Ironman 70.3 Florida
DATE: May 20, 2012
The race went a little better than I had expected although it hurt a lot more than I was expecting. To begin with, the day turned out to be a real hot one!
SWIM — 1.2 miles — 41:21 — 2:08/100m pace
I used the swim to get comfortable and prepared for the day. The swim was crowded but I expect that is usual for an Ironman event. The course was also a little odd with a U-turn of sorts. It looks worse than it actually was (IM 70.3 FL swim in Lake Eva). However, i felt like all the turns slowed me down a bit. Plus, you always swim into more people around the turns.
swim exit — putting my heart-rate monitor back in place
BIKE —– 56 miles —– 2:56:40 —– 19.02 miles/hour pace
The bike started out really well. I probably got a little too excited coming out of T1 and started out at too fast a pace.
Split 1 —- 38.5 miles — 1:54:47 —— 20.12 miles/hour pace
Did I mention there were a few hills on the course? The hills seemed to get bigger the more miles I covered on the bike. If anything, this scared me a little in my preparation for Great Floridian in Clermont. I have heard it is a pretty hilly course for a race in Florida. What’s more, I have very little opportunity to train on hills in South Florida.
Split 2 —- 17.5 miles —- 1:01:53 —— 16.97 miles/hour pace
As you can see my pace dropped off a little bit for the final miles on the bike. Like I said, I couldn’t help myself that day. I went out too fast for my current level of fitness.
RUN —— 13.1 miles —— 2:07:32 ——–9:44/mile pace
I knew the run was going to hurt…it was just a question of how much! The run course was 3 loops of a 4.4 mile course through the streets around Lake Eva. The day was really starting to heat up as well. Central Florida has no breeze and the humidity can make it feel like a steam oven.
Loop 1 —— 4.4 miles —– 40:21 ——– 9:10/mile pace
I like to call this loop “getting to know the run course”. On a 3 loop run, the first loop is like an introduction, a first impression of sorts. Especially since I did not do any course recon before the race.
To my surprise, and within the first mile and a half, there were two back to back tough hills. Also, this is before you have even hit a water station. I was scared of what would follow but these hills turned out tot be the worst part of the run course. However, I was not looking forward to seeing these two bad boys another two times.
I believe this was within the first mile of the run
Loop 2
This is when things started to feel really tough. I kept a decent enough pace knowing that if I held on, I would finish under 6 hours (a time I would gladly take at this juncture of my season) ! It was also at this point that I remembered how much I hate seeing the mile markers that belong to the third loop. It just reminds you of the distance still to come when you are already hurting.
Loop 3 – Hold on for dear life. I’m not ashamed to admit I did a little walking. It was ridiciulously hot! HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to the woman outside of her house with the hose ! It really helped out there. I walked the two hills for this loop. Better to lose a little time than self destruct.
HOT and tired on the run
Seeing the finish line always brings a smile
Done! and hot and tired
SWIM 41:21
T1 3:54
BIKE 2:56:40
T2 4:02
RUN 2:07:32
IRONMAN 70.3 FLORIDA 5:53:29
