Ironman Pocono 70.3 Race Report

Ironman Pocono 70.3 was a pretty late addition to my race calendar in 2012.  After a strong finish at IM Louisville, I wasn’t ready to call it a season and really wanted to do one more race.  After considering some downtime for recovery, there were not many options, and a road trip to the Poconos seemed like a good idea.  I’ve already posted on my IM recovery and fitness was going into this race, so I’m not going to go into detail again, but here is the overview.  Overall, my swim and bike were very close to pre-IM levels, but my run was still a little off.  Given the how my runs were going, I know I was not hitting the same top-end pace I was easily doing before Louisville.  I’m sure my body still needed more recovery to run faster, but after 6 weeks with no speedwork, I felt I needed to run my intervals fast to get my speed back.  It was definitely a double-edged sword and a fine-line to balance.  Regardless, I held out hope my run would come around, but there was a good chance I would not be setting a personal best.  But it didn’t really matter to me.  Racing is fun.  Period.  Also, since this was my first season racing in the Pro Field, I wanted more experience so it is crystal clear where I stand and how I need to prepare for next year.  So off I went to the Poconos!

First, this report will be a little different from my previous reports.  I will touch on how my day went, but I will focus more on the race itself since this race is only in it’s second year and I think there is a lot people need to know if they are considering this in the future.  With that said here we go….

Stroudsburg, Pa:

This was my first time in Stroudsburg, Pa.  When I lived in New Jersey, my wife and I drove through the area many times, but never stopped here.  When I arrived, the hills and trees did not surprise me; I expected a really scenic area.  However, the roads, in general, are pretty poor (to put it politely).  The main roads are nice, but forget about the others.  And since my standards are based on Michigan roads, that really doesn’t say much about their road quality.  This is definitely something to consider on the bike course.

Race Logistics:

The logistics of this race are unlike anything I have seen before.  The swim start and T1 are about 15 miles out of town.  The Race Registration was about 10 miles out of town.  T2 was in town at the High School.  The finish line was about 1 mile down Main Street in the center of Stroudsburg.  Race day parking was only at the Junior High School, about 3.5 miles from T2 on the edge of town.  On top of that you needed to drop off bike at T1 and running gear at T2 on Saturday.  In dropping off my gear, I underestimated how long it would take to drive and park at each location, be sure to allow plenty of time for this, it ended up taking a couple of hours!  On race day, there were shuttles provided between all the points, and except for a 10-minute delay at the start, they worked well.  I have to give credit to the race organization for coordinating all of this, because they worked magic keeping everything on time and where it was supposed to be.

Pre-Race:

Given the extra time we needed to allow to drive to the Jr. High and park, plus the shuttle time to the start, I had to wake-up about 1 hour earlier than normal.  My alarm went off at 3:10, which is crazy early for a race, but I couldn’t find any other way to sleep later.  Driving to the Jr. High and the shuttle took about 1 hour in total. Also only athletes are allowed on the shuttles, so keep this in mind if you do this race.  This means that if you have spectators, they cannot see the start and will likely only see you at T2 and the finish line.  Not really spectator friendly.

Swim:

The swim was in a small lake, typical of any small inland lake.  However, this particular location was interesting for 2 reasons.  First, T1 and the swim were at an abandoned lakeside resort.  The buildings were gone, and all that was left was the cracked asphalt, overgrown grass areas, some dead trees and crumbling concrete walls.  Couple that with the overcast weather on Saturday and Sunday, and it just had a weird vibe to it.  Kind of like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  The other factor is that it’s on the top of the mountain, so the first 4 miles of the bike are downhill and would be fast.  Really Fast.

Back to my race….The water temperature was about 64 F, which was perfect wetsuit swimming.  Not cold, but cool enough where we had little risk of overheating.  After racing in Muncie and Louisville, where the water was high 80s, this was a nice change.  My goal for the swim was to hang with the pack as long as I could, and finish in under 28 minutes.  The swim was pretty typical, but I was able to hang with the pack for about first 500-600m (although it was the back of the women’s field, as the men’s field pulled away), and finished in 27:49 (1:26/100m).  This was a good swim for me, but this put me in 19^th place out of 19 starters.  As expected, I had my work cut out for me on the bike and run!

T1:

Given the air temperature of 48F, I thought long and hard on how to stay warm for the first hour, while keeping my T1 time at a minimum.  For my legs, I started the race with SLS3 calf sleeves since they would keep my legs warm on the bike and then I would have them on for the hilly run, and since I had them under my wetsuit, not time lost in T1.  For my upper body, I ended up going with a plastic bag stuffed down my tri top, which worked absolutely awesome to keep me warm on the downhill, and I added arm warmers.   To no surprise, trying to put on arm warmers over wet arms was a next to impossible to do quickly, but after a wrestling them up my arms, I threw on my helmet and glasses and was out.  Finally I was on the bike and my T1 time was 3:08.  Not bad considering the extra clothing I added.

Bike:

Once you leave the Transition area and turn onto the main road, you immediately start downhill.  The course drops about 900’ in the first 4 miles, which is an average grade of 4.2%, but towards the bottom there were 2 sections of 9% descent.  Add in the constant curves, I knew this would be a fun part of the course.  Luckily this was one of the few sections of perfect roads: smooth and closed to traffic, so we really didn’t have anything to worry about, and my BMC TM01 just carved down the curves, fast and stable.  I was able to just let it rip!  Towards the bottom, I topped out at over 49 mph, which was the fastest I have ever been on a bike!

After that the course turns onto Route 209 for 9-mile out and back section.  Again, the roads were good here and the course was primarily flat with a few rollers and short climbs.  At this point I started to catch those in front of me.  About 1.5 miles before the turnaround I was able to see Jesse Thomas in the lead heading back the other way.  Based on this, I knew I was about 9 minutes behind, and although I was catching up to those just in front of me, I was pretty far behind the main pack.  Since we don’t pass each other again for the rest of the course, I knew I needed to stay focused, ride to my power plan and then see where I was out on the run course.  The remainder of the ride was typical of my other Pro races this year.  I steadily made progress through the back of the field, passing first the Pro Women and then a couple of Men every few miles until the end.

Around mile 25, the course turns off 209, and this is where we say goodbye to the smooth roads.  The rest of the course was in pretty rough shape.  Had the road condition been better the course would have been really fun.  As it was, it is a fun course, but with all the cracks, potholes and a few unmarked hazards, the added risk took away some of the enjoyment.  While it is always a good idea to drive the course prior to the race, here it is absolutely essential.  Too many short, steep climbs, descents, fast turns and poor road conditions made prior knowledge not just helpful for a fast time, but critical for your own safety.  The areas that really stick out in my mind are on the Community Drive, River Road, Broad Street, Cherry Valley Road….pretty much the entire course after Route 209.  There was a section on Cherry Valley Road where the road collapsed and slid a bit down the side of the hill.  The Race patched this short section (about 100’) in with gravel ramps during the race, something they pointed out in the pre-race briefing, but still surprising when you see it. 

The worst part was around mile 48-50, where after a gradual downhill, the road crosses another road with a significant crown.  Without any warning, and probably going over 30 mph, I saw the hump but it was too late.  I held on to my extensions and tried to absorb the impact.  I am sure I caught air as I flew over the top and after regaining control of my bike on the other side I was able to ride away.  Luckily for me, there was no one else around, but if I had been around a bunch of other riders, then I’m sure I would have taken someone out.  I would hope next time this is marked with a sign or orange paint.

By the end of the bike, I was still holding my power steady and feeling good.  My time was 2:24 (23.3 mph) based on 250w average (260w normalized).  My power was a few watts lower than I expected, but if I ignore the first 4 miles where my power was less than 200w, my power was right on my plan with an IF of 0.85.  By the end of the ride, I was in 15^th place.

I stuck with my standard HIM nutrition plan.  I started with 2 bottles of First Endurance EFS with 2 scoops each, and I grabbed 1 bottle of Perform at an aid station.  This gave me about 25 oz of fluid and just over 300 calories per hour.  I also carried the First Endurance Hand Grenade (1/2 flask of FE Liquid Shot with ½ water and ½ scoop of FE Pre-Race), and drank the first half 30 minutes in, and the rest about 1:45 into the bike.  I felt energized throughout and my power never dropped.  Like Brian Shea from Personal Best Nutrition says: With nutrition if it works, don’t fix it!

T2:

In and out pretty quick.  Nothing remarkable here, threw on my socks, grabbed my visor and glasses and headed out.  Time: 1:19

Run:

As I left T2, I immediately noticed both shins starting to ache and tighten up.  The rest of my legs were feeling a little heavy, but typical of past races and I knew they would be fine shortly.  However my shins were really getting my attention.  Based on my recent training paces, I was targeting a time of sub-1:25, and my plan for today was to start out 6:45, the build my pace over the first few miles and settled into 6:20s for the rest of the run. The run is and out and back style of course with small rollers both directions and a net elevation gain of about 500’ on the way out and then descend on the return to the finish.  Overall, the run course was nice, but with most of it on the shoulder of the road, nothing was particularly great about it either.  Anyway, back to the race.  After about the first ½ mile, I knew I needed to modify this strategy.  My shins were really hurting, and slowing down was only way to get some relief.   This has never happened to me before, but I am pretty confident of the cause:  my shoes.  I went with my short course shoes which were the K-Swiss K-Ruuz racing flats.  Given my residual aches from Louisville, I should have used my long distance shoes, the Kwicky Blades.  At this point though, it didn’t matter.  I was stuck with my shoes for the race and needed to find a way to get to the finish. 

My new strategy was to back off the pace and hold right at 7:00 min/mile for the first 3-4 miles with the hope my shins would loosen up and feel better.  Unfortunately, at mile 1.5 I was passed, and lost one of the positions I gained on the bike.  Finally at mile 4, it was like a switch was flipped.  Instantly my shins felt better and I picked up my pace to 6:40 – 6:45.  My plan was to keep it there until the turnaround at about mile 7.  Just before the turnaround I was passed again and lost another position.  Now I had a decision to make: Two places were just a couple of hundred yards in front of me, and I knew if I had any chance to gain those back, I needed to move….Now!  Time was running out.  I was feeling better and with 6 miles to go, I picked up the pace again and was holding around 6:20s.  At first I wasn’t making any progress, but finally around mile 9, I was starting to close the gap.  Finally, I made my first pass of Martin Lamontagne Lacasse at mile 10.5 and then continued to push and passed the Ryan Kelly at mile 12.  At this point, I was now feeling good and my pace felt great.  Too bad it took me until the second half to feel good.  I maintained this pace to the finish where I crossed the line just behind Tenile Hoogland, the Women’s Winner.

In the end, my run split was 1:28:07 (6:43 min/mile), which was a slower than I wanted, but overall I am happy with my race.  My total time was 4:24:23 and I finished 14^th Place Male Pro (coincidentally, my race number was 14!) and 15^th Place in the Pro Field.  Even though my recovery was a big question mark heading into this race, I don’t think it would have changed where I finished.  Maybe my time would have been a little different, but looking at the gap to the group in front of me, I’m pretty sure the result would have been the same.  With this in mind, I consider my race a success, since I had a great time, and gained more Pro experience as I begin develop my 2013 schedule….and now there is no doubt where I need to focus my off-season!

As far as the race in general, would I do it again?  Yes and no.  The course was fun, and if the roads were fixed on the bike, it would be one of the best bike courses around.  However, with the condition of roads and the complex logistics, it would not be high on my list to return to.  As smooth as the organization made the logistics of the race, it still was an added complexity that we had to deal with.  Add in the fact that there is limited access to spectators outside of town, I would not want to take my family with me.  Why wake them up at 3:00 AM, only to have them wait until almost 10:00 AM to see me the first and only time before the finish?  That wouldn’t really go over too well, so I would only consider dong this race as a participant, but a family destination type race.  So bottom line, this is not a race where I would make a point to do again, but I would consider it a viable option is necessary.

Lastly, I could not have done this alone and without the full support of my family: Erica, Nolan and Sofiella.  In addition, I need to thank Fraser Bicycle, BMC Bicycles, First Endurance, SLS3, K-Swiss and H20 Audio for your continued support through my 2012 season and helping me achieve my goals and success over the past year!