Florida 70.3 Race report
Well the first race of the year is done and dusted and is always the case, there’s plenty to mull over. Good and bad, questions answered and some still left open, but here’s how it went for me.
I got to Florida on the Thursday; flying in from Boulder (Denver) where we’d had a couple of warm (mid 70’s) days, but mainly pretty mixed and mild. So the first thing that hit me was the humidity. The weather was in the mid 80’s and the humidity was up to 90% making it feel even hotter. I was staying with Dion Harrison for a night in a Holiday Inn Express, before moving on the Friday to another place arranged by his friend, Mikkel Bondesen from Denmark/L.A.
We’d totally landed on our feet, with the place we ended up in looking more like an “MTV crib’s” apartment than the type of place I stay in when travelling to a race (fully fitted kitchens and MASSIVE flat screen TV’s aren’t what I’ve grown accustomed to at races). Mikkel is a great guy and super enthusiastic about doing Florida for the second time and hoping to qualify for Clearwater in the 30-35 age group. So we all passed the last couple of days hanging out and doing a little swimming together. My prep sessions went well and I didn’t feel any adverse effects from the heat on the bike or the run, even when doing my hard efforts. I felt really positive about Sunday and was looking forward to reaping the rewards of the last 3 weeks training at altitude in Boulder.
Sunday rolled around and with great efficiency everything at the race site went to plan. Hats off to the organisers who run this race and to Disney who open up part of their site and close off some major roads for the bike course. So at 6:20am 2,500 athletes and countless more supporters all lined the beach area of the lake for the American national anthem before the Elite men got under way for the non-wetsuit swim.
My swimming has been going well recently and I was looking forward to seeing how it transferred to a race performance despite it being a non-wetsuit swim. Nearly 40 Pro men meant it was going to be pretty frenetic for the first few hundred meters, but also plenty of feet for me to follow. This I managed to do fairly quickly which is a first for me. I felt I was holding the water pretty well and the effort, though a little below what I should be working at, felt good and I was happy to stay behind my man in front. The water was pretty warm, even without the wet suit, but I definitely noticed the benefit of the altitude as my breathing was really under control. The new, somewhat ugly stroke (that has taken many poor pool sharers out in recent masters sessions in Boulder) was working well too. As we turned around the first buoy at the 800m mark, although I new I’d missed the lead group and (possibly) the second pack too, I saw Dion to my right and so knew that I was swimming better than I have in the past (Dion has always been faster than me and is a 24min 1.9k swimmer). I continued to stay on the feet in front all the way until about 150m to go when I drifted slightly to my left and lost him for long enough to not be able to get back on his tail.
We exited the water in just over 28 minutes, not fast, but for me, without a wetsuit a good start, and seeing Dion to my right meant that the swim must have been either very slow generally or a tad long. Either way, it was a good start for me.
I had no idea how far behind the next group I was (as it turns out I came out in the 3rd pack, about 90seconds down on 2nd pack and 3mins down on the leaders) but set off on my new Ceepo Viper for the first 12miles of the bike course on the closed roads of the Disney resort course.
The Ceepo has been noticeably stiff and fast as I’ve got used to it on the Boulder roads and it felt great as I road down the smooth flat roads towards the first turn around. I timed the gap to the lead 3 of Luke Bell, Bryan Rodes and (eventual winner) Dirk Bockel with the next slightly spread out group about 1min50 in front of me. I saw Fraser Cartmell at the front of them all and was pleasantly pleased to only be this far back so soon after the swim. I figured I’d be able to catch them by mile 15 and just set my sights on the 3-4 guys I could see closer up the road.
The bike course in Florida has 3 out-and-back turn-around’s where you get a good chance to measure the gap to those in front of you. By the second, I timed the gap to the now sizeable, but legal (I should stress) group that had now formed. The 3 leaders were just under 3 minutes ahead but I’d only put 20seconds into the chase group. Still I thought that over the rolling roads of the next 20 miles, I’d be able to catch them before we hit the largely flat final 12-15 miles that today would be into a head wind. I was now stuck well and truly on my own having caught and passed about 5 guys. Sadly I just didn’t seam to be able to gain any more time on the large group and the final turn-around showed I was still 90 seconds behind. That was the last I saw of them and I ended riding the entire bike leg on my own. I felt OK and the legs were fine. I took on as much High5 Energy+ drink and gels as I could with some salt tabs in there for the added electrolytes. The heat and humidity didn’t feel too bad, but every time I looked down at my body it was literally dripping all over. I went through nearly 2 litres on the bike, but guess I still probably lost nearly 3kg’s in sweat at the same time – not good numbers for a good run.
I made one slight mistake towards the end of the bike though. With the fairly complex final few miles back in the Disney Land grounds, it had been impossible to drive this section the day before, mainly due to the complete absence of anything that resembled a decent road name or sign post on the roads. I had no real idea of how long I had to go until I needed to get ready to dismount. It’s always good to try to get the legs a little loose at the end of the bike as well as getting your feet / shoes ready to dismount. I ended up riding for about 5 minutes with my feet out of one shoe, expecting to see T2 around every bend. Mental note for next year!!!
Once into T2, I quickly put on the new Newton racers and was out running through the pretty large crowd before I you could say “did someone put another log on the fire???”. Onto the footpath that starts the first part of the 3 loop course and a spectator/coach called out I was 40seconds down on the next guy. Once again there were out and back sections to the run which served really well to show how close you were to everyone else. I got another time check from Heather Furr that the leaders were 6mins ‘up the road’. Those 3 guys were well out of reach, but I could see 4th-10th was well within my grasp spread out from 1-3minutes. I made a conscious effort to hold back as I ran, but still clocked my first 2 miles at 5:40ish pace. Faster than I wanted to be running, but I really felt like I was keeping the brakes on.
I gradually caught and passed some of the guys in front and could see that I was moving away from those who’d entered T2 behind me too. The run course is about 50% road 50% grass. It isn’t too bad though and after all is the same for everyone, so is no excuse for anything. I was enjoying the run in the first loop and by the mid point of the second, about 10k into the run I’d moved up into about 6th place…. And then suddenly all those thoughts of “its not too hot actually, this is OK” evaporated and were replaced by “who’s turned the thermostat up?!” It really hit me that suddenly and my pace began to falter and slow considerably. But, I thought, ‘it’s the same for everyone else, just keep moving forwards’. I finished the 2nd lap much slower than the first (nearly 3minutes slower) but still felt that if I could keep this pace, I’d hang on to a top 8 finish and some prize money. But by the first turn of the last lap, it was clear that that wasn’t going to happen. Guys I’d passed and pulled away from were quickly catching me and I was soon passed by 3-4 of them in quick succession. I just tried to stay focussed on moving forward, you just never know what might happen around you so I concentrated on things I could control like putting one foot in front of the other.
By this time the run course had close to 2000 of the total 2500 athletes on the course and was becoming crowded. It was increasingly difficult to tell who was who so as I ran down the last out and back section and cramp kicked into my right quad muscle, I had no idea how many or who had passed me by. All I knew was that stretching my quad made my hamstring cramp, but then stretching that made my quad go again…. The ministry of funny walks then began as I tried to get moving, whilst stretching the front and back of my leg at the same time. Eventually it seamed to ease and with only about 3 miles left I set off to finish as quickly as I could. The money was now well and truly gone, as was a top 10, but it’s still important to give everything to the line – I’d at least get more from the race physically doing this and hopefully grown stronger mentally if not physically.
The final corner and finish shoot seamed to take an eternity to come. but eventually I completed my last lap, some 6 minutes slower than my first and I found myself sat down in the recovery area dousing myself in cold ice and water. I’d crossed the line in 16th, but disappointingly nearly 16minutes back on the winner; Too big a gap for my liking. My whole body was on fire and tingling, my face and lips were tingling too and a rather concerned looking medical helper took me off to medical. Thankfully there was no need for an IV this time, but it took me about an hour to properly cool down enough to step out from under the wonderful cold towel and stop drinking Gatorade like my life depended on it.
Though the race itself for me didn’t go according to plan, there were still some positives to take from it. Not least sharing in my friend Dions debut as a Pro and seeing Mikkel cross the line looking strong and taking nearly 15 minutes off of his time from last year – an awesome achievement!!!
I’ll be back next year I think, with a little more acclimatization under my belt and another minute off my swim time, ready to mix it up at the front, instead of getting mixed up myself!!!
