San Juan 70.3 RR

This post will be only for race day and I'll talk about my travels and experiences in Puerto Rico here in the next few days. The weather was amazing and I had a blast while I was down there. I am now back in Lexington and getting back in the swing of things.

March 19 - Race morning is here and I wake up ready to roll. I didn't sleep well as our neighbors in the hotel are on spring break and they didn't get in until around 2:30am. There was also some alarm outside going off for about an hour during the night so that wasn't pleasant, but the hay was in the barn as I had slept amazingly the past several nights. I had some coffee and a clif bar before walking over to the transition area. I noticed that I wasn't really as hungry as usualy and actually my stomach didn't feel "right." I shrugged it off and tried to eat my 2nd Clif bar as I usually have 2 for breakfast before a 70.3 event because they settle well and very easy to travel with. I ate maybe half of the 2nd one and threw the rest out. I sipped on some water as I set up my transition area and walked back over to the swim start / my hotel area. I was fortunate enough to have a hotel that was about 100 meters from the swim start so I went back up to my room, dropped off the stuff I didn't need for the race, and put on my race gear. I still didn't feel normal, but decided I didn't travel all the way to Puerto Rico just to watch a 70.3. I figured I would at least give it a shot, and if I'm not able to finish, no big deal, I would have at least given it a shot. I headed back down, got in a great swim warm up, got a good luck kiss from Casey, and we were told to enter the water at 6:45am.

6:50 - the gun goes off and I'm on the far left side of the start line. This is exactly where I wanted to be as I hate getting stuck right in the middle of everyone. I had clear water for the first 300 yards or so and got out great. I came over, found some feet, and sat right there for the rest of the first 700. We made the first turn and I got cut off by another guy. We made the next turn and then had a 900 swim to the bridge that we swam under, then another 250 to the finish. I sat on this guy's feet for about 400 yards until he stopped to fix his goggles. When he did this, he lost the feet in front of him and cut me off from closing that gap to those feet. I ended up back on his feet until after the bridge and I went around him and came out of the water about 20 seconds down from the first swim pack and in 11th position. I had a great T1 and got out on the bike. It took a few miles for my legs to come around but I needed to go HARD so that I could bridge that gap to the leaders. I could see 2 - 3 guys just up the road, but they had about 30 seconds on me. I went really hard but just couldn't close that gap. I settled into pace and stayed put for a while. I had 2 guys pass me over the next 25 miles and then had a group of guys catch me with about 15 miles to go. I was able to stick with these guys going back into T2. We had a head wind for those last 20 miles so it was nice to have a few other guys to ride with.

I came into T2 with HUGE salt stains on my red tri suit. This made me a little worried I didn't consume enough electrolytes during the bike, but I knew that I really couldn't have taken anymore as I had taken more than usual. I had a pretty solid transition and passed 2 guys in the transition area. I passed 2 more guys before the 1 mile mark on the run. So I'm now sitting around 11th place and I could see 2 more guys just up the road. I knew this would be a battle of attrition as the heat was just unbearable (at least for this time of year in the US). I walked the next aid station to insure I took in enough liquids and I got at least 4 sponges to stuff in my suit before I took off. This was an out and back run and also a 2 loop run so I could see exactly who was in front of me and how far they were up on me. I was slowly catching the 2 guys in front of me. I caught these guys between the 5th and 6th miles. I got to the run turn around to see Casey going crazy screaming that Macca was less than 1 minute up the road. I could tell he was hurting and if I was able to maintain pace, I might catch him. I got to the aid station around the 8th mile and I walked again to make sure I got in my fluids and cold sponges on my head. I took off and was able to catch Richie Cunningham just before the 10th mile. This put me in 8th place and in the money. I knew all I had to do was hold on. We start to run up the hill just after the 10th mile and my boy Nick is running down telling me that Macca is just in front of me. I put my head down, make it to the top, and before I know it I'm passing Macca around the 11th mile. I know that I'm in 7th place and have less than 2 miles to go before the finish. I attempt to maintain pace and around the 12th mile I see another guy just up the road. I assume its an AG'er on his first lap but as I get closer I realize it was Oscar Galindez. I pass him and have an all downhill run to the finish. I crossed the finish line in 6th place in a time around 4:04:15.

I was extremely pleased with the effort on the day. This was the closest I've ever been to the lead swimmers after the swim, and I had a great run considering the difficulty and heat on the run course. I was able to pace myself properly and pass a lot of guys who went just a little too hard on the bike.

The course was amazing. This was, by far, my favorite swim of any 70.3 I've ever done as it was in a lagoon that is attached to the Atlantic Ocean. It was pretty much like a salt water lake and it was fun to swim under a VERY low bridge. The bike course was pretty flat, and had some rough areas, but overall was a good course. They had repaved some areas so the asphalt was perfect in those areas. The wind was brutal but that is something you have to deal with on different days. The run course was the most challenging 70.3 course I have been apart of. It was very rolling with 2 STEEP hills per run lap. These hills were shorter than 200 meters, but they sure hurt a lot. It was awesome to run by Fort El Marro there in Old San Juan and having a view of the ocean at all times on the run course.

Overall it was a great trip and I'm very pleased with how my first 70.3 went for the year.

Thanks for reading. Another post soon to follow about the other aspects of the trip.

Tony