Ironman 70.3 Ohio

Background

I made a critical mistake with this race. When Tiffany and Caitlin messaged me earlier in the year and suggested we do Ironman 70.3 Ohio, I looked at the date on my calendar. The weekend appeared open. Katy said she was on board. No reason not to sign up, right?

Wrong.

I had forgotten to put an event on the calendar. An event I’d been waiting decades for. This weekend was the opening weekend for Twisters. 😆

Laugh and hate all you want. But the original Twister has been one of my favorite movies since it came out in 1995. There have been rumors in the years and decades since that there would eventually be a sequel. And after 29 long years, during the Super Bowl, a trailer finally dropped! There WAS a sequel! Twisters! July 19, 2024!

OK. In all seriousness, I wasn’t considering backing out of the race to go see my weather movie.

With my race entry already paid for, I’d just have to pivot from the gargantuan sized IMAX at Opry Mills to…the modest Cinemark at the Sandusky Mall. The screen size downgrade would be a bummer. But what a fun weekend this would be. A 70.3 and a long-awaited movie all in the same weekend? It’s about as Colin branded of a weekend as you could get. (We just needed a little baseball. 😆)

The three race stretch of St. George to Chattanooga to Iowa earlier this year was many things. Make no mistake, I have no regrets and I’m so glad I did each of those races. But I can’t say I can describe any of them with words like fun or lighthearted.

For this weekend, I didn’t want to think about PRs, World Championship slots, or age group roll downs. I just wanted to have a fun trip to Ohio and to get back to enjoying this sport.

Race Week

My biggest concern of the trip had nothing to do with the race. It was that football season is slowly getting closer, and I’d be trapped in a car with a Carolina Panthers fan and two Florida Gator fans. Would I be able to behave and not talk shit about their teams? 😆

Tif and Cait flew into Nashville from Austin on Wednesday night. As we began our trip to Sandusky on Thursday morning, social media had little faith in me.

Football shit talking aside, it was a pretty uneventful ride. I tried not to think about how the bike rack was collectively worth more than the SUV that was carrying the rest of us.

Our Airbnb was in Port Clinton, about a block from the beach and a quick 15-minute drive from the race site. We left Nashville super early and luckily, we didn’t hit any traffic. By 5 p.m., we’d already arrived and unpacked. Cheers to the drive being done!

The rest of race week was really chill. We ate a bunch of tasty food, had smooth shakeout workouts, and a fun couple of days by the lake.

Most importantly, Twisters was awesome. (Can’t speak for everyone else’s opinions. 😆)

This was everything I hoped for out of this weekend. After those intense and emotional experiences at races earlier in the season, I couldn’t have been more carefree and relaxed as I went to sleep on Saturday night.

Race Morning

It looked like it was going to be a perfect weather day.

Everything seemed like it took longer than I expected this morning. I’m not really sure why. By the time we reached the swim start, I was rushing to get my wetsuit on as the first athletes were already moving into the water. In my haste, I actually put the dang thing on backwards. Like with the zipper against my chest. I don’t even know, y’all. 

So I had to yank it off, turn it around, and put it back on again. Sheesh.

Swim

Oh crap! Did we need to bring our passports to be able to start the race? I forgot mine!

What a pleasant surprise to get to wear a wetsuit in a JUNE race! We’d just eked out a wetsuit-legal race by a few tenths of a degree.

I heard some athletes say they skipped wearing one because they were worried they’d be too warm. I can’t say I have that worry.

I grew up in Georgia. I went to college in Florida. I live in Tennessee. I can handle some heat and humidity. The downside is I just have no tolerance for cooler temperatures. If it’s wetsuit-legal, the water is below 76.1º, and I find that a tad chilly. If it’s legal to wear it, you’ll always find me in a full-sleeve wetsuit.

As to the swim itself, it was…fine.

My past three lake swims have had remarkably similar finisher times, including this one. Each of those races were within 50 seconds of each other. It feels like I might forever be chasing that sub-40 minute swim I did at Lake Vesijärvi last year in Lahti. Somehow I gotta get back to that.

Much like in Chattanooga, Caitlin and I had almost identical swim times. This time, however, I actually saw her throughout most of the swim. She was wearing a sleeveless wetsuit, so I could see her brightly colored sleeves.

The day before the race, we’d seen some unsightly things floating around in the water at the pier. But today, there was thankfully nothing to be found. The water had decent visibility, and there wasn’t any kind of smell or taste to it. I’ll take it!

Transition 1

Just like in Chattanooga, Caitlin and I went through transition at the same time. She is speedier than I am, so she started her bike about 15 seconds before me.

One sort of goofy moment during transition. There was this guy who was racked near Cait and me, and he seemingly wanted to strike up a long conversation with us. I’m sorry, what? Like…this is a race!

I do like chatting with athletes during the race, but these are usually quick conversations. Let’s save the detailed recap of your swim for when we’re having lunch!

Bike

Grrrr. The first mile of the bike ride was frustrating.

My bike has been plagued by a nagging issue for over two years—the brakes rub against my tires. I have tried fixing it. I have taken it to a shop for them to try to fix it. Time and again, it keeps happening.

When I dropped my bike off yesterday, I had checked my brakes, and they were fine. But this morning, I forgot to check again. Somebody must have bumped my bike or something. As I started riding, I heard the unmistakable sound of my front wheel rubbing against the brake.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain and instead count myself fortunate. This was the first time I’ve ever had to stop my bike during a race to do some quick maintenance. As annoying as this brake issue can be, it is thankfully a pretty quick fix when it happens. I was back up and pedaling in no less than 90 seconds.

From then on, the bike ride was terrific.

Given that Tiffany’s the best swimmer and that Caitlin had started her bike just before me, I knew they were both ahead of me on the course. In Chattanooga, I found both of them before the first aid station. But not today.

As I approached the 20-mile mark, I began to feel a bit uneasy. There was no way I could have missed them in their bright orange kits. I wondered if one of them had pulled over due to an issue, and the other had stopped to help. Had they pulled out of the race?

NOPE. They were both just having terrific and fast days! I finally caught up with Tiffany, and then a little later, I went by Caitlin.

This course is just about as pancake flat as you can get for a North American Ironman race. The only thing that will slow you down is that there’s a fair number of 90-degree turns where you’ll have to ease off the speed briefly. But it’s definitely the kind of course where you can just pick a gear in your big ring and burn through the whole race.

I can’t emphasize enough how much I was enjoying this race. There wasn’t any pressure of trying to secure a Worlds slot for New Zealand or worrying about any big climbs like in St. George.

Had I not had the pesky brake issue, I would have cracked 2:30 on the bike for the first time. But that didn’t dampen the day in any way. I’m just grateful that after I adjusted my brakes, I didn’t have any other issues the rest of the ride.

Transition 2

I assumed that Caitlin wasn’t far behind, but this was the first time in a couple of races that we weren’t going through transition at the same time. I got my running shoes on and set out for the run feeling great.

Run

If we’re picking nits, this is kind of a boring run course. It’s two loops of an out-and-back around the downtown area. So things get a little repetitive. That said, the enthusiasm of the residents along the course? Wow!

I’ve never seen so many people along an Ironman run course. Many of the residents had put out sprinklers or were actively standing around with a hose to spray people down. Another plus of a two-loop out-and-back was that I got to see Tif, Cait, and Katy repeatedly. (But I’m still partial to run courses that are circles.)

I really was trying not to think about it because I didn’t want pressure to creep into what had been a fantastic and fun day. But it was impossible to ignore that I was pacing to set a new 70.3 PR. On one hand, this was kind of expected. This was the flattest 70.3 I’ve ever done. I should be breaking my time from Des Moines. But I still never want to go into a race expecting a PR!

I was pretty happy with how the run went. Outside of a quick slowdown at each of the aid stations, I’d been maintaining a sub-8 pace the entire race. I ran a slight negative split, finishing the final mile in 7:36.

When I made the final turn to head towards the finish, I felt great.

This had been just about the best run I could have hoped for. When I hit the red carpet, it felt like I’d emptied the tank and burned every match…right where you hope to be! This run ended up being my third fastest half marathon in 2024.

This is sort of a silly achievement, but it made me smile. For the first time, I’d finished a 70.3 before noon. It was 11:49 a.m. when I crossed the finish line. Time for lunch!

Post-Race

For the third consecutive race and sixth in my past seven, I had set a PR for the 70.3 distance. Outside of that issue with my brake rubbing on my wheel, it had really been just about a perfect day. Not just in terms of results, but the weather, my morale, the company, and everything else as well.

As always, I got teary-eyed when I saw Katy at the finish line. Once I got those pesky emotions out of the way, she handed me my phone. I was excited to see that Caitlin and Tiffany were not too far behind me. Everyone ended up finishing sub-6 today. Caitlin was 18th in her age group. Even better, Tiffany finished 9th!

From there, it was back to the Airbnb to shower and then get ready for the best part of the day: burgers and beers!

Final Thoughts

While I’m aware that recency bias makes it easy to throw out superlatives, it’s safe to say that this is the most fun I’ve ever had racing a triathlon. Ever.

Sandusky is a great host. I’ll always have a soft spot for Chattanooga because it’s my home race. But honestly, this is a faster course with the same downtown vibes as Chattanooga. The athlete village, the start, transition, and the finish were all within a block of all the downtown restaurants. One bar opened at 4 a.m. on race day blasting music and serving booze. Love it.

As to the race itself, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to go into races with a competitive mindset, time goals, and/or age group goals. These are competitions after all! But what I am saying is that I think it’s a mistake for every single race to be that way.

I came into this weekend with no time goals, not a thought about rolldowns, and just wanted a chance to reset things with the sport that I’ve grown to enjoy so much.

It’s cool that I came out of here with a 70.3 PR. But the best thing about this weekend was much simpler. For the first time in a few races, I had a lot of fun.