Ironman 70.3 Florida - 7th

With 2 races done over 3 weeks in the USA I headed to Orlando Florida for Ironman 70.3 Florida. The race was made famous last year with Lance Armstrong winning the event during his quest for triathlon domination. I had been basing myself in LA post St George 70.3 and spend my time doing a lot of ‘recovery’ sessions in an attempt to freshen up for what would be my 2^nd 70.3 within 2 weeks. With the hot weather in LA I felt that I had got well acclimatized to the hot weather and was ready for Florida heat.

The crew in our house for the weekend

 Strangely all the men in the house rode Specialized bikes 

After a decent day of travel across the USA I arrived in Florida late Thursday afternoon ready to checkout the course the next day. After driving the course I quickly saw that this would not be an easy task on race day. The swim was held in Lake Eva was in what could be described as bath water (hot!), the cycle over some decent hills and the run consisted of 3 loops up hills and undoubtedly what would be very hot temperatures. Being that the lake also contained alligators (according to a few locals up to 14ft in size) I resisted the urge to do my usual swim over the course in the days before the race.

Race Day:

Sunday approached and after my usual breakfast and warm up I was on the start line ready to give my final USA race a solid crack. I positioned myself closest to the inside swim buoys and within the first few hundred meters took the lead. I kept the pace solid around the M shaped course being passed by a few keen athletes in the last 200meters before the run into transition. I kept me cool and emerged from the water right up with the front group. 

Heading out on the bike

Heading out of transition I saw that there was only about 8 of us in the lead pack with a decent gap to the chasers. The others must have seen the same thing because as soon as we hit the bike leg with pace was on like donkey kong! The first 10km’s was very fast and I was forced to spend some extra energy having to move past some of the pro men who were dropping off the group. Half way through the bike the pace lifted once again up one of the larger hills and myself along with a few others dropped off the main pack. I spent the remainder of the bike watching the leading 3 men ride up the road and disappear into the distance. I hit T2 in 5^th place and with the 4^th fastest bike time of the day. Interestingly I only rode 5minutes slower than Lance Armstrong did last year.

Onto the run I was quickly past by 2 other athletes before hitting the first hill. It was at this point where I really felt like I was in trouble. The legs felt cooked and with the Florida heat building I had serious doubts as to if I would even be able to make it to the finish. For the entire first lap all I was telling myself was to just make it past the first of 3 run laps. Surprisingly I actually started to feel better going onto the 2^nd lap and heard the announcer mention that I was in 7^th place at this point. The final lap were a true battle and I made the most of every aid station consuming large amounts of cola and pouring water and ice over my head and down my Scody tri singlet along with ice in my tri shorts (which at one point the entire crew at the aid station had a good laugh about).  

I crossed the line exhausted and was prompted escorted into the medical tent. The run was brutally hot and hats off to everyone, amateurs and pros alike who all made it round the course.

All in all I was pretty stoked with the result being that there was some really talented athletes racing. As always I put myself in the position to get on the podium. Being so young in comparison to the rest of the pro men racing meant that at this point in time I struggle to match their pace and endurance. It’s really interesting to see how much the level of racing had increased. Looking at last year’s results I saw that if I had recorded the same time at last years event I would have finished in 3^rd place.

With this result I have now moved into 17^th on the Ironman 70.3 professional men’s points rankings, which I am really happy about.

Next on my radar will be Coral Coast 5150 and Cairns 70.3 which I will be leaving for next Friday. I have heard nothing but good stories from those who raced last year and I can’t wait to test the mind and body once more against what is looking like a very solid field.