Ironman 70.3 Florida (Disney World)

I just returned from Ironman 70.3 Florida held at Disney World. This was my first half-iron distance race and I had one of the best experiences possible for my first time.

On race day, the water temperature was ridiculously warm (wetsuits not permitted – so I bought a swim skin) with a nice flat surface. The wave starts also made the swim ideal; however, the super long transitions were less than ideal. 

 I headed out on the bike course just as the sun was coming out; however, I didn’t get overheated at all on the bike and there were 3 aid stations during the 90k bike to enable constant fueling and hydration.  While cycling is my weakness, I consider this course to be quite ideal for novice level cyclists. It was mostly flat with some rolling hills to enable you to pick up some speed and there was barely any wind. The bike course was very well supervised with a lot of volunteers and police to assist at aid stations and restrict traffic interference.  The bike to run transition was also very long. 

As for the run course, it was a 3 loop flat course around Fort Wilderness Resort (Disney World). While this seems ideal, approximately 75% of the course was on grass trail without any shade. Luckily, I consider running to be my strength as I did end up running the entire course (I must have passed hundreds of people who simply walked parts of the course – likely due to exhaustion and overheating – as it was between 32-35deg C + humidity on race day).  I finished in just over 6 hours.

Personal Lessons Learned from This Course: Constant hydration (with gels and salt tablets!) was key to my success, shorter transitions (I took way to long as I was anxious about forgetting something on the bike!), pushing myself harder on the run (I was being conservative on this course as it was hot and I was scared I would overheat – however, in future, I plan to pick up the pace!).

All in all, this was a great first race and I would recommend this to anyone for their first half-iron distance. Lots of spectators (including my very supportive boyfriend and team running free member Arthur Kwok), aid stations, friendly volunteers, and nearby attractions make this race a very enjoyable experience!