Pigman Triathlon - Long Course - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started in the Elite Wave. My only goal for the swim was to maintain form and focus on my pull, high elbow, and keeping my fingers together (coach DD said I tend to let my fingers spread out thus reducing effectiveness of pull). I didn't kick as much as I should have but that will come in time. Felt like I was moving OK, but was anxious to get to shore just to see what my swim split time would be. Looked at my watch when I got out and it was 36 and change. Over a 3 minute improvement from my swim split at Racine HIM a few weeks ago. That was the highlight of the race for me, even though my split didn't rank very well.

Swim faster :)

I knew I was pushing the IM envelope by racing a HIM 3 weeks out from IM WI. I decided I would go fairly hard on the bike and then see what happens on the run. I figured it would be a good brick workout regardless. There were several hills where I didn't push as hard as I normally would. As with Racine, I continually monitored my effort and asked myself "am I where I should be?" If this was an A race I probably would have pushed myself to the limit of sanity but not today. Overall I was happy with today's bike split because it was a few seconds faster than Racine and was done on a tougher course. I love the new Fizik Arione Tri seat I put on the bike a couple days ago.

Not much

The temps and humidity were starting to get pretty uncomfortable. Had to open the zipper on my top to let some air in. I was running 6:15-6:30 splits for the first few miles. I was gaining ground on the guy in front of me that looked to have a 1/2 mile gap on me when we started. I could see pro David Thompson heading towards me on his return to the finish. He made it look effortless. I started counting guys on their return leg and figured I was about in 12th place (meaning about 5 people from other waves beat me).

There is a hill just before the turnaround that wasn't too fun. The heat and humidity were starting to get oppressive (after the race someone who has been to Kona said that Kona was no worse than what we had today). That, combined with my stuffy head made me start to think strategy. My mile splits were drifting closer to 7:00 by mile 8. I asked myself "Can you dig deeper...yes. Should I dig deeper...no..save it for IM WI" So, I gave up on trying to catch the guy in front of me. I hated doing that, but it was the smart thing to do.

The last 4 miles were pretty tough regardless. The last hill just before the 11 mile marker is one of the toughest hills we face in any race of the season. I felt like I was barely moving up it. Finally made the turn back into the park and started to recover from the hill. I saw Bryan (mndiver) heading out on the run and shouted words of encouragement to him. At about the 12 mile mark I started coming up on a guy with a white top who was running slow and then he finally started walking. I hadn't seen him out on the course, so I figured it was one of the top Elites that had gone out to do a warm-down run. When I passed him I asked him what his finishing time was. He looked at me with a funny look on his face and said "What? I haven't finished...you're racing me dude, wake up" Whatever. I yelled to him that I thought he was just out doing a warm-down and then I kept running away from him towards the finish. On the last turn toward the finish I could feel my usual blister on my outside small toe pop and I instantly had a sharp jolt of pain from the exposed tissue. As usual, I wasn't wearing socks.

Not much. I got the pre-IM brick workout I wanted.

No warm-down. Headed straight to the food tent. Grabbed a quick shower in the outdoor shower (man that was cold water!). The awards ceremony and Gear West door prizes weren't going to start until 3:30. We had a long ride home so we decided to leave early, hoping that neither of our names would get picked to win the Zipp 808s! On the way out of the park we saw Tammy (tripletmom01) and yelled to her.


Mild flu bug or whatever I had the past few days that took away a lot of my energy and congested my head. Conscious decision not to dig too deep today.


Would have taken 3rd in my AG today, but since I started in the Elite Wave I wasn't eligible to podium (3rd AG podium lost this year due to Elite starts). AG rankings for each split were determined by looking at the M45-49 results and seeing where my splits ranked.

The Big Pig is a class event. Great course with tons of volunteers. The post-race food kicked Spirit of Racine's ass...pizza, spaghetti, fruit, cookies, yogurt, soda. Highly recommend this race.