 11 miles I lost the lead and fell back to 3rd. At 12, I recognized one guy ahead of me and gutted out the last mile to move one place up. I didn't know whether I had held on or not, but found out shortly after that I lost by about 2 1/2 minutes. My 'run' was only 2:20, about 20 mins slower than any nightmare scenario I had envisioned. But as always it was great to have completed something so arduous. Fellow EN members, David Martin and Cary Blanco were there also. I hope they'll file reports and comment on the conditions. David came by me on the run when I was totally spent and gave me encouragement...great to be out there with teammates!
Going to Vegas - there was only 1 slot for my age group so I didn't expect to get it when I found out that I lost. But at the pre-race briefing (in English and Spanish) they were very clear that if you qualified automatically you had to register for your slot between 2-4pm BEFORE the awards ceremony. If you did not, then you forfeited the slot and could not claim it at roll down. So at the awards ceremony, the winner mentions he wants to go to Vegas and the 3rd place guy tells him that it's probably too late. I saw him go up and ask about it while they were finishing the awards, but I hung around for roll-down because I was pretty sure WTC would follow the rules, and I did not want to lose the slot to the next guy. San Juan had 30 slots and 15 went at roll-down. They announced the status of each age group as always. When mine came up, David Ragsdale called my name and it was over just like that. Most age groups had only one slot, and the farthest one rolled down was 4th .. most went to the very next person.
I'm happy to be going to Vegas, but it was an ugly performance and poor execution on my part, and an ugly way to get a slot when the winner forfeits not because he doesn't want it, but because he didn't understand the rules. Hard lessons all around. The San Juan 70.3 serves as Race Rehearsal #1 for my next race ... St Croix 70.3. Conditions will be worse. I have work to do.
Top 3 M55-59 on stage...me in the center. The winner (and loser) is on my right wearing jeans.
Comments
great race report Paul
good work and way to build that mental sixpack.
were you taking electrolyte pills of some sort? I have found that in the last couple of years (since getting close to 50), that when I do not take them I cramp really bad especially in heat.
great race and congrats. Way to represent NOS.
Paul
Paul - I'm glad you're going to Vegas, no matter how it came about. I know you will ride much smarter this September, as I am sure you are still chastising yourself over your run performance. Since you are a life-long quality runner, and an ENer, you KNOW it was all decided for you on that bike leg. No matter how many times we hear it, it may not really sink in until we experience it ourselves, as I did in Hawaii in 2009.
I saw a similar roll down scenario play out in AZ last Nov. A 35-39 female, an automatic qualifier for Kona, decided not to take her slot until the roll-down. She didn't want to go unless her younger sister, who was on the bubble, actually got a slot. The older sister ran up to get her slot before Mike Reilly had announced the name, and had to endure a public humiliation (this was at the awards banquet) when she learned that yes, the rules are the rules. I've seen at least two other guys in my AG miss roll down slots because they also did not understand the concept.
Congrats.
@ Paul - I was taking S caps on the bike (but lost about 30% of my pills on a bad bump) and S Caps + Magnesium tabs on the run. The damage was done on the bike though. The lost pills and the long stretch from the last bike water station to T2 was part of the problem. However, the cramp coming out of the water is bothersome...I am going to stretch more before St Croix and try a few other things. I will also be racing St Croix with a powertap...first time race with one.
@ Al - I'm seeing a CSCS next weekend to assess my functional strength. Still, I executed like an EN ninja drop-out. Roll-down is always an interesting spectacle. Most get it, but enough don't that there's always disappointment for some and elation for others!
@ Matt - yep...counting ITU World Long Course, this will be my 3rd Worlds. Now, if I could only make Kona I would feel complete!
It was great meeting you and your family in San Juan, I'm glad I was easily spotted wearing the 4 keys shirt at registration.
Congrats on your Vegas slot, and I don't think anyone had an easy run that day. Good luck on the rest of your Caribbean excursions.
It was much hotter this year. I had another bad day, starting with a flat on the bike (took aprox. 8 minutes to change, i gotta get it down to 5) , I kept my old tube in my tri-shorts and went to throw it out at the aid station and the WIND BLEW THE TUBE BACK INTO MY SPOKES/CASSETTE!!!! Took me more then 5 minutes unwind it!
I'll be back for more punishment in 2013, I've got family down there and it's a great excuse to leave NY in March.
Looking forward to hear how you deal with "The Beast".