15 September 2019 - Ironman 70.3 Atlantic City NJ

Wow, one week ago today I experienced one of the highlights of my life by joining the Ironman ranks by completing the Ironman 70.3 race in Atlantic City NJ!  This also makes the 23rd US state that I have run at least a half marathon in.

When I turned 60 earlier this year it just seemed natural to set a crazy goal.  60 is just a number but to help remember this milestone I decided to step it up and attempt an Ironman 70.3.  This race totals  70.3 miles broken down by a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run.  I knew it would take a bunch of training and preparation but also knew finishing the race would make it all worthwhile.  After a bunch of research I chose the Ironman 70.3 in Atlantic City NJ.  Below is my race report.  Warning, it is a bit long!

Pre-race:
Pre-race time was filled with lots of anxiety in many areas.  Rumors about the swim course had me thinking about things like:

• I've never swam in salt water.  Will it make me sick?  Will it be different than swimming in regular lakes?  Will I have problems with chafing from salt being on me after the swim?
• Are there really jellyfish in the water?  How about sharks?
• Will I be able to wear my wetsuit?  
• The swim ends at a boat ramp.  Several folks complained in past years about walking into the start of the concrete ramp since you can't see it.  This leaves cuts, scrapes, and potential bruised or broken bones.  How will I avoid these?
• The first half of the swim is against the current?  How bad will be current be?
• There is no opportunity to warm up in the water before the swim.  How will I get my heart rate up and get warmed up?

The bike ride also gave me some concern:

• I have to ship my bike and TriBike Transport (bike ships with no disassembly) was not part of this race.  This means some disassembly, boxing the bike up, and shipping it.  Then at the receiving end, unboxing the bike, putting it back together and making sure it is set up correctly.  Then repeating the process after the race.  This is both expensive and risky since the bike can get damaged in shipment.
• The bike ride is 2.5 loops.  How will I know where to get off after the second loop?
• Last year it rained the entire bike ride.  Lots of bike crashes.  What will I do if it rains this year?
• They give out penalties on the bike course for blocking (not letting people pass), drafting (being closer than 6 bike lengths away from the bike in front) (Also not completing passing someone within 25 seconds), littering and other things.  How am I gonna avoid getting penalties?  Penalties require you to stop and sit in the penalty tent for the penalty time which varies depending on the offense.  
• I won't have my bike pump, how will I pump up my tires?

The run gave me the least anxiety but there were some concern:

• Most of the run is on the boardwalk.  I've never run on a boardwalk before.  How will this go?
• There is no sun cover on the run.  It can get hot and the sun can bake you.  Should I carry water?  How will I carry gels and other stuff that I may need?

I'll start with the bike shipping.  I went to my favorite local bike store and they boxed up my bike.  It shipped through Bikeflights and was scheduled to arrive on 9/10.  We weren't flying out until 9/11 and I didn't need to pick the bike up until 9/12 so this should work out perfectly.  I chose a bike shop in Philadelphia (1 hour from Atlantic City) called Keswick Cycles to receive and reassemble my bike.  I mostly chose this shop because they were the official bike company for the race and were highly rated.

My anxiety elevated when I discovered my bike wouldn't arrive at Keswick until at least 9/11.  I was hoping this would still give them time to put the bike together for me.  My anxiety elevated even more when we landed in Philadelphia and I had a message from Keswick saying they received the bike and there was damage to my bike and could I please call them.  It seems the seat post clamp and pedals were removed by the local bike shop and put in a plastic bag in the box.  The bag came open during shipping and the clamp was missing and by the way my front brake was broken off.  There was no damage to the box so its a mystery how the brake broke.  Keswick did not have a seat post clamp or the brake.  To overnight the clamp in would cost about $25.  They were gonna look around to see what they could do about the brake.  As you can imagine I was freaking out at this point...  Luckily it all worked out.  They were able to get the seat post clamp overnight-ed in and they put a temporary brake assembly on the bike for me to use for the race.  Also we talked to my local bike store and they said they would re-imburse me for the damage.

On Friday, Julie and I attended the Athlete check-in.  Check-in went smoothly as I received my race packet and Ironman wristband and attended a pre-race meeting.  The race packet had my race tatoos, race numbers, race shirt, swim cap and timing chip.  The meeting was awesome as it covered all aspects of the race.  I felt much more at ease after attending the meeting.  We also took the opportunity to buy some race souvenirs and check out the swim area and transition.  I was thrilled as my transition spot was right on the end of a row!

On Saturday we came back to athlete village as we had to turn our bike in.  For dinner, I ate my standard pre-race meal of pasta with chicken, bread-sticks and salad.  After this I made sure everything was ready for the race and then hit the sack about 8pm.

I didn't get much sleep but was up and at them at 330am.  I grabbed coffee right away and Julie helped me put on my race tattoos.  I grabbed my transition bag and we were off to Bader Field at 415am.  We were early enough that we didn't run into much traffic and found a fairly good parking spot.  Transition opened at 430am, so that is where I headed. 

Transition:
With 2300 of my fellow competitors, we setup everything in our tiny area, got acquainted, pumped up our bike tires (luckily someone let me use theirs) and tried to not forget anything before transition closed at 6am.

The race:  

The swim start was delayed by 30 minutes due to lightening in the area.  We were hoping it would go away and not cancel or delay the swim any further.  Luckily it went away.  It was raining but for me this was not an issue since I was gonna get wet in the swim anyway!  Around 7am they played a recording of our national anthem and then the first wave of swimmers were off.  It was announced the swim was wetsuit legal (yippee!!).  The 1.2 mile swim was held in a back bay of Atlantic City.  They sorted us by expected finish time and sent us off 6 swimmers at a time every 10 seconds. 

The swim:
Around 7am, I did some burpees (to get my heart-rate up)and then put on my wetsuit and stood in line for my turn to enter the water.   My swim started at 730am.  The swim was an adventure.  The first part I just tried to swim to the buoys one at a time, get use to the salt water and avoid collisions with my fellow swimmers.  The salty taste of the water was nasty at first but didn't really bother me.  I only encountered one jellyfish and luckily it didn't sting me.  I heard of other folks getting stung several times so I feel fortunate!  The worst part of the swim was colliding with other swimmers.  I was kicked, smacked, and ran into other swimmers throughout the race.  Luckily we all just kept moving toward the next buoy when collisions happened.  I heard of some folks getting mean and holding people down when collisions happened.  Not sure what I would have done if I ran into that!  At times the water felt like being in a washing machine but I just kept moving forward.  The second half of the swim the current was behind me so this helped me go a bit faster.  Overall I enjoyed the swim and was thrilled with my time.  I finished in 41:31, which is about 1.5 minutes faster than Tridot predicted.

T1:
Exiting the water they had volunteers helping us stand up on the boat ramp and next they had wetsuit peelers.  This was a real treat as getting the wetsuit off is alway a challenge after a long swim.  Once the wetsuit was off it was a short jog to my transition spot.  While in transition I ate a gel, put my bike shoes, helmet and gloves on.  Next I grabbed my bike and jogged to the "bike out" arch.  My T1 time was a bit slow but I had to make sure I had everything for the 56 mile bike ride!

The bike:
I loved the Bike ride.  It was pouring rain for at least the first half of the ride but with my race helmet and visor/shield and taking it slow on the turns, I had no problems in the rain.  There were lots of flat tires and accidents.  In fact there were so many flat tires that Keswick ran out of spares for people.  They say the rain washed crap out on the roads and into puddles and stuff would stick to peoples tires and cause flats.  Also many folks over-inflate their race tires since it makes you faster but it also makes the tires more vulnerable to punctures.  Regardless I was one of the fortunate folks on this day.  I was having so much fun on the bike ride.  I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard and  averaged 20.7 miles an hour on the ride.  One the straight parts of the ride my speeds were in the mid 20's.  I was passing people constantly and felt like I was flying at times!  It was fun having water fly up on me as I rode through puddles and passed people.  It was easy to tell when to get off after 2 loops of the bike course.  My bike time was 2:41:58.   I destroyed Tridot's prediction of 3:25:31 for the bike ride!

T2:
When I first got off the bike my legs were a little wobbly so I took it kinda slow.  As I rolled my bike into transition the sun started to come out.  I knew this was gonna make the run challenging.  I put away by bike and bike gear and then started getting ready for the half marathon.  I sprayed on sunscreen, put on my run gear including arm coolers, grabbed my bottle of gatorade and I was off for the run.

The run:
At the start my legs felt decent.  I started running at about a 10 minute per mile pace and was hopeful I could maintain this pace.  This didn't last long as my pace went slower and slower each mile.  I suppose my legs were just tired.  I'm not sure if I pushed too hard on the bike or if it was the heat and humidity on the boardwalk.  By mile 6 I started adding in some walking and my pace slowed to 12 minute miles.  Mile 9 and 10 were over 13 minute miles then somehow I picked it up the last 3 miles and moved back into 12 minute miles.  The views on the boardwalk were awesome!  We ran out on a pier and it was like running into the ocean!  Believe it or not, I enjoyed the run even though I was slow and it was hot.  My half marathon time was 2:34:00.  This was significantly slower than Tridot's prediction on 2:18:46.  I ended up averaging 11:46 per mile.  My run time is the one area that I was slightly disappointed in.

The finish:
As I approached the Ironman arch, there was a sudden hitch in my giddyup!  I was so excited to cross this finish line!  My number one goal for the year was going to be accomplished!  They called my name and I flexed my arms for the pictures.  They gave me the finishers medal and hat and I was thoroughly exhausted but so dang proud to have completed the Ironman 70.3.  This was definitely a bucket list item that I can check off the list!  My finish time for the race was 6:13:37.  This was about 10 minutes faster than Tridot predicted for me.

By the numbers:
Swim  time:    41.31   AgeGroup:14th/49  Men:  686th/1462   Overall:882nd/2039
T1       time:      7:43
Bike    time: 2:41:58  AgeGroup:6th/49    Men:   560th/1462   Overall:647th/2039
T2       time:      8:26
Run     time: 2:34:00  AgeGroup:22nd/49  Men:1038th/1462   Overall:1393rd/2039
Finish  time  6:13:37  AgeGroup:14th/49  Men:   795th/1462   Overall:1009th/2039

MVP:
Although I get all the glory I could not do any of this without the help of my wonderful wife!  She is right there by my side supporting me, taking pictures of me and cheering me on through my crazy goals.  I am a lucky guy to have her as my wife.



What's next for me:
Considering 11/24/19 - Route 66 half marathon in Tulsa Oklahoma