Ironman 70.3 Geneva, NY was on Sunday, July 13th. Only 3 weeks ago, but I had “planned” to write up a race report blog on the 15th, so this is a little late. It has been a busy 3 weeks of traveling, volunteering, and training, as well as some drastic ups and downs in my mood due to assorted personal issues. Finally, I have the energy and 3 hours of free time to get this done.
I had done the Musselman half-ironman distance triathlon in Geneva, NY (at the northern tip of Seneca Lake) many times between 2005 and 2015 (2009 photo below).
I completed several dozen half-ironman distance triathlons (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run) over the last 25 years, but none were ever “IRONMAN 70.3” races. Ten or fifteen years ago, the Ironman Corporation started buying up local half-distance races and rebranding them. They charge up to twice what a local half-ironman race costs, and most of their revenue must come from them now, as they have so many of them versus full (real) Ironman races. Here is the map of North America I saw at Lake Placid recently. They have cut back on the number of full Ironman races (only eight now in the US and just ONE in Canada). Black dots are 70.3s, and Red full Ironmans. Musselman was purchased a year or two before COVID by Ironman Corporation. It used to be 500-600 racers, but IM ramped it up to 2000 (while canceling Ironman 70.3 Syracuse at the same time).
Old Time Musselman was a very challenging course, but the Ironman 70.3 course has a less hilly bike and run (and also no more biking a few miles on a dirt trail or running up a hill on a rocky gravel path). This year, both the Buffalo Triathlon Club and the smaller Ionraic club (I belong to both) saw a surge in popularity, and the clubs even volunteered to sponsor a water stop. The BTC had the most competitors for local clubs (not even including the Ionraic people).
People always assume the race is called MUSCLEMAN when you say the name, but it is actually named MusselMan in honor of the invasive Zebra mussels that took over the lake a few decades ago. The water is now crystal clear due to the filtering process, but the lack of microorganisms has disrupted the lake’s ecology. The mussels are small but razor sharp, and in the old days, when the race didn’t have a fancy dock entry, people would get minor cuts on their feet that could become an issue on the run later. Some people swam with duct tape on their soles.
A few weeks before the race, I randomly found a vintage Mussleman stuffed toy in a box of old stuff! Back “in the day,” some people would take these on vacations and post photos of the Musselman in Alaska, Florida, etc.
In June, the Rochester Area Triathlon club (the RATS 🐀🐀) hosted a bike course preview ride and BBQ, which many of us from Buffalo attended. I was glad to get in a long ride as it had been a cold, rainy spring and my training had been awful (my Wahoo Kcker bike was, and still IS, being held hostage, so my winter riding was almost non-existent ). It was fun to ride and chat with triathletes from Rochester and Albany, and having a “guide” for each of the eight small groups aiming for specific paces was a great help (I was in the 17-18mph group, and as I averaged 17.6, I guess my guide did a good job). It was a little drizzly at first, but then it turned out to be nicely cloudy and cool. We all discussed how it was always hot for the race in the middle of July.
I drove to Geneva Friday afternoon, it is only an hour and a half from Buffalo.
I had snagged a room in the Hampton Inn, which was very close to the start/finish/transition area (which I hadn’t realized until getting to Geneva was no longer in the State Park but next to the town park instead). That was great, as I had assumed I would be driving to the State Park the morning of the race, but instead would have just a quarter-mile walk. I could even (barely) see the lake from my room.
I walked over to the Ironman “Village” to register, and it was pretty quiet as most people wouldn’t arrive until later at night or on Saturday.
It was a great tech shirt and a nice backpack, but I already have backpacks from my 3 Ironman races. I wonder what people who do multiple IM 70.3s per year do with all the backpacks? The store was just as big as at a real Ironman race. There was a nice hat, but I am too superstitious to buy race gear before finishing. I bought it on Sunday after finishing and wore it the following weekend while volunteering at our BTC beginner Lake Ontario mini-triathlon.
I stopped by the volunteer booth as I was going to be a volunteer on Saturday for the kids’ race (just a fun run). The volunteer director for the race was the RAT guy who ran the preview ride, and he had asked for as many of us to volunteer as possible. And this way I got a volunteer shirt AND a race shirt 😉
It had been at least 6 years since I had been in Geneva, and I was amazed at the enormous waterfront Finger Lakes visitors center. It had delightful air conditioning, a large snack bar, and wine tasting! It was going to be 90 all weekend, so ducking inside there would be a nice break.
I brought a few of my “classic” Musselman shirts with me for the weekend. I had found several of them when going through old clothes after my move in November, and unlike a bunch of other stuff that went to Goodwill, I saved them all. The NY sign was awesome, and there was a nice playground and outdoor tables at the visitor center.
Some of the buoys were already in the gorgeous lake.
Seneca Lake is the largest (38 miles long) and deepest (600 feet) of the Finger Lakes. They were all created by retreating glaciers during an Ice Age, approximately 2 million years ago. For several summers, when Alex was young, we would rent a lakefront house for a week each summer. In 2010, my late Dad stayed there with us for a few days on a cross-country driving trip.
I wanted to grab some dinner on the walk back to the hotel, and checked Yelp on my phone. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot more options than the pizza or sub places I remembered from a decade ago. I chose a Japanese place offering ramen, and on the short walk there, I was amazed at how much nicer downtown Geneva looked. I was happy it was doing so well! A large poster indicated that it had benefited from a NYS Urban Renewal project during the Cuomo administration (so he did Something good!).
Ironman had alerted racers that there would be fireworks on the waterfront on Friday night (for an unrelated city event). I had planned to go down to the pier to watch, but no one I knew said they were going, and I had a good view from my room anyway.
On Saturday morning, I was supposed to do a 20-minute “shake out” run according to the training plan I had only been loosely following the last few months. It was already very hot and humid, so I ran without a shirt (which I rarely do for skin cancer safety).
I just jogged at a very easy pace and took some photos. The Buffalo Triathlon Club tent was perfectly located on the run course.
I got a low number (and easy to remember) since I registered on Friday. There was a little wind, and the lake was choppier than the day before.
The swim entry was from this dock behind the visitor center, and the exit was the boat launch ramp a hundred yards east of it. Since only three people would leave every 5 seconds from the dock, I was told it would take a long time to get everyone in the water.
After breakfast at the hotel, I walked back to the lake for a practice swim. I wanted to dive off the dock, but it was locked off.
There was a small sandy beach by the Ironman Store Tent (the photo below was taken at noon, when many more people were swimming), and two Canadian women (I could hear the “eh”) were also getting ready to get in. I told them how brave they were to visit our repressive nation, and they joked (sort of) about having considered deleting all their social media apps before trying to cross the border. The day before, the water temperature had been below 76 and remained so (barely), but with a high temperature of 90 and an overnight low of almost 80, it seemed likely the swim would not be wetsuit legal. I still did my practice swim in my wetsuit (the Canadian mom and daughter were just in bathing suits). I had luckily already done plenty of non-wetsuit swims, as Lake Erie had gotten so warm.
I swam out to the buoys and then from one to the next to practice sighting. They were very close together, which seemed great (I only realized the next day that they hadn’t been spread across the whole lake yet…).
The swim felt great; the water is so clean and clear. I then headed back to my hotel room to relax in the A/C and rest my legs for a few hours.
There was going to be an “undie” run at 11, but the idea of jogging even another mile in the humidity was not tempting, as I would be volunteering in the afternoon. And seeing men in underwear doesn’t interest me…. the women always just wear running outfits… 😉
I checked in my bike and then swung by the Kids Race registration tent at 1 pm to ensure they didn’t need me yet (the race was at 2 pm), and then attended the 1 pm race briefing. It was very busy at registration and in the store now, and it was 90 and humid! It was a little cooler under the tent, and as I got there early, I got a seat on the breezy lakeside of the tent.
I was happy to learn that the official water temperature would be reported on the Ironman phone app at 5 am, so I would know in advance whether to bring my wetsuit.
I helped the last few people register for the kids’ race and also answered random questions from adult racers, as I had on my volunteer shirt. The kids’ shirts were AWESOME!
I was supposed to be handing out medals to the kids as they finished (in the shade on the real finish line after their 0.5 or 1 mile runs but at the last minute, they needed someone to clear the bike path for the race, and I volunteered. All I had to do was yell “get off the road, walk on the sidewalk” as I walked back and forth for the first few hundred yards of the course. It was 90 and humid, so just standing in the sun, I was sweating, and I retreated to the shade between the two groups of kids.
Previous photo was the older kids and the video below is of the younger ones.
On the short walk back to the hotel, I stopped at the visitors center and got an ice cream sandwich. I had to eat it very quickly as it was melting fast! I saw a triathlon club maximizing the available shade of one small tree. I had advised racers on the BTC Facebook page to hydrate on Saturday until you peed clear (the same thing they told all the athletes in 1998 when I did my first triathlon (Olympic distance) in blazing hot Memphis).
All the bikes were safely tucked in for the night. 2000 bikes x approximate average price of $3000 = $6M !
The ITC people were having a potluck dinner at one of the airbnbs they had rented, but I preferred a quiet dinner in my hotel room and a Yankee game on TV. I think there were more people from ITC racing as relay teams than individuals, if I was a relay member I might have been ok to socialize but not before a 70.3.
RACE DAY! Up at 4 am for a shower and breakfast (Clif Bars and blueberries).
The message from IM was water temperature 77, so I didn’t need to bring my wetsuit!
As the chart explains, wetsuits are not “prohibited” between 76 and 83 degrees water temperatures. Still, I had a (slight) chance of getting a World Championship spot for Nice, France for 2026, and I was also happy to swim without a wetsuit, even though it would make me a lot slower.
There was a full moon over the lake when I got to transition at 5am. I set up my fluids and nutrition and my transition area (shoes, race belt, glasses, etc.).
My friend David was volunteering and took this photo of me. We got new designs for our BTC race kits this year, and I think they are the nicest ever. The black thing on my forehead is a VeoStrip, it sticks on and has a little gutter to keep sweat off my face for the bike and run. They are amazing! The wind was a little stronger than the previous day and was coming from the south, so it had 30 miles to build up some waves; there were even some small whitecaps.
Many people opted to wear wetsuits after seeing the water. And a few dozen decided not to race at all. One of the kayak volunteers shared this video.
Some were concerned about not making the 70-minute cutoff time for the 1.2-mile swim, and others just wanted the extra buoyancy as they were inexperienced in rough water. I had swum in much rougher water in Lake Erie and Ontario, so I was not worried. This video was from a day just a few weeks ago, my swim “partner” opted out after seeing the waves, but I enjoyed it.
The people wearing wetsuits had to wait until everyone else got in the water first, so they ended up having to stand in the hot sun for an extra 30 minutes (it took almost an hour to get all the athletes in). I self-seeded myself with the 35-40 minute group by the dock and was glad when my friend Dan (Ultra Triathlete) saw me and we chatted before the swim. I gave him anesthesia for a knee replacement less than 6 months ago! In the dark before the race, I somehow forgot to take my (black) heart rate monitor strap out of my bag and noticed I was not wearing it when I saw someone else’s. It only upset me for a minute or two because I really hadn’t trained to be in any HR zones for the bike, and I could always look at my watch for the wrist HR even if it wouldn’t show up on my bike computer.
It was a straightforward start from the dock, and with only three people at a time, the course was not super crowded. The red buoy at the beginning of the course was easy to see, but after that, the yellow ones were more than 100 yards apart, and with the waves, it was not easy to see them at times. I did not try to swim too hard as I didn’t want to tire out my legs and concentrated on swimming straight. Occasionally, I had to stop and bob for a second to get a better sighting.
My Garmin shows I swam a fairly straight course. I do remember it being very hard to sight on the short side of the triangle. I think I aimed for the wrong buoy once or twice.
I swam much slower than my normal race pace. In a wetsuit in flat water, I would swim about 1:50/100 yards and about 38 minutes. At Ironman Florida last year, even in slightly choppy water, I was 1:44/100 yards and 74 minutes (in a wetsuit).
Usually, my relative performance against my age group peers is best in the swim, but it was my worst of the three here. I think that a lot of people were wearing wetsuits. Of the 38 men who started in my age group, only 20 finished. The results don’t indicate who wore a wetsuit. Also, while wetsuits weren’t legal, many people wore swimskins, expensive, thin, hydrodynamic outfits that made you swim faster than just in a bathing suit or Trisuit. I have never had one, but I might consider one in the future if I end up doing an Ironman in very warm water.
I felt great exiting the water and ran to my bike. Not having to take off a wetsuit made my transition time faster than usual, but still “relatively” slow, as I put on socks and some sunscreen and other stuff the “top tier” racers don’t bother with.
I ran my bike to the mounting line on the road and had no issues getting on my way. There were some photographers just past the start, so I look fresh in these photos.
It was great to have ridden the bike course a month earlier. Looking at the map before the race, I could picture in my head where the three aid stations were, and I knew the only serious hill would be after the 8 miles of rolling hills along Cayuga Lake, so I took that stretch at less than full effort. I grabbed a bottle of Mortal hydration at each of the two rest stops and drank half before putting the rest into my fluid reservoir while biking slowly for a minute. At the 3rd aid station, I was so sweaty and breathing fast that I stopped for 2 minutes to drink and fill. I didn’t want to drop the bottle or have a stupid accident.
With almost 2000 racers on a 56-mile course, there were always some people ahead of me, so I didn’t have to worry about looking for turn signs.
The race photographers did a great job. You can see in the last bike photo, with Seneca Lake behind as I am heading North and almost done, that I am looking more tired. On the last few small hills, the 90-degree heat was very noticeable.
I consider any bike race that does not involve a flat or a fall a success! And considering my longer-than-usual swim, I was delighted with my time.
The bike to run transition is the easier one, and I sprayed some more sunscreen on my tattoos (like all fine art, they need to avoid UV light).
I felt very loose and springy as I started to run (despite 3 hours in aero position) and had to slow myself down a little on the first few miles as I was going too fast at a 9-minute/mile pace that I knew could not be maintained with the heat and hills. After a mile or two, I felt a slight cramp starting in one of my hamstrings despite having taken some salt tablets in transition and having consumed 110 ounces of electrolyte fluids on the bike. I adjusted my gait slightly to stretch out my hamstrings and realized I would need to drink a lot of electrolyte fluids (Mortal Hydration) on the run. Usually in a race I alternate drinking one or two cups of water with the hydration fluid at rest stops but I drank 3 cups of Mortal Hydration at every rest stop and no water. I took in a Maurten gel every other rest stop for calories, put ice down my shirt, and splashed water on my head and arms continuously.
I had some mild cramping again in both my quads and hamstrings once or twice, but luckily they didn’t get bad. So many people were walking up the big hill on the second loop, and by the time I ran down it the second time, everyone I saw was walking. Once you start walking at 20 minutes per mile, it becomes a very long day. I saw my friend Dan 5 or 10 minutes ahead of me on the run twice. Then, I caught up, and he said, “You’re gaining on me.” However, he was walking, and he started running again, beating me by 2 minutes.
The BTC and the RATs ran the aid station at mile 4/5, 11/12. It was nice to see familiar faces and hear the occasional “go Dave”, “go BTC”; even if feeling awful, it inspires one to speed up a little and smile.
The volunteers at all the aid stations were awesome. Very helpful and supportive. I walked through each aid station, drinking my 3 cups of Mortal, splashing on the water, and putting ice down my shirt. The ice was running out by my second loop, and many people hadn’t even finished the bike by then. I guess 91 degrees is more than expected, but the new normal with global warming. At Ironman Florida, they handed you cups of ice, but here, all the ice was in coolers or kiddie pools and usually on the ground. That is not good planning, as most people have trouble bending over late in the race. I managed to (carefully), but I saw one woman fall sideways onto the pavement while trying to scoop out some ice.
Usually, I am able to increase my speed for the last mile or two, but my legs were shot, and I was barely managing 11 minutes per mile on the last downhill and flat finish. I don’t look very perky at mile 12 here.
I pushed myself hard for the last few hundred yards of yelling fans and cowbells. And I always smile for the finisher photo.
I had told Alex that I would be happy with a 6:30 finish with the expected heat. 6:38 was very satisfying, considering the choppy, no wetsuit swim added 20 minutes. They had nice post-race food, but I had taken in so many calories, I wasn’t hungry. I just had a banana and a Coke.
Having finished an “official”/”branded” Ironman 70.3 for the first time, I did appreciate that the start and finish were more exciting than at smaller local half-ironmans. And racing with 2000 people versus a few hundred (or even less in a few races I have done) is more exciting. But unless I am interested in trying to qualify for a World Championship spot, I don’t see any need to pay the extra money to do another one versus the nice local half-ironmans available to me (Barrelman in NF, Canada; CassadagaMan, OnandoganMan, Tupper Lake, etc. that I have done and enjoyed). If someone has never done a half-Ironman, doing a branded 70.3 IM is going to be more exciting.
With my hotel only a 10-minute walk away, I collected my bike and took it there. I took a quick cold shower in my kit, washed my face, and felt very good.
I then returned to the BTC tent, sat in my lawn chair, and cheered on other BTC people as they completed their last laps or finished.
At 3 pm, I went to watch the awards ceremony under the tent. I wanted to see if I could snatch a spot for the World Championships. Even though I only finished 11th in my age group, I had been told that at the last 70.3 in the Midwest (Muskoka or Muncie ?) the WC slots had “rolled” down and anyone who stayed could have gotten one.
Here are the top finishers in my age group. Winners tend to have long legs.
As soon as the awards started, we heard thunder, and radar showed big storms heading quickly our way. I made friends with a soft black lab nearby. I felt bad she had been out in the 91-degree sun all day.
Rather than moving right on to the WC spot roll down, we all walked over to the visitor center to avoid the coming downpours. I was happy I still had my lawn chair with me, as sitting on the ground after a race was not a good idea.
But the move indoors and the need to get sound equipment and ipads/wifi set up for the WC registration took FOREVER. It was past four by the time they started. There were 35 WC spots for men and 35 for women (even though 3 X as many male finishers….). They first did the women, and it became clear that even though it seemed fewer than 50 men had stayed, it wouldn’t trickle down to my spot.
There was a new system for WC spot allocations, and it used an “age-adjusted” time to make up for significant variations in the size of various age groups or differences in the quality of people in each age group. So, age-adjusted, I was 247th of the 923 male finishers versus my actual 555th of males. It only rolled down to around the 120th spot. I guess that all the people racing Musselman from NYC, Boston, Philly, DC, etc., were more interested in going to compete in Nice, France, than the ones in Wisconsin the prior week.
I was similarly disappointed in Panama City Beach in November, when, despite finishing 11th out of 50 in my age group, I didn’t secure a spot to attend the Ironman World Championships in Nice, France. If I had done the Lake Placid IM race in any of the recent years they had spots to Nice, I would have gotten a spot as long as I finished, because they rolled down and offered spots to ANY finisher. But in FL, it turned out to be the “IM Club WC race” and the top clubs from Europe, South America, etc. had all come, and those people were all excited to compete in France.
While the 70.3 WC is in Spain this year and then Nice, France in 2026 and 2028, for some reason, they haven’t announced a 2027 site. If it is in Europe or South America, I will look into finding the best race to try and get a spot there. If it is in Asia or NZ, I’ll pass. I don’t want to travel that far with all my triathlon gear. And now that they have stopped moving the Full distance Ironman WC to Nice every other year, it will always be in Kona, Hawaii, and those spots don’t roll down at all. Everyone wants to race there, where Ironman was invented in 1978 and first broadcast to the world in 1980 on Wide World of Sports.
For an idea about how harsh the conditions were this year at Musselman, look at the below statistics. So I was pleased with 11/38 in my age group (and a lot of them wore wetsuits).
And even if I won’t get to go to a WC, I got back to the hotel in time to watch Chelsea surprisingly upset PSG for the Fifa Club World Cup! A nice minor trophy after a good, but not great season in the EPL.
I slept well and on Monday for once took my Garmin watch’s advice….
I drove home and watched the replay of the first hill stage of Le Tour.
This post I wanted to be JUST about Musselman, so hopefully I will find some time soon to write about my trip up to Lake Placid (volunteering for Ironman and relaxing) the week after Musselman. And then….maybe?….get back to my Japan travelblog.
