La Quinta Indian Wells 70.3

Having just finished Ironman Arizona I signed up for this race mostly as it is fairly close to home. About 2 hours away and it has some key features that I really like. I grew up playing high school and college golf, so how can I turn down running around a great golf course? Also, having lived my entire life close the the San Fernando Valley, heat is what I know and I can handle better than most. Nothing says hot more than Palm Springs area. Lastly the bike course I enjoyed last year and this year they added about 5 miles on a race track for cars. That sounded too neat to pass up. I also felt I would have energy to do well. I held back a little in Arizona as I was very cautious not to have a bad race. I wanted it all to go smooth and not blow up on the run.

Energy, or lack thereof, is how I felt going into the race. My post race felt fine and I was doing some medium workouts and also felt fine. However, 3 sick kids coughing and runny noses no matter how hard you fight it, I slowly lost the battle and found myself tired and stuffed up. 4 nights in a row of 8.5 hours of sleep came through despite questionable looks from the wife who literally thought I had mono again with what time I wanted to go to bed. I started to pass out around 8pm and finally convinced her to go to sleep at 915pm.

I stayed at the same place I did last year by camping at Lake Cahuilla, the swim start. It's very convenient in that you wake up, walk about 500 feet and you are at your bike. The hassle of being shuttled over to the race didn't sound appealing. Unlike last year where I camped in a tent, I decided to sleep in the back of the SUV on an air mattress. It was actually quite comfortable. Two pillows, windows down just a touch for some airflow and very good protection from any sound or flashlights or car headlights.

I slept until about 230am (went to bed at 815pm) and then I lay there with eyes closed relaxing until about 5am. Getting dressed took a little work inside a car with an air mattress, but it was nice to turn the car on, have some heat to stay warm and eat breakfast of a bagel and my smoothie. The usual.

Heading to the start I was worried about a few things. The first was my health. Usually when I've been sick and combined with early morning cold air I tend to cough a lot. Surprisingly I had just a small episode when I woke up, but not anything else. The second concern was my bike. I had felt a small rubbing while pedaling and I could not figure out what it was. It didn't seem like much, but I could sense it and slightly hear it.

Swim

Pros were off. They didn't look that fast. Slowly walking up to the start. Oh great, the lead men pros are exiting the water already. They've got a 25 minute head start on me. Enter the water. It's not that cold. They said 59 and last year was 57, but realistically it was fine. I was sighting well. I was grouped with everyone. No problems. Things going fine. Heading back I continued to sight well. I thought a good swim. Exited the water. Still not a good time, but actually 6 minutes faster than last year. I really do suck at swimming.

Time: 40 minutes.

T1

It was probably 53 degrees out and was not going to be a warm day. I was concerned having been sick and now wet and about to ride a long time in cold air to do something about getting warm. First step was to put a trashbag into shirt which is a trick to stay warm. I practiced this. I couldn't get it in. Shaking, shivering, wet. Nothing works. I fiddled with it for 30-45 seconds. Enough, threw it away. Arm warmers? No time. I was frustrated already. Socks and shoes on. Throw stuff into bag. Head to bike.

Time: 6 minutes.

Bike

I was in too big of a gear to start. Or perhaps my legs were just frozen and not moving well. Made it up the small hill to get out of transition. Bumpy, bumpy, bumpy. I knew this, I remembered. I did something stupid though. I used a water bottle (arrowhead) 24oz in my front aero bars to ensure I had better bottles in the future. It's not a tight fit in the cage. Bounce. If flew out. Landed in between my aero bars. I recovered it. Miracle. A few large drinks early to at least get the calories in now in case I lose it later.

I was cold, but manageable. I was passing people left and right. This is usual for me. I guess I was in about 900th place at this time. Foreshadow about 700 people to go by coming up. I kept to race plan and I had a consistent effort. Very little wind, very flat. I held at around a 22-23 mph pace constantly and around a 160HR the entire time. There were 4 u-turns that required almost a slow to a stop turn and there were plenty of turns required. and improved by 6 minutes from last year. Time: 2hr 31min (22.5mph avg). Drafting was out of control. Now, I see it happen all the time, but usually it is one off individuals just kind of doing it and either knowingly or unknowingly doing it. I've never seen it so blatant and purposefully done this time. Multiple groups riding together. At first I just thought they passed me and took a break to ride in front of me for a minute. But when I passed them and then got re-passed very odd things stood out. For example, I was going about 22mph and catching up to a girl going about 20mph. I would say I was about 40 feet away. The group of three passed me riding each others wheel and the person in front moved back right in front of me. That's fine. But usually when guys are going 24-25mph and passing and they see someone else approaching very quickly they will stay left and double pass. So when BOTH other riders swerved right in front of me in formation with the other rider this made no sense. Then the front rider did a full u-turn swivel with the head to look back. I've never seen that. When you are passing its a glance over shoulder. But to completely stare 500-1,000 feet backwards only meant one thing. Watching for Rules Officials. Not there. Ok, move in formation and pass and continue drafting. And that is what they did. Dissapointing. Hopefully they were caught eventually. Per facebook, people mentioned they saw large groups getting penalties.

As I got close to the end of the bike I could sense I was close to the 2:30 mark. It would be awesome to break that barrier. It was not a goal of mine, but it was within reach so I made a little extra effort. But as I was 2-3 miles from the finish I knew it was not going to happen. Super happy with it and a 6 minute improvement from prior year.

Time: 2hrs 31min

T2

Fast. I zipped all the way to the line, dismounted quickly, ran and removed helmet right to the rack. Racked bike. Dumped bag onto floor. Two quick swoops and bike shoes off and run shoes on. Volunteer showed up and said she would bag everything for me. Awesome. grabbed hat, sunglasses on (didn't break this time) and a gatorade and I was off. Feet were still frozen. Sort of felt like ice buckets but I was moving and felt fine.

Time: 2minutes 10 seconds

Run

Step one on the run was to lock in my heart rate. It was a little high to end the bike as I was pushing to get that time and there was a little hill to climb at the end. The start of run it was too high. So I tried to slow it down a little and get heart rate down. I knew at about 0.75 miles there was a downhill which would help lower it. 1 mile down at a 7:10 pace. Yikes. Still too hot to start. The next mile was slightly uphill as we entered the golf course. It didn't feel good. I wasn't sure how this was going to go. But when we hit the flat again I felt my heart rate had hit where it needed to be and I held. I was going to push harder today. Mid to high Zone 3. I held this for the first 6.5 miles. The run went smooth. I felt so much better than I did last year. I enjoyed it. Last year I was miserable on the golf course. I was drinking my yummy gatorade (not the endurance junk) and supplementing it with coke at the aid stations. I finished the bottle around mile 5. As I approached the turnaround, I knew it was time to push it. I had 6.5 miles to go, time to go full throttle. I toggled watch to single mile mode and I went as hard as I could. I was at a 7:00 pace. It felt fine. Then back to the golf course, up that hill. Course was crowded now, and hard to pass people going slow up the hill. Required more effort than needed. However, once I hit the top of the hill I felt good again and spacing was better. Coke and red bull at the aid stations. I was moving. Finally breaking a sweat. Given the cold weather I just have not been sweating, but glimpses of the sun were coming out and persperation setting in a little. That was good. However, as I neared the end of the golf course there was one more "Xterra" hill that we needed to climb. A little dirt hill. I began to wonder if I decided to go full throttle too early. Oh well, 2.5 miles to go. Push. Made it to top of hill with no problem. Exited golf course. Back to the finish. But first up the steady hill of a road. It was painful. But I knew it was almost done. I hit the gardens. All flat from here. Crank it up. Pace at 6:55, 6:50, 6:45, 6:40. I can't go any faster. I'm flying past people. One person is also cranking. They are pulling away from me. No. I got them. I pull up beside. We are both out of breathe. I ask... you finishing? He says yes. I tell him you look stronger then me. You take lead. He says he has nothing left. We run side by side for about 500 feet. I look at him and let him know alright man, I'm cranking it. I fly away and he dissapears. Turn right. Carpet. Finish. Time to dunk. Start to jump. Oh crap, its not that high. Don't break it. DONE. 11 minutes faster than last year

Time: 1hour 34min

Total 4hrs 53min

Overall very pleased with the effort given the few days leading into the race. 2019 was a good season. I'll do a race recap and summary in a few days.

I also met some of the pro's before the race.

Lionel Sanders (winner)

Chelsea Sodaro (3rd place)

Joe Gambles (DNF) - not sure why