I was determined this year to qualify for and race at the
Ironman 70.3 World Championships “70.3 Worlds” in Mooloolaba, Australia. I
managed to get a slot at my first 70.3 of the season which was in April in Oceanside,
California. I planned my race schedule around the chance of qualifying, with
70.3 Worlds coming four weeks after Ironman Boulder and nine weeks before
Ironman Florida.
PREPARATION
Never having had a race so soon after an Ironman, I wasn’t
sure what to expect from my body. My coach gave me two days completely off and
then started me back into training. I had three “easy” days and then took
another day off. The second week I was back at it with a 15-hour training week,
then an 11 -hour training week, then a travel and taper week. The first two
weeks after Boulder I was just plain tired. I took a nap everyday mainly because I just couldn’t keep my eyes open.
The travel to Australia didn’t take that much out of me and
the change in time zone worked in my favor as it was easy to go to bed early
and get up early. The Ironman 70.3 World Championships are a little bit like a
mini-Kona. There were activities everyday starting on Wednesday. I still had
some workouts to do, so I paced myself and only took part in the 1000-meter
swim race and the Parade of Nations. We also took an afternoon and drove about
45 minutes up the coast to Noosa for a short hike and Koala sighting. Driving
on the left was a little bit harrowing the first day. My friend Nicky (also
racing) drove me to scout out the most confusing and challenging part of the
bike course. By race day, I felt rested and had no problem getting up at 4 AM
to eat, walk to the transition area, get my tires pumped up, bottles and food on my bike and out of
transition by 6 AM.
The goal for this race was to enjoy the atmosphere at
Worlds, experience Australia and have fun!
OCEAN SWIM
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| Entering the water with women over 55, to swim to the start. |
The water had been rough for the two days before the race,
but was perfect on race day. The swim start was in waves by age groups about
five minutes apart with the women 55+ starting at 6:55 in the middle of waves
of the men. The first wave (male professionals) went at 5:15 am and the final
wave at 8:20 am. We corralled up, one wave at a time and were let into the
water with enough time to swim out to the deep water starting line. The race
course was a long rectangle with a swim into shore at the end. My plan was to
swim hard the entire time. I focused on swimming fast for the first leg, fast
arm turnover after the first turn and strong pulling with hard kicking after
the second turn.
 |
| Happy to be here and doing this! |
I don’t know how many women were in my wave but we spread
out nicely once the swim got going. I was only overtaken by a few men from the
next wave just before I was finished. Overall it was a very civilized and fast
swim for me, swimming the 1.2 miles in 35 minutes and 30 seconds. I was in 17th
place when I exited the water. Especially with a good swim, 17th
place is not as high up as I am used to, but this was a field of the best in
the world from over 80 countries.
TRANSITION #1
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| Off to a good start, with a quick swim! |
I wish I had an aerial photo of the transition area. It was
extremely long and narrow, at least 3 city blocks long. I jogged through the
sand to the start of the transition area, grabbed my bike transition bag, ran
to the chairs, got my wetsuit off, socks, helmet, and sunglasses on, grabbed my
bike shoes and ran to my bike, which was way at the other end of the bike
transition. Getting through the bike transition and onto my bike took me over
eight minutes which is not very quick.
BIKE
The 56-mile bike course was totally closed to traffic, which
was great! After exiting transition there were a few rollers until we turned
onto a highway. The highway section was pretty flat. I was by myself most of
the time on the highway, except when I would get passed by packs of men who
were drafting. This is against the rules, but at least I wasn’t seeing any
women in the packs. I was told by someone after the race that he saw a lot of
drafting by groups of women who must have started later than I did. It is a
shame that people feel the need to cheat. Several times I saw the referees
drive up to packs of men who had just passed me, but they couldn’t tell who was
passing who or how long they had been together. I didn’t see any penalties
given, but I did see several men in the penalty tents when I rode by them.
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| Out on the highway. |
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| Getting into the hills. |
After we did an out-and-back on the highway we headed into
the hilly part of the course. I’m really glad I took the time to check-out this
portion of the bike course ahead of time. There were two loops, really a loop
within a loop and around 45 experienced racers somehow missed a loop and were
disqualified. It would be pretty heart-breaking to get to the end of the bike
course and see on your bike computer that you hadn’t ridden 56 miles. They also
threw in a hill here at about 37 miles that had three stair steps. The first
two steps were 11 and 12 percent grades and the last one was 18 to 20%. I
really could have done without that portion. The race started to bunch up there
and it was a little crazy. Relieved to have the loops and the hills behind me,
it was eight to ten miles to the finish with a few rollers and a head wind.
My bike time of 3:05, was a decent time for me, but not
stellar. I had moved into 29th
place.
TRANSITION 2
I got my feet out of my bike shoes before dismounting and
ran what was just about the entire length of the transition area with my helmet
on until I racked my bike. Then we had to grab our bags and go down a
significant set of stairs (set up just for the race) to an area where I sat in
a chair to put my run shoes on, stuff my helmet in the transition bag, putting
on my race belt and visor as I left the transition area. I was more efficient
with this transition, taking just under six minutes.
RUN
Oh the run...We headed right uphill on the run, not super
steep but fairly long. My right piriformis and top of hamstring were super
tight and not wanting to run. The downhill side wasn’t as long as the uphill
and it felt great for as long as it lasted, then onto the flats. I liked the
run course which was also closed to traffic and had a view of the ocean for
most of the course. It was two loops, so we went up and over the hill four
times. I got passed by my friend in my age group, Rose, before I hit the first
turnaround. I was expecting her to pass me on the run, just like she did in
Kona, but was hoping it would be a little later. I also saw two of the other
GGTC members who were racing as they passed me on the run. I didn’t’ have a
terrible run but not a great one either. For perspective, this was my 20th
half ironman race and it was my fifth fastest run, but 12 minutes off my
personal best. With a time of two hours and 32 minutes, in this world class
field, I dropped into 45th place. 
In the end, I’m happy to have had the opportunity to race at the
World Championships, happy to visit Australia and I had a fun day. Mission
accomplished!
