Ironman 70.3 Texas (Galveston) Race Report

So it turns out that racing half-iron distance back-to-back weekends is doable after all!  Well, other than the fact that my body seems to have rejected the crazy workload that I put on it, and is letting me know about it via this sickness that I've been dealing with the last few days.  Or maybe what I have is just the worst allergies known to mankind...either way, I've been feeling a bit rough ever since the race.  But the race went very well, and I am prepared to let you know all about it!

Finishing pic! Keep reading to see how I get here!

Kimberly and I had the great pleasure of spending the weekend with our good friends Allie and Felipe Garcia.  We traveled to Galveston together, hung out all day Saturday, and they were my loudest and proudest supporters during the race.  In fact, they've been there for pretty much all my big races...all 4 iron-distance races - from Redman to Kona!  Here's a throwback pic to my first iron-distance race (Redman in Oklahoma City - September '09).

 Note: this pic was taken long before I met John Cobb (or even knew he was, for that matter)

And here's a pic of me with Felipe and Allie at the Hotter 'n Hell 100 Trail Race:



We've done many races together over the years!

So we left Tyler at about 5 PM on Friday, and after a late dinner at Grimaldi's on The Woodlands waterway (the finish line of Ironman Texas next month!), we arrived in Galveston around midnight. Slept in Saturday, then got an easy ride/run in with Brad Williams (who had an insanely fast bike - and race in general - on Sunday!).  Then we worked our way over to Moody Gardens for the athlete check-in and my first ever pro meeting!  Everyone at the meeting was a little freaked out about the possibility of bad weather changing the triathlon...it was pretty interesting.  Got to talk a little race strategy with my teammate Matt Hanson, and chatted with fellow pros Todd Teren and Cody Beals.  After a very nice dinner with Kimbo and the Garcias, I was off to bed.

Race morning went about like it usually does for me.  That is, I probably slept a little later than I should've and was very rushed in the transition area...but I got everything set up, made it to the swim start, and jumped into the water just as the last of the pro males were getting in.  I wouldn't have gotten much of a warm up, but they delayed the start by 5 minutes because it was so dark, and I ended up being able to swim around a little.  The first 500m or so of the swim was nuts...swimming into 2'-3' tall waves was not something I had ever done before.  But everyone around me seemed to be struggling too, and other than a few waves that hit at inopportune times, I fared pretty well.  After making the first turn, we actually got to go with the waves for the majority of the swim, and I settled in with a group of about 10 or so other pro guys.  The swim was really quite easy, my TYR Hurricane wetsuit felt great, and I even thought about trying to bridge off the front of our group and catch another group.  Of course that's easier said than done, and a little solo swimming with little or no gain from the group I was with told me I better just hunker down for the rest of the swim.  Any extra effort that I feel like I could be putting forth would be better spent on the bike...

Coming out of the water (I'm the dude in the sweet TYR wetsuit...not the guy swinging his arms wildly)

T1 went OK....should've been faster though.  I've come to realize that 70.3 races with the elite/pro wave feel about as rushed as a sprint triathlon.  These dudes nail their transitions, and that is definitely something I need to work on.  In spite of what I thought was a decent transition, I found myself trailing most of the pack that I came out of the water with.  After a few miles of zigging and zagging on the bike, we got onto the seawall blvd and started cruising with a massive tailwind.  The first half of the bike was a breeze, literally, and we paid for it the second half.  Average speed was 30+ mph on the first half and 21 mph on the second.  My Argon 18 bike rode like a champ, and I think flat surfaces made my Rotor Q-rings that much more advantageous.  And the ENVE 8.9 wheels handled the wind quite well...they cut through the headwind and were manageable in head, tail and cross - which we experienced some of on the way back when the wind seemed to be coming from the gulf.  Over all though, I believe that I'm better suited for a bike course with some climbing and some heat, and for that reason I'm looking forward to IMTX and IMLOU....truly think those bike courses will suit me better than a flat/windy half-iron course like this.  Still happy with my bike split though!

Messing with my watch at the beginning of the bike.

Onto the run!  T2 went pretty well for me - even compared to the other pros.  The run course features a couple out and back sections, and as I set off at a 5:30/mile pace, I was able to tell that I wasn't in Kansas any more (so to speak) and what felt like a solid swim/bike still had me in a pretty big deficit compared to these guys!  I started the run in 24th place amongst the pros, and saw them flying at a similarly fast pace in the other direction.  So I held onto my run pace, knowing I couldn't really go any faster, and just hoping that at least some of the guys slowed down and I could catch them.  I reeled in 1 or 2 during the first lap, and was beginning to think that every single pro was going to cruise at 5:30 pace the whole run....but lo and behold, about halfway through the 2nd lap (3 lap run), I started picking them off.  This continued through the rest of the run, and I continued to be able to hold onto my 5:30/miles... they got more and more painful though!  I ended up finishing my run with a 5:34 pace, and had moved from 24th to 11th place during the run!  Total time was 3:56:46, and I was very pleased with going under 4 hours (and taking 17 minutes off my previous 70.3 PR)! My teammate, Matt Hanson, finished 3 minutes ahead of me, and took 8th overall!

 3rd fastest run split of the day!

After the race, I had some issues with dehydration...so, sadly, I wasn't able to watch many of my Tyler friends on the run.  I wanted to be there to cheer them on, and had looked forward to that all weekend.  But I guess even though it wasn't that hot, it was still very humid, and I should've been drinking more water during the run. Nevertheless, I was thrilled to hear about the results of all the Tyler people (and there were many!).  Dan Willson crushed it (esp the bike!) and earned a slot to the 70.3 World Championships in Mont Tremblant!  Mike and Rebecca both did awesome, and they did even more awesome a couple days later when they got engaged!  Jonathan (x2), Jason, Ryan, Cori, Ted, Lisa, Altina and Jenny all had great races too!

In other news, Kimberly sold her house and we are buying my parents house!  Here's a collage of Kimbo selling her house:

 

Thank you to all my sponsors!  Now that racing season is upon me, it's apparent how great it is to have fast equipment along with all the nutrition/recovery products that we have through Maverick Multisport!  #horsepower

Isaiah 53:5-7 "⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth."

Tri Tyler Half race report & Texas 70.3 (Galveston) race preparation

Is it wise to race half-iron distance 2 consecutive weekends?

Has my training volume prepared me well enough for this?

Will I learn something along the way, and have a blast racing my first "Ironman" race as a pro?

Not sure about the first 2 questions, but I believe the answer to the 3rd question is a resounding "YES!".  So after enduring the "hardest half in Texas" on Sunday, I'm slated to compete in Ironman Texas 70.3 in 5 days.  This will be my 3rd consecutive year racing at Galveston, so I know the course well enough.

Last year at Galveston with Seth (twinkies)

 

But before I discuss Galveston too much, I shall give a Tri Tyler Half race report:

 

The actual race was on Sunday, but I will recount the entire weekend - starting with Friday night.  That was the night that I ate dinner with an Ironman Champion (many times over) - Chris McDonald:

 

OK, there were more people at our table than just me and Chris (aka Big Sexy):

Actually, it was a pretty awesome dinner party....fellow pro triathletes Anna Cleaver and Ben Hall were there.  As well as John & Ginger Cobb, Kristin Blaise, Jeremy Brown and Dana Rucker.  A good time was had by all.

 

Now for Saturday.  I spent the vast majority of the day helping move Kimberly out of her house and into...well, several places.  Mostly my parents' house (which we are buying), our good friends Allie & Felipe's house (where she will be staying) and partially my house (which is a mess).  Not the ideal way to spend the day before a half-iron, but I wasn't alone, as Kimbo and Felipe were both movers and racers last weekend too!  And I was able to sneak away from moving for a couple hours to sit on a pre-race pro triathlete panel at Fresh by Brookshires:

 

What a cool experience!  Jeremy Brown did a great job interviewing/moderating, and I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion - and learned a ton too! 

 

Now onto Sunday: Race Day.  Kimberly was freaked out about the swim being frigid...and by Kimberly, I mean me and Kimberly.  But, it really wasn't that bad!  And I was very happy with my swim...got out of the water in just over 26 minutes.  For the first time in a race, I wore my new TYR Hurricane wetsuit - and set a half-iron swim PR by 3 minutes! 

 

Coming out of the water - nice pic, Maggie!

 

The bike, however, was a different story.  About 7 or 8 miles in, as I climbed a short, steep hill in Troup, TX, I thought I could hear my brakes rubbing...but I didn't think it was slowing me down, and if they're rubbing just a little it's not worth stopping to mess with.  So I tried to convince myself that it was OK.  After hearing it a few more times on uphills (because the road noise was too loud to hear it any other time), I finally got off my bike at the top of a hill to check on it. Sure enough, my back brake was touching the wheel, so I pulled it off and got back to riding.  The very next hill the noise was back....but I didn't want to stop again, and at this point I'm about halfway into the course, and think I should just ride it out.  Then we climb the beast (14% grade for 3/4 mile), and the noise is very loud.  Now I'm weighing the pros and cons of stopping to fix it (I probably lost ~1 minute each time I stopped), and going on.  About 15 miles from the bike finish, I stopped, got off the bike, and gave my rear wheel a spin...it went about 1/4 revolution and came to a complete stop.  It was rubbing against the bike frame.  So I reset my skewer, realigned the wheel, gave it another spin (spun beautifully this time), and got back on the bike.  Probably lost at least a couple minutes.  The last 15 miles were great - I passed a dude that had passed me when I was stopped. 

 



At last, the run!

 



The run couldn't have gone better.  On a very hilly course, I was able to crank out a 5:55/mile average, and set a run course record by 4 minutes!  Ended up finishing 4th place, just over a minute behind 2nd and 20 seconds behind 3rd.  So it was a very frustrating day, knowing what could have been, but I chalk it up as a lesson learned. 

 

Local races are so much fun - I knew almost every volunteer (and appreciated every single volunteer).  And sharing war stories with all my friends after the race is always a blast - why is it so much fun??  I sometimes wonder if that's the reason we race...seriously.

 

The Kimberlys had great races, as did Jeremy (minus the hospital part at the end), and Felipe did awesome!  Seth dominated the Olympic distance...then brought us all in with support out on the run course.  My parents, Maggie and Luke all cheered me on too!  Brad Williams came in town from Ft. Worth (had a great race himself), and I think my family wants to adopt him because he's such a nice dude.  'Twas a busy/fun weekend.

 

Now, as I'm writing this blog, I'm trying to accelerate the recovery process (Galveston in 5 days!) with some 110% Play Harder compression and Primal Sport Mud. 

 

 

 

In addition to these recovery products, I've been extremely pleased with my training/racing gear.  I didn't even notice my Champion System tri kit on Sunday - which to me is the sign of a good, comfortable kit.  There was zero chafing, and both the tri kit and my Swiftwick arm warmers and socks performed admirably.  The Argon 18 bike and ENVE Composites wheels took some abuse on some rough road surfaces, but handled it like champs.  It was my first race on my ENVE SES 8.9 clinchers/ Vittoria Open Corsa CX combo, and they are without a doubt the fastest wheel/tire combination I've ever ridden on.  My Rotor Q Rings have proven themselves both on the trainer and in training rides....and they were no different on race day!  As an engineer, I truly do appreciate the mechanical advantage they provide.  Last but not least is Infinit Nutrition!  No GI issues whatsoever, and that is honestly the first time I can say that about a half-iron or iron distance race. 

 

As for race prep leading into Galveston...I haven't really started that yet.  My goal is to go hard the first half of this week (just finished the "Pain Train" group ride), and take it easy the 2nd half.  So after a tough treadmill run tomorrow morning, I'll let up for the rest of the week.

 

Zechariah 9:9 "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey."