Well, I'm a few weeks late with this report, but the big race of this year's tri season (for me) took place a few weeks ago, on August 8. The Ironman Boulder 70.3. Back in January, it seemed like a really good idea to sign up. :-D The Boulder Reservoir is not my favorite place to race. Oh, the swimming and biking are fine, but the run is always hot. And kind of boring. And hot. No shade. August 8. Do I need to say more? I knew I could do the distance, but it was just a matter of how well I was going to do it...I have to admit that I made contingency plans for Tyler for post-race, just in case I ended up passed out or dead on the run course!
Pre-race activities were pretty uneventful. Right before the transition area closed, I met up with a group
of people from the Beginner Triathlete forums, for a quick round of
introductions and a picture, so that was cool. There was an hour between
transition closing and the start of my wave, so there was a lot of
standing around on the beach. I got to see the pros start (and Andy Potts
come out of the swim with a good 2-3 minute lead, incredible), and that
was the last time I saw them for the day! I did run into one of the BT
guys in the water when I went down to warm-up so I hung out with him and
another guy until they were like "Isn't that your wave getting ready to
go?" and I was like "um, yeah, bye!"
The swim: nothing very exciting. I really wish I understood why I have
gotten so slow. I mean, I've *always* been slow, but it seems like I'm
just exceptionally slow this year. Blah. And they even had the timing
mat right on the beach, so it's not like it even counted the long run to
transition. Sigh.
T1: Less than 5 bikes left on my age group's rack. Good thing there were
3 waves that started behind us or I may very well have been the last
one out of the water...
The bike: This is a pretty good bike course. The hard part is coming
straight out of the reservoir into a 5+ mile climb, then there are a few
ups and downs, then a long downhill section followed by some flats.
It's a 2-loop course, so there were tons of people out there for my
first loop, but actually a lot more than I expected on the second loop. I
was super psyched to be passing guys. I passed one guy on an uphill,
and I don't think he liked it much. I said "on your left" and he looked
over and muttered something in Spanish under his breath. Went flying by
me on the next downhill and took off. Apparently getting chicked was
enough to light a fire under him. 
The weather had started off pretty cloudy, which was awesome, but the clouds cleared out during the second loop. Uh oh. Not a good sign.
T2: Pretty fast,
considering I took a potty stop. My one mistake of the race was here,
took a gel on the way out of transition. One swallow would have been
fine, but the second was not good. Minor digestive issues followed.
The run: Hot. Hot hot hot. Brutally hot. Did I mention that it was hot? I
mean, I knew it was going to be hot, but it just seemed kind of unfair.
There were scattered clouds everywhere, I could look up and see them.
Were they ever over me? NO! There were a lot of people out there for the first loop, which was
great. I had to make a potty stop at the second aid station around mile
2.5 (see foreshadowed digestive issues above). Luckily it was quick. Everybody was pretty much in misery, and it really is true, misery
loves company! I made another stop at the mile 4-ish aid station b/c I
was feeling some chafing in my armpit (prob. b/c I didn't think to Body
Glide my armpits...duh, borrowed sleeveless wetsuit...ouch) and some
blisters on my feet. I vaselined them all. Didn't really help much.
Around mile 4.5, some guy tried to be nice and encouraging about how we
were almost there. Um, thanks, but I still had a whole loop to go. At
some point in the first loop, a twitter/dailymile friend found me and gave me some cheers, which helped a ton. Thanks, Leo! Just before the end of the
first loop, a friend from track who had been roped into doing the run
for a relay passed me on her way into the finish (her: you guys are
nuts, this is miserable!).
I was convinced the second loop was going to be lonely, but it really
wasn't. It did pretty much entirely suck running right by the finish
line. I actually felt a little better on the second loop than I did on
the first. I thought by the way that I felt that I may have even
negative split, but I didn't. Maybe it was just that I was passing lots
of people. Almost everybody on the second loop was walking. I was
determined not to walk except for the aid stations, and I didn't.
Admittedly, I stretched the aid stations way out, but I didn't walk
other than that! I picked up a couple of running buddies with around 5k
to go, which was awesome. Ran and chatted with a guy for about 3/4 mile,
then he couldn't keep up and I ran with a girl for about a mile and a
half until she took off after an aid station. Bummer, because she was in
my age group, too. The last mile was actually my second-fastest after the first mile. Not bad!
Post-race was not too exciting. Except for when I took my shoes and socks off and found this:
Nice, huh?
By FAR, the best blister I've ever gotten. That thing was the size of a
golfball. And honestly felt better before I drained it! Oh well. I had
a smaller one on my other foot, and some serious armpit chafing, too.
So, now that I have a little distance from the race, would I do it again? Yeah, probably. If you had asked me during the run, I would have said NO WAY. And the run sucked. Bad. But the bike course was so much more fun than the Harvest Moon course that it kind of made up for it. I mean, I had an 11 minute PR, and that was with a MUCH slower swim, and a slower run than I did at Harvest Moon last year. Will I sign up for the series again next year? Eh, probably not. The savings for the series are really nice, but I accomplished what I wanted to at the Peak this year (i.e. having a decent race and not falling apart, and breaking 3:30 for an oly) and the Sprint just wasn't anything very exciting. And after doing a much smaller race this past weekend, I really enjoyed it. So, I think I may try to do some smaller races next summer. And maybe the Boulder 70.3 again.
Just have to share this, I think it's pretty funny (and rumor is they will be sending out corrected race medals):
Look closely, anybody see the problem? You'd think Ironman would have their act together a little better. :-D
Results:
Swim: 58:06 (sigh)
T1: 3:34
Bike: 3:07:48 (17.9 mph!!! Awesome for me!)
T2: 2:49
Run: 2:39:14 (12:09 pace, blech)
Overall: 6:51:31
1000/1193 finishers