I raced Ironman 70.3 Arizona today, and here is my (overly-detailed) race report. My main motivation was to tune up and test (particularly fueling) for Ironman Arizona in five weeks, but I also wanted to race well and beat my time from 2019. I definitely learned some things that will be useful in the full, and I majorly profited on gels.
Pre-race: I did a recovery week and taper week, so I felt fresh going in. I drove up Saturday afternoon, and aside from 20 minutes lost to accident traffic on the freeway, check in went smooth. I do love how convenient this race is, close to many reasonable hotels and with ample free parking on race day. Ate a big dinner and planned to wake at 4:00 am. Woke to a breakfast of oatmeal, banana, and a small orange. Arrived soon after transition opened at 5:00. Got set up and moved over to the swim start. I do love the national anthem before races!
Swim: This race is a rolling start. Since I’m pretty slow, I had to wait ~40 minutes for my chance. I felt remarkably calm, even more calm than before the local Olympic and sprint races I did this year. Water temperature was about 70 degrees, perfect for a wetsuit. Most of the swim was straight into the sun, so sighting was difficult. But I felt relaxed and wasn’t bother by all the jostling from other swimmers. I was happy to finish in 40:30, compared to 42:53 two years ago. Activity | TrainingPeaks
T1: About a ¼ mile run from the swim exit to transition, which wasn’t too bad. I took the transition pretty slow, including applying sunscreen and chamois cream.
Bike: This course is notorious for its many turns and 180s, but that does keep it interesting. The course does get crowded, but most of it is wide enough that you can pass pretty easily. I don’t have a power meter, so I was pacing by RPE and heart rate. My goal was to settle into a heart rate in the high 120s/low 130s, which took about 20 minutes. (I averaged 131 bpm for the ride.) I’ve typically fueled myself with Gatorade and gels (every 35 minutes), but I’ve gotten advice that most people can’t stomach gels only for a full distance race. So very recently I’ve been adding in some solid food (chewy chocolate chip granola bars) to my training rides, subbing for every 3rd gel. So my plan for this race was to drink Gatorade to thirst every 10 minutes, then have a gel/bar every 35 minutes. I ate the bars at 0:35 and 2:20 into the ride, and I was a bit nervous about how close the second was to the run start. For about 20 minutes after eating it, I definitely felt off, but thankfully it cleared up before the run. Finished in 2:52:13, compared to 2:56:47 two years ago. Activity | TrainingPeaks
T2: Nothing special. Again took it slow with sunscreen and a potty break.
Run: My plan was to walk all the aid stations and run a bit under 9:00/mile between them. Each aid station I’d drink water and Gatorade and pour water on myself plus dump ice down my trisuit. My pace was remarkably even, finishing the first and second five-mile stretch within a second of each other. I did have energy for a nice kick the last mile. Finished in 1:57:31, which was the exact same time as two years ago. Activity | TrainingPeaks
Overall: I finished the race in 5:44:32, verus 5:52:17. Going in, 5:45 was a soft goal, so I’m thrilled to have hit it. Two years ago I was about 30th percentile in the whole field, while this year I was 25th.
Full Ironman lessons: I feel like I have the fundamentals down, but I wanted to practice on-course fueling in Ironman races.
- Bike hydration: Two years ago, I carried enough fluid that I only needed one aid station bottle on the bike, and I stopped to dump that into my Torpedo Versa between-the-arms bottle. I can’t carry near enough for a full distance bike, so I needed to practice grabbing and refilling on the move. Grabbing wasn’t a problem, but it turned out that refilling was. The Torpedo has a filling port that is designed to let you shove the nozzle of a standard bottle into it. But I had a lot of trouble with the wide twist tops on the Gatorade bottles, which always seemed to shut when I tried to refill. Eventually I just removed the tops entirely and dumped them in, which caused major spillage. I think I’ll be better off with the Torpedo port cover that you just remove completely. I saved two empty Gatorade bottles from the race to practice with on my remaining long rides.
- Run gels: I train with Clif gels, since I like the tab that makes me less likely to litter. But this year’s Ironman on-course gels are Maurten. It would be nice not to carry all my own gels on the full marathon, but I haven’t trained with Maurten because they’re ridiculously expensive ($3.50 a piece, versus $1 for Clif). So I thought I would use this race to stock up for testing. I ended up consuming two of my own Clif gels on the run, but I picked up a few Maurten gels at the aid stations. In fact, I finished the race carrying 12 Maurten gels (MSRP $43.20), so I’m set to test them over the next five weeks.
All in all, I’m very happy with today’s experience. And I’m excited to finish my last round of training and tackle the full in five weeks!
