The race is now 100% full - when we signed up it was at 99% and was one of two races left in the US for the 2011 race season - so if I wanted to get my Ironman 70.3 in 2011 it was either Miami or Austin Texas. Austin was a possibility but turned out to be a bit more expensive to get to - and I have an aunt that is graciously letting us stay with her that lives less than an hour from Miami, so Miami seemed like the right place to go. It was staying pretty warm on the east coast through the beginning of October, we even had a weekend where we hit 80 and instead of doing training in the morning, we waited until 1pm to go so that we could train at the hottest part of the day here. Now it's a bit colder than Miami so I'm a little worried about adjusting to the heat since I'll be getting to Miami the day before the race, which doesn't leave much time for acclimating to the hotter weather. For training I kept up what I was doing for the Pocono Mountains 70.3 and have been doing Crossfit WODs two times a week, a longer run, an interval or tempo workout, and one long bike or brick workout per week. I've been trying to add some yoga in, with the goal of once per week and that has been helping too. That leaves me with 5 or 6 days "on" if you count doing yoga as a workout day and one rest day. I have to admit that I'm starting to get a little burned out. I haven't done much swimming, so my swim time will be interesting. I got in the pool last week and did 2400 meters and am confident in my ability to do and finish the swim, but I have no idea how fast I'll be!
This race is different from the others I've done, where Tim (my husband is also doing the race) will be starting between 45 minutes and 1 hour AFTER me. Usually I'm the one that starts that late behind him, so my goal in this race will be to get the 70.3 and for him NOT to pass me! In our last race our times were about 30 mins apart but he had a SNAFU on the bike with 2 flats, and I'm just slow on the bike. If you're interested in following us you can through ironman live. Looks like I'll be starting 40 minutes after the official race start, in Wave 9 with a Sliver cap - I hope it's metallic and sparkly! Tim will be all the way at the end in one of the Age Group - Male 30 - 34 waves 22, 23, or 24.
The Swim course will start and end at the same place which means turns! There are 3 turns in this course which shouldn't be too bad. This looks a lot like the swim in the Brigantine Triathlon, except instead of being 400 meters long it 1.2 miles - just a little bit longer :) I'm not sure about wetsuits, the water temperature is right there at the line where we may get to wear them or maybe not. I'll have mine regardless but am not worried about doing the swim without a wetsuit - I did both Olympic Tri's without a wetsuit and this is only an additional 300 meters of swimming compared to the .9 miles in those races. The Bike and Run have a much larger jump in distance from an Olympic Distance Race to a Half Ironman distance.
I haven't heard much about the course for the bike or the run, but know that Florida is a LOT flatter than the Poconos so hopefully that will help me a little since I'm not an exceptional climber and am afraid to go too fast down hills. There isn't as much activity via twitter and facebook as we had for the Poconos race, and what we have found has been in Spanish - Miami is definitely a bilingual area. The run will be along the coast so hopefully we'll be getting a nice coastal breeze! Both courses are out and back which means we also only have 1 transition which is great because the two transition and then finish being a mile away from transition where all of your things were was not the best situation - especially when the post race food is usually far from Paleo friendly and leaves me with not much to eat!
So watch out Miami, here I come and I'm determined to race all 70.3 miles that you have ready for me!
wish we could be there to take pictures, tweet, and drive for you. Have fun and enjoy the weather!
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