Ironman 70.3 Miami

I raced the Ironman 70.3 Miami yesterday and after putting together a great day I managed to hold off and win the race.

I made sure I checked the weather forecast before leaving Los Angeles on Thursday as Hurricane Sandy was sneaking by and I knew they had canceled a race in the Bahamas. Miami was due to feel the side of Sandy on Thursday and Friday and clear up by Saturday. That is the one thing I love about Florida, they seem to get the weather forecast right 99% of the time. Sandy has moved up the east coast and gained enough power to be called a super storm as it hits the states up north.

By race day the sun was out but we were still receiving some of the strong winds. Fortunately the harbor where we swam was somewhat calm and besides of a few of my competitors presuming it was going to be a non-wetsuit swim and leaving their wetties at home it was fast swim.

The bike was an out and back. Out into the wind, back with the wind. Riding into the wind it seemed people where getting mighty close to the draft zone and the stronger cyclists could not make any impact on the group. This all changed dramatically after we hit the turn around. Jan Van Berkel who beat me in a sprint finish at 70.3 Ireland a couple months back launched an attack, while I sat in 5^th place waiting for the two Germans in front to hang in there. They didn’t and I didn’t react quick enough and soon I was sitting on the front of the group trying to chase down or at least limit the deficit we would have on Jan. we went from 23 mph heading out to 33 mph on the way home and the large group soon was not there. I had 2 guys sitting behind me but I was doing all the lifting which was fine.

Through the technical section into Transition we managed to almost close out the deficit and we ran out of Transition just behind the leader. Frommhold, one of the guys who were behind me took off like a man on a mission and we ran our first mile under 5minutes. It was a 2 lap run course with a bridge you crossed 4 times in total. The gradient on this slowly pinched away at your legs and by the time I hit it for the forth time I was glad I had open up a good lead and I could enjoy the last few miles to the finish.

Frommhold ended up paying big time for his early pace and lost several positions while Jan and Horst Reichel held on for 2^nd and 3^rd.  Another high would be getting to share the #1 position on the podium with woman’s race winner and current Ironman and Ironman 70.3 world Champion Leanda Cave. Leanda – have a holiday chick, It would be well deserved!

I have been putting in a lot of hard work and it is great to see it paying off albeit very late in the season, 1:11 for the Half Marathon 2 weeks ago, 1:12 for this week and after a long season I still have a lot of energy going into my next two races.

I fly to LA for a couple days before starting the trip back to NZ where I will be going via Taiwan for the Ironman 70.3 next weekend. I have never been to Taiwan and am looking forward to experiencing the culture and racing at a new venue.

Until next week

Rev 3 Anderson

I just finished the Revolution 3 Half Ironman in Anderson, South Carolina and while a victory would have been nice I am really please with how I performed to finish in 3rd place behind Andrew Starykowicz and Ben Collins.

Training the past few weeks in California has gone really well. My fitness has taken a big jump forward and I was really looking forward to testing things out this weekend.

I struggled a little through the Swim but came out with all the contenders. Jumping onto the bike there was a little congestion and I couldn't do my normal flying mount as guys were swerving all over the place. Andrew Starykowicz who has a solid figure soon came thundering through the whole group up a small climb in a gear that must have been a 54 x 13 (that’s a gear most would ride on downhills). Ben Collins had a small gap on the group and jumped onto his ticket outa there when Stary came past.

Our group on the bike struggled to find any rhythm and I knew if this kept up we would be looking at a big deficit off the bike. I tried a couple times to get away from the group and both times I thought I had done enough to isolate myself, but both times I was reeled in. I am honored that I had this target on my back by my competitors but I wish we would have all road steadier throughout. Finally with 15miles to go 4 of us managed to get away and the pace was good the rest of the way, we limited our loses but were still looking at a nine and a half minute deficit on Stary and over 6 minutes on Collins.

Richie Cunningham sped out of transition onto the run which got me in the mode to run fast. We were running well together, a couple 5:15 miles then all of a sudden he had dropped off. I wasn't sure if I could catch up to the leaders being that far back but I thought I would try and it was a good test to see where my running form was at. I kept the pressure on the whole run and was really proud of how I managed to keep it together the whole 13miles. I was making some good ground those middle 7 miles but it was going to be too little too late. Crossing the line in 3rd place in a time of 1hr51min50sec, 40seconds down on Collins and 2.5minutes off Starkowicz. My 1hr 11minute half marathon on a hilly course, while a great time didn't make any difference to the overall standings but I had a good day and hats off to Andrew and Ben for unbelievable races. 

Check out http://rev3tri.com/live/ for a quick update from me at the finish line (may need to scroll to about 40 seconds into it)

Next stop for me is going to be Miami 70.3 in two weeks time followed by the Taiwan 70.3 on the way home to NZ.