Plutonium Man Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman


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Kennewick, Washington
United States
Three Rivers Road Runners
76F / 24C
Sunny
Total Time = 5h 59m 22s
Overall Rank = 34/55
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 1/3
Pre-race routine:

My LUNA Chix teammate Janet and I left midday on Friday to head over the pass to the Tri-Cities, making sure to stop along the way for lunch, coffee, and perhaps a root beer float….eventually ending up at her dad’s house in Kennewick where we were treated like queens--cheese and fruit plate awaiting our arrival--then we went to the packet pickup/pasta feed at the Shilo Inn in Richland. The swag was great--really neat long-sleeved tech tees, (black, yay!) and knit hats with the Plutonium Man logo on them, bags…the food was just ok, but that was ok, we weren’t really hungry due to nerves. Eventually the race director gave a speech about the race course and the process of having multiple transition areas plus different start and finish lines. We’d see four locations before the race was done, and all 3 cities (I think--I am not good at differentiating which city we were in at any given time during the race). Then we went back to the house and packed up all of our race bags, filled our water bottles, double and triple checked our list. I took 2 advil PMs and washed it down with Nuun. Slept ok, but woke up at 5....eventually got up and ate (banana, 1/2 bagel with peanut butter, 2 cups of coffee) and got ready to go.
Event warmup:

We had to go drop our bikes, bike gear and our run bags off at T1. I made sure to get my bike into the right gear, started the Garmin on multisport, and again, rechecked the run bag to make sure everything I might need was in there. We then drove to the Swim start, got our timing chips and body markings....hung out for some photos and finally got our wetsuits on and got into the Columbia River for the start!!
Swim
  • 35m 9s
  • 2000 meters
  • 01m 45s / 100 meters
Comments:

It was fun to do a deep water start (my second ever and second this season). I kept trying to get further to the middle of the river (which is a HUGE river--The MIGHTY COLUMBIA)....and basically just kept following people ahead of me. I couldn't tell after a while if I was the last person or not, everyone really spread out. There were only 8 women so the men in the swim pretty much left me behind. As long as I could see people ahead of me I felt fine--and the whole time, I could. It was nice to just swim down the shore, no buoys to navigate! At 400 meters to go, there was a big yellow buoy indicating to swimmers that they need to start heading closer to shore in order to not miss the swim exit. It seemed a very long way from that buoy to the orange buoy, but before long I was being helped up the shore by (awesome) volunteers. Got to transition and was happy to see that there were still a lot of bikes there, meaning I was not the last swimmer! Yay!
What would you do differently?:

Just get faster, get better at drafting. I think I did well, overall, beating my swim from my last HIM by 5 or 6 minutes.
Transition 1
  • 02m 27s
Comments:

I was a little slow taking off the wetsuit, as always, I was out of breath after running up the hill to the transition area. I took an extra few seconds to make sure my feet were clean and dry, as rocks in the socks would not be fun on the rest of the bike/run! I wore socks so that I could just go right into my running shoes at T2. We had to put all of our gear into the transition bag or get a time penalty, so that took an extra few seconds.
What would you do differently?:

Faster transitions...always a good goal.
Bike
  • 3h 17m 24s
  • 56 miles
  • 17.02 mile/hr
Comments:

It was hillier overall than I thought it would be, but since I've ridden hills all year long, nothing felt hard. The time went by very quickly. I was passed by a few guys on the long hill, but I also passed a few during the second half of the race! There was a water station at the top of the hill where I grabbed and drank water as I went by one way, and then about 20 miles later you come back by, so I did the same thing. On my bike I had four bottles--2 gelbots, each with 2 shots of Hammer Gel and Clif Electrolyte drink, and 2 other bottles of Clif which I had frozen overnight. I tried to finish one bottle every 15 miles, alternating gelbot and yummy ice cold electrolyte, and ate LUNA Moons every time I thought about it. I feel I had plenty of food and water on the bike, and also had an ibuprofen about 90 minutes into it and then about 60 min before the end, each with one or two endurolytes. I had brought a pbj with me but I was not at all interested in eating it, so I didn't even try.

The long downhill was really, really fun, and over way too soon!! There were two out and backs which made it possible to see where everyone was in the race, I got to holler at Janet and see that I was pretty far behind the lead female by this point, but still doing good overall.
What would you do differently?:

Push even harder...I was trying to keep my legs as fresh as I could for the run while still working hard on the bike. It's a fine line, one that I think I can work on for future races.
Transition 2
  • 01m 31s
Comments:

This was an interesting transition--I took the Garmin off my bike as I stopped, and then a volunteer took the bike and another handed me my transition bag. I sat on a chair to change shoes, grabbed my visor and race belt, a glass of water, and was suddenly running! The volunteers picked up and bagged all my bike gear (nice!).
What would you do differently?:

Nothing, it was good!
Run
  • 2h 02m 50s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 23s  min/mile
Comments:

I felt GREAT for the run. My "race plan" was to run the first 5k at a 9:45 average but I went faster than that even when I tried to slow it down. I was going to run the 2nd 5k at a 9:30, the 3rd 5k at a 9:15 and the 4th 5k at a 9:00. Well, it wasn't quite that way, but the overall time ended up being almost exactly at my goal, even a bit ahead! The sun got hot between mile 5 and 11--but there were aid stations every 1.5 miles and at each one I poured a water on my head and drank a water. I ate one caffeinated gel about 3-5 miles and ate a few orange slices and grapes along the way to keep it interesting. The thought of taking the HEED made me gag so I just stuck to water. The best thing was coming to midspan across the Columbia River and being able to see into the parking lot down below where the finish line was and hear people cheering while I went down the switchback into the parking lot. I had accidentally left a 20 minute swim workout on my triathlon watch where I was keeping time, and I thought my overall elapsed time was going to be 6:20 (which I was very happy about). Once I saw the finish line and finish clock reading 5:58, I picked up the pace, not quite realizing that I had managed to get a sub-6 HIM!!! I thought their clock was wrong--it took me a few minutes to actually make sense of the difference in times and then I was ecstatic!! My best-case scenario goal time was 6 hours, and I had managed it, just barely, but I did it!
What would you do differently?:

Pick up the pace a little bit more in the final 5k! It was a slight uphill and pretty empty of people, so it was harder to get motivated at that point.
Post race
Warm down:

Drank water, stretched, drank a Pepsi and had a banana, stretched some more. Rubbed on some Arnica cream on my legs. I waited another 45 minutes for Janet to finish, and then both of us went and sat in the cold Columbia River for a while. Then more Arnica, a coke, some pizza and a cookie. It was nice to not drink electrolytes or eat gel!!! Food was pretty good, although the pizza was not really that satisfying, but I needed something.

Later in the evening, Janet and I attended "Sausage Fest" and ate sausage, beer and did the chicken dance. Yes, it's true.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I think I had the race of my life. There's always the 'what ifs' about training...if only I had run more intervals or gone to Masters swimming or biked a zillion miles (wait, I did!) or lost that stupid 20 pounds....always something.....but really, I exceeded my expectations and am not disappointed at my performance at all!

Event comments:

This was the first year of the Plutonium Man. The race director's description of the course on the website probably discouraged people from signing up for it, as well as a conflict with the Grand Columbian on the same day. Therefore it was a small field, but I have to say, an extremely fast one! I would guess that 90% of the people were on tri bikes and looked very fast!

The volunteers were outstanding. So many cowbells and horns and cheering! Tons of aid stations on the run, great road markings (although the runner from one relay got so lost she took a cab back after running 14 miles out)....but it was great. Everyone on the course (much on out-and-backs) smiled and waved and yelled out encouragement. There was huge applause for everyone at the awards ceremony, and great swag.

We lucked out with the weather. Friday night I was awakened by thunder and lighting and rain, but it had stopped by 6 AM and didn't start raining again until the awards ceremony. Sunday it was a deluge. Thankfully the race was Saturday, and the weather was mild with only some wind, but nothing serious.

Last year when I did my first half ironman, I was mentally and physically exhausted before the end of each of the bike and the run--wondering if I could actually finish....this time around I felt very strong the whole time and was surprised at how fast the time went by. I think past experience helped me a lot, as well as a new, sweet bike and nearly double the amount of time/distance riding this year.

I don't know what the future holds, but for now I am going to cherish having an A-race that went so well at the end of the season, as planned, trained for, and hoped for. The day after, I am sore but not too bad--not hobbling around at least.

I was 3rd place in the Women's Division, 1st in my Age Group. I know there weren't many in either of those categories, but I feel proud that I managed to podium anyway! I had seen my competition before the race and told Janet, well, at least I'll get 3rd AG (since there were 3 of us) and was most pleasantly surprised to once again prove you can't judge a book by its cover!

As always, I will be posting photos on here, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading, please comment!






Last updated: 2010-05-26 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:35:09 | 2000 meters | 01m 45s / 100meters
Age Group: 1/3
Overall: 36/55
Performance: Good
Suit: Zoot full
Course: Straight swim down the Columbia River. They said there was a mild current out in the middle, but I didn't manage to make it very far out that direction so don't know if the current was actually a factor for me.
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Shot
Water temp: 68F / 20C Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting: Below average
Waves: Below average Navigation: Good
Rounding:
T1
Time: 02:27
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike:
Jump on bike:
Getting up to speed:
Biking
03:17:24 | 56 miles | 17.02 mile/hr
Age Group: 2/3
Overall: 40/55
Performance: Good
Approximately 1600 feet total elevation gain.
Wind: Some with gusts
Course: Through one of the Tri-cities and out into the orchard- and farmlands. At about mile 18 there is a big hill that is 4.5 miles long with a 1000 foot elevation gain. We had driven it the night before so I knew to expect it. There were a lot of rolling hills before and after the big hill, nothing too serious or that would warrant standing up for.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence: 85
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Average Hills: Good
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:31
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
02:02:50 | 13.1 miles | 09m 23s  min/mile
Age Group: 1/3
Overall: 30/55
Performance: Good
The Garmin says 13.01 miles but I am going with the official distance of 13.1! Here are the splits that I have on my Garmin: Time Distance Split time 0:08:16 1.00 8:16 0:17:20 2.00 9:03 0:26:32 3.01 9:10 0:36:16 4.00 9:44 0:45:35 5.00 9:18 0:54:41 6.00 9:05 1:03:58 7.00 9:17 1:13:39 8.00 9:40 1:23:15 9.00 9:35 1:32:50 10.00 9:35 1:42:57 11.01 10:07 1:53:17 12.01 10:19 2:02:49 13.00 9:32 2:02:53 13.01
Course: It was a downhill start for about half a mile....running on trails along the Yakima River, then up and over an overpass over that river, and then up and over another very steep overpass and across the Columbia River to Pasco, where we headed out along the Columbia until the turnaround at mile 8 and then back to the big overpass (and very steep uphill)--the finish line was at a park at the other end of the bridge.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5