Florida Challenge Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman


View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Clermont, Florida
United States
TriAmercia
95F / 35C
Sunny
Total Time = 6h 37m 2s
Overall Rank = 49/240
Age Group = M 35-39
Age Group Rank = 8/27
Pre-race routine:

Checked in to hotel Saturday @ 1:30pm and put bags/bike in the room. Left to go check in and see the course. The race was about a mile and a half from hotel and easy to find. Although the canes were playing @ 3:30, decided to go drive the bike course. Glad I did as it was as hilly as I thought and helped prepare how to hold back. Went back and watched football rest of day and took it easy. Woke up at 4:30am and just had banana and clif bar with some juice. Packed the car up and off to the race site. Set up the bike and had plenty of time. Small race so parking was non issue. Got marked, picked up chip and hit the restroom. Saw a buddy in transition and talked a few minutes.
Event warmup:

Walked to the lake and it was very calm. Water wasn't that clear, but nice temp for my warm blood. Swam about 3-400 yards and then waited for my wave which was 20 minutes after start.
Swim
  • 38m 48s
  • 2112 yards
  • 01m 50s / 100 yards
Comments:

Swim training has been pretty consistent so felt really good. Plus everyone was pretty calm and even paced knowing it was going to be a tough day so nobody was overly agressive at the start. Had to walk at least 100ft just to get to waste deep water. Some people did the dolphin dive deal and others swam early in 3ft water. I was walking at same pace as all of them so figured would save the energy. Got into a good rythym early on and kept that same pace whole race. Never had contact with another racer whole swim. The sun was right in my eyes the first 700 yards and amen for tinted goggles. I thought my sighting was right on and had good line to buoys. Never really drafted on anyone and when I did it felt they were all over the place so content with going solo. Stayed with same guy for pretty much whole race, just to my right. I felt good @ last turn and picked it up a bit and started passing earlier waves. All around, really happy with the swim. Some people said afterwards it was long and I agree. My tempo felt much faster than avg reflected.
What would you do differently?:

Not much to change, could have maybe saved a minute or two picking it up, but knew what was coming rest of day.
Transition 1
  • 02m 16s
Comments:

Ranked 26th overall and this was faster than I thought I did. Did a light jog to T1 which was only about 300yds from the beach if that. Was worried shirt would not go on easily, but it did with no problems and glad I decided not to swim with the tri top on. Then I loaded up nutrition in back shirt pocket, put on glasses/helmet and was off. Mount was a weak leap but it worked. The start had a hill and should have been in easier gear. Finally got into my shoes after the first two little hills.
What would you do differently?:

Get bike in right gear and probably put arm coolers on in T1 instead of waiting till on the bike. They were very hard to put on while moving. Worth the 10 seconds it would have taken.
Bike
  • 3h 16m 56s
  • 60 miles
  • 18.28 mile/hr
Comments:

After driving the course, I knew it would be tough ride. I simply do not train any hills as they don't exist in SE FLA. Maybe could have done bridge work, but too boring. All I know is that course kicked me in the rear. A few of the steaper climbs caught me off guard and in wrong gear. No choice but to mash through a few in big chain which I knew I would regret later. Lack of experiece on this type of course for sure.

The only part I never saw the day before was Sugarloaf Mountain which I was dreading. It was as bad as I envisioned and was about half way on the course. Don't know the grade, but I could have counted the pebbles on the side of the road at the pace I had going up. Everyone struggled and a few people walked bikes up. That looked tempting as I passed the walkers at a crippling pace.

The downhills were fun and on one experience I had the pleasure of a giant bee stinging me in the stomache. I couldn't knock it away as I was in aero and going 35+mph at the time. Had to just feel it drill its damn stinger in me and pump away. The pain did help me forget how tired my legs were though. About 15 miles or so of the course was along a busy road with high speed limits. It was the only way to get to tough section of the bike course, but it made passing very tough. The road had a bike lane, but it was maybe 2-3 feet wide and to pass you had to go over these bumps meant to alert drivers to WTFU. there were a few scary moments when I had to pass over them.

I never saw a lot of drafting out there except once and the guy in front made me laugh when he moved left and told other rider to pass. I am sure that suprised the drafter. My goal was 3:00:00 and when that came and went I got a bit worried. Then saw that I was on mile 56 and not close to finsh. Course was long to add insult to injury.

Nutrition was great with two 20oz bottles with me of gatorade endurance and grabbed a water bottle at every station and kept in bottom cage. Got pretty good at grabbing bottles at decent speed. Some of them already had the tops taken off which helped and others you had to fight with to get the saftely tab off. Ate 2 Powerbar Energys and about 3 gels. Popped a few salt tabs as well along the way.

The sun was getting really hot the last hour or so and this meant run was going to be interesting. Would spray water on my arm coolers every chance I had. Debateable whether or not they helped any. But since I forgot sunscreen I left them on.
What would you do differently?:

First race with hills so had no idea what to expect. Overall, I learned a lot and would bring different cassette for sure. Was happy though at the end that I worked it, but never went all out. Felt I managed course as best I could.
Transition 2
  • 03m 4s
Comments:

This felt like 10 minutes as I am usually pretty efficient in T1/T2. The dismount line was at bottom of a hill and the road was rough. Barely had time to get feet out of shoes. When I got off, a shoe came off and had to go back and get it, then a water bottle fell. Glad not a lot of folks out there watching! Knew I had to take my time, put on socks, grease the toes etc. It had to be 100 degrees at this point. Grabbled my fuel belt, hat, race belt and was off. I saw buddy leave a few minutes before me which was suprising as he passed me on the bike a good 90 minutes earlier and looked really strong.
What would you do differently?:

Just concetrate on dismount and familiarize myself with that part of the course day before. Dont know why shoe fell off or bottle dropped.
Run
  • 2h 36m 1s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 11m 55s  min/mile
Comments:

I have been training in pretty warm conditions all summer, but never after a bike torture fest like this. I knew after .5 mile it was going to be a "just finsh" type of day. Saw my buddy early in run and he was cramping. We kept it going for a while and then the walk breaks were inevitable. This was supposed to be nice warm up race for Miami HIM in about 6 weeks so I really battled mentally on how hard to push myself. It is a race afterall, but I didn't want to risk injury by crushing myself. Sometimes I caught myself walking when I knew I could pick it up and so I did. Other times I needed to walk and was content with it.

THANK GOD that the race organizers were VERY prepared for the condidtions at aid stations. There was water with ice and cold sponges waiting at every mile. That was a great motivator. They also had some horrible gatorade drink, warm soda, HEED gels and at a few stops they had salt tabs. I would place a cold sponge under my hat and walk off with a few cups of water, refilling my fuel belt that had HOT gatorade endurance in it. The whole run I delt with my left ear being clogged with water. It was like hearing your hard breathing in 3rd person. What an ANNOYING thing to deal with. Nothing I did could unclog it so I gave up after a while.

Played leapfrog with the same crowd for much of the run. Met them by name on the last loop and had a few conversations. The heat was really getting to people and I never cramped which was good except for on my right rib cage. Happend more than ever before and that is normally a fitness issue. The whole run was just a barter with myself on how long to run before stopping and then re-motivating myself to run again. Sometimes it was a landmark, an aid station, another runner, etc. Didn't see my buddy on 2nd loop and figured he DNF'ed. In fact, about 30% of the racers had a DNF. Most I have ever seen in a race. One really nice spectator was spraying people with his hose and that felt great.

The last 4 miles I just got lazy. In an "A" race I would have sucked it up and accepted the pain. In this race after that bike course and the heat, I threw in the towel mentally. Normally that would haunt me, but I felt pretty satisfied at the end just getting through it. Another runner and I agreed to run as much as we could last 2 miles simply for the fact "to get this over with"...
What would you do differently?:

Easy to 2nd guess a lot of things after a run debacle like that. But the conditions were rough and not much I think I could have done. You can always train more etc, but this was just a hard race that kicked my A$$.
Post race
Warm down:

Crossed that finish line and was just so glad it was over. First thing I had to do was get than water out of my ear and get the stinger out of my stomache so walked over to med tent. They did a great job and they had much bigger issues on that course than my requests so I was thankful. The food spread was ok and by that time the crowds were pretty much gone so I found a picnic table and sat for a while. Then packed up T1 and put stuff in car. I had a 3+ hour drive home so took it easy and sat in AC for a while with feet up. Borderline dangerous driving home that far with cramping I had, but nothing more motivating that taking a shower and crashing in your own bed.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Tough question. So many factors I normally don't have to deal with. Training for this race specificly would be whole seperate strategy with more heat training, hill repeats etc. Outside a few elite folks, it looked like majority of folks had same interpretation of the day. Still finished with respecatble time and if I could wipe about 15 minutes off that run, it would have been a VERY good day for my ability.

Event comments:

If you are going to have one of the hardest HIM's around, you need to back it up with support and they did just that. The aid stations were great and well organized. I can't thank the volunteers enough who worked through the same tough conditions I just complained about. This is a perfect race for anyone who wants to have a good mental picture of what to compare future tough conditions against. I can say that I doubt I will see a tougher bike course or hotter conditions on the run any time soon during a HIM! This was the 26th year of the race and I have to imagine the reputation either hurts the race from growing any larger or these are the same sick people that come out every year:)




Last updated: 2010-04-16 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:38:48 | 2112 yards | 01m 50s / 100yards
Age Group: 7/27
Overall: 45/240
Performance: Good
Suit:
Course: One loop triangle course
Start type: Run Plus: Waves
Water temp: 85F / 29C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting: Average
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 02:16
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
03:16:56 | 60 miles | 18.28 mile/hr
Age Group: 11/27
Overall: 66/240
Performance: Average
Wind: Little
Course: Harder than Hell. And if not bad enough, everyone had it reading 60 miles. Race director must be masochist. Some parts very scenic however and enjoyed that part. About 15-20 miles were along major highway with little room to pass with crazy "wake up" bumps deviding bike lane and the road.
Road: Rough Dry Cadence: 83
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Average Hills: Average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 03:04
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Average
Jumping off bike Average
Running with bike Below average
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Average
Running
02:36:01 | 13.1 miles | 11m 55s  min/mile
Age Group: 11/27
Overall: 76/240
Performance: Bad
Course: 2 loop course through wide paved trails. Some of the course had shade thank god. But most was out in the sun. The long course had to do a .7 mile loop after first turn and then head out again. some hills, but pretty much flat.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 2
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4