Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

After seeing the swim start at Racine a couple weeks ago and the fact that I didn't want somebody jumping on top of me, I elected to hang back and was probably close to the last one to jump in in my wave.

I then just started to swim and found that I was passing people at a pretty good clip for most of the way. After trying to sight a few times I realized that I couldn't see very well because of all the people and the little bit of chop, but I also discovered that it didn't really matter so long as I stayed with the group I would be OK. As we passed a couple of the bouys I figured out that I had no idea where to turn back in to head for shore but again thought that if I followed the crowd I would be OK so I just swam a long with the pack I suppose catching a bit of a draft though I don't know. I got kicked in the face by somebody that was doing a breast stroke kick that forced me to stop and curse but other than that it was uneventful except of the pee I took on the move, tough to do but so worth it. When I got out of the water I hit the button on my watch 38:26 (30 seconds faster than my last race, an olympic HOLY COW!). Took a little time to collect my self and headed up the dune to the board walk and saw Sweetie my parents and some friends that had come to watch me race... Awesome.

They later said that I looked a bit out of it and were worried about me, but I felt great I think I was just confused as I had not walked the swim to transition earlier and felt a bit lost.

As the Man says every second counts, and I gave away at least 10-20 seconds here just on hanging back at the start which would have put me at 6:00:35 ish.

But really a solid swim, I was thinking that I would be in in around 42 minutes so I was pretty happy about this.

The transtition was a good 1/4 mile from the swim exit hence the long transition time about 2:30 of that was running from the beach. I took my time a little in transition and should have been able to be about 45-60 seconds faster especially if I attached my shoes to the bike, but I figured that it was a long day and I just wanted to be sure about things.

Attaching shoes to bike and picking up the pace would have saved about a minute, which would have brought the total time down to 5:59:30.

The ride started with my computer acting up and not reading cadence so I stopped and gave a good shake which seemed to get it working, probably cost me about 1 minute.

The nutrition plan for the bike was to take a sip off my IMC and some water every ten minutes with a SUCCEED tablet evey 40 minutes.

First ten miles was just get the HR down and under control, this is really frustrating as I couldn't even count the people that passed me, but I did get the HR under control finally.

Second 10 miles the idea was to keep the HR between 141 and 145, it would inevitably spike on some hill and I would real it back in on the down hill but I would say that it was just where I wanted it. At about the 15 mile mark I dropped my nutrition bottle and had to retrieve it, which cost me at least a minute.

Miles 20-40 picked up the effort HR 145-148 everything was going pretty smooth people had pretty much stopped passing me (all but a few were ahead of me at this point). When I got to the second aid station I stopped and used the port a pottie (1:46 pit stop). Everything was going pretty much smooth just was starting to feel a little full. Stopped at the third aid station and used the port a pottie (2:22) pit stop. Afte a few belches that were a little more solid than I would have liked, I put the nutrition and water on hold for a cycle and then picked it back up going into the last 16 miles.

Miles 40-56 picked the HR up to the 148-154 level and managed to reel some people in that had passed me earlier, my race was beginning. At mile 50 I stopped with the the nutrition and went to just water. Pulled up to a hill at mile 50 and decided that it would be good to get out of the saddle and stretch the legs a bit, didn't really need to by just thought it would feel good, it did. Just spun into transition from there.


Stopping to pick up a bottle a tking two pit stop added on about 5 minutes, combine that with some time savings from the swim and T1 and I am down to 5:54:30

Rounded the corner heading towards transition and pulled the feet out of their shoes and jumped off the bike ran into transition, got everything taken care of grabbed my extra bottle of gatorade and headed out to the porta pottie (extra minute) and then headed out to for the run feeling like a million bucks.

Port a pottie was an extra minute in transition, bringing my what if time down to 5:53:30

The plan here was to drink from my gatorade whenever I thought of it walk every aid station drinking at least one cup if not two of water or gatorade and taking one salt tab at the half way mark. The first 3 miles I wanted to keep my HR under 161, miles 33-6 I wanted to be between 161 and 165, through mile 10 I wanted to keep it under 170 and the final 5k just let it rip.

Mile one 8:34 avhr 161 max 166 flat and probably a bit short but already passing lots of people.
Mile two 9:24 avhr 165 max 177 uphill feeling great and passing even more people.
Mile three 9:05 avhr 162 max 172 downhill just kept picking people off feeling just great.
Mile four 8:55 avhr 164 max 172 downhill still feeling good
Mile five 9:13 avhr 166 max 182 pretty flat and still got a pretty good pep to the step.
Mile six 9:34 avhr 165 max 213 (probably not right) feeling good but ready to be headed back.
Mile seven 9:24 avhr 167 max 172 made the turn around and was headed for the finish.
Mile eight 9:08 avhr 167 max 173 small downhill and felt pretty good.
Mile nine 9:48 avhr 167 max 173 and the wheels are starting to fall off...
Mile 10 10:02 avhr 169 max 173 legs were definately not as fresh as I would have liked.
Mile 11 10:12 avhr 169 max 173 headed up the on ramp and it was all I could do to keep the legs moving forward.
Mile 12 10:25 avhr 168 max 173 headed up another hill and about 10 people managed to pass me the I called for the legs to move but they just wouldn't answer.
Mile 13 10:02 avhr 171 max 179 rounded the corner and downhill managed to pull a couple more of the people in that had passed me. Rounded two more corners and there was the finish only about two hundred yards away I managed to give it a pretty good effort and finished in 6:00:51.


I can't really complain about the run I followed my plan perfectly, I just haven't run on any hills and that made all the difference. I think with some hill work I could have shaved about 3 minutes off but that is for another year, I gave this run everything I had and ended up with a time that was only 9 minutes slower than my best half, which was part of a marathon.

Grabbed about 3 bottles of water and two apple juices and headed down for the lake soaked for about 10 minutes and then headed for the hotel.


The bike is my big limiter, an equivelant bike split to my swim and run would have put my time more in the 5:33-5:40 area with no improvement in my swim or run (I think those can get better next year as well, so maybe another 12 minutes off, 5:21-5:28?), I think that I will do Racine next year which seems like it might be a little faster (12-15 minutes this year) and it is a little more convenient so shooting right now for a everything goes right best best case scenario kind of number of 5:10 in Racine! Something to work on.


This race was great except for a few things that were most likely related to the huge increase in racers, the finish area was a bit of a mess in terms of trying to find additional food or water and then my friends and family had a hard time actually getting to the finish area as the shoot was surrounded by sand dunes, I also thought that the finish was a little bit further than it ended up being so I didn't give the kick that maybe I would have. Then the only other complaint and this is pretty minor seemed to not always have cold beverages, and I heard some peole complain about lack of port a potties, but I seemed to find them just fine.