Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Providence by Sarah Murray

Amica Ironman 70.3 Providence
By Sarah Murray, Boston University Triathlete

Rhode Island 70.3 was my first half ironman. Overall, the race went really well and I performed a lot better than I expected. In the week coming up to the race, I started freaking out about everything. I was worried that I hadn’t done enough mileage on the bike or brick workouts. As soon as I got to Providence, those nerves disappeared and were replaced with excitement.

I don’t currently have a car so I took the commuter rail down to Providence. Since there are two separate transition areas (T1 in Narragansett and T2 in Providence), I rented a zipcar to take my bike down. If you are 21 and don’t have a car in Boston but like racing outside of the city, I would definitely recommend getting a zipcar. I don’t use it that often, but in cases like this past weekend, it comes in handy. I had traveled down to Providence with the post doc in my lab who was also racing. We checked in at the expo and then headed down to T1 to set up our bikes. Doing a triathlon of this distance gives you a lot of exposure to the amount of money that can be put into this sport. There were so many nice bikes! We checked out the beach scene and then left to get back to Providence.

I then met up with Max, Colin and Josh at the hotel. We checked in and got our stuff organized, and then went out to get some dinner. Speaking of food, I had eaten CONSTANTLY for the past two days - anything with carbs. I was sick of eating by the start of the race, but I think it paid off because I didn’t have any nutrition problems during the race. After dinner, we went to bed around 9pm. Not sure what time I fell asleep at but I did get a good night’s rest.

We woke up at 3am in order to check out, get breakfast and make it to the shuttles by 4. I had oatmeal for breakfast which is always my go-to pre race meal. Colin also gave me some fruit because he is nice. The shuttle was 45min to Narragansett. We got there, set up our transition and headed to the water.

SWIM: The race started at 6am with the pros but my wave didn’t go till 6:45. I caught up with the boys and hung out for a bit. We got to see the pros come in. Then I hopped in the water to test it out and lined up in my corral. Megan from the team was racing as well so we hung out until it was our time to line up. They had us lined up on the edge of the water for the swim start. The swim start was designed as a rectangle, swimming with the buoys to your left. Once the gun sounded, we ran into the water and started swimming. Since it was an ocean swim, there were some waves. It was cool diving into the waves at the beginning though. I had positioned myself at the left of the group towards the front. Since I am a swimmer, I wanted to get myself in front and push hard. After I got through the crowd, I was alone for a bit. Going out was pretty easy, the waves weren’t too bad. However, once I got to the turn, they were pretty rough. I also started catching up to racers from different waves who were slower, making it harder to get around them. I caught sight of someone in my age group ahead of me on the way in. I wanted to catch up to and pass her by the time we finished. I swam hard and finally passed her, but I think she noticed my swim cap and started drafting off of me. By this time, we were about .3/.25ish miles from the start so I started swimming hard. I swim with a two beat kick, relying on my arms more than my legs. I’ve read that you’re supposed to increase your kicking at the end of the swim race in order to get your legs ready for the bike. Based on previous open water swim times, I had hoped to come out under 30 min. I did it in 34:51. Considering the race conditions, I can settle with that time. I don’t think anyone in my AG even broke 31.

TRANSITION #1: Coming out of the water, my heart rate was pretty high. They had set up kiddie pools that we could run through to get the sand off our feet. They also had people ready to rip off our wetsuits which was AWESOME considering how long it usually takes me to get that thing off. I had my wetsuit down to my waist at that point. I don’t even know how they took it off but I just sat on ground and it came off. I found my bike pretty successfully, third row in the middle. I put on my bike shoes, sunglasses and helmet. I also had to make sure that everything left was placed in a bag because they would transport it to Providence. I grabbed a GU gel and headed out for the bike.

BIKE: The first section of the bike was flat which was really nice. I came in not having a clue what my bike time would be. The bike is definitely my worst part of triathlon. During the offseason, I chose to focus on becoming a stronger runner and neglected this portion, which in retrospect may not have been the smartest decision. My training rides averaged 15mph once I got out of the city meaning it would’ve taken me just under 4 hours to finish the bike. I was able to start pretty fast for me at the beginning, averaging 17mph. I had taken a gel at the beginning of the ride, and within a half an hour I was taking my Cliff Bloks. I have an aero bottle which is really convenient because I don’t ever have to worry about getting out of position to drink. I think that I kept up with my nutrition pretty well during the bike, taking a gel every 45 minutes. There were three bottle exchanges on the course, around miles 15, 30 and 45. The first bottle exchange was at mile 15. I tried to finish all three of my bottles before then. I picked up water, Gatorade and a banana. Once we got out of the first bottle exchange, the hills started kicking in. Max passed me soon after this and was DESTROYING this bike course. These hills weren’t too bad in comparison to the hills I’ve trained on, but I was worried that my average mph would decrease so I really had to push the flats and down hills. I had discussed the race course with Max who did the race last year and he had warned about one hill in the 40 miles that was really hard. Coming into mile 40, I had felt great getting over the hills and was waiting for this one “hill” that Max had mentioned. Colin passed me either right before or right after mile 40. It was great seeing teammates on the race course, their words of encouragement inspired me to pick it up and try harder. This hill didn’t come till mile 46 and once I saw it, I knew exactly what it was. It was super steep, and I think I even got down to 5 mph going up it. One guy had even gotten off his bike and was pushing it up the hill. At this point, we had 10 miles left. But the amount of time it had taken me to get up that hill had decreased my average mph to 15.8. I was dead set on getting it back to 16 and hammered my way into Providence. The last couple of miles had a ton of turns and the roads were not great to bike on but I was able to get it up to 16.1 by the time we got to T2. My final bike time was 3:28:53. Happy, it was much faster than I expected.

TRANSITION #2: My T2 went well with no problems. For a split second, I had trouble figuring out which rack to go into, but a nice man watching the transition area pointed me in the right direction. I racked my bike, changed into my socks and Zoots, grabbed my hat and was gone.

RUN: I had jelly beans to start me off on the run but wasn’t really hungry so I only had a couple. I had run low on liquid at the end of the bike so was mainly in need of Gatorade or water. They had an aid station set up at about a half mile into the course which was really nice. I grabbed a sponge, Gatorade to drink and water to throw on my head. My legs felt really good going into the run. I did my first mile in 8:25 but I quickly decreased to 9 and 10 minute miles after that. I was really impressed with the amount of people cheering for Boston University (I was wearing the racing suit!!!). I thought that there might be a lot of alums, but I think that people were just cheering for anything they could find on a racing suit. The run course was two loops, featuring one HUGE hill. I jogged up the first time passing many people walking up it. We had to run down a walkway at one point which was interesting because there were people running up. It was awesome being able to see all my teammates up front. I saw everyone at least twice, and they all looked great. We had to run up the backside of the massive hill. I was beginning to worry when they would have us turn for the second loop because I hadn’t seen any indication of it yet. I started running up where they have the finish thinking “I still have 6 more miles to run!!” They actually had us go 100-yards from the finish before we had to turn around. I had felt really good up until this point in the race. Then everything started hurting. I’ve done half marathons before and experienced the dull pain that comes around mile 10. But this was so much more than that. It wasn’t just my muscles hurting, but everything. I headed back to do the second loop, dreading the huge hill. I walked up portions of it, figuring it was better to preserve energy for the downhill and flatter sections. Even doing those hurt. I usually will not walk during a race, even if I’m running 14 minute miles. But I had to stop and walk twice just to stretch my legs out. I had taken two gels and a banana during the race but feel like my liquid intake was not as much as it could be. I’d take sips of Gatorade and water when I ran through, but most of the water I took I dumped on my head. They gave out cold sponges which was really nice. I walked a little bit of mile 11, but as soon as I saw mile 12, I started picking up the pace again. I think that last mile was one of my fastest; I was ready to be done. The finish line at Providence features a run up the road to the state house. They also announce your name and were you’re from coming in. I finished my run in 2:19:28 at a 10:39 pace. Hearing that time almost makes me cringe in comparison to my other half marathon times, but I know what I need to focus on now in terms of training. They gave us a medal, water and a hat at the end of the race. I was in sooo much pain at this point. I waddled over to the finish area and found Colin, Max and Max’s parents. I grabbed a banana, pizza and coke and enjoyed watching the rest of the race and relaxing finally.

I finished the half iron 11/18 in my age group in a total time of 6:28:41. My time was a lot faster than I thought I could do, especially the bike portion. I know now that I need to work on getting faster on the bike and incorporating more (and longer!) brick workouts into my training regimen. I would definitely recommend RI 70.3 for anyone looking to do a half iron. It’s close and easy to get to and offers a challenge that can definitely be done with appropriate training.