Miami 70.3

One week after Austin, I was at the start of another 70.3 in Miami. This fall 70.3 races always gather a strong european field, mostly because the season in Europe is over and they want to take some advantage of this venues for some relaxing days after the race. Miami also welcomed a lot of hispanic triathlete from South America for what would be one of the hardest (if not the hardest) days I have race this year. We dodged a big hurricane but the rain and wind would make things really hard.

To keep this short, the course is pancake flat on the bike with an out and back on a highway. Exiting the city was harder than everyone expected due to some sharp turns, rail tracks and really wet roads but once we were on the highway was a straight forward course. With the likes of Benjamin Sanson, Dylan McNeice and John Kenny, just to name a few, on the starting list, I knew they would make a surge right from the start and it would be key to hang with them cause the bike wouldn't make much of a selection. The run wasn't just pancake flat as well because there was this huge brigde over the bay that with the hardest head wind ever, it felt like climbing Mt. Everest.

The story of the race was pretty much what I was expecting. I couln't hang on to the first pack nor the chasers. I was out of the water 4' down on the leader on the non-wetsuit swim. I knew it would be hard, as I said on my last posts, my swim is just not there. Without being my strenght before the collarbone, now it's my true weakness that I have to work really hard. I'm conscious of that and will take it serious this winter. Once out of the wet, Sebastien Kienle flew by me still in transition. He would post one of the best performances I ever witnessed from a triathlete winning the race ahead of two-time world 70.3 champion, M. Raelert.

From T1 on became a lonely day under the rain for me. I rode as I could and ran what I could produce. I struggled a bit on first half run due to some stomach issues but once I got over it, I ended up finishing strong. It was good enough for 15th in time of 4h02.

With this two races on my back, I get right back to training. Ironman is coming soon!

Garmin file from Miami 70.3. For the record, I raced at 139 lbs with FFWD F6R (probably not the best set for this course but it were the only ones I had available in the US) so thats why my wattage was right on spot but the split seems slow. Not sure why the AVG power of the file is 142 watts, but if you go to the splits its more like 292w on the way out, 288w on the way back.