login
 Swim
Comments: It was time to put all the anguish aside. The horn went off and I ran through the water until it was just above mid thigh. I dove in and started my swim. I had lined up near the front and was in the lead group at the first bouy. To avoid the mess at the byou I went a little wide. I made the turn and started looking for something to sight off of. There was nothing in the distance. I kept swimming and looking. Before I knew it I was a good 100m or so off course. My right goggle had been leaking and was swishing the sun screen into my eye. It stung pretty bad. Since already lost contact with the lead group I decided to stop and fix it and look where I had to go to get back on track. As I fixed my goggles I was breathing heavy from the sprint to the first turn. Up came a wave and I inhaled. So I had to cough out the water. I inhaled a really big gulp. I thought for a second I was going down. I coughed and coughed. Then I started swimming and coughed some more as I breathed. At this point I had continued my off course antics. I popped up and saw a race volunteer on a suf board waving me back on course. I found the line of byou's we were supposed to be following and started heading that way. What would you do differently?: Just stay in the pack and round the byou tight. When there isn't anything to sight in the distance it's not worth going wide and losing my way. I should have stayed with that lead group and had them help lead the way. I could have used a draft better.  Transition 1
Comments: I wasn't overly concerned with my times in transition. It was a pretty long run from the beach to transition. 5 minutes wasn't the best time, but wasn't too far out of line either. I was relaxed and didn't rush anything. Being it was a long race I figured I could make up any time lost on the course  Bike
Comments: Course was aweful! I had some lower back issues going into the week of the race. The cracks were painful and annoying. It was about 3 miles into the bike my stomach started hurting. I felt extremely bloated. I'm not sure if it was from the heat (I heard 100+ heat index), the gulp of water I took from the swim, or something I had taken in nutritionally. I was so focussed on the pain in my stomach my legs didn't have anything. I'm easily a 20mph+ rider on easy training rides. This should have been 22-23 pretty easy. I had planned on using 225 watts average for the race. At some point I felt so bad I quit paying attention to power, but I think I was under 170 watts. This was not like me at all. Cycling is my strength I was pretty dissapointed. What would you do differently?: I should have quit taking in gels and perpetuum. Maybe my stomach would have felt better for the run. Transition 2
Comments: This is usually a really quick transition for me. There were others in front of me crawlling to there spots. They didn't seem to care about anyone behind them. Since I was having a bad race already I just dealt with it. I didn't feel like getting aggressive to get to my spot so I just crawled behind them. It probably should have been around 1 minute, but waiting for the others made it 2 What would you do differently?: Today.....nothing  Run
Comments: Just aweful! Everytime I tried to run my stomach felt like a pin would pop it. Everytime I drank something it felt worse. But it was HOT, so I had to keep drinking. The people in the neighborhood were great, hosing us down and keeping us cool. Even so, I think a lot of people in the race suffered here because my rankings are about the same as they were in the bike and I walked most of this run. I ran a marathon at 8min/mile until mile 20 earlier this year. In training I was doing great and expected 7:30 miles here. Being it was so hot I would have been ok with 8min/miles. But this was horendous and dissapointing. When I started the run I saw my wife cheering me on coming out of transition. It was a much needed boost of energy after a terrible bike. Usually I would use that, put my head down and run. But I knew that wasn't going to happen today. So I went to the wall, grabbed my wife and gave her a big smooch! I figured the race was going to suck anyway. What's a couple of seconds to give her a big thank you for putting up with all the time I spent training for this mess. She was happy. When I came around for the second out and back I did it again. She doesn't know it, but my stomach hurt sooooo bad I debated going down the finish shute and calling it a day. If I didn't see her, my mom, and my dad standing down the shute for the second loop I probably would have. So I gave her another kiss and headed out for the second loop and for the my finishers medal. What would you do differently?: Nothing I could do differen today. My stomach issues got the best of me. Post race
Warm down: I was sooooooo happy to see that finish line! I threw my hands in the air and hit the guy next me. I had to apologize. My wife was there right away and I couldn't have been happier to see her. She had to have known I wasn't going to be happy with my time and kept reminding me how huge it was to finish this race. She kept telling me how many people dropped out because of the heat and she was amazed at how I kept going even though it was very evident I was in a lot of pain with my stomach What limited your ability to perform faster: bloating. I wish I could say I learned something here, but I'm not sure what this was from. Best I can tell, it was from taking in water on the swim, but I'm not positive. The gels and perpetuum had been fine in training, but it is possible they could have bothered me with the combonation of the heat Event comments: I would have high marks for this race except for the bike course. I can't believe how rough it was. Everything else was great. I didn't get to enjoy the post race festivities. We had to leave for the wake right after the race. Being I took so long on the course we barely made it too. I'm glad we did. Carol really needed us there, and I couldn't live with myselfe if we missed it. Last updated: 2011-01-26 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
HFP Racing
66F / 19C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1044/2150
Age Group = Male 35-39
Age Group Rank = 132/275
This was supposed to be my focus race for the year. I trained very hard for a good result. It probably sounds pretty arrogant that I'm dissapointed in the result. However, I didn't race anything else this year except a marathon. Which was training for this race. Everything was focussed on this race. I thought I did everything right. I guess that's why I'm so dissapointed. Now, I wish I incorporated more races into training instead of just training. If I had some other good results this year maybe it wouldn't feel so bad.
Last week wednesday my neighbors wife stopped by the house. I was in taper so was actually not out training. She informed us that her husband Phil passed away during the day. Phil was 49. He died of a heart condition he didn't know he had and showed no symptoms of. Phil and his wife Carol are a little older than my wife and I but had become our friends and good neighbors. My wife and I were pretty upset. The wake was set to be the day of the race. I knew I couldn't miss the wake and actually debated forgoeing the race. It was a very difficult decision to race being I trained so long for this and I knew we had to be there for Carol and pay our last respects to Phil.
I walked down the beach and put my wetsuit on close to the start line. Got the wetsuit on and went for a quick swim. My start time was 1 1/2 hours after the pros went off. I got to watch them, and my wife came down and met me near the start. When I saw her walking down the beach it hit me. I REALLY didn't want to be there. I wanted to go home and pay my last respects my friend and neighbor. My wife, Anne, was trying to take pictures. I was holding back tears. I knew I had to do this anyway. Phil was a fun guy. He loved sports and was very light hearted. He constantly made people laugh, something I desparately needed at the moment. Anne told me he wouldn't want me to quit as I broke down on the beach. I must of looked like an idiot crying before the start.
I waited for my wave to start and stayed cool by sitting in the water until my wave was called