Ironman 70.3 Galveston 2017

It had been a few years since I had done a 70.3 distance race and I was feeling the itch to do one in 2017 but I wasn't 100 percent sure which one.  But as fortune would have it one of my buddies was drinking, signed up for Galveston 70.3 and then sent me and another friend a screenshot of his registration...not long after I was signed up as well.  As a side note, this is how I got signed up for my first 70.3 as well.

So the race was held on April 2nd in Galveston, TX.  The run and bike course are both very flat with almost no elevation change.  The weather forecast for 10 days leading up to the race showed storms, strong winds and 100% chance of rain.  Even up to the day before the race we were told to prepare to be wet and try and keep your running shoes and socks in plastic bags to stay dry.  I had put a lot of time in training for the swim and a little less time on my bike and run, but I felt confident that I would finish but I had no dreams of setting a PR.   I felt that if I got onto the bike before the rain hit then that would be a bonus.  I had zero expectations of a dry run.  But as luck would have it the weather held out all day and it actually got a little hot on the run.

I was in the second wave after the pro men and pro women.  The water was 74 degrees and I was wearing a sleeveless wetsuit for the race. The swim was an ocean swim in a protected bay.  The wind was strong enough to whip up a little action on the surface but nothing too bad. When the horn went off I started slow and methodical focusing on my breathing and taking long strokes.  My inability to swim in a straight line was evident again and I found myself far off the buoy line multiple times. Despite that I found myself coming into the last buoy thinking "that didn't take too long"  finishing the swim strong with a personal best time of 41:25.

After a brief transition I was out on my bike to battle the cross-winds that were blowing at 20mph. The bike course was an out and back along the beachfront highway heading west.  I felt like I was getting a little bit of a tailwind and I had to restrain myself from blasting too hard on the first leg of the bike, I wanted to leave enough in my legs to battle what I thought was going to be a bad headwind when I turned around at mile 28.  To my surprise the headwind really wasn't there and it was just a strong crosswind and I was able to complete the 56 mile  bike course 2:52 averaging 19.46mph and my second half was only about 2 1/2 minutes slower than my first half.  I got off the bike knowing that if I had a really good run then I could match or possibly beat my previous best time from Ironman 70.3 Muncie 2011.

I had a reasonably quick transition and was out on the run for 3 loops on the run course.  If you know me, I hate running loops, I passed by the finish line 3 times before I could cross it! I would much rather run out 6.55 miles and then turn around and come back but this did make it nice for my family and friends to see my and cheer me on.  I started out quick running the first 3 miles under 7:45 min/mile pace.  After the first loop I started to slow down a little and fell into a 8:30-9:00 minute pace.  The temperature was starting to rise and I was drinking a lot of water and using cold sponges to keep my temp in check.  With about 3 miles to go I knew that I would beat my personal best, it was just a question of by how much.   My previous PR was 5:39, I dug deep, foughlst off some slight cramping, and came through in 5:28 minutes!  A full 11 minutes faster than any of my previous races.  My half marathon run split was 1 hour 48 minutes.

The finish was a little bitter sweet, one of my friends who came to race with me got kicked in the head during the swim, swallowed a lot of sea water and had to be taken off the course.  I was really bummed for him but he was okay and is already setting his sights for another race in August.  My other buddy finished the race strong and did great and signed up for the New Orleans 70.3 in October.

I would highly recommend this race to anyone who wants an early season race or someone who has kids because it is easy to turn it into a little beach vacation.  I want to thank my friends Matt and Tony who came down to race with me and who got me to sign up for this.  I want to thank Barb and David for giving me some swim pointers this winter.   Most of all I want to thank my wife Diane for the time and support and my kids for cheering me on!