Race Report 

Jeff Caplan 

Ironman Florida, 11/2/13

I went into Ironman Florida with a feeling of cautious optimism. The 2013 race season had gone fairly well for me at the short-course and half ironman levels. The only race that left me disappointed was Ironman Louisville where I didn’t respond well in the heat. Training before and after Louisville had gone extremely well with strong numbers and pacing across the board – my coach Gerry Halphen and I were seeing exactly what we wanted to see in terms of bike watts, run pacing and other markers. I also was extremely hungry for a good result, as the last time I felt like I had really nailed an Ironman was Florida in 2011.

This fellow was at the Florida visitor center on the Flora-Bama border -- those are tri-bikes painted on it!

The couple of days before the race were produced significant nerves among all the triathletes in Panama City due to some rough weather. The two days leading into the race saw very strong winds, rough waters, and some heavy rain. The forecast for race day was excellent however with a favorable wind, mild temps, and low humidity. I spent most of the few days leading into the race hanging out with Jeff Brandenberg and a number of other folks from his Columbia, SC tri group. I was also fortunate enough to have Ben and Traci Holliday as my sherpas for the race. They were great folks to spend time with – very relaxed and easy-going.

Having a high-tech sherpa provided a strategic advantage! 

One thing that’s really nice about doing a race for the ninth time is that you have a set routine (to put it mildly). I started off race day with a bagel with peanut butter, banana and honey, an Ensure, and a Starbucks canned Double-Shot. I always like to run a bit early because I have had situations where I’ve been greeted by a flat tire when arriving at transition. I got down to body marking about 4:45, got my tires pumped, set up my bike, and then chilled with Ben until it was time to head to the beach.

Surfing, anyone?

For this year, Ironman has been experimenting with a number of different formats for its race starts as part of its “Safe Swim” initiative. I know there are a number of folks in the sport who aren’t fans, but I’m a huge fan – anything you can do to make the sport safer, all the better. I wasn’t a fan, however, of the particular format they used at Ironman Florida. The concept was that athletes would self-seed themselves once they crossed the timing mat and entered the swim corral. The self-seeding was to have been done horizontally going length of the beach, with faster swimmers closest to the buoy line for the counter-clockwise swim and slower swimmers at the far end. Signs were posted with estimated swim finish times to assist people in correctly seeding themselves. While it made sense on paper, the start line resembled a bell curve with a huge bulge in the middle. I was in the middle with the 1:10 – 1:20 group, and just got wailed on once the race started. This wasn’t helped by the fact that there were some pretty sizable breakers at the start that shoved everyone on top of each other. It was so bad that I actually had a mini-panic attack about 5-6 minutes into the race. I tried to stay calm and just swim to the right to get to some clean water. After a while I was able to do so and to find my stroke. I wound up doing around 40 min on the first loop and 37 the second loop. Given the start, I wasn’t unhappy.

Transitions in Florida aren’t known for being the quickest in the sport, but I moved through T1 pretty well. It felt good to get on the bike and get rolling. I did a gel in transition to recover from the swim, and then my plan on the bike was to take in a 600 calorie bottle of Infinit during the first 2 ½ hours. After that I did one gel every 20 minutes with a gulp of EFS liquid on the 10 minutes between the gels. The only solid I did was a Clif Bar at the 3 hour mark. For hydration I tried to go through at least one bottle of water per hour. In terms of effort level on the bike, the plan was to average 175 watts for the first half of the bike and then either hold or slightly increase watts the second half. It was kind of funny because I can’t say that I felt that great on the bike, but I was totally nailing it – my watts the first half were 175 and the second half were 181 (note: body weight for the race was 69.5 kg). Thanks to the awesome weather, my heart rate was low zone 2 for the majority of the ride. I wound up finishing in 5:21.

Although I started off as a runner, my Achilles heel in triathlon is definitely running. When I left T2, however, my legs felt great and like I had a lot of zip. I was pretty pumped from the ride and also in knowing that I’d be seeing so many friends alongside the course – there were a ton of ATL folks who had come down to PCB to spectate and provide support. The first ten miles of the run when pretty well, but I felt like I was starting to hit a trough around mile 11. My primary nutrition plan was to do gels every 3 miles, salt every 5 miles, coke every two miles, and lots of water. By that point in the race, however, I was really starting to get sick of gels and was not getting enough nutrition. After a few miles of a slower run-walk, I switched over to potato chips at the aid stations – the salt tasted great, and a couple of handfuls seemed to get me enough carbs. Once I got back out to St. Andrews Park on the 2nd lap I was moving with more purpose.

Oooof.  That is all.

The last 10K of any Ironman is always a challenging stretch. On the one hand, you are buoyed by the emotions of knowing that you are almost done. On the other hand, you’ve still got a ways to go and you’re hurting! This might have been the most I’ve hurt during any of the 18 Ironmans that I’ve done. I saw Ben Holliday with about two miles left, and that gave me a boost. With a mile left, both legs were cramping and I had a really bad side stitch. Near the finish, I saw my friend Harvey Gayer – he looked at me and yelled “RUN!” If I needed any motivation, that was it. A couple of minutes later I finished with an 11:53, my second fastest Ironman (and the fastest in five years).

I'd worked every single day for five years to see this result.  Happy!

There are many amazing things about triathlon – it’s a wonderful lifestyle and a great way to test yourself and your limits. My favorite thing about the sport is the people with whom you get to train, race, and work. This race was notable for all the support I got from Gerry Halphen (my coach), Ben and Traci Holliday, everyone at all3Sports.com and my all3Sports.com teammates, Dynamo Multisport (thanks Shanks and Matthew!), Dan Arnett and the Endurance Concepts team, and everyone who provided words of encouragement and support both before and after the race. As always the biggest thanks is reserved for my wife Lucye and my sons, for their patience and support – this wouldn’t be any fun without them.

See you in 2015!