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

There were two waves, men then women with a three minute delay. The sighting was a little difficult because there were only two buoys marking the corners of the long side of the rectangle, and they were quite far apart. The last buoy on the return leg was especially difficult because we were heading straight into the sun as well. So instead I aimed for the beach where we started until I got close to the buoy, and that was close enough.

Nothing....this was the best of the three legs for me. When I came out of the water the clock hadn't hit 43 minutes yet, meaning I sustained a pace of 2:00/100 yards for the whole distance. That was better than I was expecting, and better than I've been able to do in the pool. I think the wetsuit made all the difference.

I took my time, since I knew a few seconds in transition would have little to no impact on my finish time or rankings. This included drying off, putting on bike shorts, and putting on my Camelbak.

Nothing.

There were sustained NW winds of 10mph with gusts to 26. The first leg felt good. I was slower than I wanted at the north end of the route, but made up time on the return with a tailwind and averaged 17.5 mph at the end of the first loop. The second loop was a different story. I lost time, as expected, heading north but was not able to make it up on the return despite what should have been a tailwind. When I put the bike in the car, the rear tire was flat so I was probably running with a low rear tire for most of the last 10 miles at least, and lost 10 minutes on the second leg.

With my inexperience I don't think I could have anticipated the tire deflation but in the future I'll check both my tires if the pedaling starts to get hard. I had CO2 with me, and could have used it had I thought about it.

I loaded my Camelbak with 60oz of Gatorade but when I finished there was almost a full 20oz remaining, so I should have consumed more on the bike. It was a very pleasant cool day, so one tended not to get thirsty.

I also took my time here, removed the bike shorts (I wore swim trunks underneath) and Camelbak, and downed 10 oz of orange juice.

nothing.

My standalone HM pace was 7:47 in the spring, so this should have been my best leg, but I was whooped from the bike (because of the flat tire?). I started out at what felt like a comfortable, sustainable pace of about 8:35 but got progressively slower and began to cramp up at the half way point. The whole second leg I was walking through the water stops and fighting off cramps by slowing down, but at least was able to finish strong.

Just like the bike, I lost 10 minutes on the second half of the run versus the first.

The only thing I could have done differently would have been to start out at a slightly slower pace. I am fairly certain that the cramping was just from fatigue, not electrolytes or any other excuse.

Downed two Dr. Peppers and ate a slice of cheese pizza, sat around a few minutes, then headed to the campground to shower.

I didn't hang around for the AG group awards; I had no idea I had placed. I had looked at the race results from the last two years and there were more entrants in my AG, and I would not have placed in 2008 or 2009 with a finish time of 6:15


Unanticipated, and unrecognized, tire deflation.


This race was just right for my first HIM attempt: close enough to home, well organized, not too crowded, flat and fast course if a little boring, especially the run. I am a a little concerned with the apparent drop in turnout of 109 versus 195 in 2009 and 181+ in 2008; hopefully the promoters are not discouraged from running this event again next year.