Ironman 70.3 Durban

[GaryP]

Now home and can reflect.

 

For me swim was average and is generally what I expect, the bike leg in my hastily adapted road bike to tri went well, better than expected if am being honest and probably only lost 10mins to that of being on my tri bike (which was broken just 2 weeks before and unable to find a new frame in time).  Run I smashed and is my 2nd best 70.3 time and a PB at Durbs.

 

Finished in 5:27, so overall happy with the days work!!

 

 

Also hobbled home and was a God day out!

 

Swim was good while I was swimming, thought I was on pace for a good time, then looked at my watch coming out the water and nope, was slow. But it looks like everyone's swim was slow, as I don't know anyone who went sub 30, so maybe a bit longer than 1.9 but hey.

 

Transition 1 wasnt as bad as I thought, when I saw it at bike racking on Saturday I thought bloody hell this is gonna be chaos, pretty much 1km long bike racks with not much space to get around anyone. But it turned out to work well for me.

 

Cycle was great, first 70.3 on a tri bike, man what a difference it makes. Biked what I wanted to bike and loved every moment of the course.

 

The run. The first half of the run was good. As I got off the bike I worked out I needed a 1:40 run to go sub 5, so I started out at that pace. Was all good until about 9km in. Then the wheels fell off good and proper. I could feel the cramps coming on so had to manage them and it just got slower and slower.

 

All in all finished in 5:25 and I'm happy with it. Took 1h10 off my EL time from Jan. Will definitely be back next year!

 

Very, very well done to both of you. I was watching at Blue Lagoon for a bit and in my book you are all heroes. Hope the weather and conditions are just as nice when you come back to Durban and do it again next year! 

[Wannabe]

I heard the swim was closer to 2.4km than 1.9km. Any truth in this?

[gummibear]

I heard the swim was closer to 2.4km than 1.9km. Any truth in this?

Looks at the athletes I follow on Strava and it’s between 2.1 and 2.2km for the 7 I looked at.

[shaper]

I recorded 2288m of which probably 100m is the run up the beach to the timing arch into T1 and maybe 50m from the start line until you hit the water.

[EmJayZA]

I recorded 2288m of which probably 100m is the run up the beach to the timing arch into T1 and maybe 50m from the start line until you hit the water.

 

Seen some reports of hectic swells? 

 

Well done on the great times, guys!

[shaper]

Seen some reports of hectic swells? 

 

Well done on the great times, guys!

if 0.5m swell is hectic.... then it was hectic   

 

Nice to see you still lurking Emjay!!

Edited June 3, 2019 by shaper

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

Now home and can reflect.

 

For me swim was average and is generally what I expect, the bike leg in my hastily adapted road bike to tri went well, better than expected if am being honest and probably only lost 10mins to that of being on my tri bike (which was broken just 2 weeks before and unable to find a new frame in time).  Run I smashed and is my 2nd best 70.3 time and a PB at Durbs.

 

Finished in 5:27, so overall happy with the days work!!

Well done and congrats!

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

Also hobbled home and was a God day out!

 

Swim was good while I was swimming, thought I was on pace for a good time, then looked at my watch coming out the water and nope, was slow. But it looks like everyone's swim was slow, as I don't know anyone who went sub 30, so maybe a bit longer than 1.9 but hey.

 

Transition 1 wasnt as bad as I thought, when I saw it at bike racking on Saturday I thought bloody hell this is gonna be chaos, pretty much 1km long bike racks with not much space to get around anyone. But it turned out to work well for me.

 

Cycle was great, first 70.3 on a tri bike, man what a difference it makes. Biked what I wanted to bike and loved every moment of the course.

 

The run. The first half of the run was good. As I got off the bike I worked out I needed a 1:40 run to go sub 5, so I started out at that pace. Was all good until about 9km in. Then the wheels fell off good and proper. I could feel the cramps coming on so had to manage them and it just got slower and slower.

 

All in all finished in 5:25 and I'm happy with it. Took 1h10 off my EL time from Jan. Will definitely be back next year!

1h10 off from EL is amazing! Well done.

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

Looks at the athletes I follow on Strava and it’s between 2.1 and 2.2km for the 7 I looked at.

Ditto for the people that I follow. 

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

Looks at the athletes I follow on Strava and it’s between 2.1 and 2.2km for the 7 I looked at.

Ditto for the people that I follow. 

[Grantc]

if 0.5m swell is hectic.... then it was hectic   

 

Nice to see you still lurking Emjay!!

there were a couple of people who had dislocated shoulders from being dumped in the shore break

[shaper]

there were a couple of people who had dislocated shoulders from being dumped in the shore break

Am honestly surprised at that as there were hardly any waves, it was difficult to even try to body surf them.

[TheBritishTwit]

Am honestly surprised at that as there were hardly any waves, it was difficult to even try to body surf them.

Agree, Saw videos of friends going in and coming out of the swim. The waves weren't big at all.

 

Well done all. Way to much FOMO yesterday so will be there next year. 

[NicoR]

It was an awesome day out. I loved every minute of it since arriving on Friday Afternoon.

 

I also measured 2.2km on the swim.

 

Bike was good. Came in under 3 hours which was my target time.

 

Started the run with a 5:35 per km for the first 7km. Slowed down on the last 14km. Finished the run in 2:10.

 

Came in at 06:08 for the race. Very chuffed with my first 70.3 distance.

 

I will definitely be back next year to go fetch the 9 minutes I left on the course.

[Nick_A]

Am honestly surprised at that as there were hardly any waves, it was difficult to even try to body surf them.

 

Agree, Saw videos of friends going in and coming out of the swim. The waves weren't big at all.

 

Well done all. Way to much FOMO yesterday so will be there next year. 

 

 

100% - I only managed to get in the water at around 08h14 and I found the sea to be very mellow (this coming from someone who was dreading his first sea swim!). Was hoping to catch a few leaker waves coming in but they were too small. Rate you would only have got dumped by a wave if you really weren't paying attention.

 

Also recorded around 2294m or so on my Garmin.

 

Overall what a stunner of a day out - it was my first triathlon so I was very stoked with how it turned out! Especially given my lack of training

[brad890]

Well done to everyone who managed to finish.

 

Can't agree more with what has been said so far, weather was great, atmosphere from spectators was awsum, all in a really well run event

 

The sea was like a dam, compared to tinman and the ultratri a few months back, so actually enjoyed the swim this time.

 

The 10 seconds between batches worked well in my opinion, passed quite a few people on the swim, but wasn't such a issue because of it being spaced out.

 

Cycle was also good managed a 2:48 which I was happy with (cyclocross bike with road tires), overcooked the first lap a little but managed to recover on the second 

 

The run for me was brutal tough, managed 1st lap under 6min/km after that the KM markers felt like they were getting further and further apart. 

 

Managed to sneak in just under 6h according to my cheap stopwatch 5:58 will have to see if that is the case when official results come out later.