Finally I finished the last race of 2022. It was unfortunate that swim got cancelled because of weather condition, but still happy to get this done.
Of course, I have to thank my family to come with me to Arizona since I always find my races in different states to have different experiences.
It was kinda disappointing with swim, but I might come back for a full IM few years later.
Before the race
Tempe seems always hot as 90+ degrees these couple weeks, until few days before the race, the weather changed to rain for the race weekend. I didn’t expect the rain will cause swim cancelled until I received the email from IM saying the city won’t permit lake swim if the rainfall is more than 0.2”.
As you know, the swim was cancelled. It’s mixed feeling for sure because I don’t like swimming, but without swim, I don’t feel like it’s a triathlon.
Race day
Bike course
After announcing swim cancelled, the race became a duathlon. It started from 6:50 am and each athlete goes out every 5s. My bib is 163 so I was out around 7:05am. The course has 3 laps and more than 10 U-turns. With wet road conditions, I was really careful when I made any turns until the road started dry. Except wet road, the road itself was terrible. The road is not smooth at all and I was so worried to get flatted tire. I did see two guys replacing their tubes and I also heard some crushes happened.The temperature was really nice which was so grateful.
Run course
The course has 2 laps. The route was pretty flat I will say except some muddy area from the rain, but I was able to run around it. The volunteers were super nice and really supportive. My performance Since the swimming part was cancelled, I got fresh legs to do biking. I was able to keep 21mph as an average speed. Also I finished under 3 hours which I am happy about it. However, I think I was too excited and was all out so it caused my ugly run.
Overall is not bad. The course is not too hard, I was top 36% at my age group. Comparing with IM Santa Cruz 70.3, I have improved. Keep fighting for the next one. Anyway, I completed another race in another state so I can mark it as complete. Next year, UT.
