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 Swim
Comments: I am not a fabulous swimmer but I have been really working at it. I knew that I could complete the distance no problem. Open water swimming doesn't bother me too much so I was not that worried (since the waves from yesterday were gone). My start went great. I breathe bilateral and it seemed like I was getting mouthfuls of water on the left so I breathed on the right more. I was in a pack with several other people for the first several hundred yards and we all beat each other up a bit. My sighting was WAY better than in my last race. The big yellow buoys really made it a lot easier. There was a guy with a suit with bright red accents on it about 5 yards to my right and we swam together the whole race. He beat me out of the water by about 5 seconds. To me, his swimming looked pretty good so if I was keeping up with him I was doing ok (for me). I just wanted to break 40 minutes and I was out of the water in just over 37 minutes (run to transition accounts for additional time) so I was very happy with this swim. What would you do differently?: I need to really work on my technique over the winter. My swim fitness is OK now but I am no longer getting any faster. Masters swimming here I come.  Transition 1
Comments: Seemed like I forgot to be urgent in T1. Put on socks per plan and kind of forgot about the shoes (I put them on and run in them). Also forgot to put cliff bar in pocket which had been part of my bike trainning nutrition plan. Nice run and jump onto bike. What would you do differently?: The clock is ticking dummy. Tape Cliff bar to bike frame.  Bike
Comments: I did not know how hard to go on the bike because I did not want to totally blow up on the run. I was able to average 20 miles per hour but I would like to be able to go much faster. The newly chip sealed roads (15 miles worth?) really slowed everyone down. With some more work by me and a race under my belt I will have a better idea how to pace. I drank too much fluids because by about 30 miles into the ride I really had to pee and then I had to go again before T2. My nutrition was actually great even without my forgotten Cliff bar. What would you do differently?: Push just a little harder. Now that I know how much I had left in my legs for the run I think I can push just a little more on the bike. Transition 2
Comments: Ended up one row over from my rack but corrected quickly. I probably could have bben out of transition in 40 seconds except I had to wait for a portajohn. Oh well. What would you do differently?: Not have to pee.  Run
Comments: First mile was hard but then my legs got going and I felt great. I was passed by two people and passed 57 people (I think). The run is my strongest portion. Again, I held back significantly because I was afraid that "the wheels were going to fall off." By mile marker 7, I knew there was only a 10k left and my legs still felt good so I was able to pick up the pace. I think my last mile and maybe my last two were under seven minutes. I was able to move up from 20th in my age group to 13th on the run. What would you do differently?: Run harder from the start. There is a significant amount of psychology involved in knowing that you can do this. Experience will definitely help in the future. Post race
Warm down: Hugged my wife and daughter (son was off with friends on a roller coaster). What limited your ability to perform faster: Experience. Training on the bike. I never felt like I was pushing my CV limits. I always held back to preserve my legs. I may have a bit more in me even at my current training level. With another year of training I may be able to get better. with that being said, at the effort level I put into the race, it was a lot of fun. I was smiling through the whole run. Event comments: Great Event at a Great Venue. As we were leaving the whole family was saying, "Dad, you have to do this race again next year." Can't beat that kind of endorsement from your family. Last updated: 2010-09-09 12:00 AM
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United States
Revolution3
68F / 20C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 65/400?
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 13/??
This was my first half. I have tried to make the training and scheduling seamless for my family. I brought the whole family + several of my sons friends to Cedar Point for the race and to celebrate my sons 13th birthday. With that in mind, I went on rollercoasters with the kids on Friday and all day Saturday with a trip to Kalahari waterpark as well. This was probably not the best way to prep for the race but I wanted to hang out with the family. I think I pulled a muscle in my back on the mean streak on Friday and was afraid that it would be a problem but it was relatively ok for the race. Next time, less rollercoaster, more rest. Packed my stuff up at about 10 pm on Saturday but I was asleep by 10:30 and had absolutely no trouble falling asleep and sleeping through the night.
In the morning, 2 cups of coffee, large bowl of oatmeal with raisins. Banana. Hammer gel 15 minutes before start.
Got to transition by 6:30 and set up like for any other race. Checked to make sure nutrition was in place on bike.
Ran about 400 meters slowly to get my legs moving.
Wetsuit on, about 200 meters of easy swimming. Thank goodness the surf from yesterday was calmed down. It was brutal in practice swim on 9/11.
Felt the "pulled" muscle from mean streak tightening up and starting to spasm with about 10 minutes until start. Just ignored it and hoped it would not ruin the day.