The Scoop on 2018 70.3 Worlds in South Africa

Last month I was lucky enough to race Ironman South Africa (Ironman African Championships). My Husband, Scott, is from South Africa and the location of the race was his hometown, Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay). He and his brothers would even launch their inflatable boat (rubber duck is the South African term) on the same beach from where we would do the swim and transition. We were already going to be in South Africa for a family wedding 2 weekends prior so I decided to race with the many thanks to the family that supported all the logistics involved!

An added benefit is I would learn some useful information on the race that could help my athletes, friends and maybe even an internet visitor to this site racing 70.3 Worlds this year; as it’s at the same location as Ironman South Africa (IMSA).

Here is some of the scoop I learned on the course specifics, nutrition and logistics. It’s focused on travel from the US but many parts are applicable to traveling from other locations.

Course: 

Swim:

The swim is located at Kings Beach about 1 mile from the expo (The Boardwalk) and the location of the swim for IMSA (Hobie Beach). It is a rectangular swim. I recommend at least one practice swim to work on figuring out site lines etc. A big harbor with cranes is located off to the distance that may be useful for siting. It’s a protected bay but can be wavy. Some days the course was quite rough but other days almost flat ocean swimming. Prepare at home by practicing ocean swims and starting from the beach if you have the capability.

Bike:

The bike is slightly different than the Ironman course. The two biggest things I found were the roads are very rough as well as the potential for very high winds. Potholes weren’t the issue but just a really rough surface. Not as much an issue in a 70.3, but can tire the body more than a smooth course. The course itself is one of the most spectacular bike rides I can remember with tide pools, beach vistas and sand dunes. My Father-in-Law told me that Port Elizabeth is the second most windy city in the world to Chicago. Two days before our race the wind was whipping at more than 25mph sustained. It was crazy and luckily we didn’t have that wind on race day. The prevailing winds are easterly or westerly which can make for some fun headwinds on race day!

The biggest climb is right at the start of the ride, ~200 feet over about 7 miles. Nothing like the 2017 Chattanooga starting climb! There are some additional climbs near the turn around but much shorter and about 50-75 feet in climbing each. The rest of the course is flat to false flattish of ~1%ish with some long stretches of minor grades and some light rollers.

If you can before the race, drive the race course. I highly recommend if you do ride it you do the group ride that is in the athlete guide as especially in the first several miles you will be riding on roads with lots of traffic (watch out for the many taxi-vans!!). If you cannot do the group ride, I would recommend going out on beach towards Summerstand and on to Seaview (the second half of the course), and skipping the city part all together (the first part of the course).

Not to be forgotten, you drive on the left side of the road in South Africa! This is another reason to do a pre-race ride if you can to get acclimated to riding on the other side of the road!

Run:

The run is very similar to what we did at IMSA. It is pretty flat. And probably the most highly spectated race than I have ever done and includes cheerleaders! There are several sections where the people were several deep. The South Africans take their sport VERY seriously! Many are not triathletes but just fans of Sport. You will get many offers to join them for a beer while you are racing. So fun!

Cheerleaders!

There are two hills on the two loop course. Both are at the turnarounds. I recommend checking these out before race day. We did the second one during the Ironman and it was not steep at all! This course has about 1/3 the elevation gain of the hilly Chattanooga 70.3 Worlds course.

Nutrition (if you are not going to take race nutrition from the course skip ahead):

The race website doesn’t have nutrition information updated yet, but, the High5 rep at the Ironman expo told me High5 will be the drink provider on the course. https://highfive.co.uk/ 

High5 at the Expo.

You can’t really buy this nutrition in the US currently. We have used Probikekit based in England before (they typically have good prices) if you want tot try the nutrition beforehand: https://www.probikekit.com/brands/high5.list?search=high5 

The specific High5 drink is called Advanced Sports Drink Mix Energy Source (now apparently called Energy Drink). The flavor on both run and bike courses was Citrus. Nutritional information in South Africa is listed differently than in the US and can be a little confusing.

On the bike course it was passed out in these small bottles that were filled not all the way to the top. Each was filled with about 13 ounces.  On the run course High5 was in standard paper cups. Doing some conversions, I estimate that each ~13 ounce bottle has about 150 calories and 200mg of sodium.

Bike bottle and High5 on the course

Also, on the run course, the water is provided in sealed pouches of about 3-4 ounces. To open you just tear off a corner by biting the corner. They are actually quite convenient as you can carry it with you as you go. But watch at aid stations, they can become slippery on the ground!

Logistics:

Getting to South Africa:

Since I am from the Northern VA area, this is centered around leaving from Dulles or the East Coast.

The “quickest” way to get there is on South African Airways – “17 and change hours” to Johannesburg – but note there is a layover in West Africa where you don’t get off the plane and wait as people deplane and board. This layover is typically in the middle of the night. Not very pleasant.

Another option is to fly out of JFK on South African Airways or Atlanta on Delta. The flights are 15 hours and non-stop! There are also several options flying through Europe, UAE or Qatar, but the time to Johannesburg is going to be 4-10 hours longer. Going through Europe/Middle East also allows you to fly to Cape Town.

Then once in Johannesburg it’s another 2 or so hour flight. The race site is only a few miles from the Port Elizabeth Airport.

We carried my bike on our flights (we actually did 7 individual flights on the trip). I have a Ruster Sports Hen House bike box and it worked perfectly. On the domestic flights within the country we paid for the bike in advance. It worked out to about 25 US dollars (R300) per domestic flight which was mcuh cheaper than paying oversize and extra baggage weight fees. The bike was free as it was included in our baggage allotment on our flight from the US. Happily my bike made it on every flight on time!

6 people, 7 flights, 20 days, 6 pieces of luggage, bike box, stroller, car seat, 6 bookbags and no lost or delayed luggage – MIRACLE!

Hotels:

There are quite a few hotels along the run course. I am not sure how many still have availability but most seemed to be centered around the Boardwalk area where the expo is located. If you are unable to find available rooms near the Boardwalk, I would recommend looking towards the beach area of Summerstand over Humewood. Prettier, and felt safer.

We stayed at one of the Lodge properties and it was suitable and very convenient.

Race logistics:

I found racing in South Africa to be very organized. The race briefing was listed as mandatory and I am glad I went. They really explain everything that you need to hear and it’s much more complete than the ones in the US. You won’t get the Athlete guide as early as you want (only a few weeks before the race) but once you get it, I found it VERY helpful.

The race itself had more officials than I had ever seen at a race. Many more than a big US Ironman on the bike (better than Texas – HAH) but what was most different was the run. There were officials walking down the center of the course. I saw at least 10 different ones race day! For example, they were strictly enforcing the exposed chest rule on male athletes.

Tourist stuff:

Addo Elephant park was excellent! Highly recommend it, especially if you don’t have time to do another side trip in South Africa. Near the bike turnaround in Seaview is a predator park. Scott went on his last trip to South Africa and really enjoyed it.

That being said if you are traveling that far I highly recommend visiting some other parts of South Africa. This could be a post in itself but my favorites on this trip were Stellenbosch wine farms (great riding too!) and Cape Town.

Mulderbosch Wine Farm – also had the best pizza I have ever tasted.

One thing we didn’t have time to do this trip was a Safari or visiting a game reserve. There are private game reserves about 1-1.5 hours from Port Elizabeth, but they can be pricey ($300-600 per person per night). Large national parks such as Kruger are a 2-3 hour flight away.

Note: Whale watching season is in September and worth a trip to Hermanus or Plettenburg Bay.

Food/restaurants, groceries:

Food, restaurants, alcohol and groceries are VERY affordable in South Africa (hint hint one of the many reasons I loved the Stellenbosch wine farms). One of my favorite restaurants in Port Elizabeth is Something Good which is located in Summerstrand on the run course. Wimpy is an extremely affordable chain of diner like restaurants (perfect for pre-race and post-race breakfasts and there is one in the Boardwalk next to the expo). If you have kids with you on the trip you have to try out a Spur as most have a indoor play area staffed with a nanny and they have some level of “American” food such as steaks (they call them filets pronounced FILL-IT) and burgers.

Grocery stores were underwhelming. Many things we are used to they just don’t have. I never found a bagel or applesauce. But they had some other cool things like meat pies for breakfast! The nicest (and most expensive most of the time) grocery store is Woolworths.

Communications:

Unlock at least one phone in your traveling group with your phone carrier and purchase a sim card in any grocery store or gas station. You can get 2GB of data for the equivalent of 10 dollars.

Driving:

Don’t take African Taxi-buses. When returning rental cars really look over your receipt, they sometimes like to try and sneak over-charges.

Overview:

The trip to South Africa was just amazing. We had a fabulous time. Hopefully reading this blog helps with your planning to South Africa or helps you make a decision whether or not to take a slot. Email me at fiv3racing@gmail.com if you have any questions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

70.3 Worlds RR – Coach Shelly

Back in the pre-Bode days I tried quite a few times to qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. I got “kind of” close but never met my goal. After Bode, when he was 6 months old, I qualified in my first race back for the 2016 Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Australia. I was shocked when a slot made it to me and we took it not yet realizing the race was on Bode’s first birthday. Australia was really a fabulous experience and I hoped to qualify again one day. We decided after I had done three 70.3s and Ironman Lake Placid in 2016 that 2017 would be a year of Sprints. That was until I got a Women for Tri slot for my All World Athlete ranking back in February. Hell yes I will take a slot!

I had been doing no biking or swimming and very little running (since Australia!!!) back in February and quickly got back on board with Coach Liz (Multisport Mastery). We started again April 1st with a season laid out as 70.3 Worlds as my “A” race of the year, with a few sprints and the Bay Swim in the spring race season.

Training in some HOT Virginia weather.

The sprints and the bay swim went well. I was really enjoying my training for the fast stuff, averaging between 6 hours (hello sick baby or coaching training camps) to 11 hours. Very reasonable, I won my Age group in the 3 sprints I completed and was happy with my bay swim time.

In July it was time to get serious about my training, both Bode and I got pretty sick on top of that we had a family vacation. That month was a bust.

Driving around Deep Creek on the Ladybug

August 1st I was ready to GO! I had a great month and some of my most solid training post baby! 10-14 hours and my training was really focused. The highlight of that month was the training we did at Deep Creek at Nathan’s late summer training camp. I never felt so prepared for hills that I would face in Chattanooga between Deep Creek and the couple of rides we did on Skyline. My run was also going quite well for me – hitting a 100 mile month for August.

Enjoying some big ice cream post lots of working out

Race week came and we traveled half way down to the race on Wednesday night and the rest the next morning with a few of my athletes that were racing. When we arrived on Thursday we went straight to packet pickup, ate a bunch of pizza at Mellow Mushroom and then headed over to our house on Lookout Mountain. The house was great – we had hang gliders flying right over the house – the views were spectacular!

Hang gliders so close you could almost talk to the person

 

Mellow Mushroom!

It was a little challenging race week as I was racing with two of my athletes on Saturday (Cindy and Denise) and 7 others were racing on Sunday (Chuck, Nathan, Trey, Jason, Kevin, Michael and Rob). I also had a few doing Ironmans all over the world as well as the big event at home, the Reston World Championships! I was a little scattered but tried to stay focused on the race.

Saturday morning I woke up pretty positive and excited to race. For maybe the first time I was excited the swim was wetsuit legal as I really have found a groove with my new Roka wetsuit. I went to the swim start, made a few friends pre-race and was happy to be in the first AG wave as we had a front line view of the Pro start! I had decided as part of my race plan to take the first half of the race like a training day. Not to overdo it in the swim or the first half.

SWIM 33:24 – 34th AG

I seeded myself right in the middle of the rolling wave start. This format was great – very little contact and the current did not seem that bad. The water temp/air temp were just perfect. One of the most enjoyable swims I can remember. Kept it easy and relaxed and came out with my heart rate not too high.

T1 – 4:56

Transitions at both of the 70.3 Worlds I have done are quite long. Lots of athletes and you do bike and run gear bags like an Ironman. There were wetsuit strippers and everything went calmly until I tried to put my bike shoes back into the bag instead of carrying them to my bike (long run, chose to run barefoot until my bike).

BIKE 3:03:31 – 94th AG

I took the first 5 miles VERY easy. I honestly didn’t feel that good. I think you want to feel perfect the whole race but it just doesn’t happen. Kept telling myself, just take it easy and it will improve. Good news is it did. I loved the climb at this race. It was not easy, but never felt hard. I had told myself that I was going to get passed a lot on the climb and it definitely happened. Combination of a speedier than average swim and a climb (not my strength from a height/weight perspective) – this was going to happen. And it did! I only got passed for the first 15 or so miles! And that’s ok – I told myself I would see some later – and I did. I wanted to keep my watts as low as possible. I was at ~75% FTP for the first 5 miles. At the top of the climb I was at 91% FTP – oops I went as easy as possible and it was still quite high. The top of the mountain was rollers. The highlight of the ride for sure was when my guys came out to the course, took off their shirts and shook them like a lasso over their heads. I could hear ladies behind me hooting and hollering. Fun!

I was really excited for the downhill – as I had driven it and the guys had given me a report when they had ridden it the day before. I knew I could go down it brake-less and that most athletes were going to be focused on the uphill and not how to optimize speed in this section. Oh and this is a place my height/weight combination is a big help! I passed a ton of Ladies here. This is when the passing started – and passing many that passed me on the uphill. Was very fun!

The rest of the ride I honestly felt better than I have ever in a 70.3 I was fueled, excited and just having fun. Oh and I was still passing as many as passed me which is a much more positive race experience! I ended up drinking 4 bottles (2 osmo, 2 GE) and eating 3/4 of a powerbar, 6 salt stick tabs and 50mg of a caffeine pill at mile 40.  I was singing “Drop it Like it’s Hot” in my head. And I did – ended up at 86% FTP for the ride – way above goal.

T2 – 1:55

This one was fast. Bike catchers, got my shoes on and left. In retrospect I was quite speedy and made up a tiny bit of time here.

RUN 2:02:25 – 173 AG

Some of the Fiv3 cheering squad

My goal for this one was sub-2. Which I knew with the heat/hills was going to be a huge challenge. My 70.3 PR is 1:53 on a very flat course and this was pre-baby (aka when I used to train A TON MORE). At Australia last year I ran a 2:06 on a cooler day, much easier course. I was REALLY happy with this run. Especially with the watts I rode on the bike! From the start my legs felt fantastic.

I kept the first out and back controlled, but was hard as there was a ton of crowd there. The first big hill loomed and definitely ran it a bit too hard (my max heart rate for the entire race!). At the 4 mile mark I was still sub 9 and I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to keep that kind of pace on the relentless hills but I did my best to keep pushing. It was great to see Scott and Kevin so many times on the course! And I got another “show” from the guys when I went over the veterans bridge – SO FUN!

I sometimes find my mind wandering on the race course – especially when the run gets hard but this time I tried to focus on finding tips and things I could tell my athletes that were racing the next day. The format of the ladies getting to race first certainly helped me to focus on what I could tell the guys for the next day.

Not much to say here but the run hurt like it should and I don’t feel like I could have gotten much more time out of this race than I did. My midpack finish was actually another one of my goals for this race. I know that my racing is not 100% my priority anymore between my family and my athletes but I am glad I can still do these things and really enjoy them. I really focus on making smart execution plans/decisions and following them through. Do the little things right that are easier to implement than another 5 hours of training a week. Many thanks to Coach Liz who helps me focus the time I do have. As always thanks to Scott for not only enabling this crazy life we have but also being my number one supporter!

Coach-Spectating on Sunday:

The celebrations after the race were quite epic as well!

That view from our house was noteworthy