IM Colorado 70.3 – 6/8/2024

Another IM 70.3 is in the books. This time is in Boulder, CO with 1000 miles away from home. Thanks for my wife and kids for making this happen. I feel bad for them when I have a race in other state so I always plan a family road trip to make it more enjoyable.

This time is from CA – UT – CO – NM -AZ – CA with total 2000+ miles.

The reason why I picked this race was because it’s drivable. Besides, we did the road trip to Coeur d’Alene in 2021 for my first IM that was farther than this, so I think it’s doable. The race itself doesn’t seem too hard. Although the bike and run show hilly, but the elevation gained don’t seem too bad. The only thing I need to worry about is altitudes since I never race with high altitudes and I always live at sea level. This will be a big challenge for me.

Stay

There are many options for stay, but I was using my points to redeem hotel which was Courtyard. I was asking for a room that at first floor so from the girl from front desk, she gave me one with bigger balcony and near pool. Kids were enjoying the pool so much. Coincidentally she has relatives living in my area.

Check in

We left home on Tuesday and arrived on Thursday afternoon which was two days before he race. The race was on Saturday. When I checked in, it was 90ish degrees already. Luckily the forecast showed it would be 80 on race day. You can swim in a small area to feel the water during checkin, but not on race day. It was good enough for me. Also, it seems the water temperature is usually cold as 60ish degrees, but it was 66ish since the weather was warm for the whole week. I went to swim on Friday when I dropped my bike and the water temperature was perfect.

Race day

Shuttle was between 4-6 am and I woke up at 4 am and took shuttle by 5 am without any wait. The guy next to me was at shuttle location around 5:45 am and arrived transition area at 6:45 am. So be early if you want to prevent this happen to you.As expected, the water temperature was on 67.8 degrees on the race day.

Swim 43:26

I heard altitudes will affect swim so I started slowly and thought it was under my control, but after maybe 300 yards, I started feeling hard to breathe. I was not sure it was altitudes or panic, but I stopped few times to adjust my breathing and pace. I finally felt good after half way of swim.On the way back, my goggles were foggy and I thought I still had a good sight of buoy , but it was so weird that buoy kept moving so I stopped to clean my goggles and realized the moving buoy was lifeguard . I think he was moving left to try not to let me out of course .

T1: 4:29

The race provided wetsuit stripper, so I took the advantage to save some time. It was very smooth for me to get my bike and ready to ride out.

Bike 2:49:08

(Elevation gained 2711 ft, my Garmin shows: 2212ft)

Bike course was two laps and was not too hilly in my opinion. There were some climbing, but they were not too bad. Only the few miles in the beginning of lap had some long climbing and maybe 2 or 3 of climbing after that. I started feeling heat during the second lap and bad feeling of stomach so I had some bites of my rice ball in case I wasn’t taking enough nutrition.

T2 5:05

Once I entered T2, I felt my legs were already tired and took some time to rest and get sun screen before leaving T2. I was able to wear my shoes without any trouble tho.

Run 2:06:06

(420 ft, Garmin shows 442ft)

I felt my right thigh was about cramp at any minute, so I stopped every aid station to take everything that will help like water, ice, electrolytes, banana to make me keep moving. Although it was only 80 degrees, I felt the heat was killing me . My strategy at that moment was to keep my pace slow to prevent any cramping.On the second lap, I met a female athlete and she was so nice to run with me and encourage me. We finished together in the end and I was glad she pushed me to cross the finish line.

Post race

The food was too healthy for me cuz it has Quinoa with chicken or potato as options. I was expecting more heavy stuff like pizza. Anyway I was not able to eat anything and my stomach didn’t feel well. After having some food, I was very ready to go back to hotel.It seems shuttle had some waiting issue from previous year like 2 hours waiting so I ended up to walk with two of athletes to pick up our cars. It took almost an hour by walking with all the stuff to get my car and got to the hotel at 3:30pm.Overall I think the race was good with excellent volunteers and same tradition area. Not long walk to T1 from swim which is also good. The only thing I don’t like is shuttle issue. People still complain about this. It’s very tough after the race, athletes still need to suffer the waiting or walking to get the cars. Performance wise, I had my PR among my 4 IM 70.3 races so I was happy with no complaints. It’s my first time to finish under 6 hours. I also feel there is still some room for me to improve each leg. I can’t wait for the next one.

Total 5:48:13