Rev3 Cedar Point - Half Rev - Triathlon

I allotted for ~45min on the swim, and that's where I was. Swimming isn't my strong sport, and I didn't want to do anything stupid that might cost me the rest of my day. I had a couple of navigational hiccups through the channel around the island -- jagged rocks when I got a little too close to land -- and also on the back side of the course when I kept trying to swim to the middle of the bay. Oh well, I stayed calm the whole time and focused on relaxing, keeping my form and rhythm and just getting to solid ground.

My swim training was very [very] limited for this event. I relied on my confidence to be able to swim slow and steady for very long periods of time and just accepted the fact that I would be MOP. I'd like to get in some more volume before next time.

Swim to T1 was about 0.5 mile run because of a course change. I like running :) Everybody was pretty much in the 6min+ timeframe on this section...

Nothing.

I felt like my bike fitness wasn't exactly where I had hoped it would be coming into the event, and I was a bit on edge. With a couple of weeks to go training, I switched my bike to my indoor trainer so I could get consistent and uninterrupted rides in day or night. I have no idea if that was a smart decision, but that's what I did...

Race day -- very strong winds from the north east at 15-25mph and some light showers scattered throughout. I started out conservatively, reminding myself to just stay in my comfort zone and go at my own pace. I knew that from miles 10 - 22 would be mostly with a tailwind so I allowed myself to push a little more than maybe I should have. I was trying to stay around 20mph - anything above and I would relax a bit, below I would push my cadence a bit. It seemed to work out pretty well for the first hour. And then I realized I had been neglecting my nutrition plan -- you know, the one that I made up two nights before while I was standing in the grocery aisles wondering what I should eat.

The rough "plan" I hashed out was to drink water whenever I wanted it, a couple sips of 3x gatorade mixture every 30 minutes and a power gel every 15min between gatorade. That was the plan, at least. And I stuck to it for the first hour and then got a little concerned that I wasn't taking in enough calories or fluids around mile 20. I looked at my aero bottle (water) and saw that it was still >3/4 full, and I knew I had only had 1 powergel and a sip or two of gatorade. So, at the very last second I grabbed a powerbar from the aid station in town, almost took out a line of volunteers, and rolled on.

From mile 22 through the 30 was into the wind, uphill and rainy. I watched my pace drop from 21-22mph down to 16-17 for most of the section. I kept telling myself that this is what I had expected and the reason why I pushed a little bit more up in the first hour. It still sucked though :-P Starting around mile 35 my back started hurting/feeling tight. What I thought was just normal fatigue from being tucked for ~2 hours turned out to be a bee sting, right in the middle of my back next to my spine. I didn't find out until after I finished, which is probably a good thing all in all.

The rest of the ride I tried to stay to my nutrition plan and stay relaxed. I got pretty restless the last 5-6 miles and really was ready to be done riding into the wind. I kept shifting positions trying to stretch my "tight" back and legs out. The crosswinds were so strong on the causeway that the sand was actually stinging my arms and neck as it blew in off the beach. Fun times.


I'm happy with my time. My lack of consistent preparation and nutritional practice probably hurt more than anything. Total tally on the bike was 3x powergels, 1 powerbar, 1.5 powers of water, and 1/2 bottle of concentrated gatorade mix. I knew I would pay for this later.

I got an awesome transition spot right by bike in/out. The one thing I trained hard for in the last few weeks was bike to run transition, and I feel like I nailed it.

Nothing

And here's where I paid for my poor bike nutritional efforts. Right out of transition I stopped at the porta-pottie to pee. Sparing anyone the details, I knew I was already dehydrated. Fortunately, running is my strongest of the three disciplines and I pride myself on running in some pretty strange/"extreme" circumstances during training to prepare for things like this. I was carrying a full pack of cliff shotbloks and a stinger honey waffle.

My goals were to:
0) run the whole time,
1) keep <8min/mile pace if possible,
2) have fun,
3) don't die -- in that order :-P

First two miles were good, I was holding about a 7:45 pace, and only got passed by one lady who was hell bent on "getting a PR this time". As I rounded the first turn off of the causeway, I exchanged a few words with and then passed a guy in my division. I think it was his reaction to realizing that I was in his wave that carried me through the rest of the run.

"Oh man, I don't want to have to run you down now", as he was completely confident that he was going to catch me later.

That was it. From then on I found myself consciously looking for him on all of the out and backs, wondering when he was going to come up behind me -- I never saw him again, though.

Starting at mile 4, I felt a little nauseous and weak. I figured I was dehydrated and running low on sugar, so I grabbed some gatorade, a powergel, and a pack of powergel gummy things. Forced the gummies and gatorade down but that only seemed to help moderately. My pace had slipped from 7:40's down to 8:10's between miles 4 and 6.

Getting a little concerned, I grabbed my honey waffle and chowed on that for the rest of the mile. Solid food helped so so so much! At the next aid station, I grabbed a piece of banana, which put me back into action.

Got passed for the second, and last, time around mile 7 by a guy in the age group up from me. He was flying, and I was all to happy to wish him good luck and watch him cruise away. Enjoyed the powergel that I had stashed somewhere between 10-11, water at 11 to wash it down and it was on to the finish line.

Overall, only 3.5 minutes off of my open HM PB, and a negative split by 1.5 minutes.

I knew this run was going to be a test of will power following the rough bike segment. I feel like I could have squeezed out a little more energy on the run and still been ok, but didn't want to risk anything going wrong.

Walked around trying to find my wife in the expo, took a couple pictures to send to the rest of our family back home. My stomach felt really off for the first 30-45 minutes. I couldn't really bring myself to eat anything, I was nauseous and my back was sore.


The bike course w/ weather conditions being what they were; I think this was about as fast as I was going to be moving on the given day. I'm extremely happy with the results for my first HIM!


"You just finished your first half ironman. What are you going to do next?"
- Eat tacos? (As all of the athletes look around at each other with 'wtf' faces)

Very big let down on the post race food. I took one bite of the taco thing, my stomach flip flopped and that was enough for me. I did enjoy an orange, some water, and a gatorade. Aside from the post race menu, this was such an awesome experience. Rev3 puts on a great event. For anybody looking for a family friendly, fun but challenging race ... this is it.