Ironman Buffalo Springs 70.3 Race Report.....
Hey Everyone,
Bare with me as I write this winded report:
So Friday morning comes around, I am packed, the family went out for breakfast (Whole wheat pancakes with sugar free syrup....yum yum) Then we got home, gave each other big hugs and kisses, said a little prayer, then loaded up my buddie's car with our gear and luggage and said our goodbyes to our families. The drive was 320 miles, and was completely flat and boring desert driving, but it went by quickly as my buddy Ryan and I chatted about the challenge that awaited us in a couple of days. We arrive at the host hotel where we stayed, checked in, met up with a few friends for dinner, went back to our room and a few of us had a friendly poker game, then called it a night and were in bed by 10pm.
Saturday morning arrives, I woke up at 7:30, which is sleeping in big time for me, start eating and taking in fluids and prepare to get to the race site for a brief race day prep workout with Ryan, me , and our coach Brent (Who raced pro). So we drive to the lake, pay $6 each to get in the park, and begin the drive to the race start. The whole drive from Fort Worth, along with the drive to the lake, I was thinking, the elevation chart online about this race has got to be wrong because this is all just flat farm land. Well.... As we drive the road in the park that leads to the lake, we were soon met with a taste of reality. Clarity comes into our mind as we descend a 9% hill for 1/2 mile then ascend up an 8% hill for about 1/4 mile, then back down the back of that hill that leads to the transition area. Oh Boy!!! So, reverse that order, and that's what we are faced with coming straight out of transition.
So we park near the transition area, and Ryan and I set out for a 15 minute warm up run. We paced 8:45 miles and had 4 x 20 second excelerations.... I was feeling great. Then we clipped in our bikes and headed up those hills out of transition to get used to them and do a 25 minute warm-up ride. Going up the hills was not as bad as it looked from the car, but it certainly was not a cake walk. The ride goes smooth, and I was wondering why everyone says this is such a brutal race, there was relatively no wind, it was somewhat overcast, and I felt great. We finish our ride, and head to the lake for a 10-15 minute swim, nice and easy. Water temp was 76... Wetsuit Legal, and we had a nice relaxed swim and were ready for the big day. As we are packing up our bikes, I ask Brent, who has done this race 3 times, if the hills out on the course are about the same as the ones we rode inside the park.... His reply: A slight chuckle as he said, uh... no, these are just the little hills to get out of the park. Gulp, me and Ryan drop Brent off and decide to ride the course in the car. More on that later...
We head back to the hotel to meet up with Todd Gollneck to get the GPS Trakker device I wore during the race, grab some dinner, and try to get an early night sleep. That did not work so well as I tossed and turned in bed thinking with excitement about the day to come. I fell asleep around 11pm and set my alarm for 2am. I slept well and felt great when I awoke. Now, to the race.....
We headed out really early because there is only one small road in and out of the race site, and we were told that you need to be there really early because of traffic congestion. So, we were there by 4:30am, got a great parking spot and headed down that hill to set up transition. There were only a couple of bikes racked and as I start calming down and get into a groove, it finally came to my attention that there were 22-25mph winds blowing!!! GULP.... About a half hour into setting up transition, we were then introduced to our good friend... Mr. Rain. Where did the beautiful race weather fom yesterday go, I thought! This was going to be the race it was cracked up to be for sure. I visit the "John", I double check my setup, put the bottom half of my wetsuit on, and make my way down to the start to see my buddy Brent off with the Pros. The race started right on time, and once again, I was in the very last wave so I got to see all my friends go off. The water was a little choppy, my wave was about 75 deep, and I felt great as our wave made it's way to the beach for the start. I bought new goggles on Thursday before we left, the most expensive ones out there, and was so excited. As I put them on 45 seconds before the start, they fog up! OK, so I wipe them off, and within seconds they fog again! I rub some spit inside the goggles, and fog again! I am screwed, I mean literally, I could not see!!! Oh well, time to go. MIke Riley, "The voice of Ironman" yells... GO!!! So we head out. I was able to see the flailing arms and just followed those best as I could for the first 5-10 minutes, the foggy goggles were ******g me off. I roll on my back, keep kicking, and wipe them out... I did this 4-5 times... Then I was struck with the idea to let them half fill up with water, which was genius! As they would begin to fog, I would look straight down and wiggle my head all over the place, and created like a windshield wiper effect, which worked great. The rest of the swim was nice and smooth, uneventful, and I felt fresh coming out of the water in around 36 minutes.....
I head into transition, get everything put on, including my trusty Camelback, didn't bother with sunglasses because they would just be covered by rain, and there was no sun, so I unrack my bike , make sure I am in the smaller gears, and make sure I am clipped in, because literally, once you crossed the "Mount" line, you begin your ascent up that lovely hill, it was for this reason that NOBODY left their shoes clipped on in transition, they actually put their shoes on in transition, and ran to the mount line with them on,which is rare to see. Anyways, feeling good, off on the bike...
As we make our way up the first hill, the girl in front of me is weaving all over the road, making it very impossible to pass her as she was probably going about 4mph, literally. We get to the top of the hill, I fly down the back of the hill, hitting 39MPH, then prepare to ascend the next hill which was 9% and boy was that fun!!! I keep my head down, make good peddle strokes, focus on push/pull and make it up. Now, 15 miles of flatness! I get into my aero bars, start hammering out a good cadence and am averaging about 22MPH. I start taking in nutrition, and am feeling pretty good. We get to our first out and back leg on the course headed south, which gave us a tail wind. The beauty of the Buffalo Springs lake is that it is in a canyon, so we got the pleasure of ascending and descending the canyon 8 times!!! On this first out and back, I averaged around 28, and once I hit the first descent into the canyon I hit a max speed of 48MPH... Holy cow that was fast. I was flying by folks as if they were standing still. a few seconds of flat, then time to ascend back out of the canyon... The climb averaged 5% for 3/4 of a mile. I averaged 10mph going up it.. GOOD TIMES!!! I finally reached the top, and hammered out the rest of the southbound leg. I hit the turnaround, and get "Pimp Slapped" by the wind in my face headed north bound on the same leg. Descend into the canyon flying again, and have an even slower ascend back up out of the canyon. Ok, 2 out of the 8 big hills completed!!! We then head east bound to reach our next out and back leg that heads north and south again. I hammer it out with the wind heading south again, making up as much time as I can and again fly down the canyon descent. This descent is 1.4 miles and I think I hit 50MPH on this one, ascending the other side was not as long, just a little steeper. Towards the end of this leg, there is a mountain climb which is technical and on a very winding road, and is VERY steep and long... It seemed like it would never end. It eventually did and I hit the turnaround to go very slow down that descent. One more out and back leg that had a very technical ascent and descent laid waiting for me, and I took it head on and powered through it. As I turnaround and begin the descent, I saw a 5 bike crash!!! Why anyone would want to go flying around the hairpin turns in the rain on slick roads is beyond me. But, 5 people wrecked and were very seriously injured... A ways down the road I saw 4 ambulances speedng to the wreck... Not good!!! Anyways, I have one more good climb aside from the one going back into the transition area, this is the 1.4 mile climb getting back out of the canyon that was not so enjoyable. I just put my head down, hammered it out one peddle stroke at a time, and lived to tell about it
. Ok... another 15 miles of flatness, into the wind and rain, but I will take it. I felt sluggish for some reason, I look down with about 8-9 miles left and my tire looked a little low, but no biggie, I was still rolling along at 19MPH. The reason I was having such a hard time finishing up the race did not become appearent until I picked my bike up out of transition after the race to discover that my rear wheel was flat, and probably had been for the last 6-8 miles. I finally finish the ride in just under 3 hours , averaging 18.7 MPH and I am pleased with that, wi**** were faster, but wind and hills don't favor the big boys! Into transition...
I hit transition 2 and am feeling pretty shattered. I take my time putting my socks on, getting my whitts about myself, no Port-O-Joy stops, just took my time regrouping and did some stretching. Onto the run... I start at a nice easy pace to wait for my legs to come to me. We run the flat section around the lake and I was feeling OK. We get to the first climb at about mile 2.5 and OH MY GOODNESS!!!! This climb was steeper than the hills on the bike and lasted longer!!! My hamstrings completely lock up and I am reduced to a walk up the hill. I decided that walking up the hills would be the only way I would survive the run without severe cramping and begin jogging on the flats and descents. I did this and as I came to the halfway point, I took in 5 cups of gatorade, and did some serious stretching, I wanted to finish strong. I was running at an ok clip and continued for about 2.5 miles, then I came to the bottom of the beast of a hill I previously mentioned and began my walking again. I would then jog easy from aid station to aid station and would take breaks as needed. My legs were completely destroyed! I really have not ran that much since my marathon in February because of the IT band issue. I am thankful to say I had no knee / IT band pain, but was just shattered from the ride. Anyways, I put a decent last mile together and finished strong, and was thankful for 2 things. 1) I was a finisher 2) That the day was over!
In retrospect, I had so much fun being out there. If you are ever looking for a SERIOUS challenge, come to Buffalo Springs! I learned a few things that I am going to take to heart:
* Never under-estimate the difficulty of this or any other venue
* I need to drop a few more pounds to be able to get up the climbs a little easier. I am fluctuating between 210 - 215 now and am 6'2". Louisville Ironman is in a couple months and is just an extension of what I went through yesterday so any advantage will help. I think 185 might be a good lean fighting weight, but if I start to look like a concentration camp survivor, I am going to stop the weight-cutting for sure.
* I need much more hill work on the bike and the run, then combine them both on some intense brick workouts
* Never use new goggles for the first time in a race, no matter how expensive or how "Good" they are supposed to be
All-in-all, I am happy with my result. I only came in 6 minutes behind my time in Florida 70.3 last month, which was dead flat and by far a much easier course. This course was Brutal!!! It will test you physically, mentally, and will push you to your limits. I did learn that the hills were not as hard to climb as I thought they would be from sitting in the car, and I think this analogy can apply to life. So many people people think that they can't do things, and are so affraid to try, but when you make the commitment to do something, and determine yourself to keep your head down and fight through whatever obstacle is standing between you and success, you will truly discover who you are and what you are made of. Today, I am a 2 time 70.3 Ironman finisher, today I am feeling alot of pain, today I am not obese, today I look back and see where I have come from, and could not be happier with the path my life is on. I am thankful for this race that kept me humble, but what was so cool about this race were the people. I literally had 6 complete strangers walk up to me at the race and 1 on Saturday during my race prep workout, and say, are you Dan? I said yes, they said to me, I have been following your story and your blog and want you to know that you have been a huge inspiration to me. I cannot express to you the pride I felt running to the finish line, when our names were not even printed on our bibs or were anywhere on my body, and countless people yelling out "Go Dan", You are the man Dan, etc... It is the people that encourage me everyday, whi*****lude my family, my friends, and all of you, that help drive me to keep pushing forward and never look back. Thank you for being in my corner, thank you for being part of my journey, thank you for helping me realize my potential, and thank you for reading this VERY long report......
Dan Benintendi
www.swimfromobesity.com
Bare with me as I write this winded report:
So Friday morning comes around, I am packed, the family went out for breakfast (Whole wheat pancakes with sugar free syrup....yum yum) Then we got home, gave each other big hugs and kisses, said a little prayer, then loaded up my buddie's car with our gear and luggage and said our goodbyes to our families. The drive was 320 miles, and was completely flat and boring desert driving, but it went by quickly as my buddy Ryan and I chatted about the challenge that awaited us in a couple of days. We arrive at the host hotel where we stayed, checked in, met up with a few friends for dinner, went back to our room and a few of us had a friendly poker game, then called it a night and were in bed by 10pm.
Saturday morning arrives, I woke up at 7:30, which is sleeping in big time for me, start eating and taking in fluids and prepare to get to the race site for a brief race day prep workout with Ryan, me , and our coach Brent (Who raced pro). So we drive to the lake, pay $6 each to get in the park, and begin the drive to the race start. The whole drive from Fort Worth, along with the drive to the lake, I was thinking, the elevation chart online about this race has got to be wrong because this is all just flat farm land. Well.... As we drive the road in the park that leads to the lake, we were soon met with a taste of reality. Clarity comes into our mind as we descend a 9% hill for 1/2 mile then ascend up an 8% hill for about 1/4 mile, then back down the back of that hill that leads to the transition area. Oh Boy!!! So, reverse that order, and that's what we are faced with coming straight out of transition.
So we park near the transition area, and Ryan and I set out for a 15 minute warm up run. We paced 8:45 miles and had 4 x 20 second excelerations.... I was feeling great. Then we clipped in our bikes and headed up those hills out of transition to get used to them and do a 25 minute warm-up ride. Going up the hills was not as bad as it looked from the car, but it certainly was not a cake walk. The ride goes smooth, and I was wondering why everyone says this is such a brutal race, there was relatively no wind, it was somewhat overcast, and I felt great. We finish our ride, and head to the lake for a 10-15 minute swim, nice and easy. Water temp was 76... Wetsuit Legal, and we had a nice relaxed swim and were ready for the big day. As we are packing up our bikes, I ask Brent, who has done this race 3 times, if the hills out on the course are about the same as the ones we rode inside the park.... His reply: A slight chuckle as he said, uh... no, these are just the little hills to get out of the park. Gulp, me and Ryan drop Brent off and decide to ride the course in the car. More on that later...
We head back to the hotel to meet up with Todd Gollneck to get the GPS Trakker device I wore during the race, grab some dinner, and try to get an early night sleep. That did not work so well as I tossed and turned in bed thinking with excitement about the day to come. I fell asleep around 11pm and set my alarm for 2am. I slept well and felt great when I awoke. Now, to the race.....
We headed out really early because there is only one small road in and out of the race site, and we were told that you need to be there really early because of traffic congestion. So, we were there by 4:30am, got a great parking spot and headed down that hill to set up transition. There were only a couple of bikes racked and as I start calming down and get into a groove, it finally came to my attention that there were 22-25mph winds blowing!!! GULP.... About a half hour into setting up transition, we were then introduced to our good friend... Mr. Rain. Where did the beautiful race weather fom yesterday go, I thought! This was going to be the race it was cracked up to be for sure. I visit the "John", I double check my setup, put the bottom half of my wetsuit on, and make my way down to the start to see my buddy Brent off with the Pros. The race started right on time, and once again, I was in the very last wave so I got to see all my friends go off. The water was a little choppy, my wave was about 75 deep, and I felt great as our wave made it's way to the beach for the start. I bought new goggles on Thursday before we left, the most expensive ones out there, and was so excited. As I put them on 45 seconds before the start, they fog up! OK, so I wipe them off, and within seconds they fog again! I rub some spit inside the goggles, and fog again! I am screwed, I mean literally, I could not see!!! Oh well, time to go. MIke Riley, "The voice of Ironman" yells... GO!!! So we head out. I was able to see the flailing arms and just followed those best as I could for the first 5-10 minutes, the foggy goggles were ******g me off. I roll on my back, keep kicking, and wipe them out... I did this 4-5 times... Then I was struck with the idea to let them half fill up with water, which was genius! As they would begin to fog, I would look straight down and wiggle my head all over the place, and created like a windshield wiper effect, which worked great. The rest of the swim was nice and smooth, uneventful, and I felt fresh coming out of the water in around 36 minutes.....
I head into transition, get everything put on, including my trusty Camelback, didn't bother with sunglasses because they would just be covered by rain, and there was no sun, so I unrack my bike , make sure I am in the smaller gears, and make sure I am clipped in, because literally, once you crossed the "Mount" line, you begin your ascent up that lovely hill, it was for this reason that NOBODY left their shoes clipped on in transition, they actually put their shoes on in transition, and ran to the mount line with them on,which is rare to see. Anyways, feeling good, off on the bike...
As we make our way up the first hill, the girl in front of me is weaving all over the road, making it very impossible to pass her as she was probably going about 4mph, literally. We get to the top of the hill, I fly down the back of the hill, hitting 39MPH, then prepare to ascend the next hill which was 9% and boy was that fun!!! I keep my head down, make good peddle strokes, focus on push/pull and make it up. Now, 15 miles of flatness! I get into my aero bars, start hammering out a good cadence and am averaging about 22MPH. I start taking in nutrition, and am feeling pretty good. We get to our first out and back leg on the course headed south, which gave us a tail wind. The beauty of the Buffalo Springs lake is that it is in a canyon, so we got the pleasure of ascending and descending the canyon 8 times!!! On this first out and back, I averaged around 28, and once I hit the first descent into the canyon I hit a max speed of 48MPH... Holy cow that was fast. I was flying by folks as if they were standing still. a few seconds of flat, then time to ascend back out of the canyon... The climb averaged 5% for 3/4 of a mile. I averaged 10mph going up it.. GOOD TIMES!!! I finally reached the top, and hammered out the rest of the southbound leg. I hit the turnaround, and get "Pimp Slapped" by the wind in my face headed north bound on the same leg. Descend into the canyon flying again, and have an even slower ascend back up out of the canyon. Ok, 2 out of the 8 big hills completed!!! We then head east bound to reach our next out and back leg that heads north and south again. I hammer it out with the wind heading south again, making up as much time as I can and again fly down the canyon descent. This descent is 1.4 miles and I think I hit 50MPH on this one, ascending the other side was not as long, just a little steeper. Towards the end of this leg, there is a mountain climb which is technical and on a very winding road, and is VERY steep and long... It seemed like it would never end. It eventually did and I hit the turnaround to go very slow down that descent. One more out and back leg that had a very technical ascent and descent laid waiting for me, and I took it head on and powered through it. As I turnaround and begin the descent, I saw a 5 bike crash!!! Why anyone would want to go flying around the hairpin turns in the rain on slick roads is beyond me. But, 5 people wrecked and were very seriously injured... A ways down the road I saw 4 ambulances speedng to the wreck... Not good!!! Anyways, I have one more good climb aside from the one going back into the transition area, this is the 1.4 mile climb getting back out of the canyon that was not so enjoyable. I just put my head down, hammered it out one peddle stroke at a time, and lived to tell about it
. Ok... another 15 miles of flatness, into the wind and rain, but I will take it. I felt sluggish for some reason, I look down with about 8-9 miles left and my tire looked a little low, but no biggie, I was still rolling along at 19MPH. The reason I was having such a hard time finishing up the race did not become appearent until I picked my bike up out of transition after the race to discover that my rear wheel was flat, and probably had been for the last 6-8 miles. I finally finish the ride in just under 3 hours , averaging 18.7 MPH and I am pleased with that, wi**** were faster, but wind and hills don't favor the big boys! Into transition...I hit transition 2 and am feeling pretty shattered. I take my time putting my socks on, getting my whitts about myself, no Port-O-Joy stops, just took my time regrouping and did some stretching. Onto the run... I start at a nice easy pace to wait for my legs to come to me. We run the flat section around the lake and I was feeling OK. We get to the first climb at about mile 2.5 and OH MY GOODNESS!!!! This climb was steeper than the hills on the bike and lasted longer!!! My hamstrings completely lock up and I am reduced to a walk up the hill. I decided that walking up the hills would be the only way I would survive the run without severe cramping and begin jogging on the flats and descents. I did this and as I came to the halfway point, I took in 5 cups of gatorade, and did some serious stretching, I wanted to finish strong. I was running at an ok clip and continued for about 2.5 miles, then I came to the bottom of the beast of a hill I previously mentioned and began my walking again. I would then jog easy from aid station to aid station and would take breaks as needed. My legs were completely destroyed! I really have not ran that much since my marathon in February because of the IT band issue. I am thankful to say I had no knee / IT band pain, but was just shattered from the ride. Anyways, I put a decent last mile together and finished strong, and was thankful for 2 things. 1) I was a finisher 2) That the day was over!
In retrospect, I had so much fun being out there. If you are ever looking for a SERIOUS challenge, come to Buffalo Springs! I learned a few things that I am going to take to heart:
* Never under-estimate the difficulty of this or any other venue
* I need to drop a few more pounds to be able to get up the climbs a little easier. I am fluctuating between 210 - 215 now and am 6'2". Louisville Ironman is in a couple months and is just an extension of what I went through yesterday so any advantage will help. I think 185 might be a good lean fighting weight, but if I start to look like a concentration camp survivor, I am going to stop the weight-cutting for sure.
* I need much more hill work on the bike and the run, then combine them both on some intense brick workouts
* Never use new goggles for the first time in a race, no matter how expensive or how "Good" they are supposed to be
All-in-all, I am happy with my result. I only came in 6 minutes behind my time in Florida 70.3 last month, which was dead flat and by far a much easier course. This course was Brutal!!! It will test you physically, mentally, and will push you to your limits. I did learn that the hills were not as hard to climb as I thought they would be from sitting in the car, and I think this analogy can apply to life. So many people people think that they can't do things, and are so affraid to try, but when you make the commitment to do something, and determine yourself to keep your head down and fight through whatever obstacle is standing between you and success, you will truly discover who you are and what you are made of. Today, I am a 2 time 70.3 Ironman finisher, today I am feeling alot of pain, today I am not obese, today I look back and see where I have come from, and could not be happier with the path my life is on. I am thankful for this race that kept me humble, but what was so cool about this race were the people. I literally had 6 complete strangers walk up to me at the race and 1 on Saturday during my race prep workout, and say, are you Dan? I said yes, they said to me, I have been following your story and your blog and want you to know that you have been a huge inspiration to me. I cannot express to you the pride I felt running to the finish line, when our names were not even printed on our bibs or were anywhere on my body, and countless people yelling out "Go Dan", You are the man Dan, etc... It is the people that encourage me everyday, whi*****lude my family, my friends, and all of you, that help drive me to keep pushing forward and never look back. Thank you for being in my corner, thank you for being part of my journey, thank you for helping me realize my potential, and thank you for reading this VERY long report......
Dan Benintendi
www.swimfromobesity.com
Your Friend In Health & Sport,
Dan Benintendi - OH Support Group Leader
www.trimywill.com
www.swimfromobesity.com
www.trimywill.blogspot.com
Support Group: www.obesityhelp.com/group/Post_Op_PRs/
Dan Benintendi - OH Support Group Leader
www.trimywill.com
www.swimfromobesity.com
www.trimywill.blogspot.com
Support Group: www.obesityhelp.com/group/Post_Op_PRs/
Dan,
Thanks for sharing your trip report with us. I enjoy reading your race reports whether on this site or on your site. It gives me encouragement and some great lessons learned.
Last week I was going thru some doubt issues on whether or not I could comeplete my HIM in about a month, but once again your race report has given me encouragement to take on those challenges that face us. I actually spent some time laast evening reading thru your website and getting some encouragement from your words. Thanks....
Curt
Thanks for sharing your trip report with us. I enjoy reading your race reports whether on this site or on your site. It gives me encouragement and some great lessons learned.
Last week I was going thru some doubt issues on whether or not I could comeplete my HIM in about a month, but once again your race report has given me encouragement to take on those challenges that face us. I actually spent some time laast evening reading thru your website and getting some encouragement from your words. Thanks....
Curt
Congratulations Dan on another inspiring performance!
Cassie
Cassie
"Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer."
Most Active
Recent Topics
