Ironman 70.3 Racine - Triathlon

Started in front line of my wave, and fell, running into the waves. I was able to stay in front for the most part though. Getting through the first set of waves was tough. Not something I've trained for. Lots of elbows and kicks going on (I dished some out too, on accident, of course). After the first turn, I started feeling better and got a good rhythm going. However, the waves made sighting more difficult because sometimes you'd look for the buoy, and all you see is a swell. Before you know it, you're aiming in the wrong direction. So, breath-timing became an issue. Lots of other racers had the same problem, and were crossing in front of me in the wrong direction, which led to more collisions and stops. My last turn was way too wide, and I ended up swimming back a ways. Happy with my time and ranking anyway.

Train for rough waters. Practice sighting. Considering the crazy conditions, I think I did good.

Transition was ok. Long run to get there. There were kiddie pools to rinse off the sand, which was nice. There were also wetsuit strippers, and sunblock appliers, but I passed them up and did my own. I totally missed my shoulder blades, which ended up getting pretty scorched. It was really tight in transition and had to stop to move out of the way of other racers a few times. Got my stuff and got on the road fairly well though.

Sunblock my shoulder blades.

In a good portion of the bike course, there were breaks in the pavement every two or three seconds, and the *THUMP THUMP* eventually started breaking me down (back/neck). Hamstrings were a little crampy right off the bat, which led to a slow beginning to the bike, but worked out after a while. Water stations were great, I think there were three. Never done this before, so I didn't have the routine down until the last one. Volunteers at the stations (and everywhere else) were awesome. Totally cool people. I ate three luna bars that I had packed on my bike, each broken in half -- one half every 30 minutes. That seemed to settle well. Drank water, then proform, and HEED was in my reserve bottle. Didn't need much HEED because I kept refilling my proform at the water stations. One time, forgot to open my aerodrink lid. Spilled the preform all over myself and the bars. Got real sticky. Also found an exploded Gu in my pack, which got even more sticky. Tried to lick it off, but had no saliva left. Mile 40 was my breaking point. I totally lost steam, and slowed down and took some deep breaths and stretched out my back, which was killing me from the rough roads and aero position. Felt a little better, and took it easy for the last few miles.

Train for this distance. Haven't gone over 26 miles this year at all. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Didn't have enough warning to really get my feet out of my shoes while on the bike. I should have done it earlier. I got one foot out, and had to disconnect the other one, get off the bike, then take it off my foot so I could run with the bike. A little sloppy on my part. I had a good transition, then ran through the two thousand bikes to the Run Out arch, and a guy let me know I forgot my race bib. So, I ran all the way to the other end of transition to get my bib, and ran back to start my run. Overall, bad job on T2.

Keep my bib where I can see it easily, and not be able to forget it. It was covered up by my wetsuit.

I was pretty overheated. Had goosebumps since the last few miles on the bike, and was sweating like crazy while on the run. That's when the heat started getting to me (80 is hot for this Alaskan). Walked up the hills, and through water stations. Had to use the porta-john again on the run. Poor girl there had an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, where her cheek was hanging out of her shorts. Not sure if you can get a penalty for that, but she seemed worried. I could have fashioned a patch out of a disassembled paper cup, but I was not in MacGuyver mode at that moment. At the end of the first loop, my inner quad muscles were cramped up, and kept getting worse. I ran through the turnaround merely for the crowd, and cramped up bigtime around the corner. Took a couple salt tabs and a guy gave me some water (after he saw me scavenge water from a random bottle on the ground). Thanks buddy! From then on, my only goal was to run to the next water station, where I'd take my sweet time getting water, ice, preform, pretzels, oranges, bananas, and a bonk breaker, whatever sounded good at the time. Mostly ice and water, which I tucked into my shirt and hat, and chomped on. I made it a point to run to the finish for the last 100 yards or so. Felt good to finish. That's all I wanted to do at that point.

It all comes down to training, really. I need more miles under my belt.

Hobble to the medical tent for ice on my knees. Hobble to the sidelines to see my wife and in-laws who were there to cheer me on. Watched my sister finish, which was the best part of the whole dang thing.


Myself. My choices and priorities during training.


This was my first big-scale event outside of Alaska, so I don't have much to compare to. However, I think it was great. IM Village was cool, everything was very well organized, well-marked (I tend to get lost), well supported, and everything was on time to the second. Tons of volunteers, even some who weren't official volunteers, just helping out in their yard as we went by, spraying us with water and cheering. I had a great time.