I made the turn into the wind onto a straight country farm road at mile 30 of the bike leg on Saturday, wiped the rain from my glasses, and hoped that I would see brighter skies ahead and all I saw was a lightening bolt streak down from the blackness and then the rain came down harder. I was already riding through an inch of standing water when a lower section of road had a torrent 4 inces deep racing across it. This was the state of things at Ironman Boise 70.3 for 60 miles of the race. You gotta love the Ironman PR machine...."athletes were treated to light rain for part of the day", obviously none of them were out on the course. In short it was the toughest race I've ever done but a very satisfying result.
I decided to race Boise as a test of my early season long distance fitness. My swim has been great of late and my running has been the best it's been in years. My bike is getting better but since I didn't start really riding seriously until April I was a little unsure of my bike fitness. First I should say that I was really suprised with Boise. It's a nice little friendly town and it's really friendly for bikers with miles of bike lanes and bike paths and it's relatively flat. I stayed right downtown at the cool Hotel 43 which was great as it was just a block from the finish and registration area and I thought it was a good price.
Now to the race. Boise's new claim to fame is an afternoon start time. The first wave started at 2pm which takes a little getting used to but it's sweet not having to get up at the crack of dawn. I had checked my bike in to T1 the night before and rode the bus to the start about 30 minutes out of town at Luck Peak Reservoir. It was an easy trip, I got my bike prepped and then headed down to the swim start staging area. I was in wave 12 (yep wave 12 and 2nd wave of my age group). The pro's went off at 2pm and at the time the water had just a slight ripple on the surface. However by the time my wave (next to last) started the weather had turned and the water was starting to get rough with some wind chip and a few small whitecaps.
Our group was staged in the water and finally we were off. I got off to a quick start and found some feet right away. There were two guys off the front of the group then three of us working together to the first turn buoy. At the turn we were swimming directly into the wind and chop and we were already swimming through the slower swimmers in the waves that started ahead of us which was a challenge. I kept my pace and locked on with one other guy in my wave and we had started to catch one of the guys that went off the front. The end of the swim was rough I was literally swimming over slower swimmers (sorry folks, it is a race after all). Out of the water we had to run about 200 meters up a steep hill to the timing mat. I hit the mat in 33:22. That may not sound great for a 1.2 mile swim but it was 7th fastest in my age group, 50th fastest of all age groupers and 86th overall so I was really happy with that effort. I had a good transition which was a long run in the biking shoes and had a quick flying mount of the bike.
I had driven the bike course the day before and didn't think it would be that tough. I was seriously wrong. It was a tough course with three good climbs, a lot of false flats and a lot of exposed spots that were directly into the wind. All that wind was being created by 4 different thunderstorms that were raging in the Treasure Valley (over the course). I hit the first of the rain at mile 10 of the bike and it varied from moderately hard to freakin' pounding rain from that point to the finish line. At times it sounded like rocks hitting my helmet it was so loud. I witnessed a couple of bike crashes and saw the aftermath of a few more. It was also tough working my way through the slower riders but at least there was always another target on the horizon. Just after mile 40 there is a long downhill where I was hitting 45 mph and literally couldn't see a thing it was raining so hard. I passed my friend Kyle at about mile 46 and he wasn't doing well, complaining of having trouble seeing, later I'd find he called it a day at T2 and went to the ER with hypothermia and he wasn't alone. My hamstrings started to cramp a little, in the final mile but I still managed to finish strong with a running dismount. I ended up riding 2:32:09 (just over 22 mph avg) which was 8th fastest in my age group, 53rd fastest among all age groupers and 87th fastest overall.
T2 was solid but I took a few extra minutes to dry my feet before putting on my socks and shoes (not sure why in the end) and got out and easily into my run pace. The run course is a dead flat and fast two lap course. I was happily running along dodging puddles and at about 1.5 miles in my thigh began to cramp. This is not a new experience and I know I need to take a minute to rub out the cramp and I'll be back into stride. I lost a little over a minute to the cramp but once I was back running I was right back into my cadence which was mid 6:50 mile pace, my plan was to hold this pace through 8 miles then start to push. Things were great, and the only tough part was weaving through the slower runners on the narrow path. I had dropped off to near 7 minute mile pace in mile 6 and 7. At mile 8 I did a little assessment and decided to put the hammer down. The next mile as 6:37, then 6:39, 6:36 and then I fell off a little in the last two miles but they were still sub 7's. I finished up the run in 1:30:48 the 6th fastest in my age group, 36th fastest age grouper run and 66th fastest overall.
Overall I finished up in 7th place in my age group, 35th fastest age grouper and 65th overall in 4:40:52. It was a big personal best time for me and I was very happy to put together a solid race, it was a nice even effort across all three disciplines. I was defintely nearing a hypothermic state as I got back to my hotel as I was shaking badly. 20 minutes in a hot shower got me back to my old self. There were lots of ambulances shuttling people to the hospital with hypothermia and lots of onsite treatment. It was a tough day ou
It was only later that I'd find out how close the race was with Craig Alexander running down Chris Lieto in the final 800 meters before passing him with just 15 meters to go to win by 2 seconds. It's the 2nd time in two weeks Alexander has come from behind to beat Lieto. Alexander was quoted later saying it was the toughest Half Ironman races he's ever raced.
I'm pleased with where I am in training and my fitness and am looking forward to my next race at Vineman 70.3 in mid July and am well positioned heading into IMC at the end of August.
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