MooseMan Triathlon Festival - Half Iron Distance - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Good swim for me. The wetsuit felt comfortable- unlike when I had swam in a week and half before- and it felt like I was going 'fast.' Sighting was good. Got nailed w/ an elbow to the cheekbone once and took in some lake water. Was glad I had worn the Kaiman goggles rather than the Sealmask because the mask would have been dislodged by that hit. Had to pee toward the end of the swim but couldn't go in the suit while swimming. Figured it would go away once I was out of the water. Time was almost 3 minutes faster than I split for the swim at FL 70.3.

nothing- for me it was a good swim

The long sleeve shirt stuck a little putting it on to my wet body but it was very much worth putting it on. I've been borderline hyperthermic before long course racing and it's not fun or pretty. Wearing, yes wearing, my special needs bag for the second lap of the run at IM LP in 2003 was NOT a fashion statement. So I considered it worth any extra time to put on a shirt over the trisuit. I had my stuff in separate garbage bags for T1 and T2 to keep it dry up to the point I put it on. I almost tried putting the helmet on before the shirt and then realized oops, that won't work.

Nothing- did what needed to be done

This was a lousy bike ride for me. I was quite disappointed in my time and never really felt comfortable riding like I usually do. I felt like my legs were dead from the first couple of miles and I thought "I'm not recovered from doing the FL 70.3 race 2 weeks ago and then riding a hilly 51 miles last weekend." I'm not sure if that was truly the problem because I 'recovered' by the second half of the run or if I just haven't done enough hill training. Nutrition was 32 oz of X factor lemon lime+strawberry Gatorade, a vanilla PowerGel and a Green Apple Powergel. Took another bottle of Gatorade at the last aid station but didn't drink much of it. My arms were a little sore the evening of the race from taking all the bumps in the aero bars. Tried peeing on the bike three times but never really felt like the bladder emptied. Lower abdomen kind of crampy for the last third of the bike. 18 minutes over my bike time from FL 70.3

train more on hills
push harder- my ave HR was well below LT but it was spiking climbing and then dropping like a rock when I wasn't

Couldn't run w/ the bike. Just no gumption. Racked it and then put on socks, running shoes and took off. Standing water in the aisle between my rack position and the run exit. So much for having made the effort to keep the shoes and socks dry by storing them in the T2 garbage bag.

not put race belt and hat on first before shoes and socks as those can be put on while moving

Considering how much of a sufferfest the bike was, I assumed the run would be more of the same because that's just how running is for me. Started off feeling really bad and the first mile was about 12 minutes I think. Then I stopped at the porta pottie during mile 2 figuring it wouldn't take long to pee as there was just one lady in front of me. I don't know what she did in there but it took her forever it seemed. I was really getting worried about making the run at that point as my legs hurt just standing there waiting. Pee'd and then started off again. That resulted in a 16 minute second mile.

Took some Gatorade at the next aid station that just sloshed in my stomach- uhh oh. Skipped the next aid station and then took some pretzels at the one after that. For the rest of the run I took about 3 pretzels and 5-6 jelly beans every other aid station and often a glass of water to wash them down. I had never tried solid food before running but those jelly beans tasted darn good yesterday and were far more appealing for some reason than the gels and gatorade.

Kept looking for Rob and Max. Saw Rob first and he looked great. Then saw Max when I was shortly after the turnaround and he was just before the dirt road segment. Hey, what was he doing behind me I wondered but he explained that he had a flat tire. At that point I was still seriously doubting I would make the run without considerable walking as I walked up the hill from Beachwood back onto West Shore. I ended up walking that hill both loops and one other on the outbound segment both loops plus the aid stations that I actually took stuff at. So I started running again and eventually got back to finish the first loop- yeah half way done. Still not feeling great I told my Mom when I saw her "2 halves in 2 weeks is too much."

Just kept trucking away hoping to come in under 6:15 for the day. Got to mile 10 and realized that I could actually come in around 6:05. Finished and looked at my watch and saw I was under 6:03. I must have really flown(for me at least) that last 1.1 miles as I was at 5:54 and change at the 12 mile mark. So I realized that I had to have negative split the run to somewhat salvage the day from a bad bike. I never felt great but felt much the second lap. I was about 8 minutes under my run time from FL 70.3.

So I was feeling pretty good about run until the results were posted today and then I made a chart of the times for my age group. 28/32- people that finished 30 minutes BEHIND me posted better run splits. WTF? So much for a breakthrough run- apparently I still suck. For comparison, the 2:17:47 I ran at FL in the 93 degree heat was 50/115 in my age group. I go faster and fall from MOP to BOP for running- is that all these ladies in the Northeast do or something? Oh well, I know that I can still run faster especially if I don't start the run feeling like dog turd for the first 3 plus miles.

Pee in the bushes rather than wait for the darned porta pottie
Learn how to run???

Got my medal, towel, water bottle, frozen yogurt squeezie. Talked to Rob about his awesome day. Went and got my T zone cleaned up and headed to the dressing rooms to get dry clothes on as I was getting chilled. I had left the long sleeve shirt on for the run too and never felt too hot with it on. Talked to Max after getting changed and congratulated him on reaching his goal for the run.


Not do another half IM 2 weeks before maybe. Train more on hills.

Why did I do 2 HIM distance races 2 weeks apart? FL 70.3 was treated as an A race and this one was added because it looked 'fun.' I've now done 2 of the 4 HIM distance races on my schedule for the season although I hope to add a fifth. I think my reasoning behind setting up my schedule this way was in the past I had tendency to 'race my way into shape' or what passed for in shape for me. So I figured that since my AAA race is IM Moo, HIM distance races would be good training. I still think that is the case as both so far have been valuable experiences- this one arguably even more so than FL because the adversity I overcame here was more internal v. the high temps that affected everyone at FL.


Endorfun Sports ran another excellent event. I jockstrapped on Saturday so I got to see both days. There was a nice little expo, reasonable goodie bag(FL 70.3 redeemed itself at the finish cuz otherwise their's sucked) Keith had been awesome about providing updates as to the status of the race and then they reacted well to yet more rain. They brought in a load of wood chips on Saturday to try and make the transition area better.

My travelling jockstrap, my Mom, has taken to volunteering at the events I drag her to(yeah, I held the Taser to her to make her drive the 5 hours to get there from the opposite direction I was coming from) including IM LP, FL 70.3, and some other races. She ended up working the bike course for this one so I asked her opinion of the race organization. She was very favorably impressed but was a little concerned about a USAT rule. Seems she has been around triathlon long enough to be familiar w/ the outside assitance rule so she was wondering about the fact the some people were holding bikes while others washed the athletes feet off at the bike mount line- a concession to the quagmire that was the transition area. She also wondered about the Mavic people that provided wheels, mechanical assistance and even bikes if necessary. I explained that since the race organization provided these services to be used by ALL athletes it was allowed and that the outside assistance rule was for the advantage it may give an individual.

I would definitely do another Endorfun Sport event(this was my second this year- I also did the Big Lake Half mary 3 weeks ago) and it's really good that I feel that way as it's only 11 weeks until Timberman. In some ways, I'm looking forward to that as much as I am IM Moo.