Florida Challenge Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The start was a mass age group start, my first ever. I was hoping prior to the beginning of this swim to swim 2min/100meters. Boy was I off. I had a difficult time calming down during the beginning of the swim. My breathing was all out of synchrony and everytime I turned my head to the right I would take in water. By 200 meters I was way off even with the middle of the pack for my age group. At 500 meters I felt my chip come off. Man did it scare me, fortunately it floated up to the surface and I stuck it in my pants and finished the swim... I know I would've given up had I not been able to recover it. After I made the first turn (~600m) I began to settle into a groove and was breathing every third stroke like I normally do in the pool. I began getting passed by the group 5 minutes behind me at about 500 meters and then by the next group after that at about 900 meters. The rest of the swim was uneventful.

Really disappointed with my swim performance. I thought with all the time I had practiced I would've seen better results. Obviously this is a weakness for me and I need to focus more attention on it to get better. Furthermore, practicing more open water swims would help as well.

Race splits were yet to be posted. T1 went rather smooth. My bike was one of only 2 bikes remaining on the rack when I left T1. I knew my swim time was poor and decided not to let that discourage me. I knew I was giving all I had and just had to stay focused.

Nothing

I pushed pretty hard on the bike. I avg'd ~20 for the first hour and slowed a little after that. I started to feel pretty fatigued at about the 2 hour mark on the bike which happened to coincide with the hillier portion of the course. I passed quite a few people, very few were in my age group. I drank water out of my aero bar and drank 2 bottles of gatorade during the course of the ride. I took a gel about every hour and took endurolyte tabs at about 2 hours. I clipped out of the bike right before transition and didn't know there were 2 curb's/bumps right before entering T2. I almost ate it.

I was hoping to do 2:30 on the bike prior to the race. I struggled on the bike and after talking with others after the race that seemed to be the flavor of the day. I need to spend more time in the saddle on a regular basis to become a stronger biker. The potential is there but the time spent isn't yet quite there.

When I got back into T2 there was only one other person's bike on the rack. It made me feel better about my bike performance. My legs felt heavy running with the bike but I knew if I ran 9 minute miles on the run I could easily make my goal of <6 hours. My watch said 3:45 for overall time. I ran without my bike shirt, it was pretty warm and changed into dry socks and slipped my shoes on... I took a second to stretch and it was off to the races.

Nothing

Hands down the worst run I've ever had in my life. I ran out of T2 and realized I forgot my race belt, I ran back almost to T2 and found an official to find out if I had to have it on, she said no, so I turned around and kept running. It only took probably 3 minutes off my time so I didn't let it bother me. My first mile was about 10 minutes, my second mile was ~9. I knew I was having a tough time, it just didn't feel right. At mile 3 I began to feel pukish. I made myself walk to keep from throwing up and it took a good several minutes before my breathing calmed as well. This was pretty deflating for me, I've never had to do anything like that before. I began running again when all started to feel better and resorted to walking throught the water stops and running in between. I figured I was running between 10-11 minute miles and pretty much gave up on my goal of <6 hours. I passed quite a few people who were walking only but still knew I was running pretty slow. I finally made my way around the lake and towards the finish line which had a short hill about 1000 yards before. Again I felt pukish but held on till after the ticker tape...

Very deflating run. I ran Chicago 2 weeks before and avg 8:22. Conservatively I was hoping to avg 9's... Basically boiled down to poor planning on my part. I should've incorporated more bricks into my workouts. It is crazy to think I could go that hard on a run after I gave almost everything on the bike.

Walked through the finish line area and found the nearest set of bushes and began to puke. I think I pushed it a little too hard coming up the last hill before the finish line. I tried to drink a little bit of water and eat a little piece of banana but this also came back up a few minutes later. I just ended up sitting down where I could see the finishers come in, stretched and tried to regain my composure. I saw Peter (pkingfl) and then James both come in... James and I went down to transition, picked up our gear and rode back to the truck in time to make it home to watch the Alabama-Tennessee football game... Roll Tide!


Swim- Stay calm at the beginning, swim faster, don't lose my chip (secure it better before starting the swim).
Bike- Bike more often.
Run- Incorporate more bricks into my workout. The potential to do well is there, just poor planning/preparation prevented me meeeting my potential.

Following a specific race plan would've been beneficial. I have been following a marathon race plan and have been swimming/biking on the side. This was a great race to get my feet wet on for this distance, and shattered any illusions of hoping to do great on a full distance with only minimul preparation... Hopefully this experience has taught me to respect the distance and accomplishment it takes to complete the full distance.


Sommer Sports did a good job with what they had given the fact that a hurricane (Wilma) would hit Fl only a day later... It was a very difficult race, a fact that was pounded home as I talked to more and more people who had completed half's in the past who were very unhappy with there performances... It strangely made me feel better knowing how difficult of a time I had and hoping to salvage any future hope of meeting personal goals for completing an Ironman. My hat goes off to those who completed the full!