Race Report – Rhode Island Ironman 70.3

Today I did my third 70.3 race since arriving in North America. Today’s race was in Providence, Rhode Island. I did this race back in 2008, which was the first year that they held this event.  For any of you that have been following my career, or my race reports, from back then… this is the race where I came out of the water, and found someone else’s helmet on my bike. It was a very nice gesture, because another pro had loaned me his helmet because they were going to disqualify me because my helmet was not approved by the USA sanctioning body. I got fifth place that year, which was one place better than the guy who loaned me the helmet. He’ll never do that again…

This year the quality of the field seemed a bit better than it was back in 2008, and the man to beat this year was Terenzo Bozzone. The swim was uneventful, and I came out of the water in sixth place. I was just off the back of the main group of pros, so I had to work pretty hard for the first 5 km to get back on to that group. Once I caught on to the group that contain Terenzo, I settled in to see who was going to try to set the pace. We were rolling along at a decent pace, and then Paul Ambrose edged away from us, and nobody went with him.

The bike course is a beautiful one-way journey towards Providence with undulating hills along the way. With a few kilometers to go before the end of the bike, I edged away from the group that contained Terenzo, Richie Cunningham, and Graham O’Grady. I might have only had about 20 or 30 seconds lead on the main group, but it was enough to be out of their line of vision. As I was approaching the transition area, I had already taken my feet out of my shoes.

There was a photographer on the back of a motorbike in front of me as I was approaching the dismount line. I was alert and focused, but then the motorbikes started to slow down. I was only coasting towards the line, but I needed to go around the slowing motorbike. Just as I was coming around the back of him, he swerved across the front of me to pull off the course, and I smashed into the back of his motorbike. I went head first over my handlebars, and not so gracefully onto the pavement. I rolled my foot as I came down, and my bike and handlebars got scratched up a bit as well.

The photographer was really apologetic, but the guy who owned the motorbike, was going off his nut that his Motorbike got scratched.  Being a Triathlete, approaching a transition area, whilst a triathlon was in progress, I was pretty certain that I was supposed to be there…  But nevertheless, it could’ve been a lot worse, had my feet still been strapped into my shoes. I tried to get myself composed and get back on my bike. I didn’t have far to go, but once I got moving Terenzo came around me and made it into T2 ahead of me. The others that were riding in his group also followed us into the transition area.

Coming out of the transition area and onto the run, I could feel a pain in my foot where I came down awkwardly from my mishap with a motorbike. My race had been going quite well, and I was afraid that I was going to have to pull out because of my foot. Terenzo and the other boys were out in front of me, but I still had them in my sights.

After the first few kilometers the pains in my foot began to lessen, and I picked up my pace to catch Terenzo and the group he was with. A few of the other guys had dropped off the pace, and I pass them as I was making my way up to Terenzo’s group. I finally made it up to Terenzo around the 5 km mark, and we ran together for the next 8 km.

Paul Ambrose had about a three-minute lead coming off of the bike, but I think we had almost run two minutes into him in the first of the two lap run course. Terenzo was running stride for stride with me, but his breathing sounded labored to me, so I decided to go around and see if he was going to stay with me… he did.

As we are heading on to the second lap we hit a section of Hill, and he put the hammer down, and pulled ahead of me. I kept him in my sight the rest of the run, but I just didn’t have enough energy to surge back to try to take back the lead. Shortly after we started the second lap, first Terenzo , and then I pulled around Paul Ambrose to take first and second respectively. I crossed the line in second place, and I was only 50 seconds behind Terenzo. All in all, I am very happy with my race, and now it’s back to Boulder for a few days, then I will be racing and Racine Wisconsin next weekend at their 70.3 event.

Cheers,

Tim