Duluth Triathlon Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman


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duluth, Minnesota
United States
Brewhouse triathlon
70sF / 0C
Overcast
Total Time = 6h 24m 33s
Overall Rank = 95/117
Age Group = 40-120
Age Group Rank = 10/14
Pre-race routine:

Overnight at Duluth Country Inn, pasta for dinner at grandma's with other team mates. Up at 6:15 am, bagel with peanut butter and honey, water. Got dressed, got Ross up and left around 6:15. About 30 min to the venue.
Event warmup:

none.
Swim
  • 48m 7s
  • 2116 yards
  • 02m 16s / 100 yards
Comments:

If it was long, then I think I did fine. I felt good, swam strong and except for the difficultly sighting, felt I did well.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing.
Transition 1
  • 03m 1s
Comments:

Not great but typical
Bike
  • 3h 03m 31s
  • 56 miles
  • 18.31 mile/hr
Comments:

Bike was riding weird. Dropped my chair when I went to small ring. Didn't do that again which meant I worked harder on the bike than I intended. And odd sounding on most of my other gears. (Later realized I must have knocked the barrel adjuster because I had to turn it quite a bit to get it to go smoothly again.) Still I had a good bike time. Hard to eat on the bike because of road conditions but I managed mostly shot bolks and water then gatorade. TWo packs of shot blocks=400, +2 gu= 600 calories. Whatever the gatorade had. Since you can't process more than 250 calories per hour on the bike, I was a little shy of what I might have done. Maybe that led to cramping or maybe the harder work on the bike.
What would you do differently?:

Lube. When I bring the bike in for a tune-up, put the race wheels on it??
Transition 2
  • 04m 4s
Comments:

Took a little longer than usual. Had to porta-potty. Also saw friend who was bloody from crash and wanted to make sure he was OK.Talked a little with him.
Run
  • 2h 25m 48s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 11m 08s  min/mile
Comments:

First ten miles, I was on course to finish in just over 2 hours. I tried to keep it in check at about 10 min miles for at least the first half so I didn't blow up, and I was fairly successful--some early 9s. Cramping started pretty soon into it--vastus medialis, left and then right too. Kept it in check and sucked it up. Mistake to stop and stretch quad because it brought hamstring into worse cramp. Stretched that out and it was fine. VM kept up but manageable--worse going up hill. Gave myself permission to walk a bit and it helped for a while. At about mile 10 it was getting worse, moving into left calf. I was walking quite a lot. Then run a little but it would start up again and I could sense it moving to foot. Basically needed to flat foot it. Well, it seized anyway and involved the foot. I tipped over and my calf was in full screaming spasm. Friend was behind me and said she saw it coming and she massaged it out so I could stand and start walking again. I was hobbling but made it to the finish--ran the last 100 yards across the finish, figuring the medic would pick me up if I keeled over.
What would you do differently?:

Hmmm. Good question. Cramps are not new to me, but thought I had them under control. I think I need to experiment with salt tabs. Only drank on run and expected to get my electrolytes from it, and hadn't counted on Gatorade being watered down. Sometimes barely a flavor. Don't count on others for your nutrition? Work on eating Gus on run without getting ill? I think salt tabs are a good place to start. I sweat a lot.
Post race
Warm down:

I walked around to work out cramps and drank a couple of bottles of gatorade. I walked around, talked to folks. Ross took down my transition.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Run= cramps; swim=long and not enough buoys; bike-don't know if I could have done much better.

I have never had a better mental race than this one. Proud of that.

Event comments:

First time for this race but picked this Duluth triathlon bc the organizers have experience with it (Superior man the following week didn't have that.) So it was a little disheartening to see that they didn't have enough buoys, that the volunteers on the swim weren't so helpfully placed. No finisher medals, t-shirts were tiny, and the post race food was lack luster. Worse was the age groups--1-39 and 40-120?? I wondered if that was legal with USAT. Pretty lame. The 7 awards they gave out for AG were really nice. But come on. You can't put 40 year olds with 50 year olds. Not to mention one friend who is 70. Race cost $150 so it wasn't cheap. I am pretty tired of for-profit company races. The community sponsored ones tend to be so much nicer--like Annandale, Buffalo, etc. Now, HIMs tend not to be run by communities bc they are a bigger affair. Nothing the race director could do about the roads, the decision of the contractors to work that day. But there were other things in their control that I thought experienced folks would be better at.




Last updated: 2012-04-29 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:48:07 | 2116 yards | 02m 16s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/14
Overall: 0/117
Performance: Good
Suit: vortex long sleeve
Course: Two loops. Everyone said it was long--maybe even 400 yds--buoys moved overnight, it happens. But there were not enough buoys for sighting--not cool. I went for one but by the time I realized there was another to my left, I was pretty far into the middle. Volunteers in boats were way inside so they could have served as boundaries if they had been on the outside or, if inside, at least closer to the path of orange buoy we were supposed to go around first. The water was nice and clean though it was dark red. Couldn't see anything. Didn't bother me but freaky to some. On the second loop the wind seemed to pick up and I got a few mouthfuls of water. Only 2 waves, women's and men's. Not many people so that wasn't a big deal.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current: Medium
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting: Average
Waves: Navigation: Bad
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 03:01
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike:
Jump on bike:
Getting up to speed:
Biking
03:03:31 | 56 miles | 18.31 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/14
Overall: 0/117
Performance: Good
Wind: Some
Course: This was a bummer. The road was scheduled for repair but it remained full of potholes and a section that was torn up and just gravel--the road condition was worse than any other race I've done. And that morning the road crews decided to start work, not on the course itself but further up. So there were tons of trucks going back and forth delivering materials. WIth the poor road condition and the trucks, it made for a hairy ride. A friend fell when trucks got too close and he veered to the right. Damn good thing I love being on my bike. tight turns at the both turn arounds but no turns otherwise.
Road: Potholes Dry Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering:
Gear changes: Below average Hills: Good
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 04:04
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
02:25:48 | 13.1 miles | 11m 08s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/14
Overall: 0/117
Performance: Below average
1 mile: 9:28 2 mile: 9:50 3 mile:10:17 4 mile: 10:06 5 mile; 10:15 6 mile: 11:26 7 mile:10:10 8 mile: 10:54 9 mile: 10:56 10 mile: 11:44 11 mile: 12:15 12 mile: 13:33
Course: Very nice, scenic, rolling hills. Allowed for some shade which is great. I started the run at noon and was done around 2:30. It was overcast but when the sun came out it was hot. But it didn't do that often, thankfully. Out and back one way and then out and back another. All roads but some asphalt, more packed dirt with rocks. Rocks kind of annoying but slightly softer surface was good. I liked the run course overall. Aid stations nearly every mile. Water, gatorade, some pepsi, and bananas and oranges. I mostly took gatorade. It was really watered down which was kind of a bummer--I needed the electrolytes--wish I asked if they had any full strength.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? No
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 2