Ironman 70.3 St. George

Background

After getting to race in last year’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Lahti, Finland, I felt a little bit less spooked by traveling longer distances for races. Before then, I’d never gone to a race that was farther than a long car drive from Nashville. Now I was off to Utah to kick off the 2024 season!

What’s kind of funny is that between when I signed up for this race and actually going to do it, the difficulty level got ratcheted up. When I went to Finland, I used TriBike Transport to get my bike out to Lahti. It was a tad pricey, but it took a lot of the burden of travel off my plate since they handled the logistics of my bike. Unfortunately, they went out of business at the end of last year. So now it’d be on me to get my bike out to St. George.

I purchased a bike case, did all the research on how to pack a bike, learned what the weight limits are on each airline, and felt generally prepared. Last month, to make sure I was completely ready, I took my bike on a visit to Cait and Tif in Austin, using the opportunity to practice the pack and unpack process. Some might say that was over the top, but it's better not to try anything new on race day, right? In hindsight, that trip proved to be a wise decision. In Austin, it took me roughly an hour to reassemble my bike. In St. George, I needed just 20 minutes.

Looking back on the trip, this was probably one of the best wins. I now feel comfortable being completely self-sufficient when traveling to a race via plane. That’s a big deal!

Race Week

I spent most of race week worrying about Snow Canyon. It’s a steep climb of about five miles towards the end of the bike course. It’s the prettiest part of the ride, but also the hardest.

My offseason and winter were very hectic. The week after I got home from Indian Wells 70.3 in December, I lost my job when the company I was working for shut down. I found a new job in early March, but it made for a sloppy winter of training. I’m one of those athletes who tend to be very strict about following the workouts in TrainingPeaks. However, I had racked up a bunch of red boxes for missed workouts on my calendar over the past few months.

As a result, I felt unprepared for the race. Despite this, I felt excited to get back to the start line. I had a new job, and things were settling down again. In a lot of ways, jumping into the water at Sand Hollow felt like closing the chapter on a hectic and uncomfortable season of life.

This race was my first time with my new silver All World Athlete status. It got me a low bib number, the first row in transition, and a bright yellow swim cap. I know that to some degree, it's just reflective of the fact that I race frequently. But I'm not going to lie, it was pretty cool to go through the priority check-in lane on Thursday and get to rack up front on race day.

Race Morning

This race is a bit unique in that there are two transitions. The start line and the finish line are nowhere near each other. Our hotel was about five minutes from the finish. So that meant it was an extra early start on race morning to get out to the swim start.

Tiffany suggested that we splurge on the Ironman VIP ticket for Katy. Not only would it get her some food and better-quality bathrooms, but it also meant she could drive me to the swim start. Without it, we would have had to ride a shuttle bus.

In addition to Katy having a more pleasant race day experience, it meant we got to sleep a bit longer. Ultimately, I could have set the alarm a bit later. I got through everything I needed to do in transition quickly. I had about an hour of standing and waiting around before the race. I would always prefer this over the alternative of feeling rushed, though!

The moon illuminated the swim course as the sun slowly rose over the mountains. I’d seen plenty of pictures of this scene over the years, but it was such a treat to get to see it in person. It was even more picturesque than it appeared online.

My bike has an annoying habit of the brakes rubbing one or both of my wheels ever since Lahti. Whenever I notice it, I tweak things and think I’ve fixed it only for the issue to return. Much to my dismay, while inspecting my bike, I could hear the rear tire rubbing on the brake. It wasn’t doing this yesterday when I did my shakeout ride. But thankfully, a couple of minutes with the multi-tool later, no more rubbing. It wasn’t an issue the rest of the day. Whew!

Swim

If it’s a wetsuit-legal swim, I probably will get cold either during the swim or as I get out onto the bike. So I always worry a little bit about the water. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this swim. Although it was chilly as we waited to start the race, the water felt perfect once I got a couple of hundred yards into the swim!

This was a pretty uneventful swim…the best kind! The course is simple. We swim out, we swim back. That made it easy to take a few glances at the incredible views. What an incredible place to swim!

Although the course is simple, it seemed like a lot of people had trouble sighting. More than once, an athlete in front of me stopped swimming entirely, looked around, and then resumed their swim. It was a little bit frustrating. But if that’s my biggest issue during a swim? I’ll take it!

I continue to be a weak swimmer compared to the other two disciplines. Without a current, I needed more than 40 minutes to get things done today. I know in the grand scheme of the day, this is the smallest part, but it’s hard not to be a little self-conscious, especially seeing so many speedy swimmers out there!

Transition 1

It was so awesome to see my bike sitting there waiting for me on the first row. It felt like the first time I used TSA Pre-check. I don’t know if I can ever go back!

Many transitions inevitably involve an uphill climb right as you start your ride. But not here! From the parking lot, we would start the ride heading downhill.

Bike

The biggest mistake I made for this race was spending so much mental energy worrying about the bike ride. I texted every friend I knew who had biked this course asking if they had any advice for me. Moreover, Katy and I drove the course the day before the race. I confirmed that yes, there are in fact some hilly climbs.

The famous climb in Snow Canyon is around mile 42. But for some reason, when we drove the course, a climb earlier on, out of Hurricane to head back towards St. George, spooked me! In retrospect, I think it might have been due to the clear view. When you start climbing, you can see the entire 2 mile climb up ahead and it looks endless.

In hindsight, it was much adieu about nothing.

I got to mile 35 feeling good. Things were going so well that I didn't even have any trouble peeing on the bike. 🤣 Sometimes, I just can't. My brain occasionally just says no.

From mile 35 until the start of the Snow Canyon climb at mile 42, I started feeling impatient. That’s a pretty flat stretch of the course and I just wanted to get to Snow Canyon already!

Before this, the steepest climb I’ve done was in Ironman 70.3 Blue Ridge, climbing up to the Parkway. I was a much weaker athlete then and that was a pretty brutal experience. But I did remember one fun thing about it that also happened here today in Snow Canyon. Everyone inevitably slows down as we climb, we clump together, and you can chat with other athletes.

Everyone's fighting the same battle. It helped knowing I’m not the only stupid one out here doing this! Before I knew it, 22 minutes later, I’d made it to the bonus 4th aid station at the top!

The best part about this course is that almost every last foot of the 3244 feet of climbing happens over the first 46 miles. Once you finish Snow Canyon, you turn right. From there, it's a 10-mile downhill ride back to town where you can let it rip! This was the fastest I’ve ever gone on my bike. My top speed was just over 50 mph. (Sorry, Katy.)

Transition 2

Considering the hilly ride, I breezed through transition, my legs felt pretty good, and I was downright excited to get to my best discipline. I waved to Katy and set off to run some hills.

Run

This is a hilly run course by 70.3 standards. It’s definitely the hilliest 70.3 course that I’ve ever been on.

For the first 12 miles, I had a run that I was happy with. You start in town and cover four miles uphill towards the Dixie Red Hills Golf Course. Then you turn back towards town and get a glorious 2 miles downhill before setting off on a 2nd loop.

There were lots of people who looked like they were really battling the heat, but it never really was something I noticed. Perhaps this is the upside of how cold I become during cooler swims? Whatever the reason, I’ll take it!

The day before the race, I thought I’d forgotten to drop my Base salt into my T2 bag. I couldn’t find it in our hotel room, so I drove back to T2 only to find it sitting there in my shoe all along. I’m glad I had it. On warmer days, I use it every other aid station and I think it definitely helps.

Despite all the hills, my pace averaged about 8:30/mile, which I was happy with. If it’s a flat course, right now I shoot for around 7:45-8:00 minute miles during a 70.3 run.

The only thing I hated about the run was what happened around mile 12. In spite of going downhill, the worst side stitch I’ve ever felt in my life showed up. There were two times I stopped for a few seconds and tried to stretch it out. It was *so* frustrating to know I was less than a mile to go. I really was trying to push through it, but really struggled.

Based on my results on Strava, I’d estimate that the side stitch only cost me about two minutes. In the grand scheme of things, that’s a blip. But it was a bummer not to be sprinting for that final mile towards the finish. It’s such a rush as you get close.

That’s both joy and frustration on my face as I crossed the finish line!

Post-Race

As I always seem to after races, when I saw Katy, I had my teary eyed moment. I ate a couple of pieces of pizza and looked at my metrics before returning to our hotel for a shower. Then it was back to town.

The rolldown for the World Championship in New Zealand was rather cruel to sit through! While this isn’t as big a race as other 70.3s, there are a lot of really great athletes here. So while I didn’t rank as high as I had hoped, I was conscious of the fact that we’re getting to the final couple of months before the calendar turns to next year’s Worlds in Spain. Considering that many people had already qualified, I felt like I had a shot at snagging one.

If I were 40-44 years old, my finishing time would have had a 20-minute cushion for me to snag a slot to New Zealand. Even crazier, if I was 30-34, I would have had a 70-minute cushion to have qualified. For better or worse, I’m 39 years old and my age group proved to be much more competitive. I returned to the hotel empty-handed and a little disheartened. But it’s all good. Chattanooga is two weeks away, it’s my favorite course, and I’ll have another crack at Worlds there.

Final Thoughts

I wanted a post-race beer, but it turns out that’s a harder task in Utah than it is in Tennessee! Anything more than 5% ABV can’t be sold in grocery stores. So that meant finding a liquor store that had six-packs, but none of the beer was refrigerated. Too funny. I should have done my research and been prepared with a cold beer waiting in our hotel fridge.

I’m glad I came out here and did this race. A year ago, my best 70.3 time was 6:30 in Chattanooga. Now I’m turning in a 5:38 in St. George. Getting a Worlds slot would have been fun, but part of that involves a combination of luck, chance, and who else races that day. That 5:38 finisher time shows how great of a year it’s been.

Moreover, this was the first race I’ve done that involved traveling by plane with my bike in tow. I successfully broke down my bike, packed it into a case, rebuilt it out here and raced. I would have been extremely intimidated to do that a year or two ago. But I got it done here.

This was a fantastic race day. I’m really proud of what I did here. Now it’s time for a week off from both work and triathlon training as Katy and I explore multiple national parks here in Utah. Once we get back to Nashville, it’ll only be four days later that we are off to Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga.