Last race before Kona.

The summer is flying by. I get so excited to race and see athletes race, but hate that I wish the summer away.

Let’s see. 2 weeks ago was Racine 70.3. I love doing this race because usually a huge group goes up there and the local cheers are always awesome to hear. It adds another level of pressure however to have a good day.

The race was bought by Ironman and therefore was a lot more organized and ensured an accurate course. These are good things. Bad thing however is we are all relegated to the waves they set out in front of us. In years past it was nice to be able to race in the amateur elite wave. This year I was in the LAST wave. It was pretty dangerous, hotter and was hard to race the guys in the 25-29 AG who are very fast regardless, but add to that they got a 90 min head start, ughh…

I felt really good, first race on my new Speed Concept. It was AWESOME! I went 2:11 and felt like it was no problem at all. My run was good I thought but was disappointed to be 1:32. Looking at the results looks like it was a slow run day for all. Lindsay said that the temps were in upper 90’s so I am sure that had an effect. In addition to that my right foot was killing me half way through the run. I have to find better or different shoes for the Ironman. Total time was 4:17, good for 15th overall. I was pretty happy with that, but wanted to find another 70.3 to run better.

What was the best part of the race was my clients mark and Sue both had Massive PR’s. Both were over 15 min faster, both got a Clearwater spot.

I decided to do Steelhead because of proximity and was going to go anyway to watch several athletes racing the event. I finally had a race where everything clicked this season. The swim was actually not too spectacular, but I am not worried about correcting that. The bike went awesome, I love this new bike. 2:09 was within 90 seconds of all the pros on the bike for 6th fastest overall bike. More importantly the run was clicking. I had to stop to go to the bathroom once, but felt like I was running aggressively the entire run. I hit a new PR on an accurate course. 4:08:05.

Again, I had 2 athletes do their first ever 70.3 races. Jim and Mike both went 4:47 and 5:39 respectively and felt awesome. Joe Lotus a good friend of mine set a goal of 4:40, and went 4:38. It was really awesome to see. What an awesome day.