Ironman 70.3 Austin

Austin, TX - October 17, 2010

32:59 Swim (1:42 / 100 M)

4:31 T1

2:36:47 (21.4 MPH)

3:04 T2

3:05:19 (14:09 min/Mi)

Total 6:22:40

184th out of 263 in AG

1343rd out of 2065 who raced

My 3rd 70.3 !!!

Drove to Austin the morning before the race. Got to the hotel, and made my way to the Expo. After registering, I went on to drop the bike. Spent the whole day at the race site, and just went to eat lunch at about 4:00 pm with other OUL teammates (not good, should have fueled better the day before). Since I ate late, I didn’t get anything for dinner either. I also didn’t sleep very well. Had a bit of a cold, could not fall asleep all night.

In the morning I also did not have breakfast (not smart). All I had was a power bar, then I headed to the race site.

My wave was literally second to last. It was awful having to wait for everyone to go ahead of me. The race was wetsuit legal, which was a nice thing.

The swim was good. I was able to find some space and got on a decent groove throughout. I noticed as soon as I came out of the water, however, that something was not right... I was quite slow getting to T1. While getting my wetsuit off, I started getting dizzy. I stopped for a min or two, even sat down. I felt a bit better, so I got the bike and off I went.

Once on the bike, I felt ok. The course was interesting, with rolling hills throughout the entire ride. Again, I was supposed to take it easy, but I know that I did not do a good job of that in this race at all. I pushed through the hills a bit more than I should, especially after having gotten dizzy earlier. I could tell I was already getting spent towards the final part of the bike leg. One thing I did do well this time, I kept my food and hydration schedule throughout the bike.

The run was real tough. It also was mostly ups and downs, with one especially hard hill. I was just about done right around mile 2-3. I would slow down a bit, and walk past all stations. My knee started hurting also. A few miles later, I got dizzy again. Had to stop for a few min. I even took a bathroom break trying to get well. I was eating my gels, and hydrating, but it wasn’t helping. I don’t know if it was the cold, not proper fueling before the race, or just plain boinking in the race, but there was no way to get well. I made the decision at that point to just finish, even if it meant walking the rest of the way, which amounted to almost 2/3 of the race. And so I did. Even walking, when I tried to go faster, I sometimes started getting dizzy again. So I just walked, slow, normally. Coming towards the end, the last couple miles, I again attempted to run. It was fine, and I was able to jog to the finish line. It wasn’t the fastest race I ever did (it actually was the slowest), but it was very informative. I learned a lot from it.