Arizona 70.3 recap

 After COVID shutdown racing in the March of 2020, I was still holding onto some hope that the racing will return by the end of year. It sort of did, but I ended up not racing any physical races for the rest of the year. I signed up for a marathon in Arkansas in mid Spring and got into a good running shape, but unfortunately ended up getting injured with 3 weeks to go. Had to cancel the plans to travel to Arkansas, and started getting back into the pool and into the saddle. Eventually, races returned and I did my first Olympic race in Lake Perris in April. It was a pretty pathetic showing since my swim skills definitely needed re-sharpening, and the bike power was largely gone. After that, I started a more focused training program with the goal to race the Malibu Olympic Tri and eventually Arizona 70.3 that I had rolled over into after Santa Rosa 70.3 got cancelled twice.

I rebuilt my trusty NP3 with some new components, got a shorter set of cranks, and started getting more time in the saddle over the summer. I definitely got into a decent shape and even came in 6th in my age group in Malibu, and I felt that I largely could have placed better had I had some slightly better luck on the bike course. The training was going well, especially in the pool where I was swimming the best splits of my life. With 3 weeks to go to Arizona, I focused on recovery and a few longer rides/runs. I also committed a cardinal sin - I decided to switch to the new source of nutrition for the bike using Maurten after it tested great during the last long ride and run. I also installed a new Profile Design Aeria HSF bottle, which required a new stem which required a slight change to position and some recabling... so basically the rule about nothing new on the race day was largely violated. But I thought that this would be my opportunity to go sub 5 for the first time, albeit on an easier course.

Wife and I drove to Phoenix on 10/15, got there by 4pm and I went to get my registration packet picked up. It was pretty warm even for the afternoon. The Ironman village was pretty empty, and I got through the pickup process in no time. Afterwards I stopped by the 5 o'clock athlete briefing and did not get anything super informative out of it outside of the fact that the swim was going to be going in the opposite direction of the last time I swam IMAZ. OK, so pretty much all into the sun. Armed with this bit of knowledge I headed back. We had pizza and beers for dinner, watched some Netflix and I headed to bed early-ish.

The next morning morning I tagged my gear with the provided stickers. Lucky number 84! Here it is, all good to go, even the wife's flip flops:

Wife headed for a drive to Tuscon to check out the local attractions (Biosphere, etc) and I headed to the Rio Salado park at 11 to drop off my bike. The fancy AWA transition section was a tad empty, and I left the bike there after deflating the tires to prevent them from blowing up in the hot sun. 

It was pretty damn warm again, and so instead of the planned run back to the rental (about 1.5 miles away) I simply walked. The forecast for the race day was predicting temperatures about 3 degrees cooler, and with some overcast periods, and I was really hoping it would come true. The good news was that the water in the lake was relatively cool, and the swim would not be a bathtub like. I settled on the decision to go with the sleeveless wetsuit, and with that thought I focused on resting and relaxing for the remainder of the day. Can't recall what I had for dinner, and ended up heading to bed at 9pm hoping to fall asleep quickly. Ended up tossing and turning and eventually falling asleep by 11pm.

Got up at 3:45am, had a breakfast of 2 Eggo blueberry waffles with peanut butter and 2 bananas, had 2 cups of coffee and my awesome wife drove me to the race site. Got there and started with getting the tires pumped. Unfortunately the first pump I was able to borrow had a funky presta end and I could not get it to grip the valve even after several tries. Lined up to use one of the free pumps and somehow ended up using one with a weird gauge. Tried another pump and it seemed to be ok. I pumped both tires to 80 psi and started setting up nutrition and the rest of the transition items. 

Lined up to potty at around 5:55am and after hitting it, headed out to the swim start. The line was already formed but it was easy to slip into my self seeded corral of 35-39min. The lake looked pretty clean that morning - the only gross thing that I could see was the dead duck about 25 yards from the swim platform. Life can be hard in Arizona, and I am sure that the creatures lurking in the depths of the Tempe town lake can appreciate a protein snack in the morning. With that, the race got going and at around 6:39am I headed into the water and my day has really started.

The swim

It was pretty uneventful. I felt great, swam fairly easy, sighting was good, and the water temperature felt perfect. Since I breathe to the right most of the time in races, it was a little bit harder to keep it in the straight line, but there were plenty of feet near me to keep me directionally correct. I think that this might have been the first time since Oceanside 2018 that I can actually enjoyed a 70.3 swim. Came out of the water with the time of 37:57, 29th in the age group. 

The run to T1 was a little long and slippery but I was able to get the wetsuit off, although I had to stop for a 10 seconds to zip up the Roka one piece - as the zipper popped open in the water.

The bike

The course is shall we say an urban adventure? 3 loops, each loop is roughly circling the Tempe Lake, 5 u-turns per loop, you get to climb the Curry hill 2x per loop. It looks like a weird multilegged blob from outer space.

The ride started well, I was maintaining steady power and despite being slowed down by the ridiculous u-turns the first lap flew by quickly. I was getting pretty warm however, and grabbed a water bottle at the first aid station to dump on my head and the upper body. What I was getting concerned with is that every time I'd apply some power out of the turn, I'd get some squeaking coming from the bike - and it seemed like it was coming from the front wheel. I really did not want to get off the bike and since on the flats it seemed to be fine I pushed on. 

On the second loop the sound became more pronounced and going up Curry it got LOUD. It really started to appear like a spoke was busted but I talked myself out of stopping to check it out. It was getting hotter and hotter and I had to get water from both aid stations on that loop. Also with everyone out of the water, it got very busy on the course. There were also lots of beginner athletes with unsteady bike handling skills, so I had to dodge them periodically, as well as the cracks and potholes (Rio Salado was especially bad). 

The 3rd loop was even more crowded, the sound coming from the bike was just as loud, some u-turns were very tricky to negotiate with 4-5 cyclists trying to make them at the same time. I started  soft pedaling coming out of turns and up Curry Hill being torn about stopping to check this out and knowing that I am maybe 4-5 miles away from finishing. 

So I sort of limped to the end of the lap, got my feet out of the shoes before the dismount line and ran into the T2. Bike time was 02:45:49. The second transition was quick - I reapplied the sunscreen, changed into Vapoflys and socks, grabbed my hat, sunglasses and my belt and headed for the run start.

The run

The course was 2 loops, largely running east-west along the lake. I popped a Maurten gel right away and washed it down with water and picked up the pace a bit. After the first couple of miles, I really started to feel the heat as the sun was more less directly on top of me all the time. At that point it dawned on me that a sub 5 time was out of reach unless it cools down about 5 degrees. I decided to run tempo for a while, hydrate as much as possible, chug some Cola and see how I feel after the 4-5 miles. I still felt like crap after crossing the bridge on Rural road, but after making my way to Priest Dr and getting on the bridge back to the south side of the lake, I suddenly found my wings. 

I picked the pace and the 2nd loop flew by quickly. I was passing people all the time and honestly everyone looked cooked and completely beaten up by the heat. I pushed the pace from mile 12 onwards, and finished strong. The run time was 01:32:51 - fastest in the age group. Overall, this put me into the 10th spot in the age group. A good viz of the results here.

And done done - with 2 water bottles and a smile!

After the race

My wife met me at the exit from the finish line. I was pretty conked and wanted to head out as soon as possible. Unfortunately the transition was not fully open yet and it took me about 30 mins to get through the line to get a volunteer to accompany me in. I packed my stuff quickly and headed out. That's when I discovered that my rear tire was inflated to the point that it would not spin at all. The overinflation  before the race must have been extreme - it was likely that I accidentally pumped it to 100 psi or more, and then, as the day heated up, the latex tube expanded and added another few psi. C'est la vie, bring your own pump next time dummy! 

We headed to the parking lot, dumped my gear in the back of the car and then walked to Mill Ave for some sustenance and beverages. Ended up at Illegal Pete's since it had a nice patio and was not busy, and who can say no to Mexican food and fruity beers after a hot race?

All in all, I think that the race went well. I did not like the bike course - it is boring, crowded and the u-turns are not my thing. I love racing in Tempe though and will be back there in January for the Rock'n'Roll marathon. The Maurten experiment was largely a success - it is a solid (yet highly liquid) choice for the bike, though I need to figure out why it was making me pee up a storm. Could have been a combination of caffeine and maybe something else. I will test it more. And now, onto building for the next marathon!