Ironman Goa 70.3 - Race Day
Race Weekend
We (Gokul and I) reached Goa on Monday evening and just used the week to -
Settle-down in our stay, get all the essentials to cook and recover from the long drive
Familiarise ourselves with the race route (2 rides, 2 swims and a shake-out run)
Decompress through our evening sunset walks on the beach
Enjoying the calm before the race day
Completed the bib collection, etc. at the expo on Friday
Before I knew, it was Saturday and I was driving down to the airport to pick up Natasha and my parents. We planned well enough to set-up the bike and transition bags on Friday itself which ensured the drop-off on Saturday was super seamless and incident free. I for one really enjoyed the atmosphere in/around the transition area. I took a last minute call to stay at the race hotel with Natasha and Parents instead of the b&b we had booked.
Race Day
Before I knew, I was up at 2:30 AM on the 9th of November. Probably the first time since forever that I was scared to start a race, which is weirdly what I was craving for. I had my usual pre-race Oatmeal, had a cup of coffee, took my drink mix bottles from the fridge and made my way to the lobby. I requested for the hotel personnel to fill up my soft flask with ice and made my way to the transition area along with Amma.
I filled air in my bike, laughed at how wet the bike got from the dew (So much for waxing the chain), kept my bottles on the bike, balanced my helmet and shades on top of the aero bars and left the soft flask with ice inside the helmet. I wanted my helmet to feel ice-cold when I put it on for the bike leg. Amma patiently stood next to the transition zone all this while, collected my floor pump from me and then made the walk with me to the swim start where we were joined by Natasha and my Dad.
Swim Leg
I was honestly shitting bricks at the start of the swim leg. I tried distracting myself talking to Gokul and Bhuvan, doing my warm-up routine and just taking deep breaths. I had consciously decided to start in the 50 mins plus swim leg to give myself more time and space needed. The race started on time, the metronome kept ticking and before I knew it, I was walking into the water. The only goal was to finish the swim leg and not come back in the boat waving at my parents and Natasha with a stupid smile.
I surprisingly found my flow super quick. If anything, the decision to start behind felt like a mistake since I kept running into swimmers ahead of me. I finished the first 500 metres in ~11 minutes and was excited when I had my first big issue of a fellow swimmer kicking me in the ribs. No one obviously does this intentionally and all of us are figuring it out in the water; but this felt like the end of the world at that moment. I was lucky enough to have a Kayak very close by who saw what happened and let me hold onto the Kayak for a minute while telling me that the longer I hold on to it, the longer I would need to swim since we are drifting backwards. I took a minute here, just to get over my pain and that was the end of me enjoying the swim. I needed a break every 4-5 minutes purely from the pain in the ribs. Thankfully all those days in the open water really helped since I could intuitively thread/float instead of panicking. The rest of the swim continued in a similar pattern where I got kicked again which resulted in my swim cap coming off. I let it go and continued for a couple of strokes only to realise I was a stupid person who didn’t get a hair cut! This resulted in my hair being long enough and leaking water into the googles.
This was when I thought my race was done since I still had about 600-650 meters to go. But as luck would have it, the cap was right behind and again there was another Kayak right there which I could hold onto and put on my cap. I finally got out of the water in 57 minutes and 53 seconds feeling super happy that I did not DNF this race. In hindsight, I also think the Kayak’s being right there was more to do with adequate support by the race organisers and less with me just being lucky :)
I also have absolutely zero political affiliations, but right when I lost my cap - there were a couple of other swimmers who stopped to check on me and refused to proceed ahead until they were sure that I was. I did not realise who they were at that time, but it ended up being Shreyas Hosur and Annamalai. I honestly loved the fact that a couple of fellow contestants, especially where one of them was probably struggling as much as I was to just get out of water - still had the wherewithals to check-up on me and ensure I was good to continue.
Transition 1
I ran out of the water, said hi to my parents and Natasha and then jogged towards the transition. Bhuvan was running along for a bit next to me and I tried to check with him on Gokul. Once I reached the transition, I thought everything would be like clockwork. But the first thing I did was put the helmet the opposite way! Once I turned it around, everything felt like clockwork though. The helmet was ice-cold from the soft flask. I used to water to rinse my mouth and then got down to work.
I had kept vaseline and a small towel in my T1 bag. I took a minute to clean my feet with the towel, apply vaseline and wear my socks and shoes. I know this isn’t a F1 style T1 a lot of triathletes do but in my opinion, I would rather spend the extra 30 seconds and take care of my feet now rather than have them as a problem further into the race. I took 7 minutes and 25 seconds in T1 which includes a 600-700m jog from the swim finish.
The photographer behind recorded my entire T1. If someone can source the video and share it with me :)
Bike Leg
I was so intent on making up positions on the bike leg that I didn’t even realise I was trying to overtake other bikers in the no pass zone like a jackass. But once I got through the first 2-3 minutes, I settled down on the bike and started hitting my power numbers. I started the race with three bottles of 40g carb drink mix in each. In hindsight, I should have had more carbs in the bottles but I was coming from a runner’s mindset where I was worried that way too much carbs in the bottles will mess the hydration part of it and decided to hit my carb targets predominantly through gels. The goal was to do one 30g gel every 20 mins with the second gel every hour being a 100mg caffeine gel + finish one bottle per hour + consume one salt cap of 250mg every 30 minutes. This plan would get me to 130g of carbs, 100mg caffeine, 750mg of sodium and 500ml of water per hour. I feel like this was pretty much the only thing I aced in this race.
Once I got through the Ribandar causeway, this honestly was such a fun course to ride through inspite of the rumblers. Also, the race organisers and the Goa traffic police did a brilliant job barricading the entire course and ensuring rider safety. I got through the first loop while enjoying the Bambolim climb and then riding fast on the bridges with zero incidents. I honestly had a mini orgasm when I realised that I finished the first loop in 1 hours and 28 minutes and was suddenly salivating at the prospect of finishing the bike leg under 2 hours and 55 minutes. But obviously, my body eventually caught upto me and I just couldn’t hit the same power numbers or gears from 55K onwards. I felt like my right hamstring might cramp anytime and wanted to err on the conservative side. I kept telling myself that running is where I am bound to make up a lot more time. I finally got into T2 exactly 3 hours 3 minutes and 28 seconds after I left from T1.
My parents being the cuties they are waited in the sun just to catch a glimpse of me finishing. Natasha meanwhile slammed the breakfast buffet at the hotel and got in a mini nap :p
Transition 2
I honestly was super excited getting into T2. I had made up quite a few places on the bike leg. I came out of the swim leg in 688th position overall and 88th in my age category and ended up being 111th overall and 20th in my age group by the end of the bike leg. So ofcourse, I will finish in the top 100 + top 10 in my age category by the end of the run was my cocky-ass assumption.
Things were again like clockwork in the transition. I kept my bike away, changed shoes, wore my hat and race belt and started moving with my ice bandana and the soft flask with 500ml of water in my hand in a ‘let’s go hunting for places’ mode. I had kept my salt caps and gels for the run in the race belt which again saved me quite some time. T2 was completed in 4 minutes and 21 seconds.
Run Leg
For a change, I did not start like a bazuka. I was patient in the first 2K (atleast that’s what I thought) and started at 5:20/km pace thinking I will continue picking up from here. Every single time I have run on this course before race day, I had never understood why were people worrying about the climb. It just felt like a small incline and very runnable. The first thing that happened on the run was there being no crushed ice at the aid stations which led to my ice bandana idea being a flop show. I switched to relying on the wet sponges but they just aren’t anywhere closed to what crushed ice in a bandana and bucket hat does. The second thing that happened was my eyes seeing the climb and switching to a walk from a run even before I got to the climb. It was just comical how I didn’t even make an effort to run up.
From here onwards, there was nothing to write about apart from me gradually continuing to slow down and finishing the half in a super slow time of 2 hours 13 minutes and 10 seconds. All those places I was supposed to make up on the run, I ended up finishing 175th overall and 30th in my age category with a finish time of 6 hours 26 minutes and 20 seconds.
Closing Thoughts
I honestly can’t think of anything else that I could have done differently on race day. I was also super grateful for getting out of the swim leg and finishing my first 70.3 while having my parents and Natasha cheering me through the day. I don’t know what I did right in my life to have people spend an entire day in the sun just to cheer for me. For now I had more questions than answers but all I was looking forward to was a week in Goa before I head back home :)
