Race Report from Challenge Miami

With a little apprehension, both from a fitness standpoint and from the media’s depiction of Florida, I decided to sign up for the sprint race at Challenge Miami. The last time I raced was in July of 2019 and since then my training had been sporadic to say the least. None the less, myself and my brave companion, Huckleberry took on the adventure of traveling from the cold and snow of the Northeast to the warm and sun (and masklessness) of Florida.

We arrived a day early to get the lay of the land and were pleasantly surprised to see pretty much everyone wearing masks and following social distancing protocols, contrary to the image portrayed in the media. Mind you we were not in the heart of spring break, that would come later, but where we stayed all were following the masking guidelines. We settled into your hotel and prepped for the next day to go and watch the Pros race.

We arrived at Homestead/Miami Speedway and once again were happy to see everyone masking up, the guard would not allow you in unless you did so and to enter the interior of the track you were temperature checked and then given a wrist band to come and go for the remainder of the day.

If you have never set foot on the infield of a NASCAR track you cannot image the sheer size of such a place, it makes a football field minuscule in comparison. The atmosphere was festive and electric and I was in heaven look at all the amazing bikes being rolled around. We wandered the grounds, checked out the expo and gradually made our way to the swim start. In the middle of the infield was a spring feed lake which was over 500 yards in length and a 100 yards in width of clear, cool, snake and alligator free fresh water. The pro women lined up and the horn sounded and they were off on their 2 lap swim of course. The announcers did their best to keep track of the swimmers, all the while the place continued to hum with excitement not only for this race and the men’s race which started later that afternoon, but also with the anticipation of our chance to race, for most of us for the first time in a long time, over the next 2 days.

The cool thing about such a venue for racing is you can see everything that is happening on the course either first hand or on all the jumbotrons all around the infield.

I won’t rehash the entire race as you can watch it unfold on NBCSports but to see the pros, both women and men not more that 20 yards away and able to track and follow their every move makes for a very engaging race for the spectators. We watch with anticipation as both races unfolded with a bit of a surprise for the women’s race winner and the men’s first and second going pretty much as expected. Here are a few pics of the pros.

Now to my race. We were lucky that Coach Amy recommend the TownSuite Plaza, in Homestead to stay at while I was making all the arrangements for the trip. It was only a few miles from the race site and had all the amenities we needed including a full kitchen, pool and even grills, which we made use of for our post race meal.

Luckily, we were able to check in and rack my bike the night before, on less thing to worry about race morning. Come race morning there were definitely some nerves as this was the first time racing in over 18 months, did I have everything, did I eat enough for breakfast, how’s my gear, etc. Huckleberry was a calming force and off we went to the track with what I thought was time to spare. I will say I was a little surprised at the traffic back up getting into the parking lot which resulted in a very abbreviated warm-up. Also, Covid was not very nice to me in regards to trying to squeeze into a brand new, never tried on wetsuit, but we persevered and I was able to get a little time in the water before the officials called us out, thank God.

Lucky for me, this was a self-seeded race and placed myself well back at the swim start. Overall, the swim went well, only one minor panic attack but I got through it, albeit a little slower than anticipated.

After the long run from the swim to transition, I took my time getting the wetsuit off and onto the bike. We got to lap thru pit row and then out onto the roads around the track. Saying it was a flat ride is an understatement as the only hill was going through the tunnel which passed under the track. The wind was blowing pretty steadily enough so that into the headwind I averaged 16mph and with the tailwind closer to 25mph at approximately the same power. It felt good to ride Flo again, and all my set-up tweaking had paid off as the bike went better than expected and I was very comfortable for the entire ride.

It was then into T2 and off on the run. For the run we got to run on the race track itself, and yes there is a flat area even in the banked turns. The run was hot but went well and again executed as expected. I was able to have a decent kick into the finishing shoot and hear my name as I crossed the finish line.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience. Ironman has some work to do, as Challenge puts on a great race, in great venues and truly welcomes the athlete. The races taking place in a speedway setting makes for excellent viewing and adds to the excitement of the race both for athletes and spectators alike.

Challenge announced they are expecting to add a race in wine country in California and a race on the road course at Watkins Glen, in addition to the existing race at Daytona and Miami. They can count me in as a participant for all their races after the experience we had in Miami.

Post race we were off to Keys West for a few days of sun and relaxation before our trek back to a few more weeks of snow and cold in the Northeast.

Yes, a good time was had by all and I am already signed up for next year.