Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas

The first race of the 2011 season and my pro career was this last weekend in Galveston TX, Ironman 70.3 TX as well as the American pro championship, I flew in Friday afternoon with a few others from CO.  The first thing I noticed arriving in TX was the heat, humidly, and oxygenated air.  After all we only moved to CO last Oct. and this was my first time racing at sea level.  From Houston is was a short drive in the limo rental Impala I received from Avis, the bike box fit in the trunk to my surprise, got to love American cars. I picked a dive hotel right on the coast and bike course, built my bike up, and got ready for a run.  Ran 30 minutes or so right down the coast, just tying to stay on my feet with the wind whipping off the gulf.  It was pretty and I saw many other athletes running and biking on the course.  This was the 2nd run on my new Zoot Ultra Tempos and I think I was going to like them for sure on race day.  I headed off to a tiny Italian place for dinner, grocery store for some healthy snacks, and settled in to wait for Thomas Gerlach who was driving over from Tuscon for the race.
Saturday after a much needed full nights rest Thomas and I headed over for a swim and to register for the race.  New Ironman rules do not let you swim the course before the race at all anymore, so we found a cove just shy of the race course and did a nice 15-20 minute swim.  I like swimming in salt water with the added buoyancy, plus it was about 72 degrees just perfect and wetsuit legal, even for the pros under new WTC rules.  Registration is quite easy for pro, there was a huge line for registration, and a little separate table for pros, pretty nice.  I spoke with Paige at the Trigger Point booth for a while about all their great products I have been using to stay injury free this running season.  She gave me a few more ideas to work on as well, thank you Trigger Point.  After a short bike ride and another Italian dinner it was time to get some rest for the first race of the season.
Race morning was pretty lax, bike was already at the site and I had plenty of time to get things ready.  It was a little different at the pro rack now then I am used to, best rack placement and the feeling of everyone just watching you while your getting ready.  There always seemed to be a crowd milling around our racks.  There were a lot few foreign pros at this race as I could tell from the German being spoken all around. I was all set and ready to race, just planning on racing my own race no matter what happened.
The swim start was in water off a pier, we got a short warm up and I found myself right in front with many of the best male triathletes in the word, ready for my first pro race.  I was confadent I could hang with these guys until the run at least. The gun went off and it was a mad frenzy in the water for position.  Right away I knew this was not like any age group swim I had ever done, there were fists, feet, and elbows all over with no one wanting to give an inch.  I felt like it was pretty much jockeying for draft position the whole first half and I never really settled into a rhythm at all.  John Flanagan lead off the front with a lead chase group of 5-7 right behind, I kept in that lead group for the rest of the swim.  I exited the water 6th in 22:38, which in many other 70.3 would be right in the lead.  Seems like this is going to be a fast race for sure.
T1 did not go very well, my race belt blew off my helmet over a few bike racks, once I found that I tried to head out on the bike with the race belt in my hand.  The belt became tangled in my front wheel, I had to back the bike up and get it out.  Not pretty and very slow, oh well got to push on.  On to the bike I got settled in to a great pace into the wind on the out and back course along the gulf coast.  I was keeping my power at or above my FTP passing a few guys in the process.  Though Chris Lieto and Michael Lovato passed me like I was standing still.  The wind was pretty strong off the coast but I think a disk still would of been a good decision, I was riding dual 404's.  I passed a few more guys on the way out and got passed, I felt great until about 10 miles after the turnaround.  I began to fall apart, I found myself barley able to hold 270 watts with the wind.  By the end of the bike I was beat even coasting a few times.  My avg power on the way out was 311, and on the way back was 275, for an total average of 296, 93% of my FTP.  A little high I know but was trying to keep pace with some very fast guys.  I needed to get started on the run, but was a bit worried, now as I had dropped to 23 place.

Photo by Paul Phillips

T2 went much better and I was out in 1:00 flat, I actually felt okay running and started to see that field had all taken a beating on that windy bike course.  The run was 4 laps around a water / theme park called Moody Gardens, it was nice to see the competition the whole run, but lots of turns means you never really got in to a good pace.  It was hot and humid for sure as I am now used to cool and dry air in CO, but lots of water stations helped.  Each lap of the run I ran down a few more of the men's field which is surprising for me since the run in not my strong suit.  The last lap I was hurting a little bit but felt like training at 5-6000' was starting to show quite a benefit now.  There were two men I had been behind for the whole 4th lap, I decided it was time to catch them.  I was able to run both of them down in mile 12 or so and stay strong till the finish.
I came across 16th overall, which I still consider great since the pro field at TX was huge and very stacked.  I am going to continue to work on my bike pacing as I think it hurt me quite a bit in this race.  Overall a great place to race and I am glad I picked a hard race to start my pro career, as it put me right in my place.  As always thanks to all my wonderful sponsors for the support.


TOTAL SWIM     1.2 mi. (22:38)     1:11/100m     6    6

BIKE SPLIT 1: 28 mi     28 mi (1:12:53)     23.05 mph
BIKE SPLIT 2: 56 mi     28 mi (1:03:18)     26.54 mph
BIKE END: 56 mi     2:16:11     24.67 mph     24    23

RUN SPLIT 1: 3.275 mi     3.275 mi (19:10)     5:51/mi
RUN SPLIT 2: 6.55 mi     3.275 mi (19:50)     6:03/mi
RUN SPLIT 3: 9.8 mi     3.275 mi (20:25)     6:14/mi
RUN SPLIT 4: 13.1 mi     3.275 mi (20:36)     6:17/mi
TOTAL RUN     13.1 mi. (1:20:01)     6:06/mile     16    16
     
TRANSITION     TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE     1:45
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN     1:00

SWIM     BIKE     RUN     OVERALL     RANK     DIV.POS.
22:38     2:16:11     1:20:01     4:01:35     16     16