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This is the 2nd of a 3 part report of our time in Clearwater Florida. Click here to read part 1.

The reason for the trip was the Ironman 70.3 World Championship race. 1.2 miles swim, 56 miles bike and 21.1 miles run to end my season. Race Day was Saturday morning. Since the field would be composed of some of the fastest athletes in this discipline for each age group, my objectives were relatively modest. I had no aspiration to place in my age group: I am not of this caliber. However, I had set some goals:

- Attempt to beat my personal best time of 4h38
- Finish in the first half of my very competitive age group
- Enjoy the experience
- Have fun

I am happy to report that I exceeded all these goals to end my season on a positive note! The organization of the race was top notch. A big show like the Americans like to throw. It was great to be part of it. The course was awesome too.

Here is my race report, that I will try to keep brief…. if at all possible hehe! Once again, I have awesome pictures taken by Corinne during the race.
 

PRE-RACE

Woke up at 4h50 and had my usual 70.3-race-day-breakfast: Toasted Bagel with PB, Banana, and some “Ensure”. Headed to Transition at 5h15, a 15′ walk. It is so nice to stay within walking distance of the race start. That’s definitely the way to go! After setting my shoes, helmet and sunglasses on my bike, I inflated the tires to 110 psi & made sure I was in a good gear to start on. The transition area was buzzing with activity.

After a last look to my bike, we headed to the beach after a few stops to the toilets. Had a gel about 30′ before my start time. 10′ before my wave start, I went for a short dip and swim for a few strokes as warm up.  Then joined my wave in the start corral right at sunrise. Look at the color of the sky in that first picture below.

SWIM - 1900m in 32:16 (1:41 / 100m avg)
Position Age Group:  90 / 195
Position Overall:  527 / 1521

Impressive swim start. Helicopters swirling around, wave launched at the sound of a canon. The course was a simple out and back, narrow and long. I started on the far left side of the course, to minimize contacts. Before I knew it, it was GO time! I am in the middle below, with the white “X” on my shoulder.

I was still hit several times in the first minute so I just move more to the left (away from the buoys) to swim in less crowded water. I am very happy with the first 40% of my swim: I had a good rhythm, kept my cool, focused on my technique and on getting a good catch. That was probably my best race swim up to that point.

When I got to about 1-2 buoys before the 1st corner, waves started to get bigger. It was harder to sight - had to time it with the top of a wave. Breathing got harder to execute: a wave would come just when I would open my mouth. Actually ended up with a good swallow of salt water in the process and stopped to re-compose, breaking the rhythm I had going on.

After the 2nd turn to start going back toward shore, water was still agitated and then we had the sun rising right in our face. I could not see the buoys anymore so I was aiming for the splashing. A few times, I lifted my head and I was going off course a bit.

A bit later, water got calmer and I got better at navigating back to shore. I got out of the water still calm and in control, a good sign for the rest of my race!

They had this awesome shower out of the beach to wash off the salt water and the sand. Corinne took this superbe shot of me going through the shower.

So my swim was not great (I was hoping for a 30:xx or a 31:xx time) but any race swim that do not sabotage the rest of my race is a good swim

James did video analysis of my swim stroke a few weeks ago and identified weaknesses in my catch. If I can improve my catch during the winter, I see no reason why next year I would not be able to swim consistently under 30′ in the 1.9 km wetsuit swim.

T1 = 2:50

I kept my T1 bag very simple: the only thing in it was my race belt with numbers and gels for the run. It made the bag small and harder to find in T1, loosing a few seconds (10-15?) but then transitions was quite quick afterwards. The volunteer took care of putting my wetsuit in my bag.

Ran to my bike, put the sunglasses and helmet, grabbed my bike and ran to the mount line with a successful flying mount (used rubber bands on shoes). I was happy with T1. It felt great to jump on the bike and go for a spin!

BIKE  -  90 km in 2:14:33 - Normalized Power: 260 Watts
Position Age Group:  41 / 195
Position Overall:  206 / 1521

You hear a lot about draft packs at Clearwater. The course is simply not technical enough,  and you have all these athletes with similar aptitudes on the course.

It was not long before I was sucked in one draft pack at about 15-20 km in. I tried to get out the front a few times, but I had to keep power in the 280w-310w to stay ahead the pack. As soon as I went back to my target of 265-270w, I would get sucked back in. Tried that a few times with the same result.

I then tried to coast and let the pack go and stay behind. That worked for a while, but as soon as the pack would encounter congestion (slower cyclist, narrow sections), I would end up back in it and having to either coast or brake. It was a ~20 cyclist pack, very unstable, some people even staying in their aerobars without quick access to the brakes, an accident waiting to happen it seemed.

For a few minutes, I started to think that I was stuck there and that I would have to live with it. Then one guy up the front started screaming at people to do something about it: pass or fall behind. While most of the pack just ignored him, that’s what I needed to kick myself out of the “oh-well-nothing-I-can-do” mode. That of ticked me off enough to try once again to escape up the front, which I did.

After that last “escape”, I managed to stay ahead of the pack with about 5 other guys, in line, with the legal 7m spacing, passing when they would slow down, getting passed when I would slow down, but following the rules.

I am sure that overall, the cat and mouse game and the encounter with the draft pack surely helped my race time a bit even if I worked hard to avoid it. I would guess an effect of about 1-2 minutes. However, it did not help my legs staying fresh because for the few minutes caught in the draft pack, I had to go with several power surges way above my racing plan for the escape attempts.

T2 = 3:27

My run bag had shoes, socks and visor, that I decided to take after all - and that was a good choice given the sunny day.

However, I stopped in a Porta-John for AT LEAST 1 or 1.5 minutes in T2 to pee - and maybe I should have skipped. In retrospective, I could probably have held it. The envy was not that strong, but I did not want it to go in my run split if I had to stop during the race. Who knows if I could have ran as fast without the pee break…

RUN  -  21.1 km in 1:35:15 - 4:30/km pace
Position Age Group:  97 / 195
Position Overall:  492 / 1521

That’s the same time than my stand-alone Half Marry last year (Detroit)!

Started the run and went by feeling for a while. Legs felt pretty good - much better than when I started the run in Muskoka where quads were failing right from the beginning. That was a good sign! When I looked at my Garmin 310XT, it said my average pace was at 4:24/km. Much better than anticipated!

Going up the causeway, I could hear the spectator screaming “Go Magali” for a while, and before I knew it, she was beside me (Magali Tisseyre, Canadian professional triathlete), with the bikes and scooter and camera around her. Pretty cool! I wished her a good race in french, and she answered “Good luck to you too - have a good race” in french too. Pretty nice of her to answer She was on her 2nd lap. Then she went her way: too fast for me! She would finish 3rd overall of the PRO WOMEN. Here she is:

Sun was falling hard, but I did a good job at hydrating and keeping cool. They had those REALLY cold sponges that I used carefully to cool myself down. Actually got a brain freeze the one time it was so cold.

Corinne, Craig and Tracy were on the run course to cheer. It was nice to see them each time I was negotiating the causeway, giving me a little boost!

I finished the first loop holding my average pace of ~4:25, but started dreading the 2 remaining climbs of the causeway. On the second lap, my pace started to drop. I started to feel bit bloated too. But I hanged in there at the slower 4:35 pace and before I know it, I was back on the causeway bridge for the last time. My mind played tricks and was pushing hard for me to walk up the bridge. I resisted several urges but a bit before cresting the hill, I lost my grip and walked for 20″. At this time, I crossed path with Josh Seifarth, young and very fast triathlete from the Windsor area as well. Here is Josh:

After waving him, got back running for the final stretch!

Tried to push the pace for the last remaining 3km, but to no avail. I could barely manage to hold my average pace. It was time for the race to end! Many spectators lining the finish chute, cheering. What an awesome experience!

Finish time: 4:28:21
Position Age Group:  64 / 195
Position Overall:  322 / 1521

Under 4h30!!!! Wooo hooo! That is also a 10′ improvement over my previous best time on the distance.

After receiving my medal and finisher’s towel, I had to walk around to avoid passing out. I used one of the beach shower to cool off and started to feel much better afterwards.

After, it was time to make a few pics with my friends and Corinne.

After dropping my bike to the transport company, we waited by the finish line to cheer for fellow LPC athlete Margaret, finishing here below for a Personal Best also by more than 30′ in her case!

I finally hit the massage tent and the food area to get some calories in.

Overall, I am extremely happy with my race execution. I also think that on the same course, I would be able to improve on that time and the 4h25 mark do not seem farfetched. Too bad this was the last edition of this race in Clearwater. The World Championship moves to Las Vegas next year.

You know the drill.. More pictures and 1000 pixels versions in the album below.

Ironman 70.3 World Champ 2010

See part I for the vacation week.
See part III for the last Clearwater sunset. (to come)

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 21st, 2010 at 9:27 am and is filed under Sport and Races, Our news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.