70.3 Sandwich

Okay, maybe not a sandwich, but what's the first thing that comes to mind when you see BSLT? I thought so. It's actually the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon 70.3 race, which I raced in on Sunday. It takes place in the middle of nowhere, TX. Actually Lubbock, TX to be precise, but it's effectively in the middle of nowhere.

I had some friends from Dallas/Ft. Worth area that were also doing the race, so instead of trying to get to Lubbock on my own, I flew into DFW and met up with them for the long carpool across the state. Getting there was uneventful. It's flat. It's dry. It's dusty. There are a lot of oil derricks. Repeat for 5 1/2 hours. You get the idea.

The weather was hot during the week, but cooled off a bit for the race on the weekend. The temperature was only in the mid-80's, which was one of the coolest weekends for the race. The race is notoriously hot, and has hit temps in excess of 105 F on the day of the race.

Race Morning

Woke up at 4am, and drove out to the race site. There was a big thunderstorm off to the East, lightning, thunder, and some hefty winds. One thing I have to admit, seeing a big open plains thunderstorm is damn impressive. Fortunately, the lightning stayed well to the East, so there was no threat of postponing the swim start.

I got my rack, and setup my transition area. Took my wetsuit and walked over to the swim start. For 1/2 Ironman distances, I don't do much warmup other than a quick swim to get things flowing. I watched all the pros getting suited up and ready to go. It was a pretty darn deep pro field at this race. A lot of big names too. Badmann, Ficker, Lovato, Fuhr, Lessing, Fischer, Daerr, Bell... Coolness.

Swim - 1.2 Miles

The swim was a counter clockwise loop through the lake in the canyon. It didn't quite come back all the way to the start, so the swim finish is west of where the start is. This is important. Remember that east wind? It made the long western leg of the swim pretty nice. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You start in a cove, head out about 150m, then hang a 90 degree right hand turn. I lined up on the far right side, in the front row. What can I say, I'm a glutten for punishment. I went out hard on the gun, and stayed ahead of the main pack through the first turn, which what I wanted. Once we were past there, I fell back on the pace a little, and settled into a steady solid pace. I didn't find too many feet to draft, so most of the swim was on my own. I felt lots of touches on my feet, so I knew that I had my own lamprey's in tow. Oh well, not much I can do about that.

I came out of the water and hit my watch, and was very surprised to see 28:xx on the watch. That was a lot faster than I thought I was swimming, and it was a fairly easy effort.

Swim Time: 28:43

T1

Transition was pretty short. Not much going on, except that I put my bike shoes on in transition, as there is a 7.5% grade almost immediately out of transition. I didn't want to fuss with trying to put shoes on while going uphill.

T1 Time: 1:59

Bike - 56 Miles

The bike course is mostly an out and back course, that doubles back on itself a few times. West Texas is flat, but this course had 8 significant climbs. It accomplished those climbs by dipping down into, and then back out of, a series of canyons. This is a little different from riding hills, as when you finished each climb, you aren't rewarded with a nice downhill to recover, but a blast furnace wind hitting you as you hit a flat section. So while the climbs on their own aren't that bad, there simply isn't much in the way of recovery after the climb, as you have to keep pushing on the flat and in the wind.

I stayed cool on the bike, and went through 3-4 bottles of water plus the bottle of liquid nutrition that I used. I loaded up on electrolytes via salt tabs as well, since it was a hot day and I tend to sweat a lot.

I rode pretty easy the first half of the bike until about mile 30. I watched people hammer past early on in the bike, and I obeyed my power meter, and kept effort steady but easy. Once at mile 35, you've completed most of climbs, so it's mostly flats all the way back to transition. This is where I picked up my effort, and rode about a full zone higher in terms of effort. I reeled back in a bunch of people that passed me earlier that had simply gone too hard and burned out on the hills. The long tempo rides I've done in training paid off here, as I held a fast pace through a long section with a wicked headwind, and then cruised home. I was only passed by a couple people on the bike in the second half, and I saw most of them again on the run.

Bike Time: 2:54

T2

T2 was fairly uneventful again. I racked the bike, through on my running shoes and hat and took off. Oh, I made a pitstop in the porta potty. I did a bit too good of a job staying hydrated. But better having to pee, than being dehydrated.

T2 Time: 2:18

Run - 13.1 Miles

The run is an out and back course. There are 3 climbs on the run, and there's a long section to the turnaround nicknamed 'Energy Lab II'. It's about a 2.5 miles stretch along a dead flat, totally exposed road that runs near a power plant. There is no shade from the sun, no shelter from the wind, and you can see the heat shimmering off the road.

I started out the first 3 miles at just under 8 min/mile pace. Legs felt a little stiff, but that's normal. About mile 2 they started feeling better. Then I hit the first hill, and left the only shaded part of the run. I got to the top, but by that point, it was already getting damn hot. My main point of pride was to have started the run before the first pros finished. I was actually about mile 3 or so when the leaders were on their way back in. The top 3 finishers ended up all beating the course record. Frickin' fast.

I held onto the pace pretty well until about mile 10. That's when it turned into damage containment. I was able to get in water for most of the run, but had some stomach issues with getting in calories. I got in a single gel and some gatorade, but wasn't able to get much more. I was just running out of gas. So I slowed down a bit, let my stomach clear what it had, and was able to keep moving forward. The combination of heat and effort just shut me down nutrition-wise. I was doing everything I could to stay cool, pouring ice water over my head, ice in the hat, ice in my jersey, ice in my shorts.

I hung in, and passed a few people in my AG in the last couple miles as they imploded slightly more than I did. I did manage to keep running the whole time, other than walking 3-4 of the aid stations to stock up on ice and water.

I crossed the finish line comfortably, and went straight to the lake to sit down in the cool water. 10 minutes of that did the trick, then I went back up the course a bit to cheer in my friends, who where hot on my heels the whole race.

Run Time: 1:55

Total Race Time: 5:22:31

Postrace

I set a PR by almost 10 minutes off my fastest race from last year. This race has a reputation as being one of more difficult 1/2 IM courses, due to the heat and the hills, so I'm quite happy with that. I also raced it conservatively, as this race was my validation of the Kona Lottery spot. I had to finish it, or I didn't get to go to Kona. So I made sure not to take any chances and risk a DNF.

Interestingly, this was my slowest 1/2 IM bike, and my fastest 1/2 IM run. Something to ponder. Is that simply increased run fitness this year, or better pacing on the bike? I've got 2 more 1/2 IMs planned this year before Kona, and since I don't have as much riding on them, I'm going to test my bike pacing/running ability to see what happens. It should be a fun season for sure.