My best race performance to date: Ironman 70.3 Miami - The Swim Course

My race report for Miami 70.3 is long overdue as the race took place on the 28th of October 2012. All my spare time since then has been used to create and host the first half iron distance triathlon in the Cayman Islands called the Mercuryman Triathlon. For more information about this event taking place on the 20th of January 2012 in Grand Cayman please visit www.mercurymantri.com.

My training went pretty well during the weeks leading up to Miami 70.3. I did miss a number of planned training sessions and decided to sleep in when I felt too tired to get up and train. I seldom trained more than 10 hours per week during the weeks leading up to Miami 70.3 but I when did put in training sessions they were focused and had specific objectives.

That's me with the TYR wetsuit and arms held up in the air minutes before the start.

As mentioned in my blog post about the swim course in Haines City the Ironman brand has decided to set off the M30-34 age group as the last age group in many of the US 70.3 races.  This is slightly frustrating as by the time my wave starts there are at least 2000 athletes ahead of me on the swim course and it is already an hour later than what the pro's started.

My dream is still to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas in the near future. Before Miami 70.3 I set some race time goals for myself. Looking at the previous years results I planned to race in order to achieve a top 20 position in my age group by setting the following goal times:

1.2 mile swim:  29min

Transition 1: 3min

56 mile bike: 2:29min

Transition 2: 2min

13.1 run: 1h 40min

Total goal finishing time:   4:43:00

I love analyzing race results so I copied the M30-34 results into excel and by way of filters and pivot tables I noted the following stats:

* There were a total of 306 triathletes that started the race in my age group of which 286 triathletes finished on the day. That equates to a "Did not finish rate" of 6.5% on race day.

* The 286 triathletes in my age group were representing 36 different countries which made for a truly international and very competitive field.

* The total average times for each discipline for the 286 triathletes in the Men 30-34 age group were as follows:

Average swim time: 40min 45sec
Average bike time: 2h 50min
Average run time: 2h 04min

RACE REPORT FOR THE SWIM LEG

The Miami 70.3 swim course

I officially started my 5th half iron distance triathlon being Miami 70.3 at 8:55am on the 28th of Oct. The pro men set off at 7:25am which meant that I started 1hour & 30min later than them. This makes a big difference when comparing for example the half marathon times as we all know the pro's are superfast but they are also running when it is cooler than when most of the age group field is running.

For awesome aerial photos of the Miami 70.3 swim course please click on the following link:

Miami 70.3 Helicopter aerial photos of the swim course

Picture of my M30-34 wave start in the Miami harbour

Aftter doing a 1km swim time trial test about 3 weeks before Miami 70.3 I calculated pretty accurately that I should be able to do a swim split of 28min if all goes well. I swam a 22min 1.2 mile swim at Augusta 70.3 back in Sept 2010 but I don't count this as my swim pb as that was a downstream wetsuit legal swim.

On race morning I felt that the taper period for the two weeks before the race had gone well. I was thus feeling rested out on race morning and had kinetic energy to be released. The gun went off at 8:55am and I soon got into my usual long distance swimming rhythm. There was this triathlete that was swimming pretty aggressively next to me till way after first buoy on the map above. After attending the awards ceremony in the afternoon I realized I was swimming approx half of the swim course with the triathlete that eventually placed 3rd overall in the M30-34 age group. His arms were swinging pretty wide while I was swimming next to him. The one thing I am realizing the more that I improve and move up in the overall age group ranking is that the top guys in my age group are definitely more aggressive or maybe it could be interpreted differently in that they know exactly what they want to achieve and they wont let anyone get in their way to stop them on race day. Unfortunately it sometimes mean seeing packs of age groupers passing me on the bike while they are illegally drafting off each other. This infuriates me as I am strong swimmer who aims to use my swim to my advantage but then see these blatant cheaters passing me on the bike in order to try and achieve a higher age group position while at the same time not trying to get caught by race marshall's.

My swim was pretty uneventful and I tried to maintain an even stroke and pace after starting out too fast in the Haines City 70.3 race I did earlier this year in Florida as well. It definitely helped that the swim was wetsuit legal. I bought a new Cat 5 TYR wetsuit for the race which I was pretty impressed with. I enjoy swimming with a short sleeve wetsuit as I don't like the feeling of my shoulders and arms being restricted while swimming which might happen when swimming with a long sleeve wetsuit.

The swim course was pretty scenic as it was held close to the Miami harbour just off Bayfront Park. The rays of sunlight were reflecting off the skyscrapers situated in Brickell Avenue in the financial district of Miami which made for quite a beautiful setting on the morning of the swim. The water was unfortunately not as clear as the blue waters of the Cayman Islands.

Sunrise over Miami harbour

  For more aerial pictures of the swim course please remember to visit the website link mentioned at the start of this article.

All in all I was happy with my swim performance. I completed the 1.2mile swim course in the following time and placed as follows in my age group:

1.2 mile swim split: 28min 24 sec  (Slightly faster than my goal projected time of 29min)

Age group position: I placed 9th overall in my age group out of 286 triathletes. I could have swum 26-27min for the 1.2mile swim course but it would had the likely cause of going anaerobic too early on in the race.

I am the swimmer with the red cap. Rather elated to finish the swim in 28min.

I will be blogging about the Miami 70.3 bike course over the next couple of days so keep an eye out for that race report.

An Easter weekend in Honduras

I have always wanted to venture into Central America to experience adventure and new cultures.

Cayman Airways launched direct flights to La Ceiba, Honduras about two years ago. This year the outbound and inbound flights to La Ceiba perfectly aligned with the Easter weekend from 6-9 April. Jana and I decided to take the opportunity to make a weekend out of it with our friends Marius and Lara.

We departed Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands at approx 8:30am on the 6th of April for the hour direct flight to La Ceiba, Honduras. Flying into Honduras ended up being a really scenic journey. I sat on the right side of the plane so I was fortunate enough to see two huge cruise ships in port at the island of Roatan (Bay Islands) which is a divers paradise.

The runway at La Ceiba airport

After landing in La Ceiba, we cleared immigration and picked up our luggage. It was the first airport in the world (that I have experienced) where we had to show our luggage tickets in order for the security officials to release our luggage after putting it through an x-ray scanner. This was a good check I thought, as I always wonder how people don't just steal one's luggage as the luggage exits the carousel while still trying to clear immigration.

After waiting around for about 30min for all the tourists staying at Casa Cangrejal we boarded our bus for the 50min journey to Casa. The bus trip was rather painful as the aircon hardly worked and only the main roads seem to be tarred in Honduras. The secondary roads are all gravel/off-road.

We finally arrived at Casa Cangrejal at about 11am. What a great bed and breakfast. If you ever get the chance to make your way to La Ceiba, Honduras feel free to check out www.casacangrejal.com

The driveway leading up to Casa Cangrejal

Karen Treherne is the host of the Casa and has a great personality that keeps all the guests entertained. The breakfasts and dinners we had at the Casa were exceptionally tasty and we all could see that the Chef "Mae" really took pride in her cooking. Mae also seemed to be exceptionally talented as she did fire shows in the evenings after supper.

After we were shown our rooms we realized that we worked up an appetite from the morning's travelling. We decided to head over to Omega Lodge which is about a 3min walk from Casa Cangrejal. Omega Lodge is the hub for all the adventure activities in the surrounding area and has more of a younger crowd feel to it. We were going to have the "Tapidos" special for lunch but it was not ready yet so we decided to go for the chicken cordon bleu. The service was rather slow and my chicken was undercooked. After our lunch experience at Omega lodge we decided to rather enjoy all our breakfasts and dinners at Casa Cangrejal as the food at the Casa was just exceptional.

We were slightly exhausted from the travelling on Friday so we decided to take a 2 hour nap  in the afternoon  which was rejuvenating as it was so easy to fall asleep listening to all the birds in the background.

Map of the red route hiking trail which can be done from Casa Cangrejal

After the nap we headed out for the 5km red route hike which can be done directly from Casa Cangrejal. We set off at about 4:30pm. Even though we were walking in the shaded part of the forest it was ridiculously humid. I know what 80% humidity feels like in Cayman but the humidity inside the forest must have been about 90 - 95%.

Taking a break at the "viewpoint" section of the hike

Shortly after the incredibly scenic 50min hike we got ready for supper which comprised of pork medallions with marsala wine sauce. Dinner was thoroughly enjoyed by all and was rounded off with chocolate Bailey's cheese cake which brought us to the end of Day 1 of our trip to Honduras.

Scenic view from the top of the red route hike

Day 2 was started just after 6am. I tried out the natural cold water swimming pool and went bird spotting for about 2 hours. Breakfast consisted of eggs benedict which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. After lazing around and chilling at the Casa on Saturday morning we headed over to Omega lodge for lunch and the briefing for our river rafting trip.

The whole trip was great fun. It was a perfect 4h adventure activity with just the right amount of adrenalin required to still be safe. After my scary Grade 5 river rafting experience down the Zambezi river in Zimbabwe during 1998 with my brother Eric and my Dad I am very careful as to which grade of river rafting I choose.

Getting ready to head back to the lodge after the rafting

Jana listening attentively to the safety briefing.

The rafting finished at about 4:30pm after which we headed back to Casa Cangrejal. Supper could not arrive soon enough as the river rafting made as all ravenously hungry. One of the river rafting guides cooked us succulent steaks on the grill which went down really well.

Sunday morning (Day 3) Marius and I got up just after 6am to do a run up further into the mountains which took us through some of the smaller villages where tourists don't really venture into. Except for the dust kicked up by passing cars and buses it was awesome running on the dirt road as the softer running surface was a welcome relief to the cambered tarmac roads we have to run on in Cayman. The Garmin connect file that maps out our run can be found here:

Longish run from Casa Cangregal in Honduras

On our way to doing a 15km run in Honduras

About to start our trip to Cacao Lagoon

Marius and I arrived back at Casa Cangrejal at about 7:45am. We quickly had to get ready for breakfast which consisted of bacon and mushroom omelettes with scones on the side. We were so hungry after the run that we devoured our breakfasts. 8:30am we were ready to rock and roll and departed for the 1 hour journey to Cacao Lagoon.






We did about 5km of rowing in Cacao Lagoon looking out for all kinds of wildlife. In the end we were lucky enough to spot a racoon and a number of howler monkeys. The garmin file for our kayaking rendevouz can be found here:

Kayaking in Cacao Lagoon

Jana and Lara being towed along by the guide

On the picture to the left it can be seen that we had to navigate through the mangrove trees in the lagoon.

Jana and Lara spotting howler monkeys

Howler monkey chilling high up in the tree.

It took me a while to capture the photo above of the howler monkey. I captured the picture with my Nikon D3100 using a Nikkor 55mm-300mm lens which I carried on the kayak with me. Changing lenses while on the kayak was not that much fun as I felt rather unbalanced in my kayak.

 Marius can be seen on the left having to paddle with only one oar as the guide forgot to pack in all the oars for our kayaking trip.

Super dodgy cab ride to La Ceiba

After a long day in the sun and on the water we arrived back at Casa Cangregal at about 4:30pm. At this stage the ladies made it quite clear to the gents that they would like to go and do some shopping at the mall in   La Ceiba which meant that we had to catch a taxi ride down to town travelling on the dodgy gravel road. Wow, what can I say. The ride to the shopping mall was one of the scariest taxi rides I have had in a very long time.

La Ceiba's "most prestigious" mall

All in all we had an excellent time in Honduras and can highly recommend a trip to the Pico Bonito National Park.

The Mercuryman Triathlon is the only half iron distance triathlon in the Cayman Islands. Mercuryman is the brain child of three dedicated triathletes who have a combined 18 years of triathlon racing experience between them at all distances from sprint distance to full iron distance. 

As experienced triathletes, we know what is important to athletes competing in a half iron distance race. Our goal is to hold a fun, personalized and most of all safe race for our competitors, all in a fantastic setting. As the Mercuryman triathlon has a field limit of 200 athletes, you will be more than just a race number. 

The Cayman Islands boasts a small but friendly triathlon community and we would like to invite you to experience our hospitality on January 20, 2013. Please see the official website www.mercurymantri.com for further details.

The event organizers came up with the idea to create and host the event as it will enable triathletes in the Cayman Islands to participate in a half iron distance triathlon event without flying off island as well as enable overseas triathletes to compete in a picturesque tropical island setting.

The event will consist of the standard half iron distances which are as follows:

* Swim 1.2 miles

* Bike 56 miles

* Run 13.1 miles

 The race on the 20th of January 2013 will be open to individuals and teams. An Aquabike event will also be held which will consist of a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride.

The Flowers 1 mile open water sea swim experience

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Flowers 1 mile sea swim.

For those readers not from the Cayman Islands and not familiar with the Flowers sea swim more details can be found on the official website:

Cayman Islands Flowers 1 mile sea swim



The Flowers sea swim has been named one of the top 10 best open water swims in the world by the Guardian newspaper. The link for this top 10 list can be found here: Top 10 swims - The Guardian

Catching a pic with Jana about 30min before the swim start

This was the 5th year running that I competed in the Flowers sea swim. Swimming conditions for a 1 mile sea swim just does not get better than the conditions on 7 mile beach in the Cayman Islands. Having grown up in South Africa and gaining most of my open water experience in the province of Gauteng I just cannot compare the conditions of the Flowers sea swim to the water conditions and visibility of the dams and rivers I used to do open water swims in.

The wonderful support crew (Lara, Jana & Nicolene)

I knew I had to buy a proper set of goggles for the race this year as there is nothing worse than your goggles fogging up every 300m and having to stop to clear them. I decided to buy a pair of TYR NEST Pro Goggles when I was shopping around at Florida 70.3 race expo 3 weekends ago. I was feeling rather chuffed with my decision during the swim that I chose to buy these goggles specifically for the Flowers sea swim. The goggles did not leak at all, did not fog up and the anti fog worked as intended. I could sight and navigate with accuracy as goggles that fog up can obscure one's vision which can cause one to swim in a rather jagged line from start to finish.

The race started in the usual format of "organised chaos". 830+ swimmers kicking and bashing against each other all trying to cut the straightest line to the finish. I managed to get away fairly well. I positioned myself in a group of about 20 swimmers during the first 100m. The drafting tactic did not work too well after the first 100m as for some reason some of the youngsters that train with the swim squads are brilliant swimmers but their navigation sucks. You can be an excellent pool swimmer but if you can't navigate when swimming in open water you lose precious time.

100's of swimmers in the ocean just after the start of the 2012 Flowers sea swim

I knew my toughest masters competitors to beat on race day was going to be William and Marius A. I could not believe the three of us were within 8 meters of each other after 200m. With 830+ swimmers we managed to find each other within the same swim pack. I thought to myself, wow this is going to be a tough race as we will be pushing each other to the max all the way to the finish line.

Marius A drafted me for a while so I knew I had to draft another swimmer ahead of me or pull away. The swimmer ahead of me swam too skew so I decided to steamboat ahead and swim my own race. I was surprised to see at this stage that I was pulling away from Marius A and William. I pretty much swam by myself from about what I seem to recall the 400m mark to about the 1400m. I felt pretty confident going into the swim as I knew my aerobic endurance level was still high after completing the Florida 70.3 Ironman a mere 3 weekends ago.

I eventually caught up with Danielle a talented CBAC swim squad member. I drafted Danielle from about the 600-800m section of the course but she end up taking a different line (hugging the line closer to the shore) to the finish. The one advantage of the swim course was that I am so familiar with the best line to take from the Hyatt (Half way mark) to Royal Palms. I have swum this route countless times over the last 4.5 years.

I felt really strong throughout the first 1.2km. I could feel my shoulders, arms and legs were holding up well and powering away but could feel my lungs and heart were working pretty vigorously. I just remember finding the last 400m push to the finish line really painful. I understand that all swimmers need to swim with swim caps for the purpose of being visible to the kayakers but with the heat and humidity in Cayman at 2:45pm on a summer's day afternoon one can feel pretty hot when pushing the limits. In a way I wish we could have the option of rather swimming without a swim cap in order for more bodyheat to dissipate. I know that a large % of one's body heat escape's from one's head so it would make sense to swim without swim caps but it would obviously result in a safety concern for the race organizers.

I am the swimmer on the right with the extended arm

As I closed in on the finish line I remember spotting a swimmer to the left of me and a pack of about 3-5 swimmers to the right of me and slightly behind me but they were closing in. I expected that William and Marius was in this swim pack so I pushed really hard during the last 200m to the finish. Danielle end up beating me by about a body length on the finish line while I managed to finish just ahead of the group containing Andrew S, William B and Marius A.




I was rather ecstatic after crossing the finish line when I realized that I placed 20th overall out of 830 plus swimmers. My time was about 3min slower than previous two years but we definitely faced a stronger current year this year which was evident from the fact that most people (including the winning time) being slower than the previous year.

I am the swimmer with the red cap 1 sec after crossing the finish line

All in all I highly highly recommend participating in the Flowers sea swim if you ever have the opportunity to do so. The event is exceptionally well organised. The Flowers family puts so much time and money into the event which is really admirable. From winning a spot prize point of view the event can also be highly recommended as swimmers have a 25% of winning a prize. I was lucky enough to win a return flight ticket with Cayman Airways to either Florida or one of their other Caribbean destinations.

The only improvement point I have is for the organizers to make the "speeches" section of the presentation at least 30minutes shorter as swimmers had to wait for approx 2 hours before the spot prizes were awarded. It is understood by all the swimmers that the sponsors all want to promote their brand with a 1000+ people watching but when it is like 32 degrees Celsius outside plus 80% humidity it gets rather uncomfortable and hot for so many people to wait around.

All in all an excellent afternoon spent in the sea and on the beach. 

Scanned article from the Florida's "The Ledger" newspaper

Scanned article from Florida's Polk County newspaper

The full article about Sunday's race can be viewed at the following link:

Cycling prowess helps propel Lance Armstrong to victory in Ironman 70.3 Florida

Ironman 70.3 The race against Lance - [ The run leg]

The run section of my race report

The run course consisted of 3 laps of 7km

Comparison of Lance Armstrong's run split to my run split for the 13.1mile/21.1km run course

Lance's run split = 1:15:56 (Average pace 5:47min per mile)

My run split = 1:48:35 (Average speed 8:17min per mile)

Well, what can I say about the run leg. Of the 3 sports running is my weakest discipline. I have been focusing more on my running over the last 1.5 -2  years. I aimed to run a 1:43 run split on Sunday but realised during the first 3km of the run course that this was just not going to happen. I ran a 1:30 half marathon in Miami during January and really felt that I could nail the run but I have found that I really struggle when it gets exceptionally hot and humid.

By the time I exited transition it was 10:40am it was already feeling like a baking oven outside. It was definitely in the low 90's with humidity at about 80%. It is interesting to note that Lance finished the course approx 30min before I headed out of T2. He started an hour earlier than my age group and also completed the course 1h11min faster than I did.

Lance Armstrong out on the run course (Photo taken by Jana Heath)

That is me out on the run course

I should have done a better job of familiarizing myself with the run course before the race. As we exited transition the run course was flat for about 1-2km then we approached two steep hills which made it tough transitioning from the bike. I had to walk the hills on all 3 laps as I could feel my calves cramping up if I tried running for too long while ascending the hill. I also had a stitch during the first 3km of the run course and a slight stomach cramp. Luckily the cramping and the stitch eventually disappeared but I had to be careful at the aid stations not to drink too much in one go as this would have just resulted in feeling bloated which could have resulted in GI distress/shutdown issues which is never fun.

That's me no. 1857 out on the run course

My plan was to run from aid station to aid station which is what I did. I lost time though as I walked from the beginning to end of each aid station. I drank gatorade and water at each station and threw ice water down my tri-suit to keep cool. I also held ice in my hand and stuck the ice cold sponges between my chest and tri-suit.

My plan was to conserve energy and hold something back for the last lap but I just felt so fatigued and I was struggling to cope with the heat. One often forgets how tough the last couple of kilometers can get in the Ironman or Half Ironman events as it is difficult to push that hard in workouts. It is something that I have seen in my last couple of races. I should definitely push harder during the last 6km of the run. This is where a significant amount of time can be gained or lost.

My final time for the half marathon was 1:48:35 which was not a PB run split for me but interestingly enough it was the highest I have ever placed in my age group in the run discipline. The fact that I placed 21st/175 in my age group and 158/1900 overall in the run tells me that all the other triathletes out on the course must have suffered on the run as well (except for the pro's).

My overall race results were as follows:

Total time 4:56:23 (My 2nd best half ironman time of the four official half ironman events I have done)

Overall M30-34 age group placement: 21st / 175 (My best age group placement for an Mdot race)

Overall finisher placement 158th / 1900 approx (Top 8%) (My best overall placement for an Mdot race)

    My friend Marius and I after finishing the race.

All and all I can definitely recommend Ironman Florida 70.3 as a race to do on the calendar especially if one has children as Disney World is only 40min away from the race venue. The only drawback for me is the M30-34 age group starting so late. I thought about a scenario where the Ironman brand can maybe introduce a seeding system whereby one starts in a wave not based on your age but based on your qualifying time. I guess the drawback to this is that there will be more athletes drafting each other on the bike leg due to athletes of similar ability starting off together.

I will be taking it easier training wise for the next couple of weeks while I ponder about which races to possibly do for the rest of the year. I am looking forward to this Sunday's Cayman Islands cycling 60mile road race.

Next weekend is the Cayman Islands 1 mile Flowers Sea Swim which has been rated as one of the 10 best open water sea swims to do in the world. I will be blogging about this event in a separate report in two weeks time. 

Over and out till later.

Ironman 70.3 Florida: The race against Lance - [The bike leg]

The bike leg:

The Florida 70.3 bike course

As promised yesterday I would continue with my race report regarding Sunday's Florida 70.3 triathlon. I wanted to write this blog entry this morning but just did not get around to it. I have split my race report per discipline. In case you missed the swim portion of my race report then please see my previous blog entry.

Setting my bike up the afternoon before the race

After exiting the swim in 29min I headed uphill into the transition zone. It was totally exhausting exiting the swim red-lining and then having to head uphill into transition. I remember getting to my bike and just standing still for 30 seconds trying to control my breathing while putting my cycling gloves on. Luckily I clipped in and fastened my cycling shoes with elastic bands as the transition zone was a long one as nearly 2000 competitors took part.

The bike course started with a couple hills which made it tricky to get my feet into my cycling shoes. I found the transition from the swim to bike fairly challenging and felt out of breath during the first 6min or so of the bike leg. After about 10min I realised that I left my nutrition behind in the transition zone which consisted of two bananas and two gu gels.

Luckily one of my bottles was filled with diluted Ensure which amounts to 350 calories of liquid food. This bottle kept me going for the first hour of the bike. For those of you not familiar with Ensure this is what the bottle looks like (See picture on the left).

I thus had to stop at mile 30 on the bike course to pick up a banana as well as a bottle of lemon gatorade. I also grabbed a gu roctane gel. I felt stronger again after refuelling and could clearly feel the difference after taking the gu gel.

Reviewing my race results and splits on Ironman live I averaged 22.94mph (36.7kph) up to the 38.5 mile mark. It was somewhere at about mile 40 when I heard a loud "clang" sound in my rear wheel. I have heard this noise before but usually it is a softer noise which is the result of a slight space between my cassette and hub of my SRAM S80 rear wheel. I thought that the sound I heard might be problematic but did not realise it at the time. The "clang" sound was the result of a spoke snapping on the drive side of my rear wheel. It is difficult for me to quantify how much time I lost due to the spoke snapping but all that I can say is that when I picked up my bike from transition after the race my rear wheel was so out of alignment that it would stop when I tried to spin it as it rubbed the rear brake pretty hard. All my bike training leading up to Florida 70.3 during the weeks before the race gave me a good indication that I should have been able to nail a 2:25 bike split. I end up biking 2:32 for the 56mile bike course. I really had my sights set on breaking the 2:30 mark so was slightly disappointed. I honestly think that I lost approx 5min due to the rear brake rubbing but could have also lost this time due to taking in my nutrition later and the bike course being slightly tougher than I thought.

Running into transition after the bike leg

Now to compare my bike split to Lance Armstrong's bike split. I always knew Lance is an amazing athlete but only realised how talented he is when I heard that his bike split for the 56mile bike course was 2:01. It really puts things in perspective when one gets the opportunity to race the same course as these professionals within 1-2 hours of them completing the course.

Comparison of Lance Armstrong's bike split to my bike split for the 56 mile/90km bike course

Lance's bike split = 2:01:13 (Average speed 27.72mph)

My bike split = 2:32:25 (Average speed 22.04mph)

It is totally beyond me as to how an athlete can average 27.72mph for 56miles after swimming 1.2 miles. Lance is clearly one of the best cyclists planet earth has ever seen.

I had the 18th fastest bike split out of 175 triathletes in my M30-34 age group which is my best bike split placing to date of the all the M.dot races I have done. In order for me to move closer to my dream of qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships I will have to bike at least 8-10min faster which is achievable over the next couple of years if not sooner.

Lance Armstrong heading into T2 (Photo copyright: Jana Heath)

Lance Armstrong in T2 getting ready for the run leg. (Photo copyright: Jana Heath)

I would like to say a special thank you to my wife Jana for supporting me throughout Sunday's triathlon as well as the days and weeks leading up to the race. As can be seen from above Jana managed to get a couple of pics of Lance. More pics of Lance out on the run course to be posted tomorrow together with race report of the run course.

Ironman 70.3 Florida - The race against Lance [ The swim leg ]

Poster of Lance Armstrong taken the day before the race.

The wave start at Lake Eva in Haines City, Florida

It is now Tuesday morning 1:22am as I am starting to write my race report. Trying to go to bed at 10:30pm did not prove too successful as my mind is still racing with all the images and events from yesterday's race.


One of the main reason's I signed up for Florida 70.3 this year was because Lance Armstrong was going to compete. I don't usually like doing races more than once as there is always the associated opportunity cost of missing out on another great race being held somewhere on Planet Earth. The event also always falls on a long weekend in the Cayman Islands which helps with getting the time for the journey back from Florida to Cayman the day after the event. It was also a great opportunity to share my good friend Marius Deysel's first Ironman 70.3 experience with him.

My friend Marius Deysel and I in transition just before 6am. Note the convenient transition bags for our equipment.

As some may know the Florida 70.3 course was changed this year from the usual venue at Fort Wilderness just outside Disney World's Magic Kingdom to Haines City. Haines City is basically a random city approx halfway between Tampa and Orlando in Florida. It is a fairly scenic area and really liked the fact that it was more rural and that the bike course took us out on the Polk County roads. We did have difficulty finding a good steakhouse in Haines City last night. Not many good restaurants in Haines City unless we did not really where to look for the good restaurants.

The Florida 70.3 half ironman was my first triathlon event at this distance exactly four years ago. Yesterday's race was thus a good benchmark for me to see how I have improved in the last four years and to see how the average triathlete measures up to Lance Armstrong.

In my analysis of yesterday's race I have drawn a comparison between my results against Lance's results as well as my M30-34 competitors.

The 1.2 mile/1.9km swim course

Lance Armstrong's swim split = 24:52

My swim split = 29:43

That's me exiting the water with the yellow swim cap.

I must honestly say that organizers did a great job of organizing the race. One matter I do find frustrating though is that they tend to place the younger men's age groups at the back of the age group wave start. The M30-34 age group I was in was the 16th wave of the morning to start. The pro men being the first wave. This meant that  Lance Armstrong's wave started at 6:30am while my wave started at approx 7:35am. This hour and five minutes proved to make a big difference at the end of the day as it meant that I was running the last hour of my half marathon from 11:30am -12:30am where I could have been running from 10:30am - 11:30am. For those of you familiar with the Florida heat and humidity knows how hot and uncomfortable it can get around lunchtime. At 180 pounds I struggle to cool down while running in hot and humid conditions.

There were only two waves that started behind my age group, those waves being the other half of the M30-34 and the relay swimmers. Starting it 7:35am meant 15 waves of swimmers started ahead of my wave at approx 4min intervals. This meant that approx 1600 swimmers were already out on the swim course effectively jamming up the swim course. With open water swimming being my strength I found myself passing hundreds of swimmers out on the swim course and had to swim over and across many swimmers which resulted in excess energy being spent versus the pro field starting with no swimmers ahead of them.

Anyway, enough moaning or stating the facts but found the above rather frustrating as I prefer the full Ironman mass wave starts. I believe that the swim course is actually wide enough in Lake Eva to accomodated a mass wave start.

As my good friend Marius Deysel and I had time before our wave start we could watch the pro field swim which meant that we could watch Lance exit the swim in 5th place. The transition from the swim to the bike course involved an uphill run. It was interesting to see that Lance actually did look like he was working hard when he came out of the swim as his breathing was fairly laboured which is expected after such a hard swim and running uphill into the transition zone.

At 7:35am my age group was eventually off. The course layout was pretty cool as it we swam in the format of the Ironman logo "M". As mentioned above I do not have too much to report on the swim except for the fact that it was really congested and had to maneuver  my way through countless swimmers. My main goal for the swim was to break 30min as I swam 30min for the Ironman 70.3 Florida swim course back in 2008

I finished the swim in 29:43sec which was 4min and 49sec slower than Lance. I placed 5th overall out 178 triathletes in my age group which is a result I was really happy with.

I will be posting the race report section of the bike course tomorrow.