Maine 70.3 Race Report - Smashing the Bike!

M35-39 Podium

So it’s been and up and down (seems more like a down) season. The training has largely been there (except the swim) and I’ve just not felt overly engaged. With Kona looming on the horizon, I was optimistic that another race might change the tides. I find more often than not, it’s more a mental fight than a physical one. Fitness wise I’ve felt very good this year, but I’ve just felt flat coming out of the water which has translated to lower power on the bike and running in what I like to call 4^th gear. That extra gear just seems to be missing. 

The family and I headed to Maine on Monday morning. We had rented a house a couple blocks up from the Beach and my parents had come along for the week. I was looking forward to having a vacation with the family, doing a little training, and then capping the week off with a fun race. I had originally planned to bike the course on Wednesday, but due to rain I switched that up and did it on Thursday. I took it easy for the first ten or so kilometers and then found myself putting out pretty good power numbers for me. At 45km, I decided that was enough and backed off the effort for the remainder…was that a sign of things to come. I don’t recommend doing a 90km ride three days out from your race, but it clearly worked in this case. 

Post Race with Greg at the F2C Booth

Race check-in was a breeze Friday afternoon and then I spent most of the remainder of the afternoon with Greg, Glenda, and Mathias at the F2C Booth at the expo. Saturday I did my normal D-1 workouts. An easy swim, an easy bike with a few excels, and then a quick run off the bike. I checked my bike in shortly before lunch and then took it very easy for the remainder of the day…probably spent a good couple hours with my legs in the Rapid Reboot Machine. Between Friday and Saturday, I probably drank 6-8 bottles of Hydra-Durance

Pre-race family photo. The kids are awesome!

I woke up Sunday morning at 0330hrs, had my usual race breakfast of coffee, orange juice, a banana, a bagel with jam and a couple eggs. I headed down to transition at around 0415hrs as I wanted to be there when it opened at 0430hrs. I checked everything over, filled up my bottles, pumped up my tires and by about 0440hrs I was heading back to the house. At 0540hrs the family and I headed down to the Pier for the race start. It was low tide which meant the first portion of the “swim” was more like a run and then wading into the water at least a hundred meters out. 

At 0620hrs the race started and a couple minutes later I was off. I had planned to take the swim relatively easy and I wanted to be extra careful to not over-kick. I stayed a bit wide of the buoys for the swim and came out of the water feeling quite good. I didn’t bother checking my watch as I figured regardless of what the time was, it likely wasn’t going to be great and it would likely just tick me off. 

Heading into T2 so starting to loosen my shoes!

I was quickly through transition and onto the bike. I took the extra few seconds in transition to put on a pair of socks as I was concerned that my feet might get cold, but I also figured I’d save it from T2. Once on the bike I felt great. I had planned to put the hammer down and then was mentally prepared to suffer on the run. The bike felt great. I was putting up power numbers that I had not been able to put up in several years. I kept reminding myself to ride like Gary! At one point, I looked down and realized my NP was 246W. It felt great and the fact that I was catching and passing a lot of people probably gave me a little extra motivation. Big Gear all the way and I only came out of the aerobars for the turns and a couple of the hills. I was shocked…no one passed me on the bike so I figured I must have done ok. As I came off the bike, I glanced down and saw 2:12 on my bike computer…Wow! I thought that can’t be right. I didn’t think much of it as it was time to run. It turned out, 2^nd Fastest Bike Split in the race and fastest in my age group with a 2:11. 233W Avg 239W NP. Just under 41km/hr average. I have to say I really like my new Giro Aerohead Helmet (it’s a little on the heavy side, but aerodynamically I think it’s really good). Nutrition: 1.5L (800 Calories of Glycodurance (Strawberry-Kiwi + Unflavoured) + 8 scoops of ElectroDurance).

Heading down the finishing shoot!

Surprisingly my legs felt really good as I started the run. I just settled into the best effort I could hold and ran. I was reeling a few guys back in and by the time we hit the first out and back I counted that there was less than ten people ahead of me. Due to the rolling start you are never sure if they are actually ahead of you. Before the start of the second loop, I had run myself up into 6^th place on the road. By the time I finished the second loop, I was pretty confident I had run myself into third and that’s exactly where I ended up. Nutrition: 2 x Rekarb (Maple) gels, water, coke (3-4 small cups), and a little on course electrolytes. 

Ben Williams and I at the finish!

Ironman 70.3 Maine was a blast. The bike had a lot of turns, however the roads were generally very good and traffic control was excellent. The run was some rolling hills with two out and back sections on a hard packed gravel path. 

Final time was 4:09:47. 3^rd Overall, 2^nd M35-39.

Swim 0:31, Bike 2:11, Run 1:22 for a total time of 4:09. With the second fastest bike and third fastest run of the race!

That’s a new PB by almost seven minutes. To say I was stoked would be an understatement. 

And with that I punched my ticket to the 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Nice, France!!!