Ironman North Carolina 70.3
This was my BIG race for this year. I went in with the two goals: grabbing a personal best in every leg and qualifying for a slot at IM 70.3 world champs in Spain 2025. I got the PR but missed out on the qualification. This was a FAST race, with lots of great competitors. But race day always seems fast on paper, you don’t know the challenges until you get out there. I found a few more than I’d like, but this course was everything I thought it would be. If you haven’t visited Wilmington NC, it’s a beautiful seaside city with an old southern charm and plenty of trendy shops and restaurants. The race was staged in the heart of downtown Wilmington, as well as a pier closer to Wrightsville Beach. Being a two stage race, things were a bit more spread out.
Accommodations: We stayed in made my in-laws home in Leland (about 20 min away from downtown Wilmington). This made it easy and cheap for us, but if you’re looking for a hotel this race isn’t hard to find one. The Hilton and Aloft are probably the best choices in terms of proximity; Both 20 min from T1 and the swim start, and directly next to the finish line. They are not cheap, but if you book early you’ll get a better deal and a guaranteed booking. Seriously, don't wait! We had to help my parents find a room about a month out, and they literally got the last one in town.
Race Logistics: This is a two transition race. Meaning that you’ll have to set up your bike gear in T1 and your run gear in T2. Adding to the math is the fact that the swim is point to point, so you can’t just hang out in T1 until the start . Instead we needed to take a charter bus to get to the swim start. I’ve done 3/5 of my Half Ironman races in this format and it’s actually kind of nice. It frees clutter around your transition and makes it easier to grab what you need when you need it, but you’ll have to be organized and have all your race-provided transition bags accounted for. I didn’t and ended up losing my wetsuit and a towel that had more sentimental than monetary value. Bummer, but it happens.
My T1 set up pre-race, with my trusty cyclocross turned tri bike
T1 opened at 4am, so Danielle and I got there early to be sure everything was set up perfectly. My check lists included:
Set up my hydration and nutrition on the bike
Pump up my tires (I deflate them before races so the heat won’t pup my tubes; Seriously it happens)
Set my bike shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and towel down for easy access
Based on my experience, I recommend two things for your T1 set up:
Be sure to check if your race has water available to fill up bottles; I never thought about this until I had to fill my aero bottle. They had plenty of gallon jogs available, but if it’s a smaller race organizer they may not.
Bring your own pump, but don’t leave it. From what I’ve seen, most Ironman races will put out spare/lost pumps around the transition area for athletes to use. This race there were only five pumps that seemed to work and had a psi. It made for long lines and lots of stress. Better to have your pump and be confident it’s right than risk too much or too little air in your tire. Plus will help with the pre-race stress, which I had in spades
After setting up I ran to our car to meet with D, pick up my wet suit/swim gear, and dry gear bag, and get on the shuttle. We said our good bye and I love you, then found my seat on the bus. On the trip over I made friends with my seatmate, starting off with the classic ice breaker “so have you run this race before?” It never fails. We chatted about our past races, pro-triathletes, and how fast the swim was going to be…it made the pre-race stress a little easier. I think we tend to feel like we’re the only ones dreading something on the course, but we all have the same obstacles to reach the end and it’s kind of nice to talk it out.
As we pulled up to the swim start it was PACKED…obviously. But not so obvious is the start is split into two different parking lots parallel to each other. One side with all the porta potties and wave groups targeted for 45+ min. The other with the faster groups. This wasn’t something made clear in the athlete handbook, but I’m sure they mentioned it in the briefing. So this is your PSA to go to the briefing, seriously it makes race day way easier. Warmed up, found a lone porty potty at a construction site to do my final deed, and headed to the start. They started the waves by releasing three athletes at a time, after 15 min they started letting four go. It went by slowly but surely. Pro tip: Bring a disposable blanket or sandals keep warm, it will be about 10-50 min of shuffling to the start in your waves, you’ll want to avoid shivering and losing energy.
Swim:
We ran down a small beach and dove into the water. The temp was 68 degrees, so hitting the water felt pretty comfy; and with the limited number of athletes going it was very calm. I started my swim aiming for the first turn buoy and found myself in the middle of the intercoastal pretty quickly. It was calm and you really couldn't feel the current. But passing each yellow buoy up to the next turn flew by! Before I knew it I was at the next turn buoy to head into the next inlet. This was the only part that got a touch wild. We were supped to go on the right side of the turn buoy, but many athletes found themselves on the left (me included). The current pushed us out further than expected and we had to work a bit to get back. I was able to make my way around, but I saw a few people struggle to get around and in one case spin the buoy to get past. Keep this in mind: Stay right!
After that it was clear swimming. Approaching the finishing dock you could see 5-6 ladders to climb up and out for T1. I made my way out and ran to get through the .4 mile carpeted trail to transition.
T1: This transition is loooong! Almost half a mile, for most it’s about five minutes minimum. I booked it down the winding carpet from the dock to my bike in about three and a half. But between drying off, putting on gear, and unracking my bike it took me about five and and half minutes to pass through the mount line and get riding. Not bad, but if you do this race be sure to have your transition plan down.
Bike:
On paper this is an easier course, but depending on the day it can be challenging. The first 30 miles are flat, but with a steady climb. You don’t notice it until you’re out of it but it’s work. Add in a consistent headwind and you’ll feel it after an hour. This isn’t always the case, some years there’s less headwind. So this isn’t a course to take lightly. My strategy was to go out conservatively and build to a steady speed until we got to the top of the lollipop-like loop to go back to Wilmington. This worked well until mile 20ish. Unfortunately my clip-on aerobars had loosened with the bumpiness of the road. I panicked for a second and considered my options. Do I stop and tighten them? Or do I gamble that I can hold them in place. I gambled…and it paid off, although I felt more fatigued than I wanted to. As you start coming back into town you can feel your pedals easing up and your speed increasing. I pushed a steady but hard effort for the last 10 miles of the course. All the while taking in my two bottles of Skratch and a few chews to keep me fueled.
T2: Coming back into town on a rocket, I winded my bike though the last bridge crossing and into the dismount line. I felt like a tour rider, it was amazing! I was so hyped up that one of the race volunteers had to caution me to slow down as I ran past the dismount line towards my run gear. My legs were a bit toast, but adrenaline and the possibly of hitting my goal time kept my fire burning. I put on my Adidas Adios Pro 3’s and bib belt, then jogged my way over to the run star.
Run:
The weird thing is I felt tired, but I was running fast! Faster than I ever have off the bike. I was skeptical of my GPS pace until I hit the first mile. When I realized it wasn’t an error I knew I had the legs to hit my goal. The course is a few loops on one end of the board walk, then a straight line out to the older side of town by a park with a slight decent. As I passed by my family and friends I was beaming. All I wanted to do was keep my pace. Unfortunately, my excitement lead to an error, I forgot to double knot my shoe. After 4 miles my left shoe lace had come undone and I had to stop and fix it.
After the short stop, I tried to make up the pace and found my groove again.Running down the park was beautiful and featured plenty of shade. I planned to try and surge every other mile and to drink water at every other aid station. I know I had plenty of carbs from my bike fuel, but decided to take an SIS gel at mile six just in case. I felt tired but didn’t slow. But mile 10 was my real challenge. I knew I was in line to reach my goal time, but knowing that can be a problem. I didn’t want my body to shut down early, thinking that I had to coast in. I wanted to finish STRONG! So I told myself to take it one mile at a time. Stay in this moment and embrace this pain. It worked, but I was spent coming into mile 12. Cramping had started to set in. At one point I jumped on the curb to pass another runner and my left hamstring seized up. Thankfully things didn't fall apart, but I was working.
I caught up to a pair of runners at my pace in the last half mile and wow did it help. I just tried to keep on their shoulders. We made our way to the last left, then right turn of the finish. Over a massive puddle from the high tide (Thanks to Danielle’s mom I was able to manage it) and to the finishing shoot. I knew this was it, I’d made it. I looked at my watch before I crossed the line; I was exactly at the time I wanted. It was incredible. Flexing, cursing, and celebrating as I cross the line. I congratulated my last second running partners on their race, then found Danielle in the crowd. I was so happy that I couldn’t keep myself from tears. It’s one of the best feelings I’ve experienced as an athlete so far. Having friends and family there to support and experience this with me made it that much better.
Total Time: 4 hours 28 mins 40 seconds
Swim: 30:12 (1:34/100)
T1 : 5:56
Bike: 2:29:21 (22.83 mph)
T2: 3:07
Run: 1:20:05 (6:05/mile)
18th AG / 59th Gender
