Race Guide - Ironman Florida
A niche race guide for Irish Triathletes. There's a lot of handier races out there for you. Every summer there's a plethora of Ironman's, Ironmen's Ironmanseses, races that you can do in Europe in some stunning locations.
But if you can at all, you should really tick an American Ironman off the list. They're just.... different, in a "turned up to 11" kind of way. Maybe its a reflection of our Americanized culture here in Ireland, but there's something mad about being stood in the dark, on a beach in Florida listening to the crowd belt out the Star Spangled Banner, or the post race Burger Game being absolutely on point, and nowhere will you meet more enthusiastic volunteers. Which with race morning nerves, is both distracting and comforting. Yes I'm here game faced to try go under 9 hours, but Stephanie from Tennessee telling me I'm awesome, for some reason, does reassure me. It shouldn't. But it does.
You have to be game for hassle though, none of them are easy from a logistics point of view, it wont be a short trip, you'll invariably be bringing a bike box, you'll have to deal with jet lag, everything over there is huge, especially the journeys!!
That being said, because I'm a wrecker, I broke my bike whilst trying to pack it the week before the race and in my panic, came across a company that hire high end bikes for all races on mainland America, so if I was ever doing another race there, I would definitely be hiring a bike. Playtri they're called and they really do provide an amazing service!!
Back to the hassle.. We flew out a full week before the race, as the best flights we could get were in to Miami, that meant a night at an airport hotel when we landed, a days drive to Daytona Beach, two nights here just relaxing and getting on American time and then another full days drive to Panama Beach, the location of the race. A city which was still recovering from Hurricane Michael in 2018 (another Hurricane Michael was about to hit in 2019, wha???) and the effects of which were still glaringly apparent. I'm sure its much better now but at the time it didn't make for the most scenic of races. On the plus side, we could post race in New Orleans!!
Ironman Florida is a two loop sea swim, a flat flat bike and a flat if a little technical run. So its a PB kind of course. Its on in November, its Florida so it can always be a hot race but nothing near the crazy heat they get in the summer. It wasn't an ad-hoc choice for me, I had notions.
The first couple of days there the weather was hot, fairly humid but pleasant, I got a couple of runs and bikes in and the heat was manageable. The sea was calm with plenty of jellies though and lots of forum talk about shark sightings (I know, don't believe the forums!!) Considering the bike debacles, I had greatly reduced my expectations for the race. I knew my bike wouldn't be brilliant, but I also knew I had some serious running legs so you just never know...
Then one of the maddest things I've ever witnessed happened the day before the race. As I said above, the weather was hot, low 20's, humid, still, what you would expect in Florida in November. We were out for a walk and went into store just browsing, couldn't have been in there more than 5 mins, but when we came back out, it was like we had gone through a weather vortex, the temps had dropped at least 10 degrees and it was very very windy, think Irish November weather, we didn't know what happened (we later found out a pressure front had moved in from the gulf of Mexico and apparently that sudden change in conditions was common enough) Anyway, the point of all this, is for me, racing in 15 degree temps with wind, meant it was game on!!
Best Race Briefing Location Yet
For most of the rest of the field, who were here for a hot race, this drop lead to absolute pandemonium, the wall-mart was absolutely lit that night, people buying gloves, jackets, hats. Anything that would keep them warm on the bike particularly. The lesson from this, no matter where you race, pack for all conditions!!
Race morning was straight forward, although they do this weird thing, where you don't hang your bags on racks like you would see at European paces, the lay them out in long lines along the ground, its a funny system and there's definitely a bigger likelihood of missing your bag as you run into transition.
Other than that it was all good, before I knew it, full of American pride after the National Anthem, I was in the starting pen, waiting to go, I had seeded relatively high and got out into fairly clear water for the first lap, couple of very minor jelly stings (so brave) but other than that no issues, there's an Australian exit then and you're into the second lap, which put us into a lot of slower swimmers who were starting their first, a little bit off putting and having to sight and negotiate swimmers a lot more, definitely interrupted the rhythm and slowed things down slightly, still, got out of the water in just over 60 mins and felt good, it was cool, but not what I would call cold, all I needed was my "aero" gloves and I was away.
I had brought my bike fit measurements with me so the bike was setup as close to my bike as possible, I felt good on it, and comfortable, and if you've done your prep and taper right, you'll feel at your best at the start of the bike, and I did, the first km's of the bike were technical as you get out of the town and then that's it, miles and miles of closed flat straight road. People will look at routes like this and say, that's an easy route, but I disagree (he would, wouldn't he!!) But my theory is this, on hilly courses, yes you work harder going up the hills, but you also get respite down the other side, no matter how hard you ride it, on a flat course, you don't get that, you're riding for 180km, non stop, its almost like a turbo spin!! And if you have notions about times, you need to be on it all the time. And its hard!! I found the 140-160 km the hardest, I felt like I was flagging and a group I had been riding pace-line (legally) in had dropped me, so I was on my own, fighting the winds and feeling like my day was coming undone, but I turned out of the wind around 160km, got a banana from an aid station, my first bit of actual food for about 6 hours and I came around, started feeling good again and started picking off the remnants of the group that had now gone to bits at this stage. I rode back into T2 after a 4.50 bike, knowing that a 3 hour marathon was needed to hit my goal. Simple.
T2 was a straight forward affair, not sure if they're at every race in the States, but there was bike catchers at this race, made for a quick transition which is exactly what I needed.
Out the trap and straight away I naturally fell on 6.30/mile pace, I had done a dress rehearsal 3 weeks earlier and I comfortably ran this pace for 22 miles so it was the figure I had in my head, but in all Ironman races, I run the first mile blind (from the watch) and normally this tells me where my run legs are. So to look down and see this number was such a buzz, I knew I had a big number in me for this marathon. Its a two loop run, and I was towards the pointy end of proceedings, so it was a lonely first lap, I did pick off a couple of runners but it wasn't until towards the end of the first lap that I could get some benchmarks that I could work off for the second lap to judge my progress. By the end of the first lap I had hit the half marathon in 1.25, I was still feeling really good and was really picking off a lot of runners now as my pace wasn't slowing, into the second lap and the course was much busier, this was a good thing, a bit more distraction, it wasn't until maybe the 20 mile mark that I started to feel it, but I consoled myself that it was only 10km, two laps of my Marlfield lake loop, except this 10km was flat!! Easy Peasy. And I just kept playing those mind games as it hurt more and I wanted to stop as the final km's passed.
But to run down that finish chute, and see the counter read 8.50's... in an Ironman, the relief/joy/self validation that it brought, was hard to describe, of all the races I've ever done. I doubt I will ever be as happy with myself crossing that line!! A 2.51 marathon and a 8.52 Ironman. Second in AG to an Kona AG podium finisher. Not a bad day at all.
Comments
Post a Comment