Boise 70.3 Preview

It's been a rough year for me to date. Everything started well in terms of training but a stress fracture put my plans to sleep at beginning of March. I missed a bunch of races and it took a while to get running again. My first race back at the St. Anthony's 5150 was a misfire in almost every way, and showed a slump in form from injury. In the St. Croix 70.3 a week later I was dealt a blow of bad luck with a flat & mechanical. I'm hoping to turn around my misfortunes tomorrow in the Boise 70.3, and finally get my 2013 season underway properly. 

My first impressions of Boise are solid. It's the capital of Idaho, sits at 850m elevation and is surrounded by stunning geography & landscapes. I've been here only a couple of days but it feels more like a home to me than Boulder. I'm yet the check out the bike course, but the swim is in a stunningly clean snowmelt reservoir and the run is looped around a nice greenbelt along the Boise River. It's nice and hot here, we should be served temps in the 30's tomorrow. It's a 12noon start as well, a nice break from the early wake ups, which also insures we will be in the heat from the get-go. All my good 70.3's have been in the heat so I have a good feeling for tomorrow's race.

The field is srong here. I'm not going to say it's 'stacked' because apparently every 70.3 field ever is stacked. Some names lining up are Docherty, McMahon, Bell, Hoffman, Griffin, Millward, Reed (Matt), Lieto (Matt), Wurtele, Matthews, Twelsiek et al. I'll be trying to race this like I always do, be at the front of the race for as long as I can. This race is just one small part of bigger goal, and while I wont be expecting to be in red hot shape, I know my training has me in a good enough shape to take the win. Either way, it will still be progress for me considering the tardy start to the year I've had. This will also be my first ever race coming straight from altitude in Boulder, so I might even surprise myself. Here's to hoping!