2015 Steelhead 70.3 Race Report 08/09/15

Pretty cool to have a major Ironman branded race right in my new hometown.  I rolled out of bed at 4:30AM, took my time getting breakfast, doing final double checks, airing up the tires and rolling out of the house.   Its dark, but I've ridden this the 3 miles down the road to Jean Klock Park 20+ times before sunrise on training rides the last few months.  I know every all the big potholes and manhole covers.  Legs felt pretty good.  Z2 felt nice and easy.  I bypassed the long line of cars and rolled up to the line for transition.  I went through the usual checks and transition set-up.  I forgot rubber bands for holding my shoes but got a couple from a guy next to me in line.

6:30AM left transition and headed to the bathroom line then headed to the beach to meet up with the family.  Around 7:10 I got my wet suit on and warmed up for 5 minutes.  Water was on the warmer side.  Barely cooled you off.  It was going to be a warm swim.  Arms felt OK, but didn't have the same snap as Racine.  I got back in around 7:30, then headed to the line for my wave.  I think it was 14th out of 17 waves.  It was going to be 90 minutes of yelling on your left and dodging other competitors.   That's just how it goes at these events.  I get it, I understand the need to compress the race, but it makes things a little sketchy when you have riders going 15mph, riders going 19mph passing them, riders going 23mph passing that person and I'm the 4th one along doing around 28 mph.  I wonder if just going to 5 minutes between waves 6-17 waves would help resolve it.  That's only adding 10 minutes to the last wave, but it might make a pretty big difference.  That's another 1-2 yards on average between each person.  That sounds small, but it's pretty big when it gets congested.  It also means it will take another 5-10 miles for the faster age groups to catch some of the earliest waves.  It might however make lap 2 of the run more congested, but honestly, I'll take that trade-off.

None of this is possible without support from my family.  Love you guys!  My 6 y/o daughter had a blast at the beach.

Horn goes off, and I don't know what it is, but I swear that almost everyone hesitates for a split second and somehow I'm already 1-2 steps ahead.   I'll summarize the swim real quick.  I went too hard with all the dolphin diving and running, swam the 1st 300M too hard and never fully recovered.  I never found my stroke and while I swam straight and had a good time overall, it wasn't what I was hoping.  My sub 4 dream was already dead, but a sub 4:10 was a there as was maybe a sub 4:05.  Traffic on the swim wasn't terrible.  About typical.  The water was pretty calm so you could see most swimmers up ahead with plenty of time to maneuver.  SWIM TIME 31:01

I breezed through T1, hit the flying mount and got to work T1 TIME 2:22.  I managed my power output a little to catch my breath, relax and recover from the swim and T1.  By the time I reached the bottom of the long hill on the Blue Star Highway I was ready to roll.  Plenty of scary moments.  I took out a cone and went from slightly annoyed to downright agitated.  Much worse than Racine.  I think the light tailwind was the main reason.  It speeds up the slowest riders and creates more congestion.  Last year we had a headwind going out.  

When shoulder ended 12 miles in, there's some froze heaves and I hit it hard and lost my aero bottle.  It was a shock as I've never lost that bottle before.  But it was sweating as in high sight, I foolishly filled it with cold Gatoraide.  So now I just had my BTA bottle.  So hand offs would be more critical.   

After the turn East, the road got bumpy and folks were riding to the left to avoid some of the rougher patches.  I've ridden this route 4 times in the  last 2 months and honestly, this is stupid.  It's not much different.  If it's too bumpy, take some air out of your tires, sit up or use latex tubes, but please, please don't obstruct faster riders.   I still refused to cross the center line resulting in having to nail my brakes a couple times, and after yelling on your left 3 items in a row loudly, got cussed out.  My heart rate shot up, I put in some hard efforts to get around traffic.  I finally had to ease up a little.  A group of 4 riders rolled past me over the yellow center line.   We had just passed an official earlier, so I dropped back.  Not to be arrogant, but I knew I was faster, but was just having trouble with lap traffic...and I suspected they were riding over their head.  I sat back, but every time we can to a downhill or flat section I was in Z1 or coasting and rolling into the back of the group.  I passed them a couple times with some hard pulls, but every longer hill they caught me.   Finally as we turned back into a crosswind on a long flats section I made the pass stick and pulled away.  What I...and they didn't know, for what it mattered, or didn't matter, was that I was actually the leader on the road by over a minute at that point with Dan Stubleski, arguably the top amateur in the world at the IM distance, was 5 minute behind me in second.  I had a real race on my hands.

The last 25 miles I finally had mostly clear road and could finally get into a rhythm.   Unfortunately, so did Dan, and he put over a minute into me that last 40k, just like last year. A simple reminder that there are contenders and pretenders, and I was clearly put back in my place.  That guy is a machine.  But hey, I was 1st off the bike and out of transition by 5 seconds.  That lasted probably 200 yards (virtually), and the race was over at that point.   BIKE SPLIT 2:06:34 (within 60" of my BBS prediction).   

BIKE DETAILS | Division Rank: 1

SPLIT NAME	DISTANCE	SPLIT TIME	RACE TIME	PACE	DIVISION RANK	GENDER RANK	OVERALL RANK
36.6 mi	36.6 mi	1:21:48	1:55:11	26.85 mi/h
56 mi	19.4 mi	44:46	2:39:57	26.00 mi/h
Total	56.0 mi	2:06:34	2:39:57	26.55 mi/h	1	1	1

I should have this screenshot framed.  It will probably never happen again in a major race.

I struggled with my socks a little in T2.  Shorter ones would go on faster, but I like the long purple to to match my Race Kit and like the coverage and compression on my achillies.  T2 TIME 1:57

I came out of T2 and the inside of my quads and 1 hamstring were cramping a bit.  I kept easing off and just relaxed, tried to pick up my cadence and recover.  6:15-6:30 felt comfortable, my legs felt good, but not like Kansas last year, but a lot better than Racine.  I figured it might be another good race to try and roll some negative splits, so I cruised, took in as much fluids as I could, grabbed a gel then carried it to the 2nd aide station and ate it before getting some water.   Around mile 4, around came Dan, right on schedule.  I gave him a hard time about taking so long, asked him what his bike split was and he was gone.  

Lap 2 I tried to roll on the pace just a little.   I grabbed another gel at the same point and kept grabbing water, ice, Gatorade, red bull, coke, what ever was easiest to grab.  I hit about the 8 miles mark and realized this was it.  This was my last chance at a possible lifetime PR at the distance.  I wasn't getting any younger, I might not have course conditions at this event or be able to train at this level again for a few years, so it was now or never, time to suffer a little and take it home.   Hit the 10 mile mark and really started to focused.  Went up the hill on Benson Rd the last time and I knew it was all downhill from there.  I rolled on a it felt like 5:30 pace, but was barely 6:00-6:15.  Breathing was heavy and rhythmic, I was into threshold zone at this point... this was all I had left.  Hit the chute, did some math and knew I nailed a sub 4:10.  I got a small cheer form he crowd when it was announced I was from St. Joseph, MI.  I think it took the announcer by surprise to have a local guy place that high.   RUN SPLIT 1:26:09  OVERALL TIME 4:08:03.   I guess I should have run just a little faster and getting to 1:25 and 4:07....haha.   

Looks like I just barely ran negative splits.  Pretty happy with how I paced it overall.  It's a fairly hilly course and was a humid day. 

RUN DETAILS | Division Rank: 2

SPLIT NAME	DISTANCE	SPLIT TIME	RACE TIME	PACE	DIVISION RANK	GENDER RANK	OVERALL RANK
1.6 mi	1.6 mi	11:10	2:53:04	6:58/mi
4.6 mi	3 mi	19:10	3:12:14	6:23/mi
6.6 mi	2 mi	13:19	3:25:33	6:39/mi
9.6 mi	3 mi	19:22	3:44:55	6:27/mi
13.1 mi	3.5 mi	23:08	4:08:03	6:36/mi
Total	13.1 mi	1:26:09	4:08:03	6:34/mi	2	2	2

This was one of those races that really makes you feel like your hard work paid off, yet at the same time, it makes you more hungry for more.  You an now taste that next level.   Riding that fast starts to make you dream a little.  I had gone into Kona knowing I was get schooled, especially on the run.  But now with 2 solid swim/bike splits, I'm thinking that I could ride my way to the front of the amateur race.... before I then get trounced on the run.  But it puts a solid time near the top 10 (AG) as a possibility if I can execute and race smart.  Either way it motivates me to put in a solid block of training and be as fit as I can when I set foot on the Big Island.  Being just a little arrogant, over confident and a bit cocky has worked pretty well so far the last 2 years.   Why stop now.  Just keep swinging for the fences!

Congrats again to everyone that finished and Dan Stubleski for yet another dominating performance!!!