Lake Geneva Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim was supposed to start at 6:15am. Kind of a dumb move, since the sun rose at 6:30 something. We finally got started around 6:40. The start was a mass start for the HIM. It went alright since it was in a pretty big area and it thinned out pretty quickly. Once out there, it was a little hard to navigate because of the waves. Sometimes youd look up to spot and catch a mouthfull of water or you couldnt see the buoy over the wave. I was able to draft off of a guy for about a minute or so but that was about it. I also had to stop a couple of times to see where I was since I had no idea where the buoys were nor could I see them when spotting. Throughout the swim I kept my pace and just chugged away at it. I thought the way back was worse than the way out. On the way back sometimes youd go to breath only to have a wave come splashing over you and you inhale water. That kinda sucked. Good swim considering the conditions, though.

Learn how to draft better.

Got out of the water and took all my stuff off. Got my shoes on and headed to the bike out. This bike out section was kinda ridiculous. It was only 5-6 feet wide and as soon as you got out it was 90 deg. right turn and the lane for that was only 3-4 feet wide.

Nothing.

So I ran out of T1, did the 90 deg. turn and tried to hop on my bike. That didnt work very well with the XLlab Saddlewing on the back. I made it over, but hit the water bottles and they were about to fall out. Once I was on I had to mess around with them while coasting to make sure they were in. Once I got them settled in, I took off. My HR is always pretty high at the start of the bike and it was around 165 or so during the beginning. The hill that as immediately after the start didnt help that either. After the hill, we made a left turn and the road had a ledge on it from construction. I went over it and the damn bottles rocketed out of the saddlewing. So, I had to stop pick them up, rack em and get going again. A few people passed me there, but I was able to catch up to them pretty quickly. Around mi 5 I took in a Hammer Bar and downed some Perpetuem. Ater that, it was a shot of Hammer Gel every 30 mins or so and alternating between water and Perp. I was also able to calm my HR down to around 145 and keep it right around that area the whole time.

At the first aid station, my water bottle was about half gone so I was going to grab a new bottle. This was the first time on a handoff like this and went into it way to fast. Tried to grab the bottle, but it just shot off my hand. I had enough to cover me until the next one though, so no worries. Most of the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I passed a lot of people, slowly reeling em in one by one and felt really good.

Around mi 43 or so, there were a set of railroad track that the bottles shot out again on. Sucky. Had to stop and pick those up again. Just passed those railroad tracks was like water bottle graveyard. It looked like a lot of people bottles shot out, but they just left them there. I couldnt, since that was all my calories. Towards the last 10 mi or so, my legs were getting a little fatigued, but still in good shape nad I didnt feel low on energy at all. A few people passed me, but I would end up catching them all and more on the run.

Nothing. Pace, nutrition and hydration was near perfect for me.

Something about T2 didnt seem right. I later realized that I didnt unstrap my shoes on the bike and run in barefoot. Oops. As I was coming in, I was worried about that damn bike in section. Once again, it was skinny and people were all over the place. A few people had to run out of my or I wouldve came close to hitting them. Once in, unstrapped my shoes, got my socks on, shoes on, slammed some perp, grabbed my hat, belt and a gel and took off. On my way out I saw my dad. He was counting all the HIM racers as they were going out. He said there was 17 people in front of me. Alright...LETS RUN!

Unstrap my shoes on the bike. Dunno why I didnt do this. Ive done this on every race since my 2nd tri.

I was a little worried at first how this was gonna go. My legs were a little fatigued from teh bike and I knew these hills were gonna be hard. The plan was to go up the hills with baby steps and save energy for the flatter area up top. I did that on all the hills, but got cramps on the way up the hills. On the flats and every place else the legs were fine, but they cramped up on the run up the hills. It wasnt overly bad, but it did hurt. I just pushed through them and took some longer strides at the top to loosen them up. I was able to keep about a 8:30-9:45 pace on the hills, which was about what I planned for. Once up top I was able to pull some 6:30s on the flats but I didnt go too hard since I didnt want to bonk on the second lap. I just ran it out, keeping a decent pace and doing what I could. I thought my HR was going to be through the roof on the hills, but its not that bad. And maintaining a 157 avg for that run was really good. Besides the ascents, I wasnt suckin in a lot of air and I recovered pretty quickly on the top of each hill. I was pretty amazed how well I was handling this run. Took in a Gu around mi 5 and saw Jszat too. He looked pretty good. We yelled to each other and kept running. Towards the end of the 2nd lap, I had to make a pit stop in some brush to, uh, dehydrate. As I rounded the turn-around, I saw my dad again and he said only 12 people are in front of me. Cool. 5 people picked off, including all of those people that passed me on the bike (I took note of what they were wearing when they passed).

The 2nd lap was a little tougher. At this point, I knew I could make sub-5. I had about 49 minutes to run the last 10k to get a sub-5 time. I used the same strategy but I also walked a little on some of the ascents becuase of my quads cramping. I didnt walk much, maybe only 10-15 steps in the middle of some of the hills, but it was enough to slow me down a little. Took a Gu aroun mi 3. I passed one more guy on one of the hills and kept running. He looked pretty tired and was walking up the hill. Saw Jszat again right around that time. He was into his 2nd lap. We yelled at eachother again and kept running. He looked in pretty good shape. Right towards the end, about a mile to the finish, that guy I just passed caught up and passed me. I tried to pick up the pace to keep up with him, but by the time I heard him coming, he was already gone and I couldnt catch up. Besides, if we wouldve came in together to close, it wouldve ruined the photo op at the finish. ;) As I was coming in, I saw the clock was just turning to 4:59. I was pumped. I did my first Half Ironman in under 5 hrs!

Run more hills in training, which is difficult since GB is nearly flat. I also couldve pushed it a tad more on the 2nd lap.

After I crossed the finish, I caught my breath and downed some water and Recoverite. I felt suprisingly good. No nausua, light headedness or anything like that. My legs were hurting a little so I stretched those out. They soon calmed down and everything was good.


Hills, chop and wind.


The whole race I felt really good. Never felt like I was thirsty, tired or running low on energy. Everything I did on Friday with carb loading and drinking water really setup a good race for me on Saturday.

For being a "Frank Dobbs" race and hearing all the horror stories, I was pretty pleased at the race setup. Although stuff was running late and there were no port-o-johns on the course, like everything had said, it was pretty good. Id do it again. It is a very challenging course and awesome to race on it.