Ironman 70.3 Italy – Alex S Begg – Blog
06/12/2011, Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy
I suppose that I should start two days earlier when I was had scheduled myself to drive from Perugia which is basically in the middle of Italy down to Pescara where the race was being held. Now I did do a map quest and it said 3hrs 24min on the Auto Strada (highway) and 4hrs on the scenic route. I had wanted to start out at 7am in order to make the bike course preview at noon which at the time I was intent on doing. Well when you stay at a b&b in Italy the host matron of the house will insist that you stay for a proper breakfast before travelling so needless to say I didn’t get on the road until 9am. Still thinking that I can make it to Pescara I headed off.
So driving in Italy is a blast because you need to drive fast and with offensive maneuvers in mind which in my case is not a problem. The main problem is that all of the roads are either one lane or two lanes in the Italian countryside even the Auto Strada. Even more adventuresome was the road from the B&B to the main road which is one lane – that’s it – when you see another car then both of you hug the side in order to pass – and no one slows down. The reason I tell you this is that it took me 4 hours to get to Pescara with the winding roads, trucks, construction, etc. so that by the time I reached the town I was exhausted. Then it took me another hour to locate the hotel and check in and get to my room. At this point I lay down on the bed and took a hours rest to try and rejuvenate. Did a 40 minute run to loosen up the legs.
So 2 days before the race and I’m finally here and trying to get settled when I found out that the race start and check-in is 10k away in the center of the town. I couldn’t believe because when I made the reservations for the race the website specifically stated that the Blu Serena was to be the host hotel and the swim start. I also found out later on that the staff at the hotel had no idea about the race until the day before I got there – in fact they had to look it up on the internet. At this time I thinking this is going to be quite logistically difficult and time consuming.
So fast forward to the next day after sleeping on an extremely hard bed after listening to night club music till 11pm that night. Anyways I meet some friends for a swim in the Adriatic Sea and my stroke feels pretty good and then I hit the breakfast buffet. A guy from the Philippines named Kurt has actually turned out to be a great guy and we end up helping each other out for the next couple of days. He has invited me to come over to the Philippines 70.3 and bring my family over but I’m not sure as the race gets up to 100 during the run and we all know how heat affects my running.
Well we find out that riding a bike in Pescara during the day in traffic is like risking your life needlessly. So in order to try and use my time to best of the extent I decided to check my bike in early on Saturday morning but I hadn’t set up any of my water bottles, gels, tires, brakepads – just the basics with the Rolf Wheels. Now I did gamble and went with my disc thinking that okay I’ve ridden hills and I can handle this and it won’t be too bad. More on that later.
It takes from 10am to 3pm to get all of our race numbers and stuff because it is so spread out and there aren’t any signs telling you which way to go. Only when we ask a race official where we get our race bags do we finally find out. This is how it goes the whole time during this weekend. It takes 2 to 3 times as long to do anything and I found out that this is the way it goes in Italy – you do it on their timeline and you just go with the flow and the Italian flair.
Then once again I get back to the hotel around 3 totally exhausted and take another nap and get some dinner at the buffet. At this point I’m thinking that this is not the way that I wanted to be ready the day before as I didn’t want to cycle down to the hotel set up my bike and then back to the transition area which would have been 30k of cycling the day before through traffic. The bike had to be racked in the transitions area the day before the race as the Germans were in charge of the transition and bike area logistics and the swim start area. So the night before the race I’m tired and not even ready for the race with my bike. Not a good sign.
I end up staying up until midnight packing my stuff for tomorrow and just piddling around – another sign that things are not going well as I’m usually in bed by 9pm for a race.
Okay – finally I am getting to race day.
Morning: Well I’m pretty sure I woke up around 7am or so which in and of itself is bizarre because that’s when I normally am racing. Our rendezvous time is 9:30am to catch the shuttle down to the race site so I check through my enormous GYST transition bag with everything in it except the kitchen sink. Some of the morning minutia – went for a 15 minute run – ate some breakfast – went for a 15 minute swim in the Adriatic Sea – a bit more breakfast – go down to the lobby and wait a couple of minutes for Kirk and Charlie but no where to be seen so I head out to the shuttle at 9:20 and climb on for the 15 minute ride to the transition area. I am very impressed by the cleanliness of the buses in Italy
Race Transition Area: Holy cow – the atmosphere and energy is just like Kona – except with the Italian Flair – very cool with crowds lining the bike area and Massive amounts of people on the beach!
So – from 10am to 11:30am I am putting on my front aero bottle, rear brake pads, spare tire and CO2s, number, shoes with rubber bands, salt tablets, bento box, chain lubricant, pump up tires, running shoes, gel packs, Bonk Breaker Bar, Accelerade, wetsuit zipper lubricant, wetsuit lubricant, and on and on – all in the hot sun and humidity virtually sweating out all of my hydration from last night and the morning – all the while doing this in a confined space of a couple of square feet because of the other competitors around me – once again 85% of this could have been done in my hotel room yesterday in peace and quiet and tranquility but I completely wasn’t ready due to the location of the hotel.
So – I’m finally ready for the race start and head down to the beach to get warmed up for the swim – well getting there is a whole logistically nightmare in itself because the crowds are massive and the ladies are out in full force sunning themselves right next to the swim start area – you virtually had to walk in a zig zag pattern in a wetsuit in the hot sun from the transition area through the bathing beauties (some with no tops on!) through the spectator crowd to even reach the water – holy smokes – it was so bad that Kirk and I walked through the public fountain water just to get to the sand!
Okay – get into the water to warm up – the water I’m sure rose a couple of degrees from yesterday and if feeling close to 23C (72 or so) which is pretty darn warm for wearing a wetsuit in 85 degree air. I’m totally warm uped within 10 minutes so I lounge around for 10 minutes – watch the pros and the first wave take off and then hit the water again for a final tune-up
Let me set the stage here: There are 3 helicopters flying around – massive crowds lining the shore – literally at least 30 to 40 journalists with cameras taking photos and videos of everyone and everything – this all being on the main beach with the city in the background with a huge speaker system and announcer saying everything in Italian, German, and English! One helluva way to start the race!
Swim: Being a good swimmer and from So Cal I always walk up to the front of the swim start and stand in front of everyone to let the folks in my wave know that you hadn’t better mess with me and it usually works very well – Not Here it don’t – I came out of the water with my usual pre-swim routine and was promptly escorted over to the side of the crowd and told to go all the way around the crowd and the fences and the fountain to the back of my wave as I didn’t line up with everyone 10 minutes prior. OMG I was pushing people out of way including my fellow competitors to get to the front – I climb over a fence barrier and go within 2 guys of the front of the wave – very lucky – remind myself that when I do another Ironman event to pay attention to the call for my wave swim start
So – the gun goes off and we run down the beach and into the very choppy and windy ocean at 12:10 pm last Sunday – And the typical happens – 2 to 3 guys go APE at the start and hammer out the first 200 to 300 yards and then fall quickly back – I pull off the front of the wave (which includes the 20 – 24 and 35 – 39 age groups) and nobody is able to follow – I don’t feel as though I’m swimming very hard but perhaps I was – not sure – anyways I’m able to get a little draft off of the lead kayak paddler and then about ½ way down the out portion I run smack into three pros coming the other way – turns out they drifted into my position going out but I’m bigger than them so I swim right over them - like I said don’t get in my way when I’m swimming
I catch the wave in front of me right about ½ way through the course and turn the corner into the oncoming current and wind and basically a washing machine – the ocean was so turned up from the wind that we had white caps and swells to swim over on the way back which is actually good for me since I’m a power swimmer – things are going well on the swim and I hit the beach 1st in my age group and the wave at around 25 minutes (though I didn’t know the time until 2 days later) and start running the long ¼ mile to the transition area and bike – and I felt so exhausted running - in fact someone later on remarked that from the sidelines they thought I was not feeling good cause I looked dragged out
Transition Area #1 – Not bad – took my time sort of – had trouble getting my arm coolers and helmet strap on (had to do it twice) – everything else went smoothly – ran down the looooong corridor to the start – got into my shoes fairly well – the rubber band trick with the shoes worked very well and off I go.
Bike: so I’m set up on my Guru with 54-42 11x28 gearing with a Rolf Disc in the back and Rolf 85 deep rim on the front which is perfect for the typical rolling So Cal race but is not the correct set up for an Italian designed technical hilly bike course – oh well this is what I had so I had to make the best of it – I’m feeling fairly okay on the first flat section through town – the crowds are great! As we hit the first hill section I’m still okay but I’m just not getting comfortable on the bike plus I can’t shift up to my easiest gear – probably because I didn’t check the shifting on the disc after I took the cluster off of the Easton deep rim wheel – the other thing is that I kept on going back and forth between using the Rolf disc and the deep rim Easton – wrong choice but I had to live with it –
So back to the race – what I basically was feeling was complete and utter frustration on the hills as my legs were completely dead and then difficulty in negotiating the downhill turns – my hydration was totally off as I was sweating the whole time – a lot more than in past races – we go back to the race now. What I’m finding out is that my gearing is off so as I’m going up hill I’m adjusting the Di2 on the fly – going through the first 15k and hills I’m still doing okay but there is no punch left to go up
Okay – so knowing that I’m struggling on the bike I finally gear down and try and spin as much as can and figure that I’ll have something left - the Italian cyclists are passing me on the uphills but it is interesting as I’m catching them on the downhills and semi-flat areas
I hit the 60k (2/3rds the way through) and I’m toast – I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before with my legs aching and my back on fire and getting low on fluids – basically I struggle up the last hill around 70k and mercifully the road back to the transition area is sloping downhill and flat where I make up gobs of time and actually catch 5 to 6 riders that passed me on the uphill
T2: I roll into T2 tired from the bike and seriously dehydrated and pretty much wanting to call it quits. It takes me 2 to 3 minutes to rack the bike, put on my shoes, get my gels, flasks (which have sitting in the hot sun for 3 hours) and other stuff. I head out to the run knowing this is gonna be a looooong run.
Run: heading out I gotta look good for the crowds but deep down (well maybe not so deep) I’m aching and I know there ain’t nothing there. There’s no clouds and it’s hot. The Italians are lining the course in everything from the briefest of bikinis and speedos to their Sunday best – it’s quite a site!
So – since I’ve rambled again I’m just gonna say that laps 1 and 2 were run ¼ mile – walk ¼ mile except by the end of lap 2 I was up to running ½ mile and walking a ¼ mile – I started taking ½ cup of the Gatorade Isotonic drink ? and a sip of coke and 3 cups of water over the head plus 2 to 3 sponges - only 2 aid stations per lap! (laps are around 3.3 miles each)
Laps 3 and especially 4 I’m probably running close to 6:30 – 7 min miles interspersed with several bouts of walking here and there especially in the open sun area along the beach. The other interesting thing is that at each lap you get a color coded arm band (basically a hair thing) so that by the time you reach the finish line you have 4 different colors of arm bands that signifies you as a finisher.
Finish line: Spectacular with crowds and DJs but no race clock and no food replenishment – strange.
I finish in around 5 hours (25 minutes off of my goal) with the following splits
Nationality: Club:
Time: Swim: T1: Bike: T2: Run:
5:06:11.8 0:25:24 02:31 2:39:53 02:48 1:53:24
so – I had the fastest swim and 2nd fastest bike with a 5 minute lead starting the run – if I had run a 1:33 which I’m capable of then I would have won the age group. I suppose though all in all I’m okay with the top 10 finish knowing that I persevered even with all of the difficulties.
Alex
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