The Ironman, known for its KONA Long Distance Triathlon race launched a new event, called 70.3 Ironman. The name comes from the three distances of the different sports combined (1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1mi run) and equals a Half Ironman distance.There are 16 qualification races, of which I have signed up for three races to get a shot at qualifying (Oceanside, Honuhalf and Vineman). On March 16 I participated with a large group of Kain Performance in the first US based qualification, OCEANSIDE.
This was the first big race of the 2006 season for me, and was aimed at testing where I stood after the winter, also I wanted to try to test if my changed running style and training had brought me benefits... ;-) Namely I had lifted my run more towards my toes, and had practiced for several weeks leading up to the race doing tempo runs with (S)Pete Kain.
Results:Swim (1.2mi) ---- 0:33:23 (PR pace - 1:41/100m)
t1 --------------- 0:03:53
Bike (56mi) ----- 2:39:37 (pace - 21.1mph = 34kmh)
t2 --------------- 0:02:07
Run (13.1mi) ---- 1:31:47 (PR pace - 7:01/mi = 4:22/km)
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Total ------------ 4:50:44
Overall ---------- 118 (out of 2032)
Age group ------- 25th (out of 367)
(Earned me a qualification slot for the 70.3 World Championship in Florida)
The swim was challenging, I had put in multiple 12,000 yard weeks leading up to this race and the 6 secs improvement was somewhat dissappointing, but that is what you get when you swim outside the course and pass the same people a couple of times ;-).The bike was the best bike ever going straight over Camp Pendleton, amazing to have Marine's yell at you; "we eat guys like you for breakfast, now put it DOWN", giving you target practice with the bottle exchange. AWESOME VOLUNTEERS!!!!! Coming back we headed 10mi straight into the wind, something I kinda love, going aero and putting the hammer down.
Although the weather was forecasted to be rainy it turned out to be a great day and when we hit the run the sun was out. The run was flat along the coast line, would have been easy if it wasn't for that sandy section we had to go over four times. I latched onto a faster runner and decided to see how long I could keep the pace around 6:50's. Well it lasted, 3 miles, 6 miles, 9 miles and finally at mile 10 I had to let go. But a new triathlon Pr was posted improving with well over 4 minutes!!!! Training does pay off!.
Oh almost forgot due to the run I did qualify for the World Championship held in Clearwater Florida in November 2006! CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO CLIP.
