Sorry, it's a bit long, I got carried away with many details...

I recently had the opportunity to travel down to Mar Del Plata, Argentina. The city of over 900,000 people is 6 hours (404 km) south east of Buenos Aires by bus, on the coast. I got the idea from a press release posted here on Trifuel about a triathlon training camp down there. What the heck, why not escape the tundra here in MN and get some training and sun at the same time. Besides the training, there was an opportunity to participate in a Half Iron race.

The week leading up to the race was filled with Swimming, Biking and Running, not your normal taper before and Half iron but the main reason for the trip was training. The race was going to be more like a long training day. We had the opportunity to train with several guest trainers, 2 pro triathletes from Argentina and some other local triathletes. One of guest trainers was Barbara Buenahora, she was the 2nd place finisher at IM Brazil last year. Everyone we met there was very friendly and helpful. Our swim practices were at the swimming pool built for the 1995 Pan American Games, it was nice. We even had a chance to try out the cycling Velodrome build on the same sports complex. Talk about exhilarating, WOW!, staying up on the track at the curved ends where the angle was 40 degrees was amazing.

This race has been around for several years, something like 15+ years. The current promoter ISSports (http://www.issports.com.ar/) has been running the race for the last 6 years. It ranks as one of the top triathlons to do in Argentina for Pro’s and Amateurs. Our new friend Barbara invited us to the race press conference before going out for dinner that night. The 3 of us that went with her knew some Spanish. At one point we could tell they were talking about the participants from around the world that were registered. The next thing you know the race directors invited us up to the table and we were being asked questions by the reporters in attendance. For a second, I felt like a pro being interviewed.

The course is staged along the city’s coastline through part of their downtown and by no means considered easy. The swim was a point to point swim, from one protected beach bay to another with rough water in between. The bike course was a dizzy 9 lap course that was mainly up hill on the way out with a nice hill just past the turn around. We didn’t get the downhill benefit on the way back as the course has a side route that was mainly flat with another hill before the turn around point. The run was a 4 5.25km loops that was hilly on the way out and downhill on the way back. It had 2 good hills at the turn around point.

Race day was set for Sunday and for me it was somewhat of a milestone day, it happened to be my birthday. I wasn’t just an ordinary birthday it was my 40th, ICK! For me the race was going to be a way to feel young by conquering the course and getting through it with our feeling old. We took Saturday off and spent the time getting our stuff ready for the race and relaxing.

The morning of the race, I was up at 5 am. The first thing I did was look out my 19th floor window, it was dark and windy, the wind was going to be a concern. I made some breakfast and got ready. We were going to bike to the race with our stuff; it was only about 12 to 15 blocks away. I knew were the race was going to be staged but I wasn’t sure what to expect. Once we got there I was amazed at the setup, it was really nice. They were only letting athletes into the transition area, which was nice, I felt confident that my stuff would still be around at the end. They had nice bike racks setup for us and they were labeled with each athlete’s race number. Ours were right by the entrance of the transition from the swim entrance. The only weird thing was the steps leading in and out of transition area; we would have to carry our bikes up and down them going in and out. The wind was still howling a bit which made the current quite choppy, but it was still a little dark to see what we were up against. Normally the current was in our favor, getting us from one beach bay to the other but today it looked like it was going to be a challenge. Once we got our stuff ready, we had to walk about a mile or so to the starting line. During this time it was light and we could see the current, it was rough. It looked like we had 1 to 3 foot swells and the current wasn’t in our favor, this time it was going to push us into shore instead of down the coast. At this point I got butterflies in my stomach, I wasn’t sure if my old age was getting to me or if I was up for the rough challenge. I had to keep saying to myself, this is only a workout not a race.

In a country where soccer is the number one sport it was cool to see all of these triathlete’s from Argentina. I was amazed to see some of the bikes people had. Juan Mutti; a local pro and someone who went with us on a tour of the bike course had a 3 week old Trek Equinox 9.9. The coaches we were with down there brought it down for him 2 weeks before. I saw a couple of Felt’s, one or 2 Scott Plasma bikes, a fairly new Kuota Kalibur, some other Trek’s and a couple of QR’s. The other bikes were unknown brands to me, but seemed popular down there since there were a lot of them. I heard the bikes have a 50% duty added to them when you buy them down there, so to see these expensive bikes there was shocking. On top of the, the number of full sleeve wetsuit was quite amazing also, most of them being the top popular brands that we are accustomed too.

All 380 of us looked out as the boats and kayaker’s headed out, it was rough right past the jetty protecting the bay. I took a quick dip into the water, it was a bit frigid, but I wanted to get some strokes in before the start of the race. It was a mass start with all of the pro women and men at the front. The race was on, it was time for my last workout in Argentina. Like any other triathlon, the mass swim start was a mess of arms and legs everywhere and if that wasn’t enough, once we just got past the jetty it was bodies and waves on top of that. I did my best to get through the mess. I have never swum in these types of conditions, it was surely different. The swells were coming from the right and of course I breathe on the right side, this wasn’t going to be fun. At times I would take a breath and see swimmers at an elevation higher than me, they were in the swells that was headed my way. I had to make sure to breathe on the left side to make sure I wasn’t getting too close to shore. One time I swear I saw a wave that was at least 4 to 5 feet high heading for shore. The buoys where hard to sight, if you were on the upswing you could see them but if you were on the down side forget it. Once I caught a glimpse of the last buoy, I knew I was getting close, I thought it was going to get easier getting into the protected bay past the jetty. It was fun riding the waves into shore but it was not that easy, it still was quite a distance to the swim exit. As I got closer, I could see all of these spectators waiting at the swim exit, how cool, and as I went by they cheered everyone on with “Vamos, Vamos!!!” (let’s go, let’s go in Spanish) .

I quickly changed and was now carrying my bike up the stairs; it was time for 9 laps on my bike. As I left the bike start again I was amazed to see all of these spectators. They said this was once of Argentina’s most popular triathlons and I was seeing proof of that. The initial bike portion was an uphill gradual climb, not something I wanted after using more leg power on the swim and then the run distance from the swim exit to the transitions area. The roads were in pretty good shape, but you had to be aware of some of the pot holes every so often. It was nice to see them completely closed to all traffic. The bike route curved along the coastline which caused some windy conditions at times, but nothing too bad. About a mile from the turnaround point we had this nice technical downhill, it was long enough to rest the legs a bit and reach a speed of 35+ mph as the hill curved to the right and then on to a flat straight away. They were well prepared at the turn around with water and Gatorade, bananas and granola bars. The nice hill we had getting to the turnaround point was a killer on the way back, the road on this side was rougher, not smooth like on the other side. What helped everyone get up the hill was again the amount of spectators yelling “Vamos, Vamos”. This wasn’t the only technical hill, we had two other on the way back, one was an S curved downhill that you had to watch out for and the other one was another curved uphill. This was a non-draft legal race and they did an excellent job preventing that, I have never seen so many judges in one race, well maybe during IM Brazil last year. The first 3 laps of the course were good, but you had to keep track yourself of the number of laps you had completed, no need to worry this was a chip-timed raced so they would know if you didn’t get them all in. Luckily I had my bike computer and that helped me when I got down to laps 7, 8 and 9. By this time I was well prepared for all of the pot holes but I was getting mentally dizzy going around and around.

The run course followed most of the outbound portion of the bike course, which meant it was up hill on the way out and downhill on the way back, but again within a mile of the turnaround point they stick this nice steep uphill in your face that plateaus and then goes up hill again before you turn around. Again, they had a nice aid station here and 2 others along the way. It was a cloudy and cool day but I was drinking all the fluids I had to. I was going to attempt a pee on the bike move until I discovered a girl drafting behind me along a secluded portion of the bike route, so unfortunately I had to wait. It was getting to me on the run, so I was scooping out my options along the way. The main portion of the run was through their business and hotel district, so not too many openings there to stop and water the grass. The next portion was through a residential area but there was so many spectators hanging out I was afraid I might have stage fright. I eventually found a nice residential wall with plenty of vegetation and just did what I had to do, I felt so much better after that. The run out was tough but the run back was nice. Again, we were just going around in circles, but seeing the ocean both ways made it worth wild. Sunday is normally a day of rest but the sidewalks along the ocean were filled with people walking, jogging and running. This was actually the first day I had seen some of the good looking women from Argentina. There are ice cream shops and bakeries everywhere and it all tastes so good, but the sweets seem to have an adverse effect on most of the people living here, as 1 in possibly 5 seemed to be overweight. I was happy to be on the last lap of the run. I couldn’t believe I had made it this far as most of my training up to this point has be mainly base training back home, besides this whole week prior to the race I had been sick but still working out. This is only the 2nd Half-iron race I’ve ever done; I did the Cancun 70.3 last year and burned up on the run course. As I approached the finish line I had a smile on my face, on this training day and on my 40th B-Day I was going to get a PB, way cool!! I later celebrated my birthday with my new friends. It included 2nd place finisher Juan and 5th place finisher Paula on the pro/elite side, Barbara who did not race because of a pending hernia operation and our very own Gali who got 1st place in her amateur category, she would have placed 4th if she had registered in the pro/elite category.

Overall it was a great experience, both the training and the race. The people here and the triathlete’s we met were very friendly. The race itself was way above par, well organized in every capacity. It would be nice to see them award more money to the pros as the top winner only won 1,000 pesos or roughly $325 USD. Their award ceremony was great, they awarded all the way down to 6th place. If you are looking for a winter time half, I'd recommend this race.