It’s been a while since I did a race report as apart from last years CDA 70.3 I’ve been taking a break but just completed the 2025 CDA 70.3 and wanted to write a little race report but also help people know what to expect for a half IRONMAN as it’s very different logistically from a full IRONMAN event.
Firstly I was not going to take part in this until 7 days before. I have been injured, swamped with house building things and had done zero swim or run training since Kona 2.5 years ago. Then on the Saturday before I thought “lets just give it a go” so on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I went to the local lake and swam 500 yards on Monday then 700 on Wednesday and Friday. The big thing here was to remember to SLOW DOWN, something on the Monday I had forgotten all about and wore myself out! On Tuesday and Friday I went for a little 2-mile run. That was the swim and run training. I had been doing quite a lot of biking on my Wahoo KICKR (indoor bike), still lifting weights and a LOT of work trimming and carrying trees on the new property at weekends, 6-8 hours at a time which as it turns out is quite a good endurance workout! This meant my expectations were super low, I just wanted to enjoy the day.
IRONMAN 70.3 Logistics
A half (70.3) IRONMAN is a much simpler event than a full. With a full there are multiple bags you get for bike gear, run gear, mid-point special needs, morning clothes bags. You must drop some of these off the day before in special places (along with your bike). There is none of this for a 70.3.
With a 70.3 you have to check-in by the day before, so if the event is on Sunday you just need to be there on Saturday. You go check-in, you get your chip, swim cap, bib, stickers and t-shirt, bag etc. Then you just have to put a big sticker on your bike, a little sticker on the bike stem and check the bike in, i.e. drop it off at your place in transition where all the bikes sit. You are now done!
On the race day you take your bag with you that has all your swim, bike and run gear. You need to have your bike helmet sticker placed on and have your bib in the bag for your run. You should also be wearing your chip. Race morning you can unpack and lay your bike and run gear out under your bike. There are no transition tents or other areas. You just have your spot under your bike that you come back to after the swim and bike. It’s very simple. Just make sure you pack everything you need. The best way to think about it is for each leg; swim, bike and run, visualize putting on all the gear and ensure you have it!
Race Day
Transition opened at 4:30 so I got up at 2am and left the house 3:30. I had applied some sunscreen even though the forecast called for a very cloudy day with highs around 65 and lows around 45 in the morning. I also opted to basically just wear my tri gear including running shoes so all I had in my bag were my bike helmet, bike shoes and things like bike and run glasses, towel, swim cap and wet suit.
I arrived around 4:15 and wandered around. I opted to just put my wetsuit on at my truck and put my tri shirt in my bag (since it was cold). At 4:30 I went into transition, put two bottles of Mortal Hydration on my bike (this is now the on course drink and is much better than Gatorade). Because it was cold I had already pumped my tires up to 90ish PSI, I wasn’t worried about them popping overnight so didn’t need to inflate my tires but there were plenty of spare pumps around as always. I chatted to a few people then at 5:30 made my way over to the swim start area.
There are no more mass starts, instead you get in a few people at a time every 3-5 seconds. You self-seed based on your expected swim time (just like in a full IRONMAN). I figured I would be 45 minutes but there was no 45 minute group, there was 40-43 then 50-55. Apparantly if you swam between 43-50 minute speed you would be disqualified 😁I did ask and they said they couldn’t find the sign. I therefore got in the front of the 50 minute group, this was a great decision.
The water temperature was around 65 degrees, so wetsuit legal, and water was pretty calm (but did start to get a little choppy on the swim back in). The event started at 6am but since I was in the 50 minute group we didn’t start to get in the water till about 6:45. They let in 2 people every 5 seconds so you were very well spaced out. It was a simple out and back course and visibility was great, only for the turn did you have the sun in your eyes for about a 100 yards.
Geting in with the 50 minute group was great. I was basically left alone for the entire swim. No one was swimming over me, wasn’t getting stuck behind people, loads of space. Although I hadn’t really done any swim training it went really well. Swim felt easy, I just kept focusing on “go slow”. Sighting the buoys was a little tricky as I can’t see well out of my right eye at the moment but really was not that bad. I completed the swim in 45 minutes which I was amazed at since that is about as fast as I’ve ever done a swim even when I did training!
As you exitted the swim there were wetsuit strippers. You just sit on your butt and they pull off your wetsuit, just hold on to your shorts! Short run to the bike. I dried off a little, put on my tri top, socks, shoes, helmet and glasses. Put on my bike computer, checked had both bottles, put some nutrition in my shirt (2 gels and a bar) then off I went to the bike mount point.
The first part of the bike was a little out and back and pretty flat. Then you went south down the lake and back which had a lot more hills. There is a big one at the start that went on forever and I was looking forward to zooming down it on the way back. There were aid stations every 15 miles ish that were well stocked with gels, bars, water, mortal hydration, bits of food and also port-a-potties. Volunteers as always were just amazing. I was pretty cold for at least the first 90 minutes but the air started to warm up as the ride went on but was cloudy so no sunshine.
I had been training about 190 watts at home so was pretty happy overall my average power was 190, obviously there were times downhill I was doing zero and times uphill I was pushing 350-400. My normalized power was 220. There was not much wind and really it was just a very pleasant, hilly course! The only bummer was on the way back down the big hill it was single file and no passing. A person in front of me I guess was nervous and went very slowly so I had to just sit on my brakes for the entire ride down. They need to be safe and you should always ride within your ability, just sucked as I was soooo looking forward to it 🤣
I had originally wanted to do the bike in 3 hours but multiple aid station stops to pee made sure that was not going to happen but overall I was happy with the ride. At this point with the swim time, transtitions and the bike I had my sights on 7 hours overall. This would mean a 2:45 half marathon.
I had a pretty quick T2. I put my bike on the rack, changed shoes, put on my running hat, glasses and race belt that had my bib on it and I was off. There was a sunscreen station and I added some just incase since it was about 65 now and some breaks in the cloud so a little sunshine. Was very nice conditions.
2:45 was constantly in my brain. I walk pretty fast, 4.5 mph so really I just needed to do 5mph the first hour and I would be pretty close to the required. My plan was to jog until my heartrate hit 140 then I would walk until it recovered to 120 then just rinse repeat. The exception being hills and aid stations that I would just walk. This is what I did for the entire 13.1 miles, I don’t know how with zero training, but it worked!
The course has a few little hills but really not bad at all. There were lots of aid stations so you never went more than a mile between them. It was a two loop course which was all beautiful. You ran along the lake, through the town, just a great, well supported course. The final couple of hundred yards is down the main street and is just awesome as people cheer you one (even people like me near the back!).
In the end I finished in 6:57:16 so was very happy to be under that 7 hour goal. I think I will actually properly train for the next one and go for 6:30 🤣
IRONMAN 70.3 CDA is an amazing event that should be on everyones list. It was after taking part in the IRONMAN full I fell in love with CDA and moved there!
The Iron Brit 