2019 Ironman 70.3 St. George

On May 4, 2019 I competed in the 2019 edition of Ironman 70.3 St. George. This event is of significance to me because 4 years ago, the 2015 edition of this race was my first 70.3 event. Even though this race is just part of my training build up for IM Lake Placid in July, I was curious to see how much I've improved in 4 years.

Quick Race Summary:

For those who aren't interested in all of the details...

Swim: 37:30
T1: 5:44
Bike: 2:58:11
T2: 7:00
Run: 2:18:33

Total: 6:06:58

Pre-Race:

My family and I drove to St. George on Thursday before the race. We arrived in the afternoon, in time to get athlete check-in done, and to make a quick run through the merchandise tent. I was supposed to link up with a couple others to bike the run course, but we all traveled separately and things didn't work out. So, I ended up just doing a short run to get my legs loosened up after the car ride.

Friday, I did a shakeout ride to make sure my bike was ready to race, and to get the heart rate up a little bit. I took care of run gear check-in, then we drove out to Sand Hollow Reservoir to drop of my bike and gear. The water looked great, and despite earlier reports, the water temp was up in the 60's, so conditions were looking good for the race. After that, we went and drove the hilly parts of the run course, and took a quick trip through Snow Canyon so I could reacquaint myself with that climb. After that, I got the rest of my gear put together, had a quiet dinner, then relaxed for a bit before getting to sleep.

Race Morning:

I woke up at 3:50am, after an unusually good night's sleep. I usually toss and turn, but for once I slept pretty well. I had to catch the hotel shuttle at 4:25am, so I quickly got dressed, loaded my nutrition and fluids into a backpack, and headed out. The hotel opened up their breakfast service early for triathletes on race morning, but it wasn't full service. I was able to get a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee before it was time to load up (I also snagged a muffin for the ride out to the reservoir). The shuttle dropped us off, and I made my way to T1 to throw a gel and a flask of Infinit Jet Fuel into my run bag. I caught the first bus that I saw loading people up, and we were off to the reservoir. Heather Wurtele (the pro triathlete, and 2x winner at St. George) was on the bus, which I thought was odd, but also super cool. We got to T2 at about 5:15am, and I went straight to my bike to get it prepped. I got right in line to use the pumps, which ended up taking way longer than I thought. But I finally got everything done, then waited in a very long porta-potty line before finally going over to get my wetsuit on and dropping off my morning clothes bag. I lined up in the 33-35 minute swim group, where I also ran into Gregg Doyle. There was no opportunity for a warm-up swim or to even get wet before starting to race. The pros started their race on time, and at 7am the first AGers started. It was about 7:27am by the time my group started to swim. The pros were already several miles into the bike.

Swim:

As soon as I took a few steps into the water, I felt very cold. I've raced in way colder water than 62 degrees before, but for some reason this really hit me. I did my best to dive under water, get moving quickly, and just embrace it. But for the first few hundred yards, I was definitely having a tough time. Once that passed, I settled into a good rhythm. There was plenty of traffic in the water, but I did a good job avoiding too much contact without deviating from my line. Navigation was easy. In fact, after the first red turn buoy, it was so easy to navigate that you could see at least 2 or 3 buoys ahead at times. My stroke felt smooth and easy, and things seemed to be going very well. There were sections where it seemed like the swell or chop picked up, but for the most part, conditions were great. I rounded the second turn buoy and headed for the swim exit. When I finally got there, I did have trouble getting stuck behind several people swimming abreast that where trying to stand up before the water was shallow enough. This impeded me, but only for a few seconds. When I stood up, I took a glance at my watch and was disappointed to see 37 minutes for my time. Aside from issues with the cold water at the beginning, I have no idea why I swam that slowly. I'm willing to bet that had I jogged back to the swim start and swam the course again, I could have beaten that time. I KNOW I am faster than that. I didn't want to dwell on it though, so I ran up the hill and started thinking about the bike.

T1:

The transition was set up more like what I've seen at full distance races: you grab your bike gear bag off of a rack, then head to a changing area where you ditch your wetsuit, get your bike gear on, then hand your bag (full of swim gear now) off to a volunteer before running to your bike. You can no longer put your shoes on the bike and do a flying mount. My bike was pretty far from the exit, so I was not looking forward to that run in my cycling shoes, but aside from that it wasn't a big deal. I took things nice and easy to avoid slipping and falling, had a clean mount, and got my ride underway.

Bike:

Snow Canyon hits 12% grade in some parts.

I remember from 4 years earlier that you hit a couple of hills pretty quickly into the bike, so I took it easy in the first couple of miles and gave my legs and cardio a chance to warm up before I did any climbing. It didn't take long to get comfortable and into a nice rhythm. As I went over those first two hills, I could tell that I had good legs. It was effortless to manage the power levels that I wanted to hold, and my heart rate was steadily in the mid-120's and low 130's almost the entire time. One thing I was happy to see where quite a few course marshals. In fact, I saw several people get blue cards for either drafting or blocking violations, and each time I passed a penalty tent, there were people in them serving their penalties. Despite that fact though, I saw dozens of riders around me that either didn't know or care about the rules when it comes to making passes or being passed by another rider. It forced me to make some aggressive passes a couple of times, but no big deal. Each time we climbed, I was careful not to let my power creep above 250W unless I was out of the saddle. I was also careful not to let it drop below 170W unless it was downhill, or while I was backing off of someone who passed me. I was hoping to have between 185 and 200W normalized power for the entire ride. Soon enough we entered the park and started climbing Snow Canyon. I stuck to my guns on the power output, except for a couple of the steepest pitches in the last 1.5 miles or so (but I did get out of the saddle a couple of those times, so technically I was still within my planned range). My heart rate got up into the 140's for a few minutes, but easily dropped back down once the roads flattened out. After we got out of the canyon and onto SR-18 to head back into town, I quickly took advantage of my larger gears and started pushing my 53x11 gear down into St. George. I averaged about 32mph for the last 9 mile segment and passed a lot of people, without putting myself into any difficulty at all. I think this is where a lot of people who train indoors a lot (or exclusively) have a disadvantage. Many people were not willing (or able) to stay aero and pedal down a lot of hills on the course. Finally, I made my way to T2 and dismounted in a time of 2:58. This was a bit slower than I had hoped, but I did nail my power numbers: 192W normalized power, and heart rate was 129bpm average. When I rode a 2:57 here 4 years ago, I pushed 218W with 149bpm average heart rate. So even though I was no faster, I was way more efficient and most likely way better prepared to run off of the bike this year.

T2:

I got my bike racked quickly, but I noticed something strange: my run gear bag was tied with a different knot than what I had used this morning. I'm an Army Ranger. We know entirely too much about knot tying, and this was clearly not my knot. And whoever did tie it, was probably not so meticulous about their knots. It was a mess. It took me a good 90 seconds to undo it, and once I opened the bag, I found some gels and a can of red bull that also didn't belong to me. Obviously, somebody accidentally dropped their nutrition in my bag this morning and retied the bag. I put their stuff on the ground, thinking perhaps they'd find it (assuming they weren't already out on the run course). I put on my visor and sunglasses, but my feet were totally dry after the bike so I didn't bother changing socks. I put my shoes on, grabbed my bib, ran to the porta-potties, then got sunscreen applied by volunteers before heading out. I definitely wasted a couple minutes (or three) in T2, but I felt ready to run.

Run:

All I could think about was getting up the first hills (basically to mile 4) in one piece. The first two miles are pretty gentle uphill, but then it gets pretty steep. Those first two went by pretty easily and quickly, but once we hit the steep part, I slowed to a shuffle. I promised myself that if I could reach the Mile 4 marker without walking, then I would allow myself to walk the next aid station if I needed to let my HR come back down. Even though I was barely shuffling, I made it. And yes, I walked the next aid station to let my HR recover a bit. I picked the pace back up, and actually felt pretty good over the next hill, and on the descent to mile 6. Not long after that, the course makes a u-turn and heads directly back up a hill that we just came down. And to make things worse, at the top, you make another u-turn and go down (and back up) again! It was on this second ascent that I started to run out of steam, right around mile 8. I knew the final big hill was coming up, so I did everything I could to conserve energy and try to rally for it. But after those last two climbs, my HR wasn't coming back down on the flats. I wanted very badly to run all the way to the top (at about 9.2 miles) but I decided to alternate shuffling with speed walking to avoid blowing up before I reached the top. It worked, but I had a very slow mile split there. At any rate, I made it to the top, then got back to a normal running pace to the aid station just past mile 10. From there, I started feeling confident again, having the hills behind me, and just having to grind out a hot, and mostly downhill 2.5 miles to the finish. I took my time in each aid station, but kept things moving. With a little over a mile to go, somebody was on course with a hose offering to spray people. I waved to him, and he proceeded to absolutely douse me with water. My shoes and socks (previously bone dry) were now saturated. I wasn't too happy, but I just kept rolling. I took a swig of coke at the final aid station, then was able to pick up the pace a bit, hang that last right turn through the traffic circle, and finish nice and strong. My run time was 2:18, which again I thought I would have been faster (I was hoping for 2:05 to 2:10). But seriously my longest run of 2019 before this race was 9 miles. So, all things considered, this was an ideal result considering my run fitness level. My total time was 6:06, which by the way, is 29 minutes faster than my debut 70.3 here 4 years ago. Certainly not an amazing performance, but definitely a large improvement (getting faster as I get older!)

Finally! I had a finish chute all to myself!

Notes:

Some information and observations from this race.

-Nutrition

--Pre-race: I ate a bowl of cereal and drank a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. On the bus ride and before the swim I ate a GU waffle, drank a 24 oz. bottle of Infinit Jet Fuel, and ate one GU gel, for a total of about 750 calories before the race.

--Bike: I took two gels, and drank 48 ounces of Infinit GoFar, for a total of 850 calories. I refilled my BTA with water, not gatorade or anything else.

--Run: I drank a flask of concentrated Infinit Jet Fuel in T2 before I started running (about 200 calories). For the first half of the run, I drank Gatorade at each aid station. From miles 7.5 to roughly 10 miles, I drank Red Bull at each station. For the final two aid stations I drank Coke. I sipped water a couple of times, but mostly just used water to pour over my head and down my back to help with the heat.

-Gear

--Overall: my trisuit was a two-piece LG short sleeved kit. I use a Wahoo TICKR HR monitor strap, and wore a Garmin Fenix 5X watch. I captured the swim and run data with the watch (bike data captured on my bike computer).

--Swim: I used my full sleeved Roka Maverick Elite wetsuit. It is getting old, but it seemed to do the job just fine. I had my tri suit shorts on, but no top. I did feel cold at the start, but can't attribute that to the suit. I used Roka X1 goggles (mirrored amber). The sun is in your face a lot on this swim, so those goggles were perfect. No fogging issues, but that's because Gregg had a bottle of water with him, and he let me pour a few drops in each lens before we got started.

--Bike: I rode my Felt IA16, with HED Jet+ Black wheels (disc wheel on the back, 60mm on the front). Tires are the new Continental GP5000 (23mm) with latex tubes. I love these tires, and have been happy racing latex tubes for well over a year now. The wheel combo was solid, and I think the disc was fast on the windy and flat/downhill sections of the course. For gearing I used 53/39 oval chain rings, with an 11x28 cassette. Smaller chain rings would have been nice on the steepest pitches in Snow Canyon, but I made very good use of the larger gears on descents. I used an X-Lab Torpedo BTA, and an X-Lab Aero TT bottle on the frame for carrying fluids. For data, I used my Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt computer. I used my Giro Aerohead helmet, which seemed great. I didn't notice any issues with heat, even though I forgot to wear my Halo sweatband.

--Run: I wore Hoka One One Clifton 5 (knitted) shoes with ultra-thin no show RR Sports socks.  I wore a Headsweats visor and Oakley Razor sunglasses with a dark polarized lens. The shoes have been great since I started training in them several weeks ago.

No issues with any of my gear today. Everything worked great.

-Logistics

We drove to St. George on Thursday, staying at the TownPlace Suited by Marriott. The hotel is race friendly, providing a shuttle on race morning to the town square (where we catch buses to the swim start/T1). We found a couple of good new places to eat: Red Crown Indian Cuisine, Rib and Chop House, and Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken.

Improvements For Next Time:

• Consider coming into town Wednesday if you really want to get shakeout rides and runs with the club or club members.
• For the swim, figure out how to better prepare for the entry to avoid being impacted by the cold (do a practice swim beforehand, find a way to get wet beforehand, something).
• Don't finger drill the transitions. Someone good at transitions who can swim/bike/run like me is under 6 hours at this race! If a bag is stuck tied up, just rip the damn thing open. Don't waste time untying a rat's nest knot.
• If I race in my short sleeve top, I might try to wear a sleeveless wetsuit over it, so I can just drop the wetsuit in transition and save the step of putting the top on in transition. I see a lot of people (even pro/elite) who use this setup now.
• Find a better way to air up tires on race morning. The provided pumps suck if you have a disc wheel. Try one of those handheld compressors, like the Fumpa, and see if it is worth carrying and putting in your morning clothes bag.
• On race morning, the 4:25 shuttle to the buses (and catching the first bus) was too early. Shift the schedule to the right by 30 minutes or so next time.

Conclusion:

Considering that this was just a training event for me, I'm pleased with the results. I am 4 years older, yet nearly half an hour faster than I was here in 2015. Hopefully one day I can come back again, with my training focused specifically for this event. I'd like to see what I could really do on this course. Also, the fact that I did this race 4 weeks earlier than it was called for in my training program, and still had a strong showing, shows that my training for Ironman Lake Placid is going very well.