Rhode Island 70.3 - July 12, 2009

Background

My original season goal was to qualify for the 70.3 Championship in Clearwater. I signed up for the Rev 3 1/2 IM in June and then was going to race short in July and then let it all hang out at Timberman in August. Unfortunately our traditional July vacation had to be moved to August, so I switched, late this Spring, to race the RI 70.3 in July instead.

After the pounding I took at the Rev 3, I needed some recovery time. So, one week gone out of my training. But that should have left me plenty of time to set up for a mid July race. I, then, decided to do the Harpoon Brewery to Brewery Ride June 20th. The B2B is a 148 mile ride from Boston, MA to Windsor, VT. Two factors here: 1) I hadn't been on the bike for more than 75 miles this year, 2) I was sucked into youthful enthusiasm and hammered it not wanting to be outdone by some Lance Armstrong wanna be. I'm really smarter than that, but one of my goals for the last few years is to make sure I have fun and not be such a training robot that I had turned into before I had kids. Mission accomplished. The B2B was a ton of fun and if I was racing in August, would have been a non event as it related to my triathlon racing. But alas, I was racing in July and I smoked my 42 year old body and needed more down time.

As July came around, it was apparent to me that I wasn't ready for prime time. I had very little running or swimming from June 7th to July 1st. So, I emailed my coach and reset my expectations to race strong and try to peak later in the year at a race TBD.

As for the race itself, I wasn't thrilled with the set up of RI 70.3, but I did the race because it was the only 70.3 that was local and fit my schedule. Now that I have done it, my pre race fears were validated and it would be unlikely that I'll do it again. IM North America is always extremely well organized. I would seek out a 70.3 race, jut not this one. The logistics of starting in Narragansett and finishing in Providence was a nightmare for me with a wife and two kids in tow. Then there were a few other complaints that I will mention later.

Pre Race

We arrived in Providence Saturday. What a great City. Its what Hartford could be but is not. We checked into the Westin, which is a great hotel and had lunch at Joe's and sat outside right across the street from transition.

The check in and expo was inside at the Convention Center and I thought it was pretty good. Now for the logistics. Our run bag had to be in transition in Providence by 6PM on Saturday. Oops, I didn't bring a second pair of shoes so I wasn't going to be doing any running as a warm up before the race start in Narragansett. My bike had to be in Narragansett Saturday, as well, if I wanted to take the bus Sunday morning. I have a 4 year old and 2 year old, so I wasn't dragging my family to a 6AM start 45 minutes away. So, we drove to Narragansett to drop off the bike. We did go to the beach for a few hours which was fun. But, as the first nice weekend of the Summer, the traffic was horrible.

That night was uneventful except the Parade that wasa outside the window at 10PM that got everyone to the window. 3AM wake up call. One of the benefits of having everything checked in the night before is there isn't much to do in the morning. I had to catch a 4AM bus to get me to transition at 4.45. Transition was scheduled to be closed at 5.45 before the 6AM Pro start. My wave didn't go off until 6.55. So, basically that got me to the start 2 hours early with no running shoes and we were not allowed to take our bike out of transition. BUT, all our clothes had to be on the truck by 6AM. Which meant hanging out in my wet suit for an hour, which became 1.5 hours when the start was delayed because they had to reset the buoys. By the way, you couldn't bring a pump, because they announced that they wouldn't transport it back for you. All that to me, isn't worth it. I'd rather have all my stuff in one place, have my family able to watch and be able to warm up properly.

Race Day - Swim

A squall came through RI Saturday Night (soaking my run transition bag). The rain was gone Sunday morning but the wind remained. The wind was so strong, it had blown the buoys off their markers. The race was delayed 25 minutes, so I was off at 7.20AM. I got a bad start in that my goggles were leaking and I had to stop twice to fix them. I settled in to my swim. It was very hard to site with the swells and I was taking quite a beating. I happen to swim pretty well in conditions like that so I tried to use it to my advantage. One thing I have to work on is pushing on the swim. I generally put out very little real effort for fear of burning too many matches early. But, I have to push a little, because there is time there to be had. I got the beach in about 28+ minutes and there was a long run up the beach to transition so my official time was 30.14.

T1

With IM, you have to deal with the transition bag. I had to take my bike stuff out, get dressed and then stuff my wet suit et al in the bag. That takes a loooong time. My transitions have been bad the last few years and I really need to work on them. I gave up about 1 minute over the people that ended up finishing around my time or faster.

2.50

Bike

A nice tail wind... the first 20 miles was blazing. I crossed the 5 mile mark in 12 minutes and the 10 mile mark in 25 minutes. The second part of the course was out of the wind and through rolling hills. Nice, not too hard. I REALLY tried to hold back because I'm trying not too push to hard, as I always do, and have nothing left for the run. Even holding back, I was on track for a sub 2.30. There were several intersections where traffic was backed up and we had to ride single file which was very frustrating and broke rythym.

I had switched to Perpetum for nutrition and have had great results. But, I ran out about a week ago. I figured I could buy some at the expo. No dice. So, I switched back to Sustained Energy. I felt a little off. I like Perpetum better and need to make sure I have it hand next time. I factored into the run a little but no real big deal. I also, rented a rear disc from Race day Wheels so I could have a Power Tap while I was racing. it ended up not working!! Waste of money. I want to race with a Power Tap so I know how I'm doling out my effort. I could have gone faster but I'll never know if I should have gone faster without a Power Meter.

The last 10 miles were quite an adventure. As we approached Providence, we basically rode through the hood and industrial parks. All the places you would want to be far away from at night. There was a 90 degree turn every 1/4 mile, the rods were in terrible condition and we must have crossed no less than 5 sets of train tracks with the rails about 3 inches off the ground. My bunny hopping is just not that good. So, I lost a little speed and came in at 2.34.08. My goal is always to come off the bike around 3 hours and see what I have on the run. So, I was a little behind, but it was manageable.

T2

Uneventful, but had to deal with the bags and lost another minute. Got to work on these.

2.04

Run

As I left transition, I was surprised how decent I felt. I saw my family and they asked how I was doing and I gave them the thumbs up. I ran the first mile in about 7.30 pace which surprised me a little. Then I hit college hill. Coillege hill is actually one hill followed by a quick right and left and then another very steep pitch. That is a mother of all hills. I ran the first pitch. I could have pushed up the second pitch, but my heart rate was off the chart and I decided to walk / run it the first time so I wouldn't blow up. The rest of the course was what I would call rolling. Not too bad, but definitely not flat. By the end of the first loop I was definitely aware that I didn't have everything in my body I needed. This was The Sustained energy effect. I started to drink more and have a little Coke. I felt a little better. I never walked except "the hill," which I walked almost entirely the second time. Again, I could have pushed and ran the whole thing, bujt I'm just not sure what the consequences would have been. Also, something I'm aware of every time I run the Colchester 1/2 marathon, I'm very slow, relatively, going down hill. I saw people fly by me down hill. I feared the pounding on my body at that point and had a very controlled decent.

All in all, I finished with a 1.52.41 1/2 marathon. That's 8.36 min / mile which, considering my training and walking the hill twice, is about what I could expect.

Post Race Thoughts

My goal was to finish strong. I wasn't thrilled with my time. But nothing really went wrong all day. I got the exact result my training allowed. Mission accomplished. So, I was reasonably happy. I felt fine in the hours after the race. Tired, but not wiped out. I hung out with my family in the park. I thought the post race was excellent. Again, IM North America knows how to throw an event. So, while I wouldn't do the race again, I had a good time and was happy with the day.

Final time 5.01.57, 296 out of around 1800 starters.