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Andy Hardy Las Vegas Ironman 70.3 World Champs

2013 Las [slideshow_deploy id=’272′]Vegas Ironman 70.3 Race Report

The 2013 Las Vegas Ironman 70.3 Triathlon was “Living the Dream” in every way. The week leading up to the race was the closest thing to experiencing life as a professional athlete. Tri Travel had everything organised from accommodation complete with buffet breakfast and dinner bar, to morning training rides with a local cycling club, transport, and of course, being in Las Vegas, entertainment!

The race itself was described as “Nth America’s toughest course set amongst breathtaking landscape in harsh conditions”. This was certainly true with the hilly desert backdrop of Lake Mead National Park on the horizon behind the Vegas Strip, and the high temperatures and humidity. 2310 of the best triathletes from over 50 countries in the world (231 athletes represented Australia, the 2nd largest represented country) were here to compete and fulfil their dreams.

 

The evening before race day the heavens opened up and delivered almost the annual rainfall for the city in the space of 15 hours, leading to flash flooding in some parts of the city. Race morning started with an early 3:30am start, boarding the bus at 4:30am, in very wet conditions (who said it doesn’t rain in the desert?). This made things a bit more difficult, but kept morning temps down in the low 20’s C from the usual high 38-40’C.  The non wetsuit 1.9km swim wave start at 7:16am went without any major dramas, except very dirty 26’C water. I was happy not to be last out of my wave in 43:04, even catching some weak swimmers from the wave in front of me!

A very long T1 transition run from the swim exit on the opposite side of the lake to the bike racks, through mud & rain, and out onto the very hilly 91km bike course in wet conditions- lots of cyclist with punctures & 3 crashes in front of me during the ride through the narrow, hilly Lake Mead National Park. Lots of pack riding & drafting from strong cyclists, and lots of blocking on the narrow National Park road probably lead to so many crashes.  With only 30 penalties issued for infringements on the entire course, mostly to pro athletes, the technical official presence was pretty poor for a World Champs event.

The rain stopped on exiting Lake Mead National Park at the 60km mark. The sun came out with vengeance and the temperature and humidity soared for the remainder of the day. This turned the last 30km of the bike and the challenging 21km run course into a very tough affair, although the atmosphere and crowds lining the streets of Henderson Nevada near T2 were in party mode and were very uplifting.

The challenging hilly 21.12km run course in hot conditions was a struggle, vomiting at 8km from heat intensity and a bad flavoured gel. I completed the first 10km in 62 mins (pretty slow!), blowing out to run 21km in 2:24:55 ave 6:50min/km – A pretty slow run (it felt even slower with world class athletes flying past as if they were running a sprint distant event!), but happy to finish in 6:23:15 hrs (division rank 225/248, overall rank 1750/2310) and receive the coveted finishers medal on a course with amazing atmosphere & described by many experienced athletes as being more intense than Kona Hawaii Ironman course!

Overall, this event was an amazing experience unlike anything else I’ve been part of. Thanks to Mel for her training program and helping me realise and live the dream, and to everyone else who supported and encouraged myself and Marianne.

Following are two video links to official race video reports, giving you an insight into the course, conditions and emotion of the event. I just snuck into the background of the first video at 6:11 mark running down the finish chute behind another athlete!!

Cheers, Andy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVHMZLFx_2g&feature=player_detailpage&list=PLxTcXRgYJnfS4q1UsnNUgo-Y9ifOpmzbQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMQ5TRMY-3U&feature=player_detailpage&list=PLxTcXRgYJnfS4q1UsnNUgo-Y9ifOpmzbQ