Pigman Long Course Triathlon - Triathlon

Felt like the swim went pretty well considering it was without a wetsuit. Was a bit chaotic at times but overall felt pretty comfortable for most of swim. Swallowed water a couple of times. First 200 or so yards my goggles were leaking and actually considered stripping off my swim cap but just kept swimming. Felt like my sighting was pretty good. Pace was pretty fast the first half of the swim then seemed to settle in and warm up. Overall was pretty content with how the swim went.

Nothing.

Pretty good transition. Sat down and dried off my feet, put socks on and shoes on. Put helmet and sunglasses on. Took watch off and put on bike. Put chamois butter on and wiped hands on towel one last time and off I went. Clean transition with no wasted movement.

Nothing

Bike went great. Nice comfortable pace with good cadence. Hydrated plenty on bike. Drank my entire aero bottle full of infinit and filled it again with another bottle of infinit. Also went thru 2 1/2 bottles of water. Felt adequately hydrated and good for entire bike ride. Stayed within myself and my fitness during bike ride and gained 20 spots on bike ride.

Probably could have pushed pace a bit more on bike but felt pretty comfortable and my goal was to set myself up for a good run.

Not sure what the chances are of having to exact same transition times but looks like that's what happened today.

Nothing. Again pretty good transition. No wasted movements.

This is were the race absolutely fell apart for me yet again. Took off out of T2 and felt the best I have ever felt at this point of a HIM. Ran the first mile and actually passed several people and kept telling myself slow down no need to work this hard this early. Hit the first aid station into the campground and grabbed some rehydrate, water, and made a stop at the port a potty to pee for the first time. Actually felt like I had to pee since lap 2 of the bike but didn't want to stop.
Took off thru the campground loop and again felt pretty good until I hit mile 2.5. Started a run/walk at this point. Finished 3 miles in around 31-32 minutes. Finished first loop of run and started to notice I was getting extremely hot fast.
At this point tried several things to cool down including ice in tri suit, cold water on head, water at every aid station, and walking instead of running but walking at pretty brisk pace. By the time I finished my second loop which was around 6.5 miles I felt absolutely awful and couldn't believe I had 2 laps left to go. By this time it was incredibly hot and I felt like I was getting behind on my nutrition but started to get an upset stomach and didn't want to drink any rehydrate.
Saw my wife and boys after completion of the second loop and wanted to just sit down and quit but my wife encouraged me on.
Third loop was kind of a blur really. Felt awful. Was hot, dehydrated, upset stomach and was down to a complete walk. Somehow made it thru lap 3 though.
Started lap 4 and thought to myself ok I can do this only 4 miles left to go. Again saw Erin and the boys and really wanted to call it quits but she encouraged me to keep moving and put one foot in front of the other. All I kept thinking was how I dreaded going out and back on that dam again totally exposed with no shade and no aid stations but at this point even the thought of water turned my stomach.
Made it thru the out and back of the dam and made it to the aid station at the start of the campground loop. Stopped at the aid station to grab some water and dunked by visor in the ice cold water in an attempt to cool down. Shortly after leaving the aid station and drinking some water I ended up vomiting on the side of road. Felt it coming and couldn't stop it. Some guy ended up coming over and having me sit down for a minute and put some ice water on my shoulders and helped me cool down. Looked down at my watch and said "I'm at 11.3 miles...am I going to be able to make it the rest of the way". He reassured me that I had plenty of time to walk it out and that there were several people who still had an entire lap to go. He helped me get up and walked with me a ways and then made me promise that if I got sick again or felt lightheaded I would find someone with a cell phone. I ended up shuffling my feet thru the campground loop probably mostly stumbling at this point.
Ended up making it back to the aid station at the start of the campground loop and thinking to myself "wow I am actually going to make this".
I hit the last downhill past transition and was still walking. Saw the finish line and Erin and the boys and started jogging at this point. Heard the announcer say my name and announce that I was a 3 time HIM finisher and finisher of IM Lake Placid which gave me a brief burst of energy and was able to crack a short lived smile. Crossed the finish line jogging with my 3 boys in tow behind me. Got my finisher medal, got my timing chip off, and made it over to the first aid tent and collapsed onto the ground in the grass. Was completely spent but kept my streak alive of having never DNF'ed a race and having never walked across a finish line.

Need to work on solid nutrition on the bike. I keep saying it after every race but never do it. Seems like I always get sick on the run. Need to try to incorporate PBJ's or cookies or something on the bike so that I don't get off the bike feeling sick and having an empty stomach on the run. Also am going to try a different liquid nutrition mixture this winter. Switching from infinit to carbsport to see if this makes a difference.

Laid in the grass under the medical tent for a bit to cool off. After about 20-30 mins got up and got my stuff out of transition, packed the car, and headed home.


No doubt the heat of the day and the run course. Had a pretty good race going up until the run. Even had a good race going the first 3 miles of the run but total broke down after that. Again as close as I have come to not finishing a race.


Liked the new swim course this year. Liked the new bike course this year as well. The run course was too exposed with no shade and needed another aid station on the dam out and back. Fell victim to the Pigman course again this year. My plan this year was to return to Pigman for some redemption after my poor performance there 3 years. Again was not able to put together the 70.3 that I know I am capable of. May end up returning to Pigman again in a couple of years to try my hand a third time. For now it is time to celebrate the fact that I finished inside 8:30 and be proud that I was able to finish to HIM races this summer within 3 weeks of one another.
Time to rest, recover, rehydrate, and begin preparation for 2016 which will include a run at IM Wisconsin in Madison!