5430 Long Course Triathlon - TriathlonLong Course

Pretty decent swim. Navigation was tough into the sun, so I just looked for heads and arms instead of the buoys. After that it was pretty smooth. Settled into my bi-lateral breathing to make sure I was going hard enough, but not too hard. Overall, pretty decent. Thought my time was a little faster, but maybe my watch got bumped at the start.

Nothing really, that felt pretty good.

Decent transition. Kind of took my time so that I could get some socks on. Otherwise, it was pretty quick, and even a little faster than I expected, so that was good.

Nothing.

Bike felt pretty decent. Got into low Z3 a couple of times, but otherwise bounced around from low Z2 to high Z2. Took in the exact nutrition I had planned: 2 bottles of perpetuem, 1 clif bar, 2 electrolyte tabs, and a ton of water. The only downside was that I had to stop and pee twice, once at the very beginning of the second lap, and once at the very end of the second lap.

I don't know right now. Given that I fell apart at the end of the run, maybe go easier, but during the race the pace never felt too hard, my lungs felt decent, and my legs did too. I was a little fatigued coming off the bike, but after riding 56 miles I don't think you're supposed to feel totally fresh, so I'm not thinking that was a problem. Tough one to figure.

Nice smooth T2, no problems.

Nothing.

First lap was good. Looking at my splits, I was running around 8:20 pace for the first 5 miles. I walked through every aid station on the course, and took in water, gatorade, ice, whatever they would hand me throughout. The splits get a little confusing after that because they didn't have the course marked for mileage after 6 miles (which was extremely annoying). Around mile 8-9, I looked at my watch, still felt decent, and was starting to think that if things went well I was going to be right around or just barely over 5 hours. About 20 steps after that realization, I started to fall apart. The first problem, of many, was that my IT bands on both legs were screaming. Plus, I suddenly started feeling hot, tired, miserable, and altogether shitty. I had to walk up any inclines in the last 3 miles, and when I say I had to walk, it wasn't like a strategic decision to slow down to keep my HR low or anything like that. I mean I HAD to walk, my body simply wasn't going up the hill. I forced myself to run every step of the last mile, but my pace must have been in the 11-12 minute range. I have never hurt that much in my entire life or felt that miserable.

I don't know, because I don't know what happened, I was just cooked at the end. I could come up with 50 possible explanations, but since none of them relate to nutrition, pacing, race effort, mental strength or overall decision making, they don't really amount to much that I can take away.

I was basically non-functional when I crossed the line. Yvonne came over and I couldn't talk for about the first 15 minutes after the race. I took in a bunch of water, then ate, then sat in the shade for a while and started to feel human again. By about 30 minutes after the race I was okay.


Training. My running base simply isn't where it needs to be to hold a decent pace for 13 miles, so I don't have the muscular endurance to go that long at any kind of respectable pace. I was late coming up to speed building base after my knee surgery last fall, I have very few long runs, and nothing before this race over 12 miles (which was only 2 weeks ago). I've done some long bricks, but for the most part they were in the spring before race season. To add to all of that, my focus this summer was doing well at Nationals and the Boulder Peak, and the training was focused on getting me ready for those races. With only a little time to get ready for the 1/2, I just wasn't mentally or physically prepared for this race.

Nutrition wise, I had a plan and stuck to it precisely, so I don't think I bonked. I've been short on calories before, and that's not how this felt yesterday. I wasn't dehydrated. I peed in my wetsuit 2 minutes before the start, during the swim, twice on the bike, and once on the run, so dehydration could not have been a factor, if anything, stopping to pee that much was seriously annoying. Pacing? Well, it's easy to question my pacing now, but during the race I never felt like I was going too hard. Decision making? Nothing significant that I can recall.


Looking at my overall time, I can't say I'm all that disappointed. I basically expected to go somewhere between 5 and 5:30, and I was smack in the middle. Nevertheless, it's tough to feel good about a race where I wanted to vomit and then curl up and sleep with 4 miles left to run. Just felt aweful. However, it makes me want to train and get better at the endurance/pacing races for next season. Needless to say, I have a lot of room for improvement on my running.