Las Vegas - Ironman 70.3 World Championship

If there's one thing that I take away from this experience, it's that triathletes are dorks.. It's the guys that are pushing out a 25 minute tempo run a day or two prior to the race, in their full race ready tri-suit, wearing their timing chip and bib/# as if they are actually in the middle of a race. No.. just, no. You would be surprised at the amount of people I witnessed (mostly European dudes, thankfully) doing all three sports in this fashion. If I ever see you doing this, we're no longer friends. It's completely inexcusable.

Chances are if you're reading this, you probably already know how my race went.. Pretty lackluster and drab. However, having probably the unluckiest/injury prone year of my short endurance sports career thus far, I feel a small sense of satisfaction. Right from the start of my season, it was one after another... IT band syndrome, bad burritos, pointless penalty, IT band/hip flexor, sickness/lung congestion, seat post sinkage, sting ray encounter.

(SIDE NOTE: I don't think I ever blogged about my sting ray encounter. It was pretty fun. 5 Minutes prior to the Solana Beach Triathlon, I stepped on a sting ray while warming up in Fletcher cove. It stung me under the front of my foot. I was pretty pissed and decided to race anyways (after the lifeguards basically told me "it's just going to hurt, a lot"). And to their prediction, it hurt.. a lot. So I made it a mile into the run and couldn't take the pounding anymore and bailed.)

Sting rays aside, I had a pretty solid month and a half of training to get myself ready for the 70.3WC. A lot of riding out east county in the middle of the day to get used to the heat. I actually concentrated much more on running than cycling, and barely touched swimming (which was my biggest mistake). To be honest, I didn't feel to nervous about this race. I really had nothing to prove, I've been hurt all year.

Race Day


Swim
I'm not even going to talk about it.

Bike
After hearing my uncharacteristically bad swim time, I got on my bike pretty upset. Lets just say I "burnt a lot of matches" in the first 30 minutes of the bike course. I set out on an Olympic distance pace and was rolling over people. Once I settled down and found a sustainable pace, I started feeling good. I loved that bike course. It's no doubt my favorite course so far. There is a constant uphill or downhill and it kept me engaged in the course. When we hit the turnaround around mile 25 I felt great and was feeling better the longer I rode. I know I was owning the hills because I'd be 15+ seconds a head of the guys I was pacing with then they'd catch back up to me as the course flattened out. I had a really good pace and was out in front leading the way for a few guys until around mile 40-45 when we hit these stupid false flats that take you back into Henderson. There was a slight headwind and for some reason, my legs didn't want to cooperate one bit. I couldn't keep the pace that I had been pushing and started fading. When we entered the city of Henderson, the course just gets flat and boring. My legs had blown up pretty bad and I went into survival mode. I just wanted to get off my bike and sit down. I'd have rather been riding uphill than trying to push roasted legs thru the flats. I entered T2 with a 2:29:03 bike split. Bummed, cause I was probably on pace to hit 2:26ish before I blew up. Somewhat satisfied considering this course is not the easiest of courses, but it suits my riding style fairly well and I want to really bag it next year.

Berg and I heading out on the run course

Run
I took my time in the T2 tent. I chilled and ate some shot blocks for a minute. I saw my buddy Chris Berg enter the tent while I was cold chillin and waited a second for him before I set out on the run course. I know Chris is a good half distance runner, so I figured it would be smart to pace with him. We ran out together for the 1st half mile, but my itchy legs wanted to bolt. Chris played it much smarter and ran steady, for the 1st lap and took it almost as a warm up. The run course is essentially a 3 lap course: 2 miles up hill and 2 miles down hill. As I started running up hill I noticed something funny going on in my left shoe. Oh, wait.. two of my toes were poking out the left side. It had ripped somehow and my insole started to come out. Cool. I stopped to try and fix my insole but it was clear it wasn't going to cooperate. Towards the end of the descent around mile 3, Chris flew past me. I was surprised at how fast he was moving. I tried to copy his pace but he had a nice gap on me. At this point, it was a good struggle to run with that damn insole all scrunched up at the end of my shoe and my toes poking out. I stopped next to my good friend Kosuke (who was dressed up as a beer bottle, mind you), and we assessed my shoe. After a little discussion, decided it was best to just rip out the insole and grin and bear it. I took off again and felt better, but weird running with a half retarded shoe. Pace wise, I felt good. Probably ran the 1st 8 or 9 miles around a 6:30-6:45 pace. Then in standard Keith Butsko style, started to fade hard on the last 5k. The heat wasn't necessarily getting to me (even though it was 94ish and sunny), I was just tired.

If you look closely at my left shoe, the insole and a toe are coming out of the left side. .

I finished with a 1:33 half marathon and 4:38 on the day. Not too happy with that.. Just wanted to make sure I have a lot of room for improvement next year;-) There was a much better field of athletes this year.  This course is a true World Championship course and I'm glad I had the opportunity to race it in it's inaugural year.
I'm having fun again and really in love with each sport.

Right now, I feel it would be a waste to just pull the plug on my year. Since I've been hurt for 3/4ths of my season so far, I'm gonna keep training hard and bang out some Olympic distance races this month and next. I've got the LA Triathlon this month, still debating if I want to go back and race the 5150 Las Vegas next month, then Charlie Karstrom and I are going to kill the Galveston 5150 towards the end of October.

Thank you to everyone for all your support! It means a lot. A special thanks to my family and friends for taking time out of their lives to come watch me race; and to B+L Bikes for continuing to support me. Time to Speed it up!