Overview (if you don't want to read it but want to know what it says):
I swam off course. transitions were basically swamps. The bike was hot, i held back, and didn't eat enough. I ran too fast, then too slow, then held on for dear life. I'm happy my first one is over.
Pre Race:
I had come home from a two week vacation in Europe two weeks before the race which consisted of zero training and plenty of partying staying up and waking up late. My first weekend back in Miami i tried to jump right back into training and put down a huge weekend to try to make up for some lost training which probably wasn't the best idea. The next week i could barely run was forced to take two rest days and swim and bike easy the rest of the week. I had several confidence boosting swims and bikes leading up to the race and it was time to taper, pack, and travel. Travel went like it usually does, delays, bag checks, and rain but we got there in one piece with bikes! Saturday before the race we got checked in, racked our bikes, ate dinner and it was off to bed with the alarm set for 4:30 reading "race day oh yeah!!"
Race Morning:
This day was going to be filled with many firsts, including the first time i have slept all the way to the time my alarm was set to go off on race morning. Luckily the hotel we were staying at started breakfast at 4am for all the athletes staying there on race morning so i went to breakfast had my usual instant oatmeal, bagel and an apple. Got over to the race site and started setting up transition and i hear what every non swimmer turned triathlete wants to hear "We've got a wetsuit legal race today folks". I get my wetsuit out and head over to the swim start.
The Swim:
I didn't know wether i should have started on the outside buoy or inside but the announcer called our wave into the water and i saw a couple guys thought i could swim with head towards the outside so i did the same. The gun went off and all the guys that started on the inside swam diagonally towards us and were 5 feet to my right after the first 25-50 meters so i guess i had made the right decision. Within the next 100 meters i felt a sharp pain along my forearm, I had heard people talking about the jelly fish the day before so i knew exactly what it was. It hurt but it was keeping my mind off how tired i was which i appreciated. I found the feet of a guy who merged into my pack of swimmers and stayed on his feet until the second turn, he must have panicked or something because he started swimming back stroke so i found new feet and held on back to the shore. Because i was following feet i didn't feel the need to sight much which ended up being a mistake because i ended up swimming an extra .16 of a mile. Dohh!!
The race photographer snapped this shot of me just before the swim out.
Transitions:
There was pretty much a torrential down pour the two days leading up to the race so the grassy field where transition was located quickly turned into a not-so grassy field and it started to look like more like a cyclocross race than a triathlon.
WattieInk teammate Mike Feldman and other athletes coming into T2.
The Bike:
I started out onto the bike course with the plan of riding the first 20 miles easy and then gauging my effort on how i was feeling at that point. Well that plan blew up right away when i had been riding for 10min and noticed my watch wasn't recording distance. I started in the 4th swim wave so there weren't many people out on the course before me, I'd say i passed 100-150 people in the first 15 miles or so and saw a total of 7 people after that. Nutrition was going well the first half i was drinking and eating on schedule actually ahead of schedule. I went for another gel at the 2hr mark and i had already eaten in. I had finished both bottles of electrolyte i took on the bike and had water from the 3rd aid station. At the 4th aid station I missed the gatorade TWICE so i just finished the water and rode back trying to maintain backing off a little knowing id be off the bike soon and my legs felt surprisingly good when i got back to transition. It was the first race i did on my Giant Trinty SL0 it was was awesome thanks to Jesus and Andreas at Ultrabikex.
Me dropping the ball going through the aid station.
The Run:
After basically another cyclocross session i racked my bike and got my shoes on over my ridiculously muddy feet. I headed out on the run feeling great, running 20 sec faster than my planned pace and cruising. That was the beginning of my downfall by mile 3.5 i wanted to walk, I had run out of gas, all i could do to was tell myself whatever you do don't stop running. I went from running a 6:40 pace feeling like a million bucks to shuffling a 10:00 pace in a matter of a quarter of a mile. Someone would run past me and i'd try to run with them for about 5 secs and drop back down to a shuffle. I approached the aid station just before the turn around and thought theres no way i'm doing that all over again. I stopped under the shade at the aid station drank 3 cups of gatorade and took a gel i had stuffed in my pocket at transition. About half a mile after the turn around i suddenly started to feel better and i was able to pick the pace back up. I could have sworn i was running a 6min pace, looked down at my watch "7:56" ill take it! At about mile 10 i started to fall off again, Thanks to Ola who's one piece of advice to me was "carry two gels on the run" because i inhaled that second gel and was able to maintain the rest of the way home getting to see all my WattieInk Teammates on their way out which was pretty helped after spending the entire bike and first half of the run alone.
supportive teammates!
Final thoughts:
I didn't finish as fast as i had hoped for but it was my first 70.3 and a major leaning experience. I absolutely loved the distance and plan to have another crack at a worlds slot at the end of July. Thank you to everyone who supported me on this journey. Special thanks to Frank Green and Steve Houston for convincing me to get out there and being there for the whole ride. I know i have a lot more to prove at this distance and i hope to bring it out in my training in the future.
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