Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island 2010

Dutch version underneath

First off, I thought I had a bad race, and to some perspective I did have a bad race. I focused too much on last years result that took away some of my motivation during the whole race.

Sunday morning me and my parents took the bus to Point Judith for a swim at Roger Wheeler State Beach. Last year we had storms and now all looked fine. At 6 the Pro's took off and I had yet another hour before my race would start. The pro's where having a slow swim but I was busy with my own preps. At 7 the gun went off and I started my swim. The waves where coming in pretty hard and sighting was difficult. I had no feet in front of me so swimming became pretty tricky. The first part went good but after the turn the waves where getting bigger and there was a lot of seaweed. I could hardly see a thing only lost souls with different swimcaps. Nobody was having a blue one, was I swimming this good or just bad? I came out of the water in 33 minutes and some seconds not my idea of a good swim.

No worries was what I thought heading out on the bike. I pushed my pedals pretty hard the first part and was catching up with all the age-groupers in front of me. When I entered the hilly section of the course I was feeling good and kept on pushing until I started to reach the outskirts of Providence. This part of the course was filled with potholes and other stuff you do not want to hit your bike against. I looked at my watch and thought damn, 2:32:00, last year I rode 1:25:00 I pushed hard where did I lost time?

I entered T2, and there where virtually no bikes. I grabbed my gearbag, put on my running shoes and left T2. I ran a pretty decent first 3K but the sun was killing me. My heartrate was to high and I had to adjust speed. I was busy with mathematical things instead of focussing on my performance. I felt a bit stupid coming all this way and not hitting it hard. I tried to push myself again but after 2K I had another sky high heartrate. Again I adjusted speed and took time at every aid station to make sure I got myself well fuelled. I eventually ran 1:42:00 which was not fast but given my aid station stops I would have been faster. I kept on running which a lot of people did not do because of the heat.

I finished in 4 hours 52 minutes and somewhat seconds feeling utterly dissapointing. I was so focused on last years performance that I lost my motivation during the race. I had to focus on this years race instead of thinking on past performance. Conditions where really though and the new run course was hell (5K was flat).

I finished 5th in my age group and 64th overall out of 1500 somewhat contestants. Not bad after all.

Thanks for all support,

Henry