Raleigh 70.3
Raleigh 70.3 was my 4th race in the last 6 weeks (Wildflower Half, Ironman Texas and Chattanooga 70.3). That being said, I felt like I could still preform well even though I've been racing a lot. Two weeks ago I race Chattanooga where it was more of a sub par race but for a good reason. I had raced Ironman Texas the weekend before and I was still recovering from Ironman Texas. Racing Chattanooga wasn't probably the smartest thing to do but I'm glad I raced it. My power at Ironman Chattanooga was lower than what it was for the first half of the bike at Ironman Texas which wasn't a shock. Thankfully at Chattanooga I was still able to hold in there and finish 5th. I will most likely not do another 70.3 race after a full as it was taxing on the body.
Leading into Raleigh 70.3 I was able to recover and get in some consistent training again. My body was feeling good and ready! The logistics of Raleigh 70.3 aren't the easiest to get around but the course is beautiful. That being said I ended up waking up at 3:25am to get ready for the race. Typically I don't even wake up until 4:15am for a full Ironman. After the wake up my wife and I commuted 17 minutes from our homestay to Transition 2 to drop off my run bag. From there I jumped on a 45 minute shuttle bus to get to the swim start. I did my normal warm up routine and was ready to have a good day.
The swim start was waist deep in Jordan Lake. The water temperature was a toasty 81.1 degrees. Thankfully I had a good start in my Blue Seventy PZTX4 swim skin and found some feet. I was working hard for the first 600 meters and then I was able to settle into a controlled effort. Halfway through the water got a little choppy. As I exited the water I could tell I had a good swim looking at the people I came out with. I was in 15th position in a time of 28:14 which was 2:50 off the lead swimmer in a relatively slow swim course.
Onto the bike I felt good and was able to get a better gauge at how many people were in front of me because there was a short out and back. Unfortunately my power wasn't synced up so I was riding all on feel. Right around mile 15 is when I took over the lead. There was a lead truck that was always 200 meters in front of me on course. I ended T2 with a bike split of 2:03:01(fastest bike split) on a rather challenging bike course. Ironman said the bike course had 2700 feet of climbing which was hard for me to believe but after the race my GPS head unit said I climbed 2800 feet. As I started the run I had no idea how much of a lead I had. This was actually the first time I had gotten off the bike in first place. I thought to myself..."So this is what Andrew Starykowicz feels like all the time." Thankfully I had almost a 4 minute lead.
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I stayed controlled on the first lap of the two lap run course. I believe my first lap was 40 minutes. On the start of the 2nd lap I started to pick it up a little bit because my wife told me to not run on cruise control. That being said, I picked it up a little from mile 7-10. Around mile 10 I could see I had a good size lead and was able to settle back into a comfortably hard but controlled effort. My last lap ended up being 38 minutes for a total run time of 1:18:31 in my Skechers GoRun 4 shoes. During the run I made sure to stay up on my hydration and nutrition as it was 80-85 degrees out with a very high dew point of 73 which doesn't make it easy to run fast. As I approached the finish I enjoyed the moment and high five as many people as I could in the finishing chute while I celebrated my first 70.3 win. I finished in a time of 3:52:34, raised the banner and did a Blazeman roll in memory of my mother and others who/are battling with ALS.
Overall I was very happy with the outcome of the day. Racing Raleigh 70.3 felt much easier than my 5th place finish at Chattanooga 70.3 where I really pushed the envelope. It just shows that if I'm rested and properly trained I can be competitive at the 70.3 distance now. The 70.3 distance does feel like a sprint to me because I specialize at the Ironman distance and very rarely do much work at or faster than 70.3 race pace. The course was tough with hot humid conditions so this 70.3 did suit me.
Congrats to all my competitors and all who raced this weekend as Raleigh is a tough course with those choppy swim condition, hilly bike ride and lastly with that hot/humid run. It's been a great journey/season this year! I'm just thankful that I am healthy and can make the most of each day. Currently I have earned enough points to be ranked 9th in the World at the Ironman distance and its safe to say that I'll be racing in Kona again this year. Since I started the season out so early in New Zealand, I will be taking some time off to rest and rebuild now. My next big race will be Ironman Mont Tremblant which is practically a hometown (2.5 hours away) race for me.
I am also thankful to have some great sponsors to make this dream become a reality.
Skechers
Base Performance
Knight Wheels
Torhans Hydration
Blue Seventy
Rudy Project