Year two for me in the Augusta 70.3 race. Once again this was my peak race for the year after Alcatraz, and the fitness work up over the last month went very well.
Overall race conditions this year were much different than 2009. On Saturday before the race the sun was out, temps were in the mid 90’s and it was brutally humid. The forecast called for a front to move through overnight and bring rain all day on race day. The rain did come (mostly on the bike), but the main front did not get into town until later in the day so we ended up with mid-80’s temps along with high 80% humidity + rain showers. A good learning experience for hydrating when you don’t feel the need, more on that later.
The goal for this year was to bring in a time under 5:30, and with a great run maybe 5:15-ish. That would require shaving some Transition time off last year as well as a little quicker bike, but most importantly a much faster run. I felt like I could turn in a 1:55-2h run in this race based on my training.
The swim was almost identical to last year. I did the course in 25:07 and it was a very easy swim. Other than vision problems with my goggles fogging up all was good. I did lose about 20 seconds off of last years swim time, but nothing to worry about. T1 time dropped to 3:55 from last years 5min plus. Considering the fact we had everything covered in plastic and it was raining pretty steadily at that time I was very happy with the times.
Out on the bike I felt very strong this year, and the times improved to show it. Total time was 2:45:38 which came out to a 20.3 mph average for the 56 miles. This part of the race was where the majority of the rain came down. It was a pretty light drizzle for the first half, but between miles 30-50 it was really coming down hard. We had some hairy descents and turns, and a few packs to deal with who were drafting, but it was a pretty clean ride. I did lose my computer close to mile 45 when I hit a big bump in the road, so I was blind as to speed the last 10 miles. Not sure if that hurt or helped but I pulled in a 6 minute improvement over last year’s time. As for nutrition, this is also where I was hurt the most. I did take my GU every 45 minutes like I prefer to, but I ended up only drinking about 1 and 3/4 bottles of water and sports drink on the bike portion. Riding in the rain I felt hydrated and did not notice the humidity. That would come back to bite me on the run.
T2 was 2:34, so I lost about 10 seconds off last year, but I had some unique packing to deal with. With the rain I had bagged my running shoes and changed into dry socks as well, so not too shabby for all the extra work to do.
With all of my offseason running and pace improvements the run is where I was expecting to improve the most. My goal here was a sub-2hour half marathon and my conditioning (I thought) was there. First three miles clicked off some 8:30 miles while feeling like I was taking it easy. Legs and heart felt great and I was feeling a good setup for the run. About mile 5 I felt some quad cramping but was able to maintain a steady pace, however it took two to three aid stations to get enough fluids in me to get rid of the cramps. Pace was good as I passed the finish line and entered the dead zone of the course before you loop the second time. This is where I started to feel some fatigue and ended up taking two 30 second walk breaks. This is where my run was broken. From here on out I probably had a minute of walking every 10 minutes and just could not get a rhythm going. We don’t have the 7 mile split times available yet, but I am very curious to see the actual pace on first half and second half to see how much I lost. Anyhow, this is one mentally draining run because the straits are sooooo long and monotonous and I just struggled to feel good the entire second loop. I was pretty pissed but it happens. My final time on the run came in at 2:11:48 for a 10:04 min/mile pace on the run. Not at all what I was expecting after the past year of run improvements.
I finished 14 minutes and 42 seconds ahead of last years pace and the finishing percentages were a bit better (except the bike). Overall I finished in 1,061st place of 2,536 total finishers, so in the 41st percentile overall. That was a five point percentile drop over last year. Swim rank was 276 overall (15%), Bike was 986 overall (38%), and run was 1450 overall (57%). I did get into the top half of my age group this time finishing 178th of 380 in the M35-39 group (46%).
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