Race report: Syracuse 70.3

Posted In: Triathlon June 24th, 2015 divider 2 Comments »

Well it was an experience! Aren’t they all?!?

I signed up for this Half Ironman around Christmas in hopes that it would motivate me to train in the new year. Oh how life sometimes has other plans…

Needless to say a few things got in the way and/or I didn’t make the time to train. I still wanted to do it though, even if the result wasn’t going to be my best. With a decent base and a good level of different activities, it could be done, right?

Just so you know the race isn’t actually in Syracuse but a few miles south in Jamesville. Also who knew the area was so hilly? The venue is pretty cool, a state park complete with a bit of beach and plenty of space.  Not sure about jamming 1000’s of people in there though, as it makes for slow and complicated logistics on race day.

Anyway, I showed up just in the nick of time on Sunday morning after waking up to heavy rain outside of my hotel room. So motivating! After taking close to 45 minutes to cover the last 5 kilometres to get into the park, I made my way to the t-zone.

Got my stuff ready and then waited in line for a porta-potty. I could just feel the nervous energy, the calling card of all these races. Did my business and then made my way to the beach for the start, just in time (as always).

The good thing is that I didn’t have any time to psych myself out before the swim. I also didn’t have much time to get my wetsuit on. It proved to be a bit of a mistake as I got the worse neck chafe ever that morning.

It was probably the longest swim of my life. I even puked twice while in the water, not sure exactly what is to blame for that. Needless to say, I didn’t feel my best but I wanted to get it done and move on to more fun stuff.

Then it was fun times as I got on my bike. The only problem is that the first 30k is basically uphill with some steep hills along the way. Did I wake up early for this? There were some pretty cool views out there and the roads were pretty good.

After probably the slowest bike segment of my life, it was time to run. To be honest, I wouldn’t have even attempted the run if it wasn’t for ChiRunning. I only did the first lap (about 11k or so) before calling it quits. So many hills and so little motivation really doesn’t add up to success, especially when you have to haul all your weight up these hills in the humidity.

It was probably for the best as a huge storm was coming in and they ended up pulling people off the course. All the awards and the championship roll-down didn’t even happen.

Also let’s be honest, the food and the shade was calling! I’m glad I did it but I will probably train for my next one. The good thing is that I’m not sore so I have no excuses not to train now. Except I don’t have a race planned!

Stay tuned for another blog post about some lessons learned out there in the 5 hours spent out there…