After a disappointing race at IM Malaysia I was hungry. I was hungry to get back to work, I was hungry to race again, I was hungry for redemption. After IM Malaysia, I headed back to the US to spend some time with family, attend a family wedding, and spend Thanksgiving at home, a first in many years. I then headed to Argentina with my wife, Hila. We spent 7 days down there, ending our trip in Ushuaia, where she would depart on her field work for Antarctica for the following 6 weeks. I then headed back to California to spend a few more weeks with family and to spend Christmas at home.
After Christmas I
headed down to San Diego (Carlsbad / Leucadia to be exact) to put in a 4 week
block of training. My coach, Scott
DeFilippis, is based out of there so it makes for some great training and
"real" coaching. It is always
great to have him around day-to-day, not only for the training but also the
life talks, business talks (more to come on that), and a few beers here and
there. I got in a solid training block,
other than being sick for a few days, but I left San Diego feeling really good.
The flight to Dubai
was a bit long to say the least, San Diego to Houston to Frankfurt to Dubai. I
think it was 32 hours door to door. I
got into Dubai around midnight and was able to get about 6 hours of sleep the first
night. Then after that it was all
downhill with jet lag, I was jet lagged the whole time I was there, just
couldn't get into a routine. Had a mechanical issue with my Di2, fixed $225 later, then on the way to bike check the rear tire popped in the back of the car. Then I did get
about 4.5 hours of sleep on race night, and felt pretty good waking up, so maybe things were taking a turn for the better.........
Bike Check In (Photo Credit: Timothy Carlson)
Swim (shortened to
1200m)- 18:59 / 16th out of water
At the race briefing
the day before the race, they presented 3 different variations of the swim
course. This was due to possible bad
weather and high "surf". So
race morning came and the swim course was shortened, and I am pretty sure it
wasn't even one of the three options. We
were told we would get a lead kayak, which was good as no one had been able to
pre-swim the course. It was cold that
morning. The warm up area was in a different location and we trusted that the
course was going to be easy to navigate.
Well everything seemed great the first lap. I got into a good pack of 4 guys and was
swimming well. Bart Aernouts was to my
right and I was happy to come out of the water on lap 1 with him as I had lost 3.5 mins to him last year at Challenge Rimini.
Going into Lap 2 I
was starting to come off the back of our small group, but I was able to get
back on after the dive back in and hung on until the swim exit. Due to the course change, there ended up
being a long 700m run back to T1, through the resort area and then along the
beach. I was able to stay with our small
group through the run, but then had a small hiccup in T1.
I had forgot to put
sun glasses on my bike and did not have a pair in my bike bag, so had to stop
at my run bag and grab them out of there.
Then when going to leave my swim bag I went to run off to realize I
still had my swim skin on, rookie mistakes, which caused a gap between me and
the group out of T1.
Bike- 2:06:57 / 6th off the bike
So with the debacle
in T1, I ended up having a 20-30sec gap to a group of 7 riders. I got onto the road and just put my head down
and rode right around threshold for the first 6mins to close the gap, most of
it out of my shoes. Once to the group I
actually tightened the shoes down and sat on the back for a few minutes to see
how things were going. There was one guy
on the front with Nic Baldwin and Bart Aernouts in the group. I was content in the group for a bit, but
then got antsy. I went up to the front
for a bit, but with no one else wanting was
to come around, I backed off a touch and let the same guy that was in
the front come back to the front.
Out on the bike hammering away (Photo Credit: Timothy Carlson)
We flew out to the
turn around due to a massive tailwind and I believe we were sitting in 5th -
9th at that point, with Jan Frodeno, Josh Amberger, Balasz Csoke, and one other
up the road. We caught Balasz soon after
the turn around and kept the pace up into the cross/headwind. I went to the front again and then after a
bit let the other guy come back around.
Seemed as if everyone was content with the pace and was fine sitting
back. I knew this wasn't in my favor as
I didn't want to have to run with these guys, so luckily around 45 miles came a
storming Terenzo Bozzone. He had a
mishap in the swim and was making it his mission to come through the field.
When he came by, I
was sitting second in our group and I thought the guy in front would go with
him, but a gap slowly opened up and I eventually went around but Terenzo was
riding super hard. I was able to keep
the gap the same, but wasn't able to get back to within 12 meters, and was
stuck at 20 meters. At that time Bart
came around and I was able to stay with him, and he made it to Terenzo. The three of us ended up riding all the way
back to T2 together, well more like Terenzo dragged us back to T2.
Run- 1:20:54 / 7th across the line
I left T2 with
Terenzo and Bart just a few seconds ahead of me in 4th and 5th, and I was in
6th. As the meters ticked away, so did
they. I just focused on my race and
running the best that I could. It was a
3 lap run course which was great to see where I was, if I was gaining on anyone
and if anyone was gaining on me. After
the end of lap 1, Nic Baldwin caught me, but going around the U-Turn he had
some cramps and I was able to pull back away.
At the end of lap 2 he caught me again and slowly opened up a gap.
Chasing Nic Baldwin on the run course (Photo Credit: SnapShots)
Another guy was
coming through the field looking strong and with 2 miles to go the gap was
probably down to 25 seconds. As we were
approaching the final 1K I knew he was closing in. I ran scared, I ran for $250 extra bucks, and
somehow managed to keep it together to hold onto 7th by 6 seconds and losing out on 6th by 28 seconds.
After crossing the
finish line I ran into Bob Babbitt and had a quick chat with him about how the
race played out, you can watch that below.
Swim (shortened to 1200m)- 18:59 / Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/481010390
Bike- 2:06:57*4th Fastest Split* / Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/480996151 /
Training Peaks: http://tpks.ws/h72sB
Training Peaks: http://tpks.ws/h72sB
Run- 1:20:54 / Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/481010410 /
Training Peaks: http://tpks.ws/cdZ8
Training Peaks: http://tpks.ws/cdZ8
Total- 3:49:48 / 7th Pro
(Results Link: eu.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman-70.3/dubai/results.aspx?race=dubai70.3&rd=20160129&sex=M&agegroup=Pro&loc=#axzz40PzunJPz)
Media Coverage of Event:
Overall I was really
happy with how the race went. I took a
risk by coming out to Dubai and it paid off.
I had a swim that kept me in a group, even though a short swim, still a
breakthrough for me, considering I lost 3.5mins to Bart back in April. I rode in the group, did a bit of work, and
then was able to go with the late race move, that set me up for a top 10
finish. So I would say it was a good day
in the "office", and I learned a LOT, which is always a good thing.
After the race I
spent a few days in Dubai, then headed down to Australia to reunite with my
wife after 7 weeks apart. We had a great
time down in Melbourne, along the Great Ocean Road, in Tasmania and now we are
off to Wanaka for Challenge Wanaka on February 20th!
Throwback Picture to
2009 when I met Terenzo pre race in Clearwater at 70.3 World Champs. He beat me by 47
minutes, 7 years later and I am on the same start line as him and lost by 5 minutes…………..
Coming out of T2
(Photo Credit: SnapShots)
Out on the Run
Course (Photo Credit: Timothy Carlson)
1 comment:
Dubai is a place I want to visit. Glad you were able to compete there.
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