Florida Challenge Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

just an average swim for me, I was taking it easy because I knew it was goiung to be a long day, there was a lot of contact the whole race, I pulled up a few times just to try to find some free space to swim in, I'm sure that slowed me down, the last couple hundered meters sokme guys from the wave behind me started coming through and there was tons of contact, I finally got mad and just kept swimming and fighting for my own space

be more aggressive in the swim, I can definitely go faster, I think I needed to get over the mental hurdle of swimming that far

I took my time here, and I did enjoy the wetsuit strippers, most of my time was spent putting on my socks, I get blisters on my toes unless I wear these toe socks, injinji's, they wokr great but it takes a few minutes to get them on right, I figured an extra minute or two here would make my toes happier on the run, in retrospect my time spent here was well worth it

nothing really, I didn't want to hurry and forget something

this is where all the fun started for me, actually the first part of the bike was fine, there were a few short steep climbs to get up to the road leading out of town, the first one was right out of T1, so my HR got going up pretty fast, the second short climb was pretty steep, I actually got out of my saddle to climb it; I'd never done that before, but it worked; once we got onto the road out of town it was a nice ride into a slight wind on a fairly flat road for roughly 15 to 20 miles, I was trying to make sure I was eating and dringing enough here because this was the easiets part of the course

The first big challenge of the bike was the Buckhill section, a series of 5 fairly steep and rolling hills, I managed these OK, not great, but OK enough; I was then trying to make sure I had some more cliff shot blocks and gatorade before I hit Sugarloaf, the "climb" of the race, I had ridden it the day before, but it took alot out of me whne I was fresh, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel after alsmost 40 miles in the heat. I turned the corner and saw the hill, I got down into my little gears and started pedally, trying to remember how I felt doing it the day before, just past halfway up I started feeling extremely dizzy; I had to stop and get off my bike because I was afraid I was going to fall off, I tried to walk my bike up to the top; where thankfully there was an aid station, but I had to keep stoppping because I was so dizzy. I finally got to the top pf the hill, parked my bike by the side of the truck and grabbed my gatorade. One of the aid workers asked me if I was OK, and I think I hard trouble answering, I think I finally told her I needed to sit down and she put a chair in the shade for me; just as I was sitting a truck pulled up with more ice; I grapped a big chunk and put it on the back of my neck, after about 10 min of sitting there I was starting to feel a bit better, I decided to try to get myself back on my bike and see if I could finish; there were ~16 miles to go; total time at Sugarloaf probably was close to 20 minutes

I got back on my bike, started easy and took a nice downhill into a left hand turn, then it felt like someone had stuck a knife behind my left knee, I've never had a cramp hurt like that before, I couldn't pedal becuase it hurt so bad, and I didn't think I was goign to make it nack with just my right leg :), I tried to massage it a bit but that didn't help, luckily I was still on a gradual downhill, so I stretched my left leg down as far as I could and tried to stretch my hamstring and my calf, it actually worked and after a few minutes I was able to start pedally again, I tried to keep my gears easy so I wouldn't stress it too much; it worked pretty well and I was able to make up some time and pass some people who had gone past me while I was at the aid station, one guy looked up at me and told me I'd made a nice recovery.

We were getting close to town and I felt like I was going to be able to finish this one. However, not so easy; we were going up another long hill, fairly steep that made a left turn though an intersection, I was working hard, but still going, I saw a few people up ahead walking, but I didn't want to get off my bike if I didn't have to. A guy a little bit ahead of me was restarting on the hill, tried to clip in with his left foot and missed, and went down right in front of me, I couldn't react fast enough, so down I went to; which wouldn't have been so bad; except I had the most major cramps in my quads and I couldn't get up. I'm not sure how I got my feet unclipped from the pedals, but I did, and I was just lying on my back on the road howelling becuase my legs hurt so badly. The guy who caused me to go down grabbed my gatorade for me, but as I was lying there a police officer who was directing traffic at the intersection came over to see if I was OK. He was standing over me telling me that her was going to call a paramedic, and I told hime no. He said "Maam, you're lying on your back on the street, I have to call the paramedics if you don't get up" Well, as bad as I was hurting, that was enough motivetion for me; I somehow got to my feet and got across the street, the police man offered me his seat in the shade, and I took my seconds break on the bike course; this was getting very old, and I only had about 4 miles left to go. A girl that was also having some cramping issues stayed with me and rested, she gave me a NUUNs to put in my water and I drank that; we decided to get back on our bikes and finish this thing. As soon as we got up and around the corner we hit a huge downhill, I got going over 40mph and I was scared to death, but I refused to give up free speed at this point, I lost my companion on one of the last hills getting back to the transition area; with about 2 miles to go I noticed that my back tire was flat; I decided I didn;t care and I rode that way back into transition; I was never so happy to get off my bike in my whole life

ride more hills, take in way more electrolytes than I did

I dismounted well before the dismount line, I just wanted to be off my bike, I walked to my rack spot; big surprise, most of the bikes were already back :), I didn't loiter here, I felt like crap but I wanted to get moving, I changed my shoes, grabbed my race belt and off I went, walking through the transition area

nothing, there's no way I could have moved faster

once I got of my bike I knew I could finish the race, but I also knew I needed to be careful, as I walked out of T2 I was feeling very dizzy; it was 2pm and very hot and sunny and I felt that if I tried to run I would probably pass out, I made it through the bike; I wasn't going to lose it on the run, so I walked. I got to the first water table, grabbed some water and popped 3 enduralyte tablets; I'd never taken them before, but I had them tucked into my race bely in case of emergency and I thought this probably qualified, after I took those I got some gatroade and a cup of ice and kept walking; almost no shade on this part of the course; I can't tell you how hot I was. I poured water on my head and my body, stuffed ice in my hat and down my shirt, and I kept walking and kept this up for over 2 miles. The sun went behind the clouds for a few minutes and it was beautiful, I actually felt like I could run a little, so I did a walk 2 min/run 1 min interval and kept this up for a while; as long as I was in the shade, or the sun was hiding I felt OK; when the sun came out I'd start feeling dizzy and go to a straight walk; at this point I saw no need to push myself. I was going to finish unless I did something stupid, so I stayed conservative and made my way back to the lake for the loop around it. If I found someone intersting to talk to I stop and walk with tem for a while; it made the miles go by faster and made the race more fun. Around the back of the lake, on a nice shady part of the road, I passed mile 9 and thought great, 4 miles to go; I'm in good shape. I keep up my walking with some running mixed in; still keeping it easy, turned the corner and passed mile 10 on the road, all is going well. There were lots of really good aid stations olong the run course, I kept taking water and gatorade, I had a gu every 3 to 4 miles, a little ice to keep me cold, so far I ad passed about 4 or 5 of the HIM athletes and a few of the full distance athletes, things were looking up, get to another aid station, another mile marker, mile 10, Huh?? didn't I already pass mile marker 10??, oh well, I decide I'm either confused of I read the mile marker wrong so I keep on going, sure enough the next mile marker is mile 11; now I'm like, whatever, 2 more miles and this will all be over, I pass another HIM athlete while running, but the when I walk he catches up the me, we start talking about the race, the heat, etc, so I have to ask "Did we pass mile marker 10 twice?" He's like yeah, somewhere they screwed up" Well, at least I was paying attention. He says he's done 5 HIM's and this one by far has been the hardest and the slowest for him, that makes me feel better. We kept going together, he finished just ahead of me because he had a bit more of a kick than I did, but he waited and congratulated me on my first HIM finish. I got my medal walked off and practically walked right into Wendy :)

pretty much nothing; the run was all about trying to keep it together and make sure I finished; there was no point in oushing myself and ending up in the med tent

talked to Wendy, got updates on Mike and Chris who had been or still were in the med tent, had some water, got some food with Mike, felt really dizzy, sat down and Mike got me some gatorade and water, after a while I felt good enough to go for a massage, then Wendy gave me a ride back to transition


the heat, lack of experience on hills, not enough electrolytes


Despite everything, I think this is a good race and I would consider doing it again. Having a record setting heat for the day certainly made it that much harder, but I thought it was a good race. I learned alot about myself during this race #1) I have more determination than I thought; when that police officer threatened to pull the plug on my race by calling the paramedics I got mad and made myself move; I couldn't handle the thought of giving up on the bike with only 4 miles to go #2)I need to ride my bike much, much more if I ever want to be competitive on a hilly course; this is a tough bike and I wasn't exactly up to the challenge and I am going to work on that all winter #3) my BT friends are the best, a big thanks to Wendy for keeping me relaxed before the race and for making me laugh with her Whoop whoops :), and for her and Sue trying to make sure that I was OK during the race and making sure that I finished; you guys are the best!!