Delaware Diamondman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The water was much colder than I thought it would be but that was probably for the best because it took my mind off the swamp water. I seeded myself to the front right because I knew I would be in the top 1/3 and I would much rather a few guys swim over me than vice versa.

I started pretty well without too many problems breathing. I was pacing myself like I wanted to but then got in a bit of trouble when my goggles started fogging up significantly. At this point I could barely see out of them so instead of sighting myself I found two guys and attempted to swim in between them for a long as I could. I figured that as long as I was in between them I would be on the right track. Only problem was one of the guys zig zagged more than the other and ended up falling behind. This caused me to go off course more than usual but overall I kept a decent line while staying with the other swimmer. The course was practically a straight out and back swim (which I love) so during the second half I focused on minimal kicking in order to save my legs for what I knew would be a long day. I wasn't so confident with my bike and run endurance but was really prepared for the swim so I decided to save as much energy as I could. After what seemed like forever I exited the lake and checked my watch, 35:30. Crap, that's way slower than I expected. Ohhh well, time for the long jog (.4 mile) up to transition.

After all was said and done I wouldn't change a thing but at the time I was really regretting saving my legs because the swim is my bread and butter and I really wanted to break 32 minutes.

Transition was just random for this tri. We had to run a long way to just get into transition and at this point I was slow jogging to compose myself. I always have problems with the swim to bike transition. Once I hit the mat into T1 I noticed that I was the first person in my age group and one of the first males into T1 in my area. That made me feel a little better so I took my time. After about 30 seconds the two guys next to my in the rack entered and they weren't in a huge rush so I just plopped myself down and took my time. Wetsuit off nicely, helmet and sunglasses on first, shoes next, off to the exit. I decided to tape all my gels and bars to the bike which proved a very useful strategy since I tend to forget some nutrition every time I leave T1.

Nothing. Intended to take up to 3 minutes in T1 to relieve any dizziness or swim legs but didn't need that much time.

Here's where things got interesting. I started out just getting my bearings and settling in. I knew I would need to listen to my body and focus on nutrition, and easing up whenever my legs told me to.

Here's a little background to give it all some perspective: I wanted to buy a tri bike a couple months ago but decided to wait until this winter when the 2010 bikes come out. Therefore, I was left riding and training solely on my road bike without any aero bars. Not a huge deal but I definitely lose confidence when I rack my bike next to all those sweet Cervelos and Felts. Also, I just recently started training with tri shoes, when before I just used flat pedals (no cages) and tennis shoes. I realized how foolish I looked doing it but in hindsight this was a great decision because my legs were that much stronger as I was racing with my tri shoes. It also helped that every day I have to climb a 6.5% grade hill coming back from work.

OK so back to the race. I had no speedometer so I was just going to calculate my pace at the mile markers. Unfortunately this race didn't have ANY mile markers. Ohhhh well, I just kept what I thought was a conservative pace and waited until the turn around to find out my pace. My goal was to ride at 18 mph to give my legs some energy for the run. This got thrown out the window when I asked some guy passing me at the 1:30 mark what mile we were on. I fully expected to hear 26 or 27 but instead he said "a little over 34 miles, hovering around 20-21 mph". Ooops, way to screw up my plan on that one. Granted, my legs were feeling find but I still knew I was pushing it too hard. At this point I realized I was way behind on my nutrition and immediately took in a gel and shot blocks. Gatorade just wasn't sitting well in my stomach so I barely got through a bottle and kept taking on more water at the bottle exchanges. Before June I'm going to need to find a better solution but for this race I got by on one bottle of Gatorade and salt tablets the rest of the way. I must say though, I love Shot Blocks - they remind me of fruit snacks when I was a kid and I could eat those things the whole bike ride.

After mile 34 I stayed close with the same guy the rest of the way. He kept helping me with the mile count and he actually pulled me up the bridge climb with a solid pace. The last 15-20 miles were pretty windy so it was harder to pick up speed but I didn't mind because by this point it finally hit me that I was way ahead of my ideal/top-secret race goal. I spent the last 40 minutes just listening to my body and stomach and taking in food/liquid when I could.

The last few miles were great. I could tell I was close by all the landmarks and I just started thinking about what pace I needed to run to hit my goal. 10:40 miles? Awesome! 11:30 miles to break 6 hours? Even better! I knew I was on my way to a great day barring any terrible mishaps.

Take it a little easier on the bike. Once I knew my pace at mile 34 I got greedy and wanted to know how much longer I could keep it up and sacrifice any potential problems on the run. Stupid idea but fortunately didn't bite me in the ass too badly.

Entering T2 was great. There were still some sprint triathletes around cheering us on and the energy was really cool. Again, I took my time and didn't rush myself. Only one guy from my age group was ahead of me when I got into T2, which made me a little nervous at just how fast I really did push myself on the bike. Ohhh well, helmet off, shoes on, keep the water bottle from the bike exchange, time to go. Almost to the exit, oops I forgot my hat. I lost about a minute going back and forth to get my hat but it was well worth it because the sun had just decided to come out.

Not forget my hat. Silly mistake.

Once I left T2 I immediately joined up with two other guys who were pretty friendly. One of them was the guy that helped me on the bike and the other was a chatty guy who seemed to be having a great race so far. My legs felt great and the conversation kept my spirits way up for the run. We ran together for about 1.5 miles and then I decided to break away to see what I could do. The first 3 miles were dynamite. Each one was around 8:30 and even when I slowed down to get back to my normal pace I was still hitting sub-9. At this point I was a little conflicted. My legs were feeling great but at the same time I knew this was just too fast for me. Naturally, my ambition and stupidity got the best of me as I tried to keep the same pace on mile 4. Lucky for me at the end of mile 4 was a decent sized hill that pretty much put my foolishness in check. From that point on I started to run way more conservatively. I was down to 10 minute miles as I drafted behind some really tall, broad guy who probably played a little Tight End in his day (thank you for the help big man). We stayed together until the turn around when I decided to pick up the pace and give myself a little mental test. The rest of the way I ran by myself and kept counting down the miles. Some were slower than others but overall I was happy to know I was almost there. I kept calculating the the pace I needed to keep in order to get certain times. This proved helpful because it took my mind off the fact that my legs were slowly falling apart. The last few miles were tough and I definitely spent most of that time arguing with myself whether I should walk. Reaching mile 12 is just such a tease. It's set up so you get within 30 feet of the finish but you still have to make a mile loop before you are done - that's just mean. So after a slow trot on that final loop, I made my way to the finish line and saw that I was right around a 5:40 finish. I just couldn't believe it. I kept thinking back to my training and goals, and realized that somehow I did something right. That may sound stupid but I was very worried the past few weeks that I did something wrong (what if I tapered too much, what if I didn't do enough hill training, what if my nutrition plan screws me).

Pace myself better at the start to keep a consistent time each mile. I fluctuated between an 8:20 mile and an 11:30 mile. I still have a lot of work to do on my run before I am satisfied.

Did a double take at the clock and my watch to make sure I wasn't dreaming this. This is my second race with Piranha and they rarely have good food so I just snacked on chips and drank two cokes (mmmmm, so good). Light stretching and sat in the shade once I realized how burnt I was.


Without a doubt this race was one to remember. I just started training for triathlons 4 months ago after I wanted a challenge in my life and soon thereafter I caught the bug. I'm not officially obsessed and this was my 2nd triathlon, first half iron. I didn't know what to expect but mainly I wanted to use this as a race to show me what I needed to improve upon for next June (more on that below). I also wanted to gain more mental toughness because that was a big problem during my first tri.

Needless to say I couldn't have been happier with how I performed and the race overall. The DDT race isn't a huge event but it was just right for what I wanted. I learned a lot about some points I need to work on and now I have a great base for next season.

Thanks to my new obsession, I decided to sign up for Ironman CDA out in Idaho. Yes, it's probably the most foolish as well as amazing thing I have ever decided to do but each time I think about crossing that IM finish line I start to get choked up.

But for now, it's a few weeks off from training. I can't wait for next year!