Redman Triathlon - Half Redman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Honestly I think the course may have been short. Over the summer I was able to swim the Lake Placid course without a wetsuit and did it in about 40 minutes. I'm pretty sure my suit didn't make me 9 minutes faster. Also, I took it really easy trying to save some energy. But..if they said it was 1.2 miles then I'll take it.

Not a thing.

I stood up pretty early and tried to run up the ramp. The water was still waist deep so spent some energy running. I looked at my watch and was kind of shocked at the time-see above.
My socks were soaked as were my shoes. Put on my shirt, the gels I had pre-loaded into the back all fell out. No worries- I still have 5 hours to go -right?

Nothing.

It was pouring rain when we started and as I said I'd never ridden in the rain so was fairly nervous. Fortunately there were not many turns to deal with. As soon as I got on my bike I realized that my computer was not working which bummed me out. After about 5 minutes it started to work-don't know why- and I rode up alongside some folks to double check my speed and it seemed right-cool. We dismounted at mile 6 and lugged our bikes through 8 inches of water, then back on. I was really surprised by my speed. It stopped raining at about mile 14 when we turned west. I was getting passed a bunch but just kept telling myself that I was only racing against myself. I was kind of dissapointed to see the amount of drafting going on. I guess if the motorcycle isn't there then it's not drafting? At about mile 15 there were a group of us who seemed to be going about the same speed. I think hanging with this group helped my bike time as I definetely would not have gone as fast without trying to hang with them. At about mile 42 it started to rain again and I slowed down. Took it real easy going the last 5 miles and was also getting pretty uncomfortable on the bike.

Nothing really. Pre-race I thought if I went 3 hours on the bike I'd be good so 20/mph avg. was pretty good in the rain.

Went to put my shoes on and they were soaked. Felt like anvils on my legs. Also changed shirts.

Maybe I need to get one of those tri-specific tops or singlet.

When I got off my bike I wasn't feeling all that great. My neck and shoulders were starting to hurt for some reason and my legs were not that great. As I said, my goals were to finish, break 6 hours and run the entire course. When I got off the bike I knew I'd be able to break 6 hours pretty easily. However when I got to mile 4 I knew I wasn't going to be able to run the entire way. At this point both of my hands started to go numb and my neck pain got worse. Slogging through 4 inches of water every mile or so wasn't fun either. I was behind a guy in my age group for the 1st three miles and at mile 4 he said "I'll follow you for a while". I was kind of thinking- "that's not real smart because I'm about to bonk". I really wasn't keeping track of my run time, just my overall time at that point. When I got to the turnaround I decided that I'd walk each aid station. Going in a loop made that a bit easier as I knew where they'd be. So my goal was, run to the aid station, walk about 50 yards then run to the next aid station. At mile 10 I looked at my watch and realized that if I just walked it in from there I would still easily break 6 hours so that gave me some comfort. Also at that point my hands were completely numb and my neck pain excruciating. At mile 11 my hamstrings started to cramp. I walked about 100 yards at the next aid station, ran a bit then walked about 1/4 mile to the 12 mile marker then told myself I was going to run the rest of the way in. I passed a few folks who were walking too at that point. I thought "whoa... they must feel worse than me!" even though I almost fell down a few times because my hamstrings were cramping so badly. My run splits were comical 55:34/1:05:21

The run is where I knew I'd have the most trouble since the furthest I'd gone in summer training was 10.5 I may not have paced myself all that well either but honestly don't know that going any slower for the first few miles would have made any difference. If I were to do something differently it would have been to go on longer runs in training- maybe 14 miles routinely. The neck pain and numbness in my hands are probably related to decreased shoulder/trapezius strength. I probably need to do a bit of weight training to iron that out coupled with a cervical stabilization program.

Crossed the finsish line, got my medal and shirt, drank some water, got my bike and went right to the van all in less than 5 minutes. There was one guy in the transition area who said "the hardest thing about these events is trying to pack everything up." That's the guy I wanted to be-ddin't even looked gassed at the end-not the case today for me. I had to lay down for a while in the van to see if my hands would wake up and my neck pain would abate. After about 45 minutes everything eased up to the point where I could drive. Nearly got stuck in the mud trying to get out of the grass parking.


Neck pain/hand numbmess-pain


My first 1/2 iron. I chose this race because of the course-flat and location, and time of year. I think the organizers did a great job considering the weather. Honestly I'd have to say I think the weather helped me. Had it been sunny and warm I'm sure I would have had more trouble on the run than I already did. Overall though a great event. If I ever do this distance again (genetics/muscle fiber type have condemned me to sprints), I'd run much longer distances in training. I now have even more respect for those who do a full iron!