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 Swim
Comments: My wave had about 100-ish people. As usual, I lined up on the outside to avoid the crowds. The gun went off and I swam in from the outside. By the time I got to the first turn, 200m out, I had cleared the field and was swimming alone. Soon thereafter I started running into swimmers from the earlier waves. The swim went well. I maintained a solid pace and eventually I approached the final right turn to head back to land. I exited the water and had a 200m run in soft sand before we hit the path. Another 200m and we got to enter T1. Netting out the run, I figured I swam a 1:20/100m pace. Place 3rd in my age group just behind two other swimmers from a later wave. The wetsuit strippers were awesome! What would you do differently?: Push a little harder.  Transition 1
Comments: Got into T1. Put on socks and a cycling jersey which was loaded with nutrition. Considering my T1 time, it seems that I must have stopped to blow dry my hair on the way out of T1. What would you do differently?: Go faster! My T1 was 0:33 slower than the average T1 time for the top 25 people in my age group.  Bike
Comments: I had made a decision to push the pace on the bike, so once I was on the bike it took a while before my HR dropped below 150 (high for me). As I was in one of the first waves and I had a solid swim I rode alone for most of the race. On the way back to T2 the course doubled backed on-itself which provided an opportunity to see a much more crowded field of cyclists. The course had some rolling hills. Someone’s on-line GPS profile indicated +/- 400m; not a lot, but enough to cause you to use most of your gears. The ride was not particular enjoyable because of the poor condition of the roads. The race organizers did a good job of marking the potholes, seams and cracks with orange paint; nevertheless you needed to pay close attention to where you rode for all 90K. On several long sections of the route the road had heavy seams/cracks that could not be avoided. It resulted in a heavy, jarring ride that was not particular enjoyable. Towards the end of the ride I started to cramp-up (upper inside left thigh) so I backed off on the pace, but managed to finish with an average speed of 34kph – good, but not great. Would have been happier if had been able to deliver 35kph. What would you do differently?: More up tempo training. If I want to race at 35/36kph - I need to start training at those speeds. Transition 2
Comments: My right foot had been cramping up during the bike. When I got off the bike, the outside of my right foot felt like it had been clubbed like a baby seal. I stopped off at the porta-john, and then limped out of T2 hoping the cramp would get better. What would you do differently?: My T2 was 1:13 slower than the average T2 time for the top 25 people in my age group. This is something I need to work on improving.  Run
Comments: I left T2 somewhat running. It took 1K to work out the cramp in my right foot. As I hit the first few mile markers I was keeping a 7:30 mile pace, which was a bit a pleasant surprise. I broke the run down into 3 segments (2 x 8K + 5K). The first loop was rather quite, but by the time I started the second loop the course was getting quite crowded. After the first 8K, I tried to keep the same pace on the second 8K, but found that I was starting to cramp-up so I slowed up just a bit. When the final 5K rolled around, I felt that I was really pushing hard - HR was up, but I still just managed to keep the same pace (sub 8 min). I was very pleased with the run. I kept a steady pace in some pretty hot conditions. Considering the number of people that were walking due to the heat, living in Bangkok paid some dividends. What would you do differently?: Not much. I had a good run. Post race
Warm down: Finished the race and then headed over to the food tent and loaded up. Event comments: Nutrition - my nutrition plan was a based on 70gr of Carbs / hr. To accomplish this I took a PowerBar Gel every 30 min. I also had two bottles of Accelerated on the bike. I also picked up two water bottles on the bike due to the heat. This might have been too much - necessitating a T2 porta-john stop - but considering the heat on the run I believe I made the right call to fully hydrate. Last updated: 2011-05-25 12:00 AM
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United States
HFP Racing
95F / 35C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 99/1851
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 13/284
First and foremost a big ‘Thank you’ to the family for their support of my triathlon adventures. Triathlon is undoubtedly a selfish indulgence; however my spouse understands that triathlon is one of my passions and therefore is totally supportive. I am lucky and blessed. Thanks.
One of the cool things about triathlon travel is that you get to see parts of the world that you might never see. This was true of this race as I unexpectedly ended up signing up after the cancelation of IM China.
I flew into Chicago on the Friday before the race and drove the 90 min up to Racine. Registration was well organized and I had no problem picking up my packet. There was a well organized and well stocked m-dot expo ready and waiting to suck dollars out of my wallet. Having spent far too much on tri-gear in the proceeding months, I managed to exit the expo with only a water bottle.
On the Saturday, I went to the briefing, racked my bike and then tested out the swim course. The water was cool, clean and well suited for race day (quite a shift from the Chao Praya River). That evening I was to meet up with some BT’ers for dinner. I arrived at the restaurant at 5pm, when I realized the reservation was for 7pm. Considering that my hotel was an hour south, I opted to eat and head to the hotel. Sorry about that fellow BT’ers.
I woke up at 3am for some oatmeal and bananas, lubed up with SPF and Glide and then started the drive to Racine. Got to Racine and found a good parking spot. Checked-in on GingerToo (my bike). Tires still had air :). Loaded my nutrition. Set up my transition area and then started the walk to the start.
The start was about 1 mile up the beach. It was quite a sight to see 2,000 athletes heading up to the start. I opted to put on my wetsuit early while I still had the option of using a bench. The weather was great, water was calm – it was a perfect race day. I was lucky and got slotted into one of the early waves.