Black Bear Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

A bit crowded until we hit the first buoy, but that doesn't bother me. I pretty much went at a steady effor the whole time and I made a conscious effort to try and find feet to draft off of. Breathing was fine. Navigation/siting was ok minus one stretch. After we hit the second turn buoy we now had a diagonal back to the start/finish area since the other turn buoy was now removed (basically you do a 170 degree turn instead of two 90 degree turns). They made this course change announcement as we were wading in the water. I was following a guy and we both went to far right...basically I was siting a buoy off the other side of the loop. No biggie, may have cost me a 20-30s max. Wasn't around anyone for last ~500m, so I did that part solo.

Ran out of water (watch said 29:XX), past beach, parked my butt on the grass and removed my wetsuit. Heard my parents as well as Laura's family (she had ~20 family and friends attend) cheering. Ran up to T1.

31st fastest male swim.

Can always site better. Should have thought about the course change more instead of being so nonchalant about it.

Pretty easy since I already had my swim gear off. Sat down, wiped my feet clean, put on bike shoes and then got up. Sunglasses, helmet and I was off.

34 OA, 28 male, 8 AG

Besides doing it faster, I had no real hiccups here.

I followed Mike Ricci's recommendations for bike strategy for a 1/2, but this time I had my new HR zones. The plan was;
Miles 0 - 10 @ 122
Miles 10 - 20 @ 130
Miles 20 - 40 @ 139
Miles 40 - 56 @ 147

I definitely didn't keep my HR that low as I would have been pushing my bike up all the hills on the course..especially early on, but it definitely helped me to get settled in. I coasted pretty much all of the decents for the first 20 miles trying to get my HR down. I prob got passed by 20+ in the first half hour. Stopped to pee around mile 20 (not port-o-potties on the bike course...pathetic...sorry ladies). I started to pass people back around mile 30, and by the time we hit the climbs at the end of the second loop (mile 48.5 & 54) I was catching a lot more.

Legs felt strong at the end, unlike the pain I felt by mile 45 at Kinetic. Overall a slow pace but good execution.

NUTRITION:
1 bottle of 3x strength perpetuem
2+ bottles of water
1 Hammer gel
~6 ecaps
70th male.

Parts of me feel like I could have gone harder earlier on...then again, I struggled the last couple miles of the run...so maybe not.

Rack bike. Shoes on. Race belt on. Grab bottle and go.

10 OA, 9 male, 3 AG (Laura was the one female who beat me hear:) I wonder who taught her those T2 skills?)

AVG HR:150 MAX HR: 154

I racked my bike on the nose of the saddle..that required me to turn the bike around and tilt the bike to get the saddle under. Should of just racked it on the breaks.

Could have ran with race belt, but I wasn't worried about the extra 2secs to clip it on.

If the course was on a paved surface, I wouldn't have minded it as much. Being it was dirt/rocks, it made my feet ache and I could feel my toes rubbing from the dirt that got kicked into my shoes starting around mile 5.

Legs felt great to start. Stomach started to get upset b/c I drank 1hrs worth of Perpetuem in the first 30min. (oops...gulps were too big I guess). I grabbed water at every aid station...drank a gulp or two and dumped the rest over my head. Only walked a couple steps if any. I was pretty spent by mile 9 or 10 and stopped nutrition around mile 11 or so as I was sick of perpetuem by that point (tasting it while burping is just great) and I knew I didn't have far to go. I didn't feel horrible, although my pace dropped significantly at the end.

Mile markers must have been off a bit b/c there is no way I ran a 7:08 book-ended by a 8:37 and an 8:51.

NUTRITION:
1.5 servings of Perpetuem
Lots of water
~6 ecaps

51st male.

Not over-drink the perpetuem to start.

Stretched. Hung out with family. Waited for Laura.


It was a tough course...I was over 20min slower here than EM last year but you can't compare the two. To put things in perspective, only three guys broke 5hrs and the top bike split was only 21.9mph.

Overall I was happy with my race. I raced smart and raced my race. Like I said earlier, I may have left some time on the course early on in the bike, but it may have hurt my run so who knows. Prob the first time ever my run rank was better than my bike rank.


Good:
* Challenging course. Ideal training course for LP.
* Great venue....awesome lake.
* Spectator friendly. My parents were there and Laura had ~20 friends and fam show up.
* Nylon TYR bag for finishers
* Free massage
* Good food...burgers, chicken sandwhich, pasta salad, fruit salad, water, soda, water ice.

Bad:
* No port-o-potties on the bike and only two on the run
* crappy roads...bumpy, especially on the one out-n-back
* Tough running terrain
* Only had three ppl giving massages so line was slow unless you finished top 10 OA