2018 Ironman 70.3 Ohio
I am publishing this race report to share details of the Ironman 70.3 Ohio race, but also to highlight, that not all races go as planned. This was probably the most disappointing race I have completed, in my short triathlon career. I hope you enjoy reading the report and equally, I hope that it helps you with your own triathlon journey.
Training Cycle
I have never felt so prepared for race before in my life. For three months ahead of this race, I had not missed a single workout. As part of my build for the race, I had attended the C26 Triathlon camp, which gave me a huge fitness boost. I was injury free and ready to go.
Race Logistics
Ironman 70.3 Ohio is a point-to-point race with two different transition locations. The race starts with a swim in Delaware State Park, with T1 located right by the beach swim exit. The bike section of the course takes you from the State Park back to the city of Delaware. It starts by going north out of the State Park, before turning east and then south to the city. The course is almost completely flat, passing through farmland until it gets close to the city of Delaware, where the course becomes a little more undulating and winds its way to downtown. T2 is in the historic Shelby Stadium, which is also where you finish after an undulating 13.1 mile run.
Some people find the thought of two different transition areas a little daunting. I can tell you that the whole system works flawlessly. The most challenging part occurs on the day before race day, because you have to drive out of town to T1, to drop off your bike. For your run gear, you just drop it off in the stadium on the day before racing. You are allowed into both transitions on race day, to drop off nutrition. I chose not to re-enter T2, but did the usual bike preparation in T1 on race day.
On race morning, you can either make your way to the State Park on the buses provided by Ironman or you can have someone drive you out there by yourself, which is what I did.
The split transition does make spectating a little more difficult, if you want to watch the swim. This is because you have to stay at the swim area until all of the athletes have left on the bike. This is because the bike course follows the main road out of the State Park.
From a racing perspective however, the split transition works fine and actually means you have a little more space in each transition. After the race, you don’t have to go back to T1, because the organizers bring your swim gear back to town for you. You just have to collect it from the designated area.
The Race
Race Morning
Race Day started with a bang, or rather the loudest siren I have ever heard…. at 1:30am, the fire alarm went off in our hotel. My wife and I jumped out of bed, our hearts pounding and we frantically tried to turn off the clock alarm, our phones and anything else electrical. Then the penny dropped, and we realized it was the hotel fire alarm. Talk about an adrenaline rush. Fortunately it was a false alarm and it was turned off quite quickly. This was not exactly ideal race day preparation.
It took me about 30 minutes to get back to sleep, but I was able grab almost 2 hours of restless sleep, before it was time to get up. I ate my standard race day breakfast of 2 cinnamon raisin bagels (nothing on them) and 2 small containers apple sauce. I had two cups of coffee which helped get my GI situation relatively well sorted. I then got dressed into my new C26 race kit.
We packed our bags into the car and drove to the State Park. This was super easy and we got to park our car right next to T1. I went into T1 and got my bike all set up, lent my pump to half a dozen other athletes, double checked everything was good to go and left to go find my wife. I found my wife and we also found a couple of C26 teammates, who were also racing. My wife stayed with our friends, while I went to the bathroom.
The swim was non-wetsuit legal, so I had my swim skin on over the top of my racing kit. The weather was quite warm, so I had no issues hanging around in this clothing. Finally, it was time to head over to join the crowds in line for the swim start. I took a pre-race gel and pushed in at about the 43-45 minute estimate swim time mark. I felt I could comfortably do this swim time and it fitted well with my plan to start the swim slow. As I stood there alone, I looked up and saw two other teammates. It was nice to have someone friendly to talk to, in line for the start. I arrived at the front of the start line, very relaxed, feeling confident and focused on starting off at an easy swim pace.
Apart from the fire alarm, I couldn’t have had a more relaxed, stress free beginning to my day.
The Swim
Having gotten to the front of the rolling start line, the beeper went and I entered the water. The temperature felt good and I started swimming. I was calm, relaxed and was breathing well. About 100 yards in I started thinking that it seemed like I was working hard and so I focused even more on relaxing and swimming in a controlled manner. By 200 yards in however, something didn’t feel right … my arms were ‘dead’. I kept swimming and the feeling that my arms were tired grew stronger. I also lost control of my breathing. Not being a super confident swimmer, my mind started to spiral out of control … “my god I’m dying here and I still have a mile to go”. I kept moving forward, getting more and more out of control, when a kayak appeared on my left. I grabbed it to try and get control of myself (this was probably a mistake, but I was in a bad place). I rested for probably just over a minute and then started back up. Again my arms felt ‘dead’; I felt like I could barely get them out of the water. I was far from relaxed, which made me start to breathe hard again.
The next half-mile was a sequence of swim 200 yards, grab a kayak, rest, swim again. I did the whole back straight of the swim like this, and already knew my hopes for a fast race were shot. During this sequence I also got a bad side stitch, which has never happened to me while swimming before. I managed to get rid of the side stitch, but then started cramping in my plantar fascia and calves. This forced me to move my feet into completely the wrong position for swimming, which caused a lot more drag and made swimming even harder.
I finally made it to the second turn buoy and things were getting better. I stopped at another kayak (probably about stop #6) and while resting I saw a swimmer from the wetsuit optional group. This was the last group into the water and I suddenly realized that I might be in danger of missing the swim cut-off. So with about 500 yards to go I decided I would have to suck up the pain of my dead arms, and my cramping and just swim to the end. I managed to do that, came out of the water, looked at the clock, did some quick math, and was relieved to see that I was under the cut-off.
This was absolutely the worst swim ever for me. My race was now essentially over in terms of a fast time, but I had made it through and it was time for the bike.
Swim Time : 1:04:04
T1
As I ran up the beach, I caught sight of my wife. She was smiling and cheering me on, but I could tell that she had been worried about me. I had taken a lot longer to complete the swim than planned, and I knew this would have concerned her.
Transition went well for me. I had a great spot next to the bike exit. Before leaving transition, I took another gel and some water. I got on my bike and thought … OK .. now just execute the bike plan that my coach had given me.
T1 Time : 0:03:42
The Bike
Once out on the bike course, I quickly realized that I was going a lot faster, than most of the people around me. To help get my head in a good space and to put some fun back in my day, I decided to start counting how many people I was passing. I felt like a real badass literally flying past dozens of people, and the counting really helped from a mental approach perspective. There was no chance of me violating the 25 second passing rule, as I was zipping past most folks in less than 10 seconds. I eventually stopped counting when I got to 500 at about mile 30. I also realized at the end of the bike, that nobody had actually passed me either.
Despite the fun I was having flying past fellow competitors, I was also having trouble hitting my power numbers. My coach, Robbie, had given me a target power number, that was lower than the average Normalized Power I had achieved on all of my recent long rides. I was excited that I could follow the plan and be comfortable. That turned out not to be the case. Ten miles in, I was 10 watts under the plan and starting to ‘feel it’. This wasn’t making any sense to me. I knew I shouldn’t be feeling the way I did, at the watts I was riding at. At one point, I was convinced my power meter was lying (even though I had calibrated it that morning).
I was pretty confident that the way I was feeling, was not my nutrition. I nailed my planned nutrition, which was a combination of concentrated Infinit and Stinger Chews. After the race, I calculated I consumed this combination at 290 calories per hour. I was aiming at 300 per hour. I also drank plenty of water.
So here I was, flying past people, but not hitting my power plan. I would definitely not call my effort steady, but I had committed myself to hitting the plan, so once we turned south, I started to push a little harder. As soon as I kicked up my effort however, I got a major cramp all the way down my inner quads in both legs. I immediately backed off, and it stopped. A mile or so later I tried again, and once again I had more cramping. I have never had cramping in these muscles on my bike before… I was going crazy. So began the ride of hundred cramps!! Almost every time I kicked up the effort, I started cramping.
Despite the issues I was having, I never once thought of giving up. I was focused on getting the most out of what my body was giving me. I liked the course, although a few more hills, to break up the monotony of riding in the same two gears would have been nice. I was getting near the end of the bike course, when I finally saw what I had been looking for the whole time… another C26 team kit. A few people had shouted out ‘Crushing Iron’ along the way, but just before the bike path into the city, I caught up with my teammate, Cris. It was so nice to see a friendly face.
The stadium finally came into view, I turned off Henry Street, dismounted and ran to my transition spot.
Bike Time : 2:42:53
T2
Once again I had a great location in transition; My spot was just at the entry point. As I racked my bike, I thought maybe, just maybe, I’ll have a decent run. I emptied my run gear bag and knelt down to put on my running shoes. Bam …. major hamstring cramp. I stood up straightaway to stretch it out and tried again. Again, more cramping but somehow I got my shoes on and headed out on the run.
T2 Time : 0:03:26
The Run
As I ran out of the stadium, I forced down a gel, and drank most of a bottle of water that I had stashed with my run gear in T2. Turning onto the Henry Street, I was pushed on by the crowds cheering and saw my wife after about half a mile. She looked a whole lot less worried this time, as she snapped a picture of me running by. By now, I had caught up with my teammate Cris again. I ran with her for a while, and then pushed forward. My legs were still feeling quite bad and just before the first water stop, I had more cramping; this time in my quads. I stopped to get water and decided I would eat a banana, to see if it somehow helped with the cramping. The next mile or two were okay. I knew I was running about 8:30-8:45 pace (I can just tell ..) but it was hurting so bad. I was however, holding back a little, per my run plan.
On the run, I ended up walking to some extent, at every aid station. I took time to refill my handheld bottle with water (for cooling), drink Coke and grab a banana to eat on the go. I loved the run course. The slight contours were perfect. There were nice long straights, and a fair amount of shade. This is definitely somewhere that I could have gone fast. The crowds were pretty thin out on the loops, but I get a ‘high five’ from a very young girl, who was as excited as anybody watching (I gave her my Ironman red ‘thank you’ band on the second loop).
The run for me was generally a total pain fest; my legs were just very fatigued. I have run many times in this kind of feeling, so I knew I could deal with it. I finally made my way to the second loop. I was in such a zone, that I completely missed passing another teammate, until she shouted my name as I went by. On the last part of the second loop, I eventually reached the 10-mile marker … at this point my race plan changed; it was time to wind it up, for an all out finish.
I’m proud to say that I gave it everything on that last 5K. I did still stop at the aid stations, but I pushed hard between them. I focused on the next runner in front of me and worked hard, to try and pass them. I was not passed by anyone in that last part of the race and the IM tracker showed, I did indeed run faster at the end. Back in town, the crowds got thicker and I eventually turned into the stadium and could see the finish line. I ran as fast as I could up the red carpet, and was so zoned out, that I completely missed my wife cheering for me (ooops!). I crossed the finish and knew I was wrecked.
Run Time : 2:01:24
Overall Time : 5:55:29 (36th in age group)
Post-Race
This race is relatively close to my home town of Pittsburgh, so after hanging around a while in the finishing area (not eating food but drinking two cokes), I got in my car and drove home. Mentally I was down. I really thought I had done everything right in preparation, to crush this race. I didn’t even look up my finish time until I got home that night. My body was really sore. My legs were in bad shape, and even my triceps and lats were really sore. It took me about 24 hours to process everything. My legs were still a little tender a day later, but mentally I was able to ‘let go’. I was already itching to get back at it. I had IM Chattanooga to prepare for; that race turned out to be a much better one.
Lessons Learned
In hindsight, it is clear that my swim issues were a classic case of panic in the water. I felt a little discomfort and then I mentally spiraled out of control. All of the physical effects that I felt in the water, were the result of using way too much energy and breathing way too hard, in trying to overcome the panic in my mind. I didn’t have a huge amount of experience in open water races to fall back on, I lost confidence in my ability almost immediately and went downhill from there.
All of the other issues I faced during the race, like all of the cramping, were almost certainly a result of fatigue created in the swim. I had expended too much energy in just getting through the swim, that when I pushed hard on the bike, my muscles rebelled. The same is likely true for the cramping that I experienced during the run.
I have had similar experiences in the water since this race, but I have also had great swims during races too. It is all a confidence issue. I find that swimming a lot before races helps significantly with confidence. The more I swim ahead of a race, the better I do on the day. I am also now able to recognize when I am starting to panic in the water. This allows me to mentally reset myself into a good place and continue with the swim (most times anyway !).
The other lesson, is that this race really helped me understand how one leg of a triathlon, can dramatically impact those that come after. Conserving energy for later in the race is critical, and that all starts with a steady, uneventful swim. Long course triathlon races really ‘start’ on the run, so conserving energy in the other legs should be part of an overall race strategy.