Many things went wrong on race-day.
I don't need no stinking wetsuit!
I was one of two swimmers in my age category without a wetsuit (there were about 25 of us). Last year I rented one for about 100 bucks during the race Expo the day before the race. This year I tried to do the same and found out the hard way that they weren’t renting wetsuits this year. My choice was to buy a 400 – 1000 dollar suit or suck it up. I don’t have much body fat, but I have a frugal mind so the decision was fairly easy (I chose to brave the cold).
The water was unusually choppy (its an ocean swim and the Atlantic does have waves), so much so that the course marker buoys moved and had to be re-positioned delaying the start 25 minutes and prompting an announcement that you could just do the bike and run (but not be eligible for prize money). Having spent over 200 dollars on the race entry fee I was not about to chicken out at this point, although standing in my bike shorts shivering was not the funnest way to spend 25 minutes at 6 in the morning (I was up at 4:30 today, and out the door at 4:45!).
So we had the cold choppy water to contend with.
Spit out that salt water kid, its time to ride!
Next we had the bike leg, 56 miles of it, that went great until about mile 46 when I noticed my rear tire was flatting, I hate changing tires and didn’t want to deal so I powered through thinking I could make it the next 10 miles. I couldn’t tell from my angle (though the people passing me were an indication) that my tire was completely flat. As I rounded a sharp turn I fish tailed, almost struck another biker and dismounted. Now I could see the flat and spent the next 20 minutes and 20 seconds removing the rear assembly, prying the wheel from the tire with tire levers, pulling out the errant tube, partially inflating a tube from my bike bag, lining the tire with the new tube, sealing the wheel around it and inflating all the way with a hand pump. Oh, but if only that were all. When leaving my roadside spot I could not find my sunglasses hidden in the grass, and about a block later I pulled off to inflate even more (hand pumps suck!).
From here on out, everything went great. I finished off the bike (did not like the new course end) and transitioned into the run with no incident, and felt super strong on the run, I averaged 8:46 miles! I felt really strong and not overheated or beat up, even college hill which you have to run up twice seemed pretty easy. I finished super strong sprinting past many participants in the last half mile and enjoyed some time with my record-size seven person cheering section.
Here is a bike map and link, the data is from my GPS watch, a Garmin 305:
GarminConnect Map from GPS Watch of IronMan 70.3 Bike
So let’s break down the numbers. I wanted a sub 6 hour finish. I finished in 6:16, but if you subtract my 20 minute flat tire delay, you get under 6 hours. I beat last years swim time by over a minute and with no wet suit! (A wet suit is a form of legal cheating, it provides buoyancy that give s an advantage). Let’s break down my swim training:
1. 20 minutes in heated outdoor pool, laps
2. 45 minutes in heated outdoor pool, laps
3. 1 mile swim in Chatfield Reservoir (open water)
4. 1/4 mile, about 10 minutes in outdoor pool, laps
That was it! I only swam four (really 3) times to train for this years race. This was part dislike of swimming and part reluctance to join a gym.
Back to the numbers – I crushed my T1 time (Transition 1, from swim to bike) by more than five minutes.
I got killed on my bike time, was about 30 minutes behind last years pace, but I had the 20 minute flat delay.
I killed it on the run, beating my time from last year by ten minutes!
6ish hours later, a happy Mark at the finish line
2008 results:
| Race | Ovr Pos |
Gdr Pos |
Cat Pos |
Time | Bib No |
Athlete | Links | Cat | Country Rep |
Swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run | City | State | Country | Q I |
Q I7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70.3 Rhode Island 2008 | 756 | 596 | 107 | 6:06:47 | 524 | Mark Scheel |   |
M30-34 | United States | 40:42 | 11:06 | 3:05:15 | 3:56 | 2:05:49 | Denver | CO | United States |
2009 Results:
1014 1669 M30-34 Mark Scheel DENVER CO us 34 M 963 39:09 1:52 5:48 1215 3:32:14 15.8 4:17 55:56 511 1:55:04 8:47 6:16:29
Despite the mishaps, I had an amazing time. Having loved ones cheer you on might be the best runner’s high there is, and finishing a race strong and setting personal best’s feels really good. I defintely like the pattern of these last two years, doing a post-snowboarding marathon and a mid-summer 70.3 event.
Notes for next year:
Train out at Chatfield Reservoir more, what a cool place for open water training (Master’s club?)
Upgrade hand pump to a CO2 canister system
Forget the wetsuit, who needs it!
Pack a powerbar in your run bag for T2
Posted by abstemi0us 
