Ironman 70.3 Steelhead

Well I completed the Steelhead Ironman 70.3 on Sunday August 19th.  The race was amazing.  The weather cooperated nicely and the course was wonderful as well.  I have never experienced an Ironman event before and was amazed at how well the event was run and the amount of volunteers that were there.First things first the venue was amazing.  I have been around Lake Michigan most of my life and I am always amazed at the power of the lake while watching storms and stuff.  On this day, totally opposite.  The lake laid right down for us this morning and welcomed us with open arms. The water temp was 67 degrees.  It was a point to point swim so we had to walk 1.2 miles from transition to swim start and it was a great way to start the morning and get the body moving a little.  The race started at 0700 with the pros going out first and then following there were wave starts.  I went in the water at 0805 and the day was off.  The swim was great.  It took me about 45 minutes to get from start to finish.

After a blazing fast transition (not really 6 minutes or so) I was off on a 56 mile tour of the southeast corner of the state.  The route was great although a little bumpy at times.  The ride along M63 up and down the lake was great but some of the country roads were a little rough and hard to get in a good rhythm at times.  I averaged 18.2 MPH on the bike and was happy with that.  My goal was to average 17MPH on the bike so mission accomplished.  I came in just over 3 hours on the bike and was very happy with that.

Finally off on the 13.1 mile run.  After another blazing fast transition (4 minutes) I was off for the last leg of the journey.  This journey brought us around the Whirlpool Maytag campus twice.  The journey around the campus was great and coming out of the campus there was a nice hill to greet us as we started the second lap and then again as we started the journey towards the finish line as well.  The first time I did not like the hill, the second time around I knew it was the beginning of the end because as you came over the hill mile marker 11 was staring you in the face.  Only 2.1 more to go after conquering this.  I shuffled up the hill and rounded the corner towards home.  Going through the last of the city streets there were plenty of people out to cheer us on home.  It was great to see them all.  Final run time was 2:06 for an average of 9:34/mile.

Crossing the finish line on the beach was amazing.  They had the finishers chute right on the beach so it was pretty nice to come over the last small hill and be able to look out over the lake as the crowds were gathered to welcome us in.

It was a great day for a race as everything fell in to place rather well for me.  My goal time was 6:15:00 and I ended up coming it at 6:08:08.  I finished 109 out of 182 in my age group, 742 out of 1499 overall.  It was a great day and I am definitely looking forward to the next one (next year).

Hope anyone that raced had a great weekend and best of luck to anyone who has races coming up this weekend (mud run for me).