Matty White

Racine 70.3

Racine is a small little town on the shores of Lake Michigan which hosted the 70.3 ironman race this year and in turn attracted a strong field of both men and women. Craig Alexander the reigning 2 time ironman world champion was racing, plus a host of other strong athletes such as TJ Tollakson, Tim Berkel, Bryan Rhodes and Luke Bell. It is always great to race against Craig as there is no better measuring stick in the sport of long distance triathlon than to race against the best so I always relish the opportunity.
I arrived in Milwaulkie with my roommate Tim Berkel who is having a stellar US season just coming off a 2nd place finish to Bozzone in the Rhode Island 70.3 only a week before. For me personally I was not that confident going into the race as I have been feeling really heavy and sluggish in training since the Ironman I did only 3 weeks before. So lining up on the start line against a strong field such as this I really was not sure how the legs would hold up.
The actual race itself is held on the shores of Lake Michigan which is a massive expanse of water about 80km across, it actually has its own tidal system because of how large it is! Water temperature was cold to say the least hovering about 17 degrees so it was a wetsuit legal swim and also a beach start which I believe there should be more of. I don’t know what it is with the US races but everytime with the miniature cannon WHY? And everytime I fall for the same mistake of standing next to it thinking that its only a small cannon and its only going to make a gentle little sound, WRONG it nearly blows your head off!
I had a great start leading out to the first buoy and managedto hold onto Rhodesy’s feet for the first half of the swim, I settled into a nice rhythm and manage to exit on the feet of Craig and Bell which I was really happy with. The atmosphere at the race was really good with a set out similar to Geelong where spectators could sit on a grassy slope and watch each lap. On the bike I didn’t feel great but decided to do my best to stay with Crowie, Bell, Tollakson. Josh Rix also was riding with us along with Rhodesy so the pace was hot and that reflected in a slick PB 2.05hr bike split for the 90km! I certainly wont complain about the roads in Port Macquarie again after this race as the roads in Racine were terrible and bumpy.

Toward the later half of the bike the temperature really started to climb as did the humidity so I knew the run leg would be really hard, so with not a lot of confidence with my running and knowing my run legs were still only about 85% from ironman I decided to race conservatively and not go out too hard as the temperature was climbing toward the mid to high 30s. Craig really hit the run hard shelling everyone who came off the bike with him. I hung tough and ran into 2nd with Rix hanging with me for the first few miles, before he necame another casualty of this brutal day.

The run course is mainly flat with a few rolling hills but despite that the rising temperature really caused carnage out there, with big time gaps in the pro fields. Luckily for me I had a nice 5 minnute buffer to Tollakson who was running into 3rd and Craig was a further 5 minutes up the road on me. I really felt the effects of having done a tough ironman 3 weeks before but the signs were really encouraging especially knowing that I have some more 70.3s coming up in July/August.
It was a nice Aussie one two with Craig taking another win and myself hanging in there for 2nd to snatch my best result so far in US soil. I hit the line in 3.55hrs and was only the 2nd person to go under 4hrs on this tough day. Tollakson was 3rd in 4hrs flat. My roommate Timmy Berkel was definitely feeling the effects of the week before and called it a day after the bike deciding to save his energy for Challenge Copenhagen in 4 weeks time the uncanny thing about my result is that Tim and I are now equal with our results with both finishing 2nd, 3rd and a 4th positions in our last 3 70.3 races. As for the other Aussies Josh Rix was 7th, Bell punctured on the bike at the 60km mark and Adam Holborrow was still feeling the effects of jetlag and also punctured at the start of the bike.

Overall I am really looking forward to hitting some 70.3 races in the back end of the season and this race was a great springboard toward that. My next race will be in Steelhead 70.3 in a few weeks. As for now though I head back to Boulder with Tim then we are heading up to Breckenridge which is at 10,000ft in the mountains with Adam Holborrow and Mitch Robins for a week long training camp where the boys are starting their training campaign for the Copenhagen Ironman in August. I will try and post some pics of the camp as I hear its pretty awesome up there, plus it will be a great break from Boulder and a good change of scenery.

Thanks again for the great support, and its really great to have the Aussies going so well over here on US soil.

Matty