Great Illini Half-Iron Distance Aquabike - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Water time was really 43:90, long because of bad sighting

Air temp was about 55-60 degrees at race start (burr), water was about 77 degrees

Took gu gels before race and that just made me sick to my stomach. First 1/2 of first loop I just felt like crap, swim was hurting (felt like I was swimming against the wetsuit in the shoulders the whole time) and I knew my wetsuit was rubbing against my neck (got worse on 2nd lap and found out later I had a terrible wetsuit burn on my neck). 2nd lap felt better and sighting was better.

There were only 4 buoys on each loop, so buoys were hard to see and sight. Also on way to 4th buoy ending the 1st lap, there was a large orange buoy sitting in a pontoon boat that alot of people were spotting. By the time I noticed that was not the right buoy I was at least 100-200 yards, 2-3 minutes off course (totally pissed, who puts another buoys anywhere near the course - there will be complaints on that one). That didn't happen again on the second lap.

Also, just remembered there were absolutely no lifeguards in the swim. I don't remember anyone on the course for safeties sake. Weird . . .

First lap was about 21-22 minutes

Sight better, get more comfortable with wetsuit, do more of a warm-up ahead of swim

I was literally exhausted coming out of the water. I was slow in transition and just plain tired (with still the bike to go). Grabbed a gu gel I had in my bike shorts coming out of the water.

Get better at running out of the water

First 5 minutes on the bike after coming out of the water - freezing cold. Air temp was about 60-65 and being wet sucked until I got my HR back up and clothes dried off.

First 7 or so miles were great, good pace, great roads . . . until the turn around on Elma road. Strong headwinds taking you down to 13 mph (after 20+ mph on the way out on Elma). Winds were REALLY strong the rest of the day so went from strong tailwind to strong headwind back and forth. Rough roads (on top of hills and winds) started at about mile 10 and 38 or so. Got to turn around at 28 miles and just felt good.

Wasn't sure I would be able to do this ride, but everything (except winds) was going well. After every turn I was getting out of my seat pumping it hard to get back up to speed and that continued until the very end with only a little tiredness the last couple of turns within the last 4-5 miles. Last 5 or so miles I was even able to kick it into a higher gear and basically time trialed it back to the end of the bike. I knew I was doing good when I passed about a half dozen I had never seen (but they also had a half marathon after that, which I didn't).

Good thing was I found someone to ride with and sight since about mile 4-5 and we road together for the rest of the ride, picking up people along the way.

Traffic was minimal the entire day and volunteers and race spectators were just awesome cheering you on at every turn! Only issue was bottle exchanges were literally at the turn around, so you were navigating the turn around with people in front and back of you trying to toss a bottle and grab a new one (be sure to yell out ahead of time what you need because everything is in buckets and they grab stuff as people yell, they are not just standing there with hands out). Why don't they do the exchange about 50 or so feet from the turn arounds? I have seen this set up before and it sucks and makes people come close to crashing.

Even though this was a worse time than Muncie (the bike anyway), I was much happier with this performance given this was a slightly harder course with more hills and strong winds all day. Also, this course was about 2-3 miles longer than Muncie half. Also, weather today was much better, I was not having any cramping issues, my legs felt good the whole day and was able to do what I wanted when I wanted.

Just work more on biking, dealing with winds and hills. Still better than 2 months ago, but can definitely improve greatly

First things first, pee break since I had to go getting in the water for the swim!!!

Stretching, stretching, stretching and a protein bar




Limited ability to put in alot of hours for training, hated going out for long hard bike rides, so skipped alot


Volunteers and race spectators were awesome the whole race. Race was organized (except for the extra buoy on the course with pulled many off course and the bottle exchanges), but post race activies/food sucked. Had to hunt around for any water. Pizza was available, but gone in minutes so really no foot whatsoever after race. You would think since most did the half race there would be food, bananas, etc afterward.

Nice thing was they had trophies for all races, all age groups. That was kind of cool.

Goodie bag t-shirt was cotton (uugghh), should've been technical