My first triathlon was a 70.3: here's how it went
As I trained for my first 70.3 many of the experiences and advice on here were helpful so I thought I'd share mine! Any questions, advice, or critiques are welcome!
**TL/DR Summary**: I'm a big dude who's below average endurance athlete currently with only \~18 weeks to train. It was insanely hot and hilly and I was slow but I finished! I was expecting this to be a 1 and done thing but I may do another (ask me in a couple weeks).
**Why I did it:** I set a goal for New Years this year to say yes to things that people asked me to do. Big mistake because a couple days later a friend texted me and asked me to do this race. I was NOT stoked especially because of my hatred of running and my relative fitness level + lack of what I felt was sufficient time to train. However, I decided to give it my best shot genuinely thinking that I might not be able to finish.
**Some of my personal stats to start:**
* Height: 6'7" (201cm) * Age group: 30-34 * Starting weight: 267lbs (121kg) * Weight at race day: 250 (113kg) * No formal swimming experience, haven't run in 10 years, mountain biking is a primary hobby with an occasional road ride * Started Training: 01/06/2025 * Race Day: 05/10/2025 (St. George 70.3) * Total # of weeks to train: 17.7 (124 days) * Amount of training: 120 hours total (about 7 hours/week)
**My results**
* Swim: 50:26 * Ride: 3:19:56 (17mph, 27.3 kmh) * Run: 2:54:52 (13:15/mile, 8:14/km) * Transition time: 13:39 (8:39 T1, 5:00 T2) * 185/208 in age group
Past experience, how the training went, and what I learned for each event:
* Swimming: No prior formal experience but a decent swimmer for someone who never trained. Also my 1 party trick is that I can hold my breath for 5+ minutes so that helps * Training - I didn't do as much swimming as I should have. I also didn't do ANY open water swimming which I knew was a mistake but it was hard as most of the time training was in winter and I didn't get the balls to go swim in freezing water. However, rather than just going to the pool to swim every time I went I practiced spotting and worked on technique. * Race Day - I knew it would be very different based on advice and experiences shared here and IT WAS. It was so disorienting, on top of the boats rocking the water and people hitting me, the sun was cresting right in line with the buoys. Most of the first half of the swim I couldn't tell left from right. I got quite nauseous and disoriented. * What I learned - Just keep moving, my swim was FAR from perfect and nothing quite prepares you for race day. I know I could improve a lot just based on what I learned while in the race. Doing a shorter race to get that experience would have been great. Getting out of the water I felt nauseous and terrible. I took a longer time in T1 just trying to get my head straight because of it. * Biking * Training - This is my personal strongest event. I'm a big dude so hill climbs are harder but I'm a downhill demon. I did most of my training on a trainer using trainerroad and due to my prior experience and the ease of use I saw the most improvement here despite it being my strongest event already. I'm mostly a mountain biker and so the technical skills and climbing involved there helped. * Race Day - I took it easy out the start gate as there were some decent climbs to start and I didn't want to burn myself out. I pushed decently hard on the final ascent up the notorious snow canyon and then tried to rest a bit on the descent into T2. This plan worked out well and I even started to enjoy myself on the ride. I used just a normal road bike and not a tri-bike. * What I learned - Mostly just that I still like biking more than the other events * Running * Training - I struggled immensely with running. I knew I was bad but I was still surprised at how bad it was. I struggled to stay in zone 2 which at the beginning was about the same pace as walking fast. I also was fighting knee and hip injuries throughout. About 2 weeks in I had immense knee pain that made nearly impossible to run (PFPS). I decided to take time off running until I felt better. This was a very hard decision and my lowest point in my training, I was scared that I wouldn't be able to train enough before the race. I replaced my runs with strength workouts and I didn't rush starting to run again. Although it sucked I think this turned out to be the best decision and all in all I took two weeks off running completely and slowly eased back into it. I listened to my body and took the advice to not over train. Ideally I would have had more time to ease into it and then be able to train harder in the 18 weeks leading up to the race. * Race Day - Holy shit was it hot and hilly (97f/36c). I knew I was going to be slow but it ended up being slower than expected (I think this is true for most everyone who did this race). I was resolved to at least jog slowly the whole race until at one point on one of the hills the person a few feet in front of my was walking and I was NOT catching up to them. From then on I walked the hills as briskly as I could manage. I was just fighting demons to finish by the end. * What I learned - I need to lose some weight and have some more time to train consistently. Taking the time to let my body recover and making sure I didn't aggravate injuries was a difficult decision but the right one.
Overall the experience was much better than I anticipated. I learned a lot about myself and how to train. I look forward to continuing to train and just in general be healthier going forward. The $500+ for the race fee seemed like a lot to me at the time but seeing how well the race was organized and run made it well worth it. The spectators, volunteers, and other racers were all so awesome and it was a great experience that I never expected to do.