Ironman 70.3 Miami Race Report - Part 2 - Swim

I  slept pretty well and nearly made it all the way to the alarm clock at 5:00am.  After finally deciding to race with the two piece outfit, I finished mixing my nutrition.  We had no refrigerators in the room – so I had filled my sink with ice and stuffed some water bottles in the night before.  I also had my prerace breakfast which has been working well for me recently – 2 pop tarts.  After getting my gear together it was time for the short walk to transition.

 

On the walk over, got a nice picture of the bridge we’d be running on 8 times:

Once in transition, I first had to locate my bike as the previous night I had to leave it hanging against a wall.  I found it right in the middle rack, pretty close to the “swim in”.  That meant it was a long run with the bike to “bike out”.  I arranged my stuff and had plenty of room as it seemed both the competitors on either side of me were no-shows.  Then I had to pump up my tires.  I wasn’t really prepared for how difficult it was to get a pump that fit my wheels.  My pump at home fits, but it apparently has an abnormally small head.  In the end a trip to the Specialized tent resolved the issue, but I had to bring my bike out of transition for the inflation.

 

After that I was done setting up, I went back out and sat with the family for a little bit.  I had my prerace energy gel.  I wandered back to the hotel once to use the bathroom and then watched the pro men finishing their swim.  The rest of my family showed up right before I went to the swim corral.  I tried to stay off my feet and out of the crowd until the last minute.  I did see Ronel and Valerio before the start, but not once we got closer to the start.  We were  the second to last wave to start.  First we got into a holding pen, then after the previous wave started we had to all jump off a 10 foot pier and swim about 100 yards to the starting line.  All in 4 minutes.  Obviously another organizational blunder.  The most dangerous part was the guy pushing people literally on top of another into the water. 

 

Jumping Being pushed off the pier:

I hung back after getting in the water, as I didn’t want to get involved in an aggressive swim.  I knew it was going to be a long day and I figured if I hung back a little at the start I would be able to keep relaxed.  I also knew there was likely to be unfavorable tide and I thought I could make up time when things opened up later on the swim.

 

Some final adjustments with the goggles:

And pretty quickly we were off.  That's me in the middle.

I had a pretty clean start with a minimum of jostling.  It was crowded to the first buoy, but I took it plenty wide and then settled in on the long backstretch.  This was the section that was into the tide.  I pretty quickly had a lot of space to just put my head down and swim.  It was great to know that there was no wave coming up from behind that was going to swim over me and that the fast guys in my wave were out front.  I was getting into a good rhythm and was soon passing people from the previous wave.  There were a couple of guys nearby swimming the same speed, so I could look at them rather than sighting.  This leg seemed to last forever, but I was mentally expecting a long swim.  I kept seeing more and more cap colors so I knew I was moving at a decent pace.  As we turned the next buoy I glanced at my watch and knew that the swim was going to be really long.  I was only 5 minutes from my the time I could do in a pool and had nearly 2 legs still to do. 

 

It was more of the same on this leg, just kept seeing more and more new cap colors.  Rounding the last buoy the lead wetsuit guy caught me and there was a bit of traffic, so again I went wide.  You’ll have to take my word for it, but the arm at the extreme right - next to the buoy - is me heading around the crowd.

My support crew had set up shop on a dock that was located about 200 yards from the above turn and 400 yards from the finish.  Although I was breathing away from them toward the sun, I could see them when I sighted and hear their cowbells.  This direction was tough, as every breath meant staring into the sun.  You get an idea from this camera shot.  That's me in the foreground.

Here I am in the gold cap passing someone:

Heading for some clear water with about 400 yards to go:

Just keeping it going.  In the middle on the bottom, next to the wetsuit.

Here is a view from where my support crew was standing to the end of the swim.

Interestingly, my support crew was captured by the official race photographers:

It was a long swim, but I was still feeling pretty fresh.  Then came the next debacle.  The swim exit was a bunch of stairs which ended literally at water level.  No steps below the water.  I saw a bunch of people who couldn’t actually get on them just clogging the exit.  I made it to the side and worked my way on.  The dock was slippery and I walked across that section.

 

Here is the race video of me coming out of the water (at the 12 second mark)

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=59856&BIB=1122&VLOC=Swim%20Exit

 

Then it was the long run through transition to my bike.  You get a sense of the length of the run in the below picture.  The swim exit was further to the right along the shore, but you ran down the path, then around the fountain, and finally into transition.

 

I had an average transition.  I knew it would be slow as I was wrestling on a tri top which I had never done in a race before.  I also had to stuff my pockets with nutrition.

 

Nutrition before the swim:

2 Pop Tarts – 400 calories, 76g carbs

1 Gu – 100 calories, 25g carbs

 

Time/Placing:

Swim - 45:38, 2:10/100yard pace, 108/187 AG, 680/1929 OA

T1 – 4:37, 135/187 AG, 1120/1920 OA

 

After the swim I was 680th and after T1 I was 690th, so I lost 10 spots in T1.  You’ll note the denominator changing for the overall, this is accounting for people dropping out throughout the race (so 9 people finished the swim but not T1).

 

Up next the bike.