Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This was a great swim for me. I loved it. I hung towards the back and let the faster guys take off before me, so I probably lost 20-30 seconds sauntering out into the surf. I always take a long time to warm up, at least 1000yds before I hit my groove, so this was a perfect distance for me. And ya, I wasn't the fastest guy out there and I did get passed by some people in the wave after me, but I felt awesome when I looked at my watch crossing the beach at 40 minutes - that meant I swam a sub 2:00min pace, which is really good for me.

The waves weren't bad at all - rollers of maybe 1-2 feet - just enough so that when you're in the trough you can't see anything. I had to stop several times to get my bearings and come up on top of a wave to see the next buoy. Big mistake not having tinted lenses on my goggles. The sun was right in my eyes a lot of the time making it even harder to see the buoys, but wasn't too bad - I just sucked it up and enjoyed the swim.

Wear tinted goggles.

Seems like a very long transition time, but my bike was at the very far end of T1, at least 150-200 yds down. I also took time to slap on some sun screen and put on a pair of socks. Ya, I know, that's all an excuse - i looked at the T times of the pros and they were just over 1 min...son of a...!!

Pick up the pace.

Ok, this is the event I thought I was going to kick a$$ on and for the first 25 or so miles I was averaging just over 22mph. 12 miles in my bike started to shake and I thought, uh oh....I knew that my front tire now had a bulge in it, but I ignored it hoping it'd go away....not so much. At mile 15 it blew. I didn't look at my watch but figured I lost at least 10 minutes, maybe 15. I felt a little like the father in a Christmas Story rushing to change his flat!

Anyway, I got back on and up to cruising speed, shifted and bam, my chain came off the front gear. So I had to stop and put it back on. So I get back up to speed again and now my shifters are acting all weird. I shift down one and it skips 2, so I have to shift back up one. Then going along fine and all of a sudden it decides to shift on its own. WTF? But again, I ignore it, nothing I can do and even though its putting a strain on my legs, I'm still fresh enough that its not bothering me. I was just cruising along, passing people left and right, and re-passing guys I'd passed earlier who overtook me during the breakdown - I was loving life. I didn't feel like I was really pushing very hard but was still able to keep an awesome pace. I figured at that point that I was going to come in well under 3 hours and give myself plenty of time for the run.

Well, there's a jewish saying "Man plans, God laughs." About the time I started to head west God started laughing his head off cuz there were suddenly some hellacious steady winds with huge gusts coming out of the southwest. At this point I'm working a bit harder and my speed drops to about 19mph, still not too bad I think, but I didn't realize how much I was working or the toll that the phantom shifting was hurting me. That's when I hit the Blue Star Hwy and started for the 18+ mile ride back and headed straight into the winds. Also, I didn't realize just how much a small uphill grade can hurt, especially going into a headwind, but let me tell ya, there were very few downhills on the way back - it was mainly gradual uphill grades the entire way.

By mile 40 my legs were starting to burn...speed is now down to about 14mph. Mile 45 I'm positive that at any minute now my legs are going to spontaneously combust. Fire, they were on fricking fire. I was sure that I wasn't going to make it...speed is now down to 10mph and I've still got 11 miles to go. At that point the only thing keeping my cranks turning is the weight of my legs, cuz it sure isn't due to me actually using my muscles to push.

I was spent and when I finally turned in to hit the bike path for the final leg I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to run 13 miles. I realized that I seriously underestimated my bike conditioning. All I wanted was to get off that bike and into a blessed standing position.

I'd estimated a max of 3 hours and blew it by over 29 minutes.

A lot more time in the saddle. I need to get in a lot of seriously seriously long rides. Both my legs and my neck were killing me. It was hard to keep an areo position at the end because of how much it hurt to look up.

You know, at this point in the game I really didn't care about times. I knew that I'd blown it on the bike and that I didn't have prayer of hitting my goal. Also, remember the 150-200 yd run I had through T1 to get my bike? Well, I had the same damn thing again here, only this time I just walked it. I took a long time here. I hit the porta-potty, slapped on some more sun screen, grabbed a GU and took a drink. I also texted Sue cuz I hadn't seen them when I came in on the bike, so I thought that maybe they thought they'd missed me because I missed my mark so badly.

Text to Sue..."Back from the bike ride...Shoot me now!!!!"

Have some whiskey in a flask to numb the pain.

So the first mile was going well. I went past a group of hot girls who all wistled at me and held up their HOT sign....ya, I know they likely held it up for everyone, but it made me smile and forget the pain in my legs and I started running faster, till I came around the corner and saw my first hill...who the hell decided to put that there? Well, everyone was walking up it and it seemed like a good idea, so I walked it too. Got up to the top and started running again. My legs surprisingly felt pretty damn good. I let my calves do a lot of the work and gave my quads a rest and was keeping about a 9 minute pace...so far so good. Well, that lasted about 3 more miles when it all started catching up with me. My pace started getting slower and slower. I walked at each of the aide stations and started walking a bit in between too. And every hill I came too seemed like a mountain. I knew that I'd blown my time so badly at that point that I thought the hell with it, I'm just going to chat with people around me...so I met a few new people, walked with them a bit and we played leap frog, where I'd take off and run for a bit, then stop and walk and then they'd do the same and pass me, then I'd catch up and we'd walk some more together.

When we came to the turn off point to either do our second lap of Whirlpool or head back in for the final stretch I told the official standing there that I'd pay him $100 bucks to let me go home and not do the second lap..unfortunately the girl I was running next to offered him $1000, so I had to do the second lap.

Somewhere around mile 7 or 8, its all a blur now, it started to sprinkle. At around 9 or 10 it started to rain pretty hard and continued all the way in. I didn't really care, but kept thinking that my family is standing out there and I'm going to be about an hour off my projected time.

I walked a bit after mile 11, but when I hit 12 I vowed not to stop and I picked up the pace. I hit the sidewalk for the final stretch and started to sprint in...well, it felt like a sprint but I was probably barely moving. Man did it feel good though to cross that finish line.

Not really sure - I had so little left in the tank after the bike that there's probably not much I could have done. I felt like I gave it my all and that's all I can ask of myself. Just need to have a lot more conditioning to be able to come off the bike and run the whole course.

Raining pretty hard and wanted to get the family back to the car, so I just collected my bike and gear and we headed out. Didn't stick around for any of the food or festivities.


Conditioning conditioning conditioning.


Well, I met my primary goal for my first HIM and that was to simply finish. Just like my first tri, though, I was a little disappointed by my time, but at least now I know what to expect and what I really need to do to improve.

This was definitely a great experience. Everyone I met was awesome. Was really good to see some fellow BTers out there. Everyone I talked to on the run was great and there were a bunch with whom I traded whitty banter on the bike. Can't wait for the next one now!!