Two years ago, when I jumped into triathlons, I figured it’d be a fun way to get a well-rounded exercise cadence that would improve my long-distance running, reduce injuries, and maybe squash my fear of drowning. Rewind to February of this year and I’ve knocked out a handful of sprints, a couple of olys, and was getting the itch to push myself again. Even though I had zero interest in ever pursuing any form of Ironman distance races, it didn’t take long for the success of my fellow training people to encourage me to just say fuck it.
Then, in February, I registered for Ironman Augusta 70.3 knowing full well that I was neither physically or mentally prepared for it, but had until nearly October to make it happen. It was not uncommon for me to get some terrible race-day anxiety, but this was months out and I was already feeling it. Now, with the race complete, this is the first time I can look in the rearview mirror and see how much I have changed as a result of the decision, much of it for the better. With that, let’s chat about how I ran across the surface of the sun and had a pretty damn good time doing it.
And, as I finish writing this report, I’m about to hit submit on registering for Ironman Chattanooga 2020. Going all in!
This is the training plan I used, and I’m using his full plan for Chatt.
Ranking and Data
Before jumping into the numbers, I should probably note that I had zero goals beyond finishing the race. And then race week approached and everyone saw that we would be doing a large part of it in heat ranging from 95-102 degrees, which means finishing without injury was now the goal. Based on where I was in training, I had a rough idea of what it would be, and honestly am very happy with the results.
My favorite part of the data here is that my heart rate seems to map the elevation changes pretty well, right up until I hit the run and you can see the heat was killing me. Eventually I did a jog/walk through to finish and it was more manageable.
SWIM DETAILS | Division Rank: 175
| SPLIT NAME | DISTANCE | SPLIT TIME | RACE TIME | PACE | DIVISION RANK | GENDER RANK | OVERALL RANK |
| Total | 1.2 mi | 00:39:31 | 00:39:31 | 02:02/100m | 175 | 1310 | 1934 |
BIKE DETAILS | Division Rank: 157
| SPLIT NAME | DISTANCE | SPLIT TIME | RACE TIME | PACE | DIVISION RANK | GENDER RANK | OVERALL RANK |
| Total | 56 mi | 03:18:19 | 04:03:17 | 16.94 mph | 157 | 1200 | 1627 |
RUN DETAILS | Division Rank: 114
| SPLIT NAME | DISTANCE | SPLIT TIME | RACE TIME | PACE | DIVISION RANK | GENDER RANK | OVERALL RANK |
| Total | 13.1 mi | 02:18:01 | 06:27:00 | 10:32/mi | 114 | 859 | 1177 |
Transition Details
| T1: Swim-to-bike | 00:05:27 |
| T2: Bike-to-run | 00:05:42 |
Race Morning
Augusta isn’t that big of a city, so finding a place to stay near the starting point wasn’t bad. I booked my AirBnB shortly after registering, but most of the official hotels were already booked. Mix this with being a slow swimmer and a self-seeded start time, I was able to sleep until about 5:45 am (and I actually slept!), walk over to the shuttle area before 6, get to transition to set up all my gear and fill my bottles, and take a casual 1.2 mile stroll over to the swim start. The only thing I wish I had time to do was to tape my gu onto the frame of my bike, but it wasn’t much of an issue rummaging through my frame bag while riding.
I wasn’t rushed in the least, only had a banana for breakfast, and was sipping on some water before waiting in the swim line. I think we were in line for nearly two hours before it was finally time to take the plunge.
Notes: Don’t bring a bucket, there is no room (I didn’t), if you are going to wait in the swim line, have food ready (uncustables FTW), bring an extra pair of socks to reduce blisters (just in case).
The Swim
1.2 mile swim in the Savannah River. Has fluctuating current, decent visibility, was not wetsuit legal (optional, start in back). It took me 39:31 to finish.
My typical 100-yard pace is around 2:30 in the pool/lake. Thanks to the magic of the river current I was able to cut it down to about 2:02. During Gatorfest it was closer to 1:40, with the current going near full blast.
For the two hours leading into the swim, there was a lot of chatting with some nervous athletes. You can always tell who they are as they ask the most questions, which is exactly how I used to be, but this one fella, in particular, was even making me a bit nervous by the end of it. We finally get to the doc, I get my Garmin set, and… it won’t fully connect to GPS. Not being able to wait, I press go, dropped to my bum, and plopped into the water (jumping in would have screwed my breathing up immediately).
It took me around 4-5 minutes to get my breathing right, and every time it was on track, I’d get stuck behind a slow swimmer. Even with the seeding, I felt like people were clearly overestimating their abilities because I swim as slow as a rock, and these folks were backstroking and breast stroking all over. I finally got into a decent rhythm, when I noticed a kayak flying past me with what looked like a person slumped over. I later found out they had a cardiac incident and are still in the hospital (with improvements!). But, this also distracted me, and I bashed my left hand into a bridge pylon. I shook this off real quick, went back to my swim, and finished without issue. Heading up the ramp, every single person was walking, so it was a bit of dodge and weave to get around them.
T1
My transition times are notoriously terrible, so 5:27 in T1 isn’t honestly all that bad. Half of that time was probably spent trying to open my extra Uncrustable to shove in my face. By the time I even got in the water that banana had long worn off. After gearing up, I ran to the tent with sunblock and had them slather me up as much as possible. And away we went for 56 miles on the bike.
Bike
56 miles of rolling hills, with only one nasty downhill, and one very steep climb at aid station 2 or 3. There was at least 1500 feet of elevation shift. This is a new course as they removed most of the train tracks. It took me 03:18:19 with an average pace of 16.94 mph.
Having only trained around flat Charleston and countless hours on Zwift, I knew my average speed for this was going to be a hot mess. In hindsight, I should have spent some time working up the bridge here, but dealing with pedestrians is a bit sketchy. However, I won’t have much of a choice going forward, so that’s on the list for Chatt. That said, all the interval work I did on Zwift kept me at bay. I climbed every one of those hills and only struggled on two. The biggest issue was one very steep descent, where I had to ride the brakes, and yell out “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit” the entire time. Otherwise, I was shifting gears like a champ and typically was able to peddle during descents for a bunch of overtakes.
For the first half, I was totally solid. I was passing a bunch of people, didn’t feel like I was overexerting, and even throttled back to make sure I had enough juice for the run. Aid station one popped up, I skipped on by as I still had another bottle of water to work with (aero bar + two spares). Around hour one I got an Uncrustable down and a gu packet, with only a bit of reduced speed.
The second half though, that sun was out to get us. Even with a good bit of tree coverage, I could start to feel the sun cooking through my tri kit. At aid station two I stopped, refilled my aero bottle, and took a quick pit stop. I was on my way pretty quickly, but at this point, my water was going fast due to the increased heat and desire to be as hydrated as possible on the run. I got another Uncrustable down and another two gu packets through to the end.
Around mile 40 my hamstrings were starting to tighten up, so I pulled off at the last aid station. After refilling my water, they have you do this loop around bit, and it was actually the end of this loop that had the steepest little hill. I didn’t have enough momentum so it was a struggle to get up and through. Fortunately, the volunteers were ready for it and cheered us all on. And like that, we were back into downtown Augusta leading to T2.
T2
At this point, I could full-on feel how tight my hamstrings were, so I was taking my sweet ass time. It took me 5:42 to switch shoes, drop my bike gear, put on knee sleeves and my camelback, and soaked a cooling down to throw around my neck. I even slapped on some biofreeze on my legs.
Running on the Surface of the Sun
The half marathon is a two-loop, all road, minimal coverage course that runs through downtown Augusta. According to Weather Underground, the feels like temp was around 102 when I started, with little humidity in the air. It took me 2:18:01 to finish, for a slow ass pace of 10:32. My normal half is sub 2 hours.
At this point, I felt like I had energy, plenty enough to finish, but mentally I was being pulled down. Right out of transition people were walking like zombies. I don’t think I saw a single person running, and that kept creeping into my head. “Hey, they are doing it, why not you…” I pushed until I left the transition area and into the city center. There was a heavy mix of runners and walkers, so things were looking up. I figured I’d get to mile three, do a bit of walking, then run again. Then, there were the aid stations. Basically every 1.2 miles there was an aid station, which made it easier for me to stop, grab water, and resoak my cooling towel (it dried out really fast). These were a blessing and a curse.
I’m not sure what the mile marker was, but somewhere around the ¼ point, I spotted Grace. I had a feeling she’d be in the area as our AirBnB was one street over, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to walk where she was. With apparently a smile on my face, I ran over to her, gave her a nasty sweaty kiss, and kept chugging along. From there it was a constant mental battle to deal with the sun, but around the halfway point I realized I could also snack on the ice. This, regardless of the nasty cold I now have, was still a great idea. Just know that the gross ice will get you sick, probably. I felt brand new… for about a full mile. My pace picked back up, but it wore off quickly.
The second half of the run was mostly a blur, but I remember seeing grace two or three more times before the finish line. The spectators were great, the city around us was super nice by leaving sprinklers on, and no amount of Charleston heat had me mentally prepared. By mile 12 I was struggling hard but saw Grace. Blurted something out like “one more fucking mile” and started to sort of jog. I pushed it until I finally hit the finish shoot, and even managed to choke out a smile until I crossed the last timing mat. And like that, it was done. I felt pretty damn good after they swapped my hat out for a finisher hat that was soaking in ace, did a bit of stretching, and got as much water down as I could. I wasn’t able to eat, but I got half of whatever light beer they had on hand.
Post-race this was not nearly as draining as the marathons were, but my hamstrings were definitely feeling the hill work. In all, I finished in 6:27. A solid mid-packer result, and not terrible for my first go at this. And I knew as soon as I finished the race that I was ready for a full ironman. So, onward… It’s time to punch out the Vegas marathon next month, then rest for a bit before plunging into Chattanooga next September. Still shooting for maybe an ultramarathon and some long-distance swim races, too.
But the next big project? Keeping some silkie chickens alive. They arrived last week.
