Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas

John did an awesome job below reviewing this race. i ran it this year (2011) for my first 70.3. the only thing i would add to his review and the reason i would give this 5 stars is the crowd participation. i was kind of dreading a 4 loop run. i thought it might get old and boring for the last 2 hours of a race when i had already been moving all morning. however the condensed course allowed spectators to be there throughout, not just at the finishing line. so during pretty much the whole run there were people there cheering the athletes on.
the whole event was a major success in my opinion. kudos to WTC and the race director on this one. having run many marathons ½ marathons and tri’s this is one of my favorite so far.

«Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.» This quote from the first Iron Man movie pretty much sums up how I decided to sign up for the 70.3 Hermann Memorial Lonestar Ironman despite
1. Never having participating in triathlons before
2. Never swam competitively or spent much time in the water in years.
3. Never having done a bike race.
For those who have never heard of the 70.3 Ironman competition, it consists of swimming 1.2 miles, cycling 56 miles and running 13.1 miles for a total of 70.3 miles. That had a sprint and olympic triathlon a day before this but I decided to sign up for the 70.3 ironman 3 – 4 days prior just because I thought it would be an awesome thing to do especially since its relatively close to home.
I soon realized how serious an event this was. People from all over the world were here for this it was a qualifiying event for Kona and Clearwater. Registration was hectic and slightly confusing. I had to get in line to have someone check me off a list and get into another line line to be told that I have to know my bib number outside of the tent to get into another line. Sounds confusing? Good… because that’s how I felt that day. When all was said and done, I got a sturdy gear bag with a headsweats cap and shirt along with my swimming cap and electronic racing chip. I check out all the Ironman store and bought an elastic bib holder because you have to have the bib positioned behind you for the bike portion and then have the bib position in front of you for the running section. I listened to someone telling us about all the rules of Ironman such as having to wear a shirt at all times during the bike and run sections, no drafting allowed and no family running with you on the course. I later checked my bike into the transition area and left for home.
The next morning was hectic as I was bringing in all my gear to the transition area trying to set up my area. The port a potties were on the far side of the transition area away from the start line. The race was wet suit legal so I suited up and proceeded to walk to the start line. People were already in the water getting warmed up and a few of them cut their feet on the oyster beds. I was in the first wave right after the pros. I think I kicked someone in the face right after I jumped in the water. Swimming was torture for me. Everyone just cut through the water as if they were a hot knife cutting through butter. I probably looked like I was swimming in a molasses. As I «swam», it felt like someone was dunking my head in the water over and over as I gasped for air/​ingested a sips of salt water at a time for what seemed like forever. I think I was lost at sea for a time as well. I finally reached land and was greeted by strippers… wet suit strippers that helped me out of my suit.
I proceeded to run to transition area to put on my bike gear and ran my bike over to the bike mounting area. I just had my road bike while everyone else had their fancy time trial bikes with aerowheels. I mainly stayed on the side and let others pass me since I was still recovering from the swim. I was used to being on bike rides where you can dismount your bike to refuel. There was none of that here. Bottles of water, gatorade and banannas were being distributed by volunteers to cyclists zooming by. I wasn’t able to catch a few bottles at some stations. We had to throw our trash in designated areas or get a penalty if caught in the act. There was a head wind leaving and returning from Moody Gardens and it was cloudy for the most part.
By the time I got back to for the run, the sun was out and this complicated things to say the least. I’m used to running races in the mornings when it is nice and cool not this midday nonsense with the sun beating me down after swimming and cycling for several miles. At least there was plently of gatorade, water, gels, bannanas, oranges and most importantly ice cold sponges. I would grab around 3 – 4 every mile to prevent my body temperature from going nuclear. I finished the race and got a medal to show everyone at work the next day what I did. The course was 13.1 miles but you had to do 4 laps. There were times while I was running when I was unsure how many laps I had done since I was getting delirious from the fatigue and heat.
This wasn’t the smartest thing I ever did, but I’m glad I did it. And I’ll be going back for more next year since I signed up for Ironman Texas in the Woodlands.