Race report - Ironman Pro Series, 70.3 Oceanside
Race: Ironman 70.3 Oceanside - Pro field
Date: April 6, 2024
AVRT Racers: Andrea Cloarec, 48th /71
Bike Course: The bike course takes you from beautiful Oceanside Harbor through Camp Pendleton, an active military base. After the first 20 miles, it becomes pretty hilly that makes the bike course longer than standard 70.3 bike courses.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11121521385
Nutrition: Plan was to get between 80 to 90g carbs per hour. Mostly with Maurten gels and Maurten 320
Recap: It was my first Professional race, with a pretty stacked field, for real, as it was the first race of the Ironman Pro series, and the first time an Ironman has that many pro athletes on the start line.
Quick swim recap: A catastrophe =). I thought I had improved at it, I know I have. But here I got lost on the course, couldn’t see where I was going, I lost all my marks. Arrived to T1 second to last. Quite embarassing..
70/ 71th. Very proud moment !
Bike Course Recap: (what matters for AV!): The start was not very enjoyable, I really wondered what I was doing here, in the pro field. I had nothing to do here after my performance on the swim. The top women were passing me, I did not want to interfere in their race, so I lost even more motivation. It lasted 1 hour.
After 1 hour around 280W, and passing some guys, I started to wake up. Thanks to the climbs, I sent them all, passing people on every climb, and finishing stronger the second half of the bike course averaging 320W on that second half. 45th time on the bike.
Quite annoying that my swim put me down, so I have to do the full bike alone, compared to most of the guys who can ride in big packs. That’s the rule, I need to improve my swim in order to get in the fast bike packs, and have a faster bike split.
Also a big thanks to the Women’s team for lending me their good TT helmet! And to Craig Riggins for letting me use his TT bike (as I still don’t have my TT bike…)
Quick Run recap: I was feeling good on the second part of the ride, caught my running teammate Kevin BIshop, who’s also racing his bike in Norcal races. And I was super happy to start the run with him. I knew I was feeling good, and I could just run at the pace I know. I finished the half marathon in 1h17min41s. 25th time on the run. To put me overall on 48th.
Not super happy with the overall as I did the exact same race than my last Age Group race (poor swim, OK bike, good run). And in the pro field, that’s not enough.
I’ll keep working on that, so I can put into good use my power on the bike, working with faster groups!
A lot more races to come against the best in the worlds, very motivating.
My schedule this year:
-May, 70.3 Aix en Provence, France
-June, 70.3 Boulder, CO.
-September, 70.3 Sunshine Coast, Australia
-September, 70.3 Augusta, GA
-December, 70.3 Indian Wells, CA