Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Felt a bit woozy about 2/3 way through. Did breast stroke for about a minute and even dry heaved a bit. Wasn't from taking on lake water. Need to figure this out before IMMOO.

Went to take my swim cap off when I got out of the water and found that it had fallen off at some point.

The run up the beach is looooooong at this event. Takes quite a bit of energy but it's fun as there are tons of spectators cheering you on.

Nada.

Felt slow as the last two raced I've done I didn't mess with socks. Sitting down to put them on felt like it took forever. Could have pushed through here faster but was in the mindset of be quick but stay relaxed.

Holy traffic batman. A couple times I had a ref motorcycle riding next to me for a few minutes writing down numbers, I assume for drafting and center line violations. I bet there are lots of people pissed off that they were penalied as the bike course was so crowded that there were quite a few packs. I just backed off and waited for the packs to clear before picking up the pace again.

I backed off on my effort here to save some legs for the run. Both my bike and run splits were faster than last year, but wonder if I should have backed off even more on the bike.

First when I couldn't find my rack spot my mom yelled from outside transition that I was in the wrong row. Went to the next row and found I had been in the right row. I racked my bike and the rack fell apart. When volunteers got there to put it back up I was able to let go of the rack and get on with my transition...

Found out after the race that a helicopter had hovered over transition when pretty much everyone was out on the bike. It blew peoples gear all over the place. Luckily my shoes, hat, and number belt were still all in my transition spot.

Not listen to my mom when in transition.

Getting better here but still have a long way to improve my run. Stopped to pee at the portapotty just out of transition. First half I battled stomache cramps. They came on pretty soon after T2 but otherwise felt good. They would go away when I walked the aid stations (which I did for every one) and come back after about a minute of running. I backed off a bit on the last 3.5 miles when I could have pushed it. Today was a "long training day" for IMWI so I didn't want to take myself out of commission for this weeks workouts. I think I could have gone about 5 minutes faster but would have paid the price with a longer recovery time.

If this was an A race I would have pushed harder and tried to endure the pain. As a tune up for IMWI I think I was about where I should be.

Endurox, water, walk.


Still have a ways to go improving my 1) focus in the water 2) run fitness.


Nutrition:
Pre race: 4:45 a.m. Ensure, wheat bagel w/pb
5-6:30: Bottle Perpetuem
Bike: two bottles Perp, 9 fig newtons, 8 Endurolytes, 1 Hammer Gel at mile 53
Run: Hammer gel at miles 3, 7, and 10, Endurolytes at mile 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
After: Recoverite.

All of my gripes for the swim start were more than fixed this year. Really well organized start with good PA took all the guessing and confusion out of it. Well stocked and staffed aid stations on both the bike and run. Post race food was weak with PBJ, fruit, and drinks. Would have loved a big plate of pasta like they had last year. Don't know if I waited too long to go to the food tent or if they just didn't have pasta this year.

Perfect weather for race day. High was 79 degrees so felt warm on the run but not hot. So satisfying to see the training pay off with a 23+ minute improvement from last year which put me just into the top 50% of finishers.