Ironman 70.3 Michigan Recap

Sep 18, 2023

Pre Race:

As a Minnesota born boy who has visited the Great Lakes area, I was actually pretty excited to see what this new race had to offer in terms of touristy stuff. Wasn't disappointed. Travel into Traverse City was super easy and the airbnb travel buddy Grace Alexander and I booked had that classic "cabin in the woods" feel. The highlight in the pre race prep was swimming open water at crystal lake which was crystal clear and the perfect temp for wetsuit swimming. Could've easily swam 2 hours in that thing. Would recommend. Beautiful area and beautiful roads for cycling.

The Swim: 11th in 24:40

I lined up on the left to get some open water. Figured I could grab some front pack feet with a quick get out but the violence at the tunnel about 200 meters in proved rather tricky to navigate. Ended up in the main pack which I was fine with. I was less fine with going the wrong direction at the last turn... ended up causing a bit of chaos and costing our group a good chunk of time to correct. I ended up coming out at the back of the large group as I attempted to swim the course correctly.

The Bike: 14th in 2:05:46

A rough T1 where I had to run back for a shoe put me in a bad position. That combined with my disc wheel duct tape cover coming halfway loose prevented me from really opening up the first 10k of the bike and getting into a good spot. Ended up riding with Austin and Todd for a majority of the race. We worked together really well on the flat course but still bled time compared with the front of the race. Bright side was the absolutely pristine road conditions. Flatting was never on my mind.

The Run: 6th in 1:12:52 no power

Came off the bike pretty far down from where I wanted. However with the flat course, I had high hopes of the front guys locking up from excessive time in TT position and hard riding. Didn't happen. Ran hard and hurt the whole way. Passed a bunch of guys and got into the money. Very nearly caught Mike Arishita at the end... another 2 mins and I would've got him :)

Overall: 7th in 3:46:58

Not happy. High expectations after getting into insane shape. I ended up grabbing a worlds spot and some money so it wasn't a total loss. Definitely want to do this race again next year. The area is perfect for triathloning and everyones got that Michigan/Minnesota/Canada nice thing about them.