Ironman 70.3 Florida in Orlando - May 20th, 2007

On Friday May 18th, John and I took off from Washington, DC in my rusty trusty Toyota Camry on an 850 mile drive down to Orlando to participate in the 2007 Ironman 70.3 Florida consisting of a 1.2 mile swim in Walt Disney World's Fort Wilderness Lake, a 56 mile bike through western Orange County, and a 13.1 mile run along the paths of Fort Wilderness. We made it to Savannah, Georgia on Friday night where we crashed for the night before driving the rest of the way down to Orlando on Saturday morning. We went straight to Fort Wilderness in Disney World to check in my bike and pick up my packet for the race the next morning. It was crazy how many people there were competing in the race and how many expensive bikes there were parked in the transition area. After check-in, we went over and checked into the Coronado Springs Resort where we were staying for the weekend. Then we rushed over to Epcot in time to make it on all the best rides before closing and walk around the World Showcase getting drinks from all the countries before watching the fireworks over Lake Buena Vista when it got dark.

The alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday morning. John drove me from Coronado Springs over to the parking lot near Fort Wilderness where I took a bus to the race start. It was still pitch black out - see the picture. I got my transition area set up, got body marked, and started the mental preparation required for racing 70.3 miles. There was a large group of professional triathletes competing that went off in the earliest swim wave at 6:20 a.m., and I got to see them transition from swim to bike before I had to make my way down to the lake for the pink swim wave. I was pretty nervous before the start but I had certainly put in my time training so I knew that I was going to make it. The water temperature on race morning was 78 degrees making wetsuits not allowed for the swim in the beautiful tea colored lake.

There were at least a hundred of us in the pink swim wave that ran off the beach and splashed our way out into the lake when our start time arrived. I had done a training swim in a lake out in Maryland a couple weekends prior to the race to get comfortable with open water swimming this season. The major challenge with open water swimming compared to swimming in a lap pool where I do all of my training is the lack of a black guide line along the bottom of the pool that you can follow when you swim to keep yourself aimed in the correct direction. Essentially, beyond the fact that I am not a strong swimmer, I am a terrible open water swimmer because I just can't keep myself aimed in the right direction and waste a significant amount of time and energy propelling myself in the wrong direction. It seeemed that every time I looked up after 10 or 20 strokes, I was heading off course and had to re-direct myself essentially zig-zagging my way across the swim course in the lake. I eventually completed the 1.2 mile swim loop and made it back to the beach in 44 minutes 17 seconds (2:13 per 100m pace).

It then took me a little over 6 minutes to run a couple hundred meters to the transition area, get my shoes, helmet, and shirt on, and get on my bike. The weather was so nice when we set out on our ride. The course was very flat but there was a strong headwind during several sections of the ride that never seemed to be at our backs. Per USAT rules, drafting is illegal during triathlons so wind plays a major factor during the bike. Nevertheless, the ride flew by as I covered the 56 miles in 3 hr 2 min 29 sec (averaging 18.4 mph) and got back into the transition area where I slipped on my running shoes and my silk Mickey Mouse boxers and set out on a half marathon run after a T2 of 5 min 34 sec.

The 13.1 mile run a was a 3 loop course over mostly trampled grass and some paved paths and roads. It was quite a hot Florida day by the time I was out running the course that featured little shade or protection from the sun. I felt good out of the bike to run transition and ran a good first lap but it hurt seeing people turn left towards the finish line when I had to turn right for two more loops. The second lap was significantly slower and more brutal, and it hurt much worse seeing people head towards the finish when I had turn right for yet another loop. Thank god for the volunteers handing out Gatorade and ice cold soaking sponges during the run. Somehow I dragged myself around that 4+ mile loop one last time and got to turn left and head towards the finish line. I was so happy to make it to the finish line no matter how long it took me. I wound up covering the 13.1 miles in 2 hr 16 min 54 sec (10:28 per mile pace) and completed the 70.3 mile triathlon in 6:15:29 good for 1207 out of 1997 finishers overall and 90 out of 134 males in the 25-29 age group.

I drank so much fluid after I finished before going back to Coronado Springs to get cleaned up and take a post-race nap. When I woke up, there was hunger and some soreness, and John and I ate an exorbitant amount of food before heading to Disney World to ride some rides and hang out with Mickey Mouse. The night ended with drinks and dancing at the disco club on Pleasure Island (Disney World's center for night time adult entertainment). It was such a great time, and I can't wait to come back to Florida in October for the real deal!