Joel Maley: 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Championship!

Well another 70.3 World Championship has come and gone and I’m once again reminded of how much stronger the field is in Europe. I was content with my race, but somewhat disappointed with my effort on the bike.

Claudia and I departed for Nice, France on Monday and arrived Tuesday morning. Claudia had managed to rent a condo right off the Promenade des Anglais and a couple hundred meters from the finish line. Despite being somewhat noisy during the week, we had first class listening to the Rock Show at the Hard Rock Café on Saturday night (not ideal when you are trying to sleep!!!). That being said, it was an awesome location!

Anyway, race week was relatively uneventful with a pretty typical taper for me. I hadn’t really planned on peaking for the 70.3 World Championships, but I had planned to slightly taper so that I would hopefully feel fresh.

Ben Williams and I at the top of Col de Vence on Wednesday (It's pretty amazing who you run into)!

All set for check-in!

Bike Gear Bag Check-in!

Bike Check-in! She's all ready to roll!

My Argon 18 E-119 Tri+ Ready to Roll!

F2C Nutrition All Mixed and Ready for Race Day!

Race morning I was up shortly before 0400hrs and had my standard breakfast eggs, toast, coffee, a banana, and some orange juice. At a little before 5 I headed down to T1 to drop off my nutrition and pump up my tires, and do a once over on my bike. I was back to the condo by about 0530 and then had a quick nap till shortly after 6. I finished getting ready and at about 0630hrs we headed out the door for the swim start. The Pro men started at 0700hrs and shortly thereafter the age group waves began. It would be a non-wetsuit swim with the water temperature being a reported 25.6 degrees Celsuis. At 0732hrs, the M35-39 group started with ten athletes starting every 15 seconds. I had lined up about half way back in my group and was just hoping for a good swim.

All set to get the swim started!

The swim was relatively uneventful other than having to deal with leaking goggles for the first couple hundred meters and then I found a set of feet. I stayed on those feet throughout the remainder of the swim. There was a little bit of contact here and there but nothing of significance. I came out of the water feeling pretty good, but with some light cramping in the legs. Swim Time 34:12.

Just starting the bike!

Then it was on to the challenging bike course with over 1400m of elevation gain. From the get go I certainly didn’t feel myself. I just felt flat. I struggled putting out my normal effort and on the initial climbs it was hard just getting into a groove. By the time we got to the base of the big climb, Col de Vence – Category 1 Climb of ~9.5km with an average grade of 6.6%, I was certainly starting to feel stronger but still felt like I was a gear down from where I should be. It was a beautiful climb and I took the opportunity once or twice to enjoy the scenery. One we were at the top I knew the fun would begin. Going into the race I was concerned with the descent as I didn’t want to give up free speed, but I also didn’t want to do anything stupid and end up crashing. The descent was an absolute blast and the later portions of the bike I was starting to feel more like my usual self on the bike. Bike Time 2:45:31 (About 5-10min slower than I had anticipated). Power 220W NP, 190 W Average

Nutrition: ~1100 Calories of F2C Nutrition GlycoDurance (About a 50/50 mix of Strawberry Kiwi / Raw and a few extra scoops of Electrodurance)

Just coming out of the tunnel to start the first loop!

And then it was on to the run, a flat two loop course on the Promenade des Anglais. I was feeling pretty good, but just felt like I was chugging along in fourth gear and couldn't convince myself to kick it up a notch. At the start of the second loop there was another athlete running just off my shoulder. He slowly passed me and I decided that if I could run with him, it would help me pace myself. It certainly helped as my pace gradually increased with my splits for the last 8km at 3:52, 3:46, 3:44, 3:42, 3:39, 3:37, 3:40, 3:33. The first time I’ve negatively split the run and a new Half Ironman run PB of 1:19:09. (A PB of over two minutes).

Final time 4:44:40. 94^th in the M35-39 Division out of 520 Athletes and 434^th Overall out of 3,261. A little disappointed with my placing, but I gave my best on the day and that’s all I could do!