Ironman 70.3 Racine - Triathlon

Oh what a swim.... From the beach it didn't look too bad. boy did that change quickly. Let me preface the rest of the race report with the condition that I haven't had time to train this year. Work has been nuts since May 1, and I haven't done more than 10 "workouts" between May 1 and race day.
That said, my swim strength, which is typically my strong suit, was not there. The first 200m was spent fighting through 2-3' waves coming into shore. It was quite tough, and I knew I was in for a very long swim time. Rounding the first bouy, the only benefit was being able breathe right to avoid getting every mouth full of water. I was taking extended breast stroke breaks, getting quite fatigued early on. Started to see signs of people in distress early on, many folks on the kayaks and bouys. Considered it myself for a while. By half way, my stroke form was crap, hardly able to get my arm out of the water in front of me. hard to sight with the waves. If you were not in strong swim shape, today was not going to be a great start to your day. I got to the shore for the finish and walked in. The beach looked like a war zone, racers stumbling in, very few running.

Worst swim of my life. Only thing to do differently... Train. Guess I should get on that so I can finish Big Shoulders.

Being totally wiped out from the swim, I was in no hurry to rush through T1. Walked most of the way until the playground area. Spalshed feet in the little bit of water that was in the tubs. Used the suit strippers this year. They got the suit off much quicker than I would have been able to. Got to the bike after trying to get through the crowds in the row. walked bike out to road and hard a hard time getting clipped in. Once clipped I was off and up the hill.

Practice more. Hurt that I hadn't been able to transition since Richmond.

After getting my legs, I felt great, cruising at 21-23 for the first 12 miles, noting that I had a tail wind. My strength would come and go. But I was comfortable, and holding a pace above 19. Hit a nice down hill stretch on the westbound about mile 10ish and pushed hard. Hit another strong stretch at the first 94 crossing. smooth concrete followed bya nice long flat. Kicked into gear and hammered. flew up the hill after 94 holding >22mph. That would be the last push I had in me. I felt strong in the moment, but turning around into the wind and encountering the terrible road conditions on the return trip, I was finished pushing for the day. About mile 30 random muscles in my legs started to cramp, calfs, hamstring, quads, all taking turns. I slowed way down, grabbed a banana at the final aid station, and settled into conservation mode. About mile 50 my left groin muscle went AWOL. I pulled off the road, dumped the bike and went into full on stretch mode. After a few minutes the cramp had subsided, but I cruised in about 15 mph the rest of the way.

Train, train, train.

The "bad" notes above should really read "No" as none of those things happened. Surprised that is not an option, as most beginners don't do those things. I have in the past, but not today. Lots of negative thoughts, coupled with the cramps, being well behind all of my friends, I was ready to turn in my timing chip. Took everything I had to continue on with the run portion. Grabbed the remaining half of my gatorade bottle and walked out.

Took quite a while to get out of the funk. Walked a good portion of the first few miles. did a good interval of walk/run to keep me going. Grabbed lots of pretzels and chips at the aid stations to get my salt content up. That and 1 cup water, 1 cup Perform. By the time I was at the turn around, I was definitely feeling better. Able to run up both hills on the second loop, though walked at the top, I felt stronger. Made a point of setting run goals, then trying to extend them when I could on the second loop. Tried to run the last 3.1, but that didn't happen. Last mile though I was able to kick it in. and finished strong, relative to the rest of the race. Finally able to have a smile on my face for the finish.

See above.

Grabbed some food and laid down. Eventually went back into the water to rinse off and get the salt out of my face. That felt great, though a bit chilly w/out wetsuit.


Work, stupid, stupid work... Though it's nice to have a job, and be busy. While I enjoyed the latitude afforded by not being busy at the last job, the part about being laid off, really isn't something I want to deal with. Sure helped my training last year though.


Since my performance above is all on my lack of training, I'll critique the race itself. The t-shirts this year are quite a letdown. Look like any old shirt I could get at a local race. Heck, the local race shirt actually looks better this year. I know it's not much, but the race shirt for an Ironman race should look like it's from an Ironman race. The logo it pretty odd too. Background has a car tire tread in it? Didn't recall car tires being any part of the event, or noteworthy about Racine. Small bickering points, but thing's I've come to expect from this race.