Challenge AC Race Report

Challenge AC Race Report

The day started with a lot of promise.  Wet suit legal swim, 8mph winds, mid 70s, cloud cover -  you really couldn’t ask for better conditions.  I was going to race conservatively because my training wasn’t up to par, especially my swim and run, but if I took it easy, maybe things wouldn’t go off the rails.

Well, a lot can go wrong in a 70.3 race – a bad decision here, some bad luck there and things can go south pretty quick.  

The problem areas were:

• Borrowed my friend Smarty’s tri suit, got chafed early in the swim and that pretty much sucked – never got into form (when will I learn!)
• The buoys were too far apart for a near sighted old goat like me and I had to stop many times to get my sightings – foggy goggles didn’t help – should’ve picked up anti-fog spray at the expo like I planned
• My calf cramped halfway through the swim and I had to stop, float on my back and massage it out – then just half assed it to the finish – bad luck
• My nutrition bottle popped out and landed in the mud while running out of T1 – need to look into why this happened – didn’t fall off the entire ride
• I pressed the wrong buttons on my Garmin and got an error that I couldn’t clear from the screen – wasted a lot of time trying to fix it while riding and still had no information during the entire ride – user error, better luck next time dumb ass
• I missed the hand-off at the first water stop at mile 12 and the next one wasn’t until mile 45 – there wasn’t a lot of warning that a water stop was coming – still, I should have slowed down a lot more to make sure I got the water
• Just like Eagleman, I felt like I was going to puke almost the entire bike ride, so only took in 250 calories – still don’t know why this is happening on race day
• A gust of wind and a pothole conspired to kill me about ½ mile from the finish – I’m not sure how I stayed on two wheels, but this didn’t really affect my race time
• The bike was 2 miles long
• Had to stop and drink 16 oz of water before I left T2
• I had hit a porta john soon after I started running and had to run until the first toilet a mile away on the boardwalk and that was occupied, so I wasted time going in, then had to run to the next one ¼ mile away and lost 3 minutes (yes, I timed it)
• Went ‘shirtless’ so I didn’t have chafing while running – unfortunately there was no cloud cover for the run and my lily white skin started to get fried baking in the sun
• My calf that cramped during the swim held pretty well, but became a factor late in the run and I hobbled the last couple of miles

Looking on the positive side,

• It was great course and I would definitely do it again
• While I couldn’t read my Garmin, apparently it recorded everything except the first 4 miles and retrospectively I pretty much rode what I expected to ride – around 200watts, 130HR, 90cadence, ~24mph (see below)
• I rode with two 34 year old guys that were pretty solid and helped keep a steady pace – motor cycle followed us many, many miles and never gave me a penalty – not sure about the other guys – one guy was definitely stronger than the other
• The bike felt super easy – not sure why I felt like puking, but I wasn’t pushing that hard at all
• I didn’t cramp on the run like Eagleman last year – just a little at the end of the run, but it really didn’t slow me down that much
• I really like running on the boardwalk – lots to check out
• Even though I felt like I was going to puke, I didn’t push myself and so didn’t feel as bad as Eagleman last year and did get some calories in
• I was well under 5 hours even considering at least 5 minutes extra on the long bike course and 3 minutes in the bathroom
• Better competition than I thought – I thought this might be a cake walk AG “W” race, but there were some tough old bastards out there
• Had a good time hanging out with my buddy Zoo all weekend – crazy bastard

In retrospect, I’m pretty lucky I broke 5 hours on this race.  I’m not good at racing conservatively – it’s just not as much fun – next time, train right, race hard and controlled.  I guess I needed this race as a kick in my ass and wake me up.  The last 5 miles I told myself I would never do one of these again.  Now I can’t wait to do another 70.3 – this really is a good distance for me – I just have some kinks to work out. 

Bike splits (miles 5-58) – I’m sure I can do a lot better than this!

Splits	Moving Time	Avg Speed	Max Speed	Avg HR	Max HR	Avg Bike Cadence	Normalized Power® (NP®)	Max Power
5	2:49	21.3	25.1	136	141	91	211	357
6	2:41	22.3	28.8	137	140	89	200	334
7	2:38	22.8	27.7	135	138	90	202	271
8	2:39	22.7	27.8	135	144	91	206	295
9	2:34	23.4	26.3	134	138	90	205	260
10	2:25	24.8	29.7	133	136	91	208	264
11	2:28	23.9	25.9	133	137	91	211	292
12	2:20	25.4	26.5	133	135	94	204	283
13	2:22	25.3	26.4	134	137	94	197	310
14	2:24	25.1	31.5	132	139	92	201	349
15	2:32	23.7	26.6	132	135	93	191	325
16	2:21	25.4	27.6	128	137	92	192	347
17	2:27	24.6	28.3	130	134	92	207	376
18	2:29	24.1	26.7	128	133	89	187	313
19	2:41	21.8	28.1	127	133	87	196	371
20	2:40	22.5	28.3	129	138	89	214	367
21	2:35	23.2	27.3	133	139	92	215	357
22	2:39	22.6	24.9	134	137	89	206	288
23	2:39	22.8	26.3	129	133	88	201	390
24	2:33	23.5	25.8	131	136	95	210	336
25	2:46	21.4	24.9	134	138	89	210	390
26	2:16	26.4	31	127	133	92	196	419
27	2:09	27.5	30.6	127	137	87	222	444
28	2:14	27	28.9	128	136	92	190	279
29	2:22	25.2	29.3	127	133	91	192	463
30	2:19	26	28	135	140	92	229	348
31	2:31	23.9	27.1	131	136	90	199	276
32	2:29	23.9	25.6	127	132	92	186	382
33	2:28	24.4	26.2	126	130	94	185	288
34	2:26	24.7	26.9	127	131	92	192	373
35	2:31	23.8	26.6	123	131	87	184	370
36	2:53	20.8	24.3	132	140	89	237	468
37	2:36	23	26.6	133	138	90	203	264
38	2:46	21.7	24.4	131	132	89	195	305
39	2:45	21.9	24.4	128	132	88	189	421
40	2:44	22	28.1	124	131	84	191	411
41	2:38	22.7	27.2	121	128	83	192	406
42	2:24	24.4	25.6	124	130	90	197	431
43	2:47	21.5	26.2	121	132	80	183	421
44	2:57	20.3	25.9	129	139	86	219	383
45	2:23	25.3	29.9	130	136	90	208	420
46	2:30	24	26.9	122	127	88	178	580
47	2:28	24.3	26.2	128	135	90	209	462
48	2:16	26.4	30.1	126	130	91	191	405
49	2:35	23.4	27.5	123	126	87	184	327
50	2:13	26.5	32.2	122	130	91	189	494
51	2:15	26.4	31.6	136	139	94	212	291
52	2:25	24.9	31.5	128	133	88	177	420
53	2:36	23.2	27.6	125	131	85	192	337
54	2:38	22.8	31.4	128	134	87	205	440
55	2:15	26.5	30.1	127	131	91	187	239
56	2:25	24.9	28.7	131	136	86	199	333
57	2:27	24.5	28.4	128	132	87	184	363
58	2:51	20.7	28.5	126	134	84	172	308
Averages	2:31	24		129		90	199

Run Splits (stopped Garmin during 3 min bathroom break).  I can’t believe how low my HR got at the end of the race, I think I was about to die.

		Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	07:37.0	7:37	134	142
2	07:34.1	7:34	137	143
3	07:30.1	7:30	143	146
4	07:23.4	7:23	144	148
5	07:21.9	7:22	146	148
6	07:22.1	7:22	146	149
7	07:57.2	7:57	144	148
8	07:24.8	7:25	144	149
9	07:35.9	7:36	146	148
10	07:58.8	7:59	133	147
11	07:49.3	7:49	123	141
12	08:14.8	8:15	100	129
13	07:46.2	7:46	85	97
14	00:34.0	6:18	99	100
Averages	1:40:10	7:39	132