Orlando Ironman 70.3 -Finally!

Warning - This is way too long!

Here it is - the long anticipated and long overdue Florida Ironman 70.3 report. Sorry it’s taken me so long. Summer camp is in full swing and I am getting behind on everything. I know everyone has been going out of their minds with anticipation. I wrote a good bit of this before Brian and I headed off to New York and I’m not feeling inclined to edit it much so it’s pretty long. I figure it should keep everyone busy for a while and let me off the hook for not posting in a while.

Sunday, May 20, was the much anticipated - and dreaded - Florida Ironman 70.3. I left for Orlando on Thursday and returned on Monday. It was a really awesome trip if a bit stressful. Joey was working the race expo for Trigger Point so I had invited him to stay with me. I had reserved a truly awesome condo at the Blue Heron Beach Resort right on Lake Bryan just outside of Disney so there was plenty of room. I decided on a condo because I wanted a kitchen. Also, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be alone so I wanted to be in a place that would be comfy to hang out in. The condo complex is pretty new – they are still building the second tower – and the unit was perfect! I arrived in Orlando around 3:00 pm on Thursday – just a short 1.5 hour drive from Gainesville, checked into the condo, went to the grocery store, unpacked and got settled. By that time Joey was done working so I went over to his hotel and picked him up. It turns out that the hotel he was booked in with his co-worker, Thomas, was right around the corner from the condo – very convenient. He needed to spend some time dealing with Austin Triathletes Open Water Swim logistics with Maggie, who was covering for him, but eventually we made it out for a quick dinner at Carraba’s. We spent a little time catching up but it was pretty much off to bed after dinner.

Friday was the first day of the race expo. Joey went off to work and I did an easy 30 minute run on the treadmill, then picked up some lunch for him and Thomas and headed off to the expo. The race was hosted by Disney so the expo and transition area were located in Disney’s Wilderness Park near the Magic Kingdom. If you weren’t staying in the park, you had to take a shuttle from a designated parking lot. It wasn’t too bad but just inconvenient enough. I got to the expo and went to the Trigger Point booth to give the guys their food and use the tools since I hadn’t done so after my run. I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend Denise at the booth. Denise and I went to grad school at Duke together and she and Joey both did their first half-iron distance race, the Duke Half Iron, and their first Ironman, at the same time. I had thought about emailing her to see if she was doing this race but then had totally forgotten. Denise is an exceptional triathlete and has a great support group that travels with her – truly an entourage. For this race, her mother, Christine, and her friend, Naomi, had come up from Barbados to compete also. Very cool! We hung out for a bit and then they headed off for some food and I sat down to do some Trigger Point work. The booth was super busy so I kept having to move so Joey and Thomas could work on customers. It was fun hanging out with them but eventually I went to get my race packet and do some shopping. The pickings were slim. It looked liked they had rolled out whatever was leftover from last year. I managed to find a cute shirt in my size and a pint glass but not too much else jumped out at me. I made one more stop at the TP booth to say goodbye to the guys and headed back to the condo. Now if you’ve never been to Disney, here is something important to note – Disney is designed to make it exceptionally easy to get into, get around, and stay, but leaving the park is a whole other adventure. I finally got back to the condo, did some more TP work, stretching, and yoga. I was contemplating either a trip to the hot tub or a nap when Joey arrived. We chilled for a bit and then headed out for dinner. We had a nice little adventure in downtown Orlando complete with a ride in a pedicab. I watched some of the Spurs – Suns game before heading to bed. I also made the mistake of checking the weather. Half the state of Florida was on fire and Friday was pretty smoky so I wanted to see what Sunday looked like. The forecast was for lots of wind. Every tri I have done this season has been in ridiculous wind conditions so I was less than thrilled. I was nervous about the bike and I knew wind was just going to make it worse. Oh well! Since there wasn’t anything I could do about it, I went to bed. Saturday was bike check-in and after Friday, I had a pretty good idea of how long it was going to take to get in and out of Disney.

Saturday was indeed windy – crazy windy – but no smoke. The expo opened at 10 am so Joey headed out around nine. I kind of putzed around – I’m not really sure what took me so long to get going – I think I was feeling a little avoidance. Anyway, I ate breakfast and loaded my bike on the car. My original plan was to ride my bike from the parking lot to the race site so I wouldn’t have to deal with the shuttle bus. I had told the guys I would bring them food again and decided it would be more of a hassle to ride my bike since the only backpack I had was my transition pack which had all my race gear in it. I got to the shuttle site and was informed that we would be laying our bikes down inside the luggage compartments of the charter buses and that bikes would be piled on top of each other. Seriously WTF! If I had known this ahead of time I would have emptied my backpack and made plans to ride. There were several reasons why this situation was irritating. First of all, the transport buses that Disney uses throughout the park are the type similar to city buses – there is plenty of room on these buses for the bikes – but we had been provided with charter style buses. Second, there was plenty of room in the luggage bays for the bikes to be upright. All that was needed was a few straps. I was really not feeling the Disney love at this point, and frankly rather disappointed in Ironman also. As athletes realized how the bikes were to be transported, more and more of them opted to ride. I didn’t have my helmet or I would have put my bag and all the food in the bus and ridden also. I put my bike on the bus, covered it with a packing blanket and got on the bus so I wouldn’t freak out when someone put their bike on top of mine. It was small consolation that the other athletes on the bus with me were also unhappy. Of course everything was fine but that is hardly the point. I got to the expo and cruised by the TP booth to drop of the food. The booth was in chaos! They were slammed and it looked likely that they would sell out of their product. Way to go guys! Joey was surrounded by Ironman officials. He had called me earlier to see if he could use my car during the race to provide race support. Of course I said yes – I wasn’t going to be using it, and I thought it would be more fun for Joey than sitting around waiting to catch glimpses of me coming in and out of the transition area. Spectating for a half-iron can be a tedious thing especially if you are by yourself. I had a moment where I was feeling a little abandoned – I’m pretty used to doing races by myself but I was looking forward to having someone there to cheer for me – but I really did want Joey to have some fun especially since he had been working so hard. Later when things had calmed down at the booth, Joey told me that he would be spotting the male pros on the bike and run and would be back in time to see me on my run. By this time, I had checked in my bike, cruised the expo again in hopes of improved shopping – no joy there - chatted with Denise and company, and was generally feeling better about everything. Joey handed me my Ironman VIP bracelet and told me that as a race support vehicle, we would be able to drive right to the race site in the morning. Wohoo! The VIP bracelet would get me into the VIP tent at the race finish. By this time, I was definitely ready to leave the expo. My feet were hurting a bit and Joey recommended I get in the pool. I went back to the condo and did just that. After paddling around in the pool, I took a bath in the whirlpool bath tub, and started cooking dinner. I made a simple but yummy pasta dinner and had a spinach salad to go with it. I did another check of my race gear and it was pretty much lights out around 10 pm. Overall, I was feeling less anxious than I had been, but I was still pretty stressed out.

The alarm went off at 4 am – no that’s not a typo – and I thought about crying. The race start was at 6:20 am which I am pretty sure is the earliest race I’ve ever done. I got dressed and had my usual breakfast of eggs, oatmeal, oj, and coffee. Joey and I headed out around 5 am. We got to the race site easily, parked right behind the transition area, and headed to transition. Getting set up was a little difficult because it was so dark. I realized I had forgotten to get a throwaway water bottle for the run. I like to carry a bottle of Nuun to start the run. Oh well! I could always sacrifice one of my bike bottles if necessary. I got set up, chatted with the women around me, sunscreened, and headed off to the race start. Joey had to leave before the race started to get in position for his race duties but he walked with me down to the race start so I was able to keep my shoes on – very important for a plantar fasciitis sufferer. I had to leave my shoes in transition at the Lonestar tri and it sucked! Anyway, the race start was on nice soft sand so my feet were comfy. The race site and beach are surrounded by trees so it was hard to get a sense of what the wind was like but it didn’t seem too bad. I ran into Christine as she was lining up for her wave and we chatted for a bit as I ate my pre-race banana. Then Denise and Naomi showed up and I hung out with them until it was time for my wave at 6:47 am. The swim was a walk in beach start. The course was pretty much a 3 sided rectangle. With the rising sun, the buoys were often hard to see, but I managed to stay pretty tight on the course. I was surprised when I started swimming to feel crud in my quads – not a good sign and not something I’ve ever felt at the start of a tri. I could also feel that my swim was slower than I wanted but I was having a hard time finding a rhythm at a faster pace so I just went with it. Heading back to the beach, there was definitely some chop but overall it was good conditions. My transition was long, mostly because running back to the transition area in bare feet is hard for me. Before the race, I had heard some garbled announcements about putting your bike shoes on your pedals before leaving transition but hadn’t paid much attention because I need even the small amount of cushion you get from bike shoes. I soon found out why the recommendation had been made. Before the bike mount there was about 100 ft stretch of sand. Yes, we had to get our bikes through very powdery sand. I have tri bike shoes which are ventilated so they totally filled up with sand and of course I wasn’t wearing socks. That sucked! At least the sand was powdery enough that it didn’t stick in the cleats. I didn’t worry about the sand in my shoes because part of my bike plan included getting off the bike to alleviate crotch pain which has been an ever increasing issue with me for about the past year. I figured I could empty the sand at that time if I needed to. Well, I never needed to get off the bike so the sand stayed. At least I know that I can bike 56 miles with sand in my shoes. Once out on the course, I realized it was pretty windy but not brutally so. I settled in for my ride. My goal for the bike was to keep my average mph above 16. My target was 18 mph but I realized about 15 miles in when I hit the first real headwind and the hills started that averaging 18 mph was going to be too hard. Yes, I said hills. There was a significant stretch of the course that had rolling hills worthy of Austin. Well, there are no hills like that in Gainesville so it was a bit much for me. My cruddy quads seemed like they had cleared up after 10 miles on the bike until I tried to get out of the saddle for some of the larger hills – owww! Oh well. The worst was a nasty uphill ala the Pace Bend Park Road loop that was directly into the headwind. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much swearing during a triathlon. Yes, I was swearing too. There were police officers at the top cheering us on, but I didn’t see an intersection. I think they were there in case anyone keeled over. There was one extremely frustrating stretch of the course where we were biking through a town and there were no shoulders. We were intermingled with the cars. When the race information said it was an open bike course, they weren’t kidding! What was frustrating was that it was a straight, flat stretch out of the wind but you couldn’t go that fast – mostly because the cars were freaked out and driving really slow. I won’t complain about that. At least they were being careful. I didn’t start having serious crotch discomfort until the last 10 miles which got pretty uncomfortable. I just kept looking at the avg mph on my computer. As long as it stayed above 16 mph, I didn’t mind coasting and standing as needed. Back at the race site, there was the pesky sand again. I almost face planted into it, it was so churned up. I took some extra time in transition to wash off my feet and reapply sunscreen. The spray-on sunscreen has got to be the best invention ever! I stopped at the port-a-potties on the way out of transition and was off on the run. The run was a 3 loop course which has its pros and cons. Pros – you are never alone on the course, spectators get to see you three times, you know what to expect after the first loop. Cons – gets a little boring, you have to run any difficult section 2 more times. The run was flat but about half the loop was on grass which normally I don’t mind, but the soil in Florida is very silty/sandy so you sink a lot in the grass. It was hard for me to get good traction and I had very little rebound so it was very hard on my feet. It was such a relief to get on the paved part of the run. I wasn’t sure what to expect from myself on the run but I got out there and I realized I was really hot. My heat conditioning has been minimal since I’ve been running on the treadmill so much. When I realized how hot I was I started worrying about overheating and stressing my kidneys. I decided to walk until I felt a little cooler and hopefully that would get me close to an aid station. I had brought my remaining bike bottle with me so I had fluid to tide me over. I walked for about 10 minutes and felt good enough to run again. The wind we had been cursing on the bike was absolute heaven on the run! At the first aid station, I ditched my bottle, grabbed Gatorade, a cup of ice, a cup of grapes and pretzels – yummy! - and doused myself repeatedly with cold sponges. Once I was wet I felt infinitely better. I basically stayed wet the whole race and carried a cup of ice with me between aid stations. I was a little disappointed in the aid stations – several ran out of sponges and none of them had sunscreen or Vaseline. I’m so glad I put on sunscreen before leaving transition or I would have been crispy. I’ve also started carrying a packet of Chammois Butt'r on the run which is great for chafe prevention so I was good to go despite the lack at the aid stations. Christine, Denise’s mom, went blowing by me on my first lap. I assumed it was her last lap by the way she was cruising. She cheered me on and I shouted that she looked great. The guy next to me agreed that she looked awesome and yelled out “You’re lying about your age!” We could see her laughing. I told him that she was indeed 54 and we both agreed that it would be nice to look that good when we are that age. Heck, we agreed it would be nice to look that good now! I didn’t see Joey on my first loop, but I figured I’d see him the next time around and I did. It was really good to have someone to cheer me on heading into the last lap – I was definitely fading. I settled into something between a run and a walk – a trot would be the best description and finished it out. Joey met me at the finish and walked me through the shoot to pick up my finisher’s goodies and then took me to the VIP tent. The tent was pretty empty by then but I didn’t really care. What was super excellent was that it was right at the finish line and there were chairs. It was so nice to sit, take my shoes off, and put my feet up. They were throbbing by then. Joey brought me some water and munchies, and I rested for a bit while he told me about his day. Then we headed to transition, got my gear together and headed out. I was so glad to have the car parked close by. I really can’t thank Joey enough for being there at the finish to take care of me, for getting me the Ironman VIP treatment, and staying an extra day in Orlando to be at the race with me. It was so nice having a sherpa. I haven't had one in years and Joey was awesome! We had to swing by the airport to return Joey’s rental car, and then back to the condo. We had decided that we had enough food at the condo so we didn’t need to go back out. We ate, I showered, and then we headed to the hot tub for a nice soak. Love the hot tub! I wasn’t feeling too bad by this point. There was a little tv time and then off to bed. Joey had a 6 am flight so we were going to be up at 4 am again. So wrong! I dropped him at the airport, went back to bed for a bit, and then packed up and was headed back to Gainesville around noon. The drive home was uneventful and involved a nap when I got home.

Overall, I am pleased with my race. I improved my time from the Gulf Coast half-iron last year by 11 minutes – my swim was a little slower, my run was a little faster, and my bike time was 15 minutes faster. I averaged 15 mph at Gulf Coast and was at 16.2 mph for Orlando. I’m really happy about that because Orlando was a much harder course. I’m not sure I would repeat this race. There were enough logistical issues to make it annoying, and the cost of the race as well as the cost of staying in Orlando are definite drawbacks. The expo was so-so and there was no swag if you didn’t finish the race. The post race swag was okay – a knapsack, a finisher’s hat, and a finisher’s shirt. Of course, they didn’t have any mediums so I will likely never wear mine as it is ginormous. The main reason that I will not be likely to repeat this race is that the Gulf Coast Tri is the weekend before and that is a much better race so if I am looking for a half-iron in May, Gulf Coast is it. I only chose Orlando because I had a scheduling conflict. Next year is Gulf Coast for sure! Come on out and join me.