Ironman 70.3 St. Croix in less than a week...

The "hay is in the barn"...as the saying goes. I'm just coming off a hard 12 day block, and am in what Shawn calls "sharpening mode". With less than a week away from St. Croix (May 3rd), I've been scrambling to get everything taken care of before the trip. So much to do! Getting equipment in order, packing bike for shipment, getting nutrition ready, race gear for all the sports, confirming reservations and details of flight and car, getting all the race week info together, packing camera and computer equipment...and getting reservations for our kids at the doggy resort.

It's really tough with all the coordination required to do a half or full Ironman event, especially if you're traveling out of the country...or at least to a small island subsidized by the U.S. Anyhow, it really is a heck of an effort. And during all of this your wondering how much the airlines are going to screw you for traveling with your bike. I stress traveling with my bike, it's such a tough thing to do these days. If all goes to Delta airline code, then I'll get charged $175 EACH way for my bike...oh, it won't stop there...and an extra $25 since it counts as a second bag (now $50, but I purchased the ticked before this change happened)...and another $90 since it weighs more than 50 lbs...for a total of $290 each way, and $580 round trip. I could have purchased another freakin' ticket for that price! AND...you also pray they get your bike there in one piece! Ok, breathe, breathe...I'm ok now...I'll move on.

We're staying at a really cool place called The Buccaneer that everyone recommends. We'll be there for a few days after the race and hope to take some little excursions and enjoy the island. Maybe some diving, kayaking (Jennifer's paddling!), hiking, and other site seeing.

The St. Croix race attracts the creme of the crop in talent from the U.S. and Europe, and the course is a really tough one. Besides the searing heat, there are steep climbs on the bike and run course. This will be the hardest triathlon course I've ever done...by far.

The swim is non-wetsuit (duh) so I'll use my new Zoot speedsuit to try and gain a bit of an advantage...or at least limit my losses. You first swim about 300 yards to a small island where the actual swim start will take place. Each year they have divers that video the triathletes swimming overhead...kind of funny hearing the bubbles from the tanks.

Once out of the water, the bike course gives you a 20 mile warm up before sending you to the infamous "Beast". This is a climb that reaches over a 20% incline! From there it's all hills, several having over a 15% grade...oh, didn't I mention the winds?

From what I hear, the run is very scenic...but really tough due to the heat and hills. After reviewing times from the previous years, it looks like everyone dies on the second loop of this two loop run course. Hopefully, I'll die less than some others!

Here is a link that will have race day updates and tracking.

In parting, I want to thank Velocity Multisport, and specifically Shawn Burke...for your coaching, support, and pep talks during this huge effort. Also, thanks to J.R. and Zoot. for helping provide me with gear that is extremely functional and has helped me gain an edge.

I'm not sure what to expect, but I do have my own personal goals and will try to control...what "I" can control. I hope to do well since this is one of my objectives for the season, but as I've found out...it's hard to predict the outcome when doing long course triathlons. One thing is for sure...I'm going to leave it all on the race course.

We're supposed to have internet access at the hotel, so will try to post updates as often as I can.

- Sween

IM 70.3 New Orleans - Pictures

Here are some shots from the race photography folks. I'm in some major pain at the end...

IM 70.3 New Orleans - "The Big Easy" ?!?

(Disclaimer: This is a long post, but have had requests for the details...so here they are)
This past weekend was the inaugural Ironman 70.3 New Orleans. Danny "Double D" Domingo and I packed up the car and started the 8+ hour journey on Friday. We spent the night in Biloxi, and then arrived Saturday morning in New Orleans.

We made our way to the registration and race meeting headquarters. During the pre-race meeting, we were informed that this event had over 3,000 entrants...a new IM 70.3 record. Although that was exciting, we knew that there would be some chaos surrounding a first year event with that many participants. To make this an even bigger challenge, the race hotel was quite a ways from the start, the swim was point-to-point, and the run finished in a completely different location. There were buses to take you to the swim start in the morning of the race, and buses to take you from the race finish back to the transition area to pick up your bike and gear...but no way to transport all of your stuff back to the hotel.

Danny and I attended the pre-race meeting, picked up our number packets, and then drove to the transition area to drop off our bikes. Once complete, we drove back to the hotel and grabbed some dinner. We then spent the rest of the night getting all our gear and nutrition in order for the next day.

We decided to drive to the race start considering we would have to pick up the bikes by 6 pm that night. Danny and I started in different waves, his started at a little after 7 am, while mine wasn't until after 8 am. Although we thought we left in plenty of time, we soon remembered that 3,000 participants and their closest friends and family's make for a big crowd. We parked on the University of New Orleans campus, grabbed all of our gear and sped to the transition area...about 3/4 - 1 mile away. As we arrived in transition they were urging everyone to hurry since they were closing the transition area in 15 minutes! I helped Danny pump up his tires, wished him luck, and hopped over to my bike which was way on the other side of the enormous transition area.

I put all my bottles on my bike, setup all of my gear, but still hadn't changed. The announcer informed everyone that the transition area was closing in 2 minutes! I took my bag threw it under a tree and started heading out of the transition area with my wetsuit, goggles, HR monitor strap, timing chip strap, Zoot shorts and top...all in hand, but me still in street clothes! Luckily, right before I was about to exit I spied a changing tent and ran it to spare everyone the agony (and my possible arrest) of changing in front of everyone! I then skipped the long lines to the bus, and walked the 1.2 miles to the swim start...along with a bunch of other folks. I later learned that Danny had did the same, and had to run to get to the start in just enough time to throw on his wetsuit and get in the water.

I still had to use the "facilities"...so once I arrived at the swim start, I got in line with several hundred of my friends...obviously, they were trying to save money on porta-johns, there were way too few! After spending about 30 minutes in that line, I dropped off my dry clothes bag (that we would collect at the finish), changed into my wetsuit, picked up my timing chip, and picked up a spare cap since mine was lounging around somewhere back in the chaos I left in the transition area.

I had about 10 minutes to spare...this left me enough time to swing my arms around and stretch them just like I saw Phelps do at the Olympics...that should be enough, right? My wave was the first of three for the large 40-44 age group...and right behind the 45 and over women, and the 55 and over men. This insured that I would have to keep my head up and site often...otherwise I might end up on top of another competitor from a previous wave. As far as swims go it was pretty uneventful...which is great. I'm not a very good swimmer, so don't enjoy all of the flogging that usually takes place during a mass start event. From what I heard, the swim was a little long, and from the finish times it looks like that may have been the case. Even though my wife was appalled that we were swimming in Lake Pontchartrain, the water didn't taste that bad...just a little salty ;-)

I wobbled out of the water (those who've done it will know what I mean) and jogged into the transition area, put on all the necessary gear, and headed out to the exit...which was way on the other side of transition. Once I was on the bike, I waited until I was down the road a bit to get into the shoes...and then headed out onto what I thought was going to be a fast course.

With my bike racing background, cycling is what I'm best at...so I started the process of going through the rest of the people on the course. Wave starts are tough on the bike, since there are varying levels of skill and speed all on the course at the same time...you really have to keep your head up and be aware of the riders you're passing. I felt pretty good on the way out, and knew I had a tail/crosswind...and knew that we would all pay the price for this early gift as the race progressed. The course had a couple out and back legs that were shaped in such a direction that the vast majority of the ride was either a headwind or a crosswind. The closer you made it back to transition, the more direct and stronger the headwind. For the most part my bike went ok with no major issues, but my SRM was telling me my that my wattage wasn't great. I just kept reminding myself that I had to still get off and run, so having a faster bike split wouldn't help me when I was "crying for my mommy to stop the pain" at mile 7 on the run.

I entered transition and again made the long run to the other end to rack my bike and put on my new Zoot Ultra Tempo2.0's...you could see me coming for a mile in those red racers...after grabbing the rest of the necessities I headed out on the run. I started conservatively knowing that the more I walked on the run, the more time I would lose. About 2 miles in a guy in my age group passed me, he wasn't going real fast, but chose to just run my own pace. After mile 4 another guy in my age group passed me, but I decided to pick it up just a little, he eventually faded and I pressed on. About mile 7 is where things started to REALLY get tough. I was overheating a bit, and my stomach wasn't interested in taking in any nutrition. I told myself to keep going until they started serving ice cold coke the last few miles (first race I've been to where they didn't have any) and I would be good to go. About mile 10 the hamstring cramps started to rear their ugly head. I was really just hanging on at this point...and with about 2 miles to go another guy in my age group passed me. At this point I wasn't sure what place I was in, especially with 3 different waves in my age group, but tried to stay close. I thought that if I stayed within range, I could sprint by at the end and surprise him...we took the last corner and it was 800 meters to go. My hamstring was locking up, and I decided to just get to the finish without picking myself up off the ground. There were thousands of people at the finish, and as I hit the blue carpet with about 100 meters to go my left leg locked...everyone was yelling and screaming, and I peg-leg-hobbled for a few steps until it loosened up and I was able to finish it up.

Wow, that race really hurt. I distinctively remember thinking with about 4 miles to go that I didn't want to ever do another one of these...or another full Ironman. A day later, and I know that I'll continue...heck, I may as well since I'm already signed up for 70.3 St. Croix in a few weeks and then IM Couer d'Alene in June. Each one of these races I've thought the same thing towards the end, but have put it back into perspective the next day.

After drinking about 20 of the little smoothies from the Smoothie King stand, I hobbled around and picked up my dry clothes bag. While walking around I saw Saul Raisin and went up and spoke to him. We have a mutual friend through cycling, so I started off asking him about that person. He's also the husband of Dave Zabriski's sister, Aleeza. If you don't know his story, briefly, he was one of the U.S.'s most promising young cyclists, and was racing in Europe on a top French team. In one of his races he had a wreck and had major brain trauma, and has fought back to be able to participate in triathlons. He's dedicated his time to raising money for brain trauma victims and research. Here are a couple links:

Saul's "Raisin Hope" website and blog.

Saul Raisin Slowtwitch interview.

Ok, to make a long story longer...Danny and I walked a few blocks and got on the bus, which would take us to transition. We packed our stuff, packed the car, high tailed it back to the hotel, parked the car, and went straight to the awards to be there by 4 pm. Danny soldered on after injuring his Achilles and walking from mile 4 to the finish! He had a great swim and bike, and then was hampered by an old Achilles problem that cropped up the prior week...not the outcome he had hoped for, but there are more races to come.

Once at the awards, and having not eaten all day except for smoothies and race food...we started drinking some free beer. Nothing like a couple dehydrated athletes with empty stomachs taking part in free libations! I have my classic deer in headlights look...and Danny looks baked!

Here's another shot of me hanging with Macca and giving the "Deer in headlights" look. He was VERY approachable and took the time to ask me how my race went and talk about how hard the day was...a great representation of the sport!

Even though I broke down 3 miles from the finish, it looks like I broke down less than some of the others and ended up 4th in the 40-44. There were 4 spots for Ironman 70.3 World Championships in my age group before the roll down, so I took it. For those who don't know, there are qualifying spots to get into either the 70.3 or the full Ironman (Hawaii) World Championships. The Ironman Hawaii spots are HIGHLY coveted, and very difficult to obtain...and the 70.3 are difficult, but not totally impossible to get. New Orleans had 45 total spots split amongst the varying divisions for the 3,000 participants. The more in your division, the more slots you get...so In the 40-44 there were 447 men and we had 4 spots available. If one of the 4 people decided they didn't want to go race in November at the championships, then the 5th place person would be offered the spot. Some age groups had the spots roll down way past 10th place...so, with some luck sometimes spots become available.

This was the first triathlon of the year for me, and I know my fitness will get better from here. Shawn at Velocity Multisport has been able to work around my schedule, and tailor specific training to where I am currently in my training cycle. Getting a coach that knows the complexity of training for triathlons is been the best value for increased performance, even above any new fancy bike equipment!

Well, that's about all...as I get more pictures I'll post them. All in all it was a fun trip with Double D!