Race Report
Success! That's the key takeaway from this race. The rest of this will be a somewhat long description about how I got to the finish line. I reread my report from my first 70.3 in 2022 and figured I might as well just follow the same format.
Before the race
I registered for this race back in July of last year when no one knew if I would be able to race again following my accident in March. I'm not sure exactly why I thought it was such a good idea to sign up to race again, but I was determined that I'd get back to racing and I think I consulted my friend Tedd which race I should register for and he recommended St. George. Ironman tries to entice you to register early as some of their races can sell out so they advertise that you can transfer your registration to a different race if you purchase within the first 90 days a race goes on sale. Now why did Tedd choose this race over Oceanside? Well, he was skipping Oceanside and planning to race St. George because there were more slots allocated for distribution for the 2024 World Championship in New Zealand and he thought I should join him.
Training and Goals
I'll keep this brief. There were a few setbacks prior to race day so my goal leading up to the race was to just finish this race, preferably with a smile on my face.
I had been back to my normal training for several months and overall felt really good. Even some of my race prep long rides were adventures. The highlight is when I joined Tedd and his crazy friends for a trip from my house to Death Valley on our triathlon bikes. That is 120 miles (my longest ride ever) that includes 4,700 feet of climbing but is a negative net elevation ride. The extreme wind that day made it even more of an adventure, but it was definitely worth it as we got to see water in Lake Manly.
Arrival in St. George
Well, it's finally time to hit the road and make the short drive to St. George. I had made plans to do the official check-in around 2pm and head out to the reservoir to get in a practice swim.
I arrived in St. George a bit early as I had nothing else to do at home and knew that there was a group meeting at Farmstead, a famous bakery in town, so that's where my weekend started. It was a nice meet and greet with some delicious carbs and one of our locals was also in attendance, so he was polite enough to hang out with me until registration opened.
After check-in, I make the drive out to Sand Hollow and do an attempt at swimming. It was cold but not face numbing cold like I had experienced in practice at Lake Mead, but I kept it short and close to shore. I drove back to town and checked into the Airbnb that was conveniently located near the Ironman Village/T2/Finish Line. After several trips to the car and some gear prep it was finally time for dinner. I walked up the street to a recommended restaurant and was told it would be a 20-minute wait and they closed in 30 minutes 🤷🏻♂️ so I moved on. I found a great bar that also dabbled in food named Hive 435 Taphouse and had a great pizza named, NY Style Charred Pepperoni that was described as: double pepperoni, marinara, mozzarella, charred pepperoni, hot honey, basil, & parmesan. The inclusion of the hot honey sealed the deal.
I woke up and drove back to Sand Hollow to join the Las Vegas group to do a 45-minute bike ride mimicking the start of the race. After the ride it's time to drop off the bike and gear bag (helmet, shoes, socks) at the transition area. It was setup a bit differently than we had expected where the gear bag stayed with the bike. At previous events the gear bags were stored away from the bikes and grabbed as you exited the swim where they had chairs that you could use to put on your bike gear, but this year it was all done at the bike. After I said goodnight to my bike, I drove to a spot along the shore and got back in the water for another 20-minute swim before driving back to the Airbnb.
Jess and I are staying in a detached studio off the main house of the Airbnb, and I ran into someone staying in the big house sitting on the back porch so we started chatting and found out that we're all from Las Vegas and that the two racers are also coached by my coach. Small world!
Our friend Shawn made the trip from San Diego to Las Vegas and Jess picked him up from SambaLatte after her half day of work. They arrived and we walked to dinner at Wood Ash Rye inside The Advenire Hotel. They stayed out to watch the hockey game and I went back with similar intentions. I put on my Normatec hip compression sleeve and remember trying to watch the game on my phone, but the next thing I know Jess walks in the door. I somehow quickly fell back asleep.
Race Day
Good Morning!!
At one point during the night, I remember waking up and thinking that was going to be all the sleep I was going to get but the next thing I know I'm startled by my alarm going off. It's now time to eat the usual apple sauce, banana and protein drink before it's time to make the short jaunt to the bus that will whisk me away to the transition area. Jess and Shawn wish me good luck and I plan to see them after I get everything setup in transition but before the doors to the bus close they join me. I wish I could say it was an enjoyable ride, but I'm stressed the whole way there. Once we get there I exit the bus and walk into transition where I place my water bottles on the bike, quickly check that the tires still had air in them before wondering what else I could do. The next thing I knew Jess popped up. She had snuck into transition to try to help calm my nerves. 🤫
I ate a gel at some point and waited in the long lines for the porta potty. Shortly thereafter, it's time to apply chamois cream and squeeze into my wetsuit after making sure to spray trislide on my neck to prevent chafing while turning to breathe and my arms and legs to help with removal.
We can hear the announcements that the pros are starting soon and a singer performs the National Anthem before it's time for me to find my place in line. I found the 40-45 minute group and try to make small talk as that usually calms my nerves but everyone else seems to be in their own world deeply focused today.
Swim
I got in at the start and I exited at the finish. That is what I was here for and that is what I accomplished. What happened in between wasn't pretty.
As I mentioned earlier, I seeded myself in the 40-45 minute line and it seems like it's been forever since the pros started and it might actually have been as most of them are already exiting the water. There are a bunch of nice people in the group all anxiously awaiting our time to start. I suddenly have the urge to use the restroom but it's pretty far behind me now when I spot the VIP restrooms on the other side of the fence directly in front of me. I hop over and make it back with minutes to still spare :).
It's finally my time to get in and when I do make it into the water, I immediately had a desire not to do it and made an attempt to throw in the towel. I really don't remember what I was thinking at the time because it wasn't cold. Tedd's wife Marie was at the VIP section near the water and saw me and I remember her nicely saying that I didn't have to do it. I disagreed and I turned around and made it to the first kayak in the water. I calmly took a break and had a coherent conversation with the volunteer and thanked her for being there. I started again with the next kayak being my target. In hindsight, that next target being a kayak and not the turn buoy was a real hijack to getting on the right track and with more training I hope to rectify this thinking. I wish I could say I was swimming gracefully and to my ability but at some point, I started backflailing. What is backflailing? Well, I can't backstroke, so I was doing a double armed windmill with a breaststroke frog kick, backflailing. It wasn't pretty but I was making progress. I really don't remember too much of the rest of the swim except I never really got comfortable, but I was definitely going to finish the swim. I do remember only being two buoys from the end and I'm finally able to start swimming normally and emerged from the water like I always do, with a smile on my face.
Swim Data:
Distance - 2,600 yd
Avg Temp - 62.6 Degrees
Calories Burned: 918
Avg HR - 138 bpm
Max HR - 168 bpm
Total time - 1:04:52
Moving time - 56:28 😬
Avg Pace - 2:30 / 100 yd
Avg Moving Pace - 2:10 / 100 yd
T1
Transition went pretty well. I took advantage of the volunteer wetsuit peelers and headed to the bike and even managed to get my socks on over my damp feet. I'm sorry I really don't remember interacting with my fans, but some amazing people stuck around to watch me get out of the water and even sent me some glamor shots/videos.
Bike
Time for the bike. This was fun and challenging. I somehow managed to earn a penalty within the first 10 miles. There was a lot of traffic on the road that I had to contend with and as I approached a group riding four wide, I noticed a referee approaching on their moto. As I didn't want to get a drafting penalty, I maintained the distance and watched the group continue to block the road. Finally, one of the riders moved and I took the opportunity to pass all of them. Well, I did pass them on the right but that was the only open section of road I had, and it was 100% safe. When the moto began riding up next to me to alert me that they were assessing me a penalty they refused to answer if any blocking penalties had been given out which they should have remedied before I was forced to pass on the right. I don't remember the specifics, but somehow during this time I also managed to lose my rear mounted water bottle. Oh well, there's always a first that happens in these events, just remember to look for the tent and stop.
Throughout the ride I rarely looked at my bike computer and rode on perceived effort knowing I still had a half marathon to go. I did take a peak and look at distance, time and average speed and they all seemed to be going well so I didn't feel the need to push any harder.
As I got closer to the infamous Snow Canyon climb, I couldn't believe how long the detour to Ivins was. I kept thinking, "We have to turn around soon," but we just kept going. When I finally got to the start of Snow Canyon, I knew it was almost time to run and reminded myself to just keep pedaling. Snow Canyon is a beautiful area that culminates with the steepest section at the end. I did pass a ton of people on the climb, a testament to the training and similar elevation on my training rides. But what goes up, in this case gets to go back down to town and that's what makes this course great.😀 As a result, you get a nice chance to recover and prepare for the run.
After the race Shawn tells me that after my lackluster swim, I was able to pass 70 people in my age group on the bike 🤩.
Bike Data:
Distance: 55.2 miles
Avg Temp: 75.2
Calories Burned: 2,337
Avg HR: 137
Max HR: 154
Total Time: 2:50:08
Avg Speed: 19.7 MPH
Avg Power: 206W
Max Power: 810W
Normalized Power: 230W
Avg Cadence: 81 RPM
Elevation Gain: 3,480 ft
T2
Pretty uneventful. Got off the bike at the dismount line, racked the bike, got rid of my helmet and bike shoes, grabbed my race belt and water fanny pack, and laced up my shoes. On the way out of transition I got the urge to inspect the porta potty and made my way to the exit to begin the run.
Run
Well, that was just mean. After leaving T2 you immediately start climbing on the road aptly name Diagonal. I make it to mile two feeling pretty ok. I see a lot of people I know that are on lap two looking really good.
After some more zig zagging there is a left turn into a church parking lot that also houses an aid station that has what seems like a 20% grade to get up and that’s when I decide that there will definitely be some walk/run today. I made this decision because none of the people in front of me were running it so I figured it was just the thing to do.
Now the course starts heading towards the golf course and that was also really mean. First, Bluff Street is the main road before taking the right into the golf course and it is a manageable hill, but it is taking souls. But then you take the right and you immediately wish you were back on Bluff Street as there's a massive hill that leads up to the Elks Lodge before dumping us onto the rolling hills of the cart path. A few more run/walk sessions along those rollers before I know it’s all downhill back to town. Most of the other people I see are in the same boat and I tell myself the few people that do pass me must be on the second lap heading to the finish. The run down diagonal is when I start thinking how close to the end of the day is and how on lap two I’ll really pick up the pace. That makes the thought of the uphill part of lap two more manageable.
Overall, I feel pretty good. It’s warm so I took some water at an aid station and poured it on my head a few times and took some ice and put in my tri suit. That’s the funny one. The ice somehow managed to make it's way down into the tri suit chamois and what I thought would be gone in seconds lingered for a few miles and actually resulted in some chaffing between my leg and the edge of an ice cube; not an issue with the fabric 🧐. Unusual for me, I had a bit of an upper right stomach cramp come out of nowhere, but I wasn’t nauseous or anything else, so I just mostly ignored it and kept eating gels and trying to drink some sodium.
Lap 2 is mostly the same as the first, but I did try swinging my arms a little faster (hoping the legs would follow) in a few places but the walking areas were still there. Similar to the bike, even though I could have, I never really looked at my watch during the run except to see mileage a few times. In hindsight, I probably could have run the whole thing but like I mentioned before finishing was the goal and so I wasn’t reading the data that would have told me I was well below red line.
The final part of the golf course is a downhill that leads back to Diagonal Street and is about three miles to the finish. This is when I got a little emotional. I now knew that completion was just around the corner which was a good thing. But, I also started thinking where I was this time last year. I couldn’t remember if we had still been in Denver or if we had just gotten home, but in that moment, I finally realized how lucky I was to be in a position to even toe the start line. I definitely didn't slow down, I just reflected on what had transpired over the last year. Later that evening I actually figured out that May 4th, 2023, was the day Jess and I flew home from Denver. Thanks to the leap year, exactly one year later, I was going to finish a 70.3!
Run Data:
Distance: 13.15 miles
Calories Burned: 1,706
Avg HR: 145
Max HR: 158
Total Time: 1:57:12
Avg Speed: 8:56 / mi
Avg Power: 371W
Avg Cadence: 166
Elevation Gain: 873 ft
Finish!
It's over! I physically feel surprisingly good. Besides that little ice cube incident, I also have a toenail that let me know it was angry sometime during the run. If that's all I can think of, that's a huge success. Next time, I will actually make sure I take the time to trim them a bit. 😀
I kind of glossed over this earlier, but there was a HUGE group of Las Vegas athletes and their families that were at this race. A bunch of us regrouped and exchanged stories as we waited for others to finish. After a while, we disbanded as it was time to shower!
The aftermath
Analysis
I mentioned my bike improvement up above, but thanks to a tip from John Mercer I was able to see how I progressed throughout the day from within the Ironman tracking application by looking at the place at each reported timing mat.
After the swim I was 184/186.😱 During the bike I made up 70 spots where I entered T2 114/186 before finally moving up another 33 spots on the run to finish 81/186 in my age group.
I'll say it again, the goal was to finish, and I did, which makes me happy. But, I could have placed higher if I was able to just swim and remove the backflailing. 😀
Awards ceremony
After a quick shower it was almost time to attend the awards ceremony. Jess stayed at the Airbnb because she needed a nap 😀 and I rejoined the group back at the village. We got to see the Pro's and age groupers accept their awards before they began handing out the World Championship slots that were allocated for this race. As I mentioned way at the beginning, Tedd had chosen this race over Oceanside as this race had 85 slots allocated which is about 40 more than are allocated for other races.
I watched as John, Todd, Tedd, Jolene, Melissa, William and Chad accepted their slots within their age groups. And then there was my age group. Of the 85 slots my age group was awarded 10 slots. They called the top 10 finishers by name and only 3 of the 10 slots were taken. This happens for a number of reasons; top finishers may have already earned a spot at other races or they just don't attend the awards ceremony. The announcer then asks if any in the top 20 want to accept a slot, followed by top 30, top 40, and then anyone in the age group want a slot? Well, that's exactly when I jumped up and handed them my credit card.
I remember during my recovery asking Tedd if he thought I could have earned a World Championship slot in 2023 to the race in Finland at the Oceanside race I was training for. I've never been to a race I couldn't drive to, let alone a World Championship race but these invitation only races in amazing locations have obviously had my interest. And now we're going! The "we" is something else that is pretty incredible. Just at this race 8 Las Vegas triathletes earned a spot to New Zealand in addition to the two I know that received one in Oceanside. It will be incredible to share this experience with so many others I know in addition to everyone we will meet along the way.
One of my favorite parts of this portion of the journey is you may remember I wrote that Jess was back at the Airbnb napping. Well, the shock on her face when she saw the official certificate was a classic, I wish I had on video. 😲
As I write all of this about a week after accepting this slot, I still haven't told my family because this is going to be a logistical nightmare. I've always wanted to go to New Zealand, and I want to explore the islands, but we are also lucky enough to be invited to celebrate my in-laws 50th Anniversary on another amazing adventure one week after this race that departs from Florida. I remember when I first told Jess that New Zealand was a potential the Anniversary celebration destination was going to be in Hawaii which was half way home.😀 She had a valid concern at the time asking what we were going to do with all of the gear but I was confident FedEx or one of the Las Vegas locals also attending could make sure it arrived home safely. Anyway, I know that's a lot of talk about a logistical problem I'm privileged to have and determined to conquer. See you in New Zealand!
Dinner
Ha! I booked this restaurant a week before the race because I specifically wanted to celebrate with their ridiculous Ice Cream Brownie Sandwich. After a delightful meal the waiter informed me that they were out of brownies. He tried to bring a substitute which looked delicious but was so frozen I was afraid that it was going to break my knife trying to cut through it. Below is a photo of what I was neglected and it makes sense that they were sold out, but I will return to get my reward one day.
I did reward myself with my first alcoholic drink since March 11, 2023. I thought it was fitting that my first drink was also the same drink I had that night, so I ordered a dirty martini. To me it was an earned reward, but it wasn't nearly as epic an experience as I had pictured 🥱, but that's really a good thing as it reinforced I was missing nothing.
After we gave up trying to eat a frozen dessert, we decided we would head back towards the Airbnb and watch the Maple Leafs hockey game that was on. I knew that the restaurant that I ate at on Thursday would be a good spot so that's where we ended up. We sat at the bar and the game was on but they had a DJ that was more entertaining playing mostly hits from my high school days. There was another athlete (wrist band visible) that could not stop dancing in front of the DJ, it was rather impressive for a variety of reasons but mostly because she presumably had just completed a race a few hours ago and my legs didn't feel like dancing.
One last thing about the bar is just a tip for drinking in Utah. NEVER order a mixed drink; order wine or, depending on the type of beer, bottle, not draft beer. Bottles are allowed to be full ABV, but draft is capped at 5%. Yes, the same beer that can be sold in a can at 7.2% has to be 5% via draft 🤷🏻♂️.
Epilogue
With that, I think it's time to wrap up this story. I know a few that will read this know that I sugar coated a lot of the pre-race activities and feelings but the point of me writing all of this was to express how grateful I am for being able to toe the line and cross the finish line.
Trust the process is an often-used cliché used in the endurance world. But it is a good reminder to yourself that you have done A LOT of training, you can do it and you will do it. And I will do the World Championship race in New Zealand in December 😀.
Until next time 👋!
